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and is being replaced in forward looking companies where everything is
related to delighting the customer at minimum cost.

Adjacent sector/segment A market segment or sector that could be
serviced with existing products or services at relatively small cost and that
is often used to extend the life cycle of a product or service. As a prelude to
redesigning any product or re-vamping any service it is useful to ask:
“Could we sell this elsewhere just as it is?” and “Is the cost of selling it else-
where a worthwhile investment?” and perhaps “Would selling this else-
where delay or damage our ability to dominate the really important
markets?”

Affinity marketing Having your product or service recommended to
their customers by an honest broker that has a similar customer base, but
completely non-competitive products or services. A low cost/no cost form of
marketing that has emerged due to the rich opportunities provided
through the rich flow of information online.

Assets Anything of value owned by the business and recorded on the bal-
ance sheet. In modern theory the market value of the company should be
a high multiple of the assets because knowledge and competencies add
value. Cash assets have recently become a temptation for asset strippers as
dot coms with little prospect of turning a profit often have considerable
cash reserves supplied by once over-optimistic, now panicking, investors.
The accrual and protection of assets was at one time the focus of interest
of finance professionals. In the modern firm physical assets are of less
value than intellectual assets and the market value of any company should
be a high multiple of its asset value both as a defence against take-over and
as an indicator of its knowledge base.

Asset stripper The massive, often short-lived cash assets of some dot
coms are becoming a happy hunting ground for a new breed of asset strip-
per who wisely seeks cash rather than stuff. Sadly, too many dot coms were
woefully inadequate when it came to relevant and valuable intellectual
capital. Could this be because they failed to ask the “killer question”? (See
Assets above.)

Audit After Enron it is being questioned whether an audit is any longer
an “examination of the company’s financial statements by an independent
third party”. Unless audit becomes independent again it is difficult to see
the point in the process. In spite of denials, audit was far too often used in
the past as a means of getting the company’s consultants through the door.
Recent scandals have accelerated the distancing of consultancy from audit
and if no further good comes out of it, that alone is a major step in the right
direction.

Auschwitz syndrome Feelings of guilt experienced by the survivors of
downsizing that lead them to covertly damage the firm that they see as
making them complicit in their colleagues’ job loss. Any firm considering
downsizing should be asking “how will we avoid the Auschwitz syndrome

230 Key management questions