Kathy Mast Consulting

Transformational Leadership

The merging of two companies & their cultures is always a complex challenge, even if there are people within who have worked for both entities and know the industry. If you begin with experience and business knowledge, then the goal becomes to create teamwork, effective processes, focus, and opportunity for innovation. If you are combining people and cultures for the first time, or you sense inflexibility, the priority must be team building or strengths analysis in order to create a working baseline. After establishing the team’s strengths, move to determine innovation opportunities, rather than process analysis, which is often the next best step.   

Building a High Performance Workplace

"It had to happen: Globalization’s pressure is turning the screws on even the best U.S. companies, making it tougher than ever for them to treat employees well. The good news is that some companies are doing it anyway," writes Geoff Colvin in Fortune Magazine's "The 100 Best Companies to Work For, 2006."

Successful Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)

I was having one of those “why doesn’t this work” days that is a routine occurrence in the field of technology when I got a call from a client, the CIO of a major, US (global) corporation. Reaching his office, I heard the familiar, “We’ve just announced the acquisition of a new company and I want plans, people and operations in place to manage the transition no later than next week.”  Big announcements like this are not always acquisitions, but they are usually disruptive to the tasks at hand! That day, at least, it was (temporarily) a nice distraction!

Creating an Environment for Innovation

Innovation has always been a key method for enabling companies to achieve global competitive leadership. However, innovation is increasingly important due to pricing pressures and customer expectations for better products and services at lower prices.

Linda Sanford, senior vice president for IBM, in a discussion on "Is the U.S. Still a Hotbed for IT Innovation," defined six opportunity areas for innovation:

1. Product
2. Services
3. Business Process
4. Business Model
5. Organizational
6. Policy

Sanford was a speaker at the Fortune Forum on Innovation in November, presenting one of a number of forums on the hot topic.  "Fortune" also has a great blog on Innovation.

Rapidly Emerging Global Markets

The BRICs economies: Brazil, Russia, India, & China! Rapidly emerging global markets. I attended the Greater Dallas Chamber luncheon this week on engaging the Brazilian market. 100+ attendees. My tablemates: an Insurance executive from Baltimore planning to start doing business there, a sales executive already doing business there, and a counselor from DBU who expects more students in the future from Brazil. If your company is considering business growth through international markets, you may want to consider Brazil.

Global Competitive Advantage

Global Competitive Advantage is THE business headline today, and it’s on the mind of every CEO. The question is how to achieve it and sustain it once you’ve attained it. As a refresher, just what is competitive advantage? Here’s how Gordon Walker, Professor of Strategy at SMU defines it: “To achieve the goal of competitive advantage, a firm must offer value to customers at a cost that produces economic performance superior to rivals. The firm must then defend this position from the competition.” If that’s not challenging enough, complexity increases when we add the word “global” at the beginning and consider the risks inherent in a growing, but fragile, economy.

This blog is all about sharing great ideas and examples for establishing a future-focused foundation for achieving and sustaining global competitive advantage for American businesses. It’s designed to foster creativity, quick results and a sense of fun that releases us to do our best at work. Let’s collaborate on winning the global competition by focusing on our strategy, innovation, I/T investments and the people that make them successful.