Organic Growth & Performance Culture Sales Transformation Customer Experience Talent Management

How Healthy is Your Brand? White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty 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?
Achieving Predictability or Creating Advocates: Are they mutually exclusive? White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty 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? White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty 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 White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty 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? White Paper Category: Leadership 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 White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty,Leadership 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 White Paper Category: Leadership,Corporate Learning 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 White Paper Category: Sales 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? White Paper Category: Sales 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 White Paper Category: Sales 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.
Leading Organic Growth Through Customer Focus and Innovation: an interview with Clive Chesser White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty,Leadership Clive Chesser, International Operations Manager with Haagen-Dazs Shops International recently joined a Forum webinar on Leading Organic Growth. This is the interview with Clive and includes questions posed by the audience after the webinar.
Driving Growth Through Sales Transformation White Paper Category: Sales,Leadership 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.
Leading Organic Growth White Paper Category: Leadership 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 White Paper Category: Leadership 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 White Paper Category: Leadership "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? White Paper Category: Leadership 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 White Paper Category: Leadership 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 White Paper Category: Leadership 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 White Paper Category: Leadership 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.
Leading Organic Growth Through Customer Focus and Innovation: an interview with Clive Chesser White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty,Service,Leadership Clive Chesser, International Operations Manager with Haagen-Dazs Shops International recently joined a Forum webinar on Leading Organic Growth. This is the interview with Clive and includes questions posed by the audience after the webinar.
Recruiting to Type White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty,Service This Field Notes article, originally published in Forum Insights, examines the importance of establishing a great employer brand to attract the best people and deliver the best customer service.
The Need for Innovation: an interview with Doug Bate White Paper Category: Leadership In this interview, first published in Forum Insights, Doug Bate, author of The Power of Strategy Innovation, discusses the importance of incorporating innovation into organizational strategy.
Being Good at What Matters Least to Customers White Paper Category: Leadership Customer satisfaction. Customer loyalty. Customer advocates. 'Top box' ratings. 'Net promoter' scores. Long have these, and numerous similar measures, been the holy grail of marketers and business leaders around the globe. They are clearly good things to covet-but the challenge for today's leaders is they may not be enough to sustain and drive growth. This Field Notes article originally published in our newsletter, Forum Insights, examines the potential for predicting future buying behaviors. And the strategic leadership dilemmas this could produce.
Corporate Gravity White Paper Category: Leadership Corporate gravity is the powerful inertia, of habits or history, that prevent new ideas from surfacing. Forum's recent research on leading growth strategies found that successful growth leaders were more likely to be "willing to challenge the status quo." This Field Notes article, first published in Forum Insights issue 1 explores the key practices for fighting corporate gravity.
Building a Leadership Pipeline: Government White Paper Category: Service,Leadership Develop a sustainable supply of leaders ready to execute your agency's strategy--now and in the future.
The Territory Time Warp White Paper Category: Sales 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 White Paper Category: Sales,Leadership By helping their sales managers master three critical areas, organizations can drive organic sales growth.
Developing High-Potential Leaders White Paper Category: Service,Leadership 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?
Developing Mid-Level Leaders White Paper Category: Service,Leadership Mid-level management jobs are highly challenging. With a global trend toward flatter, leaner, and more agile organizations, these leaders need to cope with an ever-changing marketplace, increasing and more challenging responsibilities, more complex and sophisticated interpersonal issues, and, often, less job security. But -- there is a growing understanding that, rather than being the "fat" of an organization, mid-level leaders are at the heart of its success. Without strength in this group, the organization's ability to implement its strategy and achieve results is significantly limited.
Developing First-Line Leaders White Paper Category: Service,Leadership Making the transition to first-line management marks a period of profound change in a leadership career. No longer responsible solely for their own performance, first-line leaders have to quickly figure out how to ensure the success of others. They have been selected because of their performance, which is often unrelated to their potential as leaders. They are expected to take on significant responsibilities with minimal experience and preparation.
Building a Leadership Pipeline: Developing a Sustainable Supply of Leaders Ready to Execute Your Strategy - Now and in the Future White Paper Category: Service,Leadership It's tempting for many organizations to assume they can plug leadership gaps as they appear simply by recruiting outside talent. Yet, evidence is mounting that doing so is a difficult and risky proposition. This paper reveals why companies that stock their ranks with homegrown leadership talent are best positioned for consistent and long-term success.
