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Insights
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New Strategies for the New China
Business executives are now being forced to look at long-term operations in China with fresh eyes.…
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Is Price Conflict Disrupting Your Strategic Account Relationships?
Imagine that your company has put in place a bold new plan for growth. The plan…
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How to Create Positive Pricing Experiences
Can the topic of price actually enhance the business-to-business (B2B) customer experience? We’re not talking about…
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Look Before You Leap: Product Portfolio Strategies for Price-Sensitive Segments
Often companies believe it will be easy to expand their offerings into more price-sensitive segments, assuming…
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The Challenge of Capturing Value through Innovation: Unsophisticated Customers, Pt. 2
In Pt. 1 of this series, we introduced a business executive who reached out to Blue…
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The Challenge of Capturing Value through Innovation: Show Them the Money, Pt. 1
After reading CoDestiny: Overcome Your Growth Challenges by Helping Your Customers Overcome Theirs, a business executive…
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The 4 Major Roadblocks of Digital Transformation in Industrials/ Manufacturing
Most business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing leaders understand the importance of digital transformation. They’re open to exploring how…
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How to Utilize Non-Price Levers to Resolve Price Conflict
In our previous blog, The 4 Sources of Price Conflict, we introduced a company opening a…
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How B2B Service Companies Can Drive Growth Through a Customer Relationship Advantage
As human beings, we rely on strong and lasting relationships to fulfill our personal happiness. There’s…
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Business Services: Building Successful B2B Customer Relationships
As human beings, we rely on strong and lasting relationships to fulfill our personal happiness. There…
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The 4 Sources of Price Conflict
Your company has put in place a bold new plan for growth. The plan involves opening…
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How to Define an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Strategy
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the fascinating vision of a world in which all manner of…
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Evolving Your Brand Architecture With The Market
Blue Canyon has begun to see a shift in the attention that business-to-business (B2B) companies are…
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Understanding Your Place in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Supply Network
The Internet of Things (IoT)—that fascinating vision of a world in which all manner of devices,…
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Commercializing Your Internet of Things (IoT) Offer: Key Questions to Address
In business-to-business (B2B) markets, we are seeing an overabundance of trend setting technology platforms—from eCommerce to…
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Digital Transformation: How to Commercialize Your Breakthrough Internet of Things (IoT) Offer
An overabundance of trend setting technology platforms—from eCommerce to the Internet of Things (IoT) with data…
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B2B Business Services: Mapping the Customer Chain
In the B2B business services world, change is common. Markets experience change in the form of…
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Needs-Based Segmentation: Unlocking Growth
The foundation for any successful growth strategy is knowing your market. Unfortunately, many business-to-business (B2B) companies…
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eCommerce Disruption in Business-to-Business Markets
The world of business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce is fast-evolving. B2B buyers are increasingly demanding the same online…
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Hitting the Wall in China, Pt. 2
In Pt. 1 of this series, we offered one explanation for reaching an underwhelming market share…
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Incorporating Blue Canyon’s Growth Lessons into B2B Business Services
We have written extensively on the strategic challenge of identifying and taking advantage of new growth…
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Hitting the Wall in China, Pt. 1
For decades, U.S. companies—like those Blue Canyon advises—have lamented the fact that China’s B2B customers don’t…
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3 Guidelines for Managing Disruption
As the U.S. economy continues to expand, and with acquisition multiples hovering at an all-time high,…
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The Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on Manufacturing: Monetization and Commercialization, Pt. 3
Atlee Valentine Pope, President and CEO of Blue Canyon Partners, recently chaired a panel discussion among…
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The Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on Manufacturing: IoT Acceleration and Key Challenges to Address, Pt. 2
Atlee Valentine Pope, President and CEO of Blue Canyon Partners, recently chaired a panel discussion among…
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The Impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on Manufacturing: Defining a Strategy, Pt. 1
Atlee Valentine Pope, President and CEO of Blue Canyon Partners, recently chaired a panel discussion among…
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3 Essential Elements to a Successful M&A Strategy, Pt. 2
In Pt. 1 of this series, we detailed the first of three key elements that needs…
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3 Essential Elements to a Successful M&A Strategy, Pt. 1
Most firms are motivated to consider M&A as an extension of their growth strategy as a way…
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The Increasing Value of Brand in B2B Markets
