Want to grow your company? Start with WHO

Xavier Lederer
January 16, 2021
Business, Consulting

What does your most valuable prospect look like? “Probably a lot like your existing valuable customers. The easiest and most profitable growth will be achieved by adding additional customers very much like your current most valuable customers,” explains Robert Bloom in his book “The Inside Advantage.” Clients you resonate with will bring clients in the same vein. The key question is: Who is your ideal customer – and how do you identify and describe them?

How to set priorities that move the needle

Xavier Lederer
January 10, 2021
Business, Consulting

“I don’t have enough time in a day to work on the most important things!” I regularly hear CEOs complain. We all have a tendency to jump on the most urgent problems – because they are urgent and also because, let’s face it: we are addicted to fixing problems.

The issue is: when we focus on fighting fires we don’t work on what really helps move our business forward. A year quickly goes by and we realize that we have missed some of our goals. There is a key to break this vicious circle though.

Why does Core Purpose matter?

Xavier Lederer
January 3, 2021
Business, Consulting

“Who cares about our Core Purpose?” I thought when I joined my first company. “Isn’t a core purpose just a few vague nice-sounding words in an employee handbook?”

I couldn’t have been more wrong! As the company grew, growth pain points became more and more visible.

My Growth Engine has stalled! Where do I go from here?

Xavier Lederer
December 7, 2020
Business, Consulting

“My company has great growth potential, but I am so stuck in the damn dailies, I can’t find time to work on my business,” sighed the 55-years old CEO of this mid-market manufacturing company. He started his company 15 years and successfully grew it – but over the past few years, growth had stalled. His efforts to re-boot his growth engine have failed as well. In short, he felt stuck. How can he un-stuck himself?

Are you and your senior leaders acting as LEADERS? Five steps to create a culture that aligns your team

Xavier Lederer
October 22, 2020
Business, Consulting

When your car’s tires have an alignment issue, it is not only difficult to stay on course but it wears your tires without noticing. The same is true for your company. If everyone isn’t aligned to the same goals with the same strategy — if someone is pulling a little bit more to the right or to the left—you won’t stay on course and you will end up wasting a lot of resources.

Five tips to increase your team’s accountability

Xavier Lederer
September 24, 2020
Business, Consulting

“My company has lots of potential, but I just feel my employees are not engaged. If I don’t push, nothing seems to happen. I’m working night and day and we’re still missing 40% of our targets. I once dreamed of being a firefighter, I guess that dream has come true. All I do is put out fires, I have no time to focus on my business.”

Sound familiar?

Your company has hidden pockets of cash – here is how to find them.

Xavier Lederer
August 4, 2020
Business, Consulting

“Cash is key, and Elvis is the King!” kept asserting my trainer at this intensive 2-week long management consulting training 20+ years ago in the cold Boston winter. This was a twist on the famous “cash is king” motto – trying to convey to us non-Americans how much Elvis meant to him while emphasizing his important cash message.

With times as they are, cash seems to have taken back its throne for many small and mid-sized businesses.

Best New Year’s resolution? A “stop doing” list

Xavier Lederer
July 21, 2020
Business, Consulting

Each time the New Year rolls around and I sit down to do my annual resolutions, I reflect back to a lesson taught me by a remarkable teacher. In my mid-20s, I took a course on creativity and innovation from Rochelle Myers and Michael Ray at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and I kept in touch with them after I graduated.

One day, Rochelle pointed to my ferocious work pace and said, “I notice, Jim, that you are a rather undisciplined person.”