Management Blog

Healthy is hot for franchisees

A study of the nation's fastest growing food franchises has found healthy cuisine is becoming big business, The Australian reports.

Rather than consisting mainly of traditional fast food brands, a recent league table of fast growing franchises was dominated by names like Healthy Habits, Sumo Salad and Noodle Box.

The growing prominence of healthy food options is no surprise to franchise consultant Tim Dixon who claims public discourse over obesity is providing an obvious marketing platform for franchisees.

Fast growing franchise Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar offers an example of the trend. The company recently achieved the Heart Foundation tick and received an abundance of glowing publicity in the process.

Winning at the name game

A good company name balances message with aesthetics, according to a BusinessWeek article of business name strategy.

US branding expert Mike Carr says the golden rule of naming is memorability; he claims if a name can get inside a consumer's head, a lot of other naming sins will be forgiven.

Start the process by conducting a brain storming session with a small group of company insiders; try scouring dictionaries, magazines and encyclopedias to get the ideas flowing.

Other tips include focusing on simple nouns and adjectives, being as catchy as possible and aiming for originality as opposed to mimicking the names of high profile companies.

Nature's design manual takes off

Nature is the mother of invention for a growing number of companies that are looking to the environment as a source of inspiration, BusinessWeek observes.

A range of product innovations is used to back the point; these include trains that mimic the shape of a bird's nose and glue formulas developed by analyzing how mussels cling to rocks.

Commentators say the biomimicry movement is making an impact due to its ability to accommodate environmentally sound product innovation.

However, not all biomimicry is successful. Shoes recently developed by Nike that copied the feet of mountain goats failed after receiving the thumbs down from consumers.

Tipping Point challenged

An Australian researcher is challenging Malcolm Gladwell's 'Tipping Point' theory by suggesting the average person next door is just as likely to start a trend as someone labeled as an 'influential'.

According to Fast Company, network theorist Duncan Watts has conducted research that claims marketing campaigns targeted at trendsetters may be less effective than mass marketing.

To prove his point Watts developed tracking software that found viral ads are more likely to be distributed by everyday people and ignored by Gladwell's trendsetters.

Watts claims the success of trends is less about the person who starts it and more about how willing society is to accept the trend; he claims if a society is ready almost anyone can start a trend.

The secrets of breakthrough companies

After speaking to thousands of US businesses in order to define the characteristics of 'breakthrough companies', former CEO and author Keith McFarland discovered some surprising results.

In a recent Inc. magazine profile, McFarland identifies the following traits as being indicative of highly successful companies:

Happy staff - the management of breakthrough companies actively work towards building feel good workplaces

Point of difference - top companies have diverse workforces; a characteristic that results in the sharing of different viewpoints

People first - breakthrough companies nurture talent with systems in place that allow their staff to grow

Trail-blazing - leading companies continually redefine their imperatives and often ignore conventional wisdom in the process

'Ugly' companies perform better

A study of breakthrough companies has found ugly companies - i.e. businesses in unglamorous industries - generally perform better than 'sexy' companies, Inc reports.

The story claims that while companies like Apple and Google receive a lot of attention from business journalists, ugly companies, such as US bolt manufacturer Fastenal, are the high performers.

After reviewing 500 companies, the top nine performers were found to be in industries that most people would consider unsexy proving ugly equates to profitable.

Social networking frenzy on the cards

Google - the world's most used search engine - predicts 2008 will see a noteworthy increase in the number of people participating in online social networking, The Australian reports.

The company's Zeitgeist 2007 survey bases this forecast on the fact that seven out of the 10 most popular Internet search topics in 2007 involved social networking sites.

Facebook membership is said to have doubled in 2007 to around 55 million members; MySpace grew to 110 million members, a figure that indicates one in every four US residents use the service.

Online retail a hit

A new survey indicates the popularity of online shopping increased over 2007 with one in four shoppers heading for the Internet for their Christmas shopping, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The Sensis business survey estimates Australians spent over $13 billion on gifts via the Internet during 2007; on average, it's suggested online shoppers spent around $2,500 each.

The news will come as no surprise to many online retailers who claim shoppers are growing tired of battling the crowds during the pre-Christmas rush.

Cheaper prices are another draw card; the article claims products from online retailers are often up to 40 per cent less expensive than those purchased at shopping centre retail outlets.

Handling a growing concern

Acquiring another business can help fast growing enterprises overcome barriers to their own capability and capacity roadblocks, Smart Company argues. 

The benefits of acquisition include access to specialist staff, new technology and key customer relationships; it can also be a way of connecting to new suppliers and markets.

The article says acquiring finance to support an acquisition can be straightforward if the acquired firm has assets or is generating sufficient free cash to support the borrowing.

It's claimed the key to a successful acquisition is to fully understand the contribution of a new company in an overall growth strategy and to stay focused on the investment objectives of the process.

The year's mega-trends

Corporate Australia is more environmentally aware, more into PDAs and more focused on workers' needs than it was 12 months ago Smart Company proclaims in its list of 2007's mega-trends.

Here's the web publication's mega-trends list:

1. Boomers vs. Gen Y - apparently 2007 was the year tensions flared between older workers and their younger teammates

2. Facebook and Google - Google grew bigger, more diversified and extremely powerful while Facebook became a household name

3. Green Biz - consumers started to listen to warnings about global warming and businesses took note

4. BlackBerrys everywhere - the PDA staked its claim as a necessary (and highly addictive) item for business people

5. Workers flexed their muscle - low unemployment rates gave workers more power with many requesting greater flexibility