In business-to-business (B2B) markets, brand often does not receive as much attention as it should. Many…
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Rules Don’t Apply: Thinking Like a Disruptor
The fear of headline-grabbing disruptors leave incumbent firms scrambling to prepare themselves. Executives fret over technological…
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B2B Brand Architecture: How to Build Value in a Changing Marketplace
Greater commoditization, the expansion of credible low-cost competitors, increasing variety and complexity of offerings, and the…
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B2B eCommerce: A Shift in the B2B Customer Buying Experience
The emergence of the millennial eCommerce mindset has fundamentally changed business-to-consumer (B2C) markets; in fact, eCommerce…
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Understanding the Shifts in Customer Segmentation
It’s important to establish needs-based segmentation for indirect and direct customers. As we have previously discussed,…
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Identifying and Responding to eCommerce Disruption: A Guide for B2B Suppliers
The world of business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce is fast-evolving. B2B buyers are increasingly demanding the same online…
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China’s Economy: A Call to Action for the World’s B2B Suppliers
As we enter 2017, China’s economy continues to evolve beyond exports of cheap manufactured goods and…
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Customer Experience: Coming Full Circle (Pt. 3)
Note: This article is part three of the series. The first article is “Customer Experience: Every…
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Customer Experience: The Role of Company Culture (Pt. 2)
Note: This article is part two of the series. The first article is “Customer Experience: Every…
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Customer Experience: Every Employee, Every Interaction, Every Day (Pt. 1)
Every business owner dreads it: getting an earful from a customer about a less-than-pleasant experience. As…
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Business-to-Business eCommerce: A Call to Action
When we discussed the state of eCommerce in business-to-business (B2B) markets a year ago, we noted…
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The Risks of Not Making a Decision—and How to Avoid Them
In private equity today, many management teams and their financial sponsors have collaborative relationships: the management…
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A Deeper Approach to Segmentation: 3 Steps to Develop Application-Based Segmentation
Many business-to-business organizations segment their marketplace based on easily discernable attributes—such as industry, size, and/or location—and…
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China’s Booming Auto and Housing Markets
As a follow up to our previous blog post, Is China on Track to Reach Growth Targets?,…
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Is China’s Economy on Track to Reach Growth Targets?
China Retreats from the Headlines as Solid Growth Returns As foreign leaders were arriving in Hangzhou,…
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Stay Ahead of the Game: How to Recognize and Respond to Disruption
Significant changes in your market that call into question the very nature of your business and…
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Creating Success Stories from the Internet of Things
It’s rare that a day goes by without seeing an article in the business press about…
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Know Your Risk: Looking for Disruption in Your Market
Disruption fundamentally changes markets. Incumbent firms faced with this substantial change must respond decisively in order…
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Evaluating Your Business Model
When clients come to Blue Canyon to evaluate their current business model, they want to know…
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Four Pillars of Customer Focus
We operate in a fast-paced world where change seems to be a daily occurrence and competitors…
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Does Customer Centricity Pay Off? An Assessment of the Benefits of Customer Centricity in B2B Organizations
Customer centricity has become a popular initiative implemented by B2B organizations, but few resources are available…
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What’s Your Play? A B2B Executive’s Guide to Identifying and Creating Disruption
Disruption can upend the entire structure of a market and jeopardize a firm’s profitability; however, it…
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Drive Productivity to Create Value for Your Customers
We help business-to-business (B2B) suppliers create value for their customers (and their customer’s customers) while capturing…
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Creating and Capturing More Value
With greater focus on product innovation today, business-to-business (B2B) executives are creating more value for their…
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Driving Growth through Monetization
To remain relevant among customers and to secure a leading position among competitors, business-to-business (B2B) companies…
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Channel Management: Recurring Dynamics in B2B Markets
Executives in the business-to-business (B2B) world know that a company’s channel management strategy is fundamental to…
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The Challenge of Branded Channels
Distributor and dealer relationships can be critical to the success of manufacturers that serve business markets.…
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Back to Basics: Lessons Learned from Q1
After a rocky start the first week of the year, Q1 continued with falling oil prices,…
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Three Reoccurring Principles for Pricing Strategies
Regardless of the state of the economy during a business cycle, pricing strategies are a challenge…
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China’s Challenges: The Road Ahead
In our previous blog post, China: Imminent Doom or Necessary Adjustments?, we discussed some observations surrounding…
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China: Imminent Doom or Necessary Adjustments?
