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Hugh Latif is an independent Corporate Director and the principal of Hugh Latif & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in sales & marketing, strategic planning, turn-arounds and the international market. He has more than twenty years experience in international general management with various operating companies of The Dun & Bradstreet Group.

Established in 1996, Hugh Latif & Associates provides a full range of management consulting services to mid-size privately owned Canadian companies.

We help our clients ignite their top and bottom line. We specialize in strategic planning, sales and marketing, turn-arounds and the international market. Since 1996, we have successfully completed over 150 consulting assignments.

Hugh Latif & Associates
135 Park Home Avenue, Toronto, ON   M2N 1W7
Telephone: 416.229.0520   fax: 416.223.8849

www.HughLatif.com

 

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Marketing Instincts Newsletter Archive
 
Working smarter not harder
This year I am celebrating my fifteenth year in business with Hugh Latif & Associates Management Consultants. I thought appropriate to dedicate this issue of Marketing Instincts to giving my ten golden rules for working smarter not harder. See for yourself how these ten rules can make your life easier and more productive. These rules should help you work on your business rather than in your business.   more
 
 Effective Communication For Successful Executives!
Effective communication is the back bone of successful leaders and the most powerful ingredient for managing your troops with excellence. Whether you are a CEO, a General Manager, a Sales Manager, a Minister, a Headmaster, an army General, a Soccer coach or a Homemaker your success as a leader will be largely influenced by your ability to communicate effectively.

Almost any function, position or role requires some kind of leadership and leadership depends on effective communication! (Consider the head of the family and how he/she can influence the behaviour of the entire family or the coach’s influence on the sports team) Whether you want to make convincing presentations with confidence, negotiate with ease or resolve conflicts quickly, effective communication is decisive.

The ability to “get your message across” effectively and clearly is vital. How you set goals and objectives; communicate with your staff, train and develop, instruct, encourage, correct, lead, present, coach, reward and so on are all crucial components of communication.     more
 
 Advisory Boards - Your Secret Weapon For Success
The world has changed quite a bit during the last two years and while the North American and the global economies are slowly coming out of the recessionary environments of 2008 and 2009 when companies like General Motors, Chrysler and NORTEL go bankrupt, one has to stop and wonder what is going on?

In reviewing the list of the largest 15 corporations worldwide, we can easily note that over 1/3 are in trouble. How could that happen? These large corporations have technically all the elements of success: strong brand names, access to capital, the latest technology, intellectual assets, markets, worldwide resources and the list goes on… In short, they either have what is needed to be successful or could with relative ease acquire what they are missing; so what happened?

If you read the business media, many reasons are given such as the lack of strategies, following the wrong strategies, poor execution, incompetent senior management, rapid change in market conditions, taken over by technology etc. However in my opinion all these reasons are more like symptoms rather than the real reason(s). At the heart of these challenged corporations, most of the time, you will find a “too comfy” board of directors that went to sleep at the steering wheel.

So what is the role of the board? Simply said, the board has six specific key functions:  more
 
 The Low Hanging Fruits In Your Pricing System

The expectations of a "magic wand" philosophy taught me to look for short term solutions that could produce almost immediate positive results so that more time could be taken to analyze further the real roots of the problems and recommend more long-term solutions. In other words, I was looking for "gold" and there was an urgency to find it fast.

Unquestionably, managers knew what was wrong in the vast majority of cases. Unfortunately, there was usually no agreement on the solutions, or better said, no focus: No set of objectives. No specific plans. No defined milestones. Good intentions. Lots of hard work and many sleepless nights lost because the issues were blurred and the solutions diluted.

This situation made my search for gold easier as I would usually identify a handful of actions that needed to be addressed immediately and convinced senior management of the real priorities, and offered a "road map". By God’s grace, I did find gold almost all the times in my first days of diagnosis and fact finding. Invariably, the pricing system was often an area where I found an abundance of what I will call "low hanging fruits", the subject of this issue of Marketing Instincts. more

 
Time To Sell

When it is time to go … and the factors that influence the value of your company.

If you want to sell your business or plan a succession, a number of options can be considered: You
sell the business to family members (sons and daughters, brothers and sisters or other family members)
You can also sell to employees, usually members of the senior management team. If these two options though are not practical, the most common sale is usually made to an external party; most probably
competitor or a company that would like to enter your line of business.

This last alternative comes us in the form of a VC (venture capital) or fund company. This short list of “potential buyers” should get you started in thinking, which option is realistic and which is not, and who are the potential buyers.  ... more

 
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning, or the art of driving with a road map.

A few words of wisdom from Hugh Latif: "You could be at the wheel of a beautiful Ferrari but speeding in the wrong direction."

It comes as no surprise that the BDC consultant describes strategic planning as a "road map to reach your destination."

"If you're doing well in your business, you want to have a plan to stay on course. If you're facing obstacles, you want to know why," he says. "Are your problems momentary or a trend? Is there an industry-wide symptom? Is it the strategy or the execution? Is it the execution or the driver?"

Latif, who has extensive experience in the field, would first like to clear up a
misconception among business owners who think strategic planning is best left to large companies and corporations. "It's really the process of developing and ... more
 
Succession Planning
Can the succession minefield be avoided with a sprinkle of good planning and a pinch of wisdom?

Succession planning is the process by which an organization plans the passing of the baton from one leader to another. The passing of the baton is actually a most delicate moment. Athletic coaches will tell you that races are won or lost by the manner in which the baton is handed over between runners. Good planning and execution improve the odds of making smooth transitions. Unexpected succession and lack of planning increase the chances of failure.

