If you are running complex initiatives, your biggest challenge is usually aligning action across various teams to deliver results as planned. What can you do to make your plans more sticky? Drawing from her expertise as an Executive Coach and Strategist, Pam Fox Rollin lays out 5 tips on how to make plans real. Act as if plans live in brains, not documents. Because that’s the reality. Your plan just sits there on the share drive, while people do whatever…

Elias Mazzawi shares a company article that outlines three core strategies to accelerate growth for multi-OpCo businesses.  Growth is always top-of-mind. Never more so than when interest rates rise and recession looms. Strategies get revised, budgets and forecasts move, investment is more closely scrutinised and risk takes on a new profile. The need to drive value gets more focused. Cost reduction is often a quick win but limited. The search for rapid and sustainable revenue opportunities moves to the fore….

Belden Menkus shares an article on strategic response speed and why it is important to measure. Strategic response speed isn’t something most organisations measure, but it is rapidly becoming one of the most important dimensions of organisational effectiveness and performance. Strategic response speed is how fast your business can respond to external change – first detecting it, then adapting and changing accordingly. It’s a new idea.  Of course, businesses have been developing strategies, and implementing them, for years.  And, managers…

Elias Mazzawi shares a company post that outlines three strategies to achieve cross-OpCo revenue synergy. There are 3 core approaches to cross-OpCo revenue synergy: cross-sell, client management synergy and proposition synergy. Most organisations pick a hybrid.  Strategy is typically straightforward to define; implementation requires activity across organisational boundaries, and can present cultural and operational challenges. Trust and alignment of targets, objectives and incentives at OpCo and individual levels are key.   Strategy 1 – cross-sell is usually where organisations start; selling…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Sisi Liang.  Sisi is a Multidisciplinary Strategist, a former BCG Consultant and Equity Research Analyst with experience in Financial Institutions, and the Media, Retail and Energy sectors. She has also led Marketing & Branding Strategies in SaaS Ventures and Tech Startups, seamlessly merging technical expertise and creative storytelling. Sisi has robust experience delivering high-stake consulting projects, conducting and converting research into compelling insights, stories and actions for key clients and decision-makers. Strong ability to combine…

Carlos Castelan shares a company post on greed and fear and how retailers can leverage both to step into a winning position.   Many of you have likely heard legendary investor Warren Buffett’s old adage about investing: “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.” It is a saying that is easy to cite but more challenging in practice when the market is fearful, like it has been the last couple of months. In these instances,…

Kaihan Krippendorff shares an article that identifies how to use language to stimulate innovation. Last week, the Outthinker Strategy Network (OSN) hosted our first in-person roundtable of the year at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island in New York City. The island, located in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, once a site of abandoned prison buildings and mental institutions, has been transformed into a hub of innovation. Opened in 2017, the Cornell Tech campus and its Tata Innovation Center…

In this article, Luiz Zorzella shares the processes of successful strategists.  Financial services leaders often overlook the importance of your decision regarding which segments, markets, channels, and products to focus on. One of the reasons is that, while money moves freely, the effort to build channels, brands, products, trust, relationships, and physical infrastructure, can be humongous. Large insurance companies can take more than a year to implement simple changes to existing products. Thus, short of dramatic strategic moves like divestitures,…

Taking a leaf or two from his book Recession Proof, Jason Schenker shares a YouTube post that outlines recession-proof strategies.      Watch the full video, Six Strategies to be Recession-Proof,  on YouTube  …

In this article published on Influencive, Jay Jung offers his top ten tips to companies considering a sale or an M&A. During his successful, six-year run with Goldman Sachs when he routinely negotiated multi-billion-dollar deals, Jay Jung took note of how Fortune 500 companies loaded with experienced CEOs and CFOs always made it a practice of hiring investment bankers to conduct their M&As and sales. Conversely, Jung was surprised and bewildered when he would so often see entrepreneurs who were…

  For all those thinking about starting a subscription-based business, or adding a subscription service to a business, Robbie Kellman Baxter shares an article that identifies five things you shouldn’t do and one you should.  Netflix is a true leader of the Membership Economy. Back in 2002 when I first started working with them, I fell in love with their business model. I loved their focus on doing one thing really well, their Forever Promise (FP). I describe that FP…

  If you are thinking about building a marketing strategy for the coming year, this post from Kaihan Krippendorff’s company blog may have the direction you need. The “ultimate strategy” is explained and explored.  Is “be good” a part of your 2021 strategy? If not, you should reconsider. When I was in business school, we learned that companies exist to do one thing: maximize shareholder value. At Outthinker, we’ve been talking for years about how this belief has become defunct….

  Aneta Key shares a short but informative video and the first in a series on the topic of sizing up the situation for strategic decision-making. Key points include: Speed Severity Uncertainty Watch the full series, Sizing up the Situation, on AedeaPartners.com.   …

  Luca Ottinetti provides an article that reflects on past recessionary crises to help business leaders move through the current situation productively with examples of strategies from TMSC, Ford, AB InBev, Home Depot, and Verizon among others. Managing through a recessionary crisis requires more than laying low and waiting for the storm to blow over. It takes proactive management to prepare and then take advantage of the general economic weakness. Recessions come from different starting events, for example (1) stagflation…

  Jason George provides insight on the changes that may emerge after the current crisis.   A good strategy should be responsive to the various scenarios that could plausibly materialize, but even the most tightly crafted ones get blown apart when their subject is hit by an asteroid. In our current situation the object wreaking havoc on a planetary scale happens to be a microscopic bit of encapsulated genetic information containing less data than an image used as website filler….

Jason George explores the relationship between the human need for ritual, community, and purpose, and the organizations or entrepreneurs who see that need as their next opportunity.   Come all ye faithful Some of the devoted choose to meet in the early morning, braving the cold and arriving at their nondescript buildings in the predawn darkness. The name on the sign outside might reference “soul” or “cross,” but there is nothing outwardly grand about these places. The real draw is…

An evergreen post from Gaelle Lamotte to kickoff 2020 and help you prepare for what lies ahead.  In a world of disruptive businesses, overwhelming information and relentless change, companies have to master the art of strategy execution to be agile enough to capitalize on growth opportunities. Excellence in execution is what makes the difference between good strategies and success in the marketplace for your customers, partners and employees, and ultimately investors and shareholders.   Points covered include: -Understanding the organization’s…