By: Steve Wunker

This blog first appeared as Steve Wunker’s piece on BTG's blog.

Market expansion is a goal many executives share, and rightly so. Expanding into new markets is not only a revenue driver but also a way to escape familiar competitive dynamics. It has powered giant success stories, such as Netflix’s entry into video streaming and then content production. Moreover, you don’t need to be a Silicon Valley wunderkind company to make it work. Consider Fujifilm’s transformation from Kodak rival to a $20 billion medical imaging powerhouse, or how Ingersoll-Rand grew from air compressors into markets as diverse as air conditioning and power tools.

With the end of the pandemic approaching, B2B companies are looking at how commercialization practices were turned upside down in the past year and assessing what to keep vs. discard. There is a longer-term perspective to take, however. With the end of the pandemic approaching, B2B companies are looking at how commercialization practices were turned upside down in the past year and assessing what to keep vs. discard. There is a longer-term perspective to take, however. ​

This blog first appeared as Steve Wunker’s piece for Branding Strategy Insider.

If the customer experience for your company hasn’t changed in the past year, you are unusual. In industry after industry, from consumer goods to B2B technology, the distancing, fear, and economic turbulence caused by the coronavirus are affecting the sales process, customer selection criteria, the way products and services are consumed, and even what customer service means. Designing experiences for the coronavirus world is a fundamentally different proposition than what people responsible for CX were doing just 13 months ago.

In Africa, there is a product which smallholder farms urgently need, yet which few understand or think they can afford: insurance. Droughts, pests, floods, and other natural maladies can devastate a crop for the year and put farmers – as well as whole communities – at great risk of extreme hardship.

By: Steve Wunker

​“How do I get my team to show creative thinking?” Under normal circumstances, many executives we work with routinely face this challenge. But with the pandemic transforming the way we do business, bold thinking has turned into a necessity.

By: Steve Wunker

Remote patient monitoring has finally gone mainstream. After more than two decades of cultivation – from cardiac telemetry to Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuffs and now to wearable devices – the technological progress of remote patient monitoring (RPM) has finally intersected with other trends in medicine such as telehealth (and of course COVID) to make this a normal, everyday practice. Will it remain that way? If it does, what will the impacts be?

By: Steve Wunker

By : Lauren Chapey

As the holiday season quickly approaches, what will winter trips and vacations look like in the Covid-19-induced “new normal”? While in 2019 a record-breaking 115.6 million Americans traveled during the winter holidays, this number is expected to drop considerably in 2020. Early holiday bookings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve this year have decreased by 35% and 33% respectively, and those who are planning to travel are not straying too far--international travel decreased 65% during the first half of 2020.

​By: Dave Farber

​By: Dave Farber

I’ve been fortunate to work with some great teams over the years to bring digital solutions to market. From healthcare to education to financial services, I’ve worked with teams to conceptualize and commercialize successful apps, including one of the most popular fitness apps currently on the market. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. ​

​By: Dave Farber

In late August Uber and Lyft nearly halted their operations in California in response to a court’s order to reclassify their drivers as employees rather than independent contractors. But this public showdown between ride-sharing companies and lawmakers is part of a much larger issue. ​

​By: Dave Farber

Innovation is all about delivering value to organizations by finding new ways to help consumers achieve the jobs they are trying to get done. One of the nice things about taking a Jobs to be Done view of innovation is that jobs tend to be stable over time. The jobs that consumers are trying to get done today are the same jobs that consumers will be trying to get done five years from now.

​At the beginning of the Coronavirus Pandemic, my colleagues at New Markets Advisors wrote about various scenarios for how the pandemic could unfold in the months ahead. Back then, the path forward was fraught with uncertainty. Predicting the speed of the US’s economic and public health recovery, or the unexpected higher-order effects, was simply postulation. Since then, little has changed.

By: Steve Wunker​

“Consumers don’t trust real estate agents,” says Jimmy Mackin, whose business is selling software to…real estate agents. He continues, “There are minimal requirements to become a licensed real estate agent. The industry tends to attract the get-rich-quick crowd.”

By: Kayla Servin

Leading up to 2020, executives were already grappling with rising disruptive technologies, changing business models, and rivals emerging from unexpected places. Throw in a global pandemic, and the future seems about as predictable as a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with a hundred hands.
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While some were poised to respond to the turbulence that coronavirus introduced to business environments, most were not. Traditional approaches to strategic planning have largely been unsuited to Covid times and have left companies vulnerable. So, what are businesses to do in an environment changing so quickly that strategic plans end up getting thrown out the window?

By: Steve Wunker

Leading up to 2020, executives were already grappling with rising disruptive technologies, changing business models, and rivals emerging from unexpected places. Throw in a global pandemic, and the future seems about as predictable as a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with a hundred hands.

Like many other industries, institutes of higher education (IHE)’s top priorities include tailoring their plans to accommodate the new social distancing norms. While some colleges’ strategies remain uncertain, others have released plans for a hybrid method which involves a virtual and in-person form of education.

By: Jennifer Law

There is a saying in innovation circles that new ideas are cheap—if you get a decent group together, you can brainstorm a hundred new ideas in no time. The real challenge is figuring out what to do with all those ideas. How can you test your ideas and identify the winners, without spending a fortune?

Fitness and exercise.  You may love it, you may loathe it, but you definitely need it.  Now, thanks, in part, to the Covid-19 global pandemic, health and wellness are again at the forefront of everyone’s mind. With estimates nearing $100 billion, the fitness industry has been steadily growing for years – a boom that extends far beyond your typical gym membership.

By: Steve Wunker​

As the coronavirus creates a Great Reboot of the economy, one sector that’s already winning is telehealth. As Christopher McFadden, a Managing Director specializing in healthcare investing at the leading private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) told me in an interview, “We saw 10 years of telehealth adoption in about 8 weeks.” ​

A big part of my job is helping companies build or improve their innovation capabilities. Sometimes this means starting with a clean slate; I get to build an incubator or an innovation lab from the ground up. Other times it means coming in later in the process to help an organization improve the outcomes of its innovation efforts or to tie together disparate innovation activities that are happening within the company.

By: Dave Farber

With much of the world recently locking down in one form or another, individuals have been spending far more time in their homes. Some businesses have basically had to build a digital presence overnight, while others have simply seen their digital channels rise in importance. Because customers are having so many more digital interactions, even businesses with established online operations are starting to realize that customers are raising the bar in terms of their expectations for a good customer experience (CX).

This blog first appeared as Steve Wunker’s piece for Forbes

By: Steve Wunker

As school ends about now, many families – including mine – find the topic of college choices coming up. Kids feel pressure to get into their top school, of course. But even if they can achieve that goal, and they can afford the attendance, there are so many options that they seem paralyzed by choice. What to do?
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This blog first appeared as Steve Wunker’s piece for Forbes

By: Steve Wunker​

You might not think of an auto body shop as a hotbed of business innovation – but you’d be quite mistaken. Consider the story of one small chain that shows how businesses can go on offense during the coronavirus pandemic, seizing the initiative to remake customer experience, business relationships, and competitive position. This is how one company made its Great Reboot happen.