Throughout this blog series, we have made the case that creating and implementing strategies is a full-time job best completed by an owner with the authority to hold others accountable. In many cases, this means creating a growth focused executive role (Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Growth Officer, etc.). In this blog, we will discuss the … Continue reading “Building a Team to Support Growth Strategy”
Building a Team to Support Growth Strategy
Ownership and Accountability of Organizational Growth
In the last three blogs of this series, we outlined our framework for organizing a differentiated growth strategy, aligning the organization to that strategy, and evaluating and adjusting the strategy as new information is received. Because of the iterative nature of these activities, the work of creating and driving organizational growth strategies is a full-time … Continue reading “Ownership and Accountability of Organizational Growth”
Evaluating and Adjusting Organizational Strategy
To this point in our organizational Growth Strategy blog series, we have shared our framework for creating a growth strategy embedded in differentiation and outlined some best practices for aligning the organization to that growth strategy. However, the initial crafting and alignment of a strategy is not designed to achieve perfection from the start; rather, … Continue reading “Evaluating and Adjusting Organizational Strategy”
Aligning the Organization to the Growth Strategy
In our first blog of the Growth Strategy series, we shared our framework for crafting a comprehensive growth strategy. While this framework helps to bring clarity to the strategy, it is only the beginning of the journey. Once defined, a variety of roadblocks exist that deter success, the first of which is organizational alignment. In … Continue reading “Aligning the Organization to the Growth Strategy”
Organizing a Growth Strategy
The cornerstone of a successful business is a growing business. However, in the competitive world of today’s B2B companies, determining where that growth might come from and how to capitalize on it is often a challenge. Even for businesses in the fortunate situation of having clear growth paths in expanding markets, creating a comprehensive strategy … Continue reading “Organizing a Growth Strategy”
The CEO and Customer Intimacy
In senior executive circles, the idea that True Customer Intimacy is a business model transformation initiative is often greeted with knowing smiles and nods, but little understanding of what’s truly required. More often than not, the CEO expresses great interest in theCustomer Intimacy model but then wants to implement it along with 20 other initiatives, assign it to some low level committee, and hopes to be done in a year.
Customer Intimacy Incubation: Organizational Issues
As we mentioned earlier there will be natural forces within the company that will work against its success – normal, but they can be destructive, as we see in many public cases of organizational transformation attempts.
Internecine warfare is a common reaction when you set about changing your business model. It’s not simply a go-to-market adjustment. When building a customer intimacy business model, their are several unique attributes that cannot, and must not, be compromised:
Customer Intimacy: Getting Buy-In & Making the Case for Change
The Customer Intimacy journey requires focus for an extended period of time, and even when companies take the long view, living through the natural disappointments of this size of business model transformation can discourage the best organizations.
Thus, the importance of gaining a shared view of the business cannot be overstated.
There is no consistent way for organizations to absorb and adopt truth. But, I think understanding what they need – depending on type of organization and driver of decisions – helps in gaining a shared view.