growth

I originally wrote today’s post for Momentive.ai. It appeared on their site on January 25, 2022.

Customer expectations were already changing before COVID-19, but the pandemic has amplified them and accelerated new expectations. 

I originally wrote today’s post for StellaConnect. It appeared on their site on July 13, 2021.

You’ve probably all heard – or read about – the Bain statistic from 2005 that goes like this:

80% of executives believe that they are delivering a superior customer experience, while only 8% of customers agree.

In business, a growth curve is certainly a great ride for executives, managers, and employees. They enjoy an expanding market, healthy gross margins, and unlimited demand for their products and services. For public companies, a high valuation also opens up an appetite for more aggressive acquisition. But all growth eventually comes to an end, and management will quickly shift their focus to managing costs, putting any non-core play projects on hold, and delaying major systems upgrades.

This marks the end of another year. A very busy and fruitful year for us. Personally I was on the road for more than 200 days and I need to take a break - perhaps 3 days. What about my New Year's resolution? I need to cut down on drive and email. I need to cut down on attending unproductive meetings. I need to find three people to mentor that they can become the best. I need to revisit places from my childhood that were memorable. I need to back up my hard drive (I am 96 days behind). I need to produce a mini feature film and shot entirely with my HTC phone. I need to cut down on my public speaking. I need to have more discipline on getting enough sleep.

There was a lot to celebrate at Southwest Airlines’ annual shareholders’ meeting last week. The company was riding high after reporting net income in Q1 2014 doubled to $152 million and passenger revenue per available seat mile, a key performance metric for the airline industry, rose 3.5%.

Companies today spend a huge amount of time, money, and human resources trying to learn about customer needs. They don’t do this for laughs; smart companies do it because they are looking for ways to grow their business. But different types of growth require different inputs from customers; if you don’t know that up front, your efforts can fail at providing meaningful insights.

The Harvard Design Thinking Seminar was a great one. High quality participants and great turn out with beautiful New York City spring weather. Lunch on the rooftop is way better than a banquet room or a faculty's dining hall. No place on earth can beat the view of New York City. So much energy and creativity.

by: Sigurd Rinde

by: John Caddell

Should B2B marketers change their strategies during a recession? Does a recession always mean marketers have to work even harder to find ways to do more with less? Can a recession create opportunity for smart marketers to grow and thrive? These are some of the topics I recently explored on a panel at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle.