Archive for the ‘Management’ Category

All successful leaders know that innovation is one of the key foundations of business growth. However, as companies grow, their structures and processes very often evolve in ways that actually impede innovation.

That’s why Simon Brightman, Director, Product Management at the highly-regarded loyalty leader Points.com, is so very passionate about implementing practices that nurture fast, accurate and game-changing innovation.

In BusinessCast episode #209, Simon answers the four questions that leaders of companies, at all stages of development, struggle to answer:

• What makes a really innovative product?
• What makes companies successful at creating innovative and timely products?
• What do innovative companies do that is truly unique?
• How can companies structure themselves to enable innovation?

In addition to providing some very practical advice, Simon talks about how LinkedIn and ING DIRECT have consistently been able to develop exciting, timely products that are enthusiastically embraced by their target markets.

Listen to our discussion with Simon and get the inside scoop on a process that will help ensure that your business is structured for innovation and on-going success.

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If you’re like most business leaders, the topic of succession stirs up mixed emotions. On the one hand, succession provides great new opportunities. On the other hand, the thoughts that run through your mind about succession processes are anything but positive.

Because making successful succession transitions has an impact on so many North American businesses and so many stakeholders within a business, Robert and I have interviewed several key experts — getting the answers to the most important, most frequently asked and most painful succession questions.

Recently, for BusinessCast #198, we sat down with Sean Graham who shares key legal insights to help you avoid succession train wrecks. We’ve also gathered critical lessons from succession thought-leaders that span all industries and disciplines, including:

• Thomas Deans, best-selling author of “Every Family’s Business” (BusinessCast 117)
  
• David Simpson, Executive Director of the Business Families Centre (Ivey School of Business) (BusinessCast 191)
  
• John Geddes, one of Canada’s recognized succession gurus (BusinessCast 110)
  

Together, these four BusinessCast episodes help you better plan for, go through and successfully emerge from business successions regardless of your role in the process.

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Robert and I have interviewed hundreds of wildly successful business leaders. In so doing, we have identified many wonderful stories and some surprising ironies. Case in point: using customer input. The truth is that every successful business leader has, during phases of rapid growth, effectively tapped into the mindset of their key customers and turned that knowledge into well-targeted, relevant and innovative products/services.

But, — and here is the irony — once companies get to a certain size, age or complexity— that customer insight, which was at the very core of the business success, isn’t actively pursued anymore. The result of being disconnected from customers isn’t too surprising: less innovation, longer sales cycles and eroding customer service. And, of course, the business consequences quickly follow including: higher customer acquisition costs, loss of ground to competitors and the loss of the most important employees.

That’s why for BusinessCast #180, we sat down with Fuse Marketing Group’s Director of Digital Strategy, Jeff Pontes. Jeff and his team help companies map out practical ways of harnessing customer input to ensure on-going product/service (and process) innovation. Jeff helps work through thorny issues such as:

• What kind of products/services lend themselves to integrating customer input
• Where in the product/service development cycle customer input should be used
• What aspect of product/service development should use customer input

Jeff also shares key insights about how to leverage social media tools to target, gather and integrate customer input.

Listen to BusinessCast #180 and you’ll get tips to help you stay connected with the true source of your on-going business success: your customers.

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If you’re like most entrepreneurs, your focus on achieving growth probably is on acquiring new customers/clients. And, while that is certainly an essential path to success, there is one path that is often overlooked: establishing strong strategic alliances. Using this method wisely can yield exponential growth as well as a host of other benefits including: product/service innovation, increased profile and expanded networks.

That’s why for BusinessCast #178 Robert and I sat down with Hadley Archer, the “architect” behind establishing, sustaining and growing strategic alliances for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Canada) — an organization that has systematically leveraged these kinds of special relationships with outstanding success.

In BusinessCast #178, Hadley succinctly addresses the following questions:

• How do you know if/when establishing strategic alliances is a good strategy?
• Where do you start in establishing the right strategic alliances?
• What are the key measures of success for strategic alliances?
• Who in a company should establish and sustain strategic alliances?

If you are looking for new ways to achieve growth, make sure you listen to Hadley’s insights found in BusinessCast #178.

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For BusinessCast #171 Robert and I sat down with Dave Fleet,VP, Digital at Edelman (Toronto) to address a scenario that businesses around the world are increasingly having to address. And, the stakes could not be higher: your business reputation…which, of course means either the success of your business success or its downfall.

Here is the scenario (as applied to a large financial institution):

A Canadian-based financial services company has launched a campaign that renews one of its seasonal consumer-based investment products (e.g. RRSPs). They have spent their resources on traditional media (including television, radio, direct mail, in-branch literature and outbound telemarketing) as well as leveraged their permission-based email program, search engine marketing and ad-buys on some well-known consumer sites (e.g. national and local newspapers as well as investment sites).

Everything seems to be going on as expected but, then they get thrown a curve ball: Four days ago their call centre started receiving a dramatic increase in calls revealing that a message is floating across Facebook that their investment product is somehow unreliable.  At the same time, one of the SVPs has just seen that a local financial community influencer with nearly 10,000 loyal Twitter followers has just posted a message slamming the product. Finally, the spill-over is having an impact on in-branch conversations with consumers as well as in the B2B areas of the bank.

In BusinessCast #171 Dave provides insights about how to use social media to protect the business reputation by answering the following questions — questions that are applicable to all businesses facing this type of scenario:

• What are the most immediate actions that you would advise the company to take?
• What is the best way to evaluate the damage done to the reputation of the brand and its product?
• What can the company do to make sure that there is little spill-over into other areas of the its business?
• What are the measures of success that you would recommend to demonstrate success?
• What kind of timetable is required to execute the key recommendations?
• In what areas are the major hard dollar costs associated with the key recommendations?
• What are the most common knee-jerk reaction activities that the company should avoid taking?

Listen to BusinessCast #171 for Dave`s insights on how to use social media to protect and enhance the reputation of your business.

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