Most of us are wrestling with change. Whether it’s because of accelerating technology cycles, disruptive technologies challenging established models, competitive pressures intensifying, or something else, we risk becoming dinosaurs. How do you future-proof your company, and what does that mean? For leaders and boards alike, this question has become less about optional innovation and more about long-term relevance, risk management, and enterprise resilience. The companies that anticipate change, embrace innovation, and most importantly keep their customers at the center of every decision are in
Today’s episode explores the transformation of a legacy business in the fire protection industry, a sector that is highly regulated, fiercely competitive, and faces ongoing price pressure and low barriers to entry. Perhaps some of you can relate. This is also an industry where many companies experience long periods of stagnant growth or workflow. It’s not because demand disappears, but because differentiation erodes and internal complexity quietly increases. Our conversation is with Shawn Mullen, President and Chief Energy Officer at Protex Central. The company has been serving mission-critica
In this episode of What’s Your Edge? we’re focusing on a foundational driver of sustainable growth: innovation. Research from McKinsey suggests that companies that prioritize innovation generate significantly higher growth than their peers. In one study, “innovation leaders” achieved 2.4 times higher total shareholder returns than laggards over a 10-year period, underscoring that innovation is not a “nice to have,” but a core driver of long-term value. As everyone listening knows, true innovation isn’t a one-time event or the product of a lone genius. It’s a disciplined, iterative effort, wove
In this episode of What’s Your Edge? we’re joined by Doug Norton, Chief Marketing Officer of Inspire Semiconductor, a company founded in the early days of the pandemic that’s now launching its groundbreaking Thunderbird “supercomputer cluster-on-a-chip.” Doug is a veteran in the semiconductor space. With Doug’s help, we’re going behind the scenes of a Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy and talk about what it really takes to bring a new product to market, and how mapping the right ecosystem, focusing on customer needs, and measuring what matters can make or break a product launch. Please join me in we
Victor Gichun, Vice President of Business Development at Excess Logic, a nationwide leader in surplus equipment and electronics liquidation, offers businesses a seamless way to manage excess and obsolete inventory. What sets Excess Logic apart is its ability to create value through a robust ecosystem of providers and a laser focus on customer experience and competitive differentiation. In this episode, Victor shares how Excess Logic has engineered its customer-centric processes and ecosystem strategy to create value and growth, differentiated itself in a crowded market, and aligned its operati
Most of us operate within a hyper-competitive marketplace. A compelling value proposition is a critical business asset and one of the most effective competitive differentiators. Companies that succeed in attracting and retaining customers are those that focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences and creating measurable customer value. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, we explore how Rebecca Woan, founder of Chartwell Insurance Services, a boutique property and casualty insurance provider, built a thriving business by staying true to a customer-centric strategy, using her firm’s v
Christina Porter, the President of Stallergenes Greer Canada and Vice President of Strategy for Stallergenes Greer North America. The company provides therapies to help improve life for people who suffer from allergies. In 2017, Stallergenes Greer acquired a successful family-owned Canadian company to create a fully integrated Canadian operation. The company encountered several challenges during the transition that required them to take some steps back and re-engineer customer-centric processes, in order to grow and improve service quality and customer experience. And that’s the focus of this
Aligning your business strategies with customer expectations is essential for fostering loyalty, differentiation, and long-term success. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, Karen Norheim, President and CEO of American Crane, discusses how data-driven insights, innovation, and a customer-centric mindset can overcome challenges and deliver exceptional business and customer value. From navigating leadership transitions to leveraging smart technologies, recount the actionable strategies used to reimagine how customer value is delivered to drive sustainable organic growth. At VisionEdge Marketing
Many of us at the helm of our companies are often faced with implementing changes to remain competitive and relevant to our customers, and to create more customer and business value to achieve long-term sustainable growth. This was the case for Kelly Van Winkle, President and CEO of King of Texas Roofing Company, when she took the reins of the third-generation company. In this episode of “What’s Your Edge?“, Kelly tells us how small incremental changes helped strengthen customer retention, accelerated customer acquisition, and fostered a more customer-centric business. For over 40 years, King
For this episode of “What’s Your Edge?” I’m thrilled to welcome Heather Valentine to the conversation. Heather is a seasoned growth executive with over 25 years of experience leading high-performing teams in the SaaS-based healthcare and life sciences technology sectors. Her career spans the entire innovation lifecycle, making her a perfect fit for our Barriers to Revenue Growth discussion today and strategies to overcome these. I’ve had the privilege of working with Heather over the years and know she will be sharing some valuable customer-centric insights with us. Heather, welcome to “What’s
Gone in a flash! That can happen when the tide topples a sandcastle or product development fails to consider value proposition, messaging, positioning, and operational excellence prior to launch. Learn why these things—and more—are important foundational measures needed to make a splash in the market.