China continues to be the catalyst for waves of pessimism in international financial markets as the…
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China’s Future Competitive Environment
‘No Time for Losers’—Is Samsung a precedent? Note: This article is part three of a three…
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How Much Will Your Customers Pay?
In today’s two percent economy, business-to-business companies are challenged to grow. As such, many of these…
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How Can Customer Insights Ignite Growth?
Conversations with marketplace representatives bring current problems to light. These same conversations, however, also are the sparks…
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How Much Will Your Customers Pay? And How Can You Capture This Value?
Two common, high-level questions we often receive from clients around pricing are: How much will our…
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Three Approaches to Overcome Adoption Barriers
Suppliers often face high adoption barriers as more complex, critical equipment (such as transfer switches, generators…
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Do you Have a Disconnect with Your Customers? Reclaim Your Value Proposition
There are instances where an organization doesn’t need to create an innovative, new offer. Rather a prime…
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The Ripple Effect of eCommerce Across B2B Industries
The topic of eCommerce may seem like old news, and if one were talking in generalities…
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Why Aftermarket Services Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought
In the business-to-business world, there are many different models for providing post-sales support known as aftermarket…
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eCommerce in Business-to-Business Markets: Value Creation and Market Disruption in the United States and China
Albeit eCommerce has been a topic of discussion for many years, this channel has recently begun…
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Showing Symptoms of Strategic Issues? Call the Doctor!
Imagine two identical doctors. Both are seasoned professionals with many years of experience. However, one doctor…
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China Devalues: What Does It Mean?
China let the value of the yuan decline sharply for several days in a row and…
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What’s the Status of the Chinese Economy?
The past two months have been an interesting time in China. The stock market’s gyrations made…
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Elevating Customer Focus – More Difficult Than You Think
Typical strategies built around product/service and cost are no longer enough on their own for organizations…
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How to Address New Products and Technologies That Threaten To Disrupt Your Business
In a recent issue of Fortune magazine, an article “The War on Big Food” highlighted how…
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Growth Strategy: Steps to a Structured Decision
Business-to-business (B2B) companies are frequently pressured to identify the next business or market in which they can succeed…
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Bringing the Strategic Account Organization into the Product Development Process
A session I moderated at the Strategic Account Management Association focused on how to bring the…
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How to Develop an Effective B2B Brand Strategy
Effective brand strategy is critical for business success. Companies in the B2C world make this abundantly…
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Four Steps to Develop a Competitive Response for You and Your Channel Partner
In the ever-changing business-to-business space, successful companies are those that know how to adapt when competitors…
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Tap Into Your Aftermarket’s Growth Potential
For certain organizations the aftermarket[1] can be an afterthought, with many companies choosing to invest their…
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Serving Customers in Emerging Markets: The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown
The opportunities and challenges of serving major customers in emerging markets was my presentation topic at…
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Analyzing Customer Chains to Open New Opportunities: Moving the Needle
Finding new growth or expansion opportunities can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack.…
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Unlocking the Power of Data Analytics
ISBM’s[1] Winter Meeting was all around Analysis, Analytics, and Answers. Charlie Peters, Senior Executive Vice President of…
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How to Measure Customer Focus
Business-to-business (B2B) organizations are increasingly seeing the benefits of becoming more customer-focused and its resulting positive…
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The Case for Organic Growth
With U.S. companies having a lot of cash on the balance sheets and financing availability, the…
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Tread Carefully Before Pursuing an Adjacent Market
Expansion into adjacent markets can be an effective method for achieving growth, but it is often…
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An Approach to Rethinking Segmentation
In many business-to-business organizations we have seen segmentation that is no longer relevant, implemented many years…
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Is it Time to Rethink Segmentation?
