Overcoming the Bourne Effect: Boosting Executive Visibility

What's the biggest tension you're feeling at work right now? If you're anything like Sarah Hartley in the Always Obvious novel - it isn't failure. It's something a little harder than that. Her pipeline is active. The team is delivering. The revenue is roughly where it needs to be. There's nothing to point at and say: that's what's wrong. And yet the business isn't quite succeeding either. Not in the way it should be. Not in the way she built it to. The firm is functional but it isn't compounding. It seems to be surviving when it should be gravitating. This is the tension Phil and I have seen countless times in services firms. Not failure. Something subtler. A business that's functioning but has lost its specific shape. That looks and feels, from the outside, like everyone else doing broadly similar work. That's winning enough to keep going but not quite enough to become the obvious choice in its market. The diagnosis is almost always the same. Nobody has an immediate answer to the most fundamental question: what are we actually for? Not what do we do. Not what are we good at. What do we most believe about the problem we solve, in a way that no other firm believes quite the same thing? Without a genuine answer to that question, everything built on top of it drifts. The positioning becomes generic because there's nothing specific underneath it. The gravity is weak because the signal isn't clear enough for the right clients to recognise themselves in it. The growth comes from effort rather than attraction. This is why Essence is the first of the seven capabilities in Continuous Positioning. Not because it's the most immediately actionable. Because it sets the pace for every other capability. Get Essence right and the rest of the system has something real to build from. Leave it vague and you're building on sand, which is a reasonable explanation for why the rebrand didn't move the needle and the thought leadership isn't generating the right conversations. Sarah's journey in the novel starts here. With this specific tension, and it's worth reading if any of this sounds familiar. Link in the comments. #AlwaysObvious #ContinuousPositioning #Essence

When researching a company, most people start with the numbers. Revenue. Profit. Growth. Maybe funding or even valuation. And while these metrics are important, they rarely tell the full story. Because sometimes the most important signals are not in the financials. They are in the relationships around the company. Directors often sit on multiple boards. A founder may run several companies. An investor may hold board seats across an industry. Over time, these roles quietly connect companies together. And that’s where things get interesting. Two companies that appear completely unrelated may actually share directors. A small company might suddenly be linked to a much larger promoter group. Or a supplier might be connected to multiple companies in the same ecosystem. Once you start mapping these relationships, a different picture begins to emerge. You may discover: • promoter group structures • clusters of related companies • shared leadership across businesses • hidden corporate ecosystems • potential conflict or risk signals This is why director networks are so important in due diligence. Looking at a company in isolation can miss the broader context. But when you understand the network around it, You start seeing the business more clearly. Inside Tofler, the Company Network view helps visualize these connections instantly. Instead of jumping between multiple profiles, You can see how companies and directors are linked in one place. Because good business decisions rarely come from looking at companies in isolation. They come from understanding the network behind them. #duediligence #corporateresearch #riskanalysis #businessintelligence #tofler

I’ve been building and scaling consulting firms for almost 20 years. The best advice I can give is pretty boring: Fix 𝘰𝘯𝘦 small thing every couple of weeks. It can be anything: Coach one leader. Kill one unnecessary report. Tighten the proposal process. Clean up your qualification criteria. Clarify what “good” looks like in delivery. None of this is dramatic. But it impacts how your firm runs exponentially. When I became CEO at Nexient, revenue was shrinking. We went from $39M to $34M while I was figuring out how to run the company. During that period, I kept looking for what we needed to do to turn things around. What drove the success fell into three buckets: • Differentiate the firm • Build a great go-to-market team • 1,000 little things Here’s how we executed agains the “1,000 little things:” Every couple of weeks, we asked one question: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝘅? Most of the answers were pretty unremarkable. A better hiring screen. A clearer proposal template. A cleaner way to manage projects. None of them felt like a turning point, but they added up. Five years later, the firm was at $131M. A big part of that growth was having removed friction everywhere we could. Scaling a services firm usually isn’t about one brilliant move. It’s about making small improvements consistently, long enough for them to compound. #ConsultingCEO #ConsultingBusiness #LeadershipInConsulting #B2BServices #AdvisoryFirms #ConsultingIndustry

I remember a conversation with a director from a global organization, one of those moments that quietly reshapes how you think. We were discussing a simple question which I asked: How do we become a better partner? He paused, looked and me and then he said: “You improve when you stop prioritizing what you have… and start understanding what we need.” That shift, subtle in words, profound in meaning, is where growth begins. He went on to share an example. There was a supplier, consistently ranked at the top for years. Not because of superior products alone, but because of something far more influential. The CEO of that company was deeply engaged, immersed in understanding the partner’s business. That level of commitment spreaded through the organization. Executives didn’t just perform, they felt responsible. They understood the why behind every expectation. And that changes everything. As our discussion continued, he repeated a principle that stayed with me: “Shams, first understand the system of the organization that wants to work with you, before you try to explain your own.” It’s a powerful reminder. Most people are eager to present, to impress, to showcase capability. Few take the time to truly understand. But here’s the truth: The foundation of a successful partnership is not built on products. It is built on people, on how they think, how they listen, and how they choose to see each other. When you align with perspective, products follow.

