Mark Orttung’s Post

Have you ever dreamed of getting your brand on the front page of The Wall Street Journal? What about The New York Times? If you have then chances are you dismissed it as an impossible aspiration. But don’t be too quick to write yourself off. In 2016, as CEO of Nexient (then a small and unknown company) we managed to get multiple mentions, images and a client quote on the NYT front page in print. With hard work, careful planning, excellent advice and the right timing we struck PR gold. So don’t be afraid to dream. If you do, that dream might actually come true. Check out how this happened for me. The link to my full article is in the comments below.

The work you do does not sell itself. Providing top quality services by skilled practitioners is crucial, but being able to offer indispensable strategic advice and implementation puts you in the same league as the major players. Somebody needs to draw attention to this. The best people to sing about your work are those who understand what you do (because they do it too) but also have the sales and communication skills to show your clients how you really add value. If you are ready to scale your business then build a skilled leadership team, including those with big firm experience in sales and client relationship management. This was a valuable lesson I learned when building a business from staff augmentation services to being seen by clients as a strategic partner. Check out my story via the link in the comments below.

Clients. You certainly can’t live without them. But sometimes living with them can be challenging. In professional services it is the supplier’s responsibility to ensure they are intimately familiar with the idiosyncrasies of their client’s organization. Build trust when the going is good, at the most senior level possible. Because when the going gets rough, which it will from time to time, you need the groundwork you’ve already done to fall back on. If you find issues within your client’s organization that could be catastrophic to the project you’re working on, then pointing them out is not enough. You must figure out how their problems are your problems, and what you can do to fix these problems. In my fifth article for The Consulting Balance I share how these lessons would’ve served us well when on the brink of losing a very large client. Link to the full article is below.

Have you just completed your business positioning strategy? Nice work! Now go and do it all again. In 2015 I was basically told this by someone I really admired. And who really knew his stuff. Ralph Szygenda is a legend in corporate IT and I was lucky to have his ear. I have since carried his advice with me throughout my work as a CEO. When growing a business (and let’s face it, all businesses want to grow) defining and differentiating your position in the market never ends. You can’t stand still with your fresh new strategy. In our fast-paced world, it won’t stay fresh for long. In Nexient’s early days this was a valuable lesson I learned: - Find talented advisors who push you - Move up the value chain - Keep reinventing yourself A link to the full story is below, where you can discover how this lesson helped our business grow to beyond $100m+.

In early 2015 I was one year into my new role as CEO of a software consulting firm struggling to break through the invisible wall that most firms hit around $35m in annual revenue. On our website at that time, we listed everything we were pretty good at, with some descriptions. The thinking was, this will cover the wide breadth of customers we want to attract. Because of my Product Management background, I thought about it from a different perspective. Knowing your market and differentiating your offering were key. So I met with our customers and my team, and we dug into what made us unique, and what resonated with our clients as both unique and valuable. What came out was a crisp positioning about being 100% US, and specializing in agile development. Both of those aspects were quite unique in our space at the time. In my blog post, you can see the before and after. The “after” has far less information but far more meaning. And that positioning became the foundation for growth, ultimately up to beyond $100m. Link to the post in the "Featured" section below.

In 2014, as the new CEO of the just renamed Nexient, I was facing down a multi-national corporation in what could have been a $100k+ trademark battle. We’d already spent a fortune rebranding. And if it weren’t for an admin error, the trademark would be rightfully ours. Besides, we really liked the name. Thanks to a technicality in the US Patent and Trademark Office’s rules, we were able to buy some time for next to nothing. Luckily that time paid off. To see my full story, check out the second installment in my series #ConsultingBalance on the projectworks.io website where I talk more about: ·        Taking on the big guys - being scrappy instead of spendy ·        How a good name is worth fighting for View the story here: https://lnkd.in/g3XghtDX

A few weeks ago, Nicola Stewart (projectworks.io Marketing) asked if I could write a blog post to share my experiences at Nexient. As I thought about it, I realized it would take a series of posts to capture all of the experiences I was lucky enough to have. After starting to write, I’ve decided to launch a new blog called “The Consulting Balance” to capture what I learned growing Nexient from less than $35m to over $130m in revenue. Check out the first article: https://lnkd.in/gxrkgCc2 #ConsultingBalance