Growth Insights for CEOs

The CEO Dashboard Should Show Direction, Not Just Activity
If your dashboard only tells you what happened, it’s reporting history. A CEO needs direction.
Steps Taken Aren’t the Same as Direction
I've spent a fair amount of time backpacking, and one thing becomes obvious when you've been walking for several hours: knowing how far you've walked isn't the same thing as knowing whether you're headed in the right direction.
Your watch can tell you that you've taken 22,000 steps.
Recent Posts

Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions: The Cardinal Rule to Know
Sun, Dec 23, 2012 — While working with an executive management team on customer satisfaction survey questions, they told me every survey seemed to have declining response rates. They asked me what I thought about just asking one question: “On a scale of zero to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our company to your friends and colleagues?” My response: Have you looked into the possible reasons why the customer survey response rates are declining? Too often I’ve seen companies want to ask the would-you- recommend-us question without doing enough follow-up to understand what it is they are doing right or wrong. This is where CEOs need to lead their companies and improve.

6 Ways to Turn Customers into Advocates with a Brand Ambassador Program
Sun, Dec 2, 2012 — Harley Davidson, Intel, Starbucks, Apple. We all know brands that have a loyal group of customers, brand ambassadors, who love to talk about the brand and recommend them to their friends and peers. And these recommendations drive sales. According to the Boston Consulting Group, 9 out of 10 consumers and over 50% of B2B customers trust recommendations from friends, colleagues and peers when making their purchasing decisions. You can invest lots of money in marketing campaigns, but for many companies the most powerful sales driver is a recommendation from a brand ambassador. And a strategic brand ambassador program may be the difference-maker in your bottom line.

The Power of Yelp: You Can't Ignore It
Thu, Oct 4, 2012 — What do you do when you want to try a new restaurant? Well maybe not you in particular, but many people turn to Yelp. Yelp is a social site where members post reviews of local businesses where they eat, shop and go to for services. And many people read those reviews. In fact, Yahoo News reported that a 1/2 star change in reviews can increase customers in the restaurant by almost 20%.