|
Title |
Published |
Brief
Summary |
|
Optimising Opportunities in Unprecedented Times |
Jan/Feb 2011 |
The
issue
here is the extent to which there are real trade opportunities available
in unprecedented times, and if so, what are the tools required in order
to optimise those opportunities, faster than the opposition. |
|
Developing
Opportunities in a Multiplex-world... |
December 2011 |
In
the current climate business success, and even survival, is about being
able to optimise reality. Indeed, if you do not face up to reality in
business, others will do it for you… Hence the reason why shareholders,
bankers and even politicians gradually increase their influence on a
faltering business until they eventually officiate in its liquidation. |
|
Dealing in Business Reality, the New Optimism |
November 2011 |
In
the current climate business success, and even survival, is about being
able to optimise reality. Indeed, if you do not face up to reality in
business, others will do it for you… Hence the reason why shareholders,
bankers and even politicians gradually increase their influence on a
faltering business until they eventually officiate in its liquidation. |
|
Fair
Share Trading in Unequal Times |
October 2011 |
Whilst
a government can
attempt to legislate in cases of extreme abuse of a supplier’s rights,
the difficulties in implementing the ‘new’ GSCOP legislation indicate
that day-to-day the search for fair share is really determined by the
quality of the supplier-retailer relationship, and has to be driven by
the supplier. |
|
Networking When You Don't Need It, For Unprecedented Times... |
September 2011 |
Before the global financial
crisis, networking for NAMs was a casual, ad hoc process conducted
offline in spare time.
Now with ‘networkees’
fighting for survival, and flooded with incoming overtures, networking
entry-barriers are high, and anything other than one-to-one tailor-made
communication can qualify as spam, resulting in blockage or binning.
|
|
Business As
Usual In Unusual Times? |
August 2011 |
It
could seem that the current exceptional market conditions require unique
treatment, when in fact a return to basics might prove to be a better
option. |
|
Death of a
Relationship SalesNAM...? |
July 2011 |
Whilst we have all moved on from Arthur
Miller’s creation of the ultimate little sales-guy who ended up worth
more dead than alive, it has to be asked whether the obsession with
results in the current unprecedented climate has replaced the value of
relationship selling in dealing with savvy buyers? |
|
NMROII - A Step Past GMROII? |
June 2011 |
With
GMROII barely out of the closet following
15 years of ‘digestation’, it is perhaps time to explore the possibility
of the next phase of the process, Net Margin Return On Inventory
Investment, providing even deeper insight into the retail value of
brands. |
|
Category management is dead,
mission management is the future?
|
May 2011
|
Convenience retail needs to become about making the shopping trip, and
thus ultimately shoppers’ lives, easier and easier.
|
|
Beating the Averages in a Flat
Market |
May 2011 |
The latest Ernst & Young Item
Club Report signals 10 years of slow growth austerity in the UK market, quoting
all the usual suspects including depressed wage growth coupled with rising
inflation (the politicians’ solution to a flat market) with possible interest
rate rises, shortage of credit, a further dip in confidence and rising commodity
prices - all likely to make consumers even more cautious and savvy as the decade
unfolds.
|
|
Working Around 'Bankrupt' Customers |
April 2011 |
Latest research indicates that recent
downbeat reports from retailers including Mothercare, HMV, Currys and PC World
parent Dixons Retail, are indicative of the current pressure on retailers in the
UK. In addition,
other research revealed that more than
8,000 UK retailers were apparently in danger of going under last month.
|
|
FMCG Brands Need to Stand Out |
March 2011 |
In
a crowded, me-too market, being different is no
longer about having a single unique selling point-of-difference, but is more
about presenting a composite package that optimises relative appeal to a
demanding target audience. |
|
Making Sense of Nonsensical
Times... |
Jan/Feb 2011 |
As
most pro-active NAMs are aware, business is not
about awaiting a ‘return to normal’ but rather a case of making sense of
the ‘here & now’ as a basis for action. |
|
Tesco: The Real Banking Opportunity... |
December 2010
|
The
banking-facilitated global financial crisis has
given Tesco the opportunity to take a 25% share of UK banking. All it requires
is transparency and defensibility…a need to play it ‘whiter than white’, with
fair shares for all. Otherwise other non-traditional bankers will take a piece
of what is ‘rightfully’ Tesco’s. |
|
Fair
Play In Trade Partnership? |
November 2010
|
Given
the issue of who will fund the cost of the VAT
increase due in January, the expectation that suppliers will underwrite the
inevitable losses associated with increasing use of Buy One Get Two Free offers,
and the growing tendency for major retailers to supplement their working capital
via increased trade credit from suppliers, it is perhaps useful to try to
establish what constitutes fair play in current trade partnerships. |
|
Making Sense of UK
Retail... |
October 2010
|
With the current confused turmoil in
the ‘double-dipping (?)’ market, causing savvy consumers to buy even more
cautiously, with private label growing faster than ever, pound shops becoming a
permanent feature of the landscape, it is tempting for NAMs to ignore the
current scene and revert to forecasting based upon last year’s figures, ‘plus a
bit’… |
|
UK
Retail - Coming Back Towards Normal? |
September 2010
|
With UK multiples currently
achieving ROCE levels of approximately 10.5% to 13%, it might be felt that this
level of performance was simply a reflection of extraordinary business pressures
arising from the global financial crisis, apparently affecting all four
multiples ‘equally’… |
|
GSCOP-Adjudicator, a Final Shop-window for Supplier-Retailer
relationships? |
August 2010
|
News
that the government is
planning the introduction of the role of Adjudicator to help implement GSCOP is
encouraging...
|
|
Change
proves good for Tesco Ireland
|
July 2010
|
Tesco Ireland’s conversion to the
‘Change for Good’ stocking model last year may have caused the retailer more
controversy than expected, but after a difficult 2008 and 2009, Tesco’s Irish
operations are now firmly back on track.
|
|
The NAM
Role being sidelined by recent events....? |
July 2010 |
With trade concentration
increasing, and major customers undergoing fundamental change at all levels
(think CEO rotation, possible sell-off of Sainsbury’s and Asda, for a start),
all at a time of unprecedented financial pressure on supplier-retailer
relationships, it is possible that the NAM role may be in danger of being
sidelined… |
|
All
Change in UK
Retail... |
June 2010 |
Given Sir Terry Leahy’s shock
announcement of his plans to retire in March 2011, coupled with recent changes
of CEO at Asda and Morrisons, the question arises whether the CEO of Sainsbury’s
might feel inclined to square the circle by moving on, in the event of Qatari
completing their takeover of the company… |
|
Finding a Gap in UK
Retail? |
May 2010 |
Given
the current rate of change in UK
retail, in the midst of unprecedented economic and political change, it is
perhaps time for all retailers to reassess their ‘degree-of-fit’ in UK retail.. |
|
The
Battle Against Obsolescence in the High Street |
April 2010 |
Given the inevitable drift of
business to new delivery systems like downloading, in categories such as DVD
sale and rental, along with retailing of CDs, books and even games, it is
important to distinguish denial from planned demise in a product or category
lifecycle. |
|
GSCOP - The
New Buzzword with a Sting for the Underprepared |
March 2010 |
In practice, the GSCOP is a template
for all supplies of all categories via all retailers, and has significant
implications for those outside mainline grocery channels. |
|
Consumer-needs vs Shopper-needs:
the Balancing Act in Retail? |
Jan/Feb 2010 |
In order for suppliers and retailers
to optimise the potential joint-opportunities that a fundamental change of this
magnitude represents, it is crucial that they each understand and integrate the
consumer marketing and retailer marketing programmes of their trading partners.
|
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