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.

UPDATED as of 03 July 2020.

Boards are essential for strategic success, but for them to add greater value into your strategy, they need to be involved. That means going beyond the 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.

UPDATED as of 03 July 2020.

Whether it’s launching a new product line, executing a 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?

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.

We see this happen in businesses: The senior team would go away for a two-day offsite retreat to develop a strategic plan. And when all is said and done, they would come back with a plan or a goal devoid of strategy.

A four-billion dollar merger is underway between two of the country’s media player giants, Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media. The new company name after the merger is Nine, and it is set to become Australia’s formidable integrated media player.

With two giants combining forces to create one formidable integrated media player, there is one worthy question that begs an answer.

In the language of strategy, we often say, “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.

But in developing a solid business strategy, you first need to check that you’re actually doing strategy and not something else entirely — like business planning.

Today’s customers and prospects know exactly what they want and go online to find it. To market your business in this new age, you need more than just the right message to stand out and drive customer loyalty. You need to do more than just create the right offer.

In the midst of constant discontinuity, only one thing is certain: technology will disrupt every aspect of our lives and drive how business is done in the coming years. For CMOs, it is crucial to know and understand what these technologies are and how they are disrupting the way we do business today.

If you have thought about venturing into a new market to expand your reach, promote brand awareness, or increase revenue, there are few key points you need to consider first. And it’s not as simple as you may think.

In today’s crowded marketplace, the need to stand out from the competition is crucial. But more importantly, in order to win, Financial Services companies need to look into existing challenges that may be stopping them from achieving true differentiation in their industry.

Every year, we work with a hundred clients everywhere and anywhere, from Wellington to Toronto, and in one of our strategic sessions, Step Change chief Ashton Bishop was given a challenge: Out of all the strategy work that the team has done at Step Change, how can we add the most value in 5 minutes? Here’s his response to the 5-minute challenge with his five tips on strategy.  

No matter how far-reaching a leader’s vision may be, the reality is that transforming organisations is a difficult and arduous task. Many businesses today are so deeply rooted in operational efficiency and stability that they continue to struggle with how to effectively manage and sustain change.

Finding a product, a service, or a niche that delivers results largely depends on understanding exactly what your customer needs. And in a time where the competition is manic and ruthless, it is all the more essential to deliver a high-quality product and service that gets the right traction.