Nicholas Watkis
Are profits still a good thing?
A recent video on the Financial Times website was entitled, “Are Profits Still a Good Thing?” The video was concerned about investment, but it made the point that in some places the profit motive itself is under attack for fostering inequality, as well as...
Is your knowledge based on fact or assumption?
It is a general observation that most of what people claim to know as fact, is based on hearsay, prejudice, “common knowledge”, the internet and other untested and unproven sources. Unless knowledge has been acquired through direct education or verifiable sources, the greater...
Are You Prepared For the Unexpected?
The whole purpose of business and marketing plans is to prepare for the expected and intended, but equally for the unexpected event or conditions whether good or bad. The ability to identify indicators of change in the economic situation, the market, specific customers and...
Marketing or Commercial Management?
A recent article in the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s house magazine Catalyst is titled “Stand up for Marketing”. It is an interesting article, and one wonders why it has taken the CIM so long to write it? In December 2011 the year of its centenary,...
What do we do now?
The corporate business plan defines for an organisation, the objectives to be achieved and the resources available. Achieving those objectives invites the question, “what do we do now? Commercial managers have the responsibility of producing and maximising profitable income for the long term future of...
Measurement might not be fun, but is essential for good management
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” said Peter Drucker. This statement applies as much to the income producing function as it does to every other part of business. However, the statement does not say that “If you can measure it, you...
New Year – New Thoughts
The beginning of every year is a time for reviewing the events of the past twelve months, while speculating on the year to come. Many businesses will take the opportunity at the end of the year to consider their performance before embarking on the...
Are your staff a cost or an asset?
Financial executives have for a long time been fixated on the value of the “bottom line” and the value of the business to shareholders. Cost cutting has been the mantra for efficiency. However it can often be said that the financial executives, may...
Closing the sale is the only way to make money
Whatever happened to the term salesman or sales person? It would appear that somehow, the term salesman or sales person has had to be replaced by other more acceptable terms such as sales engineer or marketing executive, as if to be actually involved in...
Like it or not the Customer is still king
If you don’t treat customers with curtesy and respect, you soon won’t have them. The prime responsibility of a commercial manager is the production and maximisation of profitable income for the long term future of a business. Profitable income is produced by anticipating and...
Commercial lessons from the Duke of Wellington.
Improbable as it may seem, a commercial manager can learn useful lessons from the famous Duke of Wellington. Two hundred years ago, Britain sent a small army under the Duke of Wellington, to Spain, in order to assist the Spanish Government to drive...
Marketing means Commercial management
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines Marketing as “the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably”. Thus Marketing is the name of the commercial management process that produces profitable income, which is the sole purpose of any business. Unfortunately, the...
Motivated employees are the key to successful management
Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive and founder of WWP, has recently resigned from his position. He has been one of the most successful business leaders in the world in the last thirty years, turning a tiny shopping basket-maker into the world’s largest advertising...
Change for the sake of change?
New brooms sweep clean as the saying goes. When new managers take control, it is often the case that they want to make changes and to make their mark on the organisation. While this is a natural action of a new manager or executive...
How healthy is your Business?
Commercial managers have the responsibility of producing and maximising profitable income for the long term future of their business. To do their job effectively, that is, to maximize sustainable profitable revenue, they need to be aware of the market and economic environment in which...
Money is not everything.
Anyone who has seen the news recently will know that the BBC has been seriously embarrassed after having to publicly disclose how much it pays its top executives and employees. The embarrassment was caused by the great discrepancy between men and women on its...
Business vulnerabilities from Social Media
Attacks on businesses through social media are becoming more common. In 2010, Nestle’s sourcing of palm oil was attacked by Greenpeace through social media. Since then it is not unusual for businesses to be attacked through social media by persons of malicious intent who...
If you don’t like the message, Don’t shoot the messenger
Of communication, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, victor of the Battle of Britain said “ If a junior officer puts forward a suggestion, the implication is that the senior officer ought to have thought of it and didn’t. The response given is that...
Adapt to Survive
Business schools generally consider large companies for their case studies in order to try and identify successful best practice. Looking at the companies that inhabit the FTSE 100 list, there is a general assumption that by copying the practices of these firms, smaller firms...
Management Requires Performance Measurement.
How effectively business assets are managed may often be the difference between profit and loss. For the commercial manager with the responsibility of producing profitable income for the long term future of the business, being able to manage the customer related assets efficiently and...