I work with a number of firms that most would call large companies, yet if you spent time with them, you’d find they are at a stage where they feel quite pressed. It’s a paradox that puts multi $100 million firms in a quandary around growth and innovation. Internally constrained teams leave a lot of […]
Brace yourself for it: the click bait posts will be coming to your inbox soon, with titles like, “The Top Ten Trends to Watch in 2017”, or “Don’t Miss These Three for 2023.” Why do marketing and consulting firms amplify these and deluge us with them like clockwork every year? Peter Drucker gives us a […]
Everything looked good: the team was solid, the patents were sound, the pipeline of customers robust and the financials were reviewed and approved. The CTO & COO had overwhelmingly given their approval and the transaction was completed. You know how the next step in this real-life example plays out. The go-to market, operations, human resources […]
I was leading a Senior Leadership Team workshop for a publicly-traded firm recently when one of the participants became prematurely attached to a (very) specific project. I have seen this happen over and over in my work, and left unchallenged, it always leads to lost time, money and talent. There are two categories of leadership […]
I have been having some great conversations with senior growth leaders following my Three Essential Ingredients for a Successful Growth Program webinar. What continues to excite and surprise me, is that by making the task of growth project creation simpler and more specific, it is releasing energy and starting conversations. (If you haven’t had time […]
You know the feeling: you’ve started something big in your firm, with much promise of growth, and the ball is rolling well. You have the sponsorship, you’re working through the issues and then you hit the wall – the sales team refuses to give you the time of day. I have good news. While your […]
We read the headlines every day: large, well-respected companies are investing in waves of programs that have a low return on the investment it takes to get them into your hands. The decisions being made in strategy sessions today about products and services will be in the earnings headlines for the next 24 months […]
I was talking recently with a C-level R&D leader in a larger public company. By all external measures this company is quite successful, yet they were asking what it takes to build an innovation culture that has sustained momentum. By momentum, he was asking what steps he might take to have more consistent output from […]
The first third of 2015 has been a solid year in business and now we’re looking into the front edge of summer. If you’ve been following this blog, you may have used this post to help structure your Q1 operations review, giving you a nice concise set of actions that your team is executing on. […]
It’s that time of year again: baseball teams are starting back up, school kids are turning their sights towards summer, and companies are firing up their strategic planning processes. It’s no secret that we’re all very busy these days – a fact that is magnified by the enormous amounts of data, much smaller amounts of […]
