Flevy recently collaborated with Charles Fiaccabrino to develop an exclusive business framework, the Fiaccabrino Selection Process. In most sales organizations, your top 20% sales performers generate 80% of the revenues. The question is, why are the other 80% hired? What would happen if sales managers hired sales people who were more like the top 20% […]
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Context Is Everything
In the broadest sense, context is the sandwich board you wear around telling people how you are feeling before you ever open your mouth. Have you ever had a friend ask you “what’s wrong” just by looking at you? That’s context. Some genres of content are much easier to lend context to than others. For […]
What Is a Chief Content Officer?
According to Wikipedia, “A chief content officer (CCO) is a corporate executive responsible for the digital media creation and multi-channel publication of the organization’s content (text, video, audio, animation, etc.) and is generally the highest ranking creative member of the organization. The Chief Content Officer is responsible for developing the organization’s content strategy, choosing content […]
Successful Creative Campaigns Engage the Customer First. Period.
Successful Creative Campaigns Engage the Customer First. Period. Brand, Product, and Service will Follow. The growth rate for sharing and creating digital information is at an insane pace. According to Digital Trends, sharing data grew nine times larger from 2006-2011 and projections indicate that by 2015 people will be creating and sharing 8 zettabytes of information. […]
The Complete Guide to Product Adoption: from Product Life Cycle to Customer Decision Journey
Product Adoption is a compelling and important topic. It affects every single business. There are numerous whitepapers, frameworks, and discussions focused on Product Adoption. They discuss various elements, from market conditions to product attributes to tactical engagement. The purpose of this article isn’t to present anything new. Rather, it’s an attempt to synthesize various established […]
Content Marketing Not Working Out? Flatten Your Organization
The advent of social media has contributed significantly to the changing brand and company marketing paradigm. Marketing speak is quickly being replaced by thought leadership. A company or brands target audience is not interested in features and benefits of your products as much as they are interested in feeling that you are the expert in […]
For the Best Video Content, Keep It Simple [Stupid]
Look around you. Messages are everywhere, they surround us when we drive, we’re at work, and at home — just about everywhere. Most of them involve some kind of advertising or marketing message. Increasingly, these messages are not in print, but in some form of video or motion graphics. Given that the preferred demographic of […]
Why People Won’t Buy Your Product Even Though It’s Awesome
It’s a common business problem faced by any size company, big and small. The situation is you’ve developed a brilliant product. Compared to the incumbent or existing way of doing things, your product is more feature-packed, is easier to use, and is more economical to the customer. The problem is your sales suck. Why aren’t […]
Applying Military Concepts to Business Planning: Operational vs. Tactical vs. Strategic
We usually divide Planning into three analytical levels with a strong military flavor: Operational, Tactical and Strategic (a clear example of a classical proverb that in the Military everything consists of three parts ). Despite the fact that all these levels are defined pretty clearly (Strategic – where are we going? Tactical – what are […]
What Would You Do to Protect your Business?
This month marks the 70th anniversary of the last major U-boat “wolf pack” battle in the North Atlantic of World War II. Both sides realised the strategic importance of dominating the sea lanes between America and England. The victor on the sea would ultimately win the war. If the English supply lines were cut, they […]
Perform Strategic Management Right with a Balanced Scorecard
It’s (relatively) easy to come up with a corporate vision, with a mission statement, with a set of strategies. But, when it comes to the execution of that vision and strategy, things become much more challenging. This difficulty increases as the size of the organization increases. For proper strategic performance management, a number of methodologies […]
The Business Strategy that Makes Competition Irrelevant, Blue Ocean Strategy
Blue Ocean Strategy is growth strategy framework focused on the idea of creating an uncontested market space–i.e. a “blue ocean.” This framework is very innovative, as its principles challenge the conventional business strategy principles of fighting competitors head-on. The Blue Ocean Strategy framework evolved from a framework called Value Innovation developed by Gemini Consulting (now Capgemini […]
