Accelerated Growth Consulting

I received an email from my mother last evening about a social experiment that the Washington Post conducted two years ago with Joshua Bell, the world famous violinist. That said, I think the real value of the experiment drives home an incredibly important message for business owners and senior executives. The basic story line goes [...]

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 [...]

If you want to succeed quickly, especially in the information/ professional services arena, you’ll want to practice this idea. However, you can also apply this principle to your leadership or parenting or networking, etc. Again, just like yesterday, I want to acknowledge Eben Pagan for sharing this concept. The metaphor he uses to explain it [...]

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,” [...]

Have you ever set out to create a system in your business that deliberately irritated or disappointed your customers? Probably not. But if I asked, “Have you ever done so?” The answer would probably be, “Yes!” I had one of those experiences the other week. I was speaking at a convention in Orlando that was [...]

Reinvention is at the heart of all great businesses–and one of the keys to becoming more remarkable. For those of us who do strategy work, it’s at the very heart and core of what we do. In other words, what a company has been in the past does not have to equate to what it [...]

When was the last time you saw a Broadway play? Do you remember what you felt both during and after the performance? My guess is that you probably used words like, “amazing,” “breath-taking,” “inspiring,” unbelievable,” “mind-blowing,” “unforgettable,” “spine-tingling,” hilarious,” “moving,” “awesome,” or, maybe even, “remarkable!” So what is it that drives that incredibly consistent experience [...]

Fortune magazine recently came out with their listing of the Fortune 500 (and 1000). A quick survey of the Fortune 500 shows that the company with the best performing stock return over the past decade has been . . . Apple–at an impressive 50.7% return per year. So, how did they do that? From my [...]

If you could achieve Wolfgang Puck’s success, would you? If you could go from being a young Austrian boy who was fired from his first cooking job to being a world renown chef and restauranteur with a global brand that includes 15 top rated restaurants (including the famous Spago Beverly Hills), 80 Gourmet Express locations, [...]

While remarkability tends to decrease the cost of customer acquisition (i.e. as more people remark to others about your products and services, you pay less per new customer because word of mouth doesn’t cost you directly). However, what often drives remarkability is your willingness to spend a little more money on the new customers you [...]