An article in the March-April 2023 edition of the Harvard Business Review titled Beware a Culture of Busyness had a very strong message to share with readers: “Organizations must stop conflating activity with achievement.” It explains why busyness has become so valued in organizations these days as well as the significant damage that results from prioritizing and rewarding busyness. If you get a chance to read/listen to the article and want to share your thoughts with us, feel free to do so.

We would like to add our own thoughts based on what we have seen from helping B2B companies achieve strategic revenue growth for almost two decades. In our efforts to help move organizations away from a busyness culture we’re discussing the dangers of being busy, who is to blame for today’s busyness culture, and how to evolve to increase profitable revenue.

Content marketing is hotter than ever right now and shows no signs of slowing down. As a recent Forbes article explains, “Effective marketing and content creation are inextricably linked. It’s one of the best ways to regularly connect with your audience while boosting your reputation and credibility. ...[So,] in today’s digital-first consumer ecosystem, it’s increasingly important to generate content for potential and recurring buyers.” Echoing this sentiment, HubSpot has declared content marketing to be the most effective form of marketing today, saying, "Consistent, high-quality, and engaging content impacts audience decision-making more than any other technique."

As content marketing continues to be an effective lead generation and customer acquisition tool, companies are starting to evaluate whether new AI-based tools like ChatGPT can provide low-cost assistance with their ongoing content creation efforts.

The answer to the question of whether ChatGPT can save a company money compared to the cost of hiring a professional content writer or digital marketing company is obvious. Using ChatGPT costs a fraction of what a professional service of any type would charge because anyone at any level of the business can generate an article on any topic in a matter of minutes. There is no first-hand knowledge required or research needed to get an article created. You simply need to ask a few questions and copy/paste the answers into a document and voila, you have an article. The hours of brainstorming, researching, outlining, and writing that an experienced content writer would normally spend are replaced by an AI algorithm that aggregates existing content into an article in a matter of minutes. It’s free and it’s fast.

Sounds great, right? Maybe not.

This is a question that business professionals ask a lot! There is hesitancy around the cost of joining, the time commitment involved, and whether the benefits gained in exchange will be worth it. But the answer to the question, “Should I join an association?” is yes! (Now, do not confuse that with the question, “Should I join every association?” because the answer to that question is a categorical no!) Don’t seize the opportunity to join every association that you come across but do be open to joining one that you can commit to wholly.

There is an old adage in business: “If your business isn’t moving forward it’s standing still, and your competition is gaining on you.”

This time of year I have a lot of conversations with business leaders about how they can get their business moving in the right direction. The CEOs I talk to tend to fall into one of two camps – either their organizations are in decline (their sales have fallen off and they need help bringing them back), or they have plateaued (their growth has gone stagnant, and they need help jumpstarting it).

In either scenario if business leaders choose not to do anything, they will just continue in the circumstances they are in. They will either continue declining until they fail, or they will remain plateaued until their competitors overtake their market share and then they will fail. The outcome is the same, although the time horizons will differ. If, however, these business leaders decide to take the steps needed to reinvent their organizations, they can achieve the outcomes they desire now and continue to evolve in the future.

Lunch & Learn - Data and analysis on the state of the manufacturing sector.

Enjoy a complimentary lunch on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 as Bank of America economist Ehiwario Efeyini provides us with a variety of data and analysis on the state of the manufacturing sector. Center for Advanced Manufacturing of Puget Sound is hosting this special event to shed light on industry trends.

If there was one word to describe the state of work right now it would be this: complex.

Work got really complicated in 2021 and 2022 and it’s likely going to be even more complex in 2023.

Questions are flying at business leaders faster than they can answer them.

• How will we work this year and what will that work look like?
• How will we manage in world of new employee expectations?
• How will the best organizations do more, faster, better this year?
• What has changed since last year? What are we already seeing and what should we expect to see next?

There are many new factors to consider when it comes to hiring, managing, and retaining employees. And that’s just to find people to do the work that needs to get done for the business to operate. Then, there’s the whole aspect of the work itself! Strategizing around the kind of work companies do and how they do it will determine which organizations succeed this year.

While new B2B sales trends have emerged over the past two years, it’s safe to say that we have now moved past “pivots” and temporary adaptations to what can only be described as a B2B sales revolution. An entirely new era of B2B sales has taken shape and is continuing to evolve, transforming everything from go-to-market strategies to strategic revenue planning at B2B organizations across the globe.

Buyers’ priorities and preferences have changed requiring that sales strategies adapt to keep pace. Understanding this, well-informed B2B companies are rethinking who they sell to, how they sell, and where they sell. The sales planning changes that have resulted both internally and externally are a clear indication that there is a new face to B2B sales these days. How will that fact shape what you do next?

“Thought leadership” has officially found its place in the content marketing buzz word hall of fame. With more brands trying to become thought leaders, there are now countless resources on how to become a thought leader (some better than others!). But what many of these resources fail to address is why thought leadership is so important these days and how to rise above the noise.