Uncategorized

IDEAS / POST The Blind Spots Driving Stalled Growth in PE Portfolio Companies Private equity firms are good at spotting underperformance. What’s harder is understanding why some portfolio companies remain stuck, even after serious intervention. From the outside, a typical work in progress inspires confidence. Leadership has been adjusted, capital deployed, and improvements (courtesy of […]

IDEAS / POST Why The Most Dangerous Portfolio Companies Look Like Rocket Ships In my latest Growth conversation with collaborator Lorraine McGregor and guest Frederic Vanduynslaeger, we unpacked a disturbing story: a $10 million ARR company that went on to lose $3.4 million in value during acquisition because of a deep-rooted psychological flaw.  That flaw

IDEAS / POST Lorraine McGregor and I had been working parallel tracks for years. She was helping companies unlock unrealized growth potential from operations and financial perspectives. I was doing the same, from the brand and narrative perspective. Both approaches delivered strong results. But when we compared what we’d been seeing in companies trying to

IDEAS / POST In 1959, Volkswagen introduced the now-iconic Think Small campaign. While competitors focused on selling bigger cars with more features, Volkswagen leaned into simplicity, positioning the Beetle as the car that did exactly what people needed it to do, and did it well. In my experience, the lesson of VW (focus on a

IDEAS / POST Noise is Only Part of The Problem AI is a confusing space, it’s true.  You’ve no doubt heard about the MIT study citing 95% of businesses that aren’t seeing ROI from their AI investment. The study reveals most businesses are using AI for quick fixes and hacks, not ‘hard’ tasks like transforming

IDEAS / POST I went on Tracy Borresan’s Crazy Stupid Marketing Show last week, to give her a bit of an insight into what a revenue architect does. I love doing shows like this, because it gives me an opportunity to unpack my story with a smart interviewer. More important, it enables me to gauge

IDEAS / POST I was looking at a fast-growing lighting company recently. Beautiful products, polished site, confident testimonials. Honestly? I felt a little insecure. Everything they were doing looked right. High growth. Great design. Expanding markets. A team clearly proud of their work. And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. This

IDEAS / POST I’m working with a charity right now. Good, smart people doing important work. But their pitch, like virtually every charity pitch, focused on the steps they took to help people in despair. Pure methodology. Here’s what we do, here’s how we help. The disconnect: donors are overwhelmingly businesspeople. They feel comfortable with business

IDEAS / POST Last week, I ran a workshop for financial advisors on standing out from the crowd. If you’re familiar with the machinations of this industry, standing out is a tall order. Big brands (with big brand guidelines) and strict regulations are the order of the day. Add a fairly commoditized offering, and you

IDEAS / POST Why So Many Smart Founders Stall Out A few days ago, I spoke with a founder building a genuinely promising product – a smart platform for people managing chronic health conditions. It’s timely, very much needed, and it works. But he’s selling to the wrong audience. Institutional buyers, health systems, hospitals. The