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So, Where Are We In This Season?

• The Basic Business Model remains a valid basic business model. Sell it. Deliver it. Account it. These three foundational points and functions remain at the core of most models.
• We are increasingly becomine a Buying Society, which means that many consumers, customers, clients come to you with the intention of purchasing — not the expectation of a "sales come on." Sounds simple enough; but what are the strategies, structure/designs, and culture points of impact (in your organization) that have to change to align with a buying society?
• A Buying Society requires becoming a negotiating company not a selling company. Of course, Sell It! is still in place; however, the process of the sale is a buying and purchasing process, increasingly built on negotiation and not on "selling" as most know and practice it today.
• A Buying Society places the focus on the purchasing system, processes, functions in your organization. As my father (who owned a dealership for 37 years) repeatedly told me — "When you buy right you have room to work with your customer. Buy too high and you can't remain competitive."
• A Buying Society means your consumers have already done the research (probably online) and know about as much as you do about your product/service (maybe more). What remains is to verify facts, agree on some details and agree on a transaction (price, terms).
• An Experience is replacing products and services as the expectation. Yes, quality products and service combine to create, shape and make the experience; however, having an experience is the focus — not the product or service. Today, look at Disney, Costco, fine dining, resorts — the experience is what keeps you coming back. This will spread to more industries and interactions.

Technology and Knowledge

• Online Oxygen is the latest term for access anywhere, to anything, at any time all done through wireless connectivity. We have only started to use what is on the way over the next 24 months. Voice, Image, Data, Purchasing, Research, Ordering, Assistance, Security, Identification — as the song goes, "we have only just begun."
• Knowledge and Data Capture, not to be confused with information (which we have way too much of). Much of our knowledge thirst will increasingly focus on where to find what we need to know and when we need to know, and will capture it in a way/form that enables us to use, apply, manipulate and re-purpose this knowledge directly, in real time, completely and with flexibility.
• Turning Fixed Expense into Variable Expense, because little remains the same. The more your expenses are variable, without placing quality, strategy, and principles into jeopardy, the greater your flexibility and capability in dealing with the ongoing and ever-changing conditions and situations we are all coming to know as "business as usual."

Exciting Stuff? Well, maybe.

Exciting, provided we and our organizations are positioned to understand, apply and build upon what is forming as the new economy, the new business models, the emerging and new consumers, the technology-process-behavior integration and the values and culture that fits us as a people and organizations.

• To truly understand you as the CEO and your organization better than any other competitor or resource you have access to. And as a result to deliver value as you define and determine it on our way to achieving significance.
• Working with you to craft vision and strategy so you have a clear focus on your future aligned with the values and principles that form your culture and reflect your passion.
• Holding you accountable as the CEO and as leadership to implement strategy, take reasonable risk, to apply metrics as a natural part of work process and to refine as you go seeking excellence, innovation and continuous improvement and learning. Not waiting for perfection.
• Helping you develop Capability and Resilience as a person, a CEO, as leadership, as an organization. Our promise to build strength, resourcefulness and critical capability in each person and organization we work with remains, continues and grows as our promise.
• To help you stretch and to challenge you as a person, a CEO, as leadership, as an organization. You have enough people who tell you what they think you want to hear or what they think is safe to tell you. You do not need to pay us to do this. We will question your answers, ask you questions, drill down to the ground truth, interrogate reality and be there when the smoke clears to move forward, focus on the critical and work to achieve it.
• Helping you make vision, strategy and change visible, so everyone in your organization "gets it." Making "it" visible is your responsibility as leadership. When people see and feel the future they more naturally move towards making it a reality.
• Providing the latest in proven practice, strategic thinking, innovation, knowledge and streamlined processes. Excellent examples are the direct links on our site through our partnership with Harvard Business School and Working Knowledge. Every month you gain access to the latest articles and an archive to previous months'. Another is our continued affiliation and involvement with The Executive Committee, with Kirby a Central PA Chair, bringing global resources, insight and access to our clients at the Chief Executive level.
• Monitoring your industry and market as part of how and why we conduct business each day, week, month and year. While we will never know your industry, market or business as you do, we are dedicated to being more aware, more informed and more on trend than our competitors as relates to each of our clients.
• Making Metrics Matter by determining what to measure and how best to measure it — and then making measurement a natural part of the planning, implementation, work, service and evaluation process. What gets measured gets done — so let's be sure we are measuring the right stuff the right way, involving the right people, tools and resources at the right time for the right reasons.