1CMO

Growth strategy | Advisory | Force multiplier

Kimball Norup

KISS: The Power of Simplicity in a Complex World

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“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction”

—Albert Einstein

There are many benefits to keeping things simple in an increasingly complex world.

Successful growth leaders know that it is a constant battle to fight the evil forces of complexity within their organizations. Complexity is the single greatest execution risk for any growth strategy.

Simple is good. Complexity is bad.

KISS

There is an old and often-quoted acronym, called KISS, which is most often interpreted as: Keep It Simple Stupid.

There are many variations of the KISS phrase, including: “keep it simple, sweetheart”, “keep it simple, silly”, “keep it short and simple”, “keep it simple and straightforward”, “keep it small and simple”, “keep it simple, soldier”, or “keep it simple, sailor”.

No matter which version of KISS you prefer, they all have the same core meaning: Simple is good. Complexity is bad.

The KISS acronym is credited to Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (creators of the infamous Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes, among many others).

The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are made simple rather than more complicated. Therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design, and unnecessary complexity is to be avoided.

A great example of the KISS principle in action is a story of Johnson providing a team of his design engineers a handful of simple mechanics tools, with the challenge that the jet aircraft they were designing must be repairable by an average mechanic, in the field under combat conditions, with only these tools. In this context, “stupid” refers to the relationship between the way things break and the level of sophistication available to repair them.

A great lesson that has application to any field.

Simple is good. Complexity is bad.

Norup’s Complexity Theory

During my career I have interacted with many other leaders – both as colleagues, competitors, partners, advisors, prospects, and clients.

With this first-hand experience, I have concluded that all leaders can be categorized into one of two broad buckets:

  • There are those who constantly seem to make things more difficult and complicated. This usually is not malicious – it is just how they think and operate. I like to call them “Complicators.”
  • And, then there are those who constantly try to simplify things and strive for effectiveness. The “Simplifiers.”

Unfortunately, I have also observed that they exist in a 4:1 ratio. In other words, 80% of leaders are Complicators and only 20% are Simplifiers.

The most effective growth leaders are Simplifiers. They strive to build efficient go-to-market processes, communicate clearly to the market, and build effective teams.

All things being equal, simplicity always wins. It is easier to build, maintain, and scale.

During times of massive uncertainty and crisis, even the strongest and most experienced professionals can get overwhelmed and freeze up. Taking complexity out of the equation enables teams to know what to do, where to start, and who to help.

Complexity makes the path forward much more challenging.

Complexity does not scale.

Simple is good. Complexity is bad.

Where to Start

Growth leaders should tackle complexity within their organization by evaluating the major go-to-market processes within their domain.

A useful model is to literally “follow a lead” all the way through a typical buyer’s journey for your organization. Starting with marketing and lead generation, and then moving to sales enablement, on to sales, and all the way through to your post-sale client success function.

At every step and through every stage, pay attention to extra steps that can cause friction or confusion in the process. Remove variables. Provide decision-making guidelines.

Before layering in any form of complexity. Make sure the simple case is optimized.

This approach of slow is smooth, and smooth is fast is a proven way to accelerate growth while reducing execution risk.

People often worry that making something simpler is, in fact, making it simplistic or dumbing it down. In fact, the opposite is true. As Leonardo Da Vinci so eloquently said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Conclusion

Eliminating complexity is not a one-time event.

In the post-pandemic “new normal” business era, the pace of change is accelerating, not slowing down. This relentless level of innovation and pushing boundaries can easily breed complexity if not constantly monitored.

Successful growth leaders should focus on being simplifiers, dedicating continuous effort to refine, simplify, and optimize processes.

Leader that fit in the Complicators category will find it difficult to stay ahead of sudden changes that are often forced on them by unforeseen economic, environmental, buyer, or competitive forces. The complexity of their organizations becomes an anchor – slowing things down and limiting growth.

Simple is good. Complexity is bad.

-Onward

The Core DNA of a Growth Leader

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“A leader’s job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be.”

– Jack Welch

In order for an organization to grow, someone needs to take charge of growth and lead the effort.

This is the job of the growth leader.

A growth leader can have many different titles within the organization. Most often, it is the CEO, President, CSO, Head of Growth, or Chief Marketing Officer who is responsible for driving growth for the organization.

However, the job title alone does not guarantee competence or success. The title does not define the capability of the growth leader. Rather, it is how they think and what they do, which ultimately makes a growth leader successful.

In my experience, the best growth leaders share some common characteristics. I call these attributes the core DNA of a growth leader.

What are they? Read on…

Have a Growth Mindset

Having the right mindset can dramatically affect your habits, attitude, and actions. Your mindset will have an outsize influence on your ultimate success.

A growth leader is never happy with the status quo. They do not acknowledge any limitations, and are always thinking about how to evolve and grow the organization.

They are hardwired to view the world as “glass half full” by default. This is a growth mindset.

In my experience, the best growth leaders are passionate about growth, and this passion is infectious. They build teams, and organizations, that are hyper-focused on growth.

Focus on Talent

Growth leaders know that almost all problems in business are people problems. By extension, growth leaders also know that all solutions in business are also people solutions.

Successful growth strategy is largely determined by the people on your team.

Growth leaders relentlessly focus on attracting, developing, and retaining the best talent for their organization.

They know it is critical to have the right people on the bus, sitting in the right seats. They also take swift action to get the wrong people off the bus.

The best growth leaders also focus on creating new opportunities and providing professional development for their team. These leaders make every effort to coach and develop talent. This includes identifying the unique strengths of each team member, offering constructive feedback to help them improve in weaker areas, and presenting opportunities that not only leverage individual strengths but also benefit the business as a whole.

The benefits are many. With a growth mindset, leaders can develop a high performing workforce while also boosting morale and the bottom line.

Lead from the Front

Growth leaders know that scaling an organization is a team sport. They cannot do it alone.

They also know that every ship needs a captain, someone with a steady hand on the helm who leads from the front.

Growth leaders get out of the building and into the market. Growth leaders love to get dirty alongside their teams.

Acknowledge Unknown Unknowns

The best growth leaders accept that there are many unknown unknowns. They realize that they cannot possibly know everything, nor can they predict everything. However, that does not mean they should ignore potential disruptive forces.

They acknowledge that we are operating in an increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) business environment.

This unknown dynamic is not always comfortable, or fun. However, it is real and very likely not going to disappear. This uncertainty is a given, so growth leaders make plans to deal with it.

One proven solution for growth leaders and their teams is to develop deep situational awareness of their operating environment. This will help them identify potential disruptions before they happen. Over time, they will gain confidence in “seeing around corners,” or predicting, which events have a higher probability of happening.

Armed with this insight and analysis, growth leaders can then start to do scenario-based planning as part of their management cadence.

Disciplined About Strategic Planning

Growth leaders know that it is not very often you can shoot from the hip and be successful. Instead of a tactical and reactive approach, growth leaders take a disciplined approach to strategic planning.

Growth leaders seek to identify and bridge the strategic gap between Core Ideology (mission, values, purpose) and their Envisioned Future (vision, objectives) for the organization. They do this by creating a strategy and comprehensive action plan to get there, then taking consistent action.

True to Their Values

Growth leaders help define and evangelize the values of their organization. They also genuinely demonstrate these values each and every day through their words and actions.

Many organizations have some unique values, but there is absolutely no reason that honesty and integrity should not be on every organizations list.

Misalignment between an organization’s stated values and actions is a key predictor of failure.

Think Like a Scientist

Growth leaders are confident, and smart enough, to acknowledge they do not know everything.

What sets them apart is they do not attempt to hide it. Rather, they embrace gaps in their knowledge, and take a disciplined approach to learn more.

They are always in learning mode, and intuitively understand that lessons can come from the most unexpected people and places, if you are receptive to them.

Growth leaders are always asking questions like “why?”, “how?”, and “what if?” in an attempt to unlock more growth, at a faster rate, for their organization. They think like scientists and set up contained experiments to prove or disprove their theories.

Learn from Failure

Failure is part of the game regardless of your industry or role, or prior success. No individual, or organization, wins 100% of the time.

