More than 200 mid-market CEOs and industry experts are gathered at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to connect with each other and share ideas, resources and opportunities that can help them scale their businesses through strategic points of inflection and collaborate as a community to change the world. This is a relatively long article for me. In it you will find:
1. Three ideas that changed the way I personally think about things.
2. Key points from the convention’s interactive keynote and each of the breakout sessions. (This is where it gets long.)
Three ideas that changed the way I think about things.
Strategy. Your strategy has a shelf life that is ever shrinking. As Tony Miller put it, the environment chooses the mutations that are going to survive - not the other way around. And the mutations based on Artificial Intelligence, digital tools, and robotics/automation are disrupting every industry. Leverage a cognitively diverse team to re-look at your strategy on a far more frequent basis. If you don’t think you’re at a point of inflection, someone else, somewhere in the world will inflect your business for you. And you won’t like it.
Operations. While your strategy guides the possibility of topline growth and your operations and organization, it’s the effectiveness and efficiency of your operations in implementing that strategy that determine your actual topline and bottom line growth. Apply Peter Fader’s Customer Centricity framework for differential investment to love the top, manage the middle and lose the bottom not just for your customers, but for your collaborators and colleagues as well, driving alignment through your entire system and eco-system.
Organization. Your organization is the connective tissue between your strategy and operations. In the “Gig Economy” you need to think about organizing your eco-system and not just your company. Acquire, develop and encourage freelancers, partners, and alliances as well as employees. Get the resources you need at the right price and right terms whether that means people, healthcare, or capital. View full article.
Three ideas that changed the way I personally think about things. Key points from the convention’s interactive keynote and each of the breakout sessions. (This is where it gets long.)
