StrategyDriven’s radically different approach to management consulting allows you to use your own staff, not requiring you to use ours, so your people benefit from the project experience and then keep this knowledge within your organization.
Ask yourself, when was the last time you paid your first or second year associates $180,000 to $240,000 per year commensurate with your consultants’ $90 to $120 per hour consulting rate for staff personnel? Ever feel like you’re paying for the on-the-job training of your consultants’ staff?
From time-to-time, all organizations encounter a need for specialized knowledge, skills, or resources they don’t maintain on staff. When the need is temporary, the engagement of high-quality consultants is a great way to fill these gaps.
But every dollar spent on consultants should go to bettering your company’s bottom line, not building-up your consultants’ businesses or paying for unnecessary overheads.
When you engage StrategyDriven, you provide the staff; enabling knowledge transfer into your organization and dramatically lowering costs in a way that is unmatched by traditional consulting firms.
Combine this with our “only as much as you need” use of our seasoned business leaders, our vast array of fully developed methods and tools, and our elimination of high cost overheads such as bricks and mortar offices and you get superior advisory services at a dramatically lower cost.
But don’t take my word for it, try our services for yourself. When you signup for StrategyDriven’s Self Guided Insights Library, you’ll gain FREE access to hundreds of our how-to business management and leadership documents spanning topics from strategic planning to day-to-day business execution. Created by respected business leaders from around the world, these documents provide you with the real-world tested, immediately implementable advice you need to take your organization to the next level of performance.
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“You have potential.” Those words have never seemed to move people toward success. They send the message, “You are not yet where you need to be.” The spirit of the message, that you believe in that person is an important one. However, what’s key is not just that you believe in someone, it’s teaching them how to get to where they need to go.
Strong belief drives strong behavior. The way to increase your belief in yourself is to make progress toward your success. Momentum is contagious and pushes back any resistance we may face. Many people put limitations on themselves and get in their own way of their ultimate potential. The best thing you can do is know what you want, know what is holding you back, and create a self-strategy to get there.
3 Ways to Develop a Self-Strategy
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Dr. Rob Fazio is the author of Simple Is the New Smart. He is the Managing Partner of OnPoint Advising, Inc. Rob advises with executives, athletes, and businesses internationally to guide them toward success. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Most of us can relate to this scenario: when completing an employment application, you are asked to identify a number of references (typically 3-5) for prospective employers to contact. In order to put your best foot forward, you choose these references wisely and list those whom will provide the most glowing reviews of their professional abilities.
However, it’s unlikely that these well-chosen references will be the deciding factor on whether you get that hoped-for new position. The truth is, prospective employers look first at the name in “Former Supervisor” box on your job application, and whether you authorize it or not, your previous supervisor may well get a call from a prospective employer.
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Jeff Shane is President of Allison Taylor, Inc., a reference and background checking firm doing business since 1984. He oversees matters of product development, online integration of services and attorney interaction on behalf of the company’s many clients. Jeff is frequently interviewed about employment trends and his interviews appear globally in newspapers and magazines.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/JeffShane-1.jpg705510Nathan Iveshttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngNathan Ives2016-03-30 11:00:242016-05-14 14:33:05Are You Betting On the Wrong Job References?
Management observation cards are intended to be easy and straightforward to complete in the field. Consequently, the card’s structure should be such that it requires the minimal amount of data collection; reducing the administrative burden (and physical awkwardness) of completing form while ensuring quality performance data collection. Such a structure promotes the number and frequency of observation performance which in-turn yields additional management engagement points and performance data. Key to simplifying management observation cards is a predefined criteria scoring system whereby the observer need only select specific scores for each criteria accompanied by substantiating comments for performance outliers (high and low).
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Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/ScoringCriteria.jpg282425Nathan Iveshttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngNathan Ives2016-03-29 11:00:562018-08-08 21:58:37Management Observation Program Best Practice 14 – Criteria Scoring System
Here’s a quick one-question quiz: What is the most important requirement for a successful product launch?
a. A great product
b. A market that wants a great product (Product-Market Fit)
c. A great distribution plan to sell it
d. A well formulated Go-To-Market Strategy
e. All of the above
In a perfect launch, all of these components are vital to a successful launch. So by that logic, “e” would be the correct answer.
But of course, we don’t live in a world of perfect launches. Not even Samsung — which has had some amazing launches — gets it right every time. Most companies, whether start-ups or long-time players live in a world shaped by the laws of demand where low pricing can trump quality, and where targeted marketing, carefully crafted keywords, and social media engineering can build awareness, influence opinion, and generate sales.
And that means marginal products can outsell superior ones — just look at Microsoft vs. Apple. It took years for Apple to gain traction despite offering what critics consider to be a superior operating system. Then, there is 50 Shades of Grey. While many may consider it to be a cheap, trashy novel (and others are offended by its contents), it is one of the biggest selling novels of the century.
As for distribution, “smart marketing” can turn faulty launch distribution planning into buzz-worthy spin and drive more sales. How? Simply by positioning a lack of inventory (or understaffed customer service), as the result of “unprecedented demand,” and boom! A disaster is cloaked as a win. Remember the DVD (and later book) juggernaut called The Secret? It began as a small direct sales operation, with no plan for national distribution. When word of mouth grew, no retailers had the DVD to meet the demand. Getting The Secret, was, for a while, a secret. By the time national distribution was in place, demand was huge.