However, what sets growth leaders apart is they do not let failure define them. A key part of a growth mindset is combatting the impulse to wallow in self-pity and self-deprecation and instead make every effort to learn quickly from failure in order to grow.

With a growth mindset, leaders are able to analyze poor behaviors or tactics, identify what contributed to their failure, and make deliberate changes to achieve better success in the future.

This relentless line of inquiry does not always yield positive or useful results. However, it does get you much closer to a better answer over time. As Thomas Edison once said, ““I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

MFGSD!

Last but certainly not least, all growth leaders share one common attribute – they have a strong bias for action. They embody the MFGSD ethos, and instill it in their teams.

This relentless focus on execution is perhaps the most important element of a growth leader’s DNA.

Until someone takes action, nothing will happen.

-Onward

The 10 Commandments of Effective Growth Strategy

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“Business principles are only as good as the practices that back them up.”

– Chip Conley

Developing effective growth strategy is never easy.

The good news: While it is difficult, it is not impossible.

Fortunately, there are a few time-tested and proven growth principles. If you follow them, they will reduce your up-front time and effort while significantly increasing the chances of success.

Over the span of many years in growth leadership and consulting roles, I have enjoyed great success by following these simple, yet powerful, fundamentals. Now you can too.

If you follow these guiding principles, in sequential order, you will have the building blocks to create an effective growth strategy for your organization.

The 10 Commandments

Most of us are aware of the Ten Commandments, the set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship that play a fundamental role in Judaism and Christianity.

While not quite as enduring or carved in stone like the original Ten Commandments, I believe these ten growth strategy principles can be very useful and informative for leaders seeking to grow their organization.

Here they are:

1 – Know Who You Are

This growth strategy commandment is first for a reason.

Why? In order for effective strategic planning to take place, you have to know who you are. In this context, “you” is referring to the organization.

This is your starting point.

Knowing the Core Ideology (Mission, Values, and Purpose) of your organization, and ensuring they are in alignment with your product(s)/service(s) and brand, is crucial for effective growth strategy.

If these elements are not in alignment, your growth initiative is highly likely to fail before it ever gets to see the light of day.

2 – Know Where You Want to Go

Every leadership team has dreams and aspirations for where they want to take the organization. Knowing your Envisioned Future (Vision, and Long-term Goals) is vitally important for effective strategic planning and execution.

As the old saying goes, if you don’t know where you are going, then how will you know when you get there?

Having clarity around your desired future state will provide focus, inspiration, and a convenient measuring stick to track your progress.

3 – Have a Plan

Once you know your starting point, and your intended destination, you are then in an excellent position to plot out a path forward for the organization.

In strategic planning, I call this stage the growth strategy thesis.

It is the product of all your understanding, insight, and best thinking about how you will navigate the Strategic Gap that exists between where you are today and your destination.

Your growth strategy thesis and plan become the roadmap you will use to reach the long-term goals of the organization.

Why is it a thesis? Because it is your best guess as to the path forward. The truth is you will not know until you start executing. Your strategy thesis is what you and your team are going to follow until you learn otherwise from market feedback. Then you can listen and pivot as required in order to keep moving towards your long-term goals.

There are many distractions for growth leaders when creating a strategic plan. The most successful ones focus on the fundamentals first:

  • Vision before strategy.
  • Strategy before tactics.
  • Focus on the big rocks first, in priority order.
  • Walk before you run.

4 – Get Real

Growth leaders need to practice a special kind of honesty.

This involves much more than just being truthful in our business dealings. Growth leaders need to have radical candor in assessing their organization, its product(s)/service(s), competitors, and the marketplace.

I call this getting real.

It plays out like this: If you are not real about your organization and the environment, then you are very likely to be unpleasantly surprised in the future.

Many of us have been witness to this kind of dangerous thinking in the business world. A few common examples:

  • “We don’t have any competitors.”
  • “Our customers love us.”
  • “ACME Company isn’t anything to worry about.”
  • “Every company needs our solution.”
  • “Our Widget is better than anything else out there.”

