Harry Alford

Startups should continuously be differentiating and out-competing their competition by building a strong defensive sales strategy.    A defensive strategy is a marketing tool that helps companies retain valuable customers that competitors can take away. Competitors are other firms located in the same market category or sell similar products to the same segment of people. The […]

To military organizations, a battle rhythm is a daily routine or order of business. It’s a conscious cycle of command, staff, and activities intended to synchronize current and future operations. The battle rhythm is the heart of our management process. The length of time and intensity can vary depending on the outcome you’re trying to […]

Recently, the author of The Extraordinary Power of Leader Humility, Marilyn Gist, presented a guided discussion on how leaders create thriving organizations and achieve great results. I found it simply fascinating, especially since her research is grounded in her own experiences in corporate America. Marilyn has extensively studied why leader humility is the essential foundation […]

As entrepreneurs, there are a lot of things that we don’t know. It’s challenging to get on a pathway that you believe will bring you to the result you want. I’ll tell you a little secret, that pathway doesn’t exist. Every day you’ve got to get up and face different challenges and pressures in your […]

The critical period in which a startup’s founders are first getting their operations off the ground is known as the “pre-seed” stage. The most common pre-seed (also known as “early-stage”) funders are the founders themselves, friends & family, and angel groups. For example, one pre-seed startup that recently received funding from an angel group is […]

The venture capital industry is largely driven by networking. Sometimes success is determined by who you know and less on merit. Warm introductions can appear advantageous to an investor because they pattern match against previous winners they’ve backed and it comes from a reliable source within their network. However, warm introductions are not indicative of […]

I often advise startups that the best solution to overcoming an obstacle is to address it head-on. You can’t ignore or go around it. You must go through it. And that’s exactly what the world witnessed two years ago during the treacherous rescue of a Thai soccer team. After being stranded in darkness 2.5 miles […]

Michael E. Porter, the son of an Army officer, is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard University and the author of “The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy.” Porter’s five forces are instrumental in business strategy development, influencing a generation of academic research and business practice across industries and governments. Porter’s tool is […]

Exclusive interview with condiment startup True Made Foods Founder, Veteran Abe Kamarck. The 5-year-old no sugar/low sugar sauce company, True Made Foods, just closed a three-year deal with the Boston Red Sox as the exclusive condiment provider. Set to start in the 2021 baseball season, the move gets the company into wider-scale food distribution for […]