Latest "Growth" Posts
Where do you start if you want to develop a climate conducive to value innovation in your organization? Here are four simple ways you can promote and enhance value innovation in your organization.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on April 28, 2015.
Don’t Panic. It’s not too late to do your strategic planning for 2014. In this short video, Dr. Sarah Layton gives you four tips to make your planning process effective and the plan successful.
Permanent link to this post (82 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)
Posted in Growth, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on January 24, 2014.
Once upon a time, the third generation CEO of A Midwestern USA machinery manufacturer was in a fast downhill spiral, losing money rapidly due to strong competition in Europe and the strong US dollar exchange rate. Things looked dismal and the red inked flowed. No matter what this CEO did, he couldn’t seem to reverse the trend and get in the black.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning, strategic planning, innovation by Dr. Sarah Layton on December 11, 2013.
Tags: manufacturing, strategic planning, structure
The general manager of a small US division of a multibillion dollar European manufacturing company came up to me one day after a strategy program. He was trying to figure out how to increase their division sales and expand their market reach. Their product was a special vacuum pump that was installed as part of an assembly line operation in their customer’s facilities. Since the client often installed the pump in their own assembly line, the reps were not always aware how the pump was used. Even when the reps knew the application, they typically did not think to share that new application nor did they realize that it presented an opportunity for the company to target a new market.
Posted in Growth, Strategic Planning, strategic planning, innovation by Dr. Sarah Layton on October 10, 2013.
This is the fourth in a series of posts on Growth Strategies: How to get the right mix of people to grow your company. So far we have covered questions about technical expertise, culture and the most significant aspect of the resume. In this our last blog in the series, we cover employees that don’t keep up with the times and other miscellaneous thoughts our experts share.
Our experts for this blog include:
Kathy Boyd – VP Sales and Marketing, EADs, Global leader in defense and aerospace
Robert Newland – President & CEO, Newland Associates, an MBE Certified CPI Partner, providing Recruitment & Talent Management Solutions
Posted in Growth, News & Media, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on August 14, 2013.
When looking at a resume, what do you find most significant?
In this series, we have polled HR experts in various fields to help determine what the Growth Strategies are in getting the right people for your organization. To see posts #1 and #2, go to www.corporatestrategy.com and click on blogs. Part #1 covered the question of the candidates technical fit for the job, part #2 covered the candidates cultural fit for the organization. In this, the 3rd part, we are asking the question: When looking at a resume, what do you find most significant?
Posted in Governance, Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on July 29, 2013.
Tags: growth, strategic planning
In the first post of this series, we answered the question what do you ask a prospective employee to determine if their technical expertise is a match for your organization? Go to our last blog to see the post on this question.
This week, the experts are responding to the question: What do you ask a prospective employee to determine if they will be a good fit into your organization’s culture? Since my expertise is in business development, increasing the value of a company and the corporate strategic planning side of a company’s growth strategy, I reached out to three experts to have them weigh in on the question.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on July 18, 2013.
A dear friend and prominent lawyer brought today’s topic series to my attention. He says one of the keys to the success of his firm is getting the right mix of people. Over his career, he has seen many firms implode because the struggle to find and retain the right mix of personalities could not be overcome. Having a great corporate strategy, a written and well thought out strategic plan but the wrong mix of people will not get the best results. With over 20 years in the corporate consulting world, I can certainly attest that having the right mix of people will get better outcomes in almost every parameter you care to use. The corporate strategy, the strategic plan and the right mix of people are important to achieving the very highest outcome. I can’t name a single company that has employees that doesn’t struggle with the mix-of-people issue once in a while.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on July 10, 2013.
Tags: corporate growth, corporate strategy, growth, organizational strategy, strategic planning, strategy, talent
Restaurants serve many people every single day and every single customer represents an opportunity to get free value enhancing growth strategies for their business. My family dines out several times a week. Someone in the food service industry must have said that the best way to never get complaints or good ideas from your customers is to not want any complaints or good ideas.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy by Dr. Sarah Layton on June 18, 2013.
Tags: growth, organizational strategy, strategy
By Dr. Sarah Layton
Step One – Get Healthy
Many companies that try to grow are not ready to handle the increased business. When we talk about growth, we are talking about significant growth, not just incremental growth. To handle significant growth, an organization needs to be operationally fit. We get organizations operationally fit through our Value Enhancement Audit Diagnostic. This is an intense evaluation of an organization’s operations that delves into up to 15 areas and calculates up to 120 ratios. We look at the organization from a growth standpoint, which is very different than the way your auditors and other consultants look at the finances. We do not replace, but work with your other professionals such as attorneys, CPA’s and consultants. These ratios, combined with the results of in-depth quantitative interviews and expert analysis results in an evaluation that identifies where your organization is weak and what exactly it is costing you. It then makes recommendations to correct these weaknesses and shows what it will save you in revenue and earnings.
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on May 21, 2013.