Technology Executives CEO Group

Friday, September 13, 2024

Discussion Topic:

Best Low-Risk Ways to Grow Now?

Whether you’re buying or selling a new approach for business growth, there is always the risk that the upside growth potential may not materialize as expected, and/or that the downside costs may exceed your expectations.

In ordinary times, degrees of risk can be limited by focusing on small, incremental innovations. Yet, in a time of volatile changes, such as now, an incremental approach can be an even riskier survival strategy. Just think of what a competitive business and/or its team members can do to your sales opportunities by incorporating “enabling technologies,” such as AI.

What to do?

Sometimes a phased growth approach can reduce the overall downside risk while not limiting the upside potential. Other strategies include risk reduction through more profound research of the opportunity, and its likely costs. However, using personal or professional research brings in to question the quality of such research as a risk-reduction tool.

Our presentation will overview the key financial variables impacted when you, or a customer, consider investing in a new approach to revenue growth and/or profitability.

We’ll also overview a framework for discussing “risk” and “risk vs. reward.” Plus, we’ll discuss some relatively low risk ways to grow now, including some graphic depictions that you may want to use in discussions with your employees.

In our Discussion Presentation we’ll mutually discuss the following:

• How, given the kinds of growth opportunities you’re currently considering, do you assess your tolerance for downside risk, in general, and as a function of the upside potential?
• How do you assess, or guide your salespeople to assess a potential buyer’s risk tolerance in general, and as a function of the growth potential which your offering might bring them?

As always, we’ll look to hear and discuss “What’s Keeping You Up Nights?,” and we’ll also serve as Strategic Advisory Board Members to George Mekhtarian, as he makes his Featured Member Presentation.

George Mekhtarian is CEO of California Lightworks, a company focused on the research, design, development, and manufacturing of advanced energy-efficient LED horticulture lights. California Lightworks’ vision is to apply the latest advances in solid-state lighting and controls technology along with innovative manufacturing techniques to deliver highly differentiated products at competitive prices to the professional greenhouse and indoor horticulture markets. Previously, George spent 15 years working for tech companies in Silicon Valley. He held various positions with increased levels of responsibility at Synopsys, including Product Marketing Manager for a $100M+ Electronic Design Automation product family. Earlier, he was Test Floor Supervisor for VLSI test at Teradyne.

Session Dates

Past Discussion Topics Include