This post is a follow-up to a recent video episode I contributed to my YouTube channel, Three Minutes to Escalate, regarding the Culture of Delegation and its importance in creating sustainable businesses. To quickly summarize the takeaway of that discussion, my...
When formalizing our companies, entrepreneurs and business leaders find it easier to delegate functions and requirements where we don’t excel. We surround ourselves with those that help offset our gaps and weaknesses. As our strategies, products, and services...
Part Two – Brand One of the subjects I am asking to address most frequently has to do with the characteristics. In this series, I take a deeper dive into the question, evaluating how expectations of leaders change as their business move through the life cycle of...
Every organization will likely tell you that they want to grow. Growth can be measured by a variety of measures, which means almost any organization can claim to grow in some capacity. Yet scaling and sustaining are two very different, far-more-difficult-to-achieve...
I repeatedly hear the phrase “Strategy is Dead” on various social media channels. I can only estimate that the individuals writing those articles don’t understand what the process of strategy entails. There are four steps to the Strategic Process:...
Part One – Corporate Culture One of the subjects I am asking to address most frequently has to do with the characteristics. In this series, I take a deeper dive into the question, evaluating how expectations of leaders change as their business move...
Business fail primarily for two reasons (1) negative culture, and (2) an inability to control costs. This quick episode focuses on the latter. The definition of scaling is “achieving increases in revenues without corresponding increases in costs”. I...
Escalating leaders are engaged in strategic conversations everyday. Difference makers know that asking the right questions is often more valuable than walking into the room with all the answers. As CEO of Escalate Solutions, I also fill roles as facilitator,...
We were all schooled in the traditional drivers of marketing – the pillars we all know as the “Four P’s”: “Product, Price, Place and Promotion” Consumer expectations and advancements in technology are pushing the limits and demanding a...
This is admittedly WELL BEYOND the Three Minute parameters that I set for my base discussion content, but many of my colleagues and friends that reviewed my “beta” suggested that I add a “background” episode (even if lengthy) that viewers and...
This YouTube channel features Escalate Solutions’ “Three Minutes to Escalate” series, the best online resource for concise, value-added content to help organizations escalate, grow, scale and sustain. My name is Kimberly Arnold, and I am the founder and CEO of...
If you have read my published content or heard my lectures, you already know that I view every business opportunity and challenge through the lens of Escalate Solutions’ Four Pillars of Strategy (Planning, Alignment of Stakeholders, Execution and Optimization)....
Last week, I had the honor of guest lecturing at the Center for Entrepreneurship for the College of Business within one of our regional universities. The course/content was dedicated to Management and Operational Consulting, and I was asked to address the students...
As a strategic advisor, I am often asked to guide clients and audiences along the path to define, clarify and/or redefine mission, vision and value proposition. The why. The reason they exist. It is an understatement to say that the conversations are inherently...
One of the topics that I am asked to advise or lecture on the most frequently relates to distinctive facets of “Entrepreneurial Growth and Marketing”. Throughout the past few years, there has been a dynamic and noteworthy uptick in the demand from my...
I saw a statistic recently that my home state of Colorado registered 117,648 new businesses in 2017 – a 7% YOY increase. And that is in a state with just over 5 million residents. Those numbers reinforced our mission and vision at Escalate Solutions, as we...
We are living in an age of rapid disruption, being defined increasingly by machines that can learn to act and predict solutions without being explicitly programmed to do so. Entrepreneurs and c-suite leaders hoping to remain relevant in the digital age need to...
I would assert that every entity in today’s dynamic marketplace can be categorized in one of two ways: Those that are proactively developing disruptive products and solutions, and those that will be forced to react to them. Technology is evolving at such a rapid pace...
Approximately 1/3 of the US can be described as freelance workers or independent contractors. These individuals, who have derived their nickname from the IRS form used to track their compensation, are typically engaged on a temporary assignment or contracting...
There is, perhaps, no greater test for an organization and its leadership than to engage in the process of strategic growth, and be forced to choose between “staying the course” and “changing direction”. The complexities are evident whether...