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PSA Leadership Book Recap | The Curve Ahead – Part Three

January 15, 2016

The Curve Ahead book summary:

Why do most growth companies stop growing? These fast-growing businesses are the engines of economic growth and wealth creation, but most fall behind the curve before reaching their potential. Executives are surprised when their business models mature sooner than expected, victims of the familiar S-Curve. Tragically, once-promising companies are often sold by investors too ready to throw in the towel. So what can leaders do to keep moving forward?

To sustain growth, companies need to discover their next S-Curve. But few have a repeatable process for uncovering new opportunities before their core business stalls. The Curve Ahead offers a practical approach to sustaining long-term growth. It describes how growth companies can build innovation into the rhythm of their business operations and culture using design thinking, prototyping, business model design and other Innovation Power Tools.

This book will help thousands of mid-sized companies stay ahead of the curve and discover the path to unlimited revenue growth. [1]


PSA Book Club Discussion Part Three

In the final segment of the PSA Book Club review of the Curve Ahead by Dave Powers, the group contemplated a huge topic, innovation. In the book, Powers describes the primary source of innovation as the unmet and unarticulated needs of customers, information that must be acquired ahead of competitors. The discussion closed with a conversation on how each company attempts to uncover hidden customer needs.

 

One of the things we struggled with was CRM, how we communicate with our customers and how to keep our company all on the same page. We received feedback that there was an issue with our communication process so we revamped the way we communicate with our customers.

 

  • We strive to learn from the customer. One of the things we did 2 years ago was set up an advisory council for our own company. We have clients who sit down with us about twice a year. They evaluate us as we would our own employees, on every aspect of what we are doing customer service, service department, sales, project management, literature released, and social media.
  • We bring in manufacturers or industry leaders to talk to customers about the next stage of technology. We know we are not going to sell them right away but they are gaining knowledge and value through that. Those things are helping to grow our pipeline because we are already laying a strong foundation on future work rather than the customer coming to us and asking.
  • One of the things we struggled with was CRM, how we communicate with our customers and how to keep our company all on the same page. We received feedback that there was an issue with our communication process so we revamped the way we communicate with our customers.
  • We have now started inviting prospective customers and key account people to come in and sit in on new technology meetings. We invite existing customers to give us feedback. That’s a big risk when you don’t know about certain clients and what they might say about you (good or bad or otherwise), but it has been great to have guests that are not currently customers and listen to their peers. It has turned over tremendous business for us.

See Part One of the Leadership Book Club Discussion: https://psasecurity.com/about/newsroom/industry-blog/psa-leadership-book-club-recap-the-curve-ahead-part-one/

See Part Two of the Leadership Book Club Discussion: https://psasecurity.com/about/newsroom/industry-blog/psa-leadership-book-recap-the-curve-ahead-part-two/

[1] The Curve Ahead by Dave Power