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From Concept to Execution: A Step-by-Step CEO Playbook for Go-to-Market Success, Part One
Every CEO knows this nightmare scenario: Your team spent months crafting the "perfect" go-to-market strategy, only to watch it crumble during execution. Resources hemorrhage, timelines slip, and while you're still troubleshooting internal alignment issues, competitors are capturing the market opportunity you identified first.
The Rotten Truth about Low-Hanging Fruit in Business – and How to Guide Your Team to Success
Thu, Jul 7, 2016 — Consider the American apple grower, who seeks the sweetest, most desired apples from the top of his towering fruit trees. To reach them, he climbs a large commercial ladder to the very top, and works downward, dumping his fruit in a big, burlap bag around his neck and shoulder. If he were to pick the low-hanging apples first, that means he’d be working his way up the ladder with an increasingly heavy load – quite an inverted way to run an orchard business!
Quid Pro Quo? Or Quid Pro NO? Discounting Can Be Dangerous!
Wed, Jun 5, 2013 — What is "Quid Pro Quo? Wikipedia defines it as an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon the other. Phrases with similar meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", and "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Recently, I have been involved in several discussions with CEOs on charging for their goods and services. The discussions weren’t concerning the actual price for the services, but the ultimate cost between the buyer and the seller. Let’s share some examples. (with the names changed to protect the innocent or, in some of these cases, guilty parties) The Stories One CEO—I will call him Joe—runs an executive consulting firm. He had a problem with a leak in his house. He needed immediate help and called one of his clients Sam, who is the owner of a construction company. Sam immediately sent someone out to fix the leak but didn’t send Joe a bill. When Joe asked him about it, Sam responded, “No problem. You’re a friend. Don’t worry about it.” Adele owns a restaurant in town. Bill, an influential colleague held several events there but has been ignoring the bills Adele has sent. The amounts are significant. Adele is worried about pressing Bill too hard as he could possibly react strongly and hurt her restaurant business. Bill has been referring business to her. Tim is the CEO of a local accounting firm. The firm needed a new website. He contacted Rachel who owns a website design firm, and they discussed a cost-effective approach to building the site. They decided to exchange professional services rather than money, so he is now taking care of her accounting and she is taking care of his website. Any of these sound familiar? Have you encountered any similar situations? For a another perspective on this, read this legal blog.
Business Analytics: Where Do We Go From Here?
Thu, Oct 25, 2012 — Bloomberg Research Services has recently published a report entitled "The Current State of Business Analytics: Where Do We Go From Here?” In this publication several key findings from a survey of 930 global businesses in various industries were highlighted. I found these insights to be particularly useful: Business analytics is still in the “emerging stage.” While business analytics has gone mainstream, most organizations still rely on traditional technology. Spreadsheets are the number-one tool used for business analytics. Organizations are proceeding cautiously in their adoption of analytics. Use of business analytics within companies has grown over the past year, but at a moderate rate. Analytics also tend to be used narrowly within departments or business units, not integrated across the organization. Intuition based on business experience is still the driving factor in decision-making. Analytics is used as part of the decision process at varying levels, depending on the organization. Companies are looking to analytics to solve big issues, with the primary focus on money: reducing costs, improving the bottom line, and managing risks. Data is the number-one challenge in the adoption or use of business analytics. Companies continue to struggle with data accuracy, consistency, and even access. Many organizations lack the proper analytical talent. Businesses that struggle with making good use of analytics often don’t know how to apply the results. Culture plays a critical role in the effective use of business analytics. Companies that have built an “analytics culture” are reaping the benefits of their analytics investments.
Jim Collins' Great By Choice: SMaC Develops Your "Brand"
Tue, Jul 17, 2012 — What we can learn from Jim Collins' Great By Choice I’m a huge Jim Collins fan (and look forward to seeing him at the Global Leadership Summit Aug 9/10). But I will admit that I haven’t read all of his books cover to cover. You know, you pull a few cool ideas then lose interest once the nuggets have been revealed. That was until Jim Collins' “Great By Choice." I couldn’t put this one down and I couldn’t get enough. Perhaps it’s having the perspective from his prior findings, models and perspectives to build upon. But I found “Great By Choice” to be Jim’s best and most practical piece yet. In summary, I found that this wonderful book shares simple, actionable truths applicable to businesses of all sizes. Use SMaC to Develop Your Brand - Practices Can Last Decades Like many, I use a Kindle and enjoy highlighting and making notes as I go. Then I go back and review the “greatest hits” to be sure I’m activating the concepts I had hoped to retain. Having just done that, I was again taken by the SMaC (Specific, Methodical and Consistent) model and approach with this summary: “A solid SMaC recipe is the operating code for turning strategic concepts into reality, a set of practices more enduring than mere tactics. Tactics change from situation to situation, whereas SMaC practices can last for decades and apply across a wide range of circumstances.” - Jim Collins' “Great By Choice” Chapter 6 Struck by the phrase “practices can last for decades,” because it’s perhaps an unspoken truth that the 10X (winning) companies build their reputations (their brands) by executing consistently, over time. Collins’ references to company recipes and even the U.S. Constitution Articles that don’t change from year to year, but may evolve with highly considered amendments, is a reminder of knowing what you stand for. In our firm, we find this so important we’ve made it a centerpiece of our approach with clients, specifically our Purpose-Driven Marketing. With a business’ purpose in place – a purpose that reflects their knowledge of the marketplace – one can make plans, decisions and take actions with a consistency that other companies can’t.
