Insights

Many IT businesses think that strategy is a complex, unwieldy document full of complex words and diagrams that only have meaning to the consultant who charged a small fortune to write the “strategy”. Such a strategy is useless and a waste of time and money. Playing To Win is different. …

Ultimately winning in your technology based business is about having a Sustainable Competitive Advantage. This will come down to choosing between two main ways of competing: Lower Cost or Differentiation.   Which of these two options to choose is very much about the type of business that you want to…

This article was prompted by some interesting meetings we have had in the last couple of weeks. One common theme was concern about sales in the months upcoming to the end of the financial year. Here are five cases from our meetings with new clients. Does your business fit with…

Learning is a key pillar supporting the success and sustainability of any business. Here are seven compelling reasons why you should consider re-thinking how you deliver learning in your organisation if you are not currently aligning learning with strategy.  1. People will better understand the purpose of their learning activities.…

What does your website really say about your business? Before I begin: we do not create, edit or sell any website services. If you ask us to, the answer is no. We work with technology businesses to reverse slow, stalled or declining growth.  We improve competitive positioning and create an…

Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It’s hard because it forces you to make specific choices about the future. Choices about what you will do and what you will not do. In our opinion, based on working with many clients, the most difficult question in building a winning…

How to herd cats in a brainstorming session. We believe in collaborative strategy development. As in one of our previous articles, strategies that are created in isolation and not shared are really not strategies at all. What I offer in this blog is one tool that is super effective at…

I had a coffee with the owner of a managed service provider business last Thursday. We had both attended a presentation on AI and marketing. I was interested in his perspective on the presentation to cross check my cynicism. He was looking for a solution to his growth problem and…

The software demo went well. There were three people from a marketing agency exploring our client’s software for their people, contractors and their clients. They have some interesting ideas on how they want to implement the software to support their growth strategy and I hope our client has the chance…

As strategy consultants we work primarily with software, technology and MSP companies. We have worked with some great teams: brilliant ideas, disruptive innovations, and teams with boundless energy. Yet, despite all this amazing potential, one fundamental element often gets overlooked or completely forgotten: strategy.   It is a word that…

Do all MSPs look the same? Just over 92% of MSPs look identical! Don’t believe me? Google MSP in your city or town and look at the website headlines. Nearly every MSP is saying the same things. There is no real differentiation.If prospective new clients can’t see any difference there is no difference. If…

“Our growth is too slow so we are going to hire a new Sales Person” You already know in your heart and mind that hiring a new sales person is not going to solve the growth challenge in your IT business. Yet it seems comforting and it demonstrates your strong…