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How to Develop Future C-Suite Leaders: A Guide for Mentoring and Succession Planning
Ambition is the easy part. The real question is whether your company’s future CEO’s, CFOs, COOs, CMO’s and CROs are already growing inside the business long before you need them.
Find Your Road to Growth: How to Identify and Move Beyond Random Acts of Marketing
Tue, Jun 12, 2018 — When I meet with CEOs in my role as a fractional CMO, it’s usually at a time when their company’s growth, revenues, or market share – or some combination of the three – have flattened. Often, these CEOs are finding that their current marketing efforts aren’t delivering the results they expect. And in most cases, their companies are in “scale-up” mode with substantial emphasis on sales and operational excellence. An unintended consequence of this critical stage in a business’s maturation process is that marketing is often relegated to a meandering series of one-off tactics such as glossy sales sheets, the occasional trade show, search engine optimization, and a basic website with the intent of meeting in-the-moment needs. We call these types of tactics “random acts of marketing,” and while company leaders mean well in creating them, the reality is they cost money, don’t get results, and divert attention of the marketing staff from higher-value activities. Worse yet, they consume precious resources that could fund and execute a strategy to support growth and build value.
How People and Organizational Capabilities Sustain Business Growth
Thu, May 31, 2018 — If you have been following this series of articles on sustainable business growth, you know that we have arrived at our third topic. The first article introduced the difference between a growth plan (singular event) and a growth engine (recurring system). The theme we developed in that piece supported the need to go beyond growth plans to create sustained growth performance. Our argument that while growth plans are good, growth engines are better.
Beyond the Latest Tech: Four Essentials to Leading the New Workforce
Wed, May 23, 2018 — Let’s play a quick game of word association. When I say, “remote worker,” what comes to mind? Is it a 20-something creative-type sipping on a Starbucks latte? How about a global team videoconferencing in real-time? Yes, it’s easy to conjure up a stylized version of an offsite freelancer or employee, because the interest in (and need for) remote, fractional, and temporary work is growing at a breakneck pace. Because today’s most talented employees prefer the flexibility and quality of life that the new way of working provides, leading enterprises and emerging businesses alike are adopting flexible policies to embrace the new normal.
How Healthy Business Management Processes Sustain Business Growth
Tue, May 15, 2018 — In our first blog of the series, we defined the difference between a growth plan and a growth engine. In that discussion, we defined a growth plan as a singular event that identify future revenue and profit streams and identify capabilities, assets, and competencies the business needs to build to take advantage of future growth opportunities. As we define it however, a growth engine is not an event or a document or a plan, a growth engine is a system of integrated and replicable growth focused processes that support and enable sustained growth performance over a number of years. That blog included a brief questionnaire that helped you assess your company's ability to put a growth engine in place.
The Role of Processes in Digital Growth for Small- and Mid-Sized Businesses (SMBs)
Mon, May 14, 2018 — This is the second in a series of articles on helping executives in small- and mid-sized businesses utilize digital technologies effectively to assist in accelerating revenues and profits. The previous article included an introduction to four major ways digital technologies can help your business, described a spectrum of technologies and a possible implementation roadmap, and associated digital proficiency with enhanced business performance. It also included a 10-question survey to help you set an internal benchmark for your digital programs. In this article, I’ll provide practical guidance on where to start a journey for those businesses with a minimal digital growth path today.
How Your Executive Team Can Sustain Your Business Growth through Best Practices
Tue, May 1, 2018 — If you don’t believe that consistent, profitable business growth is a need of virtually every small- and mid-sized business, and especially for yours, you probably won’t get value from this article. The real challenges aren’t understanding the value of growth to your business--they are about determining where your best growth opportunities are, prioritizing across multiple potential growth opportunities, integrating both shorter- and longer-term growth opportunities into your management processes, and organizing for success and building an ability to tap into new revenue streams consistently and over multiple years.
How Does a Fractional Multi-CMO Approach Accelerate Business Growth?
Wed, Apr 25, 2018 — Think about the last time you recruited for a key marketing position. The candidates you interviewed were impressive and experienced, but the perfect hire would have required you to take one applicant’s extensive industry background and combine it with the digital savvy and laser-focused strategic mindset of another. While we all strive to identify the ideal expert, securing the perfect combination of knowledge, personality, and skills seems about as likely as capturing a griffin or chimera.
The Digital Growth Imperative for Small- and Mid-Sized Businesses (SMBs)
Thu, Apr 19, 2018 — There are many ways to think about growth, and many models to help stimulate your thinking. One of the more traditional, best known, and still effective models, is this one:
An Equitable View: Four Questions to Ask in Gauging Your Company’s Market Potential
Tue, Apr 17, 2018 — Private Equity investors, as a rule, have a propensity for looking before they leap. Known for their discipline and attention to detail, PE investors rarely reach for a dime without conducting a fair amount of due diligence. Most potential PE investment activity has within its foundation a document known as the investment thesis – essentially, the private investors’ “white paper,” outlining in detail how value will be created and a return made on the investment within the target exit timing. Often the primary drivers of this thesis are restructuring costs – fixed overhead, asset deployment and operating expense. Another driver relates to the sales force – in particular, whether an addition of headcount or selling tools would drive more sales, and increase effectiveness.