Knowing your market is fundamental to developing a growth strategy. Knowing the different customers that make…
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With the Market Returning, How Do You Ensure You Get Your Share?
While the U.S. economy is growing in a lower gear, it is important for U.S business-to-business companies…
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Is it Time to Rethink Segmentation?
Is your organization’s segmentation effective? Is your organization segmenting on customer needs/purchase behaviors? Does your organization’s…
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Don’t Fly by the Seat of Your Pants: Lessons from Airline Pricing Strategies
Airline carriers have primarily functioned on hub-and-spoke networks since industry-wide deregulation in 1978. The approach vastly…
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Becoming More Customer-centric
For business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, customer-centric thinking is the norm. Because B2C companies know that impulse and…
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Is Loss of Trust Creating Business Opportunities in China?
Trust is a headline issue in China. The most dramatic examples of unsafe products—tainted baby formula, dangerous…
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Early Pricing Conflict Warning Signs
In our previous blog post, we discussed three common underlying causes of pricing conundrums along the…
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Three Common Causes of Pricing Conundrums
Across a number of business-to-business industries, pricing issues frequently arise that create conflict within a channel.…
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Three Strategic Dimensions to Effectively Assess Supplier Relationships
Customer relationships can range from painstakingly transactional to highly strategic and collaborative. In all industries suppliers…
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Five Trends to Track in 2015 (and What C-level Executives Need to Know)
If you’re like most business executives, by now you’ve probably seen your fair share of 2015…
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Understanding and Overcoming Pricing Conundrums
Pricing management is difficult when there are complex customer chains with many steps between the manufacturer…
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How Many Product Options Should Customers Have?
In today’s world, you can order your coffee in a number of different sizes: small, medium,…
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Using Strategic Fit to Identify Adjacent Market Opportunities: A Case Study
For companies that have found success in specific ventures, it may be difficult to identify “what’s…
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Anticipating the Future is Key to Thinking through Strategy
The non-recovery, recovery across the world has been a challenge. The consensus in the United States…
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Can Big Data Uncover Growth Opportunities?
We live in a world that is being reshaped by the pervasive nature of digital technology.…
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Beyond Familiar and Emerging Markets: Are Frontier Markets Right for Your Growth Strategy?
Since the Great Recession, dramatic changes have occurred in centers of growth around the world. As…
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Where Are Future Centers of Growth? Familiar, Emerging, or Frontier
As we near the end of 2014, growth remains elusive for many American companies. The World…
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Pricing and Channel Strategy: The Importance of Understanding Customer Chain Economics
If your company is a business-to-business supplier, most likely its product(s) go to market via complex…
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HBO Channels into a New Market Opportunity
HBO recently unveiled a new strategy for how viewers can access its content. The premium cable…
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How Customer Experience can Inform Value-Based Pricing
For business-to-business companies that struggle to determine the value their product brings to customers and hence…
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Why Segmentation Should Matter to High-Tech Suppliers
In today’s hyper-competitive market where technological solutions seem to advance at the speed of light, high-tech…
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Measuring the Market: The Foundation of a Strong Growth Strategy
Blue Canyon frequently addresses a number of growth topics, ranging from channel strategies to pricing. One…
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Three Building Blocks for Solid Growth Strategy
Are you confused by or unaware of the size of your available market? Are you seeing…
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Pathways to Profitable Growth in China
It has become almost a daily occurrence to see a news headline on China’s economy since…
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Breakout Growth: The Innovation Competency
Whether it be around an organization’s products, packaging, and/or processes, innovation continues to be a primary…
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Customer Chains: The Key to Unlocking New Opportunities
Customer chains are a straightforward construct that many organizations could benefit from if managed and understood…
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Converting Customer Challenges into Solutions
In business-to-business (B2B) markets, customer loyalty can accelerate growth and create a competitive advantage. But, loyalty…
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Managing Complex Channel Relationships in the New Economy
Last month, Blue Canyon Partners Principal, David Hartman, moderated a session at the Strategic Account Management…
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Taking Flight: How Data is being used to Create New Business Models and Drive Profitable Growth
Rolls-Royce makes highly sophisticated and costly jet engines for leading airlines around the world. In the…
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Lessons Learned from the Aftermarket
Businesses that touch the aftermarket most likely are dealing with a host of factors related to…
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Why In-depth Market Understanding is Critical to Growth Strategies in China
As economic uncertainty continues to plague Europe and the U.S. economy returns to albeit slow and…
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Going Beyond Customer Satisfaction: A Roadmap for Strategy Development
A client who was looking to implement a customer satisfaction program in his organization recently approached…
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Is Cloud Computing Living up to the Hype?