Successful growth leaders start their journey with deep introspection about the organization and the solutions they deliver to the market. After this growth assessment, they will also spend a lot of time out in the market gaining better Situational Awareness about the market(s) where they compete.

This level of honesty is the most important part of strategic planning. You have to put everything (good, bad, and ugly) on the table so that you can objectively evaluate it and plan around it.

Do not try to put lipstick on a pig…that generally only makes things worse.

Get real. If your product or service is crap, fix it. If you do not have the right team, make a change.

5 – Know Your Target (Market)

In addition to having clarity around long-term organizational goals, growth strategists also must strive to gain clarity around the target market for their solutions.

This often begins with market segmentation and analysis. Then, thinking deeply about where the organization can effectively compete and win.

These insights are often documented in the form of personas and an ideal client profile (ICP in growth parlance). Having consensus on this information is crucial in order for go-to-market teams to be able to do their jobs.

With personas and ICPs, marketing teams can define positioning and messaging, and develop appropriate lead generation campaigns. Sales teams can identify qualified prospects and know how best to close sales.

6 – Understand Your Buyer’s Journey

Knowing your target is not enough.

An equally important, and often overlooked, part of understanding your target market is to understand how prospects buy. This so-called “buyer’s journey” is the key to unlocking the puzzle of how to gain more sales, quicker.

Most go-to-market (GTM) organizations get this completely wrong.

Their mistake is to think that the prospects they have identified as ideal targets will fall into line and proceed stage-by-stage through the sales funnel that the sales organization has carefully designed. This is hardly ever how it happens in the wild.

Buyers are doing their own research, developing their own solutions, and working through internal approvals all outside of the view of sellers. In fact‚ Gartner research finds that when B2B buyers are considering a purchase‚ they spend only 17% of that time meeting with potential suppliers.

They are on their own buyer’s journey.

Smart sellers attempt to understand as much as possible about this journey, and then line up their sales process with the buyer’s buying process.

An important takeaway: Marketing enables sales. If you understand the buyer’s journey, you can then map the right marketing activities, educational content, and sales activities, to help coach and move the buyer along their buyer’s journey.

7 – Define Your Unique Selling Proposition

There are many ways to define value for a customer. However, one thing is true: If your prospect does not find value in what you are trying to sell them, they will not buy. Period.

In growth strategy, this is called a unique selling proposition (USP) – a clear statement that describes the benefit of your product or service, how you solve your customer’s needs and what distinguishes you from the competition.

Developing this can be a powerful sales tool. The absolute best sales superpower is to be unique. If there is no comparison, then you are free to compete on providing the best value for the client.

As one of my wise marketing mentors once shared with me, “an ounce of different is worth a pound of same.”

8 – Know Your Route(s) to Market

A crucial part of every growth plan is to know and understand your route(s) to market.

An organization can consider many different sales channels as part of their growth strategy. Selling directly into their target market(s), whether it is B2B or B2C, is the most common. Other channels include partners, wholesale, retail, OEM, etc.

Knowing your route to market is a fundamental requirement in order to define effective growth strategy.

In the earlier Buyer’s Journey commandment, I shared that marketing enables sales. Ensuring that marketing and sales are in alignment, and working in concert, is crucially important no matter what channel(s) you ultimately decide to use.

9 – Build a Scalable GTM Infrastructure

The ninth commandment is about building a solid foundation for growth.

We all know that you need a strong foundation in order to construct an enduring building. It is the same for organizations.

The GTM infrastructure for the organization includes people, process, technology, and data/analytics. Growth leaders must ensure the GTM infrastructure is both capable and scalable.

In the growth mix, technology can be a force multiplier if the core GTM tech stack (website, CRM, marketing automation, social media) are integrated. The goal of every growth leader is to make sure that marketing, sales, and client success are all working together effectively.

An added bonus to tech integration is that is allows us to measure everything. The ability to track and measure key metrics allows growth leaders to build a predictable revenue model, gain clarity on marketing ROI, and ultimately make intelligent decisions on how to optimize and grow the business.

10 – Develop a Balanced Marketing Plan

In order to grow the business, it is vital to have a balanced marketing plan. A consistent cadence of outbound and inbound tactics will help drive growth.

