Russell McGuire

In The Digital Transformation Playbook, David L. Rogers describes how customer behavior has changed in the digital age. Customers are as likely to connect with and influence each other as they are to be influenced by the firm. Companies need to shift from a mass market/broadcast model to one that taps into five customer network behaviors: access, engage, customize, connect, and collaborate. He then introduces a tool to help companies make the adjustment.

The Customer Network Strategy Generator is like a pilot’s pre-flight checklist, walking a strategist through the steps necessary to develop winning customer-facing strategies in this new digital age. By following this process, you will have the best chance of identifying concepts that are worth pursuing because they can have a meaningful impact on the things that matter to your business.

One of the things that I particularly like about this tool is that it is both very specific to a certain type of strategy project (and therefore easy to understand in terms of specific tangible activities) but also generally applicable to almost any strategic decision. The specific details will change for different types of strategies, but the overall flow (objectives>a customer-centric perspective>a well-defined broad strategy>specific potential tactics>realistically evaluating those potential actions) provides a good model to consider whenever starting any strategy project.

Click here to read the full article.

Last week, Christine Heckart​ hosted a mini-reunion of some of the folks from TeleChoice. Twenty-years ago this boutique consulting firm pioneered a new category for strategic consulting. We called it “Strategic Catalysts”. We probably weren’t the first to practice this approach, but I think we were the first to name and define it.

I still believe the catalyst model is the best way to help companies that need assistance in developing a critical strategy. In fact, it probably makes more sense now than ever.

So what is it? Strategic catalysts accelerate the creation of strategies for high impact. They don’t replace the staff of their clients in developing strategies, but they bring the missing ingredients (experience, methodologies, tools, focus) to enable clients to rapidly and successfully create strategies that work. TeleChoice was the strategic catalyst for the telecom industry.

Click here to read more about this model, how it compares to traditional consulting, and my five reasons why I believe it is the best model, even today twenty years after we pioneered it

In Built to Innovate Ben Bensaou has provided a thorough and engaging introduction to the innovating engine and the importance of involving everyone in the company in both executing and innovating. The examples used throughout are fascinating stories that help us see what these concepts look like in real organizations. 

Most companies naturally focus on the execution engine, but unfortunately, overlook the need to constantly innovate. Through the book he teaches the what, who, and how of establishing a well functioning innovating engine. Specifically he identifies the three key processes involved in innovating, the three key roles, and a seven step process for creating innovative ideas.

The author emphasizes that many companies will seek to innovate in the midst of crisis. If your business is in a difficult place that will require new ideas for creating value for customers and/or the business, then certainly, Built to Innovate can provide a framework and process for changing how your company approaches innovation. But Bensaou emphasizes that the best time to build the innovating engine is before times get tough. Given the pace of change across all industries, every business should be exploring how to strengthen their innovation capabilities, and Built to Innovate is a great place to start.

Click here to read the full review.

Does your company suffer from any of these product diseases: Hero Syndrome, Strategic Swelling, Obsessive Sales Disorder, Hypermetricemia, Locked-In Syndrome, Pivotitis, Narcissus Complex? If so, the brand new book Radical Product Thinking offers a cure.

The author, Radhika Dutt, has provided a thoughtful new perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship that should help leaders take a vision-driven approach that can more effectively and consistently impact the world in the ways that they intend. She champions a vision-driven approach to product development and management, so she starts with how to articulate and document the vision you have for improving the world in a way that then impacts all other areas of innovation and operations. 

Anyone who has read, or wants to read about Lean and Agile for their work, should also read this book for a different perspective on how an iterative approach to innovation and development can be managed for maximum impact. Throughout the book Dutt provides helpful tools and relevant stories that can challenge all of us to create in a more thoughtful and impactful way.

Read my full review here.

Each episode of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast starts with “If you are an entrepreneur driven by your faith, or want to be driven by your faith, you are in the right place.” Similarly, if that describes you, then Faith Driven Entrepreneur is the right book for you. The book isn’t intended for a specific situation or stage of business, but rather an encouragement to more faithfully pursue your calling.

It starts with a solid foundation of our calling as entrepreneurs and our identity in Christ before moving into the practical implications our faith has for our work. The book doesn’t provide step-by-step instructions for Christians in business, but instead provides guiding principles and real-world examples.

Bottom line, Faith Driven Entrepreneur is a quick and encouraging read for Christians in business. It provides practical guidance and helpful examples of how our faith truly can drive our work to make us more faithful, less willful, and more able to be used by God.

Read the full review here.

The word “praxis” means “Practical application or exercise of a branch of learning.” The authors of this book are leaders of Praxis, a “community dedicated to putting our Christian faith into practice through redemptive entrepreneurship.” The Redemptive Business is Praxis’ latest effort to teach Christian entrepreneurs how to practically put their faith into practice in their businesses. 

This small book starts with a section on “First Principles” which introduces The Redemptive Frame combining the Three Ways to Work (exploitative, ethical, and redemptive) with the Three Dimensions of Work (strategy, operations, and leadership). That leads to six commitments of redemptive business: Product and Brand (Strategy); Culture, Business Model, and Partnerships (Operations); and Ambition (Leadership). The rest of the book teaches the reality, redemptive opportunities, and good news of each of those commitments.

