Vantage Performance Podcast

The first step in sorting out your brand positioning is realising that you need one.In this edition of the Vantage Performance Podcast Christine Moody talks through what brand positioning is, who does it well, and what you can do today as a first step towards getting yours right.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week’s Vantage Performance podcast Andrew Birch, a director at Vantage Performance talks to Phil Dobbie about some of the easy ways you can bring cash forward. It’s all to do with how you structure your invoicing, accept payments and follow-up.As you’ll hear, a few simple changes to the way you operate can have an immense impact on the cash flow of your business.You’ll also hear about the great European knitwear mountain. Sounds intriguing? Listen in.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your business can be profitable but still hit the wall. Why? Because you run out of cash. That’s why you need to ensure you have a handle on your working capital. Andrew Birch, a director at Vantage Performance, says working capital management can provide the cheapest and easiest form of finance available to your business, but if you ignore it the consequences can be dire.In this week’s Vantage Performance podcast Andrew talks to Phil Dobbie about businesses that have products which appear profitable, but the up-front cash requirements present an enormous amount of risk.That’s why it’s vital that every business understands the importance of working capital management. Profitability is vital too, of course, but you’ll never grow effectively without an understanding of how and when your money is being used.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The holiday season is almost upon us: a time when many businesses struggle to stay afloat, with falling income, slow paying creditors and insufficient cash reserves to tide them over into the new year.In this week’s podcast Vantage Performance principal advisor Ian Hall highlights the need to seek additional finance now, not wait until a few days before Christmas. This year banks will be particularly cautious about who they lend to. So, if you need cash, you need to approach them with a plan, highlighting why you need the cash and how and when you will pay it back.You should also be looking at what else you could be doing to help cashflow over the summer months – such as bringing forward creditor payments, reducing costs and optimising stock levels.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Driving improvements in your organisational performance is crucial for your company to survive in the face of increased international competition. Yet many leaders are anxious about change – often using that unconstructive adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.In this week’s podcast Phil Dobbie talks to Barbara Ould, a director at Vantage Performance, who has significant experience driving organisational performance across many top companies.Barbara says companies often lack the experience or understanding of how to improve performance, but it’s a skill that has to be learnt. The reward is simple – survival. You only need to look at some of the major brands around the world that have disappeared over the last few years to understand that it’s dangerous to keep doing things the same way they’ve always been done.You need to look at your strategy and your approach and make changes. And you need to do it quickly.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-

In this week’s podcast Phil Dobbie asks Michael Fingland, Director and CEO of Vantage Performance, if he can point to an example of a high performance team. He says the most visible display is the pit crew on a Formula 1 race track. They have to quickly evaluate a problem, find a solution, act on it and be aware of any external circumstances that could impact the execution. And they do it over and over again. That’s how businesses need to operate to succeed.It’s essential that a troubled business adopts a high performance culture as part of a turnaround solution. But every other business should be assuming the same approach. Often they don’t though. Many rely on industry benchmarks as a way of reassuring themselves that they are doing okay – when, in truth, they should always be aiming to exceed those benchmarks and stand out from competitors.The conclusion to today’s discussion is, “does your team work like a pit crew?” If the answer is “no”, it’s time to change.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFing

In last week’s Vantage Performance podcast, Susan Morgan spoke about the importance of finding a mentor to act as a sounding board for your ideas.This week Phil Dobbie talks to Andrew Birch, Director of Vantage Performance, who suggests you take it a step further by appointing a board to add some external influence on your business.Andrew says the impact a board has is almost immediate, adding expertise and a fresh perspective on the business. It’s not unusual, he says, for a question to be asked, only to have the incumbent team respond, “yes, why do we do that?”Andrew also talks about an appropriate mix of board members, where to find them and what their role is within the organisation.If you thought boards with non-executive members were really just a necessarily evil for listed companies who needed to pacify their shareholders, it’s worth hearing what Andrew has to say.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperf

If you think you wouldn’t benefit from the help of a mentor, perhaps you need to take a long hard look at yourself. Behind most successful business people you will find a mentor or two – Richard Branson has six!Sue Morgan is a Director of Vantage Performance who specialises in executive coaching; working with boards, CEOs and business owners. Sue says it takes a big ego to believe that you can’t benefit from having your way of thinking challenged: the key is to ensure that your mentor is able to test your approach and act as an effective sounding board. It should not be just a cosy chat over a cup of coffee once in a while.In this edition of the Vantage Performance Podcast Series Sue talks to Phil Dobbie about how to find a mentor and what their precise role should be.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week on the Vantage Performance Podcast Series we spoke about the importance of ensuring that you have a watertight contract before embarking on a new project.As a supplier to the mining industry – or any large infrastructure based company – the key is to limit your exposure by ensuring risks are considered and costed in your contract. But, what if things do go wrong?It’s a question we put to Matt Bradbury, a partner at McCullough Robertson – a lawyer specialising in infrastructure, construction and engineering. He says if it does come down to a dispute, both sides win by reaching a commercial arrangement, rather than turning to litigation.If it goes further than that, your case will be helped if the project is supported by adequate paperwork – it’s often the deciding factor in terms of which party is at fault. Would you be happy to stand behind your record keeping if it ever was called on in a court of law?YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-finglan

As we heard last week on the Vantage Performance Podcast Series many suppliers in the Mining sector work on a handshake deal, without the support of a contract. It’s a situation that’s changing as the industry faces slower growth and a less certain future. That means suppliers need to protect themselves by ensuring they have a watertight contract in place.Michael Rochester, a partner at legal firm McCullough Robertson and guest podcaster, specialises in contracting for mining services and infrastructure projects. In this podcast he explains the importance of understanding the risks associated with a project and ensuring those circumstances are spelt out in the contract. He also talks about how to mitigate risk against non payment and the need to be aware of termination for convenience – the right for a customer to cancel a deal if their circumstances change. You need to ensure that the criteria around such a termination reflects the impact it could have on your investment in the project.See omnystudio.com/lis

In this week’s podcast, David Osborne, part of the Vantage Performance leadership team, explains how many mining services contracts push ahead with a handshake and very little in the way of due diligence.Often the details of the contract are overlooked and issues are left unchallenged until it’s far too late. He says the situation is changing – the sector is facing challenges and with it comes the need for more accountability and reduced risk.Mining services companies need to treat the contract process more seriously and ensure that they have the necessary resources to manage the job properly. You can shake on it, but get the paperwork right in the first place.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every company has a business strategy, but not everyone has a brand strategy. Yet a focus on brand helps to position your business in the eyes of your customer or prospects.In this week’s podcast Christine Moody, tells Phil Dobbie that the strategy involves determining your brand personality and what it promises to your customer. The outcome could be as simple as a word or phrase that differentiates your business from all others and provides an opportunity to secure future business.Once you have arrived at your brand promise you need to ensure that the approach is articulated throughout the organisation and reflected in everything you do.It sounds relatively straightforward, but arriving at your unique brand story can take a lot of soul searching. Often it involves rebuilding the essence of what your company is all about.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this edition of the Vantage Performance podcast Christine Moody explains why understanding your brand position is vital to the success of any business.It’s all about finding a customer proposition that makes you unique and determining how that is represented by the personality of your company. Then you need to ensure that this personality is reflected through the various touch points you have with your customers. Of course, to do that, you have to know where all those touch points are and understanding the journey the customer goes through when engaging with your company.As you’ll hear, there’s a lot of work to be done, but the payoff can be significant.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week’s Vantage Performance podcast Michael Fingland says that typically only 5-10% of businesses will be planning ahead for an economic downturn. Those that do could easily come out on top when the economy recovers, simply by following a few simple rules on streamlining your business for maximum efficiency.Michael talks to Phil Dobbie about the five steps you should take to secure your business:1. Repositioning your brand2. Diversifying your customer base3. Paying down debts4. Selling surplus or non-core assets5. Having a plan B.Companies that follow this approach will be surprised by the positive impact it can have on the team culture, offering employees greater peace of mind at a time when other businesses are struggling.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A slowing growth rate in China, record levels of household debt and growing uncertainty in the world economy are all conspiring to create a tough year for Australian businesses in 2013.In the first edition of the new Vantage Performance podcast Phil Dobbie talks to Vantage Performance’s Director and CEO Michael Fingland about business prospects for next year. Michael says many businesses are not prepared for what’s ahead and he highlights the warning signs to look out for.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelFinglandLinkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/michael-fingland-34a09b3Website: https://www.vantageperformance.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.