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Tag Archives: Business Growth

Music: The lack of scarcity a signpost to the future..

28 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by mkastley in RVA Updates

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Tags

3D printing, Business Development, Business Growth, scarcity

Music forecast..

Music has over the last 60 years been a good predictor to future developments in society and business. Now its actually  pointing huge clues to the future of selling and distribution!!

But first to set the scene, some examples of what music has foretold :

  • Rock and Roll coming of out of the US south in the early 1950’s foretold the sexual revolution to come.
  • The Beatles were precursors  to the changes in society and western religion.
  • Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground’s 15 minutes of fame prediction is now actually happening in the various media platforms that proliferate our lives.
  • 15 years ago the first crowd sourcing finance activities started with rock music fans helping their favourite bands with the costs of recording their next album.

So what is music predicting for the selling and distribution of objects?

In the early part of this century, recorded music started to become a free product. MP3 catalogues of popular music proliferated on independent web sites. Suddenly our hard drives were full of rock, pop and dance music files that only 5 years previous would have cost a small fortune to own on CD. The media corporations were slow to respond and they lost control of the situation. Eventually the IT industry regained that control  through the hardware suppliers(Apple) and streaming services (Spotify). However, the cat was out of the bag, the end users did not want to pay; physical music content had limited or no value. Professional musicians’ revenue streams now come through live concerts not CD or LP’s; a complete reversal to the glory days of 70’s – 90’s classic rock, soul and pop.

This short history of MP3 music  is now a serious pointer to the future development of selling and distribution of hard goods. The selling revolution started a few years ago with the disappearance  of the music stores along with other hard goods retailers fighting to stay in the game from downloading and internet retailers like Amazon.  The actual distribution of objects  will provide an even more radical future through the 3D printing of stuff.  Like the arrival of MP3 music , the independent web Torrent sites are now starting to store and make freely available the 3D printing file shares to make your own toys, kitchen ware, decorations, car parts, knitwear, machine components and the sinister guns etc!!  It’s not happening on a large scale just yet, but domestic 3D printers are available in niche electrical retailers and some local mass production 3D print workshops are starting to appear.

Originally selling and distribution of hard good’s objects was solely through the high street, now its also through daily home delivery by a white van and soon it could be on a printer near you!  It may not always be a total 3D printed product, it could be a combination of sources; eg apparel and home textile printing on blank garments/fabric and componentry/small parts printed at home for use with specifically cut and drilled laminated/wood panels ordered and then delivered by a driverless vehicle!

Like any forecast, this is a good guess, I am not that clever to be certain that 3D printing will be a success on a mass scale in the home or in small local production units. But it will be interesting to conjecture on this and the consequences for the whole Supply Chain around the world. That is something I leave for another article or for you dear reader to comment on.

Conclusion:

Every industry that produces and sells objects will soon be put into the same place as the music business of 15 years ago. Does industry and business understand  the extent of what is going to happen?  It is coming! The unknown bit is the scale of its implementation..

This article has been inspired by a 40 year old academic book called Noise by the French author Jacque Attali. In this book he  predicted back in 1975 what actually happened to music ! Today Attali concludes that all objects are going the same way, where there is very little scarcity.  Any music or book can now be downloaded so they are no longer scarce, consequently their value has dropped considerably.   The idea of something  being scarce is now actually for most people –  time.. We have all the objects we need, but we are always short on time.  Again music  exemplifies this perfectly; we will not pay £4.00 for a CD  (we can access it whenever we want in a free for all buffet) but we will pay £60 to use our valuable time and watch artists play music in concert at a  huge arena with a light show providing a fantastic and memorable experience!

So in the very near future will your customers pay for stuff from China and India? Why bother when they can download it  and save money to enjoy something for that most valuable and now most scarce of commodities – time..

Mark K.Astley

The Company Board – Securing Good Business Growth

13 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by mkastley in RVA Updates

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board of directors, Business Growth, company directors

Good Business grpwth board

Like everything else, the leadership for good business growth comes form the top. Most of the business case studies on inspirational leadership concentrate on individuals – what is their management philosophy, their strategies, what kind of superman or wonder woman are they!!

The company board of directors and non executive directors very rarely get a look in and when they do its usually negative e.g. in the UK the HSBC board were subjected to a humiliating and extremely uncomfortable public interrogation on what the hell have they been doing to combat unethical practices by the bank’s investment division. In the case of one of my previous employers Tesco, the whole board in the last year has been practically replaced.

With the current questions about the effectiveness of Company Board’s, I decided to embark on a small investigation to determine what these collections of individuals should actually be doing to secure good growth for a business. This investigation involved attending training courses, individual discussions with existing board directors, recruitment specialists and actually reading the UK Corporate Governance Code.

The board of directors play a vital role in Good Business Growth, not a lip service but leadership in the set up, vision and the running of the company:

1. The basic elements that a company board works with are the 4P’s of Policy, People, Profits and Principles. This is done with a diverse board membership; representing society and the company customer base. Behaving with integrity through honesty and transparency, whilst avoiding ‘groupthink’..

