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When the Founder Is the Rainmaker: How to Scale Without Losing the Spark
In many founder-led businesses, the founder isn’t just the leader—they’re also the best (and often only) rainmaker. They land the big deals. They have the trusted relationships. They know the pitch inside and out because they are the pitch.
It works—until it doesn’t.
As the business grows, this model creates a bottleneck. Every new opportunity depends on one and only person. And it’s the same person every time. But there’s a downside. When that person is also responsible for running the business, mentoring the team, and shaping the vision, something eventually gives.
Supercharging Your SWOT, Step Two: Activating Your SWOT
Tue, Oct 3, 2017 — Congratulations! If you’re reading this blog, you’ve mastered the art of collecting the data for your SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) analysis, and have grouped similar concepts into manageable chunks of information. At many enterprises, this is where the SWOT work dies — leaving company executives with a keen understanding of the state of their business, but lacking a clear path to rendering the findings actionable in an effort to foster real change. Think of the Starship Enterprise never returning from years of space exploration — all that knowledge and data stored in the ship’s memory banks and officer logs, yet nobody ever does anything with it.
Supercharging Your SWOT: Three Steps to Turning Yours into Actionable Business Impact
Mon, Sep 25, 2017 — I’d like to start this blog by offering my hearty congratulations. Having recently completed your SWOT Analysis — that fundamental exploration of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to your business — and declared it a masterpiece, you now have entered a warm and fuzzy zone known as “After the SWOT.”
Are You a “Disruptor” in Your Market? Three Questions to Ask Right Now
Thu, Sep 14, 2017 — January 15, 2009, was a brisk, cold, winter day in New York City. Everyone in the “Big Apple” was going about their business as US Airways Flight 1549 lifted off from LaGuardia Airport Runway 4 at 3:24 p.m. on its way to Charlotte, NC. We all know the story of what happened next – the “Miracle on the Hudson,” with all souls on board rescued, despite a nearly impossible situation for the pilots.
Are You A “Level 5” Leader? How Cool Confidence Can Foster Sales Success
Fri, Aug 25, 2017 — On a recent sojourn, I had time between flights, so I joined the throngs of fellow travelers who had taken up residence in one of those oversized rocking chairs. As I sat working – and rocking – I observed the airport’s massive food court, which featured an amalgam of fast casual and upscale restaurants. One of the restaurants, in particular, seemed to have the magic formula to attracting throngs of hungry travelers – despite the fact that it was a well-known fast casual concept with thousands of units around the world. Though it was abuzz with activity, the employees were doing a great job of keeping up with the pace. Napkins were perfectly lined up; the counter was spotless; and the employees genuinely were smiling. Everything seemed tidy and welcoming. When customers approached, they received a greeting that far exceeded the expected for such an establishment. Even from a distance, you could see the employees smiling, the customers smiling, exchanging a few pleasantries, wishing each other to have a great day.
The 1 Percent Secret: How to Price Your Product for Mid-Market Revenue Success
Fri, Aug 18, 2017 — Psst. I have a secret for you, CEO. How would you like to learn one easy, surefire way to immediately add more than 10 percent in operating profits to your bottom line? Before you declare this another attempt at “fake news,”– let me assure you, this is a legitimate, real, and practical offer. Though it requires very little in terms of effort to achieve – it does require a leap of faith, and resolve of focus, that many CEOs have either been reticent, or reluctant, to make.
CEO Shares How He Grew His Stained Glass Business with the Help of His Peer Advisory Group
Thu, Aug 17, 2017 — Business increased by 300% since joining Vistage Chief Outsiders Fractional CMO, Neil Anderson, has a conversation with Vistage Member and CEO of Scottish Stained Glass, Martin Faith, about his experience with Vistage, an executive coaching organization that provides leadership training and business coaching to CEOs and Executives.
Profitable, Recurring Revenue Streams – Part 4
Tue, Aug 15, 2017 — Transitioning Your Business Model to Grow Your Business-as-a-Service More and more companies are realizing that transitioning their businesses to as-a-Service models is the answer to driving higher growth, more profitable, and stable revenue streams. Welcome to the fourth and final part of this series: In Part 1 of this series, you learned how to know if it's time to think about embracing an as-a-Service model In Part 2 we dove deeper into what an as-a-Service model is and discovered how ready your company is to transition to one In Part 3 we touched on how to define strategic goals, position, and create a go-to-market plan that is most relevant to an as-a-Service offering. If you haven’t read the previous parts, you might want to take a quick look before returning here. In this installment, we will discuss the key metrics to track and capabilities to nurture to ensure you execute this transition successfully – along with a few tips and tricks I have learned (often the hard way) over the years.
CEOs: Go Deep for your Customers!
Mon, Aug 14, 2017 — Part 3 of Creating Sustainability for the Business A Sea of Sameness “So, what do you think of our website?” This was a new client—at my first on-site meeting with the CEO. “You have great product merchandising, well-written features and benefits. Could use some work on the ecommerce side,” I replied. “What I’m not clear on, though, is this, ‘Who is your customer, and how do you help them?’”
A Best Marketing Practice: Cultivating “Lead” Customer Relationships for Breakthrough Products and Services
Thu, Aug 3, 2017 — It’s been many years since I learned what a “lead” customer is and how to build lead customer relationships to build confidence and reduce risks of new product or service launches. The concept of a lead customer, or lead user, is probably one of the most beneficial best practices I’ve used in marketing and product management roles. Want to design and launch a breakthrough product? The lead customer approach is absolutely a winner. The lead user methodology was originally developed by Dr. Eric von Hippel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and first described in the July 1986 issue of Management Science. You can read a revised version of the original article here.