Posts Tagged ‘consultants’
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
According to this article by strategy giant Booz and Company, it appears that competition and other market forces are driving down profit margins in the big pharmaceutical market. Sound familiar? Sounds like everyone got tossed around in this economy.
My favorite line in the article: ”The next decade for the pharmaceutical industry is shaping up to be not only a period in which the leading companies don’t know what’s going to happen, but one in which they can’t know what’s going to happen, because so many of the conditions under which they operate are in such an unusual state of flux.”
I agree. All of us are in a state of flux. So here’s an idea: let’s stop trying to predict what’s coming up next. Let’s stop sticking our finger in the air to see which way the wind blows. Because that dang wind can change directions in a heartbeat.
Instead, let’s focus on pockets of profitability. What do we do best and who needs that? Can we take our gifts to a new sandbox? And the more important question: how can we deliver on that need in a different way than before? Let’s venture out some and find new folks who need what we have. It’s time to hedge our bets with a little diversification.
This article tells me that: (1) the days of steady, predictable growth are gone; and, (2) now is the time to make strategic bets. A lot of good examples here. Check it out for yourself.
Tags: consultants, experts, positioning, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Thursday, December 1st, 2011
Want a one-stop shop on performance improvement and engagement? Check out this collection of white papers and other resources at a new website by the Performance Improvement Council. Yes, there is an incentive bent — keep that in mind as you read the perspectives. But there are some good reports, my favorite being Employee Lifetime Value.
This is a great resource for speeches and other content on these topics. When you are in research mode, check this site out.
Tags: consultants, experts, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
IBM released their Global CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) study last month. I like the way they gathered the data: personal interviews with 1,734 CMO’s from 64 countries and 19 industries. This is how you find out where the bodies are buried.
Here are the top three imperatives according to the respondents:
- Delivering value to “empowered customers” — using all that data to figure out buying behavior and demand patterns.
- Creating relationships with those customers — over half say the answer lies in social media, with the focus of going beyond the transaction. Their key question: how to help the buyers enjoy their purchase.
- Measuring marketing impact on the business — so they can get their fair share of the budget and kudos.
The best news: a big majority (over 60%) believe they are unprepared for the above onslaught. What the most proactive are doing: focusing on relationships instead of transactions and creating a clear — alert! new buzzword coming up — “corporate character”.
If this isn’t an invitation to help, I don’t know what is. Don’t think that because you are not a marketing expert, you can’t take advantage of this. There are a lot of places to play in these initiatives. Click here for the summary and the full report.
Tags: consultants, experts, Marketing, opportunity, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Last week, I ranted here about how buyers define thought leaders by their current work and how that work can be translated into a message the audience needs to hear. I’m not done. Here’s another example of this trend at work: Fast Company magazine’s Innovation Uncensored held on November 2nd in San Franciso.
First thing I noticed about the agenda: the topics. We experts have great content on this stuff, too. But look at who they chose instead. Folks on the front lines, speaking from experience. Here’s the playbook: get a bunch of cool people who do cool things and learn from them. Attendees not only get access to these folks, but also content connected to big results.
My take: our content is not enough. We need to connect our content to a cause that gets buzz. No worries, I’m on this. Stay tuned…
Tags: branding, consultants, experts, positioning, Speaking, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
As you read this, I am in China teaching a class about branding. My message to these business owners: buyers make choices based on criteria that they don’t even know they have. The brain plays tricks on us all the time. The key: sometimes it pays to go counterintuitive.
Case in point: researchers have learned that publishing negative information about us can be a good thing. Yes, they even have a name for it — the blemishing effect. How it works: studies show that folks think more highly of a business when they receive a little negative info in the midst of several rave reviews. Therefore, we should not hide the negative, but use it to our advantage. Go figure.
Remember, it only works when the negative info follows good news. But don’t take my word for it. Check out the synopsis from Booz Allen’s strategy + business.
Tags: branding, consultants, experts, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Want to know what the most influential folks in healthcare are pondering? Check out Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation’s annual Transform Conference. Given the slate of speakers, I see this event as the health care version of TED. A great combo of innovators on the front lines, academia and those not even in the healthcare industry. My favorite part: they save five 5-minute slots (called iSpot) on the main stage for the public. (That’s us folks.)
Another similarity to TED: every speaker is doing “cool projects”, things that don’t involve a stage of audience. They were invited to speak or share their views on what’s next. My guess: they were chosen not only because of their backgrounds, but also because of their current work.
