Umbrex is pleased to welcome Brent Packer with synthesize.consulting. Brent is a former Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. During his 5+ years at the Firm, he worked with Fortune 500, public sector, and nonprofit clients while specializing in digital/analytics/product and sustainability (recognized as 1 of 16 manager-level experts globally). He has also worked with multiple startups and founded two social ventures, including an open-source zero-electricity structure that filters, cools, and dispenses water to help eliminate plastic waste. Brent now has…

  Barry Horwitz shares a post that explores how the pandemic has spurred accelerated decision-making and action-taking strategies in ecommerce.  Maybe you’ve had a similar experience… You call your doctor’s office for an appointment because the nagging pain in your foot, back, or some other body part, isn’t getting any better. They say, “Of course, how’s Tuesday at 10am?” The difference now, though, is that Tuesday’s appointment will be virtual — held via a secure video conferencing link. Is it…

  In this short video from Andrew Hone’s company identifies why only one in 25 cost-cutting programs work.     The video can also be accessed on Zenithstrategy.com …

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Tarik Djeddour with Stellaris Consulting. Tarik is a Healthcare focused former McKinsey manager who started his own consulting firm in 2016. He mainly focuses on go-to-market strategy, commercial due diligence, and insight & analytics projects, supporting pharma and med device teams mostly in Europe and the US. An engineering & MBA graduate of Imperial College London, Tarik has worked for industry leaders such as Honeywell and Shionogi, as well as boutique consultancies. His 20 years…

  For all who are working with Microsoft Office 365, Hugo Bernier has provided a series of posts to help navigate the software. In this post, he explains how to work with rules in Microsoft Lists. Over the last few years, Microsoft has done an amazing job at modernizing SharePoint. It used to be that the first question my clients would ask me when I would start a new engagement was “How can we make SharePoint not look like SharePoint?”….

  Access this resource from Gaelle Lamotte’s company on how to improve your ability to execute strategies by integrating development and planning, driving focus and alignment. How often do you win with your strategy? Strategy development is useful for defining ambitions and long term goals. A good strategy is only as good as the capability to implement it and how well it delivers the desired outcome. Various research concludes: Organisations on average realise only 50-63% of the financial performance promised…

  Sara Conte shares an article from the company archives that identified the increase in the use of expert networks with projections reaching into 2022. Investors and others are increasingly utilizing expert networks like Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) and AlphaSites to instantly get answers to key questions. It’s like calling a friend in the business, but these calls are highly regulated to ensure compliance with confidentiality requirements. The results are quick and actionable – particularly when paired with analysis on…

  Charity: water’s MZ Goodman joins Robbie Kellman Baxter to share how she is applying subscription model best practices to a nonprofit. They discuss how MZ leverages content marketing and digital community strategies developed in her work at The New York Times to build a donation-based subscription model, how they’ve leveraged a single 20-minute video to raise millions, and how to think about a Forever Promise in the context of engaging donors. Welcome to the show. It’s your host, Robbie…

  Discover practical inventory management tips that can help your business grow in this post on Carlos Castelan’s company blog.  For any products-based business, it’s hard to overstate the importance of inventory management. Not only does effective inventory management help you to evaluate the state of your business and reveal various roadblocks to your success, but it also helps you to keep operations running smoothly and ensure that your customers stay happy. And when your business is growing quickly, it…

  Barry Horwitz explains how confirmation bias hurts business and provides key tips on how to identify and avoid falling into the confirmation bias trap. I’m often reminded of a line from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, in which a character is asked how he went bankrupt. His answer: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” When dealing with change (bankruptcy-related or otherwise), there are often warning signs along the way — gradual shifts that are easy to dismiss as…

  Robyn M. Bolton takes a lesson learned from a fairy tale to illustrate truths. I love stories.  When I was a kid, my parents would literally give me a book and leave me places while they ran errands.  They knew that, as long as I was reading, I wouldn’t be moved. But there was one story I hated – The Emperor’s New Clothes I hated it because it made absolutely no sense.  It was a story of adults being…

