Measuring Innovation
By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Measuring innovation is where the rubber meets the road. While it’s very easy to wax eloquent about innovation, I’ve found that for most companies, measuring innovation is quite a tall order. Moreover, even for those organizations that do measure innovation, are they measuring the right metrics, for the right reasons? I’ve authored many posts on the topic of innovation, and have lectured often on the necessity for executives to completely embrace innovation as a core focus area. The power of innovation to totally transform a mediocre business into a category dominant company is really only deniable by the ignorant or the prejudiced. However even those businesses that embrace the concept in theoretical fashion can fail to implement productive innovation management programs if they do not understand how to measure its impact. In today’s post I’ll address how to measure innovation…
Bill Clinton gets it wrong again…During a campaign rally in Orlando last night in which Bill Clinton was introducing Barack Obama, he built his warm-up speech around what he called “the four things that really matter in a president.” According to Bill Clinton, the four things it takes to be a great president are: 1) 
Increasing sales in a down economy should be a subject near and dear to the heart of all those that read this blog. Few things are as important in today’s economy as building your sales funnel and increasing revenue. It is no wonder that amongst the most frequent e-mail inquiries I receive each week are messages asking for suggestions about how to increase sales. This week I received an e-mail with an interesting twist on the age old topic…Perhaps a sign of the times, the question was: “What is the fastest way to increase sales?” The message was sent in from the CEO of a mid-market company whose sales have been flat for the last few quarters. The introduction of speed into the equation gives me a chance to put a fresh spin on an often over-discussed, but nonetheless mission critical topic… 
“Can you provide any tips for modeling a winning compensation plan?” is today’s Myatt on Mondays question which was asked by a CFO of an Internet marketing company. While certainly a great question, I must admit that I have been reluctant to address the topic of compensation in previous posts as compensation theory is not only complex, but it often varies greatly based upon the situational realities of different workplace environments. That being said, there are definitely key elements which serve as the foundation for any well designed compensation plan which I’ll cover in today’s post…
Are CEOs getting a bad rap? In a word, yes. As a top ceo coach, I can tell you that CEOs are under siege…in fact, I would go so far as to say that CEOs as an occupational class are in a state of crisis. I understand that Americans are upset about the economic debacle we find ourselves presently entangled in. I’m upset and outraged as well. What’s frustrating to most is that there are many more questions being posed than answers being given at this point in time. We’ve entered the blame zone of rash allegations and finger pointing in order to deflect responsibility. While I understand that no sane person could have watched the events of the last few weeks and not want to pin the blame on someone, simply assigning “villain” status to chief executives as a class because their compensation plans seem egregious to some is not the answer. In today’s post I’ll examine the issue of CEO Compensation and why I believe CEOs are unfairly being vilified.
If deal transparency isn’t at the forefront of your M&A strategy, you might want to stop and do a bit of thinking. In some ways the world of corporate M&A is much the same as it was 20 years ago, and in other ways the events of the last few weeks have changed the landscape dramatically. The Bailout, the current capital and credit crunch, and the outcome of recent litigation have taken and already inefficient market and made it even more so. In today’s post I’ll share my observations as to what might be the single biggest trend that will influence how transactions will be closed in today’s changing marketplace…deal transparency.
While the majority of our readers are CEOs, savvy senior execs, and seasoned entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed that we’ve been experiencing a rapid growth of late in readership falling within the ranks of developing leaders. So when 