From the February edition of Business Executive magazine:
“This book is a well-timed initiative for those CEOs who want to act differently, grow their business and lead from the front”
To download a free chapter or buy a copy, just click here
© Stuart Cross 2012. All rights reserved.
This Week’s Focus: To all of you who were about to forget, here’s just a gentle reminder that it’s Valentine’s Day next Tuesday, a day when we focus on what we admire most about our loved ones. Whether it’s ourselves, our partners, or our businesses, it’s all too easy to focus on our weaknesses and shortcomings and spend all our efforts trying to overcome them and somehow become ‘perfect’. The truth is, however, that most success and growth is based on identifying, building and expanding our strengths, not correcting weaknesses.
What are the key strengths of your business, and how are you building and exploiting them for your customers?
Off The Record: My Funny Valentine by Rodgers and Hart
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
© Stuart Cross 2012. All rights reserved.
Following the successful launch of a business, there are three stages of growth, each of which require different management styles and focus.
The risks of reinvention and even renewal are, in steady state markets, of greater risk than refinement. Equally, however, focusing on refinement when you’re market position is crumbling away is a Nero-esque approach that is unlikely to bring success – just ask the management teams of Kodak or HMV.
The key to success is to understand the dynamics in your market and face into your true competitive position, both now and in the future, and match your growth focus to that reality.
What is the reality of your market position, and which ‘R’ should you be focusing on?
© Stuart Cross 2012. All rights reserved.
Just before Christmas I had the pleasure of being interviewed about my new book, The CEO’s Strategy Handbook, by leadership expert, Libby Wagner. Just click on the link to here us discussing how business leaders can make strategy practical.
This Week’s Focus: When I was six I found a sparrow in our family garden that had a broken wing. My mum and I put it in a box and gave it some milk and bread. The following morning the bird had disappeared – my mum told me that it must have got better and flown away.
It was only a couple of years ago, when I asked her if she remembered the injured sparrow we had saved, that my mum – after her laughter made her spitg out the cake she was eating – turned and said, “Stuart, you idiot, the bird died – I had to put it in the bin!”
For nearly 40 years I didn’t question my belief that the sparrow had recovered, but we all carry assumptions around with us that we fail to challenge – sometimes to our cost. Blockbuster’s focus on videos and DVD’s, at the expense of digital streaming, Kodak’s inability to respond to the rise of digital photography, and Tesco’s recent profit warning can all be seen as a failure to challenge long-held assumptions.
What assumptions do you hold about your customers, your markets and your business that you haven’t challenged recently?
Off The Record: Blackbird by The Beatles
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
© Stuart Cross 2012. All rights reserved.
This week’s focus: In my experience, one of the biggest time-wasters in business meetings is where a decision on whether a new project should be pursued (a WHAT decision), becomes overtaken by a discussion on the various ways it could be pursued (a HOW decision).
Recently, for example, I was working with a retail executive team that was discussing whether they should enter a new product category, when the discussion was hijacked by a debate on whether the retailer could fit the new ranges in its existing stores. This new debate was a distraction. The company had many alternative ways to offer the products to customers – in-store, on-line, direct – and a decision on that issue was irrelevant until the team had decided whether or not they wanted to enter the new category in the first place.
First decide on your objectives, and only then determine the best route to achieve them. By splitting these two elements you will make better decisions, faster decisions and have a better chance of successful implementation.
Off the record: You Will, You Won’t by The Zutons
You will, you won’t
You do, you don’t
You’re saying you will
But you know you won’t
© Stuart Cross 2012. All rights reserved.
I recently spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Lincoln Marketing Club. Here’s what the head of the club, Fiona Debell, said about my session:
“Stuart’s ability to engage the audience was superb. His session was relevant, appropriate and beneficial to all. I would recommend Stuart as a speaker to similar business organisations, and would love to have him back in the future.”
Are you looking for a speaker for your business or organisation? Please call me on 01636-526111.
© Stuart Cross 2012.
My new article, The Key To Customer Advocacy, has just been published on Bill Lee’s Reference Point blog – click here. Bill is a US-based expert in managing customer relationships, and you can find out more about him and his work here.
© Stuart Cross 2012
This week’s focus: Over the last few years I have been writing and speaking about my observation that ‘nothing fails like success’, and that many companies don’t fail because they’re bad at what they do, but because they’re great at what they do. They simply fail to adapt quickly enough to changing markets. One of the examples I use is Kodak, which sadly, but perhaps inevitably, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week.
There are no easy answers for successful companies wanting to succeed today and also catch the next wave of growth. But you can only do it if you are genuinely engaged in driving future growth. One CEO I know ensures that he and his team seek to spend 80% of their time on current year performance, 15% on growth in the next 2-3 years, and 5% on longer-term growth.
Are these splits of time correct? I’m not sure, but it seems like a pretty good start. So how about you? As a leader of your company are you spending at least a day a week on growth initiatives that will pay off in over 12 months time?
Off the record: Kodachrome by Paul Simon
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall
© Stuart Cross 2012. All rights reserved.
