Innovation: It Takes Guts to Envision a Future That No One Else Sees

Innovation takes guts

My experience teaches me that people fear “change” and “doing things different” because of uncertainty of the outcome. Fear is what stops corporate innovation. Fear of job loss, fear of losing, fear of being called a loser, fear of being fired for wasting resources, fear of losing your team’s respect, fear of failure. Fear. It’s natural, but needs to be conquered in order to win.

Courageous leadership is a cure for the fear to innovate. As a leader, sometimes you have to make the tough decisions, buck the trends while still understanding the data, and create a future that others may not see yet.

Product Innovation

My experience teaches me the keys to product innovation are to create disruptive products or “blue ocean” products that meet consumer quality drivers concurrent with meeting minimum required performance standards for the business.

Service Innovation

Exceeding customer expectations takes a company to build a collaborative ecosystem between executive chairman, employees, consultants, distributors, and suppliers that obsesses over the customer, and reinvents the service level standards to consistently deliver memorable buying experiences.

Process Innovation

My experience teaches me challenging existing hypotheses or “how we do things here” takes sponsorship and championship from leaders, cascading communications to the workforce, empowering managers and workers with the tools and knowledge to improve effectiveness and efficiency, and celebrating process excellence achievements.

Management Innovation

Management innovations require a leader who can naturally persuade, influence, and negotiate expertly. Further, it takes replacing binary thinking with critically integrated design thinking.

Open Innovation

Success in working beyond boundaries, collaborating globally, leading in a multicultural environment, managing in a matrix organization setting, and influencing a cross-functional team dispersed throughout the world takes having a bias toward action and a willingness to take calculated risks, along with the ability to read people, win followership, and garner success through others.

Value Innovation

I have found that enterprises that focus on value innovation execute a small set of competencies consistently and very well such as:

1. Win by focused execution
2. Deliver world-class buying experiences
3. Create disruptive solutions to compete or innovate to chart uncontested waters, making the competition irrelevant
4. Earn and use social currency wisely
5. Foster an atmosphere where people enthusiastically bring their whole self to work.

Key Challenges Facing The Global Financial Services Industry

Key Challenges Facing The Global Financial Services Industry by Kimble Lewis & Company

Let us jump right into this. I recently was asked what were some key challenges facing the global financial services industry for 2014 and moving forward.  I wanted to share with you Kimble Lewis & Company’s insights on this important issue.

#1. Increased costs in being agile and resilient, achieving compliance with a dynamic regulatory environment:

• Asset Management Reforms such as the Alternative Investment Fund Directive, which require managers to obtain authorization, meet on-going operating conditions and comply with transparency and reporting requirements.
• Banking and Capital Markets Reforms such as Dodd Frank Basel III Bank Regulation Federal Reserve, the most significant revisions to regulatory capital for banking organizations in years.
• Here is a clear one pager on the US Regulatory Agenda.

# 2. In this low-interest rate environment, increased regulation climate, and ferocious global marketplace, there is a need to find new profitable ways to delight consumers, increase revenues, and build enterprise efficiencies.

#3. With M&A, key challenges here are:

• Leveraging R&D and IT investments to increase customer loyalty, if completing a merger, divesture, strategic alliance, or acquisition.
• Taking care to ensure business unit strategy is married to M&A objectives.
• Having foresight to know achieving cultural integration is equally important, if not more important, than winning cost, operational, and revenue synergies. In this high-speed M&A climate, as part of the strategy, firms that focus on building, defining, and adopting high-impact behaviors across the newly combined enterprise improve their chances of having success.

#4. Defining and achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) that are relevant to the firm realizing profitable growth in the short-term, while establishing structure to achieve long-term and consistent growth, profitability, employee engagement, and consumer promoters (versus passives and detractors as the Net Promoter System identifies).

#5. Creating a dynamic marketing and branding structure that makes omni-channel interactions with consumers profitable now and in the future, meeting globalization and technological demands to the business, and meeting the subsequent evolving consumer expectations.

