Scaling your business requires having strong cross-organizational functions including, sales, marketing, finance, product development and client services. The client service function is often over-looked by early stage companies for several reasons. These include assuming that your product can be used by anyone without significant training…it can’t. Or, early-stage companies lack resources to properly staff this [...]
Many entrepreneurs believe that they have Blue Ocean companies and opportunities. Yet, most have actually never read either of the books “Blue Ocean Strategy” or "Blue Ocean Shift”. (BTW, I recommend “Blue Ocean Shift” for personal reasons). And even fewer have properly applied some of the key principles of the books that would better ensure [...]
Many entrepreneurs believe that selling the features, benefits and ROI of their product will be sufficient for their success. While this is often true, it is, just as often, not true. Buyers can fear change and hate risk. And the fear of change and the introduction of risk can often counter the potential gain in [...]
Most of us are familiar with the classic book “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey Moore. The book discusses how a company has to cross a chasm between early adapters and early majority customers. This article will explore the big stage-based chasm that first-time CEOs need to cross for the success of their company. This chasm [...]
Anyone who really knows me knows two things about me. I am all about start-up growth and scale and I understand that there are no simple answers to complex issues. And scaling a startup is not simple. There are many things that can seriously impede growth. So, this post is about the many things that [...]
Many startup companies invent new markets or approaches to solving existing problems. In doing so, they need to convince their markets to think differently about this brand-new approach to industry problems. This is very difficult and requires a non-traditional sales approach. These opportunities are Blue Ocean opportunities and they require Blue Ocean knowledge, a Blue [...]
So, you are a Blue Ocean Strategy company, huh? Where is your ERRC grid? Where is your Four Action Framework? Where is your Strategy Canvas? Where are your known Objections from the market, competitors, investors and even employees? Where is your 5 Step Blue Ocean Process plan? Where are the many questions that need to [...]
What do Andy Grove, John Doer and Eric Schmitt (among others) know that you don’t know? Probably a great deal. But one of the most important factors is how to set objectives and then accomplish those objectives through OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results. OKRs have been around a while and have been [...]
"Only I can sell my product" Early-stage company growth stalls for many reasons. Many companies falter at the scale stage of development (going from 4-5 customers to 100). Many founder/CEOs tend to blame lack of funding, slow market acceptance and other factors on lack of growth or inability to scale. However, a main [...]
The New Year is approaching. It’s time for New Year’s resolutions. This applies to personal as well as company resolutions. Here are 10 New Year’s resolutions that will definitively positively impact your company in 2019. It’s up to you. Repeat after me. I will commit to: Continuous learning. Be a better leader and be a better [...]