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The Chief Outsider
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Recent Posts
Why MedTech’s Brilliant Innovators Must Also Become Commercial Architects
| Great technology is necessary. It is not sufficient. The graveyard of MedTech is lined with brilliant innovations that never found their market — not because of scientific failure, but commercial invisibility. |
I just returned from LSI USA ‘26 in Dana Point — the most impressive gathering of emerging MedTech talent I’ve witnessed in decades. The event convened 2,000 executives, 394 presenting startups, and over 500 active investors and strategics. The scientific ambition in that room was extraordinary.
The Millennial Food Shift: How CPG Food Companies Can Rescue Their Market
Wed, Aug 28, 2019 — Never before has the kitchen been so lifeless. For generations, the once-centerpiece of the American home has become much less important – marginalized by Millennials and younger generations who choose to order up their nourishment with a few silent taps of the cell phone rather than the clank of pots and pans. Seemingly overnight, this phase shift in eating habits has roiled the business models of food-oriented consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. They can no longer count on being a key ingredient in the daily lives of today’s consumer. So how did this happen? And what can CPG companies—and the grocery stores that peddle their wares—do to regain mindshare in the public consciousness?
AI, With a Dash of Humanity: Three Ways That High Tech and People Partner for Smart Business Strategy
Tue, Aug 6, 2019 — We live at the dawn of some very technologically compelling times. Businesses around the globe have supplanted humans with artificial equivalents, in a bid to meet customer demand for greater efficiencies. Indeed, some of this Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been integrated into business processes so smoothly, that we barely notice anymore. As an example, someone was recently texting me, and in their query asked me where I was. My iPhone picked up on the context queues in the message and prompted me with my current location – I just tapped and sent. In fact, AI, and automated machines in general, are very, very good at particular types of work. Monitoring, for example. People are horrible at monitoring – it’s boring and repetitive, and by our nature, we can easily become distracted. In some cases, in fact, extended monitoring is essential to life itself – in places like the intensive care unit at your hospital, or aloft at 41,000 feet, keeping an airplane with 300 passengers stable and safe. By 2022, one survey says that companies will dump a whopping $79 billion into such cognitive and AI systems designed to save money, build efficiency, and foster profitability.
Reeling In Recurring Revenue: Three Steps to Sustained Success
Thu, Jul 18, 2019 — A fisherman, as a rule, has to work pretty hard to bring home the catch of the day—hours of grueling effort, in pitching seas, to struggle to reel in one tuna at a time. Imagine, however, a utopian upgrade to this model—simply navigating to the “hot spot,” and sitting back with a frosty beverage while the fish jump, willingly, into the boat. If you run a recurring revenue stream business, you get to inhabit this magical place—a customer signs up, and they keep paying you, month over month. But, simply having a recurring revenue stream does equate to perpetual hockey stick revenue growth—and I played hockey! There are a number of things that can cause your recurring revenue model to “flounder,” affecting your revenue and margin growth. In this blog series, we’ll look at the three issues facing recurring revenue businesses—churn, balancing acquisition and retention and creating a retention program. It is my hope that, by the end of this series, you will secure your recurring revenue enterprise against the sharks that could bring it down—and that’s no “Big Fish” story!
Moving to a Blue Ocean With Growth Gears: Five Steps to Chart a Course for Success
Thu, Jun 20, 2019 — Whether you are a seafaring sort or not, it’s fairly intuitive to expect that a peaceful, sparkling, blue ocean is much more navigable than one roiled by rolling tides, scary sea vermin and dangerous storms. This relatable parable constitutes the foundation of “Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing - Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth,” a book by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne which provides a series of waypoints by which to guide businesses into calmer seas. I recently successfully led a client through the Blue Ocean Shift process prescribed by Kim and Mauborgne, and realized how well the lessons align with similar ones espoused in “The Growth Gears,” a book authored by my Chief Outsiders colleagues Art Saxby and Pete Hayes. “The Growth Gears” does a terrific job of building a process around how to go from random acts of marketing, to a purpose-based method of marketing an organization, by following three pillars—Insights, Strategy and Execution.
How to Generate Winning Results with PAC
Wed, Jun 19, 2019 — Most of us have heard of the Five P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place and People) and how getting those right is essential for success. Certainly, all of these have a role and are important, but for small to mid-sized companies, experience shows that PAC is the biggest driver of success. These are: Product Audience Communications Executing well on PAC provides your business with focus and a market-informed approach. The PAC mindset creates a differentiated product and an activating message that reaches those most likely to buy. Consistent revenue and profit growth naturally follow.
Does Your Customer Delight Take Flight?
Mon, Jun 17, 2019 — Let’s assume, like most businesses, that you have a keen focus on pleasing your customers. You have plans, people and policies that ensure you are offering a great experience, and you are doing everything you can to make it easy to do business with you. That’s all well and good -- congratulations! However, it’s important to note that there are brands committed to going beyond “pleasing” their customers -- they are moving up to “delighting” their customers.
Be More Chill: Teaching Us All How to Market with Intention
Wed, Jun 5, 2019 — A wise person once told me that sometimes “no” simply means “not yet.” Easier said than done, particularly in the CPG world, when huge stakes are riding the new products that constitute our company’s lifeblood. Coming from a consumer marketing and product background—working with industry leaders including Disney, Mattel, Hasbro, Lowe’s and Rubbermaid—I encountered many such inflection points when we felt the market was saying “no” to a new product launch. In fact, our modus operandi seemed to be as follows: Build it, push with promises, and pull with traditional media—and then abandon it if it did not immediately hit. But one thing I can say with certainty, particularly in today’s marketplace—the “cut and run” approach is not nearly as universal. Sometimes success requires us to commit to a longer-term relationship with our consumer. And, as we’ll see, the platform of social media can be the soapbox that can turn the spark into a flame.
4 Tips to Achieve Quantum Growth with Expansion into Retail
Wed, May 29, 2019 — Whether your brand/product is sold purely on-line, through healthcare professionals or other professional channels, retail offers an opportunity to achieve quantum growth. Indeed, the rewards of selling through retailers can be enormous. Depending on the outlets you pursue, a successful retail launch can generate opening orders of 200,000 units or more. I recently launched a medical product primarily into the big three drug chains and Walmart that achieved that delightful opening order size. And, appearing in front of millions of consumers on retail shelves couldn’t hurt brand awareness. Some experts estimate that retail shelf presence alone can increase brand awareness by 20% or more.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Seven Simple Steps to Delighting Your Customers
Tue, May 28, 2019 — People pleasing—for as long as there have been sellers and buyers, there have been efforts by sellers to get those buyers coming back for more. If we think all the way back to the dark ages of retailing, we can imagine that there was heavy competition for those stone-chiseled wheels—and certainly the stonemason with the best service (and ratings on Yelp) had the most robust business. Of course, most businesses will SAY that THEY have a keen focus on delighting their customers—that THEY are the best at building retention and ongoing loyalty. “Of course we do,” they say. “It’s a company virtue! We’ve been doing it for years!” Yet, when you examine the actual processes and procedures used in the interaction with their customers, you will often find the opposite. This is not necessarily willful—it likely is a function of a reliance on tried and true business processes in a selling environment when the business situation may have changed. (Pity the stonemason who was beat out by Goodyear to put rubber treads on those wheels!)