#6. Deciding to lead, or to follow in corporate and product innovations. We all talk about failure is good, and to fail often and early as possible. However, financial services do have brands that have expected values that can be tarnished greatly if, for example, a major financial services firm was to buck the trend, do something different and fail miserably. It may be easier for smaller firms to be more creative and to fail, but large-size financial services firms are faced with deciding how risky, how creative, and how pioneering should they be, given the risk-return tradeoffs in brand leadership, stock valuation, consumer loyalty, and market growth.

#7. Talent: Growing talent, keeping talent, and acquiring talent. Executive recruiters argue there is a war on talent. My view is the battle should be building, keeping, and expanding employee engagement for the entire workforce. With talent, there is no silver bullet. No one person can be superman or superwoman, and achieve enterprise competitive differentiation all by him or herself. Employees need to be “All In,” with an insatiable focus on delivering world-class buying experiences to consumers, suppliers, distributors, partners, investors, and shareholders.

Learn about key challenges facing the financial services industry and other topics on Kimble Lewis & Company site. Keep up with my latest ideas, suggestions, and alternatives by following my online publication, following me on Twitter @KimbleLewis, and following me on Linkedin.

Winning In Business and In Life: Life Lessons from a Proud Dad and Business Leader

I was young when I lost both of his parents. Luckily for me, I inherited from my mother, a stay-at-home mom who was a nurse early in her career, and my father, a successful transportation executive, the passion for winning, an insight for seeking creative ways to solve challenges, and the mindset of “why not me.” Interestingly, what I was imparted with is a similar mindset Russell Wilson, quarterback of Super Bowl XL Champion Seattle Seahawks, shared his parents imparted in him during an interview immediately after the Seahawks won.

They gave me the mindset of “why not me” and they encouraged me to “never, ever, think about giving up.” This is what I remember. This memory is what has laid the foundation for my success in business and in life.

If you scale back what they taught me and dig into the spirit of the meaning, you may find that you have a lot of work to do to win in business and in life, as I still do.

For example, at Capital One, during my first six to nine months working for the firm, I operated in ambiguity each day. So many changes were occurring, from strategy to talent. The one consistency was ambiguity. I asked myself, how am I going to meet my mandate in this environment? How can me, my team, my business win in the midst of so many moving parts, given my credibility and influence was in its infancy stages, since I was a new leader to the company.

The good thing is I remembered what my parents taught me – that only the strong survive, that leaders create the climate to win, that I can win too, and that I had better not think about throwing in the towel, despite the pressure.

These life lessons made me focus on building a solid strategy for my time with the firm, which turned out to be a success. Tactically, I had to stay focused and never, never, never give up. Despite the many challenges. Despite the heartache. Despite the ambiguity. Despite the pressure. Despite it all.

So, fast-forward to today as an Entrepreneur, what does “why not me” and “never, ever, think about giving up,” mean to me now. It means to believe in, for example, dynamic segmentation strategies to build scale for the business. It means to focus on building awareness of the business’ brand promise. It means to focus on two things deliberately, managing effectively and building long-term enterprise value.

Moreover, it means that my failures are okay. As long as I learn from them and not duplicate them. It means to fight each day to win. It means to be deliberate and self-aware. It means to manage my own expectations. It means to bet on myself. It means constantly to focus on building the new and the different.

Lastly, the life lessons, in their purest form, mean to stay the course, despite the head and tailwinds, purposefully to…win and win big!

So as your company or your team contemplates building a winning culture or climate, how are you thinking through roadblocks and challenges? What learning and development currency is allocated to build the business climate and culture desired? Is it just about cascading a message from senior most leaders to the workforce, or could it also be the need for everyone to reinvent himself or herself, from entry-level to chief executive officer to build a desired end-state?