2. To secure a sustainable business the board of directors should provide the company with the following:

  • Leadership through a collective responsibility that constructively challenges and develops proposals on strategy.
  • Effectiveness as a group with balanced skills and experience, using a rigorous self evaluation on their performance as a board. The members should contribute sufficient time to the role. Be a worthy and transparently appointed group of executive and non executive directors.
  • Secure Accountability through fair and balanced assessment of the business. Understanding and managing risk with internal controls.
  • Promote long term success of the company through a formal and transparent remuneration package for the directors.
  • Create a dialogue and relationship with shareholders that is mutually understanding and encouraging to achieve the business objectives.

3. In relation to Good Business Growth, what does this mean for the board when working with the executive management team of the business.

  • Work with strategy and long term sustainability – secure the ‘Why’ in the business.
  • Secure the business Code of Conduct and Company values.
  • Understand the Customer Experience of the product or service.
  • Help develop strategy and business longevity product through the use of Democratic Design and Price with a meaning.
  • Understand and guide the company Responsibilities in the Supply Chain.
  • Understand the Risks in the business and how are these risks being identified and eliminated.
  • Determine the right KPI Tools to judge the business in terms of good business growth, remuneration and legal requirements.
  • Use Process Flow Charts to understand the operational parts of the business on a one page holistic view.
  • Where practical understand and follow up the operational management tools employed in the business.
  • All types of auditing activities within the business are followed up. The long term goal should be to secure legal, ethical and profitable practices are assured through business processes rather than auditing.

The board cannot go into operational detail, that is for the executive management team. However, the above points can create a framework to apply in their agendas, reports and information packs used in the regular Board of Directors meetings.

4. The company board should be nurturing the success of an organisation through;

  • Enabling the love of all its stakeholders
  • Securing a company set of core values, policies and operating systems.
  • Helping to create a broader purpose to the corporate vision
  • Create the conditions for a humble, modest and self effacing business leadership
  • Promoting emotional leadership in the business
  • Aligning the business incentives and culture

In Conclusion: a company board shapes culture, provides a conscious leadership and  secures business functions/capability. It should be able to read the signals and join the dots when reviewing performance and understanding the risks in the real world. By doing this the board secures the 4P’s and achieve Good Business Growth..

RVA: Training Providers

17 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by mkastley in RVA Updates

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brand protection, Business Growth, Management Consultancy and Training Development Providers, Robert Vernon Associates, Training Courses

RVA Trainers  have over 40 years combined experience working with global retailers and suppliers  operating across the Far East and Europe. Work with them through our series of training courses exploring ways to improve performance and minimise risk in the fast developing and ever demanding world-supply market. These courses are highly activity-based, learning in a fun, informative and interesting way. See the list of training courses below..

 

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The Current Programme of Training Courses Offered by Robert Vernon Associates:

1. PRAS: Risk Management

2. CEPQ: Customer Experienced Product Quality

3.  CofC: Code of Conduct Management

4. Good Business Growth: 1 Day Senior Management course.

5. Good Business Growth: 2 day Training Course Autumn_Winter 14

Please use contact form below for more course details including location and costs..

 

 

The RVA Team – a considerable number of years experience..

10 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by mkastley in RVA Updates

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brand protection, Business Growth, Management Consultancy and Training Development Providers, Robert Vernon Associates, supply chain management

Trevor Bailey  MSc BEd CertEd is an International Consultant, Lecturer & Trainer with 35 years experience.trevor profile picture

Jukka Vasarainen is an experienced Textile Engineer with over  30 years in manufacturing and sourcing.

jukka2

 

Elizabeth Morgan has more than 25 years experience creating successful and profitable brands, and growing markets, through innovation in marketing and product development.6352518[1]

 

 

 

 

0c36c4c[1]Dr Andrew Tempest has over 23 year senior management experience at the Mars Group.

 

 

 

mark solo2Mark K. Astley  has over 30 years of production management  and international sourcing experience. 

 

 

 

 

Good Business Growth – practical and effective..

25 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by mkastley in RVA Updates

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Tags

Business Growth, Robert Vernon Associates, supply chain costs

Robert Vernon Associates’ business vision is very much a commitment to Good Business Growth, not just because its the nice thing to do but the logical choice for success, whether our clients are buyers or suppliers.  What are the goals that we and our clients work with:

  • Price Development managed and supply chain costs are transparentDhaka factory picture
  • Social and Environmental Compliance Transparent – An Efficiency Driver.
  • Quality: Reduction in Cost of Poor Quality (waste) and increased Customer Experienced Product Quality
  • Increased Product Availability at point of sale.

If you are a Buyer anywhere in the world or the factory in the supply chain, you are constantly grappling with one or all of the above! We can help you and your organisation to work with these issues in a practical and effective way to achieve Good Business Growth.

Please review our site and contact us if we can be of service..

Mark K.

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  • A new angle on Good Business…
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