St. George's day and we hear that our Prime Minister is proud of what England has given the world - in particular our language and Shakespeare's phrases now in common usage. He particularly mentioned "a pound of flesh", something the ex-chancellor knows a lot about and a theme continued by his own chancellor yesterday.
The "green budget" barely raised it's head again beyond justifying an increase in fuel duty but there was a whack to those of you earning over £100k with reduced personal allowances and if earning over £150k an extra 10% income tax on the top slice from April 2010. Add in the messy return to 17.5% VAT on 1 Jan 2010 increased penalties when we get things wrong (although nothing for when they do).
The good stuff was restricted to the "Old Banger" relief for scrapping a 10 year old car, the stamp duty maintained at nil up to £175k, re-introduction of 40% capital allowances for a year from April 2009 and confirmation that we can carry back losses for 3 years (limited to £50k pa). Talk to your accountant about how all this affects you.
As for Alastair Darling - the IMF have already said that they don't agree with him - is he trying to put too positive a spin on things? You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair. (as Shakespeare also wrote, Mr Brown).
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Following another good MDHUBAlpha session some of Michael Porter's thoughts on strategy were discussed, I had a chat with another business who is focussing their strategy on "exceeding client expectations".
My view is we should first aim to agree expectations so we both know what that means and then strive to deliver what we've agreed to a very high standard. There is also an ongoing process of educating and being educated with the client to develop more ideas and ideally deliver more for them.
Certainly a strategy of exceeding expectations is neither a strategy - taking Porter's view that the worst error in strategy is to compete with rivals on the same dimension ie competeing to be the best rather than his choice competing to be unique - nor is it an easily achievable goal as so often we do not really understand our clients true expectations.
My view is we should first aim to agree expectations so we both know what that means and then strive to deliver what we've agreed to a very high standard. There is also an ongoing process of educating and being educated with the client to develop more ideas and ideally deliver more for them.
Certainly a strategy of exceeding expectations is neither a strategy - taking Porter's view that the worst error in strategy is to compete with rivals on the same dimension ie competeing to be the best rather than his choice competing to be unique - nor is it an easily achievable goal as so often we do not really understand our clients true expectations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