“Winning in Business and in Life” is a short, engaging, and powerful training designed to build competency confidence, and direction within the workforce, and lay the foundation for a monumental paradigm shift in your business culture. Let us discuss your company’s strategic priorities. Contact Kimble Lewis & Company at +1.609.477.2385, or by email at kimble@kimblelewis.co.

Learn more about winning and other topics on Kimble Lewis & Company site. Keep up with Kimble Lewis & Company’s latest insights by following me on Kimble Lewis & Company, on Twitter @KimbleLewis, and Linkedin.

Leadership: Boldness, Creativity, and Winning Builds a Future Others Just Do Not See

As a leader, boldness creates credibility, especially when no one wants to or can make an important decision.

As a leader, being creative is a good thing. Do not believe the hype that it is not or that being creative is only for those who report to you.

Lastly, as a leader, it is important to know that winning creates groundbreaking experiences for you, consumers, investors, and employees, experiences that oftentimes are priceless.

So, if you want to be a leader, go ahead and be bold, creative, and focus on winning. I am confident you will reap the benefits.

Now, if your business culture or leadership team needs some work in creating a winning climate and mindset across the enterprise, help is just a phone call or email away.

• Kimble Lewis, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Kimble Lewis & Company

 

Cybersecurity Breaches and Leadership by Kimble Lewis

Albeit eliminating cyber threats are impossible, protecting against the threats are something that can be controlled, and needs to be a top leadership issue.

Cybersecurity, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “the measure taken to protect a computer or computer system…against unauthorized access or attack.” McKinsey & Company goes further to define cybersecurity as “the protection of valuable intellectual property and business information in digital form against theft and misuse” (McKinsey, 2011).

What is the current state of affairs in cybersecurity breaches?

Patricia Lenkov, Global Search Practice Head at N2growth, shared insight into the current state of affairs in corporate cybersecurity challenges.

Consumer Markets:

Target Corporation: Gregg Steinhafel, former Chairman and CEO stepped down in June of 2014 due to the continued fall-out from 2013 massive data breach, where up to 110 million consumer records were compromised.

Neiman Marcus reported that they were working with the U.S. Secret Service to investigate compromised credit card activity. Apparently, the hackers moved undetected in the company’s computers for more than 8 months.

Financial Institutions:

In June of 2014, two hackers pleaded guilty to accessing accounts at Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal, TD Ameritrade, the U.S. Department of Defense, TIAA-CREF and others to defraud these companies and their customers of more than $15 million.

In 2008, thieves attacked 2,100 ATMs across the globe and within a 12-hour window and stole more than $9 million in cash. The FBI reported the attack “started when a 28 year old Moldovan man learned of vulnerability in the computer network of a major credit card processing company based in Atlanta.”

Who should lead here?

Interestingly, there is a debate on who should be accountable. Some say the CEO is solely responsible. Some say the Board of Directors and its Risk Committee (if they have one) are responsible. Some say others like the Chief Technology Officer or Chief Information Officer should carry the weight of responsibility. McKinsey & Company asked a very important question in a recent article as it relates to leadership around cybersecurity when they asked “Who is responsible for developing and maintaining [the company’s] cross-functional approach to cybersecurity? To what extent do business leaders (as opposed to IT or risk executives) own this issue?

There are four functions of management where a leader is expected to be effective in delivering value:

1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Leading
4. Controlling

In the case of Target Corporation, Gregg Steinhafel, the chief business leader, failed in his leadership responsibilities. Think about it, as Chief Executive one desires to produce significant shareholder value, win groundbreaking EBITDA, secure the business’ brand leadership in service, quality, and price, win over wall street analysts, crush the competition, build an admirable corporate social footprint, make industry-leading efficiencies, and continuously seek to integrate technologies into operations to establish benchmark competitive and comparative advantages.

