Transitioning to New Business Models

Scaling from 50 to 100 employees almost killed our company. Until we discovered a simple org structure that unlocked $100M+ in annual revenue. In my 10+ years of experience as a founder, one of the biggest challenges I faced in scaling was bridging the organizational gap between startup and enterprise. We hit that wall at around 100~ employees. What worked beautifully with a small team suddenly became our biggest obstacle to growth. The problem was our functional org structure: Engineers reporting to engineering, product to product, business to business. This created a complex dependency web: • Planning took weeks • No clear ownership  • Business threw Jira tickets over the fence and prayed for them to get completed • Engineers didn’t understand priorities and worked on problems that didn’t align with customer needs That was when I studied Amazon's Single-Threaded Owner (STO) model, in which dedicated GMs run independent business units with their own cross-functional teams and manage P&L It looked great for Amazon's scale but felt impossible for growing companies like ours. These 2 critical barriers made it impractical for our scale: 1. Engineering Squad Requirements: True STO demands complete engineering teams (including managers) reporting to a single owner. At our size, we couldn't justify full engineering squads for each business unit. To make it work, we would have to quadruple our engineering headcount. 2. P&L Owner Complexity: STO leaders need unicorn-level skills: deep business acumen and P&L management experience. Not only are these leaders rare and expensive, but requiring all these skills in one person would have limited our talent pool and slowed our ability to launch new initiatives. What we needed was a model that captured STO's focus and accountability but worked for our size and growth needs. That's when we created Mission-Aligned Teams (MATs), a hybrid model that changed our execution (for good) Key principles: • Each team owns a specific mission (e.g., improving customer service, optimizing payment flow) • Teams are cross-functional and self-sufficient,  • Leaders can be anyone (engineer, PM, marketer) who's good at execution • People still report functionally for career development • Leaders focus on execution, not people management The results exceeded our highest expectations: New MAT leads launched new products, each generating $5-10M in revenue within a year with under 10 person teams. Planning became streamlined. Ownership became clear. But it's NOT for everyone (like STO wasn’t for us) If you're under 50 people, the overhead probably isn't worth it. If you're Amazon-scale, pure STO might be better. MAT works best in the messy middle: when you're too big for everyone to be in one room but too small for a full enterprise structure. image courtesy of Manu Cornet ------ If you liked this, follow me Henry Shi as I share insights from my journey of building and scaling a  $1B/year business.

Sustainability = Innovation 🌎 Integrating sustainability into business strategy requires continuous advancements in technology, processes, and resource management. At the same time, sustainability challenges drive research, development, and operational efficiencies that lead to new market opportunities and competitive advantages. Resource constraints drive material and process innovation. The need for alternatives to finite or harmful materials has accelerated the development of advanced composites, circular economy models, and energy-efficient production systems, improving cost efficiency and resilience. Addressing sustainability challenges requires systems-level innovation. Reducing emissions, optimizing resource use, and minimizing waste require advancements in supply chain management, product lifecycle design, and industrial processes, reshaping entire sectors. Cross-functional collaboration is critical. Sustainability initiatives require input from engineering, data science, regulatory compliance, and finance to develop integrated solutions that meet environmental targets while maintaining operational and commercial viability. Data-driven approaches enhance sustainability performance. Measuring environmental impact enables companies to identify inefficiencies, optimize resource allocation, and refine business strategies based on quantifiable sustainability metrics. Long-term sustainability targets drive investment in research and technology. Businesses are accelerating development in areas such as AI-driven resource optimization, carbon capture, and next-generation materials to align with regulatory requirements and market expectations. Nature-based solutions provide scalable innovation opportunities. Biomimicry has led to advancements in self-healing materials, passive cooling systems, and regenerative agricultural techniques, improving efficiency and resilience across industries. Sustainability is reshaping business models. The transition to circular economy principles, service-based models, and regenerative supply chains is driving competitive differentiation and long-term value creation. Innovation is fundamental to achieving sustainability objectives. The convergence of regulatory frameworks, technological advancements, and market shifts is reinforcing the role of sustainability as a driver of industrial transformation and business resilience. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange

