SoftNAS, an innovative Texas-based startup , prides itself as being the number one provider of network attached cloud storage. As at most startups, resources (be they people or financial) are never more precious than in the first few years of a company’s existence. SoftNAS therefore identified that without a high degree of focus, their ambitious growth plans were unlikely to be realised.

“We knew that keeping everyone on the same page as we grew the company was critical. Cascade was the perfect solution for this, and the flexible monthly pricing made it an easy choice.”

Diverse operations covering on-the-field activities, gaming, a bistro and a retail store, meant that the Rooster’s strategic plan was made up of a complex mix of metrics and objectives.
The Sports Club needed a platform to consolidate their detailed paper-based plan into something that the entire organisation could understand and engage with. They also needed a mechanism to measure organisational alignment against that plan.

“Cascade gives us clear, real-time metrics about how we’re performing against our plan – an invaluable level of management insight.”

Unhappy with your current DC? Expanding to a new region?

Whatever your reason for wanting to open a new warehouse or distribution center, you know that the decision can’t be taken lightly… and 3PL providers don’t make it easy to do side-by-side comparisons of their services and prices. There is more to developing an analysis of the options than (more…)

In the Group50^® series on Anti-Strategy, we discuss how companies can unintentionally encourage well-meaning employees to act against their company’s best interests, whether through an unclear overall business strategy, a lack of information, or even badly designed sales compensation programs . In this series of blog posts, we’re going to address the question: How can businesses move from “Anti-Strategy” to “Actionable Strategy”? By “Actionable Strategy”, we don’t mean a strategy that lives in a PowerPoint presentation. We mean (more…)

Working capital, cash flow and operating profits are primary measures of senior leadership performance. Companies audit their financials every year to validate compliance and performance, but typically don’t have an audit plan for critical business processes that impact these performance measures and the customer’s perception of performance.

There are 7 critical business processes that every company must (more…)

The Group50^® series on Anti-Strategy, characterizes situations wherein talented, driven and well-intentioned employees unintentionally act against their company’s best interests. Anti-Strategy often occurs when strategy is unclear or information is lacking. Is there another cause that feeds Anti-Strategy? Is it possible, to have Anti-Strategy designed into the company’s own processes or policies? Absolutely! Let’s consider how this can happen in sales compensation systems.

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Anti-Strategy causes a negative impact on Market Effectiveness and your customers know it.  Let’s start with a couple of definitions before we get into the meat of this article: Anti-Strategy: Conscientious employees trying to do the right things without the guiding principles of a clear strategy.

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An interesting question… Neither Wikipedia nor Dictionary.com has a definition for “Performance Management,” but Google it, and you get 124 million results! Many companies are in the same boat.

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Laws are created to deal with a problem that exists today and may not exist years from now. Business processes are the same. They are created to deal with current needs. Over the years the legal system has accumulated a series of laws that may have been appropriate for their time but have never been abolished. Here are a few examples: (more…)

If you are like most business owners, your days are fast-paced, your activities varied and your time precious—it’s likely that you are among the 87% of owners who have no written exit plan. Yet, despite the value you’ve created in your business, you will exit at some point and need to figure out how to reap the fruit of your efforts while leaving a successful, ongoing business legacy.

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