Virtually every year since 2009, has promised to be the breakout year for cloud computing that…
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Expensive Decisions: Getting Pricing Right
Pricing pressures, commoditization, and competition are just some of the challenges companies face when it comes…
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Learning From Tesla to “Plug In” to Direct Sales Models
Aside from its sleek electric vehicles and new Gigafactory to produce lithium-ion battery cells, Tesla Motors…
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Four Guiding Principles for Quicker Channel Decisions
Blue Canyon is often asked to provide rapid answers to complex problems. When this occurs, I…
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Which Market Share Measure is Right?
“We took our eyes off the ball. The recession hit and we focused on maintaining our…
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What Lenovo’s Acquisition of Motorola Mobility Says About Its Growth Strategy
At the end of January, it was announced that Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility from Google. Much…
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The Imperative for Active Channel Management
As the economy slowly returns to growth, not all companies will fare the same. Growth for…
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A Market-Driven Framework: Aligning Product Development and Markets
Product development can make a significant contribution to business growth if such initiatives are correctly focused…
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China: The Bad News and The Good News
Spanning over two decades of 10 percent annual economic growth in China, we frequently heard reports…
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A Strategy Diagnostic: How to Optimize the Success of Your Go-to-Market and Get-to-Market Efforts
When it comes to devising and implementing a business growth strategy, those responsible for strategic planning,…
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Creating New Data-Driven Business Models for Profitable Growth
Over the past several years, business-to-business companies have recognized that Big Data should be managed and…
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Channel Management: The Customer Chain – Value Chain Framework
To achieve sustainable growth, best-in-class companies work with their channel partners to periodically review end customer expectations.…
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Adjacent Markets: Choose Your Battles Wisely
Adjacent markets represent attractive growth opportunities for many businesses, but there are many adjacent markets from…
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Growth Choices: Which Business Units Offer the Greatest Potential?
The lyrics to The Gambler focus on choices: “Know when to hold ’em, know when to…
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Houston We’ve Got a Problem
The phrase used as the title to this article, taken from the communication by the crew…
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Simple Answers and Hard Tasks
Former President Ronald Reagan once said, “There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.”…
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Newton Was the One Who Asked ‘Why?’
I recently had the opportunity to work with a client that had decided to implement a…
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If I Were You…
In the new television series Touch, the main character Martin Bohm advises another “I wouldn’t do…
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How to Crush the Competition with Customer Service
Price and product quality can only go so far. Value-added services can help manufacturers differentiate themselves…
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Sometimes, What You See Is NOT What You Get
In an earlier article on the challenges of managing changes to a firm’s business model, I…
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Thinking About China’s Global 500
How China has combined socialism and market forces is seen vividly in the Global 500 list.…
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Pay Attention to Your Premarket
A number of years ago, I worked with an automotive parts manufacturer, in the division that…
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Are Surprises Foolish Things?
