An article by Robert Sherlock, published in the May/June 2007 issue of Parcel Magazine
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Category Archives: News
Spotting Opportunities for New Products and Services
by Robert Sherlock and Chris Broxon
Reprinted from ACG Network Newsletter, October 2004
Does your company (or a portfolio company) need to develop new products or services to generate growth, but you aren’t sure how to go about doing it? We recommend a couple of proven methods. Market Back starts with taking a comprehensive look at target customers or groups of customers, probing for problems that they need solved, or other ways that they can be made better off. This is followed by organizing a creative effort to come up with ways that your company can make those customers’ businesses or daily lives better.
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Tips to improve your company: Protecting Profitability
Condensed summary of remarks to the annual meeting of National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC), Palm Beach, Florida, October 17, 2006
Bob Sherlock, The ProAction Group, Chicago
Not long ago, we worked with a well-positioned, private equity-owned manufacturer whose innovative products had grown revenues significantly in the past few years. The company had been profitable until the prior year, when it ran into what management called “The Perfect Storm.” In the same year, they encountered three
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Guarding Against Debt Problems
Debt Problems on the Horizon
Conventional wisdom is that loose credit is fueling the buyout boom. Dealogic reports that there have been more than $72 billion of buyouts for less than $1 billion. Some of these will have debt problems. We don’t know how many, we don’t know when, and we don’t know how severe the debt problems will be.
Logistics Challenges and Opportunities in 2007
2007 Logistics Trends
Private equity firms that invest in logistics businesses face some significant market challenges in 2007.
Following several strong years of conditions favoring logistics providers, several key segments of the logistics market are shifting to the buyers’ advantage in 2007. Demand is softening for many modes of transportation, following recent capacity increases. Furthermore, fuel prices continue to be a major cost for logistics providers and have not stabilized.
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Will E-Commerce Eliminate Purchasing?
View a Power Point presentation of Timothy Van Mieghem’s powerful discussion on e-Commerce
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Logistics Planning
This article discusses logistics and the importance of logistics planning and its relevance in business success.
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