Outsell Leadership Community Themes — Summer 2022
The Outsell Leadership Community — our peer-to-peer networks of industry CEOs and MDs — successfully returned to in-person meetings this year. What a welcome relief. Last month we wrapped up our second round of meetings in California, New York, and London. What a joy once again to see everyone, to break bread, and most importantly, to share ideas for dealing with the current dynamic business environment. A lot had changed since our March meetings, and the openness and clarity that only face-to-face meetings can enable helped us move our collective understanding forward in these challenging times.
Here’s a look at some of the key themes that came out of the meetings.
Economy
The top item of conversation across our June meetings was the state of the global economy.
The consensus in London was that the UK is heading for a recession (along with probably the rest of Europe and North America) while inflation will remain high. It’s less clear how deep or long it will be. Many members in the UK are already seeing signs of consumers cutting back spending through their B2C businesses. The main cost pressures are from salaries, with the labor market still very tight. Budgeting for 2023 will require agility and the shorter planning cycles adopted during the pandemic.
Interestingly, the views out of New York and California differed from those in the UK, which may be a regional difference or due to the US meetings being earlier than the UK ones. The majority in New York are not seeing signs of slowdowns in their businesses yet, but some are.
Clearly, there is concern about the future. One member said planning for 2023 is going to be very hard, with the picture confused by the pandemic bounce colliding with inflation, supply chain problems, and continued struggles with maintaining talent.
Members were surprisingly upbeat about sales, with none reporting trouble hitting overall first-half sales targets. However, there were varied experiences within their portfolios of products, and they have their ears to the ground to pick up potential trouble spots.
Those with strong product portfolios also felt now was the time to be opportunistic, with some doubling down on acquisition strategies. Companies that burn cash will be in the worst position in terms of access to capital and ability to ride out the lower valuation period we have entered.
Future of Work
There was also widespread concern about erosion of the “cultural glue” inside organizations, particularly among new recruits who may not have even stepped foot in an office or met colleagues in person. Most have started initiatives to make sure people are connected and to find ways to take care of their mental health and well-being, though levels of detail and effort on this challenge vary.
In our discussion, some members asked how to manage the fact that a long onboarding cycle is mismatched with the high turnover rates companies are seeing among younger employees (e.g., some leave too soon after being trained). Numerous members said that they were addressing the issue by making substantial investments in professional development staff.
Product Management and Partnerships
We had discussions about organizational models and differences between software/data businesses and “publishing” companies. The product management discussion focused on how to measure outcomes, including KPIs such as long-term increases in gross margin, win-loss analysis, and retention rates. Our own research also shows these as important metrics for success.
Developing incentives for product management that reflect future gross margin increases is difficult. Those in the product role must be external-facing, and we’d advise that they spend at least 50% of their time with customers as opposed to colleagues.
The importance of partnerships as ways to get new offerings to market and make them successful remains a perennial topic.
Communities
There was much discussion of communities in our meetings and near unanimity on the difficulty of finding meaningful metrics of engagement. Page views and clicks are easy to count but don’t necessarily mean much. One member flipped the discussion of communities on its head and elaborated on how they’d created an “internal community.”
Outsourcing Technology Functions
Members talked about strategies for outsourcing technology as an important way of balancing talent and growth needs. Some participants who were experienced with outsourcing noted how important it is to constantly manage outsourced providers, something that doesn’t happen on its own. Many companies are turning to near-shoring (in Central and Eastern Europe and Central and South America) to lower geopolitical risk and improve stability/retention. Some members opined that tech architecture, design, product management, and project management are key internal functions that shouldn’t be outsourced.
In Closing
One core takeaway from all our OLC meetings was the power of community: Nobody can survive, much less thrive, by going it alone these days. The Outsell Leadership Community for CEOs, COOs, managing directors, and presidents remains an indispensable tool to understand the latest research and data, meet with peers, and advance the business of data and information. If you have a need, we have answers on competitors, customers and markets, and operating practices, whether related to product management, technology, sales, marketing, innovation, capital acquisition, and much more. Contact us today about becoming a member to get access to a community of peers, top analysis, company data, segment analysis, news headlines, and many other benefits.
We’ll be continuing our discussions at the Outsell Signature Event, co-produced with partner JEGI CLARITY and held October 11–12 at the Lansdowne Resort, VA near Washington, DC. We hope to see you there.