Topic

grapevine

A collection of 648 issues

Commission Gates And Brakes

Sales people the world over are creaking under the strain of corporate cost cutting. Those departing of self accord go with no replacement, basics are frozen, bonus plans squeezed. I came across a number of specific measures from Big Blue that, the sales team suspects, feature the further erosion of

Spotting Sunrisers and Sunsetters

The in-flight magazine. Seldom can a genre of publications be more instructive in how not to construct a good read than these. So it was with delight that I happened across the blue-skied, still winter’s day of a decent article. Advertising colossus TBWA’s worldwide create director, JoBurger John

Funder Project Success

A delightful morning had me facilitating a workshop aimed at understanding different potential funding agencies’ viewpoints. The venture support varied among the six participants, from a few hundred thousand dollars, right through to multi-millions. One session looked at what business plans must exhibit for them to feel comfortable that success

Understanding

Surfing through the largely irrelevant sales section of the Entrepreneur [http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/leadership/leadershipcolumnistraysilverstein/article178590.html] site the other day served up one of the best one-liners I’d heard in a while; > ‘people buy from people that understand them’ How do you test that your prospect

Project Implementation Memorandum

This grandiose title relates to a doc appreciated by a particular business funder. I get the impression it is for endeavours that have gone past the ‘prototype’ stage, yet are still to fully understand a comprehensive business plan. After a meeting with them recently, they kindly provided a checklist of

Set The Standard

I learned through a TV interview that Steve Ross, the American head-hunted to turnaround retail chain Edcon [http://www.edcon.co.za/default.aspx], has managed to more than double the size of the business and return it to healthy profits. Consequently, he’s considered somewhat a leadership guru in

Change For The Better

I just saw an interview with a former CEO of BP, John Browne, as part of his autobiography [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7189896/Beyond-Business-by-Lord-Browne-a-review.html] PR. He was pressed in typically rolling-news-knock-everything fashion that going into business was surely solely about the pursuit of making

Bank Manager's Top 2 Business Plan Failings

Will the lengthy and deep downturn trigger a long period of almost static economic performance or worse still, become a double-dip recession? This is a question taxing the financial press, yet many of the people I speak to, working in the field day-in, day-out, seem more optimistic. One such chirpy

Gastropub Food Growth

Having recently spent many fun-filled days with, among others, a friend that owns a cool chain of London pubs as England somehow salvaged a draw in the Cape Town Test, I learnt plenty about the intricacies of running a gastropub. One insight was when an order in Capetonian institution, Forresters,

What's Your Top-Line Indicator?

A thoroughly enjoyable meeting at a client the other day uncovered a remarkably simple approach to funnel management. Selling a combination of fairly big-ticket items (mixing ‘hardware’ & ‘software’), the typical account manager monthly revenue target is 50k. Whilst obviously the main figure, there are two other numbers of prominence. How