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From Recovery to Recession: A CEO’s Guide to Thriving Through Economic Shifts
When markets shift—and they always do—the winners are those who don’t wait to react. They move first, and fast. No matter which of the four cycles you’re currently experiencing, one constant remains true: waiting for things to be more favorable is a bad strategy. Additionally, doing nothing is not an option. Companies that anticipate, plan, and act in alignment with their current business phase can maintain resilience, capture opportunities, and outperform competitors who simply “wait it out.”
Driving Growth in Service Businesses
Tue, Nov 3, 2020 — Creating a sustainable and predictable growth engine is critical to increasing revenues, profits, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), and the corresponding multiple in a service business. Creating a successful engine is more than just an annual plan or an intriguing digital marketing strategy. To succeed in their marketplace, service businesses must shift their thinking to implement the appropriate combination of revenue growth planning, processes, and talent.
Positioning for Explosive Growth: A CEO’s Guide To Enthusiastic Leadership: Part Two
Thu, Oct 29, 2020 — The Four Inhibitors of Engaged Leadership Little known fact about ducks: Though they exude grace as they glide atop the water, ducks hide a little secret just below the surface. For all the poetry they project in our view, ducks are actually shuffling their feet quite quickly to achieve that silky-smooth movement. As a CEO, you know this bifurcated existence all too well. Though you are expected — nee, required — to display a semblance of outward calm, beneath this facade are the fears, insecurities, and realities that come with the job.
Positioning for Explosive Growth: A CEO’s Guide To Enthusiastic Leadership
Fri, Oct 23, 2020 — In 2020 and beyond, the notion of leadership has been indelibly changed. No longer is it adequate to rule from 30,000 feet, to remain at arms lengths from strategies, and unable to touch tactics with a 10-foot pole. Leadership from a distance, in a time when distance is not just a suggestion, but a mandate, can strike a critical blow to a company that is already likely still trying to divine its direction in a pandemically-impacted landscape.
Selecting a Strategy for Market Leadership: Part Five
Tue, Oct 20, 2020 — Decision Time! Choosing the Right Strategy for Your Business In our previous blog, we discussed in depth the three types of market strategies from which to choose your overall go-to-market direction. As we discussed, the competitive strategy you select must fit with a company’s market, both in terms of geography, and with customer needs. It also must be completely in line with company strengths, abilities, and culture. Pick one of the three, and start positioning the organization as a market leader! Regardless of which option is selected, do not forget the point of all this — to increase business value. The success of a strategy is ultimately measured through cash, not profit.
Selecting a Strategy for Market Leadership: Part Four
Thu, Oct 15, 2020 — Evaluating Your Strategic Options Hopefully, in our last two blogs (Part Two and Part Three), you have learned a great deal about the influence that your industry and coming trends will have on your company’s overall success in the marketplace. Against the backdrop of the keen market analysis we worked through in each of the past two blogs, you now are in a position to make some tough decisions and choices. A competitive strategy must be fact-based and informed by industry analysis. By working through the steps in the previous articles, we laid a solid foundation for this strategy.
Selecting a Strategy for Market Leadership: Part Three
Tue, Oct 6, 2020 — Analyzing the Industry for Key Success Factors In our last blog, we took a look at, and charted, how longer-term trends will impact your company and its customers. Armed with this data, we can now undertake a study of the broader industry. This is a critical step if we are to identify the key success factors (KSFs), and determining how they fit with your company’s strengths and offerings. The work should be undertaken by the full executive team, to ensure diversity in thinking and buy-in to conclusions. This will be a huge help later, in the implementation phase.
Selecting a Strategy for Market Leadership: Part Two
Tue, Sep 29, 2020 — Customer Needs and Scanning for Trends In the business-to-business (B2B) world, the purchasing process is far more complex than the journey undertaken by an individual consumer. B2B deals tend to be more concentrated and have larger value, and include more people in a higher-stakes battle for large sales. In the first article of the series, we talked about the importance of having a strategy. Understanding the role that the customer and current trends take in influencing the purchasing process is critical to defining your go-to-market strategy. In this blog, we’ll take a deeper look at these influential factors.
Selecting a Strategy for Market Leadership
Tue, Sep 22, 2020 — Part I: Your Business in the New Normal Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) are the shoulders upon which America stands. With more than 90 percent of American businesses comprising the SME universe, it’s easy to understand why they are considered to be the backbone of the economy. Far more people deliver goods and services – and earn their paychecks – on behalf of SMEs than they do from large enterprises. In spite of this, it’s the large corporations that make headlines on CNBC and wield disproportionate influence on their chosen markets. Though these headlines make it easy to believe that competition is a slug-fest between huge players in a market, the reality, it turns out, is quite different: Even in spite of the pandemic, many mid-market companies have maintained profitability -- and are still growing.
Executing Through Economic Challenges: Part Three
Wed, Sep 16, 2020 — Capital Considerations of COVID As a business owner who has planned and prepared your company to survive dips in demand, little could have braced you for the Grand Canyon-sized maw that opened when the coronavirus struck this spring. The journey back from the challenges of pandemic gloom, for many, has required a type of mettle that we never thought we had. If you’ve tuned in to the two earlier segments of this series, you have understood that the climb back to the rim of the canyon requires a commitment to execution, insights, and empathy, as well as gauging the economic health of your organization.