White Papers and Articles

Creating a Positive Organizational Climate in a Negative Economic One
Companies that build a positive organizational climate as part of their competitive strategy are continuing to exceed customer expectations, maintain employee productivity, and innovate to gain a competitive edge. They are cultivating a positive organizational climate, says Forum's latest research, which identifies six dimensions of climate that influence the work environment and employee motivation.

Leading Your Sales Organization Through a Tough Economy
Sales executives know the feeling of being lost in today's uncharted business environment. Business customers have become harder to find and more challenging to pursue; existing customers are asking for concessions even after contracts are signed; the sales force is distracted at best and demoralized at worst. In the meantime, companies are managing budgets more tightly than in the past, setting ambitious targets and counting on the sales force to pull them through. The path forward is murkier than ever...

Leading Through an Economic Crisis
As dramatic changes in financial and energy markets work their way through the economy, senior leaders face difficult choices as they confront higher expenses and news of a global downturn.

The Downturn's Upside: Creating a Recession Proof Sales Strategy
There is an upside to this downturn. Not all sectors are struggling and even some companies within harder hit industries are continuing to spend now so that they can emerge from this crisis with greater market share and a strong bottom line. Read this point-of-view paper to discover the strategies for turning this recession to your advantage.

Creating a Climate for Growth
To grow organically, you need the right climate. Climate acts as the accelerator of a highly potent chain reaction that begins with leadership and ends with powerful results. This point of view paper is part of a series on driving organic growth

Avoiding the Three Traps of Dilemmas
Leadership abilities such as demonstrating agility, using keen judgment, and managing complexity are critical to driving organic growth. The key to using these skills is understanding that many of the issues facing leaders today are dilemmas that must be managed - not black-and-white problems that have a single right answer.

The Virtues of Dilemma Management
How one company preserved its family culture while adapting to the needs of tomorrow. Today's globally competitive environment demands that successful companies be adaptive, flexible and "built for change". But what happens when that change seems to contradict an organization's sense of it's history, culture, and identity?

It's not what's in or outside the box, it's what's on the line
Forum is researching the acceleration of strategy execution in the midst of turbulent change (Speed, for short). This field of study is a goldmine of insights and promising leadership practices. This article is the first in a series of such insights we will share with you as our research progresses.

Executing an Organic Growth Strategy
Forum research has found that many companies are able to drive growth agressively by converting people "issues" into people "assets" - sources of competitive advantage. This POV examines the foundation, lever & drivers of sustained organic growth.

Selling in Uncertain Times: Strategies for Building Business in a Tough Economy
In this Point of View paper, Ron Koprowski examines the behaviors, and strategies needed in order to drive sales and build business in a tough economy

Leading Remote Teams
As globalization and technology converge to provide broad and immediate access to the farthest reaches of the world, the work itself is growing increasingly remote. What does this mean for leadership?

How Healthy is Your Brand?
A recent MIT study indicates that twice as many customers are spending more on "healthy" brands than on the lowest-performing brands. This article, originally published in FORUM INSIGHTS, will examine how you can impact your brand health through an improved customer experience?

Is BCE just for B2C?
Starbucks, Virgin, Gap...we all know examples of a successful Branded Customer Experience® in the Business to Consumer world but can the principles of BCE be applied with just as much success in the Business to Business world? This article, originally published in FORUM INSIGHTS, examines the dynamics and potential of delivering a B2B Branded Customer Experience®.

Achieving Predictability or Creating Advocates: Are they mutually exclusive?
While trying to achieve organic growth should you focus on delivering a predictable experience or on creating advocates? This article, originally published in FORUM INSIGHTS, examines whether you can decide between these two options and if so, how.

Growing Your Company Through Customer Focus: What does it take?
Unwavering customer focus is key to driving and sustaining profitable growth for organizations. Forum's research emphasizes this importance and also reveals what customer-centered, growing companies do differently.

The Customer Experience: People Make the Difference
Customer focus is a critical component of an organic growth strategy, as recent Forum research revealed. This Point of View paper examines the importance of the Branded Customer Experience in achieving organic growth and the central role of leaders in driving it.

Do You See The Gorillas?
Execution is challenging, particularly in periods of change. This article outlines the importance of leaders who can see the "gorillas through the trees." This article originally appeared in our bi-monthly email newsletter, Forum Insights.

Simplicity 1-2-3: 1 Law, 2 Common Threads, 3 Questions
This article provides 3 questions that will help you incorporate "less" into your business to provide your customers more.

