I continue to be astounded by the challenges, profound changes, and responses by firms during this pandemic. It’s early days, but as we’ll explore below, there is a strategic battle going on right now that can inform us all as we work out our response strategies. I’m going to use something that’s become close to […]
On paper, business looks so simple. You start with three functional teams aligned with a market’s (simply a group of customers) best intent: R&D (design it), Operations (build it) and Go to Market (sell and support it). Add people, processes, and technology for sustainability, then scale to fit. Like many operational leaders, you may be […]
In my conversations with key leaders across a variety of industries, I’m finding similarities in their responses to the extraordinary catalytic events that we’re all currently living through. In many cases, we are still working out the language for what has happened (and what is happening) to our upstream and downstream work partners – both […]
It’s a very vulnerable and unique time. In my discussions with leaders of more than 50 firms, I’ve been hearing over and over again that beyond the near term triage lies a very unsettled time. There is a tenuous drive to get back to “business as usual,” and an unspoken agreement that there is no […]
Wow. What a week. I got to come alongside leaders and partners across multiple industries, service organizations, and educational institutions. We talked about how they are holding up, as well as how they can show up for their firms, families, and communities. We talked about how to approach the practical problems they are facing: How […]
Well, that was a good run. The Bull Market celebrated its 10th anniversary on March 9, 2019. It didn’t make it to year 11 – in fact, the market was already on its way down on March 9, 2020. There is hope. We will rebuild and improve our businesses and economy – leaning into the […]
Being a leader in times of crisis can feel completely chaotic and interruption driven. Meetings become nearly continuous and the constant streams of unstructured information are mentally exhausting to parse through. Even when you take some “downtime,” your mind is still whirring to integrate new information in the background. The most empowering thing you can […]
“You’ve seen some stuff!” a client exclaimed as we were unpacking a challenging problem they were facing. This triggered a montage in my head of the dozens and dozens of ideas that I’ve had the privilege to work up over the years with great colleagues. Each of them passed muster with us finding evidence of […]
I was talking with a senior-level R&D executive recently, and this topic came up: How can two projects – both of which are important and highly likely to create great value for both the firm and the client – have two such different paths? We talked about how one leader can guide a project that […]
I’m currently helping a number of very talented R&D leaders in a variety of contexts. What they have in common, is that across the board, they are dealing with significant growth and change at all levels including technical, organizational and process. Specifically, this change has led to challenges including how to scale, how to […]