Climate - Lighting the Fire of Success White Paper Category: Sales,Leadership Forum's recent sales research documents the powerful role that sales managers play in the success of a sales organization. Climate is one of the key success factors that these managers pay attention to. Climate can be measured, managed and improved. Positive sales climates that emphasize clarity, commitment, responsibility and recognition produce superior results.
Turning Action Learning into Business Results - 7 Keys to Success White Paper Category: Leadership With action learning, execution is everything. When implemented well, it can be like a light bulb turning on in people's minds as they connect theory to real-life. They experience leadership at a visceral level. But badly implemented, the damage runs deep. The credibility of other leadership initiatives is tainted. Uncertainty and doubt about the value of training spreads. In this paper Forum shares the 7 keys to successful action learning.
Communicating with Stories White Paper Category: Sales,Leadership They're faster than a bulleted list, more powerful than a logical argument, and capable of spanning multiple audiences in a single telling. They're stories. Stories enable us to communicate clearly and concisely about the kinds of issues that have depth and breadth, subtlety and color, time and texture. This paper describes why and how they're used in business, and offers a powerful communications model for business.
The Pressure Paradox White Paper Category: Sales Despite our turbulent times and a competitive global economy, sales organizations can survive and thrive inside the Pressure Paradox -- but only if they pay attention to their Pressure Points. Sales forces can become more effective by improving the way in which people are managed, by placing them in an environment that encourages their performance, and by ensuring that the sales support processes maximize opportunity and customer satisfaction.
Loyalty by Design White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty Many have pursued customer loyalty with great commitment, but the key questions still lie unanswered: How do you create a level of customer satisfaction that is so strong that customers become your best salespeople? How do you create advocates?
Uncommon Practice: What Leading Companies Do to Build Customer Loyalty White Paper Category: Customer Loyalty Countless companies every day miss their opportunity to build profits. The opportunity is there for them to grab, but they don't. Why? Our research suggests that they don't get the right questions lined up with the right answers on how to drive profits. For example, if you ask most executives what they think of when they think of their brand, they will reply with such words as identity, positioning, logos, and signage, but not the customer experience--which in our exemplary companies actually is the brand.
The Cure for the Common Sales Force: It's not just what, but how you sell that wins in the increasingly competitive world of pharmaceutical sales White Paper Category: Sales This paper looks at the unique and challenging selling environment pharmaceutical salespeople now face, due to increasingly stricter policies set by legal and regulatory agencies, as well as individual medical centers. Forum reviews traditional selling practices in an environment that often provides sales reps less than 2 minutes to pitch their target. We then illustrate the benefits of taking an entirely different sales approach - one that focuses on gaining the doctor's trust and confidence, rather than simply imparting the details of the newest drug and dropping off product samples.
The Sales Managers Precarious Perch: How High-Performing Sales Managers Find Balance, Deliver Results White Paper Category: Sales,Leadership Sales managers constantly strive to strike the perfect balance between meeting immediate needs and future goals, between closing sales and mentoring new stars, between setting strategy and assuring its implementation. Learn more about how your sales managers can balance their priorities and achieve organizational success.
As the Economy Rebounds, Will Your Sales Force?: A revitalized economy requires new sales force and sales management strategies White Paper Category: Sales Signs of an economic rebound are abundant. This new environment, while creating opportunity, also creates new demands for your sales force. Sales organizations that adopt recovery-oriented strategies and stay focused on the needs of customers will be rewarded with increased customer loyalty and repeat sales.
At a Loss for Words How Salespeople Squander Conversations with Senior-Level Customers, and What to Do About It White Paper Category: Sales Having conversations with senior business leaders presents a new and difficult challenge requiring superior skill, preparation, and knowledge that only the most accomplished salespeople have mastered. High-performing salespeople are experts at using communication skills in sophisticated ways, so that their customers see them as adding exceptional value and insight to every conversation. Getting and staying at the top requires an understanding that the audience is unique, and the means to the end are different. The stakes are higher, and so are the expectations.
Measuring Up: Find out if your leadership development programs are paying off White Paper Category: Leadership Measuring the effectiveness of corporate leadership development programs can be done. But to succeed, companies and their leadership development providers must use a combination of foresight and business insight to know what to measure and how to measure it.
Rx for Pharmaceutical Companies: A Healthy Dose of Leadership White Paper Category: Service,Leadership Developing capable leaders is a proven method to improve a company's overall health, profitability, and vitality. This paper examines how pharmaceutical companies can leap ahead of their competitors through successful leadership development.