
Strategy lessons from diverse backgrounds: Broadening the understanding of strategic thinking to fuel business growth
- E373
- 43:35
- July 19th 2023
A survey by Roger Martin of the Rotman School of Management found that 67% of managers believe their organization is bad at developing strategy. Martin's research also says 43% of managers cannot state their strategy.
Havard Business School's Professor David Collis is a bit more blunt. He says It's a dirty little secret. Most executives cannot articulate their business's objective, scope, and advantage in a simple statement. If they can't, neither can anyone else. What is the cause of this lack of performance regarding strategy, and how do we address it?
In today's episode of "Predictable B2B Success," we dive into this fascinating topic with our guest, George Barnett. As an expert in corporate strategy and a thought leader in the field, George shares invaluable insights on how companies can gain a competitive edge and achieve predictable revenue growth.
From understanding the role of culture in corporate strategy to harnessing the power of proprietary data, George's wisdom shines through as he takes us on a journey of strategic thinking and innovation. We explore the importance of diverse brainstorming groups, the potential for revenue growth through strategic partnerships, and the need for long-term thinking and strategic investments.
But it doesn't stop there. George also challenges the conventional thinking around strategy, shedding light on the broader understanding of strategy that can be learned from diverse backgrounds. Discover how tapping into the expertise of individuals from various fields can open new doors of opportunity and drive innovation.
So, if you're ready to unlock the secrets of driving predictable B2B growth through strategic thinking and corporate strategy, grab your headphones and tune in to this thought-provoking episode of "Predictable B2B Success" with our special guest, George Barnett.
Some areas we explore in this episode include:
- The concept of corporate strategy and its importance in gaining a competitive advantage.
- The role of the board, CEO, and executives in shaping corporate strategy and culture.
- The significance of functional strategy in aligning the different functions of a company with the overall corporate strategy.
- The subjective nature of assessing and measuring culture within a company.
- The use of proprietary data and its potential for improving business operations and predictability.
- The value of combining external information with proprietary data through tools and intermediaries to gain insights and run analytics.
- The role of AI in finding patterns and enhancing predictive capabilities within a business.
- Why invest in data science and software for improved predictability?
- The importance of diverse brainstorming groups and including stakeholders for generating innovative ideas.
- The three standard ways for B2B companies to achieve predictable revenue growth.
- And much, much more.
Predictable B2B Success
If you lead a bootstrapped or funded B2B tech company and need revenue to be predictable, not just possible, this podcast was built for you.
Predictable B2B Success is the only show built exclusively for CEOs at seed-to-Series C tech companies who are ready to replace random acts of growth with a scalable, repeatable revenue system from first dollar to $50M+ ARR and beyond.
Each week, host Vinay Koshy sits down with elite revenue operators, GTM leaders, and founders who have solved the hardest problem in funded B2B tech: turning chaotic, unpredictable growth into something structural, a system that holds under investor pressure, market shifts, and scale.
What you will walk away with every episode:
- Operating frameworks for building predictable revenue pipelines
- Real playbooks from founders who have scaled B2B companies from seed to Series C and beyond
- GTM, RevOps, demand generation, and category design insights built for C-suite decisions, not marketing teams
- Strategies that compound across your organisation, not one-off tactics that fade
Why 500+ episodes and a 5.0-star rating?
This is not a show about inspiration. It is a show about operating clarity. Every guest is chosen because they have built systems in sales, content, community, product, or customer success that made revenue predictable. After 500+ episodes, the patterns are unmistakable. This archive is your competitive advantage.
Trusted by founders and CEOs at bootstrapped and funded B2B tech companies across SaaS, cleantech, AI, and enterprise software.
Rated 5.0 stars on Apple Podcasts. Ranked top 5 B2B podcast by Feedspot (2026). 500+ episodes since 2020.
Subscribe now and get a new episode every week, turning your revenue from a moving target into a scalable system.
Show notes, frameworks, and transcripts: sproutworth.com Subscribe to The Inclined, the weekly newsletter for funded B2B tech CEOs: sproutworth.com/newsletter Connect with Vinay Koshy on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vinaykoshy