Recent sudden policy changes related to tariffs and immigration are helping to exacerbate the widespread economic uncertainty that US businesses are currently weathering. With talks of a recession on the horizon and increased market volatility, many of today’s business leaders at organizations of all sizes have opted for a “wait and see” approach in their tactical operations and overall strategy. These business leaders are curtailing spending on everything from hiring and marketing to R&D and CAPEX to hold onto more cash for whatever may be coming next. The result is a survival-minded collective pause nationwide while they try to assess the lay of the land and wait out today’s unpredictability.

And while this cautiousness is understandable, it’s also counterproductive for long-term growth because a tactical pause of this kind can be a revenue strategy-killer. So, to answer our own question, no – your revenue plan cannot withstand a short-term pause!

Almost five years ago the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the US, ushering in a period of chaos and confusion. Between a pandemic, racial tensions, a broken supply chain, an irreversible shift in how people work and buy, political tensions, an unprecedented presidential election, and now the talk of sweeping domestic and foreign policy changes under a new administration, it’s been a busy five years!

As a business owner, whether you wanted to be along for the ride or not, you are! You simply can’t get away from the news. But even if you could ignore it all, it’s not in your best interest to try because you need to know what’s going on now and what may be coming next to understand how it may affect your business and your customers.

Today’s business owners understand that they can’t be responsive to marketplace changes if they stick their heads in the sand, which means that they need to find balance. They need to figure out how to stay attuned to what’s going on without letting the frenzy and hype take over. The goal right now is to avoid getting distracted, but that’s often easier said than done!

Let’s look at how today’s distractions are affecting businesses and the markets they operate in as well as discuss what business owners can do to stay focused and drive success.

There are few places in today’s business landscape where failure is celebrated, except perhaps Silicon Valley, where the “fail fast and fail often” motto has come to dominate corporate thinking over the last decade. Coined by author John Maxwell, the original quote is actually, “Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.” Of course, this is an important distinction because simply failing for the purpose of failing is clearly a foolish strategy for businesses to adopt.

And yet, there’s something to be said for the idea of letting go of the negative perceptions around failure to develop failure tolerance as an organization because, as we all know, failure is inevitable!

The key driver of all strategic decision-making is value… or at least it should be!

Too often organizations will make decisions based solely on what they can get out of something (an event, a training opportunity, networking, a new market, etc.) rather than what they can bring to it. Decision-makers should ask, “What kind of value can I bring?” first and then let the return payout follow from there.

Executive Summary: Business leaders can shape their own futures by taking a proactive approach to their strategic growth planning. For organizations to stay focused on their overall goal they must embrace a fundamental mindset shift as well as be people-focused and well aligned around the plan to get there. Along the way they will also need to carefully measure the results of their efforts, strive to ask good questions, and resist the temptation to hasten the process through oversimplification.

___________________________________________________________________

A European study published in the Harvard Business Review on the future of work compiled extensive research from news articles and experts to make predictions around what progress and growth may look like over the next 50 years. As part of the research, the Belgian authors of the study sought input from tech entrepreneurs, economists, and authors/journalists. They discovered that these experts theorizing about what’s to come next fell into three buckets – optimists, skeptics, and pessimists. It’s no surprise that each of these groups had vastly different perspectives on what the future may hold, and yet amid their contrasting perspectives, the key takeaway from the article was this:

"The future will be whatever we make it. In our view, the scenarios pushed by optimists, skeptics, and pessimists are all theoretically possible. Questions like ‘will AI destroy a lot of jobs’ are thus misguided — whether AI destroys a lot of jobs or not will depend on the decisions made by people in the coming years. The question is thus not, ‘What will the future of work be like?’ but rather, ‘What do we want the future to be like?’"

It became clear that regardless of what people think may happen in the future, there is a strong element of personal agency that will shape the future far more than our speculations alone ever could. Our thoughts may not be self-fulfilling prophecies, but our actions do create outcomes. And the same principle is true on a smaller scale as well!

At the individual organization level, companies poised with a strategic plan will be able to shape their own future. So, the question your organization should be asking isn’t "What will the future hold for us?" but "What do we want the future to hold for us?"

Think about the last obstacle your company overcame. Now think about the last opportunity your company seized effectively. What do they have in common?

The answer could be any number of things really, but I would bet that one key similarity is how decision-making was approached in both scenarios.

Whether it’s making decisions to meet challenges or capitalizing on new prospects, asking the right questions plays an integral role – who you talk to, what you ask, how and when you ask, what the communication loop looks like as the topic is discussed, and what the outcome is after asking.

Questions play a vital role in every facet of an organization. Whether it’s marketing, sales, forecasting, finance, product research and development, operations, or overall strategic planning, questions are the cornerstone of running a successful business. Let’s discuss why and what you can do to improve your question asking to be a better leader!

The temptation to oversimplify their sales and marketing strategies has always been a trap for organizations looking to fast-track growth. However, the last few years have ushered in increased competition, added cost constraints, and intensified pressure to integrate technology, culminating in a whirlwind that has heightened the temptation to simplify regardless of the business impact.

I’m seeing this phenomenon more and more these days – organizations that want to use a one-size-fits-all approach to their strategic sales and marketing plans to try to improve their ROI. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t simply fail to give them an advantage over their competition, it also fails to produce the results they are looking for at all. Quite the opposite, oversimplifying is a waste of precious organizational resources – time, talent, and money.

With so much emphasis on big data and AI, today’s leadership conversations seem to be largely focused on metrics. And while B2B KPIs are certainly valuable to track and analyze, when organizations are facing challenges are they really the best indicator of what’s wrong and how to fix it?

The abundance of data available these days makes it tempting to rely solely (or at least primarily) on the data, but the most experienced leaders will tell you that data can’t necessarily tell the whole story, or the right story.

When it comes to diagnosing a problem or turning an organization around people are just as important as data because they can contribute:

• Institutional knowledge
• First-hand experience
• Insight into perceptions and attitudes
• Logic and reasoning

Let’s take a closer look at the benefit that human capital can provide when trying to overcome a challenge or understand and fix an issue to move an organization forward.