Gregg Steinhafel failed to lead in the latter desire as chief executive. He did not have to be a technologist to ensure Target Corporation had industry-benchmark digital security. This is risk management 101. If you lead with technology in a service industry, risk questions like this need answers:

1. What protocols are in place to ensure the company has industry-benchmark protection of valuable intellectual property and business information in digital form?

If the Chief Technology Officer or others could not give strong, verifiable, and lucid answers, then stop tendering business. I don’t want to hear, well Visa/MasterCard require each terminal to have X,Y,Z, or the online portal meets the highest security allowed. This is hogwash.

Leadership is planning for contingencies, and questioning everything. Leadership is making decisions on smart costs in business. Smart costs in ensuring data security should be clearly argued as a necessary component, during analyst calls or shareholder meetings, to delivering a secure world-class buying experience.

What does winning look like now and in the future?

Google is benchmarking cybersecurity. Hot off the press, Parisa Tabriz, Google’s Security Princess and her team of 30 engineers are mandated to focus on sniffing out and fixing security threats to Chrome, thinking and acting like a criminal (Business Insider, 2014).  Their job is to find holes or security bugs in Chrome, write a fix, and push updates to all users.

Does this mean Larry Page, CEO of Google, is a technologist? No. Does this mean Parisa was ordered to be creative and counterintuitive with ensuring the safety and security of Google Chrome’s data? I am not sure, but Parisa is surely leading here.

What I admire about Parisa is her audacity to lead, given so many moving parts. I am not a technologist, but I am a leader, and I know excellence when I see or hear it. No matter if her team wins or fails the fact that she has a bias toward thoughtful action is what impresses me. From what I see, Parisa seeks to become intimately knowledgeable of the attacker, the hacker, the enemy. This is tangible creativity. This is 21^st century warfare, taking it to the enemy. I love it!

Parisa and her team are creating, what I coin, industry-benchmark behaviors that would work well in being duplicated in consumer markets and financial services, where valuable intellectual property and business information in digital form is ubiquitous.

About the Author

Kimble Lewis is Global Executive Editor for Kimble Lewis & Company’s Insights and Publications. He serves as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Kimble Lewis & Company, an American global diversified holding company headquartered in New Jersey, United States.

Brief Message to Reader

I write this article, not as a technologist, but as a leader who is quite efficient in the four functions of management, and who appreciates that certain management and leadership functions just cannot and should not be delegated.

If in the same situation as Gregg Steinhafel, or as CEO of a public corporation, could I have done a better job?

Yes.

Since Target boards of directors are seeking Gregg’s replacement, why not introduce them to my leadership brand.

References:

“Cybersecurity.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 12 July 2014. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cybersecurity

Kaplan.J, Weinberg.A, Shantnu.S. (2011, June). Meeting the cybersecurity challenge. McKinsey.com. Retrieved July 12, 2014, from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/meeting_the_cybersecurity_challenge

D’Onfro, J. (2014, July 12). Google’s “Security Princess” Leads A Team Of Hackers Paid To Think Like Criminals. Business Insider, 1-5

Sales Leadership and Winning Requires Creativity to Seize The Moments by Kimble Lewis

In October 2013, The Banker Magazine named Citi,

• Most Innovative Investment Team
• Most Innovative Investment Bank for Equity-linked Products
• Most Innovative Investment Bank for Equities and Initial Public Offerings
• Most Innovative Investment Bank for Prime Brokerage
• Most Innovative Investment Bank for Risk Management

A panel of industry experts decided the awards. The selection was based on innovation-focused criteria around transactions, products and strategy. Citi was praised specifically for focusing on delivering “cross-asset client solutions” and the breadth of its franchise enabling the bank to complete “breakthrough” transactions in new markets (The Banker Magazine, 2013).

As a proud alum of Citigroup, a private investor, and business leader, these awards are worth noting and discussion.

POWER BROKER. POWER BANK.

