I was talking with a colleague at a recent summer gathering, and she is seeing the same thing I am: lots of firms that were started by Baby Boomers are being “rolled up” by Private Equity into groups of like companies. In nearly every case, these vibrant, individual firms experience a huge shock to their […]
I was wrapping up a recent talk on doing growth programs in larger firms, when during the Q&A session, one of the up-and-coming innovation leaders expressed a common concern: “We sometimes build some interesting things in our product team, but we can never get our sales team even remotely interested in sharing them with a […]
It’s a common conversation, yet it continues to surprise me. I was talking with a P&L owner of a smaller, publicly-traded firm, when they raised the issue of how they put themselves in a bind: “I’m not sure what else we could have done. We hit the customer need dead on, yet when we went […]
It’s very common in mid-sized firms and larger: when a big review is coming up, particularly with the analyst community or a larger customer, there is a need to have a few slides that position the firm as a leader. The R&D team is tapped for “some content” and many times a project is dusted […]
Which is more challenging: the internal organizational resistance or market resistance? A portion of my work is spent with cohorts of upwardly mobile, mid-senior leaders who are developing their growth programs as part of their commitment to professional development. One of them asked me this question during a recent coaching session, and as usual, it […]
I received some interesting notes back regarding the post (here) from SCPD, particularly on the 60 percent of IOT programs that don’t make it past proof of concept. For those of you coming from outside the tech world, IOT refers to the “Internet of Things.” I wasn’t surprised, as the Gartner Hype Cycle for IOT […]
Picture a group assembled under one mantra: accelerating innovation. It would be an eclectic group of industry leaders, thought leaders and others who make their living building value. Mix in equal parts of dialogue, interaction and new experiences. That’s what the SCPD (Society for Concurrent Product Development) conference is all about. Set each year at […]
It’s that moment. It’s among the hardest things that growth leaders need to do. After discovering and validating a new product or service (which seems like the hard part), they need to bring the people on board that can help scale and integrate the offering. This is the point when many strong and well-built new […]
It’s that moment. It’s when you are given that target for next year, and suddenly you feel a tenseness in your upper back. It’s the “stretch goal,” and if you were doing athletics it might be fun, but in the context of your P&L leadership, this is a goal that if you miss it, the […]
Water is the new key to security I just had the privilege of attending and leading a panel at the 10th annual Global Water Leaders Summit held in Milwaukee on May 23 & 24th. This year’s big idea, “A Secure Future Needs Water,” brought together thought leaders at the heart of water security strategy. This […]