The Redemptive Business does not provide simple answers, or step-by-step recipes for success as a redemptive entrepreneur, but does an excellent job of identifying practical and tactical ways in which leaders should reconsider how they operate their businesses. Given the minimal investment required in dollars and time, I strongly recommend that all Christians in business give this book a look.

Read the full review here.

I talk to a lot of startup business leaders. Most of them are excited about building and operating their businesses. They are much less excited about raising the funding they need to get the business off the ground or to take it to the next level. Because their main focus isn’t to be great at fund raising, they don’t even know what it takes to be successful. 

This article is intended to simply explain what it takes for your business to be attractive to potential investors.

Of course, raising funding isn’t simple. The specific requirements will depend very much on the maturity of the business, the types of investors you are approaching, the amount of funding you need, the industry you are operating in, and the current status of capital markets, among other factors. That being said, I do think there are three things that have to be true before an investor will write you a check:

• The investor must care about the concept.
• They must believe in the business model.
• They must trust the team.

In the article linked below I briefly explain what each of these three tests means to an investor, then consider what you need to do to truly be “investor ready.”

Click here to read the full article.

In Rogue Waves, Jonathan Brill uses the analogy of hundred-foot tall walls of water that pop up out of nowhere to mysteriously sink even the largest of ships to describe the current business environment. Economic, technological, social, and political undercurrents and seemingly minor turbulence combine to create what have often been called Black Swans: Covid-19, the 2008 financial crisis, massive cybersecurity breaches, etc.

After describing this new reality, Brill introduces what he calls “the ABCs of Resilient Growth”: Awareness, Behavior Change, and Culture Change. These define the three main parts of the book, with each section full of helpful stories, frameworks, and tools to understand how organizations must change to be able to survive and thrive through this chaotic future.

Rogue Waves proposes dramatic changes in how organizations operate, starting with relatively simple environment scanning processes but quickly moving to more significant changes in operations and even fundamental cultural changes. Therefore, the book is neither a source of quick, easy fixes nor a reference manual to keep on the shelf for occasional reference. Instead, the book will be most helpful for business leaders who recognize the danger and opportunity inherent in today’s dynamic environment and who have the fortitude to commit to the level of change Brill is proposing. The book is most applicable to large organizations with the depth of resources to pursue the needed changes, although smaller and younger organizations will likely benefit from understanding the underlying changes and may find them easier to implement (although likely in somewhat different forms than the author proposes).

I’ve long said that technology revolutions represent power and danger and that the winners will be those that learn how to leverage the power and manage the danger. Rogue Waves broadens the applicability of that observation beyond just the easily recognizable coming waves of technology change to also include economic, social, and political turbulence, and even more importantly, the times when those undercurrents converge in perhaps surprising ways. As the author puts it in the final paragraph of the Epilogue “Bigger waves mean bigger risk and more unexpected threats, but they also contain immense power, which presents immense opportunity.” The book does a great job of providing tools, frameworks, and approaches to both capture the power and manage the danger of these “big waves.” If you are up for the challenge of wrestling the fundamental organizational changes called for, I strongly recommend Rogue Waves, especially to leaders of large and mature corporations.

Read the full review here.

Matt Blumberg is a founder/CEO of tech startups. His first book, Startup CEO was intended to teach first-time CEO’s how to do their jobs as they built and scaled their business. Startup CXO is also primarily targeted at startup CEOs, but teaches how all the other key players in the business do their jobs, and how the CEO can best work with them.

Startup CXO is called a “field guide” meaning that it’s not intended to be read cover to cover. Rather, it is pulled off the shelf for reference at specific times in the startup’s life. The book is organized into eleven sections generally by function. Each section is broken into chapters on specific activities within those functions. I would expect Startup CXO to often be referenced as the business is establishing different functions, when they are facing challenges in specific dimensions of the business, or especially when the CEO is considering expanding a function or stepping up the leadership in that area.

I found Startup CXO to be an invaluable resource. I know there’s some hesitancy to buy a book you don’t need now and don’t ever plan on actually reading, but trust me, if you are a startup CEO, there will soon come a day when you’ll wish you had this book on your shelf ready to pull down and reference. For most entrepreneurs this book will save you a ton of time, money, and trouble.

Read the full review here.

I recently listened to an episode of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast that featured a conversation with Cheryl Bachelder about her faith-driven, entrepreneurial leadership after Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen had suffered through seven years of business decline. In describing that journey, I clearly heard all five of the traits that I consistently see in successful entrepreneurs.

In this article I focus on how these five characteristics were instrumental in that turnaround:

1. God-honoring Vision
2. Compassionate Empathy
3. Complete Humility
4. Balanced Diligence
5. Loving Accountability

In the full article I look at each of these traits and provide some snippets from the podcast to show how the Popeyes turnaround involved each one. Hopefully this will pique your interest to listen to the entire episode.

I believe that Bachelder and team would’ve struggled to succeed in the turnaround if they had lacked any of these characteristics. But simply having a Godly vision, compassionate empathy, complete humility, balanced diligence, and loving accountability would not have been enough if they hadn’t also made wise decisions and been blessed by God with the right circumstances outside their control. 

These 5 traits are not a magic formula for success, but time and time again I see them present in successful entrepreneurs.

Read the full article here.