Accelerated Growth Consulting

While there’s always a tendency to think short-term, especially during an economic downturn, there are plenty of compelling reasons to not do so. Major test case: Amazon. If you didn’t read the Business Week article (Sept. 28, 2009) on “At Amazon, Marketing is for Dummies,” you missed a compelling argument for thinking long-term, especially during [...]

Have you ever noticed that most people like to live life in an either/or world? Either  we buy a sports car or a minivan. Either we go to the beach or the mountains for vacation this year. Either we locate in a busy location or an isolated one. Either we focus on one product or [...]

I was at a conference this past week when one of the speakers, a copywriter by the name of Ray Edwards, nailed me–in a positive way. The way he got to me was by asking two simple questions. Showing a picture of a MacDonald’s hamburger, he asked, 1. How would you describe the quality of [...]

Forget whether you’re a “trekkie” or not, the series (from the original onward) has been a great vehicle for observing and evaluating both positive and negative leadership–and this latest edition is no slouch on that account. I’ve never been a big trekkie fan (though I did think Jean luc Picard was a phenomenal leader) so [...]

I remember hearing Dan Kennedy (a marketing expert) say, years ago, “What’s interesting about entrepreneurs is that they won’t pay for the soft stuff (like dealing with their fears or lack of confidence), but they will pay for the hard stuff (like how to use some new technique on the internet to attract more customers), [...]

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you know that my first premise for growth is, “No organization can consistently perform at a level beyond the capacity of the senior leader. Therefore, if you want to grow an organization, you need to start by growing the senior leader first.” In essence, [...]

Regardless of whether you’re a basketball fan or not, you have to admire what Phil Jackson accomplished yesterday, as well as over the past 18 seasons he’s served as a head coach (similar to your role as the senior executive of a SMB). With yesterday’s NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson probably [...]

If you could pick one idea or concept that drives accelerated growth companies more than any other, what would you pick? Would you pick, “Great leadership?” Or, “A new or better technology?” Maybe, “Massive cash flow?” Or, “Viral marketing?” Or would you pick, “Great systems?” Or maybe even, “Great people?” Well, while all of those [...]

When your prospects and customers think about you, do they think, “I have to have that!” Or, “I need to go there!” Or “I need to use them!” Or is it more of a more of a, “Let me think about it.” Or a “I’ll get back to you.” Or, “I’m doing my due diligence,” [...]

If you’re an entrepreneur or senior executive of a small or medium-sized business, hopefully you’re regularly reading Inc. Magazine. If not, you should be. I rarely find an issue where I’m not tearing out a few articles to file. And that holds true for this month’s edition, which marks their 30th anniversary. However, my favorite [...]