I recently had an appointment with a physician who had also been a friend for some…
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Planning Change and Leading Change
A senior human resources executive in a large manufacturing firm recently made the following comment at…
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Three Essential Growth-Planning Targets for 2013
Make sure your customer is the right ‘fit’ and look beyond mature markets to boost sales…
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Manufacturing’s Future in the US
The U.S. is still a market of consequence for the world’s manufacturing companies. What remains uncertain…
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China Takes on the Global 500
Fortune just released the list of the 500 largest firms in the world.[1] To us the…
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You Thought Globalization Was Hard? It’s Getting Harder.
In an earlier research project on the challenges of making changes to a firm’s business model,…
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The Leadership Challenge in Becoming Customer-Facing
The April 26, 2012 issue of Industry Week featured an article titled New Celanese Chief Pushes…
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The Challenges of Surrounding Products with Services
Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a manufacturing client that was part of a…
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Taking Dashboards out of Wonderland
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just…
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The Future Market For Second Mouse Companies
Will Chinese companies begin to evolve and be more like its Western competitors? Note: This article…
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Every Road Will Get You Nowhere
In the past several years, second only to a renewed focus on emerging markets, “developing a…
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Posing Provocative Questions
Bono, U2’s lead vocalist, once observed “We thought that we had the answers, it was the…
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Ten Key Roles of a B2B Corporate Marketing Function
Several months ago a senior marketing executive from a global business-to-business corporation shared the following experience:…
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There Is Money to Be Made in Mice
In a recent meeting with one of the partners in a venture capital firm, he cited…
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Earning a Return on Your “Relationship Fund”
The case study that follows started off a number of years ago with a quite troubling…
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Finding Growth Opportunities During Lackluster Times
Whether or not businesses anticipate lackluster earnings results during the first half of the year, the…
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The Sales You Didn’t Make
Bill Gates once said “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. In that…
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Three Cs of GAM
Suppliers can simultaneously respond to their shareholders’ growth expectations and their major customers’ expectations for global…
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I Would Pay 50% More…
In a recent discussion with an executive client, he commented that he believes his hardest challenge…
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Pricing! Pricing! You Can’t Talk about Pricing!
Jim Mora, a former NFL coach, was made famous in a recent beer commercial that featured…
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Don’t Forget "How"
Recently, I worked with a client that was implementing a new “customer partnering” initiative that provided…
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Where’s The Beef?
Many years ago, in a course on information theory, I learned that one way to measure…
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CoDestiny Relationships Between Manufacturers And Distributors
Atlee Valentine Pope and George F. Brown, Jr. discuss issues that can arise in manufacturer-distributor relationships,…
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What’s Keeping You Awake at Night?
One of my clients recently told me the following story: “We’ve been working with [a certain…
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From Assessment To Action: Managing Distributor Relationships
One of our clients in the building systems industry asked us to help resolve a dilemma…
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Deleting Voicemail 666
We were having a conversation with one of our clients following a meeting related to their…
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Sales Models In Business Markets With Complex Customer Chains
We have often described “major customer relationships” and “third-party channel relationships” as two of the most…
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A Blueprint for Strong VAR/Vendor Relationships
William Blake, the English poet and painter, has been quoted as saying, “He hasn’t an enemy…
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Whatever Happened To Growth?
Earlier this year, one of our clients invited us to participate in an off-site meeting involving…
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Growth Is A Project
Recently, we asked a procurement executive within a large communications equipment company to describe a supplier…
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Strategic Accounts As Engines of Growth
Last month, we were invited to meet with a marketing and sales executive at a leading…
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Mistakes That Could Have Been Avoided
As we begin to climb slowly out of the deepest, darkest recession on recent record, it’s…
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Two Pricing "Constants"
Alan Perlis, the first head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie-Mellon University, often told his…
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Two Percent For Looking In The Mirror Twice
Recent work involving the use of pricing analytics has provided some interesting insights about profit management…
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Avoiding The Vicious Cycle Of Pricing
While working on a growth strategy assignment with a major business-to-business supplier, we observed several fascinating…
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Using Service Strategies To Avoid Price Pressures
At a recent workshop, we distributed a “quiz” with 10 quotes which we said were from…
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Innovation: Fuel For Breakout Growth
At a meeting with one of our clients, we provided their executive team with a short…
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Success! Now What?
