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5 AI Trends Every CEO Must Act On
Earlier this year, I shared takeaways from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report, which showed how AI is reshaping business at a macro level. Building on that, Google Cloud’s 2025 AI Trends highlights five forces that will directly impact companies in the year ahead.
AI is no longer experimental. It is restructuring markets, reshaping customer expectations, and redrawing competitive boundaries. Here are five AI trends CEOs are preparing for now:
Create and Activate Visioning to Inspire Your Organization
Thu, Mar 14, 2019 — Not too long ago, there was an exchange on Twitter between Tom Peters and others debating Vision vs. Excellence. Rather than thinking about this as an either/or proposition, a third path – Vision with Excellence – will create the greatest value for your organization. As stated in a Japanese proverb – “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Success requires both. Having a clear Vision of the future you want to create, taking the necessary steps to activate it and exhibiting the behaviors needed to make things happen are a powerful formula for driving growth and prosperity for your business. The following are steps that you can take to leverage visioning to drive value in your organization.
What Can CEOs Learn from the Business of Sports?
Tue, Mar 5, 2019 — In times when our world is divided, one thing tends to be a “great unifier”—the spectacle of athletic competition. Across the globe, sports inspires us, gives us hope, makes us healthier, breaks our hearts and, ultimately, brings us together. Though most fans care about how their player or team performs in the field of play, away from the field, the business of sports has been in disruption. How sports organizations are addressing these newfound challenges provides a road-map for fundamental lessons that can help a CEO in any business gain growth-oriented insights. In a series of blogs, I will lead you through the high level challenges shaking the foundation of the business of sports, and offer some frameworks and ideas to address them. My goal is to build on conversations that are already taking place—and, perhaps, start some new ones.
A Practical Guide to Using Account-Based Marketing: What Small- and Mid-Sized Business CEOs Need to Know
Thu, Feb 28, 2019 — Mark Coronna, Partner & CMO--Chief Outsiders with Tom Judge, VP Strategy--Direct Marketing Partners Account-Based Marketing, or ABM, has increasingly captured the attention of marketers in the past several years. If the concept is new to you, don’t worry, you are not too far behind the adoption curve. Small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are the focus of this article for three important reasons: ABM is often misunderstood as a shiny new wonder-tech or a label for strategic selling or outbound tele-prospecting programs. We want to clear any misunderstandings up. The newest technology and best practices related to high-performing ABM programs are still trickling down to SMBs from much larger businesses which have adopted this approach. But the fundamentals of ABM are at the fingertips of most small/medium firms without expensive technology. ABM programs can be scaled to SMBs in a way that makes them both effective and affordable, and can be an integral part of your combined go-to-market and sales program.
Revitalizing a Tired Business: 3 Steps to Identify the Problem
Tue, Feb 26, 2019 — Common Growth Problems Among Businesses Companies of all shapes and sizes watch as the growth of their business slows down, then gets stuck. There is an opportunity to turn around the situation, with a collaborative action plan. It’s essential to determine where and why you are taking on water. Perhaps a new competitor entered the market, enthusiasm is slowing among repeat customers, or your company’s stated benefit is no longer relevant. There could be a deceleration in organic growth, or additional usage and occasions have changed. What’s clear is that what got you to where you are most likely will not get you where you want to go! Businesses often try to address growth issues by cutting back on spending, or milking the company/product/service to maintain or get more profit out of declining revenues. However, this strategy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; the only direction you can go from here is continued—or accelerated—decline. It is not a viable, long-term way to address organic growth or loss of market share. As a doctor seeks to understand the challenges of a sick patient, they ask questions and observe behavior. They review options to treat to identify the actions that will most likely optimize and accelerate a return to health. To turn around the business, you’ll want to diagnose how you got into the situation—and what has changed—before you begin tackling the turnaround of the business.
A Practical Guide to Growth Using Contract Marketing and Finance Executive Resources
Mon, Feb 11, 2019 — Mark Coronna, Partner & CMO--Chief Outsiders with John Morris, Partner, and Ken Saddler, CFO, B2B CFO® The use of contract executives (also referred to as fractional, on-demand, or outsourced executives) is relatively new in leadership and organizational staffing models. The oldest and largest contract executive company, B2B CFO®, was founded in 1987. The largest contract executive company providing CMO-level talent, Chief Outsiders, is only 10 years old. There are three key takeaway points in this article: Contract execs are a relatively new option for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) Small- and mid-sized businesses are in a great position to secure significant value from this leadership staffing model While contract Marketing executives are a “newer” concept than using contract execs for functions like finance, contract Marketing and Finance execs both can provide critical strategic expertise and timely support to SMBs, with growth challenges or those interested in more rapidly accelerating growth. Let’s explore what a healthy interaction looks like.