For 20 years, I have built my career in financial services working for some of the most venerable and profitable financial firms on the Global Fortune 500 List. As an alum of Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, and Capital One Financial, I look to see what these firms are doing consistently to prove my hypothesis:

Creative Sales Strategy + Defining and Solving the Right Problems + Cascading Innovation + Building Brand Leadership + Winning Employee Engagement Creates Breakthrough Sales, Revenue, Cost Savings, Consumer Loyalty, and Value for Multiple Stakeholders.

I derive this hypothesis from experience. This is not an academic exercise.

My experience teaches me that power banks and power brokers establish sales leadership and win by injecting creativity in the midst of uncertainty to shape a reality that is filled with excellence and boldness.

CREATIVE SALES STRATEGY

The case study I am going to use for my article is the work Citi Investment Bank did to win the Most Innovative Investment Bank for Equity-linked Products global award.

Ken Robins, head of equity capital markets (ECM) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Citi and his team assessed the market landscape to answer the question – how do we differentiate ourselves and provide solutions to our institutional clients that are relevant, given continued low interest rates across the developed world?

Traditional straight debt issuance is appealing to companies for capital raising purposes in a low interest rate – low coupon environment.

However, why not introduce equity-linked capabilities, given the market has been subdued? Who would be receptive? What would be the pros and cons of such an action? What is the profile of the client that would benefit from this sales strategy in the short-term and medium-term? Are competitors doing this? Should we compete with our competitors or should we make them irrelevant, by charting a new course?

When designing creative sales strategy, these are just a snapshot of questions needing answers. Citi Investment Bank had to ask and get answers to these types of questions to be recognized by The Banker Magazine, a division of The Financial Times Group.

DEFINING AND SOLVING THE RIGHT PROBLEMS

Problem Set:

High credit-rated companies question the benefits of going to the equity-linked market when they could raise capital through straight debt issuance, given depressed interest rates in the developed world.

On the other hand, unrated companies seeking access to fixed income markets, companies seeking to diversify investor base, and companies with volatile stock prices were prime targets. The focus was on  A and BBB rated companies that could get high exchange premiums and low coupons.

Ken Robins and his team defined the challenge this vertical segment faced, measured the impact creative solutions would present to the vertical segment, analyzed the market and industry dynamics to test for the efficacy of their solution, ensured the product capabilities improved the client situation and industry position, and followed simple control measures to ensure the solutions met the needs of Citi Investment Bank concurrent with the needs of the clients.

These are very crucial steps Citi must have taken in order to create the award-winning value in the market and for their clients.

CASCADING INNOVATION

Creating the new and the different is the focus of Citi Investment Bank. After defining the right problem to solve, Citi Investment Bank deliberately chose to focus on a narrow band of corporates that they felt could benefit from their equity-linked market capabilities.

Convertible bond issuance, although not new, was the sexy, relevant, and innovative solution the identified niche needed.

The power of convertible bonds are they offer benefits to the company, whereby the company raises capital through debenture issuance, the company minimizes potential negative perception of its corporate actions from the investing public by issuing convertibles bonds versus equities ( when public companies issue equities the investing public may infer the company leadership and stock holders believe the company’s current price is overvalued ), the company receives exchange premium – the amount of the common stock plus the exchange premium percentage the investor must pay if they choose to convert the shares, and the company maintains control by incorporating call features in the debenture capping upside price movement thus profits, and limiting downside risk.

The power of convertible bonds to the investor include 1) A coupon (despite a low coupon, it is a coupon the issuer must pay) 2) Control – the investor can convert the bond to stock at will and benefit from the company’s rise in equity prices 3) Conversion ratio – the amount one bond can be exchanged for X amount of stock, 4) Profit taking – since the convertible performs like a stock and follows the underlying stock price, the investor has the ability to convert the bond to shares at a price potentially below market value and profit from the spread, and 5) Conservative to moderate capital market instrument because convertibles offer par value if underlying equity depreciates in value severely, and limits up-side if underlying equity value appreciates greatly.