A company with which our firm worked recently communicated some good news: They had been selected…
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Out Of Crisis Comes Opportunity
Our title for this article emerged from a recent client project. We were working with a…
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Offices in Chicago And Chengdu: Managing the Complexity of the China Market
One of our clients is the executive responsible for the Global Accounts served by her company,…
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Rules Of Three: Managing Major Customer Relationships Involving China
Several years ago, we published an article[1] titled “The Unwritten Rules of China”, addressing the complexities…
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Implementation Competencies: Creating Long-Term Growth Foundations
A global industrial systems company found that its business environment was shifting rapidly. The firm had…
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In-Career Education and Implementation Competencies
Rudy Giuliani once noted that “Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a…
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Pricing Isn’t A Four Letter Word
When the topic of pricing arises, anticipation often follows that the discussion will be unpleasant, putting…
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Make Them An Offer They Can Refuse
In the early 70s, one of the phrases of the day was “Make him an offer…
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You Might Be A Real Chinese Company…
We have recently written that at the top of U.S. firms’ agendas must be bringing some…
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Second Mouse Opportunities For Distributors
We have used the saying “The second mouse gets the cheese” as an analogy for what…
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If Speaking Is Silver, Then Listening Is Gold
A recent project provided an opportunity to examine the relationships between a machinery manufacturer and the…
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Second Mouse Tales From China
While new global market participants are emerging from several countries, the Chinese are our primary example…
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If You Have Too Many Priorities, You Have None
The wisdom inherent in the frequently heard statement “If you have too many priorities, you have…
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Learning from the Fast Learners
In previous articles[1], we’ve written about the emerging competitors from China, firms that are beginning to…
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Your 2012 Plans: Preparing for the Uncertainty of the New Year
What is the outlook for next year’s economic growth? It’s the $64,000 question. In the United…
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We Aren’t The Champions: Achieving Success As A Second Mouse
When, if ever, will the Chinese competitors graduate from being ‘fast followers’ to become true innovators?…
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Turn Your Customer Into A Partner
Most companies invest a significant level of resources in activities designed to identify business partners and…
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They Only Had One Pig
During a recent discussion, a customer of one of my clients described an episode of the…
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They Aren’t Who We Thought They Were
It is as close to a sure thing as exists in business to assume that the…
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The Standard is the Standard
Getting the standards right is only a part of the equation that defines sustained success and…
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The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese
Driving into Tampa recently, we saw a sign that read “The early bird gets the worm,…
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Stand By Me
Recently, I participated in a conference attended primarily by technology integrators, firms that provided high-end solutions…
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Solutions To Growth Challenges
In recent years, “solutions” has become among the most popular one-word strategy summaries. Many firms, finding little…
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Ready, Fire, Aim!