Why do you care? Two reasons: if you’re going to speak for free, these are the venues to do it. Anyone can apply for the iSpot slots. And second, this is how the marketplace defines thought leaders. Brand yourself accordingly.
Tags: branding, consultants, experts, Health, speakers, Speaking, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Just returned from the Women’s Leadership Board meeting at Harvard last week. Learned a lot from fabulous research on a variety of topics. One of my favorite presentations was on how top performers fare in new environments. Harvard Business School associate professor, Boris Groysberg, burst a lot of bubbles with this primary research into what really happens when companies hire super stars to save them. Among his findings:
- In the 21st century, many more companies will hire from outsiders rather than develop from within. Conventional wisdom from the C-suite: our current team can’t deal with upcoming changes or we wouldn’t be in this situation now. Their expectation: super stars will hit the ground running and create instant results.
- The reality: results from a vast majority of top performers tank within the first year. While performance gradually improves, these stars only rise to average levels after five years.
- Top performers who are hired to rescue struggling companies experience the biggest dip in performance.
- Stars who move to another company with their colleagues fare better; those who move alone or to launch a new venture do not experience the same success.
The upshot: the biggest factor impacting performance was not the selection of outside super stars, but how well they integrated into the company’s culture. This goes far beyond on-boarding; I see a lot of opportunity here for experts beyond the typical OD types. Check out Boris’ book, Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance and see for yourself.
Tags: books, consultants, experts, positioning, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Thursday, October 27th, 2011
The best thing I’ve learned in social media is how to have a conversation with people I disagree with. I’m happy to report that I can go to threads and respond without thinking someone is an idiot. (Well, most of the time.)
That said, I have come to believe that in the spirit of promotion, many of us have become too clever for our own good. For those of you doing the below, please know that the rest of us know you are just trying to promote yourself at our expense:
- Asking a provocative question and then pointing to your article: if you can’t give me insights in your post, I’m not clicking to learn more.
- Answer a question by saying, “hire me and find out.” Yes, I have seen several of these. Some even go the extra mile to say, “I’ve checked your website / video / material. It’s pretty bad, but I can still help.” I don’t even bother responding to these posts.
- Use the same answer for every question. One person was passionate about presentation skills. So guess how he answered every question? With generic platitudes about the importance of these skills. Poor man didn’t realize that if he had just given some specific ideas, folks would’ve seen him as a resource.
It’s tempting to justify all the time we spend on these discussions with slick tricks to promote our blogs and offers. My vote: don’t do it. Instead, if we focus on posting specifics with insights, both the participants and the lurkers will reach out.
Tags: consultants, conversations, experts, Marketing, positioning, social media, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Thursday, October 20th, 2011
The biggest tragedy in this recovery is that the opportunities we have grown to depend on are not coming back. Paid speaking engagements are now free or cut to 25 cents on the dollar. Many coaching assignments are handled in-house. And don’t talk to contract trainers about their fees.
So how do we find what’s next? This article in strategy-business last month has some good ideas. What we have to do: ignore evidence that confirms our assumptions. Yep, easier said than done. How to do it: look for incongruities. My favorite is #4: what is annoying shouldn’t be.
Sadly, the days are over when we can go back to the same places to offer our services. Now is the time to take what we have and make something new. Test your assumptions, reconnect the dots and see what happens.
Tags: consultants, economy, experts, positioning, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Many experts think they are competitive because their business is growing. My response: depends on how you get clients.
Especially in the beginning, we build our business with what I call the “here’s my check” situations. We’ve become known in a few companies, and get hired time and time again. In those relationships, we are the sole source provider.
There’s nothing wrong with those gigs; it’s our reward for doing good work. The problem: assuming that because we got those assignments, we are ready to compete for buyers who don’t know us as well. The reality: there’s a big difference between competing against other providers and picking the low hanging fruit.
Going vertical will only grow our business so far. When that’s not enough, we have to position our expertise for a completely different environment, where the sale isn’t a given. Where buyers are overwhelmed with choices. Where we are being compared to criteria we don’t always control. That is competition. And requires a whole different plan of action.
So the next time you want to take your business to the next level, ask yourself this: am I really ready to compete? Or…should I go vertical and get more business from current clients?
Tags: consultants, conversations, experts, Marketing, positioning, strategy, Vickie Sullivan
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