Rising Above Organic Growth
Sat, May 5, 2012 — A successful small to medium size business often runs the risk of feeling “too comfortable." Even though revenue is coming in, your customers like you, and your sales force is calling on customers regularly, you aren’t seeing the growth you are looking for. This lack of desired growth may be a result of new competitors, new products or services in the market, or that the market itself is growing stagnant. Get Outside Your Comfort Zone If any or all of these things are happening it should cause you to take a hard look at your business and consider going out of your comfort zone to continue to grow. It may be time to consider looking for new markets for your product. If you've grown comfortable selling to one or a few vertical markets, going beyond them may cause fundamental changes in your company. You may have to learn new industries, call on different kinds of buyers, and maybe have to recruit new sales people with knowledge of this new category. Market Expansion Most of all, you will have to take a hard look at your business and decide what kinds of problems you can be solving for new and different companies. Really getting into the guts of your business and looking beyond the obvious answers can sometimes be a painful exercise. You may be required to change the culture of your company in order to accommodate this new market opportunity that you have uncovered. But, the growth that comes with it is definitely worth the effort.
Maximizing Your Position In Your Market
Mon, Sep 26, 2011 — Every company must develop a strategic direction that best fits its capabilities and its standing in its marketplace. Most business categories fall into similar market share patterns. There are three major players who, combined, have roughly 70-90% of the market. Then you have a group of small savvy specialists that have identified an underserved audience within the market. These tend to be businesses that succeed based on lower volumes, by definition, but much higher margins. In general, they tend to have no more than 5% of the market each. And, finally, you have the remaining companies in the category that live on the crumbs that are left over.
3 Top Sources of Strategic Marketing Insights
Mon, Jul 18, 2011 — Effective marketing strategies that drive significant results are almost always based on key insights. Insights can come from a lot of different places – from research, from a review of operations, from an analysis of the market, from a review of available data, from experience. The critical common element to game-changing insights is perspective – looking at the situation from a customer/prospect/market point of view. Let’s look at some examples: 1. Research-based Insight At Northeast Savings, we conducted a major customer segmentation study to better understand the needs of our consumers. One of the key findings of the research was a hierarchy of concerns expressed by a key constituency – 50+ consumers. Their number one issue was their health; followed closely by their financial well being, especially as it related to being able to take care of themselves should anything happen to them physically. This insight, coupled with an understanding of the need for conservative investments (in this case, CDs) due to the risk profile of older people, led to the creation of the “Take Ten” CD. This was a traditional CD, earning market interest rates, with a twist – you could withdraw up to 10% of your principal without penalty. Northeast Savings was the first bank in the country to offer this type of CD and was recognized in USA Today. More importantly, the CD garnered $180M in new deposits in the first three months and, after a year, no one had exercised the option to withdraw principal. Consumers wanted the security of knowing that they could, but really needed to earn interest on their deposits.
Building Company Value After an Acquisition
Sun, Mar 27, 2011 — Marketing’s Role in Post-Merger Integration The deal was just signed! Now what do we do? How many times have we heard this familiar cry? You are not alone. Over 70% of the deals completed today fail to add company value! The primary reason for most failures: poor post-merger integration planning and execution. The integration of two businesses after an acquisition is no longer restricted to the domain of Finance and IT. Markets drive our businesses today! The role of Marketing in building company value after an acquisition is more critical than ever before. To build market share, competitive dominance and product superiority, Marketing’s approach to the integration program must be very systematic. Marketing must uphold the brand, maintain customer confidence and leverage all possible synergies while vigilantly monitoring ROI. As if this isn’t a difficult enough balancing act, Marketing must articulate the longer-term “go-to-market” strategy to ensure the continuity of value enhancement programs long after the integration process is complete. So where do you begin?
CEOs: Getting Business "From Here to There"
Sun, Sep 12, 2010 — I spent part of last month enjoying and being "filled" at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. One of my favorite concepts was something so simple and yet so rich that I can't stop thinking about it: the idea that leadership is all about getting from HERE to THERE. Bill Hybels tee'd up the notion. And then soon after, Jim Collins built upon it in his "How the Mighty Fall" discussion.