George F. Brown, Jr. identifies four themes for business growth in 2012, and offers his unique…
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My Customer’s Competitor Is My…
An Arabian proverb says, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” While the logic is…
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Known Unknowns And Unknown Unknowns
A client in the medical equipment industry recently shared the following experience with me: “You might…
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It’s My Own Damn Fault
Taking steps to avoid unnecessary instances in which your direct customer is a price buyer is…
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It’s a Pricing Problem, Not a Price Problem
In an interview with an executive in a large national industrial distribution firm recently, I asked…
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Get Your Price
Blue Canyon Partners’ George F. Brown Jr. on how to invest in your pricing strategy. When…
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CoDestiny Relationships With Government
America’s governmental institutions face many more changes in the years to come. A major part of…
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CoDestiny Relationships With Channel Partners
CoDestiny[1] relationships come in many flavors. The most frequent ones involve suppliers and their end customers.…
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Building Strong Foundations for Customer Relationships
It takes a significant effort on the part of suppliers and customers alike to ensure that…
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Discovering Your Next Growth Opportunity: Adjacent Markets
Adjacent markets are often the best answer when a business is faced with the question of…
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Best-in-Class Behaviors in Business-to-Business Relationships
Competency in managing strategic account relationships yields customers who are satisfied and see value, and, in…
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Supplier-Customer Success Stories: How the Best Firms Collaborate to Drive Growth
This paper builds upon insights drawn from thousands of supplier-customer success stories to identify the most…
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Creating – Rather than Destroying – Value through Acquisitions
Acquisitions can make important contributions to a company’s growth strategy. The strategic due diligence process described…
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The Mandate of Global Presence
In 2010, as the global economy began its rebound from the Great Recession, Blue Canyon Partners…
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‘Supplier Driven’ and ‘Channel Driven’ Business Models
For many business-to-business suppliers, their customer chains involve channel organizations and one or more stages of…
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The Unwritten Rules of China
While identifying the potential of the China market is not difficult, realizing this potential is complicated…
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China Economics: Unraveling the Mystery of China’s Low Cost
This paper offers insights into the economics of manufacturing in China. While the game is rigged…
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Business-to-Business Economics
Business-to-business suppliers face a complex market and economic environment. Their direct customers and end customers bring…
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You Know it Ain’t Easy
George F. Brown, Jr. shares his research on the challenges executives experience in implementing business model…
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Troubled Waters
In today’s business environment, where every firm has to focus intensely on the ways in which…
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Sitting on the Bulls-Eye
One of my all-time favorite Far Side™ cartoons showed a deer with a target on its…
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Preparing for Future Competition
It is as close to a sure thing as exists in business to assume that the…
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The BRIC Effect
One of our business-to-business clients recently stated during a strategy session that, “We really no longer…
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Taking Action to Sustain Customer Relationships
Most companies invest a significant level of resources in activities designed to identify business partners and…
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Who Would Ever Share Customers?
Many organizations live in fear of the notion of sharing end customers. After all, a manufacturer…
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Listening To The Voice Of The Customer
In the book CoDestiny, it is argued that the most successful business strategies are ones that…
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How Real Are Those Price Pressures
Decisions on pricing are among the toughest ones facing business executives. Customers and competitors alike put…
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Focus on Fit in Growth Plans
In 1967, many of us heard the same advice given Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate: “Plastics.”…
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50 Ways to Win in China
In 1975, Paul Simon released the song 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, which, despite the…
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Are You Ready to Take on China’s Next-Generation Competitors?
Over the past decade, many western firms have identified and targeted China’s exciting, fast-growing markets. Most…
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Driving M&A Success In 2011
The increased pace of merger and acquisition activity late in 2010, including some huge deals, suggests…
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Finding New Pathways to Profitable Growth
Identification of the most promising new markets, customer segments, and product and service offerings is critical…
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Creating Your 2012 Business Plan
As the last quarter of 2011 dawns, your 2012 business plan should involve initiatives that address…
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Bringing Outsiders In
One of the most important lessons in business is that when you create value for your…
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Come Together: Creating M&A Success Stories
The increased pace of merger and acquisition activity late in 2010 and early in 2011, including…
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Change Before You Have To
Here is the question that we think belongs on the top of your firm’s strategic agenda.…
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Opinion: Can This Marriage Be Saved?
It takes a significant effort on the part of suppliers and customers alike to ensure that…
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Building a Customer Facing Culture
Even from among firms that are best defined by the products of their R&D departments and…
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Creative Resolutions: Is Your 2011 Aerospace and Defense Innovation Plan Really Innovative?
In a recent meeting with an executive responsible for her company’s product development activities, she made…
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Be A Good Customer – Let Your Suppliers Help You Grow
Most firms have learned that their customers can be a valuable source of insight, providing ideas…
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Courting China – Very Carefully
Just over a decade ago, businesses became aware of the magnitude of challenges related to doing…
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Avoiding Distress in Key Business Relationships
It takes a significant effort on the part of supplier companies as well as their customers…
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Five Growth Lessons
This paper describes five growth lessons that business organizations and their leadership teams can use to…