Duration: 1 Hour

Option 1: Friday, February 12^th at 9:00am ET

Option 2: Thursday, March 4^th at 12:00pm ET

This session will be interactive with discussion and Q&A.

Course Description

In the bestselling book, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run Companies (peters), 43 “best-in-class” companies were profiled some 35 years ago. Of the 32 public-traded entities, only eight subsequently surpassed the growth rates of their peer group while six disappeared in the intervening years—and these were the “best-run” companies! In the decade after built to last (Collins) was published, 8 of the profiled 18 companies were in trouble, growing slower than their peer group. As Steve Lohr writes in an article on Microsoft, “one of the evolutionary laws of business is that success breeds failure; the tactics and habits of earlier triumphs so often leave companies--even the biggest, most profitable and most admired companies--unable to adapt." Clearly, sustained competitive advantage, Michael Porter’s definition of “strategy”, is difficult to attain. In this highly interactive seminar, Mr. Austin will outline key frameworks for identifying innovative, new avenues for growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the difference between “inside-out” vs. “outside-in” thinking and what it means to be “customer-centric”.
• Identify obstacles to strategic growth and approaches for overcoming.