The word “STRATEGY” is bantered and thrown around in many of the conversations today among top executives, especially CEOs. But what does it really mean? And are they actually talking about the same thing? I don’t think so… Years ago when I first started doing “Strategic Planning” as part of my consulting role at Arthur…
During one of our CEO Innovation Team meetings we talked about differentiation. Not what most think about just having a product or service that is slightly different or better than the competition, but truly differentiated – both in product/service and experience. The concept of “Being Remarkable” was introduced by a well-known thought leader in both…
No I am not asking about your politics! I am referring to the Blue Ocean Strategy that presents a theory, tools, and frameworks to allow your company to break away from the competition and create a new market space. As part of our Innovation Team session last week participating CEOs collaborated on how to create…
What competitive forces have the greatest impact on your organizations profitability? If you answered your direct competitors you might be right BUT you might be wrong. Competition for profits goes beyond established industry rivals to include four other competitive forces. Doug Brown, CEO of All Star Directories, did an excellent job of describing how he…
We had the privilege of having David Allen, Executive Vice President of McKinstry speak to our packed house of CEOs last week and as usual, it was both entertaining and insightful. There were many highlights, which we will continue to share in subsequent blog posts, that focused on real world examples of how McKinstry is…
John Rubino, President of Green Rubino, a truly integrated marketing firm led the discussion “Keys to Success In a Social Media Marketing World” at the November CEOtoCEO Breakfast. A marketing question I share with others is “Where does social media fit in with the traditional marketing channels used in B2B?” John provided some great insight…
The term new media has become synonymous with marketing strategies that are developed to acquire inbound marketing strategies. Those strategies may include combinations of organic search, paid search, video, mobile, pay per click (or paid search), and social media (including blogging). Companies must adopt marketing strategies that meet the prospect’s intent and lead them to…
The death of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Steve Jobs has brought a lot of talk about the characteristics of the ideal chief executive officer. One school of thought holds that successful CEOs are team players, good listeners and humble. In the book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins called such people “Level 5” leaders. Yet Jobs and…
As business leaders we are approached by a number of community organizations to help support their cause. Most provide worthwhile services that benefit the communities we do business and the needs have escalated over the past few years. The “asks” are made from members of numerous charitable organizations, our employees, clients and trade partners. You…
I had the privilege of getting to meet and talk with Randy Gardner, CEO of Red Dot Corporation a while back and he shared with me a great story. He attended one of our CEOtoCEO Breakfast meetings and saw David Katri from Clark Nuber present their Strategic Map. He really grabbed onto that idea and…