These are exceptions, to be sure. But I mention them to underscore just how critical item “d” on the list is. Go-To-Market Strategy planning and budgeting is just as vital to a successful launch as the product itself.
Why? Go-To Market Strategy is, in essence, the launch. It’s the beach landing and the strategy for taking the hill. It’s the complete plan to drive sales of a new product. It encompasses market analysis, pricing decisions, launch timing, channel partnerships, customer acquisition costs, building and training a sales force, distribution planning and budgets, customer service, PR, media, and establishing realistic short and long-term ROI expectations of the company.
You could have the best SaaS package on the planet, a must-have app, a killer API, or a smartphone that qualifies for MENSA, but if you don’t have your Go-To-Market Strategy for your SaaS, app, or AIP locked-up and budgeted correctly, your launch is at risk.
That’s because a product launch is a race against time fueled by finite resources. It is vital to make an impact as quickly as possible because product can be replicated and improved upon by competitors. If you are first-to-market, but the competition has more resources, stronger marketing power, superior distribution, or sales infrastructure, your primary advantage is time — you got to the market first — so use your 15 minutes of fame well.
Go-To-Market Strategies must ask and answer the crucial question: “How much money will it cost to scale the launch until incoming revenue provides sustainability?” The laws of demand and market realities dictate that the Go-To-Market Strategy for a $2 app is, in most cases, going to be very different from the strategy for selling $100,000 SaaS packages. Both have radically different sales cycles, but both must be budgeted accordingly.
For instance, selling platform licenses to entire companies, like the enterprise HR software Workday, takes much more time than it does to sell a new application for a smart phone. Even under optimum conditions, an instant sale is not possible for a complex, enterprise-based system. Buyers have to do their due diligence, understand integration issues, get sign-off, have lawyers approve the deal, and so on. So going to market means accounting for a sales force that will require a protracted sales cycle before closing a deal. And that means you will need significant funds to initiate, scale, and sustain your launch.
Conversely, you may not need a dedicated sales force to sell a $2 smartphone app or $.02 API. Of course this depends on a company’s business model. Seamless, the online restaurant food ordering and delivery service, gives users its app for free, and it’s a safe bet the company has budgeted for a sales force to locate and enlist new restaurant partners to expand its reach and increase customer usage. But your Go-To-Market Strategy budgeting is just as important when it comes to building awareness for your product, no matter how you’ve price it. In this case, a successful launch might not hinge as much on sales staffing and distribution as it will on ad-buying and buzz building. Once again, it is vital to have the ad and sales projections — and the required funds! —in place, so your product can start earning out.
There are, of course, many potential points of failure in any product launch. That’s why optimizing a Go-To-Market Strategy is so vital. And that’s why analyzing the launch in real-time needs to be part of that strategy. So that if traction is not realized, if something goes wrong with the product or its distribution, how do you react? What is the Plan B? The pivot, the counter-move? Does your strategy factor in the unexpected and is it budgeted to take those risks into consideration?
If those elements are not addressed, then your Go-To-Market Strategy is not ready, which means you’re not ready to mount your beachhead with your new product.
To go back to the question that opened this article, I hope it’s clear that the product is only half the battle. Awareness, branding, and sales conversion are significant launch drivers, as is creativity. Even if the product isn’t perfect, marketers have proven it is possible to create a demand for even the most suspect of products. We need to go no further than the Pet Rock for an example. No doubt, your business model isn’t built around a rock, but no matter what you are selling, or who is doing the selling, the most innovative marketers are armed with a well formulated Go-To-Market Strategy supported by the requisite funds, pricing flexibility and distribution channels to bring a product to market. And if they have all of the necessary components in place, then they are ready to stand and deliver. And launch.
About the Author
Brian Goodman is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for Technossus, a rapidly growing enterprise-class software solutions and technology consulting firm that assists business leaders to accelerate change and deliver sustainable results. Brian has more than 16 years of strategic and operational responsibilities, with a successful record of building and expanding enterprises, from early-stage to divisions of leading international corporations across the professional services and software sectors. Recognized by OC Metro in its “40 Under 40” feature on rising stars in the business world for “breaking new ground,” Brian has become a business thought leader who is frequently quoted in the media and featured on business radio programs. He began his career in the software industry as a corporate attorney focused on private-equity financing and technology transactions, serving as senior corporate counsel at Paciolan, Inc. (acquired by Ticketmaster) and corporate counsel at internet and software company, AltaVista (acquired by Yahoo!).
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. He is the Managing Partner of 
Jeff Shane is President of 
Management observation cards are intended to be easy and straightforward to complete in the field. Consequently, the card’s structure should be such that it requires the minimal amount of data collection; reducing the administrative burden (and physical awkwardness) of completing form while ensuring quality performance data collection. Such a structure promotes the number and frequency of observation performance which in-turn yields additional management engagement points and performance data. Key to simplifying management observation cards is a predefined criteria scoring system whereby the observer need only select specific scores for each criteria accompanied by substantiating comments for performance outliers (high and low).
Brian Goodman is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for 
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