Nicholas Watkis
It is easier to lose business than to get it
Businesses are not philanthropic institutions: they exist to make money in the form of profit. To make money businesses have to anticipate and satisfy customer's demands, so that customers provide the necessary income to the business in return for the goods or services that...
How well do you understand your business?
What do you know about your business? More importantly, what do you know about getting and retaining the business that produces the income for your company? The initial answers will often be "no one knows our business better that we do "– but is...
Managers have to manage; they don’t need to be creative.
Every commercial business started as an idea for the purpose of making money. Successful entrepreneurs are good at identifying problems of society and individuals; seeing opportunities to make money by finding solutions which induce customers to buy, in order to relieve their discomfort. Seeing and...
To Lead or Manage, – that is the question.?
Government organizations local and national spend a lot of money on leadership training, aping so it seems what is done in business. But it is clear from repeated reports from the National Audit Office, that both at national and government level money is frequently...
“If you are not in business for profit or fun why are you here?”
"Up the Organization" written in 1970 by Robert Townshend the then chairman of Avis Rental cars, was a worldwide best seller. Townshend analysed and commented on the structure and organization of businesses and its operation in a humorous and anarchic manner, but also showed...
Marketing isn’t war, its management
There have been a number of books in recent years suggesting that successful business is like warfare, e.g. Mark McNeilly's "Sun Tzu and the Art of Business," and likening business leaders to successful generals. But while both business and warfare require leadership, the type...
Cash flow is king
When considering any business, the two principle documents which are consulted are the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss account. These two documents give a thumbnail sketch of the business operations, in terms of its trading results and its general solvency. However, neither...
Mumbo Jumbo damages marketing credibility
Recent papers published during this year by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and its respective publishing partners, Deloittes and Accenture, make interesting reading. The papers "The Future of Marketing Capability" and "Improving Marketing Effectiveness" appear to concentrate on the problems of marketing accountability and...
Can marketers game the system?
Both the marketing press and academia appear to concentrate on the marketing structures and organizations of larger companies, rather than that of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). According to statistics for 2008 from the UK Office of National Statistics, SMEs with fewer than 50...
If you don’t do this, you won’t succeed
If you don’t do this, you won’t succeed Most marketers would consider their role in a business to be one of creativity, especially regarding advertising, promotion, customer relationship management and networking.But the marketer with the mandate to get and retain business also has the responsibility...
Can you spend nothing on Marketing?
The leader article in September's edition of "The Marketer", titled "Who needs money?" suggested the idea of "marketing "without money. The article cited several companies which claim that they started or continue to have a marketing budget of zero, amongst them being the IT...