The benefits of cascading innovation are challenging clients to see the world through new lenses and delivering excellence at multiple points, turning clients into advocates and fans. Citi Investment Bank did this eloquently, when they secured $475 million convertible bond for Severstal in September 2012 with a coupon of 1% and an exchange premium of 45%, the highest any European company had achieved in five years (The Banker, 2013).

BUILDING BRAND LEADERSHIP

The awards and global recognition clearly build Citi Investment Bank’s brand image, perceived quality, and confidence clients’, investors’, and employees’ hold in the capabilities of the business.  In addition, company chief executives talk to one another. When you delight an industry and company, you create the opportunity to repeat this because of the need of business to always be competing and seeking competitive and comparative advantage.  Comparative advantage nowadays may be considered a loss art, but companies that do not give up on this important pursuit reap differentiate brand loyalty.

In the case of Citi Investment Bank, the competition – Deutsche Bank and RBC Capital Markets – could have done the Severstal deal. However, Citi found a way to sell the convertible story, attractively price it, and win strong sale margins by focusing on comparative advantage.

SALES LEADERSHIP AND WINNING

You can be as innovative you want to be. You can create the new and different all day and night. Nevertheless, without a truly engaged workforce, a winning business culture, and a business climate that supports creativity, success will be sporadic.  Product innovation, in the case with Citi Investment Bank, has to yield better than sporadic success.

To establish sales leadership and to win, companies or teams focus on what can be controlled, focus on execution, focus on taking smart, calculated risks, and focus on beating their competition.  I like the Citi Investment Bank wins because they represent the best in banking.

Banking is about being where the growth is taking place within industries, connecting people and business to opportunities, enabling business and people to thrive, enabling economies to prosper, helping business and people live their fullest potential, and realize their aspirations.

For this reason, I am a global banker, and will always be a global banker.

Congratulations Citi Investment Bank for your success in 2013. May you have many more.

 

Reference

Citi Investment Bank. (2013). Retrieved April 13, 2014 from, http://icg.citi.com/icg/global_markets/prime_finance/au/press_room/2013/2013_10_04.jsp

“Blue Ocean Strategy” for Financial Services

Authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their published book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant (2004), argue answers to these four management questions below bring about actions that can help create meaningful Blue Ocean Strategy:

1. Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?

2. Which factors should be reduced well below the industry standard?

3. Which factors should be raised well above the industry standard?

4. Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

Mr. Kim and Ms Mauborgne continue their argument that businesses should focus more on alternatives and less on competitors. Moreover, they argue business should focus more on non-customers or potential new customers and less on their existing customers.

Although W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne make good arguments, some holes in their argument need addressing. The major hole in their argument is business should focus more on non-customers or potential new customers, and less on existing customers.  I maintain businesses can achieve breakthrough margins concurrent with providing world-class buying experiences to existing and new consumers. How? The science of lean six sigma is awesome and can be applied to multiple industries and in multiple situations. CTQ + Success six-sigma approach provides insight on how business does not have to give up on existing customers.

What is CTQ + Success? Critical-to-quality+success are six sigma methods used to 1) broadly, look at multiple and competing factors that consumers require in products and services to delight them, and that businesses need in products and services to deliver in order for them to be considered a success 2) identify critical requirements, understand quality drivers or factors the consumer and the business will use to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of the product or service — for instance, for consumers, product or service must-haves, and for business, size of market, per capita spending, future growth projection  3) define minimum measurable performance requirements each driver must satisfy to be considered high quality 4) use the repository of quality drivers and performance requirements identified to deliver value to new consumers, existing consumers, and for the business.

Let us look at Capital One. A recent management challenge was, how to deliver product innovation and create a “Blue Ocean” situation with the next product for commercial banking consumers, given the saturated existing market with service providers offering everything from treasury solutions to syndicated credit facilities, the precarious regulatory environment, and dynamic consumer behaviors?

