Kevin Keefe’s Post

Three things to watch out for that can abruptly halt value creation: 1. Lack of FOCUS... If you and your leadership team aren't spending at least 80% of your time driving the precious few initiatives which will fuel your growth engine, you need to figure out why and fix it. 2. Refusing to ADAPT... Stubbornly sticking to the strategy that got you here, in spite of new information which strongly suggests otherwise, is a mistake that is difficult to recover from. 3. Not prioritizing TALENT... your company's "bench strength" is, and will continue to be, a key determinant of your value creation success. Developing talent from within can be a formidable competitive advantage. However, if your value creation plan requires novel and/or difficult to develop skillsets or knowledge, by all means go outside to find it.

Please.... PLEASE... don't fall in love with a slick new product idea... And spend time and money developing it... Before you've done the work required to see if your target market is as excited about it as you are. Unless your product addresses a customer problem WORTH SOLVING (think frequency and pain level) from the customers' viewpoint, you don't have a great new product. Do-overs are very painful and expensive. If you even get the chance.

Not only has the team at Pride Tool reduced overall process cycle time, but they have also reduced or eliminated queue time, work-in-process inventory, and likely customer lead time. Big wins throughout the entirety of the value stream!

Well put, Vivek Joshi. If you are an equipment OEM, and you haven't invested in identifying and engaging effectively with your installed base, you can almost guarantee somebody else has. And they are enjoying the revenue and profit you have ceded to them. Even worse, they undoubtedly have tremendous influence over your brand!

YES Richard Browne! Every dollar of realized price falls 100% to the bottom line. No more powerful "P" in my opinion than data-driven pricing decisions... and I'm a "product" guy.

Don't let your product roadmaps limit your strategic options. In my experience, when these plans are authored, about 40% of the information you rely on is verifiable fact. Another 40% is reasonable assumptions based on best available data. The remaining 20%, you don’t know. And you might not know you don’t know it (tip of the hat to Donald Rumsfeld)! Develop a product VOC cadence. Test assumptions early. Regularly monitor leading indicators of success. And have the courage and fortitude to say, “Hey, I think we need to step back a minute.” Don’t fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy trap!