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about mark otto
Mark Otto is a business consultant, author. and speaker. He draws on a lifetime of experience with the organizational strategic, and leadership challenges of growing companies to offer
practical and effective advice for improving leadership skils and business performance. Learn More
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- People Grow Businesses
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Category Archives: Company Building

People Grow Businesses

02.26.2014 | Categories:

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Business growth starts and ends with people. Success depends on the will and skill of people at every level of an organization. Sure, sometimes growth efforts start at the top, but it’s impossible to sustain growth without the zeal, efforts, and imagination of people throughout the organization.

The Fountain of Youth for Business Growth

By Mark Otto

02.24.2014 | Categories:

Company Building

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To stay vibrant, the organization must be in a constant state of renewal and in a continual state of transformation. You must constantly look for signs your existing business model needs changing, by understanding shifting market conditions, competitive threats, customers’ ever-changing needs, new technologies, and so on.

Is Your Business Growing Too Fast?

By Mark Otto

02.19.2014 | Categories:

Company Building

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As the complexity of the business grows, the problems begin to pile up. Each new sale seems to make things worse. More balls are dropped. More mistakes are made. More fires are being fought. More customers are unhappy. More profits are lost. Whatever way it appears, more and more things are going wrong.

When It’s Time for a Business to Stand on Its Own

By Mark Otto

02.17.2014 | Categories:

Company Building, Leadership

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For a business to reach the highest levels of growth, profitability, and success, there must be a shift from dependence to independence. When a company is young, the founder is in total control, but as it grows and matures the self-interests of the founder can no longer trump the needs of the business. The organization needs sovereignty. The challenge is to forge the organization into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

What Winning Companies Do to Stay on Top

By Mark Otto

02.12.2014 | Categories:

Company Building

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Successful companies aren’t perfect – no company is – they continually face internal and external challenges. But these companies have reached a point where they can effectively respond to those challenges. They understand their success; they’ve nurtured it, scaled it, repeated it, and sustained it. In fact, these businesses have a pattern of success firmly etched into their organizational DNA. Here are just a few of the strengths they use to stay on top:

The Leading Killer of Successful Businesses

By Mark Otto

02.10.2014 | Categories:

Company Building, Leadership

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The shift from growth to decline is almost imperceptible at first, particularly by those inside an organization. After all, the organization still looks and feels successful. But the signs are there if you know what to look for. Slowly, the business has lost the creativity, risk taking, initiative, and flexibility that made it successful in the first place.

The Toughest Part of Being a Growth Company CEO

By Mark Otto

02.05.2014 | Categories:

Company Building, Leadership

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By far the toughest skill for a CEO to learn is the ability to manage his own psychology. The technical aspects of running a business – creating systems and processes, designing structure, developing people, and so on – are relatively straightforward skills to understand and master. But growth is also psychological – you must mentally and emotionally prepare yourself to change as the business changes.

How to Spot a Business Disaster Waiting to Happen

By Mark Otto

01.31.2014 | Categories:

Company Building, Leadership

| Comments:

A company may appear to be the picture of success, a company that all others would aspire to be. But your greatest fear shouldn’t be that you will have to compete with this company. Your greatest fear should be that you become this company. This company isn’t a model. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’s dying, and it doesn’t even know it.

Why Business Problems Are Gifts

By Mark Otto

01.22.2014 | Categories:

Company Building

| Comments:

Business growth is simply not possible without change. But the business press and management gurus promise us that if we follow this or that formula for success, then all of our problems will disappear. These are false promises. Change is part of business and life, and as long as we are alive, we will have obstacles to overcome. Ignoring this most basic law of business growth is like ignoring gravity.

Using the Power of Anticipation for Business Success

By Mark Otto

01.20.2014 | Categories:

Company Building

| Comments:

50% of all businesses are gone within the first 2 years. After 5 years, it’s 80%. In 10 years, it’s 96%. 500,000 businesses are started every year. At the end of 10 years, there are only 20,000 of them left. The bottom line: Only 4 out of 100 businesses survive 10 or more years.

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