Our situation was Capital One brand had a 95% recognition, the “Capital One Bank” sub-brand was weak, client attrition for commercial clients was an aggregate 13%.  We identified the “Blue Ocean” product and service that allowed business owners to earn interest on working capital — taking advantage of the repeal of Regulation Q of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act that prevented banks from paying interest on deposits in commercial checking accounts.  We defined the solution to have two key features 1) high yield on commercial checking up to $100,000 2) online capability; we further defined quality drivers for the business and consumer for each feature. For example, one quality driver for consumers was the ease of use with using the solution on the internet and remotely. One quality driver for the business was the ability for the solution to generate, on the short-term, quantum growth in 90 day average deposit balances in commercial accounts.

I led a task force that conducted exhaustive environmental scanning and business analysis to eliminate factors we took for granted, to reduce the weight of factors we traditionally felt consumers valued, to increase the weight of the factors consumers told us needed to be above industry standards, and to identify the features and benefits of a product that will make it innovative.

Our contribution to product innovation was integral in helping Capital One Commercial Bank achieve double-digit growth in new client acquisition, increase product penetration with existing customers, improve average balances in commercial accounts, and enhance brand equity for Capital One’s Commercial Bank, by charting new waters and being the only provider of this type of product for several months.

Now, notice above I shared we defined quality drivers for the business and consumer. This was the creative part. Normally, CTQ+Success six sigma methods are focused on the consumer, or one stakeholder. We needed a solution that was bold, creative, and that differentiated Capital One Commercial Bank, putting it in uncontested space.

The CTQ +Success approach in business can be applied to meet mandates of both the business and consumer. The consumer and the business are interdependent and are not mutually exclusive. It takes time; it takes creativity; but, when done right, the rewards are impressive.

The weak point to the Blue Ocean Strategy is it throws the existing consumer under the bus. Nowadays, consumers are more sophisticated than ever and make, on average, 75%-85% of their buying decision prior to actually buying.  Given this paradigm, it’s more important than ever for businesses to 1) focus resources  on growing existing relationships through meeting existing consumer needs 2) attract new consumers by using resources and capabilities wisely, and 3) make sure consumer and business performance requirements are met to deliver high quality solutions to new and existing consumers, and to grow the business’ brand equity.

How to Win During Your Business “Slow Season?” by Kimble Lewis

This important management question impacts multiple industries. Experience has taught me that during the “slow season” (whenever it occurs for your industry) it is important to focus on one key item: Creating and executing a differentiation strategy. For example, in the financial services industry where competition for institutional and private clients is fierce, the summer months and holiday season typically are slow. Seemingly, it feels everyone is on vacation or not thinking about doing business. Leaders, teams, and companies that focus on flawlessly executing tactics that achieve differentiation win in the long run. Some ideas, suggestions, and alternatives include 1) launching a disruptive product that peaks interest and one that the competition has not offered 2) delivering solutions innovatively to make doing business with you easier versus competition 3) improving high touch client experiences to make clients feel they are the most important person in the world. I call it the Zig-Zag effect. You zig while everyone else zag’s. The result can improve your brand leadership, increase sales revenues, and, when all mixed in the pot, translate to increased perceived value by consumer.

Happy Holiday Season.

The Great Repeatable Business Model

Smart Risk Taking by Kimble Lewis

Smart risk taking in business and in life involves following a set of values that govern activities to produce desired outcomes. How you achieve the desired outcomes is equally important to what you achieve.

Kimble Lewis, Delivered at Capital One’s Annual Enterprise Strategy Meeting in NYC, 2012.

Most important lesson I’ve learned in business. What is Yours? by Kimble Lewis

Courageous leadership is important to deliver shareholder value, grow market share, delight clients, and build an engaged workforce. This is true if you are in leadership. But, what if you are downsized and have to accept a lesser role? I’ve learned never to short change your personal value or PV. You are your best advocate and your ability to quantify and qualify your worth for yourself and others is priceless.