Growing Your Business Through Fractional EOS® and Fractional Marketing Resources
Fri, Feb 1, 2019 — “Two Experts Can be Better Than One” Mark Coronna, Partner & CMO--Chief Outsiders with Mark Francis, Fractional Integrator for companies running on EOS® --Visionary Integrator Solutions Introduction to Fractional Resources You may be familiar with the book Traction® and Entrepreneurial Operating System®, which is a proven business operating system for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Within this system, the author details a tool called the Accountability Chart, an elevated version of the traditional organizational chart. An important point of this tool is that it takes two types of people to move a business along, the Visionary and the Integrator. The Visionary is typically the founder, while the Integrator may go by the traditional titles such as CEO, COO or GM. The roles of the Integrator include translating the vision for the company into action and results and also leading, managing, and holding accountable the major functions of the company. While usually considered a full-time position, you may not know that Fractional Integrators for companies running on EOS® have been effectively working with Visionaries and helping free those who have become trapped in the day-to-day.
Six Questions to Diagnose Customer Service Issues At Your Company
Thu, Jan 31, 2019 — It seems as if it was only yesterday when marketing analysts were declaring 2018 as “The Year of the Customer.” Trends in technology, along with competitive pressures, had finally shifted the balance of transactional power into the hands of the consumer. On that notion, let me share with you a story about someone I know. It’s a story that, in fact, you may have experienced personally. This individual had a wallet filled with credit cards and held multiple bank accounts with a large financial services company. Never giving the relationship much of a second thought, they left their checking, money market, credit cards and other banking products on autopilot. Then one day, for no apparent reason, they suddenly stopped working. All of these products, simultaneously. Suddenly, they couldn’t access balances, and their credit card was declined at the cash register. This person—hopeful that a reasonable explanation defined this issue, and eager to get a quick resolution—called the bank. Three days and six hours later, and after talking with no less than 12 people, their accounts were finally active. The original glitch, it turns out, was entirely the fault of the financial services provider.
Infographic: 5 Social Media Insights from My Viral LinkedIn Post with Over 120,000 Views
Tue, Jan 29, 2019 — How to Create Engaging Content and Gain More Followers When Visual Capitalist republished an updated visual of Jeff Bezos’ Empire on January 11th, I posted the following on LinkedIn: The Jeff Bezos Empire in One Giant Chart (Infographic). Within 2 days, the traffic went viral- achieving over 120,000 views in less than a week. Typically, a viral LinkedIn topic is one that exceeds 100,000 views beyond the normal life cycle of a post (2 days). Viral video content has a much higher bar for the number of views in a 3- to 7-day period. As a reference point, most of my LinkedIn posts get a few hundred views and a handful of likes or comments. For a summary of the 5 social media tips, see Infographic at the end of this article.
A Practical Guide to Using Fractional Marketing and Sales Execs: What Small- and Mid-Sized Business CEOs Need to Know
Tue, Jan 22, 2019 — Written by: Mark Coronna, Partner & CMO--Chief Outsiders with Jeff Parris and Daniel Steyn, Fractional Sales Executives--Sales Xceleration The use of fractional executives (also referred to as interim, part-time, on-demand, or outsourced executives) has traditionally been related to business functions such as finance, human resources, or technology. The use of the word “traditionally” deserves to be put into perspective. The oldest and largest fractional executive company, B2B CFOs, was founded in 1987. This article will drive three major points: Fractional execs are a relatively new option for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) Small- and mid-sized businesses are in a great position to secure significant value from this leadership staffing model While fractional Marketing and Sales executives are a “newer” concept than using fractional execs for back-office functions, fractional Marketing and Sales execs can provide critical expertise and timely support for SMBs with growth challenges or those interested in more rapidly accelerating growth! We are going to use the terminology “go-to-market executives” to refer to both fractional Marketing and Sales execs. These roles are not the same but are compatible and collaborative when helping set and execute a business’ growth agenda.