Advice is plentiful, but wisdom is hard to extract. Here are 15 bits of wisdom shared by successful business executives from a variety of industries
In the TV show “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?” one of the fun parts is that a contestant can use a “lifeline. You can call a friend or ask the audience for help when you were stuck for an answer. In some ways, market segment positioning is a bit like that. It’s a way to get help with a pursuit when you need it to keep moving your Capture Plan forward. We often use the term “positioning” when we discuss gaining competitive advantage for a particular pursuit, but it also has a more general application that can accelerate the whole process for you. I’m referring here to market segment positioning. In short, segment positioning for us means being top of mind among thought leaders and critically influential players in a market segment. They know you, will recommend you to others, and will help you gain intelligence and make connections relative to clients you’re pursuing. The whole client pursuit process is much easier when you are well positioned in your key markets because you can get help from many powerful resources – like contestants on Millionaire reaching out for a lifeline. How do you gain advantageous segment positioning? In our opinion there are five aspects of segment positioning, and they are all interrelated.
As the speed of change continues to increase, change management is a fundamental competency needed by managers, supervisors, and organization leaders. As we coach owners, we find that you want help competing with other companies and customers as you can no longer rely on historical successes and processes. To be effective in today’s market, you need to repackage and gather client intelligence from your frontline technical and operations teams as well as leadership and sales & marketing teams . Avoid the temptation to jump to tactics immediately while trying to uncover solutions. Take time to examine the basics that your organization has to offer that is of value to clients. Follow these steps for success:
In working with leaders, we have discovered that many organizations have been frustrated that they cannot solve their problems by just handing leaders a new directive, a new book, or sending them to a new one-day management program at the Hilton. The truth is that each organization is uniquely complex, therefore no one has a “Cure-All” or special sauce that will solve all your problems. Even so, here are some tips from a recent issue of Fast Company magazine entitled “How to Lead in a Time of Chaos” by Roberta Mauson on how great leadership is created and a special sauce ingredient from Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group of more than 400 companies and the fourth richest citizen of the United Kingdom, according to Forbes 2011 list of billionaires.
While safely guiding organizations through the turbulent seas of change and facilitating enhanced teamwork in organizations by helping them build ‘cultures of authenticity’, Jeff Salz, keynote speaker at the recent TCUF conference, encourages adventurous thinking in order to create a truly meaningful workplace and presents a unique perspective on taking risks while laying out a roadmap for change.
Liquidity versus Financing: How are they different, how are they related, why do you care? A simple way to think about liquidity and financing is to consider the difference between opportunity and obligation. That is, liquidity creates opportunity; financing creates obligation.
In my last blog, I related a story about a great breakthrough win for a firm in a new market. (See WOA blog: Positioning to Succeed – A True Story.) Today I want to tell you that it didn’t just happen by itself. In fact the pursuit was over an extended period of time as implied by the tale of how our winner gained credibility and positioning to overcome considerable obstacles to success. Our hero and his teammates needed a plan, and they needed to execute the plan in a timely manner. An effective execution plan has several critical characteristics…
Senior decision makers are struggling with how to get their arms around big data and determining a clear strategy that ties data and analytics to improved performance. Companies deciding to embrace big data do so because decisions based on data-driven evidence rather than intuition transform business with remarkable outcomes. With big data, leaders can measure more accurately, make better predictions, then manage more precisely. More effective interventions can be targeted. Decisions are smarter and produce better results. According to Harvard Business Review, big data has the potential to revolutionize management.
Big data and high performance analytics (HPA) are changing the game and sweeping the world in terms of competitive differentiation. According to IBM, “Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world has been created in the least two years alone.” Harvard Business Review says “As of 2012, about 2.5 exabytes of data are created each day and that number is doubling every 40 months or so.” Where does all this data come from? How is it used? How can it be of benefit? How can organizations overcome the challenges and build strategies to gain better insights into markets…
Part of day-to-day life here at WOA involves us having the ear of top executives, and while you may think that their only focus surrounds numbers (number one in the marketplace, number of dollars at the close of fiscal year, number of corporate golf outings), the message our practice hears is actually becoming quite different. The focus is more and more on people. It seems competitive leaders of today are honing in on the fact that the talent which shapes their firms is what provides the greatest opportunity for growth; and yes, the kind of legitimate growth that impacts the numbers we all know they so love to talk about. Executives are actively asking WOA, how can we change the way we approach our teams so that everyone can reap the benefits?
