Reducing Costs to Boost Profits

One of the big secrets of multinationals is their constant striving to become the lowest cost producer in their field. These low costs feeds straight through to their bottom line, and is a technique that can also be used by small companies. For businesses wanting to...

What Happens Next? — Shell Oil’s Use of Scenario Planning

You’ll recognize the familiar way to tell an optimist from a pessimist. Give each a glass of water filled to the halfway point and ask them to describe it. The optimist says the glass is “half full”, the pessimist says it’s “half empty”. From this you can extrapolate...

Why Do Lenders Require Collateral?

Getting an unsecured business loan is nearly impossible these days unless you are tremendously wealthy, a multi-national organization or don’t really need the money. The one exception would be a government bailout. Thus, collateral does matters. However, banks and...