It is worth repeating this important concept: Marketing enables sales.

Marketing is an expense. For many organizations, it is one of the largest budget line items. However, with the proper metrics and accountability in place, it should also demonstrate enough ROI to justify the cost.

Unfortunately, marketing is often viewed as a one-time event. In order to drive consistent growth, you have to commit to an ongoing go-to-market process and a long-term plan. An intelligent balance of marketing tactics, consistently executed, is always the best path forward.

Avoid spreading your marketing efforts too thinly – if you are budget challenged it is much better to do fewer things, but do them well. You can invest more in marketing as your grow.

Go Forth and Conquer

Remember, there is no silver bullet for growth.

Growth leaders can dramatically improve their odds of success by embracing the wisdom of these 10 growth commandments and making sure the right team is in place. Some may find value in engaging a CMO to guide them on their journey.

-Onward

Putting Lipstick on a Pig!

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“I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business.”

– Harvey S. Firestone

Years ago, in the midst of a long discussion about our product roadmap and where we should invest scarce resources, one of my marketing mentors asked me a profound question:

“Do you know what you get when you put lipstick and a pink tutu on a pig?”

This odd question had the desired effect, as it stopped the conversation dead in its tracks.

Sensing a trap, I paused to think.

Playing a few alternative answers over in my mind, I answered with the obvious: “A pig.”

This answer was met with a broad grin, a slap of his hand on the conference room table, and the response: “You are partially correct. But it is no longer just a pig…you have now also made it angry, very confused and pissed off by forcing it to wear lipstick and a tutu!”

The moral of this story was clearly not about how to avoid angering pigs – although that does sound like good advice!

Rather, this simple parable illustrated that we have to confront the immediate challenges in front of us, we cannot cover them hoping they will go away. Things generally only get worse if we try to mask them.

Fix the Issue Instead

To put “lipstick on a pig” means making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product in a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings.

When you read this simple description, then the fundamental flaw of the strategy becomes readily apparent. A few relevant examples for growth leaders:

  • If your product or service sucks, fix it first. Your present and future customers will thank you.
  • Be honest in your marketing and sales efforts. Do not lie. Do not mislead your prospects. If your marketing value proposition does not match the actual value proposition delivered from a sale, then you are creating potentially fatal brand issues.
  • If your go-to-market infrastructure is not ready to scale, do not ramp up growth marketing and sales until you have built the foundation for growth.
  • If you do not have the right people on the bus, sitting in the right seats, make the necessary changes. Quickly.

The Connection to Strategic Planning

A fundamental requirement for effective strategic planning to take place is complete transparency and honesty.

Many planning exercises go sideways when growth leaders and/or their teams either cannot or will not confront reality.

This often manifests itself in product or service issues, or organizational problems, that should be addressed first, before any investment in growth takes place.

I always try to follow a priority sequence of steps to kick off every growth strategy engagement. This discovery process has proven to be very helpful in avoiding the dangers of putting lipstick on a pig:

  1. First, make an honest assessment of the organization, and its leadership. Ask yourself – Is there a willingness/desire to change/improve in order to drive growth? Are we willing to invest the time and resources required? Are we committed to the effort, even if it means some pain and suffering along the way?
  2. Next, is the team willing and able to put all the issues, problems, challenges on the table? If “yes” – great, move on. If “no” – dig in further before proceeding.
  3. Third, do we have good situational awareness of our client base and chosen market(s)? You must cast a wide net and examine many perspectives to make sure you are not missing something important, or setting the organization up to being blindsided.
  4. Take a long, hard look at your answers to items (2) and (3) above. I call this “getting real” and it is not easy. Growth leaders and their teams must be honest about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and the product(s) and/or services(s) they are selling. You must practice radical candor. Not every team is willing or able to “call their baby ugly!”
  5. Finally, before you start in on developing your growth strategy and plan, you need to triage any issues. Before proceeding, make the decisions to fix, dump, or accept as-is the issues you identified.

Taking the time to do this assessment and triage up front, will yield dramatically better outcomes for your growth strategy and plan.

