Lane on…Pricing – How Ford Dodged the Bullet
Ever wonder how Ford managed to avoid crashing during the great recession? It was certainly no picnic, but Ford fared much better than any of its domestic rivals and made important strides forward...
View ArticleLane on…Examples of Shock Proofing
Recently, GBQ hosted one of its CEO Exchange events featuring a panel made up of CEOs from three venerable Columbus anchor companies. The panel discussion was about surviving the downturn and what the...
View ArticleLane on … Pricing Lessons from Apple I
Have you noticed what Apple is doing to the cell phone handset market? Besides the obvious innovating and making products, the market is snapping up. My daughter called to let me know that the touch...
View ArticleLane On… Pricing Lessons from Apple II
My last post reviewed relative pricing of old vs. new iPhone models. Now let’s take a look at the approach they use to make it appear as though their price is lower than it actually is. Let me first...
View ArticleLane on… Pricing Lessons from Apple III
Did Apple overprice the new, smaller iPad? The financial markets slammed Apple for their pricing decision on the new iPad Mini. In an interesting segment on the price decision, MSN Money analysts...
View ArticleLane on… Budgeting in a Volatile Environment
Right now my crystal ball is cloudy. I have a sense of where the macroeconomic indicators are pointing, but I can’t help clients determine precisely what’s ahead for them. BUT that doesn’t mean we...
View ArticleLane on… Cost of Customer Satisfaction
Satisfying customers is a costly process; some would say it costs everything. That is, I have owners who tell me their entire business is configured around the idea of making customers happy! Kudos...
View ArticleLane on… Customers Make Me Happy
This is a quick blog entry to call attention to the Columbus CEO Magazine Customer Service Awards. While I don’t think that applying for an award is going to make your customers happier or improve...
View ArticleLane on… Profitable Growth Headwind
You tell me what the impact of the Affordable Care Act will be; I can’t tell. Experts, quoted recently in a Wall Street Journal article, were throwing around figures ranging between 25 and 50% cost...
View ArticleLane on… Housing Returning?
I was encouraged when Jan Hatsius, Goldman Sach’s Chief Economist, described the housing market in downright positive terms in this video from late last week. First, let me say I don’t buy a lot of...
View Article
