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5 AI Trends Every CEO Must Act On
Earlier this year, I shared takeaways from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report, which showed how AI is reshaping business at a macro level. Building on that, Google Cloud’s 2025 AI Trends highlights five forces that will directly impact companies in the year ahead.
AI is no longer experimental. It is restructuring markets, reshaping customer expectations, and redrawing competitive boundaries. Here are five AI trends CEOs are preparing for now:
Quick Test: Will Your Business Strategy Work Post-COVID?
Wed, May 13, 2020 — After COVID-19: step back to see how the whole picture has changed Even in the best of times, your business plan relies on a sound strategy to gain – and keep – your competitive advantage. Success is generally a function of a winning combination of factors – good knowledge of the business environment, a keen understanding of your competitors, a laser focus on the size of the market and trends, technological development, and the overall state of the economy.
Part 4: How Does Employee Engagement Win the Growth Game?
Mon, May 4, 2020 — Culture Shift Now: Getting the Right Help for the Times Co-Authored by Marc Umscheid, CMO, Chief Outsiders and Kristin Anderson, Partner, LeadQuest Consulting Welcome to the fourth blog in our series on the importance of a more engaged culture in fostering growth at your company (if you'd like to read any of the previous posts, they can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3). Clearly, a few things have happened in our world since our last blog – namely, the COVID-19 pandemic, and an economic slowdown that has left few businesses untouched, or unscathed. If you have been following our blog series, you may recall that we have been insisting that a carefully crafted culture goes hand and glove with a high effective growth strategy, – making the case for how your leadership shapes the engagement needed for growth. Though the world may have changed – the fundamental principles have not. How you lead your employees now will indelibly reflect upon your cultural and growth mindset. This is now more important than ever.
CEO Preparedness Guide for the Post-Pandemic Recovery: Avoiding the Ad-Budget Ax
Fri, Apr 24, 2020 — Blog 1: Avoiding the Ad-Budget Ax In these uncertain times amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, there are likely two distinct pathways for businesses to follow—adapt or perish. Because none of you reading this would ever consider just laying down your arms and not fighting for survival, I thought I’d share a couple of quotes from noteworthy types who chose the latter mindset, choosing to both adapt, and thrive, rather than just survive.
Achieving Revenue Growth and Excellent ROI with a Radio Restaurant Promotion
Thu, Mar 26, 2020 — Those of you in the restaurant chain or franchise business may enjoy the details of this successful restaurant promotion executed by Doug Reifschneider. Doug was Vice President of Marketing at Pita Pit at the time, but recently joined Chief Outsiders as a fractional CMO. The promotion involved six Pita Pit restaurants located in Northern Idaho and the Spokane area who agreed to pool funds to test a cooperative advertising program. The test included a guerrilla radio advertising tactic, print, social and email support with offers to encourage trade-up and increase party size.
Part 3: How Does Employee Engagement Win the Growth Game?
Thu, Feb 20, 2020 — Assessing the Health of Your Culture Co-Authored by Marc Umscheid, CMO, Chief Outsiders and Kristin Anderson, Partner, LeadQuest Consulting In our first two blogs (Part one and Part two) on the subject of corporate culture, we have been making the case for the importance of a serious, top-down effort to ensure your company is united around a single vision -- and that your corporate culture is working for you, not against you. We’ve seen how such a CEO-led commitment can lead to riches beyond your wildest dreams (or, at least, measurably better performance), and we’ve heard directly from one CEO who grappled with the effects of a toxic culture before his personal involvement – and a committed effort -- restored balance across his organization.
Part 2: How Does Employee Engagement Win the Growth Game?
Wed, Dec 11, 2019 — Shaping a High Performing Culture is a Top-Down Commitment Co-Authored by Marc Umscheid, CMO, Chief Outsiders and Kristin Anderson, Partner, LeadQuest Consulting In our previous blog, we established the importance of corporate culture in the paradigm of business success. Commit to it, and reap myriad rewards, including better hires, more efficient business practices – and more revenue. But, allow your culture to become toxic, and you place more at risk than just caustic commentary at the water cooler. Like any living, breathing organism, toxicity can infect the corporate ecosystem as well – and the responsibility to ensure a healthy, positive environment starts at the top!
How Does Employee Engagement Win the Growth Game? Look to Your Company’s Culture
Tue, Oct 29, 2019 — This is the first in a series of four blogs on the role of company culture as a function of your overall business strategy. Co-Authored by Marc Umscheid, CMO, Chief Outsiders and Kristin Anderson, Partner, LeadQuest Consulting What do you know about your company’s culture? And, more importantly, how it can impact the success—or failure—of your growth initiatives? Companies that do a great job of instilling culture as a way of engaging teams are 21 percent more profitable than their counterparts, according to a 2016 study by Deloitte Consulting. A thriving culture is key to growth because of its tie to profitability and recruiting top employees. With that in mind, it is surprising that only one in four C-suite executives understand their company’s culture – and appreciate its link to performance.
How to Retain Customers and Develop Brand Advocates - Part 3
Thu, Oct 10, 2019 — Part 3 of 3: Winning Retention Marketing Strategies Retention marketing isn’t meant to replace acquisition marketing, but to work alongside it as part of your growth strategy. The activities associated with retaining customers and/or increasing customer value through re-purchasing or up-selling products and services, is less expensive than acquisition marketing. While you need both acquisition and retention marketing, you will get a better return from your investment in retention marketing and create customers for life. In the previous blog post, we discussed how to develop a retention marketing program that specifically addresses the needs of your business. But are there proven retention marketing strategies or tactics that should be considered regardless?
How to Retain Customers and Develop Brand Advocates - Part 2
Fri, Sep 13, 2019 — Part 2 of 3: Developing a Retention Marketing Program As we learned in my previous post, retention marketing encompasses the activities associated with retaining customers or increasing customer value through re-purchasing and up-selling products and services. It’s anywhere from five to 25 times less expensive than acquisition marketing—and done well can reduce the expense pressure of acquisition marketing to grow your business. Retention marketing should be a part of any business growth strategy. Retention marketing involves communicating with your customers in a way that helps you nurture and keep them. This should be an ongoing priority for the business with buy-in from the top throughout the entire organization. After all, you’ve all worked hard and spent a lot of money to acquire those customers.