KYC is a term in Financial Services and is a requirement within the Wealth Management world around understanding your client and their goals / objectives to make sure their portfolio matches those goals re asset mix versus what makes the broker the most money. I would like to borrow the…
A few nights ago, I was having dinner with some friends, who are also business colleagues. A question came up at the table re how one the guys approaches strategic planning. He is the CEO of Financial Institution [a large Credit Union to be specific]. His answer was interesting based…
I was doing some work with two different clients in the past week where the concept of the “Red Team” came up in conversation. Rooted in military history, a Red Team is an inside group that explicitly challenges a company’s strategy, products, and preconceived notions. It frames a problem from…
If you were given a choice, looking at the effectiveness of sales organization, would you rather lose less or win more? The word “both” was likely just echoing in your head. What we know to be true from both external data sources and the work we do with clients [large…
When I ask this question of large groups, people know it is a trick question, but still default to common answers. Very naturally, our instinctive response is to think immediately of our specific products or services. The most common answers I get are that we are selling Solutions or Value,…
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about an emerging opportunity he has within his company. Already a senior executive, he has been asked to take on a role that is totally revenue focused and will logically evolve into this thing called a Chief Revenue Officer.
As a relatively new father, my 2-year-old son never ceases to amaze me at the pace that he both learns and adjusts. He is very vocal and has a great repository of words that grow daily, so you get to hear how his thought process plays out. Like most kids,…
Building on previous blogs, change is hard and in complex selling environments, a business case is typically required as part of the buying process. They will vary in formality and content, but in the land of consensus decision making, the business case for change is the one common denominator that…
I have spent the past 5 weeks running Strategic Planning sessions for Corporations across North America. I credit these organizations for understanding the opportunity to create alignment, consistency and simplicity by actually having a Plan. There are a couple of realities that I would like to discuss. The first is…
We have talked previously that the concept of strategy is all about growth. Virtually every executive that we speak with has organic revenue growth as one of his or her top priorities. As corporate balance sheets have continued to improve, the volume of acquisitions has continued to accelerate and multipliers…