Brand relevance has a shorter shelf life than ever. Companies must face the reality that their customers are complex, ever-changing beings, constantly reshaped by relentless external forces. 🌍 Today, change isn't just happening faster—it's more profound. Tech explosions, cultural shifts, pandemics, and geopolitical upheavals are transforming our landscape at breakneck speed. 🚀 Amid this turmoil, people are constantly reassessing who they are and what they value. So, how can companies stay relevant in this whirlwind? It’s time to move beyond traditional customer-centricity and adopt a life-centric approach. 🌱 This involves paying closer attention to context and recognizing customers as multi-dimensional individuals who are deeply influenced by it. Life-centric businesses are those that: 🌐 Understand customers holistically as complex individuals influenced by multiple factors. 🧩 Provide adaptable solutions to meet evolving needs. ✨ Simplify operations and offerings to enhance customer decision-making. The risks are high, but so are the rewards. Companies that embrace life-centricity are poised to thrive, with growth rates significantly outpacing their peers. Ready to take on the challenge? -gs

"I'm sorry, but we've decided to go with a competitor." The words no sales rep wants to hear. I asked why. "Their solution seemed more transparent. We felt like we understood exactly what we were getting." This confused me. I had sent: - Our most detailed product sheets - Multiple case studies - Comprehensive pricing information What was I missing? Later that week, I watched the competitor's demo recording. I noticed something immediately: They didn't just talk about transparency. They demonstrated it. Their follow-up wasn't a flood of attachments. It was a single space where the prospect could: - See who viewed what information - Track exactly where they were in the buying process - Access only what was relevant to their specific challenges - Control how information was shared internally I realized my mistake: I was hiding behind documents. They were building an honest relationship. For my next opportunity: I created a digital room that showed the prospect EVERYTHING: → Who from my team had accessed their information → Which implementation resources they hadn't reviewed yet → Honest timeline expectations → Both the strengths AND limitations of our solution The prospect messaged me: "This is refreshing. For once I don't feel like I'm being 'sold to'." They signed within a coupla weeks. The truth: Modern buyers don't lack information. They lack trust. Old sales playbook: Send impressive materials that hide potential issues. New sales playbook: Create transparent spaces that address concerns head-on. Your prospects can sense when you're hiding something. Even if you're not. Stop treating sales like a magic trick. Start treating it like an open book. Agree?

Assuming your firm still follows the practice of billing for time, you can run the calculations that will chart the eventual demise of your revenue model. If you’re like most firms, Generative Artificial Intelligence currently shaves somewhere between 20 and 30 percent off the time it takes to deliver work to your clients. What do you think that figure will be next year, or five years from now? Consider what kind of revenue stream will you have when time-tracking humans are doing only 5 or 10 percent of the work. Even the most hard-core defenders of hourly billing can see this compensation model is wholly unsustainable in the world of the AI-optimized agency. There is simply no way to monetize the value of AI within the framework of hourly billing. The solution to this dilemma requires agency professionals to remove the blinders that have them trapped in the illusion that they are selling time, efforts and activities to their clients. That’s not what clients buy; they buy solutions to their business problems. So the way to capture the value you create for your clients is to stop charging for the cost of your services and start charging for the value of your solutions. Every firm of every size can make this change much easier than they think. Instead of a chart of hourly rates, develop a chart of deliverables — a “pricing guide” that indicates the price (market value) of every deliverable your agency produces, and base your pricing on the work or solution delivered instead of the hours worked. In context of an output/outcome driven compensation model, it should be of no consequence to your clients that AI-powered tools are helping you create and produce your work. Again, they’re buying the outputs, not the inputs. So as AI helps you deliver your work faster and better, both parties benefit. Your clients get better quality work faster and the agency incurs lower costs — a win/win. Even if clients insist on slightly lower pricing (because they assume AI lowers the costs of your human capital), agencies can provide lower prices and still make a healthy margin on their work. In fact, agencies should be able to earn a much higher profit, even if they agree to lower prices, because AI is such a powerful force multiplier. It’s not inevitable that agency revenues will decline, because as AI continues to enable faster work, clients are assigning higher volumes of work to their agency partners. The result can be the best of both worlds: higher revenues from a higher volume of work, and stronger margins because AI is such an efficient virtual knowledge worker.

AI isn't just changing agencies - it's exposing a key flaw in agency-client relationships. The question now isn't whether AI will disrupt - it's how agencies will respond: The creative agency business model has historically relied on billable hours. Remuneration is for time spent rather than results delivered. This creates a fundamental misalignment: • Time-based models can reward inefficiency and penalise overdelivery • Clients want results delivered efficiently, without compromising quality Now, AI is forcing a reckoning. It will fundamentally challenge how agencies work - what they do, how they do it, and why. But in its simplest form, adding AI to agency workflows means that tasks that once took hours can be completed in minutes. So when time-based billing breaks down, you need to ask: what's my agency's value proposition? Enter the next evolution: A shift to outcome-based pricing - charging for results, not hours. This model creates three major advantages: • Perfect alignment: Agency success becomes directly tied to client success • Innovation incentives: Teams are motivated to leverage AI for efficiency • Value transparency: Clients understand exactly what they're paying for However, there are challenges: • Attribution can be difficult with multi-agency teams • Success metrics aren't always clear, or even measurable • Over-optimising for performance can come at the cost of brand equity Regardless, this evolution is already happening: Some marketing agencies bill on leads generated rather than campaign hours. Development teams charge for project outcomes rather than coding hours. Creators charge based on reach and engagement, not production time. For agency leaders ready to embrace this shift, here are four actionable steps: 1. Audit your value delivery: Identify where you truly create client value beyond time spent 2. Test hybrid pricing: Combine traditional retainers with performance incentives as a transition step 3. Define clear metrics: Establish measurable outcomes that directly connect to client business goals 4. Position AI as a value multiplier: Show how automation enhances strategy rather than threatens billable work Embracing AI-driven efficiency is table stakes for agencies. The next generation of agencies will monetise thinking and creativity, not time. Because this isn't just adaptation - it's evolution toward a more aligned, future-proof relationship between agencies and clients. So: If you moved to outcome-based pricing tomorrow, what single metric would best prove your agency's unique value to clients?

In 2 years, we cut Aligned’s sales cycle from 75 to 22 days, while moving up market and increasing ACV 44%. The key? Our team meets EVERY WEEK to optimize our sales playbook. Here’s our end-to-end workflow: 1. Playbooks get old within a few months—Build a regular update cadence How buyers evaluate you and make decisions constantly changes as your product, market, competitors, and economy change. Discussing these changes weekly forces us to adapt. We figure out if we need new enablement assets, training, or if our workflows need a refresh. 2. Most playbooks are “Set & Forget”—Build a system to monitor & analyze At Aligned, we use Deal Rooms to run our playbook. We analyze our best and worst-performing rooms weekly based on buyer engagement. This helps us understand what aspects of our process are effective and identify gaps. For example, an AE might create a new tab to run competitor comparisons or a business case framework that drives more exec engagement. 3. Most wait too long—Quickly turn gaps into sales or buyer enablement assets Most teams lack a routine to find OR fix gaps. Also, most teams put too much weight on sales enablement assets like scripts or training materials. Last week, Kevin "KD" Dorsey told me he sees deal rooms as an excuse for constantly creating buyer enablement assets like ROI calculators and guides. He said, “Investing in buyers must become a habit, or you’re not going to get far”. I couldn’t agree more. 4. Most skills stop at training—Embed every new skill into a dedicated template I’m a 4x sales leader. One thing I was NEVER able to do right is to get the team to consistently follow the playbook. At Aligned, we’ve tackled this by updating all customer-facing workflows in our deal room template (e.g. How we run MAPs, POCs, Business Cases...). We then use the internal-only view to templatize resources like discovery and demo frameworks. Centralizing it in one place makes it easier for the team to follow our processes. 5. Over-standardization is as bad as winging it—Encourage breaking your process A sales leader’s dream of having the ‘perfect’ process executed by their team can also be their worst nightmare. Yes, you want AEs to see what good looks like and follow what works. But do it too often, and you end up killing intuition and creativity. THE essence of what makes complex selling work is knowing how to dance. That's why our biggest updates to our template come from our team on the front line, not top-down. TAKEAWAY: There’s no quick fix for improving Deal Velocity metrics. Simply increasing price 15% won’t magically solve ACV. There are multiple potential root causes to identify. And multiple ways you can address them. But what you truly need… Is a structured way to enhance your process. Monitor, Analyze, Iterate, and Scale. That’s what has worked best for us. You have to be strategic about it. EDIT: People asked—Aligned is the Deal Room we use. It's 100% free to try https://lnkd.in/dwX_Zizk

