Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems with Jeremy Gray

The Covid pandemic taught many businesses to move at remarkable speed as they reacted to events that disrupted their commercial operations. It showed that it was possible to quickly adapt ways of working to cope with unprecedented conditions.

No one can be sure what the post covid pandemic world will look like. What we can be sure of is that companies that react faster to the changes in the post covid world will fare better than companies that are slow to adapt. To prepare for the future the authors say businesses need to ask and answer five questions in the next five months. Listen to learn what are these five imperatives.

An article from Sloan suggests you should think through how changes have impacted your staff and how you prepare them for the skill sets they will need in the future. The authors define pivoting people as retraining employees so that they can fill the roles that are aligned with you company’s changing needs. Thinking what is needed, and preparing your employees, prevents employees needing to adapt on the fly, or even worse fail. Hear what they have to suggest.

Measuring your company's power to change.

It may seem impracticable to measure something as intangible as the power to change but the authors believe they have found traits or factors that can identify the ability of your company to change. They have found that most company’s fit into one of four types. Their suggestion is that you identify which category your company is in and then they have ideas of how to develop your capability to respond and adapt.

The four categories are:

·     In search of focus

·     Stuck and Skeptical

·     Aligned but constrained.

·  Struggling to keep up

Which category does your company fit into? Find out and take action.

How to help your sales team excel at virtual selling. 92% of buyers prefer virtual selling to a visit from a sales rep. You have to master this technique.

Net Zero is likely to replace Covid as the top concern so learn from the World Economic Forum and their publication Aligning to Net Zero, How CEOs can get on board with the transition.

In a survey where 75% of participants said the most stressful aspect of their job was their immediate boss. That’s 3 in 4 folks who say their boss is causing them stress. And not too surprisingly, those reporting very bad or quite bad relationships with management reported substantially lower job satisfaction compared to those who had a good relationship with their boss. What can you do to improve this situation in your company?

As seniority often comes with age, connecting with the next generation has always been a challenge for business. But connecting with Generation Z, which are those born between the mid to late 1990’s through to early 2010’s the challenge is unprecedented. How can you market to Gen Z avoiding the cringe factor?

This week we will look at an article from McKinsey & Co and two articles from the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review

Firstly the article from McKinsey

How Tech will revolutionize retail. McKinsey & Company. John Straw, a senior advisor to McKinsey based in London, a serial entrepreneur and technology expert.

In this McKinsey article John Straw is focused on larger corporations but there is much in what he says that is applicable to entrepreneurs and not only in the retail sector.

For our next topic we turn to the Harvard Business Review and an article from their latest magazine Why Do So Many Strategies Fail? By David J Collins an adjunct professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.

This is an excellent article that looks at strategy from both the perspective of the disruptor start up and also the incumbent needing to defend its business as it faces new competitors.

Finally an interesting topic, again from the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review

CEOs with unusual names pursue unusual strategies by Amy Meeker HBR.

Can it be true that your name can influence the strategies you implement as CEO? Professor David Zhu of Arizona State University thinks so, and he has the research to back up his claims.

This show summarizes Season 5 when we covered topics that need to be considered if you are planning on expanding abroad.

More information is available on the full length podcast on your favorite platform.

My show notes have full contact details or you can contact me directly on [email protected].

Today – Taxes, incentives, and repatriation of profits. We will start with a look capital structure to the extent that it might limit your ability to take some tax deductions.

If you have looked at the websites of companies that offer formation services, you might come away with the impression that setting up your company structure is one the vital first steps. But there is a reason I have left this to show 11, because until you know what your company is going to look like, what activities it will conduct in country, what activities will be outside the country, where you are likely to be located, what products or services you will sell, whether you will hire people, you cannot identify the legal structure that is right for you.

Now you have a good idea about what your business is going to look like, what are the options you need to consider when deciding on the best legal structure. For obvious reasons today’s show, like all shows, cannot be country specific. I have no idea which countries may be of interest to my listeners but will cover the most common options open to you, but do get specific advice from a local expert before taking any action.

There are so many considerations in choosing a location for your business that finding the perfect site is probably impossible, but by carefully  assessing the options you can find the ideal site for you. This is something you need to get right the first time. Moving is expensive and disruptive and should be avoided.

Your ideal site is the one that minimizes the cost to serve your customers. There are many factors to consider and many are conflicting. Trade offs will be necessary.

Note - my apologies there is a break at about the 36 minute mark due to a technical breakdown. I hope this does not impact your listening pleasure too much. Regards Jeremy

Building a plant is a significant investment whether green field or using an existing building. It is a long term investment. The initial investment will not be recoverable in the short term. If you go greenfield you will have the land and buildings that you can sell. But you will be extremely lucky if you can sell the plant for more than scrap value. If you have rented a building there will be clean up costs and make good costs.

In this show we cover the items you need to consider in deciding if building a plant makes sense for you.

So you’ve sold a product or service. Congratulations! Sales are key to revenue and profit. However, you will only gain repeat customers if you effectively deliver a product and ensure that users can receive the item or service in the way they want. This is done by using a distribution strategy  that aligns with your customer’s needs.

Distribution challenges may be different in an overseas market from your home country. 

It is easy to make mistakes when entering new markets. Even major multinational companies can fall foul of language and cultural differences. 

When it comes to distribution strategy your objective should be to meet a simple criteria. To deliver the right product to the right place and the right time at the right price.

Getting your distribution strategy right is essential to customer retention. Your customers will not be happy if they cannot get the product they want, where they want it when they want it. Failing to meet these needs may result in your customer trying an alternative and possibly finding it fits their needs better.

The use of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to accelerate growth is a well-established business strategy, and offers a company the potential to enter new markets, access top talent and reduce costs.  By merging with or acquiring another firm, a business can often achieve these goals more quickly and easily than with a solo expansion.  These are not automatic outcomes however, and sometimes an M&A deal will not deliver as expected or can bring more complexity than anticipated.

To improve your chances of success there are three fundamentals you must focus on:

1. Is the target company a good fit in terms of size, industry and culture?
2. Getting the valuation right
3. Planning and implementing a solid integration strategy.

Of these the first and third are most important. If you overpay it will not wreck the deal, but selecting the wrong target and a poorly prepared and/or poorly implemented integration plan will put the future success of your deal in jeopardy.