Growth Insights for CEOs
The Chief Outsider
Recent Posts

Vistage Chairs: Is Your Member’s Marketing Really Working? Ask These 5 Questions.
Executive Takeaways
- Most CEOs challenge every capital investment but can't say with confidence whether their marketing is working.
- More leads isn't better marketing. Better customers are.
- If sales and marketing are blaming each other, the CEO hasn't asked the right question.
- The real measure isn't what marketing produced. It's what it changed about the future economics of the business.
Recent Posts

Road Map the Customer Experience to Align Sales and Operations
Wed, May 31, 2017 — So often these days, blogs, posts and articles are written about aligning Sales and Marketing. I agree that doing so is critical. But there is another alignment need that is often overlooked and equally critical to company growth and customer satisfaction. The question is are we selling what we are delivering in terms of the customer experience?

What do Dynamic Value Hierarchies and Power Windows Have in Common?
Thu, May 18, 2017 — Do you ever wonder how power windows on cars and trucks came about? Try to buy a vehicle with hand crank windows today. Good luck with that. The story of power windows is also a story about value hierarchies. Value hierarchies are graphic depictions of your value proposition. Value hierarchies are usually organized as pyramids with three tiers of value:

To Grow, You Need to Know – Why Market Awareness is Essential for CEOs
Tue, May 16, 2017 — If your company is not growing, it’s important to dig deep when looking at market changes. James Quincy, the new CEO of Coke is demonstrating the progressive thinking needed to turnaround his company, which is in decline. In a recent article on PYMNTS.com, Quincy talks about critical information that he is using to understand the declines and then respond to them.
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Kickstart your Performance Initiatives: How KPIs Help You Get Results
Fri, May 12, 2017 — As a CEO, you want results. To support your lofty goals, you’ve run a good strategy session; and you have a solid plan of attack. But, do you really understand the journey from your strategic plan to your desired outcome? Are you ready to use the single best tool you’ll ever have, the little understood key performance indicator, or KPI?

What B2B E-commerce can Learn from Consumer Retail
Tue, Apr 25, 2017 — The world of consumer retail is in the midst of rapid transformation. Traffic in brick-and-mortar stores is decreasing. Consumers are moving away from shopping malls. Traditional advertising—whether via direct mail, TV ads or newspaper and magazine ads—is losing its relevance.

CEO Shares the Benefits of Participating in a Peer Advisory Group
Mon, Apr 24, 2017 — CEO Experiences Growth from Being a Member of Vistage Chief Outsiders Fractional CMO, Neil Anderson, has a conversation with Vistage Member and CEO of TalenTrust, Kathleen Quinn Votaw, about her experience with Vistage, an executive coaching organization that provides leadership training and business coaching to CEOs and Executives.

Managing the Uncertainty in New Markets
Mon, Apr 3, 2017 — In my last post I addressed the challenges companies face when considering entering new markets. I called these the “white spaces”. The challenge is assessing the value in entering those markets without consuming excessive resources. It’s about exploiting opportunities, but not over-spending and taking on too much risk at the start.

Business Strategy, Digital Strategy, and "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
Thu, Mar 16, 2017 — Many of you probably read Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” somewhere in your educational career. It’s a short poem of four stanzas and 20 lines total. For a poem so brief, it’s surprising that Frost’s famous work is so powerful yet often misinterpreted. If you can’t recall the poem, or want to read one commentary, you can do a refresh here.

How to Build Your Marketing Team for Growth
Tue, Mar 7, 2017 — A marketing organizational roadmap for B2B venture CEOs After slogging through the early startup phase and acquiring the first handful of customers through relationships, sheer selling tenacity and perseverance, many founding CEOs at B2B ventures ask me: “To scale my company, I know I need a marketing team. But I don’t know where to start and what path to follow. Can you help?”