From Revenge Travel to Intentional Journeys: What’s Next for Hospitality? For years now, industry experts have been predicting the decline of "revenge travel"—that post-pandemic travel boom where people rushed to make up for lost time. And yet, 2024 turned out to be another record-breaking year for global tourism. Airlines like Emirates are adamant that demand isn’t fading. “I've never seen anything as strong.” its Presindent said. But while the travel appetite remains robust, we are seeing shifts. Travelers are evolving, priorities are changing, and the way people spend on flights, accommodation, and experiences is becoming more strategic. The era of impulse-driven revenge travel is making way for a more intentional and value-conscious approach. The Shift in Travel Spending: Who’s Holding Back and Who’s Doubling Down? According to Skyscanner, 70% of global travelers plan to spend the same or more on flights in 2025 compared to 2024. Demand is strongest in #India, #UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, where more than half of respondents plan to increase their travel budgets. Meanwhile, in North America and #Europe, there’s a growing sentiment of caution. Many travelers are planning to keep spending flat or even reduce budgets, opting for shorter trips or more affordable accommodation. With Western travelers becoming more budget-conscious, serviced apartments and aparthotels are seeing a surge in demand. These offer: ✅ Longer stays with more flexibility ✅ The ability to self-cater and manage costs ✅ A mix of home-style comfort and hotel-level service At the same time, hospitality players must recognize that value-seeking doesn’t mean cheap travel. Priceline’s latest US travel report suggests a rise in experience-driven, cost-conscious travelers—people who still want quality, but who are now using smarter spending strategies to maximize their trips. The days of "traveling at any cost" may be over, but the desire to explore remains strong. However, how people travel is changing: -Slow travel & mindful tourism -Small-town & regional travel -Eco-conscious choices What this means for Hoteliers and Travel brands 1️⃣ Agility is key—Hotels and travel brands must quickly adapt to shifting traveler behavior. Fixed assumptions about revenge travel no longer apply. 2️⃣ Flexibility wins—Aparthotels and serviced apartments will continue to thrive, offering guests options to balance comfort, cost, and longer stays. 3️⃣ Personalization is the new premium—Travelers want experiences that feel customized and meaningful. Those who offer tailored services—whether through digital tech or hands-on guest engagement—will come out ahead. 4️⃣ Beyond the big cities—Secondary destinations and hidden gems will attract more visitors as over-tourism concerns drive travelers away from the most crowded hotspots. Are you ready for the next phase of travel? Torres Hospitality Consulting Oaky Revenue Growth Global Revenue Forum - Madrid

Consumer products companies and retailers are redesigning packaging as state regulations in California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon take aim at single-use plastic in the form of fees on brands and retailers. California's law even sets goals for reusable packaging. That has inspired dozens of reuse trials such as the citywide test of reusable cups in Petaluma, California; Chilean startup Algramo refillable container program; and TerraCycle's Loop program, discontinued in the U.S. but still available in France and Japan. With that in mind, Closed Loop Partners and US Plastics Pact have published an analysis that identifies five consumer product categories where reusable packaging is best suited for near-term adoption. All are sold in grocery retailers or convenience stores, which often have active, ongoing relationships with specific customers. ➡️ Prepared foods ➡️ Fresh produce ➡️ Beverages ➡️ Home care items ➡️ Personal care products More: https://lnkd.in/ee6X5_Ta Anita Schwartz Carolina Lobel Kate Daly Michael Kobori (he/him)

Gong was at 200-300% AE quota attainment (on 90% inbound leads) when they decided to invest in outbound. Here is the 6 step process their VP of Sales used to build an outbound culture from scratch: BACKGROUND "200-300% AE attainment on 90% inbound leads" These were the stats when Justin Geller (VP of Sales at Gong) approached his team with the message that NOW was the right time to start building the outbound muscle. “They all looked at me like I was crazy. But the market and customer journey was validated. There was no way inbound could scale as fast as we wanted to grow." Here is the 6-step process Justin used to build an outbound culture from scratch: 1. Determine that now is the right time – “Once I saw that not only we had a lot of demand but we were truly making customer happy on the back end, gave me confidence that it was time”. 2. Alignment on outbound as a core initiative with the right focus, stakeholders, and investment (mostly time and attention, no extra bodies). 3. Develop a POV on what good looks like AND exactly the type of output that was expected. 4. Examine the existing operating rhythm and build your systems of accountability INTO that system — 1-1s, forecast meetings, promotion plans, weekly meetings, performance management — the key outbound metrics became a talking point in every single one of these touch points. 5. Develop 1 key metric — this started as opps generated by week and has shifted to pipeline created by period, but having one key leading indicator drove the focus and consistency 6. Constant enablement to ensure reps are building the skills to execute well TAKEAWAY Changing the culture within an organization is not easy. When talking to Justin and other top tier sales leaders, it's clear they are extremely skilled when it comes to: - Having 100s of slightly uncomfortable conversations to drive new behavior - Repeating the same message over a long period of time - Using process to reinforce a message and strategy - Strong performance management - Consistency It seems simple, but it’s very hard. There are no shortcuts.