Conclusion

The key takeaway for growth leaders: Never put lipstick on a pig.

Fix the issue(s) instead.

Then go to market.

-Onward

Get the Right People on the Bus First

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“It is better to first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then figure out where to drive.” – James C. Collins

Early on in my career, I learned a valuable business lesson from my father when he shared this pearl of wisdom with me:

In life, almost every problem is ultimately a people problem.

If I am being honest, the true gravity and impact of that statement was largely lost on me at the time. Furthermore, I cannot even remember the event that triggered the conversation. However, over the years (and all my successive senior leadership roles across a number of organizations) the absolute brilliance of his advice became readily apparent.

All problems are ultimately people problems.

By extension, all solutions are also dependent on people.

Why? Because in any organization it takes people, working together, to solve the problems and come up with solutions that serve clients/customers/constituents.

Whether you call them your people, your team, your coworkers, your colleagues, your talent, or even your workforce…people are the key ingredient for success in any organization.

The Bus Analogy from Good to Great

One of my all-time favorite business strategy books is Good to Great, by Jim Collins, where the author and his team researched a number of organizations in an attempt to decipher the “growth DNA” of great companies.

They had expected to find that the first step in taking a company from good to great would be to set a new direction (defining a new vision and strategy for the company) and then getting the organization committed and aligned behind that new direction.

What they found was quite the opposite.

They discovered this common pattern: Those executives who ignited transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus (their metaphor for the organization) and then get people to take it there.

Instead, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. These leaders essentially said, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”  

Three Simple Truths

Collins also found that these so-called “good-to-great leaders” understood three simple truths:

  1. If you begin with “who,” rather than “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world. If people join your organization primarily because of where it is going when they joined, what happens if you need to change direction? You then have a problem. However, if people are on the bus because of who else is on the bus, then it is much easier to change direction.
  2. When you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage them largely goes away.  The right people do not need to be tightly managed or fired up; they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great.
  3. Finally, if you have the wrong people, it simply does not matter whether you discover the right direction; you still will not have a great company. Great vision without great people is irrelevant. In fact, as many of us have witnessed in our careers, the wrong people can be a cancer on the organization that will literally kill it from the inside out.

Connecting People to Your Strategic Plan

When starting out on their growth journey, many organizations unfortunately begin on the wrong foot.

It is a common trap for growth leaders to be so focused on the “what” that they neglect to think through the “who.” What do I mean by this?

In the world of growth strategy, execution begins with great leadership. Great leaders have the ability to attract, retain, and grow the talent needed to get the work done. They also instill a bias for action (MFGSD!)

Growing an organization, no matter the size or industry, is always a team sport. You will never reach your destination without the right team in place.

Expanding upon the “right people on the bus” analogy, here is my quick and dirty playbook for how you can connect people and your strategic plan for growth:

  1. It begins with a roadworthy bus. (Ensure your organization and product(s)/service(s) are ready to go to market. Do your values as an organization line up with the value you deliver to customers?)
  2. Make sure you have the right bus driver. (Does the leader of your organization have the experience, passion, and energy to lead the charge?)
  3. Next, get the right people on the bus. (This is your core leadership team.)
  4. Followed by getting the wrong ones off the bus. Quickly. (One of the most important, and difficult challenges for leaders is to take quick and decisive action on those who do not belong on the bus.)
  5. Next, make sure everyone is sitting in the right seat. (Do you have the right people in the right roles.)
  6. Now, as a team, you can think about your destination. (What is your envisioned future? What are your long-term objectives?)
  7. Followed by, plotting your ideal roadmap to get there, along with planning for any unexpected detours you might encounter along the way. (This is where you define your chosen strategy and create a robust plan.)
  8. Start driving! (Now it is time to get out of the building, and get dirty.)

Great People Achieve Great Results

Growth leaders embrace the concept that all problems are people problems, and all solutions require people.

The best leaders focus on building a great culture, one that attracts and retains the talent they need to execute their growth plans. They know that great people will achieve great results.

A roadworthy bus, with the right driver, and the right people on the bus, sitting in the right seats, is a great start to reaching your desired destination.

-Onward