What sector do GOOGLE or TWITTER belong to after all? The late Peter Druker once commented that most of the interesting work would be in the social sector, as that is where the unresolved problems rest. I wonder if he fully anticipated how non-profits are not the only enterprises focused on social issues. Many for-profit companies are headed there as well. Google is enabling educational advances in very poor areas and we all witnessed how Twitter gave voice to Iranian protesters. Donna Fenn, best selling author of Alpha Dogs and Upstarts and contributing writer for Inc. comments that business start-ups among young leaders is at all time high with Generation Y. And most of these, she shared at the recent Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, are involved in social entrepreneurship in some way. HP and P&G are among the many Fortune 500 companies that…
Growth Strategy During a Recession
Image via Wikipedia The rock face has many parallels to business’ external environment. Rock climbing starts by understanding it. Stand back too far, you see everything, but can’t see initial steps up the rock. Stand too close, you’ll likely climb to a dead end i.e., without safe steps up the face. With the right distance (the one that an exciting new growth strategy is discovered from) you see a promising directional route. B2C companies should throw out existing assumptions about customers. A 20% and growing decline in household wealth is transforming our consumption patterns and preferences. We’re at a pivot point where change is non-linear, not trend-like. The greater your insight into this transformation, the stronger your organization will be. Your B2B strategic planning should focus on this question – What can or could we uniquely do to help a target market become…
Value Promise and Profit Potential, Part One
Image via Wikipedia All customers buy on perceived value. Unfortunately, Walmart’s advertising has led us to define value as lowest price. We’ve forgotten that there are value promises beyond lowest price in today’s recession. Value is a mental scale with benefits on one side and costs on the other. Both sides contain tangible and intangible, emotional, functional and/or social factors. More benefits, more value, a formula Target exploited and Sears forgot. We stay in business if the customer exchange (benefits for price customers pay) is consistently profitable for us or, if we’re a venture-financed start up, promises profitability. Value promise and profit potential are interrelated. Understanding this interrelationship explains how to win. Way #1. Build the lowest cost structure for delivering required benefits. Your higher margins can be channeled back into the business to create further advantage. McDonalds dominates Wendy’s. Way #2. Offer…
Strategic Leadership in Fearful Times
I took up rock climbing to confront my fear of heights. I’d follow my planned route, stopping to decide on my next steps. Stopping for too long, usually out of fear, was always a mistake. Fear aroused the oldest part of my brain that screamed, “Any move other than right back down the way you came is dangerous.” I’d hold onto the rock for too long, and only look narrowly in front of me, missing potential steps. I’d exert more energy than was needed, sapping my power to move upwards, and eventually forcing me to retrace my steps. We’re in the scariest economic time in our working lives (unless we worked in the Great Depression). Fearful, we hold tight to what worked in the past. The only next step we see is the age-old wisdom: “Cut costs and lower break-even points to conserve…
Are You Aspiring to Strengthen Your Strategic Leadership Skills?
You know in your gut that you and your organization aren’t the best they can be and will be someday. You’re seeking thinking partners to help your team and your organization realize their full potential. You want to strengthen your strategic leadership skills. Business models look to be a promising or at least intriguing avenue of discovery. You’re an organizational leader or you work with them as a management consultant. You’re curious and a voracious learner, drawn to ideas, tools and information that will help you make a greater positive difference for others. You’re anything but narrow. You know that a lot can be learned outside ones own specialized expertise. In fact, your ability to see past the 3-foot deep concrete wall in front of you and cut a door through it creates your success. There’s so much strategy and management literature being…