Finally, some 'straight talk' about management, marketing and profitability:

Managing any business today is tough…and getting tougher.  Every industry is over-served and under-differentiated.  We’re all faced with more demanding customers, more and stronger competition, disruptive innovation and shrinking margins. On top of that, great staff are hard to find and keep…and that problem won’t go away any time soon.  So, mediocrity is no longer an option.

Regardless of what the latest management book tells you, as business owners, leaders or managers, our 1st job is to be clear about these 8 things:

1. Who our target customers are, individually and as a group, and what life is really like for them.
2. The compelling value and experience that we commit to deliver. Value and experiences that will ‘grab’ our target customers, clearly differentiate us from our competitors, make us ‘famous’…and grow our bottom line.
3. How we’ll communicate and promote that compelling value story in a crowded and cynical marketplace. There’s no point in being the best if we’re also the best kept secret.
4. What we commit to become. How our business must change to be a profitable and responsible market leader in 3 to 5 years (our Vision). How our business will be different from what, where and who you are today. 
5. The extraordinary bottom line that you commit to generate.  Our profit is something we plan for and commit to…not something we hope for.
6. The specific decisions, actions and improvements that we must take, year by year, (our annual Mission) in every part of the business to get to our 3 to 5 year Vision. This includes how parts of our business model might have to change to keep us relevant.
7. The talent, team, culture and organizational structure we need to create…and how we, as leaders, must grow to make this happen.
8. How we commit to behave along the way (our values, ethics and standards). One of our most important roles is to guard the integrity of the business.

If we as leaders are not clear about these 8 things, who else in the business can possibly be?  Most businesses lack this kind of clarity …and it’s hurting them badly.

Based on his own business career as a world-class manufacturer and award-winning retailer, plus 20 years of coaching clients in over 40 industries throughout the world, Donald delivers clear bottom-line management and marketing insights that have helped 1,000s of clients create compelling customer value, clarity of purpose and long-term profitability.  

These insights are supported by Donald’s complete set of ‘Business Assessment and Management Implementation Tools’.  For info on these Tools and Templates, CLICK HERE

To quote one American client, “Every business person should spend a few hours with Donald Cooper…it changes everything!”

Donald’s experience and credibility:

Donald Cooper, MBA, has been both a world-class manufacturer and an award-winning fashion retailer.  From humble beginnings, Cooper Canada became a world-leading maker of sports equipment and a Canadian brand icon.

For more info about Donald’s business life ‘in the trenches’, CLICK HERE