Most personal brands today feel like they were manufactured in a factory—cold, generic, and instantly forgettable. But what if your digital presence felt like a piece of handcrafted heritage? As a Shoemaker’s Granddaughter I think about craftsmanship, values, and a dedication to doing things right rather than just doing them fast. In the rush to be "visible," many Global Rockstars lose their BrandEssence and fire🔥 . They post what they think they should say, rather than what they actually stand for. High-performing leaders don't need "more content." They need a #OneSentenceMission that acts as a lighthouse for their career and their #LinkedIn profile. Are you building a brand or just making noise? I’ve shared a deep dive into finding your intentional voice in our latest blog. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/ex9Qh6Zp #PersonalBranding #GlobalRockstars #LeadershipValues #BrandEssence GlobalPeopleTransitions Plaxides Namutami Diana Kuebler

Hey Marketers, We’re watching job cuts, mergers, and “strategic realignments” that look less like growth and more like corporate oxygen masks dropping from the ceiling. At the centre of the chaos is a stubborn faith in the Mad Men myth: that a single genius creative director, armed with gut instinct and a Cannes reel, will swagger in and save the quarter. Meanwhile, pricing is still chained to man-hours in a world that’s been paying for output for years. Awkward. Here’s the inconvenient truth: augmentation tools can make teams 10–20x faster in weeks - not just more content, but better timing, sharper accuracy, and tighter feedback loops. Communication isn’t dying. It’s multiplying. Especially with UGC - messy, spontaneous, and annoyingly … trusted. So brands: stop buying nostalgia. Audit what’s essential. Pay properly for volume and value. And communicators: restructure. Choose premium personalisation or a sharp, profitable niche. New world. New rules. Full steam ahead. #MarketingStrategy #AdvertisingIndustry #AIFutureOfWork #BrandBuilding #CreativeEconomy

Most companies approach acquisitions as bundles of assets. What they are actually acquiring are well-networked communities. Disrupt those networks without understanding them, and value erodes quickly. Mike Klein, IABC Fellow has seen that firsthand in high-profile M&A engagements across the U.K. airline and telecom sectors. Nearly 30 years of experience shaped the lesson he returns to in Chapter 4 of Engaging Employees Through Strategic Communication, Second Edition: credibility is not transferable. Receiving difficult news from someone employees trust is fundamentally different from receiving the same news from someone they do not. That difference determines whether an organization holds together during integration or begins to fracture. Mike founded Changing The Terms in 2016 and launched #WeLeadComms during the pandemic, building a global community of communicators. He now serves as editor-in-chief and part-owner of Strategic. He writes from inside the situations that test communicators most. That perspective strengthens this book. For professors and instructors: https://vist.ly/4vwyg Available on Amazon: https://vist.ly/4vwyk Learn more: https://vist.ly/4vwym

"When I talk about the new company, I say 'we' rather than 'they.'" 🤝 This simple shift in language is one of the strongest indicators of M&A success; however, according to Perceptyx research: 🔹 Within 60 days of a deal, fewer than 45% of acquired employees use "we." 🔹 It typically takes 12–18 months to reach the 80% mark. During M&A, friction often stays invisible to leaders. But the gap between "us" and "them" is where execution slows down. 📉 Those who lag report message inconsistency and fairness concerns. ➡️ Employees who perceived structural incongruence were about 4.7 times more likely to leave. 📈 Teams that form a shared identity sooner report clearer decision rights and stronger coordination. ➡️ Employees who perceived cultural congruence between the two organizations were 3.5 times more likely to remain employed 18 months later. How can leaders identify and address the impacts of an M&A? Download your copy of our NEW Guidebook for Listening and Action: Mergers and Acquisitions to learn: ✔️ Best Practices ✔️ What Not to Do ✔️ The Metrics of Success ✔️ Getting Started ✔️ Expert Resources https://lnkd.in/g7nDS77z #WorkforceTransformation #MandA #ChangeManagement

Evoke Co-CIO Alex Shahidi will be speaking at Barron’s Independent Advisor Summit in Scottsdale this week. He will share Evoke’s approach to talent and growth.

🚨 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹. Not slow declines. Straight-up failures. And here’s what I learned the hard way: It wasn’t the idea. It was the team. I hired: ❌ Task doers when I needed thinkers ❌ Warm bodies when I needed operators And that mistake cost me… over and over again. After interviewing over a million candidates across multiple industries, the difference is crystal clear: There are people who execute tasks… And there are people who build and operate systems. If you hire the wrong one for the wrong role, the business struggles — no matter how good your idea is. Because businesses rarely fail due to lack of vision. They fail because the team wasn’t built correctly. Right seats. Right roles. Right people. That’s what scales a business. #ChiropracticLeadership #TeamBuilding #PracticeGrowth #BuildToScale #ChiroBusiness