Group50® Insights

In this age of the entrepreneur and “self-made businessperson,” it can be easy to forget that all professional careers eventually come to an end. More than once I have seen a successful, visionary leader without a succession plan: a family successor or business plan for post-retirement have to shut down their business, or have it shut down, because they did not have a plan or process to sustain the business after they move on. This situation is a shame- to see all of that value created over years of commitment and hard work evaporate due to the lack of a plan.

Exit and Transition planning is an important part of their responsibility. They owe it to their family, their employees and themselves. Many owners are “battle weary” in this continuing, tough economy, but it’s tough to retire or “semi-retire” absent confidence in the next wave of company leadership. …Read More

To gain a competitive edge, every project needs to take a holistic approach to new channel development. Changes in one process or program will weave its way throughout an organization and its markets. When making changes to the marketing and sales channels, some work needs to be done early in the project to assess the implications of change. Failure to consider this may cause irreparable damage to the company’s sales, clients and reputation in the marketplace. In new channel development, the company knows current markets well and has setup programs and processes to support the existing channels. When a new channel is contemplated, there are many interrelated issues that must be dealt with. They include: …Read More

When I was a general manager of a leading consumer business in the mid-90’s, one of my managers came to me one day and challenged me with the statement: “We are over-emphasizing leadership and under-emphasizing management.” I pondered that, not understanding his point initially, and subsequently concluded that he was right and went about changing my leadership approach to bring management and leadership into right balance. Since that time, however, whether in my role as a business executive or presently as a consultant, I continue to see the “over-led and under-managed syndrome” regularly, even in …Read More

In the “new normal” organizations have to do with the resources they have or trade them out. As companies have slimmed down to the best performers, they are still faced with the prospect of growing them to become the future leaders of the company.

Learning Maps and Knowledge Management are critical elements of successfully management companies. Growth is a basic imperative for companies today. One is to grow sales. That one is easy to identify and requires a concerted effort by an organization to focus and communicate effectively, while keeping their eye on the marketplace. If you don’t have 100% market share, growth is very possible, but every function must have the skills to support that objective through more highly skilled teams in sales, engineering, customer service, supply chain and marketing. But how do you grow organizations and create its new leaders?

Learning Maps provide and Individual Development Plans (IDP) are another key element in the development of an organization. With the addition of online education and a carefully crafted learning and development map, it is possible to identify and grow near term leaders. …Read More

Over the last few years, cutbacks have significantly reduced the level of expertise in many areas. Most companies are using more and more temporary resources for their business needs in all areas of their business. This is more cost effective and provides a company the ability to strategically acquire special resources when needed. But, how do you effectively manage that process? You need to find a consulting company that has the ability to become your service provider across multiple disciplines and be with you through the entire project. All companies have outside CPA/audit firms, legal firms, insurance firms, etc. who have broad expertise in their functional disciplines. In manufacturing, operations and distribution, your company should also have …Read More

Group50 Consulting, formed in 2004 announced today that it has added an Intellectual Property audit to its Company Physical^®, a series of cross functional audits that companies should use to complement their financial audits as further validation of the company’s health.  This audit is focused on the business wide practices for protecting Intellectual Property.

Most senior executives believe that Intellectual Property protection is a function of patents and trademarks. This is farthest from the truth according to Jim Gitney, Group50’s CEO. “Patents and trademarks are only a part of protecting a company’s IP. Your Intellectual Property is only as good as your willingness to protect it, and after the fact is a very costly proposition. A proactive approach to protecting IP includes the way outsiders are handled, how employees are trained and communicated with and the approach a business takes in its documentation. The more serious a company is about protecting its IP up front, the harder outsiders will think about stealing it. Unfortunately, we live in a world where a cost analysis often dictates whether or not another company will copy the hard work done by others. This topic is often not thought about or given enough credance as highlighted in a recent Group50 Case Study on Protecting a Company’s Intellectual Property Rights. “

Group50 has designed this Intellectual Property audit to be able to quickly check how proactive a company is in its protection efforts. The audit provides a detailed report on how a company can be proactive and continue to protect it competitive position.  

To find out more, call Jim Gitney, Group50’s CEO at +1 (626) 644-9746, email him at jgitney@group50.com or request more information here.

About Group50^®: Group50 was founded in 2004 with the vision of providing clients with seasoned professionals who have spent their careers in business. The company has developed unique consulting products such as the Company Physical^® and various workshops that are focused on helping companies effectively understand their strategic and operating gaps, create roadmaps to fix them and work side by side with them to implement those changes. Group50 provides clients with consultants who have the specific knowledge they require for a project. More information about the company can be found at www.Group50.com or by calling +1 (626) 644-9746.

Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them

When it comes to strategy, ponder less and do more

During a keynote address at IIR’s Balanced Scorecard Forum, Robert Kaplan, a leading international business management guru, revealed “that less than 10% of formulated strategies are executed effectively” and an international survey indicated that consistently executing strategic objectives were in the top three concerns of CEO’s and corporate boards. Kaplan also added “that it is a well know fact that organizations who have a formal strategy execution process dramatically outperform the rest”. Effectively and consistently implementing corporate strategy requires all stakeholders to be aligned to those objectives, understand their role in achieving them and be accountable for effective implementation. If your company doesn’t have a formal process, then the hard work is figuring out what one looks like. A strategic execution process must …Read More

Vision is perhaps our greatest strength… it has kept us alive to the power and continuity of thought through the centuries, it makes us peer into the future and lends shape to the unknown

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change

If you don’t know where you are going, you wind up someplace else<

I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.

Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense

Its through curiosity and looking at opportunities….. There is always an opportunity to make a difference

Success is easy, but so is neglect

The best way to predict the future is to create it