  Ravi Rao was recently interviewed on the podcast The Why Word where he explains how businesses can become emotionally healthier places to work, and reap the benefits of a happier, motivated, and more productive workforce. Humans survive because we care about each other, because we are connected to each other, because we are so aware of each other. The challenge with something like the COVID virus, and SARS, too, is that we have even diminished the, if you will,…

  Robbie Kellman Baxter shares a podcast from her new series, Subscription Stories – True Tales from the Trenches. This week, she is in conversation with Brad Handler, vacation entrepreneur. They discuss his affordable business model, the integration of membership and subscription into the luxury travel service, and more.  I’m Robbie Kellman Baxter. Today’s subscription story belongs to Brad Handler. He and his brother, Brent Handler, are vacation entrepreneurs who are incorporating membership and subscription in some really novel ways….

  Nils Boeffel explains what can go wrong with a digital strategy and shares tips on how to develop a successful digital strategy.  Everyone is talking about digitalization, but many people and organizations get it wrong. To them it means throwing technology at things, hoping that they will get better. What is it really, what does it mean, and how do you think about it and implement it? Last year I led a digitalization workshop at a company where they…

  The power of writing a list should never be forgotten. Luiz Zorzella has compiled a six-point list of tools and approaches that improve efficiency.  If you ever thought: ‘Hmmm… wouldn’t it be nice if I had a one-pager list of the tools that people use to improve process efficiency?’ Then today is your lucky day! I have listed below my compilation of the main tools and approaches I found which other executives and consultants use to directly or indirectly…

  Eli Diament’s company has recently released a comprehensive report on how the current pandemic has affected business, including  a summary of findings from their national survey of Americans, executives, business owners and business decision makers. Azurite Consulting recently surveyed 3,500 Americans , in partnership with PeakProsperity.com –  to capture a unique view of COVID-19’s impact on spending, hiring and business decision making. This is the second survey in a longitudinal study, capturing the granular impacts of Covid-19 and paths…

  Geoff Wilson asks the questions that make you think about your business strategy post COVID-19, identifies what you should focus on, and explains how you should move forward. Hey, you there…the guy or gal with the life you always wanted.  How does it feel? You are working from home.  Your computer screen has become your window into the world.  And, you have realized that it is, in fact, possible to pack more meetings into a day if you just…

  Lin Giralt shares findings from a Evalusys and Lambda study of over 600 small and medium sized enterprises in the U.S., covering ten categories, including results on: human resource management, business exit readiness, innovation processes and capabilities, and quality of business processes. What Evalusys and Lambda have learned about US Small and Medium Sized Enterprises [SME’s] Summary of Results from over 600 Business Evaluations indicates that improvements in Sales Management [98%] and Strategic Business Planning [94%] are the Categories…

  As more consultants rely on video conferencing to connect with clients, David A. Fields shares timely, tractable, and tongue-in-cheek tips on how to avoid common mistakes that are all too often made.  Are there video call-specific rules of etiquette? Of course. Remember the old days, when people left their houses? Consultants would frequently travel thousands of miles, sardined next to strangers (crazy, right?). Even then, your consulting firm’s best, everyday outreach tool was your telephone. However, in the modern,…

  During times of crises leaders must make the tough decisions, but choosing the right way to go is not always clear cut. Zaheera Soomar identifies three practical approaches to serve as guidelines for ethical decision-making. During a recent conversation with a senior executive, she expressed a sentiment that many of us share: “When the pandemic has passed, I want to be able to say that, at the hardest of times, I did my best to do the right thing”….

  David A. Fields identifies benefits consulting firms should focus on during this time of crisis. There are so many voices fixated on the disaster unfolding around us, that you could easily be swept into a torrent of anxiety, fear and panic. In truth, there is real reason for concern and you absolutely should heed the direction of medical leaders. At the same time, you and your consulting firm will benefit from a healthy dose of positive perspective. If you…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Richard Cho with Growing Abundance Mindsets.  Through his time at Gartner, Bridgewater, and McKinsey Richard developed a set of tools, frameworks and practices that have been adapted from leading business thinkers and applied across multiple Fortune 500 company teams to successfully drive new initiatives. Often times technology problems are usually business engagement problems, and he has a track record of getting these initiatives on track. Richard is passionate about building world-class cross-functional digital teams that go after big…