10 Exceptional Strategies For Extraordinary Executives

Most extraordinary executives would agree that business practices evolve over time, and our experiences turn into knowledge. My such experience has inspired this article, 10 exceptional strategies for extraordinary executives. As a coach, my goal is always to see my client succeed. I want to high-five them when they hit a home run or score a touchdown. I want them to have experiences that will…

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Strategic Planning Must Change With The Times

If you’re frustrated by your organization’s current strategic planning and execution processes or the outcomes from that work, you’re not alone. Whether they’re developed in-house or brought in by outside strategy firms, many strategy methodologies are of little value if they don’t keep up with the times. So if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.…

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How Many of Your Organization’s Strategic Initiatives Succeed?

My guess is that your answer is less than half or at least “not enough of them.” Delivering on strategic company initiatives on time, every time, is the hallmark of organizations that are best in the world at executing strategy, and they’re rewarded with a premium put on the value of their company. Organizations that can’t deliver on their strategic initiatives fail at executing their strategy,…

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The Outcomes of Strategic Best Practices: Mediocrity and Disappointment

Strategy management processes and the so-called “best practices” most organizations follow have not kept pace with the demands of the marketplace and the performance expectations of shareholders. By definition, best practices are “tried and true,” meaning they have been around for a long time—too long. It is unlikely that you will ever create a competitive advantage following the same practices…

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Get Off The Strategy Merry-Go-Round

Most organizations, and even most strategy consultants, are using strategic planning frameworks built for business models that were designed during the industrial age. These methods are antiquated in both efficiency and effectiveness. They are complex - they are costly - they are slow - they are broken. Whether you are working at a company-wide, business unit, functional, or product level,…

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Leading Transformational Strategy – Next Practices

Not all business strategies require the same degree of change to be considered successful. Many are simply a continuation of an already established path and destination. Others identify the change in some areas of the business but those changes do not represent a significant departure from the status quo. Some strategies however require transformational change. These strategies are usually…

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Strategy – Why It’s Broken and How To Fix It

Only 20%-30% of corporate and business unit strategies successfully deliver expected results. That is a bold statement. However, this statistic has been reported in many studies from reputable firms and publications and mirrors much of what I have observed and experienced during my career. Despite awareness of the problem, the statistic itself has not really changed much in the last 20 years.…

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Flip Your Organization Chart

Do you know what everyone in your organization does? To find out, you might want to change your perspective. Years ago I learned to draw reading Betty Edwards’ book, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.” The effort sharpened my perspective of just about everything. To draw, I learned to see differently and I walked away with a clearer, fuller appreciation of the things around me. This new…

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Strategy, Capability & Really Bad Advice

Today’s post is a rather short rant, but one I felt compelled to put forth. I just finished reading an article where the author (a self-professed innovation guru) recommended strategy be aligned with capability, and that to allow ambition to exceed capability is nothing short of a recipe for disaster. If this sounds like rational thinking to you, I’d encourage you to read the text that follows…

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Is the Customer Always Right?

Is the customer really always right? How far should a company go to satisfy their clientele or customer base? What is the lost opportunity cost associated with customer churn? Is there a point when satisfying the customer is actually harmful to the enterprise, or back to the original question, is the customer always right? In today's post I'll share my opinion as to the validity of this old…

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Innovation’s Best Kept Secret

Those of you who frequent this blog know that I'm not a huge fan of either/or propositions. In most, if not all cases, decisions that are made on this basis simply constitute a lack of depth and understanding. This particularly holds true as it applies to the topic of innovation methodology. Most innovators view innovation from one of two perspectives: those who believe disruptive innovation is…

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Contingency Planning

The best leaders always have a back-up plan, so my question to you is: what's your Plan B? My experience with most executives & entrepreneurs is they are totally committed to and focused on success. As a result, many of them tend to have a major blind-spot (translation: weakness) when it comes to the anticipation of setbacks.  While this is understandable, it is nonetheless naive, and it…

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Not All Research is Meaningful

Just because something gets published doesn't necessarily mean it has any value. In fact, misleading or wrong information that finds its way into the public domain can be quite harmful. I just finished reading a research study conducted by Harvard Business School that is nothing short of academic hoo-hah and is a case study with everything that's wrong with business schools today. The HBS…

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M&A Without Buying the Company

Most people tend to look at acquisitions from a rather myopic and traditional M&A perspective: making a strategic or synergistic purchase of an operating entity on an accretive basis. However, restricting your view of acquisitions to operating companies is like playing a football game with only one play in your playbook. The truth is that acquisitions aren't just about buying companies,…

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Addiction Marketing

"Addiction Marketing" is a phrase I started using a few years back while waiting in line for my drink at Starbucks. I was observing the mass of people who seemed almost desperate for their daily (if not more frequent) fix of caffeine. It was at that moment I realized the real power of one of Starbucks' key business drivers, if not their most critical business driver - Starbucks sells products…

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Brand Exposure

Do you understand the difference between presence, visibility and overexposure? Have you figured out how to apply the laws of scarcity to brand management? If not, then this post is for you. While a brand without exposure is not much of a brand, I consistently find that brand exposure is an aspect of brand management that is all too often overlooked as a success metric. Whether you're assessing…

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