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Business Advancement

Igniting Momentum for Game-Changing Results

Transformational growth strategies

The CEO as Chief Cultural Officer

What does it mean to truly embrace the role of “Chief Cultural Officer”?

Find out by listening on the go to our conversation with Julie Sue Auslander, President and Chief Cultural Officer of cSubs, a highly successful woman-owned business that manages subscription programs for leading corporate and professional subscribers.

Among their many honors and awards for customer service, innovation, and growth over the years, cSubs is one of the few companies that Inc. magazine has named among its 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for more than 6 years in a row, beginning in 2008. (see more in Julie’s bio below)

Find out:

  • How Julie created a customer-centric and employee focused culture that drives her company’s performance
  • How cSubs employees across the organization translate vision and values into meaningful action
  • Three immediately useful ideas Julie has used for shaping and reinforcing cSubs’ strong cultural values

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The Art of Fusing Technology and Business for Growth

Beyond “Uberizing” — could your company use IT in new ways to stay ahead of the competition?

Listen on-the-go to our conversation with Tim Hebert, CEO of award-winning Atrion, about using IT as a transformative strategic asset. Atrion is a “top 1% organization” with a proven track record for helping clients fuse IT with their businesses. Under Tim’s leadership over the past 20 years, Atrion has earned numerous industry awards, including: Best Place to Work, Business Excellence Award Winner, and Inc. 5000 Company.

Tim is also a published thought leader who regularly blogs for IDG Enterprise, the leading enterprise technology media company composed of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, DEMO, InfoWorld, ITworld and Network World.

We discuss:

  • How IT can transform business models to creatively respond to emerging market needs
  • What it takes to foster a truly strategic IT organization capable of delivering breakthrough value
  • Three essential questions for maximizing IT expenditures to grow and transform a business

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Keeping Your Values Relevant During Transformation and Growth

How well do your company’s stated values match what is actually happening?

Even though they can be difficult to see, disconnects  between stated values and what really happens on a daily basis inevitably occur as companies transform and grow. Download and listen on-the-go as we discuss what you can do to identify and address these gaps as soon as possible.

We discuss:

  • Detecting signs that the real company values have transformed
  • Deciding whether written values statements need to change
  • Immediately actionable steps you can take to keep values relevant over the long term

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Contrarian Leadership for a Culture of Success

How can a CEO turn contrarian convictions into business success?

Listen on-the-go to our conversation with Colin Day, Founder and CEO of iCIMS, a leader in the talent-acquisition software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry, who has used Contrarian Leadership – a “path less taken” approach to lead his company into the top tier of his industry.

Founded in 1999, iCIMS has been receiving numerous recognitions and top awards for customer service, innovation, and growth from prestigious global organizations. Colin Day himself has been twice rated one of the top-five forward-thinking innovators in Fast Company Magazine’s Fast Fifty Readers’ Challenge, and in 2007 was named Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in the Information Technology Software category.

We discuss:

  • How well-considered contrarianism shaped iCIMS’ point of distinction in a crowded marketplace
  • The most important aspect of leading a culture that supports a successful contrarian business approach
  • Three fundamental keys to gaining commitment to a contrarian leadership strategy and culture for success
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What Does It Take To Lead a Growth Company?

What does it take to lead a company to award-winning growth?

Read Growth Igniters Radio Episode 22 Transcript Listen to our conversation with Shari Spiro, CEO and Founder of Ad Magic and Breaking Games, one of the largest and most successful independent printers in the US of tabletop games, including the wildly popular Cards Against Humanity, and other customized playing cards and board games.

In May 2015, Ad Magic was honored by the Association for Corporate Growth NJ (ACG NJ)  with a Corporate Growth Award at the association’s 2015 Corporate Growth Conference and Awards event. Ad Magic was also recognized as #4 in the Women President’s Organization List of 50 Fastest Growing Women Owned or Led Businesses in 2015.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Shari Spiro’s journey from new entrepreneur to building her company into a world leader in its segment
  • Three keys to building a winning growth strategy
  • Three ideas you can immediately use for supercharging your own company’s growth engine

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What Can You Do To Stay Entrepreneurial as Your Company Grows?

Are you wondering how to keep the “entrepreneurial fire” going as your company grows larger?

Successfully transforming from an entrepreneurial business to a middle market company, and on to a large company is a leadership challenge often filled with “growing pains.” How can you add people, processes, and systems that can keep you even more responsive and innovative than when your company was a smaller entrepreneurial business?

This week we’re sharing a few of the most critical lessons we’ve learned on this issue from our own consulting experiences and from CEOs who have successfully made this transformation.

We discuss:

  • The #1 secret for keeping your organization on the entrepreneurial track as you grow
  • The most often overlooked and/or underestimated aspects of culture that impact staying entrepreneurial
  • Three steps to overcome “growing pains” and stay responsive and innovative

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CEO Lessons Learned From a Successful Company Reinvention

How did one CEO dramatically reinvent a company, resulting in a multi-billion dollar deal?

Listen now to our conversation with Dr. Francois Nader, M.D., MBA, who was the CEO and President of NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2008 to 2015. He tells the remarkable story of his company’s reinvention, resulting in its acquisition by Shire Pharmaceuticals in January 2015 for $5.2 billion.

We discuss:

  • The anatomy of the crisis that resulted in the wholesale reinvention of NPS
  • How Dr. Nader and his leadership team won stakeholder support for the reinvention
  • Two actionable steps you can take to accelerate reinvention, big or small, in your own company

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The Secrets of Building Successful Niches

How can you find new ways to increase your company’s growth?

We discuss this evergreen challenge with Linda Hollander, “The Wealthy Bag Lady,” a highly successful serial entrepreneur (see bio below). In our conversation, we explore how Linda has identified and developed a succession of niche markets that have led her to increasing levels of business success.

We discuss:

  • Linda’s transition from “starving artist” to successful serial entrepreneur
  • How Linda identified a series of niche needs and developed successive business offerings to serve them
  • Tips on how business leaders of any size company can stay alert to emerging niche opportunities and profit from them.

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Achieving Business Goals Through For-Profit – Nonprofit Partnering

Did you know you can create new value for your company through philanthropy?

If you are searching for new ways to increase your marketing clout, strengthen you ability to attract and retain talent, or meet other business goals, listen to this conversation with Karen Eber Davis, a leading authority on income growth strategies for nonprofits, and author of the book, 7 Nonprofit Income Streams: Open the Floodgate to Sustainability!

Simply click play above to listen now, or download to listen at your convenience – whether you’re commuting, traveling, or exercising.

We explore how for-profit companies can use new approaches to partnering with nonprofit organizations to create unprecedented value for both.

Find out:

  • How innovative partnering with non-profits can enhance a for-profit company’s business goals
  • How large and small companies have partnered with nonprofits to dramatically increase their strategic outcomes
  • Three increasingly effective ways that you can start partnering with non-profits to advance your specific business objectives.

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