The Manager's View

 In past blogs and in all of my books I have focused on marketing strategy as the key to business success. The reason is based on a basic understanding of business- that every transaction must benefit someone and the most successful transactions are those that create value for all participants. This success lays the foundation for trust and a reliance on the provider as a value provider. For transactions to be successful participants need to know the existence of the offering (promotion), where the offering is available (place), exactly what is being offered (product) and a metric to determine the value of the offering (price),  Too many organizations get this backward: they obsess over refining their internal processes, hierarchies, and operations before answering the one question that determines their future— “Who are we here to serve, and how will we win in that market?” As I argue in my book  Winning Marketing Strategies Using Generative AI , marketing strategy isn’t ...

Marketing strategy is undergoing the most profound transformation since the dawn of digital media. The force behind this shift? Generative AI. If you're a C-suite executive, marketing strategist, or business educator, you've likely heard the buzz. But the truth is, most leaders are still flying blind—unsure how to translate this groundbreaking technology into concrete strategy. That’s why I wrote  Winning Marketing Strategies Using Generative AI . This book is not about chasing trends. It’s about  reclaiming control of your strategy  in a world where AI changes the rules every day. What’s Different About This Book? Unlike most AI books focused on tools or technical jargon,  Winning Marketing Strategies Using Generative AI  bridges the gap between  strategic thinking and real-world application . It offers a practical framework—MVOSSTE (Mission, Vision, Objective, Strategy, Tactics, Execution)—infused with the power of generative AI to drive results. You'll l...

Success Through Cross Functional Teams Throughout my career I was responsible for creating new revenue streams and solving operational problems. In almost every instance I used a cross functional team that had members from each division of the company (finance, sales, accounting, IT, production, logistics, etc.). These teams had remarkable success in creating new revenue streams and solving operational problems.  These teams were successful because each individual brought a different point of view and bias. It was not unusual to have a sales problem solved by someone from the accounting or finance division or an IT problem solved by someone from production. In my last blog I described a cash control system that I designed that was successful after the finance executives failed to design a successful system. The system proposed by the financial team relied on centralized cash control while my system put cash control responsibility at the operating unit level and was decentralized....

 In my book, Winning Marketing Strategies Using Generative AI . and in my blog posts, I caution that AI is a tool and must be reviewed by business strategists and leaders to insure the right objectives are met. AI is dependent on information that is available and may be biased by the prompts that is directing its actions. To validate this, I presented AI with a problem that was faced by a grocery company for which I designed a cash control system. The company had retail stores throughout a region and wanted to build a milk plant. Unfortunately, interest rates were above 7% and would have made the project too expensive. The CEO thought there was cash in the system that could be freed from operations to fund the milk plant project without needing to borrow from financial institutions. He had his CFO and team work on a process to free the cash from operations to fund growth projects. That team worked on a solution for quite a while but was unsuccessful in developing an acceptable solu...

Creating value for customers, the company and its collaborators has been a centerpiece of my approach to building marketing strategies. In my mind, trying to create a strategy without creating value is akin to a fraud. Working with business customers is different from working with individual customers. Business customers usually have what we refer to as "rational buyers". The people spending money for a company are buying products that will make their business successful. There is a lot of attention to cost vs benefit of each purchase and those purchases should contribute to the success of their business. In other words, people making buying decisions are paid to make optimal purchase decision and their career depends on making the best purchase. In many cases there are several individuals involved in the purchase. There is the person or group that will use the product or service being purchased, there is the individual that must approve the purchase and there is the person w...

Things to Consider When developing a Plan for Creating Value  I have long talked about the need to create value for a company, its customers and collaborators and I have given supporting theories. but are there ways to turn those recommendations and theories into actions that can be taken. I think we can start with looking at how one of the great thinkers of our age, Abraham Maslow,  thought about society. He created a pyramid of needs that individuals have that must be met. The lower level of needs need to be met at some level before the next level on the pyramid can be reached. Those levels are: Physiological Needs  – basic survival (food, shelter, etc.) Safety Needs  – security, health, stability Belongingness and Love  – relationships, group identity Esteem Needs  – status, recognition, achievement Self-Actualization  – personal growth, creativity, fulfillment Understanding these levels of Maslow's hierarchy can get us started toward how we can cre...