Customer Compromises: Where Innovation Lives

If you are like many leaders, you remember the great new ideas that were early springboards for your company’s success. For some reason, however, your new products and services “pool” seems to have dried up over the years. What happened? Have you become less creative? Has your organization grown complacent and removed from customers and how your products are used? Perhaps you’ve just been looking in the wrong places.

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Is your company and organization ready for the next big change? Study after study show that 70% to 80% of all Corporate changes fail AND 80% of the failure can be blamed on not having an adequate Change Management Plan. Yet most leaders when asked how to prepare for the next change, they will focus on product initiatives, customer penetration or technology enhancements.

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If you are like most business owners, your days are fast-paced, your activities varied and your time precious—it’s likely that you are among the 87% of owners who have no written exit plan. Yet, despite the value you’ve created in your business, you will exit at some point and need to figure out how to reap the fruit of your efforts while leaving a successful, ongoing business legacy.

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Anti-Strategy occurs when an organization’s strategy is not clear and functional leaders and individuals make choices in their best interests. Some call this “silo thinking” some call it “self-centered,” but without a clear Corporate Strategy it is impossible for groups to align to what is right for the entire organization! Without a clearly articulated Corporate Strategy, each function works on their priorities seemingly without regard to other department’s needs. Here are some examples of Anti-Strategy: …Read More

Entrepreneurs are wired differently than most, often “painting outside the lines,” seeing things others don’t. But their vision, creativity and drive can come with a cost. They under manage and most don’t manage their companies or themselves well.

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Organizations that aren’t guided by clearly articulated strategy and objectives have a tendency to wander and fall apart. Their foundation is weak and they have inadequate structural supports. They don’t have something to use as a litmus test for making decisions.

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Anti-Strategy is an interesting phenomenon. Have you ever wondered why someone in the company, a peer, a direct report or even the boss has done something that just didn’t make sense? Maybe it was reorganization, a change in product direction, adding new people that should be in other organizations, or worse yet, done nothing? Of course you have. You are probably guilty of it yourself, although you may not realize it or don’t want to admit it. Smart, successful and highly compensated people often do things that don’t seem to fit or support the program or your perspective of the direction of the company.

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Yankee Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.” A business interpretation: strategy needs to guide your efforts and your company’s Strategic Execution™– how effectively you implement your strategy — distinguishes whether you’ll win or be an also-ran. One of the ways effective businesses stay on course is understanding in detail where they have been, what successes they have had in execution and where they have come up short. All too often companies …Read More

You should always be taking stock in past performance: Success, Failures, Opportunities, Strategic needs. The norm is to review your financials – Sales, Revenue, spending patterns, profitability, etc. but do you strategically review one of your most critical business functions – Human Resources and the Organization itself? Most companies don’t, leaving it to the leaders in the organization. Most companies respond to the immediate needs of the organization without advanced planning or forethought, unless it is a reorganization or a huge project. To determine how prepared your organization is for the future and your “next big opportunity,” or the company’s strategic needs, ask yourself these questions: …Read More