Succession planning is not only applicable to businesses, it is pertinent to any organization such as governments, churches, political parties, etc. Any grouping of people and resources are in need of a succession plan. I will however, for the purpose of this article, concentrate on succession planning as it applies to businesses. more
 
Corporate Governance

Straight talk about corporate governance … (and good stewardship, if such a word still exists…)

When I initiated my second career by founding my management consulting practice, I predicted that North America would experience a revolution in corporate governance. Looking at public corporations that
were increasingly owned by large institutional investors, it made sense to me that these institutional investors would want to see good corporate governance practiced by the corporations in their portfolio of investments. I could see many signs that were not right. Red flags like excessive executive compensation, stock options that were out of control, large public corporations that were strategically in trouble while the board looked nice and comfy, etc. These signs indicated that something had to change.

But the years went by and no revolution came. Bits and pieces of changes occurred here and there with
corporate governance, but these changes were tepid to say the least. Then, all of a sudden, ... more

 
HR Fundamentals
Over the years, I have been involved both directly and indirectly in virtually hundreds of hiring decisions, including many for executive positions. These human resources selection missions were for companies under my direct management and for client companies who needed my assistance in recruitment of key players. In this issue of Marketing Instincts, I am
sharing hands-on practical advice for selection and recruiting. The essential points have been outlined below in a powerful list of ten fundamental principles. Applying them to your human resources recruitment missions should significantly improve your ability to hire the right candidates.

Do you have a job description?
This does not need to be an elaborate document.

Do you have an applicant profile?
This is a one page document that includes the key qualifications you are looking for in the ideal applicant

Who are you hiring?
Is it a Managerial or non-Managerial position? If you are hiring for a Managerial position, you must be
particularly careful. ... more
 
KPI
The Key Performance Indicators (An effective tool to manage growth and navigate your business to the next level)

Periods of change and transition in our personal lives tend to be filled with tension, uncertainty and doubt. The same applies to our work and professional lives. As a business grows, managers find themselves overwhelmed with the day-to-day activities and tasks. They are constantly pushed towards new territories and forced to sail into
deeper waters. They are required to step out of their comfort zones and test new ways, processes, formulas, etc.

Management is required to make more decisions, quicker, on more important things, with greater consequences and often with limited information at hand.

This is where things can get “sticky” or fall apart. Making the wrong decisions or procrastinating about making them is equally damaging.

What is the KPI?  ... more
 

Prior to starting his own management consulting company in 1996, he was Managing Director & CEO of ACNielsen Company of Canada Ltd (1992-1996), the largest marketing research firm in Canada with annual revenues in excess of ninety million dollars and over one thousand employees. Prior to this position, Mr. Latif was General Manager of Dun & Bradstreet France SA in Paris (1989-1992), Managing Director of Dun & Bradstreet Do Brasil Ltda, Sao Paulo, Brazil (1987-1989), Managing Director, Credit Services Division of Dun & Bradstreet Kosmos S.P.A. of Milano, Italy (1981-1987). Hugh started his career with D & B in Toronto in 1975 as a Business Reporter and then held a number of progressive management positions including Director of Service.

While most of his international assignments consisted of business turn-arounds, he has acquired extensive experience in strategic planning, sales and marketing, new product launches, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, executive selection, financial analysis, capital investments and board planning and counsel. His latest position at ACNielsen added multi-million dollar contract negotiation skills, media handling as well as information technology management.

He has learned how to lead companies effectively and make them solid performers sustaining growth of revenues and profits in both new and mature competitive markets.

Hugh is a truly international executive who speaks five languages fluently: English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic. He is at ease in several cultures, having assimilated social skills and business customs of various regions in North and South Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

Throughout his first career and as a management consultant, he has consistently produced outstanding bottom line results and generated quality earnings. He is a solid team player with strong leadership and communication skills. Hugh is an innovative thinker with strategic insights and has a natural flair for the bottom line.

His high integrity and commitment to high professional standards are his major strengths.

Hugh specializes in small and medium size business consulting, bringing innovative, practical ideas and suggestions to "turbo charge" both the top and bottom lines. His work as a counselor for the Business Development Bank of Canada BDC has given him a broad perspective and true insight with entrepreneurs needs and challenges. For direct clients' feedback, click here.

He is a frequent writer and speaker on various business and management topics.

Academic background:

  • Bachelor of Arts, Economics, Cairo University, Egypt. (1974)

  • Associate Business Degree in Business Management from LaSalle Extension University, Chicago.(1978)

  • Advanced Management Program AMP, INSEAD, Fontainbleau, France. (1992)

Professional affiliations & memberships

Hugh is a member of The Canadian Association of Corporate Growth, Toronto Chapter, The Canadian Venture Capital Association of Toronto, The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, The North York Chamber of Commerce, The Experion Group and past member of The National Association of Corporate Directors.

He served and continues to serve on several boards of private companies as well as advisory boards.

He is an active member of the Toronto Evangelistic Association, Living Word Paris, Brazilian Children Outreach and Rivers of Life Fellowship Association Inc.

He is a counselor with the BDC Consulting Group, a division of The Business Development Bank of Canada and an authorized agent of Dun's Marketing Services, a division of Dun & Bradstreet Canada.

He is a frequent writer in Director's monthly and speaker on various business and management topics. For more information on speaking engagements, click here. His expertise is featured in The Art of M & A Integration, McGraw-Hill and in the Marketing Instincts Newsletter published by his firm.

 

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