RWC Blog

During my time delivering 3 x commerce courses at the Eastern Institute of Technology last year, I spent quite a lot of time, energy and effort promoting the virtues of “collaboration” in the business realm. You’ll notice this theme coming through loud and clear in earlier blogs that I’ve posted. In a commercial context “collaboration” can also mean “merging”. So what is a merger then ? A merger is the combining of individuals/ shareholders that comprise 2 or more companies…

As a business owner/ senior manager, if you expect your team to follow your lead as you embark upon the journey that you have mapped-out in your Strategic Plan, then it is imperative that you share the finalised plan with your team. Over the years I have seen considerable disconnection between business owners/ senior managers and the internal stakeholders who they are leading, simply because of their failure to share key information about the chosen direction of the given company.…

Over the years I can recall a number of business owners who have asked me why their well contemplated and beautifully prepared Strategic Plan has failed to win the support of the given owner’s employee team. In response, I have asked the simple question, “at what stage of the planning process did you invite input from relevant people on your team ?” Typically, the business owner answered either that they didn’t invite any input from their team throughout the time…

If you are new to a business that you have just purchased/ established, my strongest advice is that you make the pivotal decision right at the outset…am I going to operate this business with a “production-driven” mindset or instead am I going to operate it with a “marketing-led” mindset ? If you are genuinely marketing-led in your commercial orientation then you will view marketing as a necessary investment. If, on the other hand” you view marketing purely as an “expense”…

Today I received news about a large supplier of a particular branded product that has made the decision to withdraw their highly sought-after and high profile branded products from a large number of retailers who haven’t been able to achieve expected levels of consumer sales with this product – versus other retailers. In some cases this particular product represents between 20 – 40 % of the affected retailers’ total sales turnover. So the withdrawal of this product may have a…

Whilst many retailers have certainly come a long way in developing their commercial knowledge and practices; there are many that still seem to think of themselves as being nothing more than a “trader” – i.e. a business that chooses to just (or mainly) focus on buying a product at a wholesale price, putting a profit margin on it and selling it a retail price. This “trader” mentality must evolve, for instead retailers to see themselves as “all rounder” business people…

Franchisees who routinely threaten or attempt to take the Franchise off its chosen course are more than a nuisance. They are actually in effect saboteurs. Not only do they sabotage the well-considered direction of the company but also the precious people resources that are relied upon to propel the company forward on its chosen journey. I regard these “loose canons” as being similar to children who are constantly vying for attention…threatening to “throw their toys out of their cot” unless…

During my time as the CEO of a national jeweller franchise, one of my functions was to work with the (highly experienced and well respected) contracted marketing agency to formulate an annual calendar of marketing activity that would ultimately be delivered across New Zealand. The franchisees concerned contributed funds to a National Marketing Budget, and this was then spread across a range of indirect and direct marketing channels – both digital and non-digital. As I worked with the Board of…

As a CEO one of my functions/ responsibilities was to design and deliver national conferences in New Zealand. The underlying purpose of these conferences was to: a) Bring all internal stakeholders (i.e. franchisees) together, for them to receive a diverse range of presentations (from updates on projects, to the launch of new initiatives, to previews and reviews of planned and delivered marketing activity, etc). b) Enable franchisees to “rub shoulders” with Preferred Suppliers, for face-to-face catch-ups to occur between franchisees…

One important lesson in life that I learned as far back as my teenage years is the importance of pushing hard to apply myself to whatever I’m involved in at the time to the best of my ability. Consequently, this has meant that I’ve managed to achieve some fairly significant milestones along the way. What troubles me somewhat in New Zealand in the current era is an almost apathetic/ complacent attitude being displayed by some people towards what they’re involved…