As the year comes to a close, we’re all preparing to turn the calendar page – and looking forward to a new decade. But the tools that got us here will not be effective going forward. And honestly? When we look back, we’ll wonder why we hung on to these old notions so long. You […]
I have the privilege of advising and coaching a number of technical and business leaders in a cross-section of the manufacturing and services space, and it’s very clear that there has been a shift. Not that long ago “grit” and “hard work” were enough to make your firm successful. Now I’m finding leaders asking themselves […]
I was working with an R&D leader in a large manufacturing firm with the focus of jumpstarting vibrancy in their core markets. The presenting issue was the sales force was reporting that their portfolio did not have the gravitas it once did, and the competition was taking advantage in some of their most profitable […]
The “workshop zone” is the term I give to those firms and businesses that irregularly pursue growth projects. You might think this would limit the category to smaller firms, but that would be wrong. It turns out that some surprisingly large firms only truly activate growth programs – defined as new activities that are built […]
Just a few short years ago I purchased a new home with a larger yard than we previously cared for. We were just getting settled in when I noticed that the grass in the yard didn’t appear nearly as green the second spring. I didn’t think a lot about it, but as August came and […]
I’ve recently supported several teams by doing diagnostic assessments for them. The goal, was to help them lay out a strategic path that will result in better client listening skills, internal alignment and the agility to address new products and services. It’s always quite surprising to the leadership teams that it’s so hard to get […]
It’s one of the biggest sand traps for firms as they start to grow – particularly for those founders that have built the firm from the ground up and who are known as scrappy problem solvers. These founders and their teams become driven by finding the next new problem, and for some time, their intuition […]
I recall it like it was yesterday: walking through a massive, class 10 clean room we had built for the extraordinary demands of cellular componentry. I had the privilege of being there when it was commissioned, and in what seemed like 15 minutes, when it was no longer relevant. That time was measured in years […]
When answering the question in the title, the answer that comes to mind first is to hire more people. But as we’ll dive into below, there’s a lot more to it than that. Some of my recent travels have provided me the opportunity to spend time with more than a dozen CEO’s of growing mid-sized […]
I’ve had a really engaged and focused set of workshops recently around growth options with C-leaders of mid-sized, complex firms. To become a complex firm, each had to develop competencies in one of the four main growth drivers: Internal R&D, M&A, Partnerships or Venturing. Each of the firms I was working with has had […]
