June 1 marks the start of our second six months in existence as Calade Partners.  After literally growing up at FedEx, making the break to start our own business was exciting and very different. “We” refers to my two business partners, Karen Rogers and Debbie Newport. We worked together in corporate marketing leadership at FedEx, managing some of the smartest, most highly motivated team members imaginable. Our peers and executive team were also world class. We enjoyed prestige and respect as a result of our positions at one of the world’s most admired companies and had resources to deploy to ensure FedEx’s brand was known and respected throughout the world. The idea of starting our own business was exciting and very different. On December 1, we launched our marketing and strategy consultancy, Calade Partners.  “Calade” is a French word for a cobblestone road.  We were embarking upon a road that would be an adventure.  We packed our boxes and said our goodbye’s to our team, office, routine, and identity.  We stepped …

Save me!  Nothing could be more terrifying in business than to see green turn to red, sales slipping, best employees resigning, and investors threatening to take action.  We read about companies that were once high growth and well-respected who are filing for Chapter 11 or are under attack by activist investors. Why companies go into decline or fail range from being a victim of the economy, to technological obsolescence, to out of control costs due to new government regulations.  In hindsight, CEO’s who are honest with themselves will be able to pinpoint where a different decision might have changed the outcome. How do you ensure that your company makes the right decisions and moves to stay competitive and growing in your market or industry? The answer is simply to develop a complete strategic plan, ensure the leadership team has goals, metrics and tactics aligned to the plan, and review the plan annually.  Yes, a simple formula that not only hedges your company against failure, but sets the course for continued …

The fourth post in the Series. Core to running your business is your strategy.  The word is often used synonymously with mission, vision or plan.  However, the strategy is not the same as a mission, vision or plan. –  Vision is necessary as it imagines a future for the business which, if well stated, provides inspiration and aspiration for the team. –  Mission is what a company stands for, its purpose for existing.  The plan is about execution, tactics and specific initiatives to achieve specific goals. –  Strategy is imperative to long term success because it defines what makes your company distinct, why customers would buy from it, and what is required to maintain that distinctiveness over time. Strategy has to be well thought out — how a company sustains itself in its marketplace or how it makes strategic moves into new markets, or introduces new products/services, or takes existing products to new customer segments. Michael Porter states, in his famous “What is Strategy?” paper for Harvard Business Review in …

Core to running your business is your strategy.  The word is often used synonymously with mission, vision or plan.  However, the strategy is not the same as a mission, vision or plan.  Vision is necessary as it imagines a future for the business which, if well stated, provides inspiration and aspiration for the team.  Mission is what a company stands for, its purpose for existing.  The plan is about execution, tactics and specific initiatives to achieve specific goals. Strategy is imperative to long term success because it defines what makes your company distinct, why customers would buy from it, and what is required to maintain that distinctiveness over time.  Strategy has to be well thought out — how a company sustains itself in its marketplace or how it makes strategic moves into new markets, or introduces new products/services, or takes existing products to new customer segments.  Michael Porter states, in his famous “What is Strategy?” paper for Harvard Business Review in 1996, “Strategy renders choices about what not to do …

In the last post, I explained that a strategy was a set of objectives, a plan that could be distilled down into executable tactics for each operating unit of the company. But, let’s go a little deeper.  There are characteristics of a “strategic plan” that make it unique from, say, a business plan. A strategic plan has a longer term horizon – at least three to five years.  The key characteristic of a strategic plan is that it lays out a plan for your company’s success in its market, defines what makes it distinctive from its competitors, and what tactics you will deploy to ensure that you win! A strategic plan is different from an operational plan in that it specifies what customers must be targeted and secured, what products or services must be developed or expanded, and what geographies to target for expansion.  An operational plan provides tactics for running the company.  The strategy articulates how your company does this better and differently than your competitors. According to Michael Porter …

Good question!  Many business people won’t ask the question out loud because they are too embarrassed to admit that they aren’t sure what it means.  The logic goes like this:  ”Having a strategy is very important, so how could I admit to being unclear about something so important?”  What I have learned is that identifying and articulating strategy is not as simple as it might seem.  ”The strategy” was something in our CEO’s head, in my early years at FedEx, and I wanted a way to extract his vision and direction for the company without having to spend hours prying it from his mind.  Fortunately, I knew he was an admirer of Michael Porter (Harvard Business School management guru), and felt Porter was the expert on Strategy.  From that important information, I was able to develop a team within my marketing group whose only role was to define and articulate “the strategy” for FedEx.  Yes, it was actually possible to put Fred Smith’s complex thinking into a plan that could …

Relevant strategy. Precise direction.   I’m asked, “What is Calade Partners?”  That’s when the elevator speech kicks in, and I quickly explain that three marketing executives from FedEx decided to take the voluntary buyout so we could go it on our own, and Calade Partners is our platform for helping companies rejuvenate their marketing process. If we had a few more floors to go, I’d add that we are a catalyst for clarifying strategy and market position, and our services range from diagnosing your marketing capabilities and prescribing the solution, to acting as your marketing team in the absence of that capability within your company. The Calade Partners have a combined experience of over 50 years managing complex marketing challenges. We have led product development, branding, advertising, sponsorships and events, campaigns, customer experience design, social media, digital and interactive marketing, website design and optimization — the full gambit in a best of breed corporation. We bring our expertise to the challenge, bring clarity to the solution, and apply the assets …