Wired to say “yes”

When it comes to making innovation stick, my experience is that there are two types of people: those who are wired to say “yes” to new ideas and those that are wired to say “no.” Multiple times during my career I have been responsible for the growth agenda for a major company.  That typically included [...]

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Defying the Sea of Sameness

Any business school course on strategy will devote significant time to the importance of competitive differentiation.  We attend marketing conferences where speakers pontificate on the need to have a unique value proposition.  Excellent books like Seth Godin’s Purple Cow preach the benefits of being remarkable to separate yourself from the herd. Yet any visit to [...]

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The Office of the Customer

A remarkable growth strategy for your brand or business should be, at its core,  a customer-centric growth strategy.  Contrast this with most companies’ strategies which are strongly product-centric or channel-centric. To be truly customer-centric, your organization needs to start with a single, cohesive understanding of the value, needs and wants of your most important customers [...]

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