Metrics matter now more than ever. As a six-time CMO over a 16-year career, I’ve tracked dozens (actually hundreds) of metrics and found that many measures are ultimately meaningless or only matter to marketers.
Thu, Feb 2, 2023 — Part 5: Only Teamwork Can Make the Dream Work We have become a nation of isolation. COVID-19 taught everyone how to use technology to carry on safely. Though Zoom, Teams, and other tools have made communication more efficient, we’ve never felt more distant from our colleagues. Through this “together, but apart” mindset, many businesses feel pressured to enable remote work and grant greater autonomy. As a CEO trying to manage in this environment, it’s tempting -- in the spirit of efficiency – to let everyone stay focused on their “swim lane” and not encourage complex collaboration between divisions.
Thu, Jan 26, 2023 — Part 4: Mastering Your Channel Strategy If you’ve been with us through the previous blogs in this series, we’ve cautioned you against the go-to-market pitfalls that could cause your company – and its profits – to slide into a deep ravine on the road to riches. We’ve alerted you to be wary of competitive and market forces that will diminish demand, and waved an orange flag against a product-market misfits or differentiation that is not enough to dislodge competition.
Thu, Jan 12, 2023 — By: Rich DePencier and Scott Wright After the bubbly has lost its fizz, and the first quarter is – ready or not – swinging into motion, thousands of SMB owners, founders, and CEOs are looking to encourage and cajole their senior leadership to finalize their 2023 plans. But, framed against the backdrop of economic headwinds, hiring challenges, and political headlines, this year’s planning process is taking on a whole new sense of urgency. Rather than mapping out a strategy for maintaining the status quo or eking out incremental growth, it is clear that 2023 requires a dig-deep mentality. The question you may be asking as you face what’s to come is: What is my company’s next “big idea” -- and how will I get the team to achieve a loftier set of goals?
Fri, Jan 6, 2023 — If you know the difference between a watery, burnt, drip cup of coffee and a delectable, creamy cappuccino, you have all you need to build your business-to-business (B2B) company to new levels of success. Certainly, it takes more than a shot of caffeine to grow B2B sales, revenues, and relevance – but there’s a story brewing here that we believe holds the secret to relevance in today’s marketplace.
Wed, Dec 7, 2022 — Part 3: Do you have Product-Market Fit? There’s a time-honored Chinese proverb that the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. But did you know that one of technology’s greatest recent success stories started with a “Tiny Speck?” In fact, it was only about 13 years ago that entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield was knee-deep into the development of Tiny Speck’s first game, Glitch. To accelerate the process, he launched an internal messaging platform called “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge” – or Slack for short.
Mon, Oct 31, 2022 — Part 2: Beware of Market Forces that Impact Company and Category Survival In 2022, the market has been turned upside down. Remote work, the supply chain squeeze, and the rollercoaster economic environment all have roiled even the best of intentions for businesses of all sizes. And though your company’s go-to-market approach will still help you gain or maintain your share of the market, winning the “checkboxes” isn’t enough to stave off the macro forces that are constantly reshaping and disfiguring the landscape you’re selling into.
Tue, Oct 4, 2022 — Part 1: Avoiding the Dust Bin Requires an Insights-Driven Approach Have you ever heard of the Apple Pippin or the Twitter Peek? Played a game of TowerFall on the Ouya Console? Taken an important call on your Amazon Fire Phone? If so, you are among the rarest of the rare – the chosen few who took the calculated risk of trying a new product during its brief run on earth. The world is littered with also-rans, whoopsies, and well-intentions gone awry. There are so many consumer product failures each year – some that miss with a whimper, and some that make a giant megaton splash into the depths of nowhere – that several “Museums of Failure” warehouse the worst and dimmest of the bunch. In fact, up to 95 percent of new product launches fail to hit a target, according to one market analyst.
Fri, Sep 23, 2022 — Blog 1: Breaking Down the Wall Between Success and Failure It starts with a dream – perhaps hatched in a home kitchen, or concocted in a plastic Gatorade bucket. The ideas of countless aspirants – hoping to bring a food or beverage product to the masses – start with a “pinch of this,” a “touch of that,” and a truckload of sweat, muscle – and prayers. Despite these dreams, struggles, and countless hours at tastings, state fairs, and in the boardrooms of grocers, only about 5 percent of aspiring food and beverage products ever find mass-market success.
Mon, Aug 15, 2022 — Most people would say Tesla is an innovative company. Others would say maybe they push the envelope a bit, for example, with “self-driving” software that is truly amazing but is not yet fully “self-driving.” The other side of the coin is other companies who wait until an idea is thoroughly tested, I’s dotted, and T’s crossed, fully qualified but maybe at the cost of missing the market. Innovation is the lifeblood of growth in any industry or channel. Companies with high levels of innovation do better over time than companies that do not have it. So how to address the Innovator's Dilemma? Is it one or the other? Here are four ways to think about it: