Step Change works with some of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing businesses to effectively communicate business strategy and market insights from the bottom up. 

The new year is here! And as we venture forward with fresh business insights and useful strategy, here are the top 10 articles most popular with C-suites in 2019 that you may have missed. 

Many companies today are opting for procurement to manage their marketing spend. But marketers and agencies have always been at odds when it comes to procurement. Understanding the role that procurement plays and how it impacts marketing is crucial to not only save on costs but to pave the way for better alignment in achieving the brand’s vision.

In the second article of our 10-part series on Thinking Tools for Boards, Jeff Cooper, Founding Partner at Step Change, talks about how Boards can govern and map progress for their organisations in the journey to customer-centricity.

In the first article of our 10-part series on Thinking Tools for Boards, Jeff Cooper, Founding Partner at Step Change, talks about identifying the mix of business metrics that help move the needle and are predictive of business success.

The latest economic figures released by the Bureau of Statistics show that the Australian economy is slowing down. What can businesses do to thrive in a recession? We turn to one of history’s greatest strategists and a ruthless warrior, Genghis Khan.

Many Australian companies are complacent about the effect of disruption in their industries. But disruption today can displace market leaders, their products, and their services. Responding to disruption means businesses need to think fast and act fast.

There’s a need for strategy because time, dollars, and focus are scarce and limited resources. A strong business strategy is the application of these resources for maximum leverage.

There’s no getting around it. Today’s consumers hold the power to dictate business outcomes. But with more businesses struggling with their digital transformation initiatives, how can taking a customer-led approach to transformation lead to better results? 

Even with the best ideas to market, many challenger businesses are struggling to get their business from the ground up. But if you’re lucky enough to be one of the very few startups that receive Venture Capital funding, the next step is knowing how to maintain your competitive edge for the next funding round.

Retailers are killing value. With consumers having more choices than ever before, mistakes that retailers make can be costly.

Boards are essential to your business’s strategic success. They can add great value to your strategy, but to do so, they need to be involved in more than just your yearly off-site strategic planning.

Australian banks and financial institutions are losing the faith of the consumer. It isn’t a problem of regulation or profit alone. It’s a problem of public perception.

Whether it’s launching a new product line or executing a new strategy to increase brand awareness or implementing your internal comms strategy, there is one thing we know that’s certain: collaboration and integration across multiple teams are keys to get the job done and get results. But this is not always easy.

Customer lifetime value is a critical factor in business success, but not all companies are tracking it. Many companies do not measure it, do not know what it is, or choose to completely ignore it.

How do you describe “insurance” or  “healthcare” or “software” so your potential clients can grasp the value of something they can’t see?

The business landscape is constantly evolving. With the speed of digital innovation increasing constantly, what impact will disruption have on your business in 2019?

Building an innovation pipeline means curating inspiration as a renewable resource. To accomplish this, you need to develop a system that both drives and supports an innovative culture.

If marketing automation is a great tool for businesses, how do we build an airtight business case for it? And how can we get our stakeholders and the sales team on board?

No matter how well-formulated business plans and strategies are, 67% of them fail due to poor execution. A lot of today’s companies are able to build promising strategies but very few of them are able to follow through.

There have been a number of significant changes over the recent years along with a new set of challenges that the aged care sector is facing — from deregulation, the Royal Commission, and shifts in customer preferences. As a result, aged care providers need to find new ways to stand out and gain the trust of their potential customers.   

To wrap up a productive 2018, we’re rounding up our best articles that have hit a spot with many C-suites, Senior Executives, and Marketing professionals.

The best solutions arise at the intersection of strategy and creativity.

No matter where you look, industry giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon are dominating the disruptive space and taking the lead in the use of emerging technologies. But for small and mid-sized business challengers, does taking on today’s new technologies actually make a difference?

Many nonprofits today run their organisations just like any other business. Although many may not be in it for the money but solely to advance their humanitarian goal and mission, there are essential points they need to keep in mind to acquire confidence and gain trust among donors and investors, respect in the market, and support from the public.

Earlier this year, CB Insights analysed 101 startups post-mortem to know why startups fail, and the number 1 reason has nothing to do with technology.

We’ve just come out of Roy Morgan’s State of the Nation, focusing on consumer financial behaviour in Australia, and we wanted to bash out our very own ‘quick and dirty’ update on the key insights as we saw them.

Being a Lean organisation means being able to maximise the value customers are willing to pay for while eliminating waste. Leaders are finding more value in it as it’s all about doing more with less, focusing on continuous improvement, minimising waste, and training your staff to improve the work through problem-solving.

So if you aim to create more value for your customers with your limited resources, read on.

Our CEO, Ashton Bishop, reveals what businesses can do to find their next step change, and how to implement the Big 6 Challenges for business growth in this 7-minute Marketing the Invisible podcast with Tom Poland.

In the age of disruption, businesses may find themselves questioning whether strategy matters in a world of constant change. But in a time where silos are crumbling to disruptive trends and industries are shifting to accommodate new technologies, strategy matters now more than ever.