A SEAT at THE TABLE: Helping business leaders grow their influence

Digital marketing is now something that every business needs to include  - even if only in a minimal way. That’s left a lot of companies either wondering what to do - or wasting time and money doing the wrong thing. One of the core tactics is building links on your website.  They can significantly boost your ranking in search, add credibility to your website and help attract more visitors. Like mo...

In an environment where interest rates are continuing to rise, suddenly raising venture capital is not as easy as it used to be. If fact, it’s getting a lot more difficult. However, there are always investors who are looking for interesting opportunities.  The key now is knowing how to find them. I’m Jane Singer and it’s great to have you as part of our global community of industry leaders here at...

Many companies think that having survived the pandemic that the worst is behind them.  However they might be surprised to find that economic instability can strike at any time. To ensure that they can survive in any circumstances, leaders need to continually be looking for those ’silent business killers’ that are often lurking in even seemingly healthy companies. Today we’re joined by Steven Blue,...

One of the biggest challenges service providers face is getting new clients.  Not just more clients - but the right clients.  Those people who need and want their services. Typically, executives needed to invest a huge amount of time networking - from attending conferences to working the room at local events. While you can certainly meet a lot of people this way, it takes up a huge amount of time...

For years companies have been talking about digital transformation but many are still trying to figure out what might be the best pathway for transitioning their operations onto a more automated platform. The idea of digitising sounds great. Executing on it often seems daunting.  And in fact it can be.  As a result, companies end up with a compilation of old and new solutions - which can be less e...

Most companies have learned how to attract people to their websites or their online stores. The challenge is converting those visitors into customers.  In an increasingly crowded and noisy market, how can we develop the right strategies to get people to move from looking to buying? In this podcast we are joined by Carl Weische, co-founder of ACCELERATED and an expert in CRO.  That’s conversion rat...

Technology has become essential to almost every aspect of our business operations. Organisations of all sizes are looking to new digital solutions to help them successfully navigate complex and often fast changing environments. Today it’s not only about automating repetitive tasks or making our employees more productive.  Newer technology solutions are providing more immersive ways to use applicat...

Customer loyalty is something every company wants, but nowadays few are able to achieve.  This leaves most companies spending more and more budget to acquire customers who quickly hop to the next brand or chase the newest offer. A big part of running a successful business is being able to retain your existing customers, while continuing to attract new ones. With customer acquisition costs across a...

Companies have always focused on growth, but now there’s increasing pressure to drive profitability.  Typically this means cutting costs.  However in a highly competitive market that will no longer work. Businesses are going to have to ‘invest their way to success’.  Winning companies will need to super charge their creativity and build high performing teams. Now you’re probably thinking ‘That sou...

Most companies understand that we need to be able to tell the story of what we do to our customers. However it turns out that there are powerful advantages to being able to communicate our story to our own team members. In an era where businesses are facing daunting challenges on the home front - from recruiting top talent to retaining the people they have - as well as managing to boost diversity...

A growing number of companies struggling to cope with the many seismic shifts that are rocking global markets.   In good times even poor leadership can keep the ship afloat.  But more turbulent times calls for enterprises to rethink their leadership. However knowing you need to double down on finding the right people to lead your business - and actually defining what kind of talent you need to get...

Automation and fashion are two words that are increasingly coming up in the same sentence. Brands want to keep inventories at a minimum - and need faster production to make that possible. They also need to maximize personalization in order to provide consumers with what they want - when they want it. Figuring out how to pull all of these components together in one smooth running system has elude m...

In an increasingly noisy market, even those brands with massive marketing budgets can struggle to stand out. Not only are companies trying to figure out where to get the most bang for their buck with paid advertising, there’s also the challenge of social media - a channel that has become increasingly overwhelming. Finding the right strategies - and figuring who you need to execute them effectively...

Automation is making even the most complex tasks easier and faster.   This has led  a growing number of businesses to look at everything they do and try and figure out how they can digitize it.  Both large and smaller enterprises are being increasingly challenged to squeeze every bit of inefficiency and redundancy out of commonly performed tasks to reduce costs, save time - and ideally minimize er...

Developing a tech product sounds like a dream job.  Definitely a lot more fun and a lot cooler than what most of spend our days doing. But as is often the case, the rewards can mask years of endless work, angst and despair - before finally getting a product to market.  And then holding your breath and hoping that customers will buy - and that suppliers will deliver. I’m Jane Singer and thank you f...

Mention written communication and most people immediately call you out for being ‘old school’. Yet today more than ever before most of our communication is actually written.  In fact, many argue that verbal communication is now a thing of the past. From email to text messages, we spend most of our days writing -  to customers, team members,  friends and even family.   Unfortunately, while technolo...

When someone mentions online learning we typically think of the pandemic years when students were participating in classrooms much the same way that their parents were spending their days in Zoom meetings. In fact, that’s only one part of the game changing advancements that are taking place as traditional education meets 21st century tech solutions. Today new use cases are being developed that mak...

Mention venture capital and everyone imagines multi-million dollar rounds of funding, the thrill of founding the next unicorn - all leading to a windfall of cash when the company has its IPO. At least that what’s become somewhat of an urban legend. The reality can be quite a bit different.  The road from startup to cashing out is typically frustrating, frenzied and at times even frightening.  I’m...

There’s an old saying ‘Same bed, Different dreams’.  That is often the case with teams.  You have a group of enthusiastic players but each has their own vision of what the outcome should look like. The result can be a lack of efficiency, a failure to meet deadlines or realise any out come at all - or even conflict. And so one of the many things that effective leaders need to achieve is to get ever...

There’s a lot of conversations around leadership these days.  From what generally makes someone a good leader to narrower focuses on leadership styles, decision making, conflict management and just about anything else you can think of. There’s ongoing debate over which leadership playbook is the best way - and what skills are most important to develop in order to effectively lead an organisation -...

One of the biggest marketing challenges that companies face is differentiating themselves from their competitors. Unfortunately, most companies  think the best strategy is to make themselves look as much like everyone else - or as much like the market leaders - as possible. Their website adopts a similar look.  Their logo follows the same style.  Promotional material looks like what everyone else...

E-commerce offers many unique retail opportunities - not the least of which is being location independent.  You can, at least in theory, sell to customers anywhere in the world. However as the e-commerce market becomes increasingly competitive, even power brands are having to devote more resources to drive growth. That leaves small to medium sized brands increasingly frustrated as they struggle to...

We talk a lot about leadership here on A Seat at The Table.  It’s a critical part of running any business these days - whether its a global corporation or a small local operation. Nowadays, for many senior executives, there’s the dual challenge of keeping themselves focused in the face of an onslaught of market twists and turns, as well as supporting their teams and giving them the direction and c...

AI is one of the most talked about technologies.  However most people increasingly see AI as either a kind of super technology that can perform a limitless range of tasks.  Or as technology gone rogue with sci-fi images of AI powered machines taking over the world. Turns out neither really defines AI.  In fact, it could be said that AI is one of today’s most misunderstood technologies. There’s a l...

For many people who’ve turned into this podcast, you might be wondering “what is a super app?” And “if I’m not a tech developer, why is this relevant to my business?” I was thinking the same thing. But it turns out that the things that make these apps so attractive to so many people - and keeps them loyal - can be applied to almost any business. In this episode I’m speaking with Kevin Shimota, a l...