Growth Cubed

Results Based Business Coaching

Strategy

Can you state your company's strategy simply? Is it driving sustainable growth?
Strategy is all about the competitive advantage you are able to sustain over time. Patrick Lencioni (author of The Advantage) states that strategy in the simplest form is your plan for success. It is a collection of intentional decisions your company makes to give itself the best chance to thrive and differentiate from competitors.

Can Zero Based Thinking Grow Your Business?

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Our world has changed a LOT in the last several years. And, as we continue to see positive growth in many parts of our economy, consider this. Has your company changed more or less than the environment you operate in?

If the economy is 30% different today than 3 years ago, but your company has only changed by 10%, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that you are in the process of being left behind. Conversely, if the economy you operate in has changed by 30%, but your company has changed by 40%, that’s an entirely different story.

The message here is Adapt or Die. One central key to adapting in today’s environment is Zero Based Thinking.

Now is the time to focus on how you will adapt your company. The answers and the environment have changed. Can Zero Based Thinking grow your company?

[ON THE RUN? See the option to download, print and read later.]

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Eight Reasons Not To Develop An Advisory Board

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The survival and success of privately held and family owned businesses depends on many factors. One of the most significant factors is a board of advisors. Yet an American Family Business Survey reports that almost half the boards of these types of businesses meet only once or twice a year, over 60% don’t compensate directors, and a quarter of family businesses say their boards make no contribution all.

It’s very interesting and puzzling to me that so many businesses do not use an effective tool most US corporations utilize. Why do so many smart owners and entrepreneurs ignore a strategy that will give them long-term payoffs, and ensure the resilience and success of their business? They must know something that I don’t!

With apologies to David Letterman (Do you miss him too?), I’m going to use his famous countdown list format to make my point. Here are my top 8 reasons not to develop a board of advisors …
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New Big Thinking on Your Company’s Growth

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Growth! We all want it. But what does it take to achieve sustainable growth today? From my experience with clients, one of the biggest barriers to growth is the lack of an effective growth strategy. I know, I know – many business leaders role their eyeballs when they hear the word “strategy.” But your development and execution of a roadmap for growth (yes-strategy) will determine your success. I always keep an eye out for different perspectives and points of view on identifying, deciding, leading and executing strategy with clarity that achieves success.

For decades strategy has been focused on making big choices. Michael Porter points to choosing promising industries, Jim Collins stresses building the right organizational structures, and Clayton Christensen advocates picking the right customer segments. Growth strategy, then, becomes a collection of big decisions.

In today’s faster-paced, more agile world, companies that are winning – Amazon, Google, Tesla/SpaceX – are operating at a higher order. They understand the simple mathematical principle of diversification …
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Seven Simple Decisions that Drive Your Strategy

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Many companies think they have a strategy, but usually what they have done is focus on steps, goals, and objectives or issues owners and leadership teams often think about. They become fixated on a particular step or objective and consider it to be their strategy. These companies then literally go over the cliff, because people do not know why they are doing those things.

Strategy is all about the competitive advantage you are able to sustain over time. Patrick Lencioni (author of The Advantage) states that strategy in the simplest form is your plan for success. It is a collection of intentional decisions your company makes to give itself the best chance to thrive and differentiate from competitors.

Verne Harnish helps entrepreneurs and leaders develop their strategy by focusing on intentional decisions in his book, Scaling Up. He provides a new comprehensive tool called the 7 Strata of Strategy that helps define a decision framework to dominate your industry. Here are seven key decisions to develop your strategy …
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The 4Ps Are Out, the 4Es Are In

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The significant transformation of customer behavior continues at full speed today. I have written about this topic in the past, and I think it is time to put it at the forefront again. “Today’s consumer has seized control. Audiences have shattered into fragments and slices. Product differences can last minutes, not years. The new ecosystem is millions and billions of unstructured one-to-one and peer-to-peer conversations.”

The four “P’s” of marketing (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) are old news. They’ve been replaced with the four “E’s” — Experience, Exchange, Everyplace, Evangelism. Brian Fetherstonhaugh from Ogilvy & Mather introduced a new framework several years ago – and I think it is still very relevant today. It’s a new tool kit. They advise to throw away the Four Ps and embrace the Four Es …
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12 Most Common Barriers to Sustainable Growth

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What keeps many businesses from growing? For larger companies, it is often maturing markets and inflexible organizations that dampen growth. However, closely held and entrepreneurial companies are built for growth. They operate in a world of innovation, rapidly changing technology, and entrepreneurial passion. For these businesses the challenge is not how to grow, it’s how to overcome the inevitable barriers to growth.

Some barriers are out of your control – technology that doesn’t work or government regulation. But if you are better prepared to overcome the barriers under your control, you have more options and opportunities.

Here is my list of the 12 most common barriers to sustainable growth. Each of these barriers requires a different response, so it’s important to diagnose your problem (i.e. get CLARITY) before looking for a solution.
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