Analysis for Managers: The Most Important Measure
Analysis for Managers: The Most Important Measure Today’s post is to help you as a leader, manager, entrepreneur, family member and/or individual to perform perhaps the most important analysis of them all. And it begins with a question posed by management scholar and innovation strategist, Clayton Christensen: How will you measure your life? After all is said and done what is truly most important to you? What are your deepest goals and desires? When you look back, what will be your measure of personal success? No doubt, the vast majority would put family, relationships with spouses and...
Read MoreAnalysis for Managers: Financial Ratios
Analysis for Managers: Financial Ratios If I were to tell you that someone weighs 75 lbs, you might say that he/she is a very light person. But what if I told you that person was a one-year-old? You would probably either fall off your chair, drop you phone on the ground or just flat out think I was bluffing. And what if I told you that a certain company made a $1 million profit last year? Sounds like a big number, right? Does it change your perspective if I tell you that this company did $100 billion in sales last year? That’s only a 0.1% profit margin. Pretty slim in all reality. The...
Read MoreAnalysis for Managers: Industry Analysis
Analysis for Managers: Industry Analysis The next important analysis to undertake around your business is an industry analysis. This is where we look at the entire landscape of the economic branch in which your business operates. To do this we’ll use a well-known and effective tool, called the “Porter’s Five Forces,” which helps a manager to understand the current and future profitability outlook of his/her business. Figuratively and literally, each of these “forces” presses/suppresses profit margins within a given industry. So, grab some paper, a...
Read MoreAnalysis for Managers: Customer Analysis
Analysis for Managers: Customer Analysis As we begin our first functional post on analysis, let’s begin with a simple definition. One simple definition is: “ [A] detailed examination of the elements or structure of something, typically as a basis for discussion or interpretation.” With that in mind, today we’re going to examine our customer base and interpret their interactions with our business. The two main things we recommend are 1) building and maintaining a detailed customer base and 2) talking to your customers. Building a database will help you to discover patterns in your...
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