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| How do you create an uncontested market space in a $20 billion wine industry?
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How do you break into the $20 billion US wine industry with over 1,600 wineries competing for market share, increasing bargaining power of the retail and distribution channels, and flat demand?
The US wine industry in the late 1990s promoted wine as a unique beverage for the informed wine drinker, worthy of special occasions.
The industry was dominated by conventional strategic logic; - benchmarking competitors; - choosing either differentiation or low cost; - offering more for less or over-delivering on prestige and the quality of wine at its price point. Wines, whether budget or premium, imported or domestic all competed head-to-head with each other and shared the same strategic profiles i.e. their value curves had the same shape.
By shifting their focus from competitors to alternatives, and from customers to non-customers of the industry, Casella Wines, an Australian winery, set out to redefine the problem of the wine industry to a new one: How to make a fun and non-traditional wine that is easy to drink for everyone? |
| Is your workforce waiting to ‘jump ship’ when the economy improves?
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 Workforce engagement was heavily affected by the GFC, particularly in organisations where redundancies occurred. A recent Drake survey indicated the 40% of employees whose organisations had experienced redundancies were less motivated after the event.
- How aligned and engaged is your workforce?
- Are you able to quantify your talent risk?
- Are you retaining the right people?
If organisations do not respond by focusing on their most critical asset – their people – they risk a talent exodus when the employment market picks up. |
| The traits of a true leader
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 A manager is one who gets results through other people by making them successful. A leader is one who focuses the desire for change that’s resident within others and who then facilitates the creation of a sustainable new reality.
People often talk about what makes a great leader, much of it focusing on the characteristics and traits, the strategies and styles and even on the special values and perspectives of leaders. The inevitable conclusion to be drawn is that there are as many different approaches to the role as there are people and opportunities.
It's very hard to disprove any hypothesis or theory completely for every one of them seems to carry a grain of truth. At the end of the day, leadership successes will continue to surprise us. Just when we thought we had it all pegged, someone makes the case for a completely different perspective, strategy or qualification that we had not even considered. |
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What values should a leader demonstrate during challenging times? |
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Listen to our monthly podcasts delivered by Dr John Demartini, a human behavioural specialist, business consultant and best selling author, and gain practical yet powerful insights into how to lead an inspired team.
To listen please click here. |
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| Is Your Ocean True Blue or Bloody Red?
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Take a minute to fill out our interactive blue ocean diagnostic and learn if your company is fighting its rivals head-on in a bloody ‘red ocean’ or if it swims in the blue waters of uncontested market space.
Blue Ocean preliminary diagnostic – click here.
Blue Ocean Seminar information – click here.
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| Temp staff – key to business flexibility
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Temp agencies have become indispensable partners for many companies. No longer are temps (or contingent workers as they are sometimes called) a minor expense; they are a big investment and a critical aspect of keeping jobs filled.
But managers ought to understand that good temp agencies do much more than find “bodies” at short notice. The best agencies can show you how to use flexible staffing to improve productivity.
Temp agencies have become so common that we forget that they were a relatively recent invention. Back in the 1950s Bill Pollock and Jim Shore were both competitors selling business equipment to improve productivity. They both noticed that although demand went up and down, staff levels remained constant. It dawned on them that there was a need for temporary workers so that the level of staff could fluctuate with demand. They formed Drake Personnel (now Drake International) and brought a new industry to life.
The temp agency is an essential service because businesses need flexibility. They need to be able to fill positions at short notice, for short periods of time. The flexibility in staffing that temporary workers give a company has proven to be so valuable that the number of temps has continued to rise over the years.
We used to think that temporary staffing only made sense for relatively low-skill jobs but now companies have discovered that there can be value in bringing in interim executives right up to the level of CEO (In fact, there is even a service, Drake Executive Contracting, focusing specifically on the placement of seasoned executives in interim assignments).
In using temp agencies, companies have stumbled upon some unexpected benefits. One is guaranteed performance. If you bring in a temporary employee and they are not working to your standard, a simple phone call to the temp agency is all it takes to have them replaced.
The other unexpected benefit is the temp-to-perm phenomenon. Hiring workers as temporaries before making a decision about offering them a permanent job is undoubtedly the single most reliable selection method. It gives the company a chance to “test drive” the worker and the worker a chance to see what it is really like working for the company.
Drake’s approach is to analyse the optimal level of permanent staffing then put in a plan for handling peaks in demand with qualified temporary staff. While it takes some expertise to do, this planning is a reasonably straightforward exercise – one Drake has been executing successfully for many years. The results are both significant savings on staffing costs and improved ability to deliver to customers during peaks in demand.
For more information about custom designed flexible staffing solutions please call 13 14 48 or email us.
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