Business Growth Strategies For CEOs: Top CMOs On Marketing Strategy Implementations

Tariffs and Your Next Chapter | From Cost Burden to Market Edge: Turning Tariffs into a Competitive Advantage

Fri, Apr 11, 2025 | Posted by Per Ohstrom

Tariffs have been around for centuries. Commonly used to protect emerging industries or bolster national security, tariffs have evolved beyond trade tools into economic levers that can shift markets overnight. Tariffs have re-entered the conversation for mid-sized business leaders, especially those with global supply chains or international customer bases. But here's the thing: reacting like it’s still 1995 won’t cut it.

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Tariffs and Your Next Chapter | The 5 Biggest Mistakes Leaders Make Around Tariffs

Thu, Apr 10, 2025 — Tariffs have been around for centuries. Commonly used to protect emerging industries or bolster national security, tariffs have evolved beyond trade tools into economic levers that can shift markets overnight. Tariffs have re-entered the conversation for mid-sized business leaders, especially those with global supply chains or international customer bases. But here's the thing: reacting like it’s still 1995 won’t cut it.

Tariffs and Your Next Chapter | Buying in a Tariff Economy: Smarter, Not Cheaper

Wed, Apr 9, 2025 — Tariffs have been around for centuries. Commonly used to protect emerging industries or bolster national security, tariffs have evolved beyond trade tools into economic levers that can shift markets overnight. Tariffs have re-entered the conversation for mid-sized business leaders, especially those with global supply chains or international customer bases. But here's the thing: reacting like it’s still 1995 won’t cut it.

Tariffs and Your Next Chapter | Selling Through Tariffs: Avoiding the Pricing Traps

Tue, Apr 8, 2025 — Tariffs have been around for centuries. Commonly used to protect emerging industries or bolster national security, tariffs have evolved beyond trade tools into economic levers that can shift markets overnight. Tariffs have re-entered the conversation for mid-sized business leaders, especially those with global supply chains or international customer bases. But here's the thing: reacting like it’s still 1995 won’t cut it.

Where Pricing and Marketing Strategies Intersect

Thu, Mar 28, 2024 — Back in the day, pricing was a foundational piece of all marketing strategies. When I went to grad school, for example, the four Ps were in vogue – product, price, place, and promotion. At that time, the intersection of pricing and marketing was seen as a given, almost a tautological concept. But as marketing professionals and professors' desire to innovate and differentiate intensified, the traditional 4Ps evolved into new frameworks like the “4Cs”, emphasizing concepts such as customer, cost, convenience, and communication and the "4Es" of experience, exchange, evangelism, and everywhere into the marketing lexicon. And I admit I lapse into momentary shudders when I think of all the as-yet-untapped letters in the alphabet.

The Value of an Old Scotch

Tue, Mar 2, 2021 — This is a love story with a business point. Around twenty five years ago Gordon, the whisky-loving half of a couple in Glencoe, Scotland, bought a limited production bottle of Macallan 1961. It was pricey, so he put it away in a cabinet in its original packaging to await a suitable occasion. Then he pretty much forgot about it. He found it in 2019 and thought, "Wow, we really do need to find an occasion to drink this." A few weeks later, an old friend came to town. Gordon and the pal opened the bottle and did a few pours. The whisky’s color, nose, and taste were superb, and they savored it greatly.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Downturns

Tue, Apr 7, 2020 — Del Griffith (John Candy) and Neal Page (Steve Martin) are driving the wrong way on an Interstate highway at night. A motorist, driving in the correct lanes: “Hey, put your window down!” Page: “He wants something.” [rolls window down] Griffith: “Ah, he’s probably drunk.” Motorist and his passenger holler across the median: “You’re going the wrong way!!!” Page: “He says we’re going the wrong way.” Griffith: “Oh he’s drunk! How would he know where we’re going?” Page, nodding: “Yeahhh… how would HE know?” [Moments later, Griffith and Page narrowly escape a head-on collision with two tractor-trailers.] Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Paramount Pictures, 1987

Costs Spiking? The Right Price Moves can Offset the Impact

Fri, Jun 15, 2018 — Like so many of us, Phil is pressed for time. An avid mountaineer, when he prepares for a climb he wants to train just enough that he can summit and descend in a safe amount of time. He has a strategy (certain amounts of running and stair-climbing) to achieve that fitness level. Last year a back injury precluded his usual training approach. The injury didn’t mean he couldn’t prepare to perform at the required level. However, it did force him to look for alternative strategies to train.

The 1 Percent Secret: How to Price Your Product for Mid-Market Revenue Success

Fri, Aug 18, 2017 — Psst. I have a secret for you, CEO. How would you like to learn one easy, surefire way to immediately add more than 10 percent in operating profits to your bottom line? Before you declare this another attempt at “fake news,”– let me assure you, this is a legitimate, real, and practical offer. Though it requires very little in terms of effort to achieve – it does require a leap of faith, and resolve of focus, that many CEOs have either been reticent, or reluctant, to make.

Thinking Smarter about Machine Learning: A Conversation with Geoff Roach

Sun, Jul 31, 2016 — Artificial intelligence, or machine learning, is on the rise. From Siri to self-driving cars, new frameworks are becoming accessible to the mainstream, and products are growing increasingly "smarter." As massive quantitates of data are being plugged into predictive systems, this leads to a question of quality: How can we ensure the programs we put in place will understand the data we throw at them? Geoff Roach with Chief Outsiders argues that no matter how smart our machines become, humans will always need to be one step ahead.

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