8 Leadership Mistakes That Stall Growth
With the global and U.S. economies slowing because of the subprime mortgage fallout, the margin for error is narrowing for companies to achieve the growth goals their CEOs charge them with. The International Monetary Fund recently predicted the U.S. economy will grow only 1.9 percent in 2008, and this quarter's Duke University/CFO magazine Business Outlook Survey found that CFO optimism has plunged to a six-year low. Despite the high stakes, a majority of executives and managers in Forum's recent global survey said they felt unprepared to lead their companies' growth initiatives and that their companies do too little to prepare them. The result: growth-killing mistakes.

Secrets of the Most Successful Sales Managers
What if it were possible for a sales manager to increase her effectiveness not by working more efficiently, but by choosing her tasks more "strategically?" In this Field Notes article, first published in our e-newsletter Forum Insights, Forum Consultant Jeff Baker reveals how Sales Managers can achieve a dramatic impact on their sales results.

Are Your Salespeople Tuned Into The Customer's Wavelength?
In this Field Notes article, originally published in our newsletter Forum Insights, Forum Consultant Tom Atkinson shares some of the key findings from the recent Forum survey: Sales Force Effectiveness: A "Street Level" view.

Managing the Dilemma Between Transaction and Relationship Selling
Xavier Martin is a Forum partner with over 20 years of experience training and coaching in sales, management and leadership. In this interview, he examines the most important dilemmas impacting sales management today and exposes the most common pitfalls for new sales managers.

Driving Growth Through Sales Transformation
Helping the people in your sales organization understand their role in executing your strategy, and aligning individual attitudes and behaviors with the strategy, you can be sure you are connecting with the right customers, winning their business, and keeping them loyal.

Developing High-Potential Leaders
Developing high potentials to take on key senior leadership roles is complex and challenging for organizations - beginning with how to define "high potential." Most organizations can identify, with varying degrees of formality, their short list of likely future senior leaders. But, by definition, the characteristics of these high potentials are elusive. How do you recognize promise, or know it when you see it?

Leading Organic Growth
Whether you are a giant multi-national corporation, a fledgling start-up, or a business unit of a company, your organization is expected to grow. It is growth that sustains a business and keeps it viable in the capital markets, in the eyes of customers, and in the market for employee talent.

The People Side of Alliances
Statistics clearly point to the rise of alliances. Companies expect the revenue contribution of alliances to increase from 19 percent to 47 percent in 5 years. Most business leaders report that their organizations have not fully prepared them to lead. In this article, originally published in our newsletter, Forum Insights, Louise Axon, VP Thought Leadership considers how HR can advance alliance success?

Perfection: The Enemy of Good...And Growth
"I'm a perfectionist!" Everyone knows that is a bulletproof response to the classic interview question, "What is your greatest weakness?" However, true perfectionists will struggle in organizations with lofty growth targets operating in fast-moving, complex, and ambiguous environments. This Field Notes article, first published in our newsletter, Forum Insights, Thought Leadership Consultant Steve Barry examines three reasons why it's crucial to find out if you are hiring a perfectionist.

What Type of Conductor Are You?
The orchestra conductor is a powerful metaphor for leadership. However, leadership often means more than simply having one person up in front. In this Field Notes article, originally published in our newsletter, Forum Insights, we ask - is the 'conductor as leader' paradigm still relevant today?

In Corporate Orbit - Leading in the Remote Workplace
As organizations become more global leaders increasingly find themselves managing remote teams. This Field Notes article, originally published in Forum Insights, examines how a leader can overcome the challenges associated with remote working.

Beyond Strategy: Transforming Performance Through People
Organizations often wrestle with three interrelated challenges: executing strategic change, engaging people at all levels, and creating an adaptive organization. While companies typically approach these challenges separately or sequentially, our experience is that addressing all three challenges in an integrated, simultaneous change effort accelerates results.

Leading for Growth: the Distinct Capabilities for Organic, Alliance, and M&A Growth
Two out of three leaders feel they have inadequate preparation to lead growth. Forum's recent global research study on leadership for growth provided this startling realization. The study looked in depth at leadership imperatives that drive growth, universally and with different growth strategies.

Building a Leadership Pipeline: Government
Develop a sustainable supply of leaders ready to execute your agency's strategy--now and in the future.

The Territory Time Warp
It's the 21st century. So why are your reps managing their territories like it's 1975?

Sales Managers: The New Triple Threats in Driving Organic Growth
By helping their sales managers master three critical areas, organizations can drive organic sales growth.