Like a forest, your business must be carefully “seeded and watered” to ensure long-term growth. Are you employing these five best practices—focusing on innovation, operational excellence, performance management, nurturing talent, and more to build an exceptional, customer-centric business?
No business is immune from the crucible of challenges but history has shown that focusing on strategic decision-making fueled by data-driven insights, advantageous excellence, and stellar performance management can lead to business resilience. Discover ways to emerge stronger after enduring severe challenges, overcoming intense heat to find the path to customer-centric organic growth.
The value of capturing customer behavioral data cannot be understated, since the insights uncovered will light the way forward toward becoming a company focused on customer-centricity. Get examples of the kind of questions to ask to discover the customer insights that are most important for your business and learn eight places where you will find illuminating customer behavioral data.
Customer-centric value propositions articulate the benefits and solutions a customer can expect from engaging with the business, distinguishing it from direct and indirect competitors. But how can you measure whether the connection created between business and customer value will stand the test of time? Discover the three questions to answer to determine whether what’s been built has a strong, solid foundation that will support long-term success.
Customer and prospect validation is the not-so-secret sauce that can give you added confidence to unveil your business’s positioning and marketing to the world. Learn the 6 steps for conducting and using it—including the value of strong message maps—with a nod toward customer-centricity. Ensure your value proposition resonates with your target market by using their feedback to create it.
Pursue business growth even though you may feel like you are swimming against the tide. Empower your business to not only survive but thrive by aligning strategies, optimizing operations, and fostering adaptability. Improve the five essential tools that will help you read the currents, adjust your course accordingly, and embrace challenges to discover possibly unchartered opportunities for growth.
Customer Success, coined in the early 2000s, is more than a buzzword—it embodies customer-centricity. Why its rapid expansion? It's not just a growth strategy; it's THE primary strategy for value and lasting connections. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, explore its link to customer-centricity and discover the 4 pivotal board roles guiding leadership in mastering this model.
The collaboration between human creativity and AI forms a masterpiece in the making, a sum greater than the parts. As we navigate this evolving landscape, together with AI we can take creativity, imagination, and original thought to new heights. Learn the 5 powerful ways to accelerate successful innovation through the best-fit combination of AI and human creativity.
Go beyond Operational Excellence to Advantageous Excellence with its strategic focus on innovation, differentiation, and the development of unique capabilities. How can you make this your competitive edge? Iteration. Learn the 6 most important benefits, the 10 signs that it’s time to re-shape your business via iteration, and the 10 fundamentals of the iterative process.
Delve into four prevalent mistakes related to strategy, data, insights, and measurement that are often made in the pursuit of customer-centricity. Learn how these missteps can be transformed into strategic advantages for success.
Use the Ecosystem Map to gain insights into the market and competitive landscape, reveal growth opportunities, and develop growth strategies.
Even large companies fail at segmentation, losing millions and billions of dollars. The merits of effective segmentation are many; it improves customer-centricity, fuels growth trajectories, and provides a competitive advantage. How do you decide which segments to pursue? Learn the 3 keys to developing a segmentation model and successfully choosing the best segments for you.
Customers are the gold vein for every business. The quest to discover new customers and retain the loyalty of existing ones is not without challenges. Competitors lurk like claim jumpers, vying for the same valuable customers. Customer expectations are always on the rise. What’s the solution? Learn the 4 steps for successfully unearthing the data-driven customer insights that drive profitable and sustainable growth.
Business leaders must continuously engage in strategic planning to steer their organizations toward growth and success, especially when facing a dynamic and unpredictable environment. In this episode of What’s Your Edge, we’ll explore 12 ways you can de-risk your strategic planning and execution. Strategic planning has both advocates and detractors, especially as to whether it positively impacts operational performance. Bert George, Richard Walker, and Joost Monster conducted an extensive analysis to determine whether strategic planning improves organizational performance. Their study found ev
