She did not make an effort to hide the label (and why would she, since the bottle was recognisable anyway). Her image, nipping from the bottle was shown on the large screens and recorded. Later on she asked for somebody to ‘give me the Coke, err I mean, some of that unnamed beverage‘. Suddenly she was conscious that she gave the soft drink giant a huge free wrap. I am hoping she does not have a deal with Pepsi. Her circle of influence in Australia is big and the pulling power she possesses would certainly be of interest to any other brand.

Typically, ‘personalising the brand’ is described in Brand literature as ‘..powerful role models within an organisation, such as a media savvy CEO’s like Richard Branson or Anita Roddick‘. Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2002,79) talk about the concept of personalising as litmus test of organisations. Often, if a company does not have a role model, it makes one up that embodies the values and vision the organisation likes to stand for and asks the question: What would (our role model) do? Would he/she like it?

Pink, like so many artists has to be her own true north on this, as she embodies her own organisation and is her own CEO. Very rarely are brands so entwined with emotions than in the music and film industries. I wonder what litmus test Pink uses to determine her brand alliances?

Consensio’s foremost differentiator is its attitude to business goals. Whilst many small businesses are run fairly efficiently without the use of strategic plans because the owners are technically good at their jobs (see the E-Myth), there comes a point where technical competence is not enough to grow or sustain the business any further without the knowledge and implementation of more complex business processes.

At this point business owners turn to either University courses or consultants for advice. At Consensio we add value through the experience and knowledge of our consultants who are technically good in their chosen professional fields, but are also guided by current business theoretical knowledge.

We like to be told about our client’s business. We immerse ourselves in the job, no matter how big or small, to connect our clients business objective with the market need. We make market segment background checks, before we visit potential clients and we are open to be taught about the ‘ins and outs’ of the client’s business before we recommend or implement any of our work.

We grow with the complexity of the project at hand. We are no large consultancy behemoth! Our clients don’t pay for large agency overheads or commissions. Consensio is small and agile and operates only with the required number of consultants on every project. Work rates are either hourly or by fixed negotiated contract.

What we offer for SME’s and Departments of larger organisations :

Strategic Planning – whether your company grows, consolidates or is at start up – we facilitate workshops, write strategic documentation and offer to implement Marketing and HR strategies.

Marketing Development – your brand and products need to stand out from the market crowd. With Consensio, you go from idea to market, using every step in between to your advantage.

Human Resource Services – when you prepare for growth and establish structures with HR policies and implementations. Consensio HR advises on talent and recruitment & retention strategies. We offer performance management documentation, remuneration and benefits structuring, position classifications, position description documentation.

Drop us a line, if you would like to know more or have a specific question about how we can help your business.

To clarify this, we firstly need to look closer at small business research. Although over 96% of Australian businesses are employing less than 20 people, the majority of management recommendations and findings is deducted from academic research into large industry organisations.

This is pretty much the case for the US, Japan and other industrialised countries as well.
Secondly, as Verreyenne (2006, 220) points out, the lack of suitable measurement tools and best practice study courses hinder small business owners to integrate strategic management into their daily practice.

Small Business Strategy Types

Strategic Decisions in small businesses are usually following the ‘rational decision-making model’, which is for example used to obtain financials through a business plan.

A less stringent approach is called adaptive or logical incremantalism, which means that management is providing a broad directive and employees follow through with detailed actions.

The other form of strategy is dubbed vision or umbrella strategy, as it employs involvement of external stakeholders that may have influence on the small business.

The command strategy approach, you guessed it, means that the owner or senior executives exercise complete control over the firm. However, the intrapeneurial form of strategy-making is the opposite and inclusive of employee input.

Small Business Strategy Applied

Martie-Louise Verreyenne researched previous small business findings. She observed that researchers only reported whether small businesses made rational strategy decisions, and not whether they engaged any other strategies. She tested all above described strategy modes and the results are summarised as follows:

1. Pure rationality may not at all occur in small firm decision making, therefore, academics are better off using different models to describe and measure small businesses
2. Adaptive, intrapeneurial, participative and simplistic modes of strategy making are primarily used
3. Simplistic mode means the owner/manager bases her/his approach on previous strategy making without previous analysis of the environment. She found and a strong link to actual firm performance
4. Internal and external stakeholders play a more important part in small firm strategy than previously thought
5. In small firms, value and culture are successfully driving a participative strategy mode, unlike in large organisation, were participative styles are more likely to lead to politics and negativity.

The learnings small business owners/managers can take from this are manifold-

• Leadership styles of owners/managers matter. The more you as a leader are aware of your behaviour and actions, the more likely decision-making is fruitful. Continue to learn something about yourself and others
• Input from internal (your staff) and external (your suppliers, friends, family and investors) does matter. Different angles help to make better outcomes. Play Devil’s Advocate more often
• Gut-feel matters. Verreyenne specifically states, that simplistic decision-making is made without the sophisticated scenario-rendering tools of big business and yields results for small business
• Value and culture of your small firm matters. Sit down with your staff and ask them what (apart form the money) gets them out of bed and makes them join your company environment every day.
  Friday afternoon get-togethers (with or without alcohol) and networking opportunities don’t have to cost the world, but can cement a better work climate. Do you know how your staff see your future as a company?