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

A lot of conversations around leadership tend to focus on corporate culture.  While culture is important, it tends to be a bit ‘big picture’ and not particularly relatable to the entire hierarchy of team members. This is where ‘purpose’ can play an important role in helping support both individual team members to find more fulfilment in their work, as well as creating a greater sense of direction...

B2B companies keep getting told that they need to invest in marketing but most still see it more as a ‘nice to have’ not a ‘ must have’. It has the look and feel of an expensive with an uncertain ROI attached to it. While its true that today its difficult to move the needle on sales, let alone building brand recognition for your product or service, marketing can be effective and budget friendly -...

Everyone loves to gather round the conference table and brain storm new ideas.  We all enjoy exploring the possibilities of what we could do … what it might look like … and of course the big success that we think could result from our innovative ideas. But how often does ideating actually lead to the execution of a project?  How many times have we seen the high energy experienced during the idea p...

Most companies don’t realise how many processes are part of their day to day business.  That is until we need to onboard a new team member or even do a task or operation that we haven’t done for awhile. Then we face that massive speed bump in trying to figure out what needs to be done - not just generally, but the actual steps we need to take.   That could in completing a process or using software...

As leaders try to navigate their businesses through a more complicated market environment, their Human Resources can be their most valuable resources - if they can keep them focused and engaged in the tasks at hand. This has led to increasing conversations about the importance of corporate culture. Many leaders think that this means creating a lofty vision expressed in flowery language.  However c...

Whether you are running a huge organisation or a small business, one of the challenges everyone faces is finding the right talent.  This can be especially daunting if you are looking for senior people with more specialised skill sets.  It’s not just finding the right person.  It’s about finding the right person with the right skills - and who is the right fit for your company.  And doing it in the...

 Employee retention is one of the most talked about topics these days.  Even heading into what looks like an economic slowdown, many companies are struggling to find and retain top talent. As much as technology has moved into the workplace, thanks to new developments in AI, bots and digitization - there’s still a need for people who are innovative, have leadership skills, technical knowledge and c...

When we think about ways to improve online sales, we typically don’t think about website speed.  However  site speed can play a critical role in driving sales - or driving  customers away. We know that today’s shopper waits for no one - and alternatives are a mere mouse click away. But can a site that loads slowly really be part of the reason why online stores lose sales?  And if so, then what kin...

Retail is facing a complex market environment right now with costs rising, more channels to manage and a consumer who a year ago was flush with stimulus money, but now is dialling down spending in the face of rising inflation. What can retailers do to get ahead of market conditions - and position themselves to triumph? Today I’m speaking with Carl Boutet, Founder, Chief Strategist & Executive...

B2B marketing has been something that most companies either did randomly or not at all. While those targeting the consumer market understand that marketing is a must - the companies selling to other businesses see promotion or advertising as, basically, a waste of time and money. The entire burden of driving sales falls squarely on the sales department, who rely on labor intensive efforts that are...

Well trained teams are one of the foundations of a successful business.  That can be a challenge, especially in businesses where front line teams have to keep up to date on a vast amount of new products.   Or in companies where team members need to be knowledgeable about products or services that are complex or very technical. In  the old days companies would send people to training sessions or co...

Referrals are an often overlooked way to grow your business.  Many see it as ‘old school’. ‘Word of mouth’ has been a time tested way to grow sales and connect with new customers - but in a competitive market, companies need more proactive marketing in order to survive. Now there’s a new easy to implement, low cost marketing opportunity back by technology that can help both DTC and B2B brands grow...

These days when we talk about retail the conversation quickly turns to e-commerce. In a tech centric era, the pandemic was the perfect storm that convinced everyone that the future of retail was online. Industry advisors and media proclaimed “Go digital or die”. Companies threw every possible resource at building or enhancing their e-commerce channels.  Massive amounts of capital was poured into t...

Calling on customers has become such a standard part of most businesses that we tend to take it for granted. We have our habitual way of approaching customers and don’t often think about whether this approach is as effective as it could be. We assume that people who don’t buy our products or who are not even interested hearing about them, just aren’t the right prospects for us. But what if it wasn...

Every business dreams of being able to create more predictable success for their companies. Doing that has become increasingly challenging - especially in today’s fast changing and very unpredictable markets. But what if one CEO has figured out a way to get predictable and repeatable outcomes? Today I’m talking with Thomas Douglas, CEO of JMark,  an award-winning innovative IT solutions provider. ...

There’s an old show biz saying that goes ‘always leave them laughing’ .  Turns out that this can also be applied to growing sales. In a hyper competitive market, brands need to do more than simply ‘think outside of the box’ in order to get the attention of customers - let alone close sales. That led one smart marketer to see the potential in combining humour with a sales message.  The results have...

 One thing that tech startups and most B2B companies have in common is their aversion to marketing. Most prefer to go deep on product development - and then take a ‘build and they will come’ approach to marketing. Not surprising then that so many struggle to get customers - especially in hyper competitive markets. But how can companies with limited budgets compete - even with bigger players? In th...

There’s  a lot of conversations around leadership strategy and the important role that leadership skills play at a time when markets are becoming more complex and staff retention is more challenging. We’ve seen a rash of new theories, approaches and tactics that look at how we can build better leaders. Yet often times we fail to look at what gets in the way of people being effective leaders.  And...

As retail  reopens there’s been a lot more conversation around the role stores will play in an increasingly digital world. Many see physical stores as dinosaurs whose role will increasingly be a combination of a distribution centre supporting e-commerce and a product showroom of sorts. But others argue that shopping is a social activity that is a fundamental part of most consumers’ lives.  And tha...

One of the biggest challenges that is standing the way of greener energy is finding ways to store that energy. This is particularly true for electric vehicles, as well as other sectors. The solution is the development of batteries with greater storage capacity.  The challenge is creating these batteries - in a way that is sustainable and affordable. While we know that there have been huge advancem...

Digital transformation is one of the most talked about concepts in the business community. Most of the conversations focus around the pros and cons of various software solutions or  in many cases simply the need for companies to digitise more of their operations. We don’t often hear much about the back end of digitization - what’s happening further upstream that’s powering all of our applications....

Leadership and branding are two words that don’t typically appear in the same sentence. We think of branding as something that’s applied to products to give them an identity or greater consumer appeal. Leadership tends to conjure images of building team spirit or guiding a company through tough times or towards greater success. But what if to be more successful senior executives need to combine th...

One of the lessons from the pandemic that is often overlooked is the critical role that data plays in the healthcare sector. Admittedly, if you don’t work in the sector then it’s something that you’d be likely to think about. However the importance of having your own health records digitised - and the ability for healthcare professionals to be able to access patient data across nationwide or even...

Data security is something we take for granted.  We don’t often think about the consequences, until one of our devices or data servers gets hacked. I’m talking about password protection. It’s a subject most of us overlook - me too! - until its too late. And it’s not only personal data, companies face dire situations when a hacker gets into their records and holds them for ransom. Today I’m speakin...

As economies around the world start to reopen, one of the issues facing businesses is whether to bring everyone back to the office, continue working from home or implement some hybrid work format. Most people want to work from home at least some of the time.   But how can leadership manage to keep teams engaged and productivity up to speed when everyone seems to working in different places and on...