Over the past few months, I’ve been researching and developing new content for our Strategic Business Selling practice. With several major projects underway that focus on building key account management skills, a disturbing theme has emerged:

The turnover of key customers with decision-making power within strategic accounts is accelerating, and it is dramatically changing how companies sell, grow, and retain their most important accounts.

Classic key account management teaches us to invest for the long term: deepen relationships, align with long-term strategies, and build multi-year account plans. The assumption has always been that our customers, the decision-makers and champions, will be around long enough to appreciate the effort and reward it with continued revenue and growth.

But today, if a key customer only has a “shelf life” of two to three years, it becomes much harder to maintain continuity, grow business, and achieve account goals. Worse yet, when a new customer arrives, you may be forced to start all over again, sometimes at a disadvantage if the incoming leader wants to shake things up or has an existing relationship with a competitor.

Inevitably, when new decision-makers come in, they question everything and often push back on the value pricing you have worked so hard to position through great products and services.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like this trend will change in the near term, so what are we supposed to do?

Based on interviews and research, here are three suggested best practices to consider:

This week, I had the privilege of facilitating a customized simulation-centric workshop for a group of global R&D leaders. These are some of the brightest minds in the innovation world; scientists and engineers who thrive on curiosity, experimentation, and thinking outside the box. For decades, their mandate has been clear: explore, discover, and push the boundaries of possibility.

It’s in their DNA, and it’s what drives breakthrough innovation. But as this session shifted into topics of business acumen—strategic thinking, financial management, and profitability—the conversation took a surprising and profound turn.

During a simulation debriefing, one participant asked:  “When is it time for a company to stop learning and start executing on the innovative products we already have? When do we just say no to endless experiments? When do we apply the discipline of operational effectiveness to deliver breakthrough products to market and cool the waste on projects that will never see the light of day?”

Wow. In all my years of leading Business Acumen programs for R&D audiences, I had never heard the question framed so directly. And yet, it’s exactly the kind of tension organizations need to face: balancing the pursuit of new ideas with the responsibility to deliver value.

Here are five pivotal moments in the innovator’s business cycle when it’s time to stop “learning” and start executing:

In today’s global economy, business doesn’t just run nine-to-five—it runs twenty-four-seven. Projects don’t pause when the sun sets in one region; they simply shift to another time zone. For leaders, this nonstop reality brings not only challenges of balance and stamina, but also enormous opportunities to create efficiency, protect margins, and strengthen cash flow.

The refrain has become all too common. Anytime you ask a colleague, customer, or someone you are meeting for the first time how they are doing, the answers all seem to be the same:

• “It’s been crazy.”
• “I’m so exhausted from working extended hours.”
• “It just doesn’t stop.”

For many professionals, the days never seem to end as work bleeds from Europe to the U.S. to Asia. Colleagues I speak with,  and I can personally attest to it, often log 16–18-hour days that transcend multiple time zones.

Much has been written about how to cope with this phenomenon from a health or leadership perspective. But not much has been written from a business acumen perspective: What are the operational, financial, and strategic implications of a global workforce stretched across time zones?

Here are five best practices leaders should know about working across multiple time zones.

 Three Big Learnings from Q2 Earnings Calls - Part Three

Three Big Learnings from Q2 Earnings Calls - Part Two

In Part One of this series, Valuations and Market Capitalization,  we explored the first of three key themes I’ve observed after completing twelve Decoding the Earnings Call (DTEC) sessions for Q2 2025. These sessions span industries from specialty chemicals to pharmaceuticals, high tech, and professional services, and they all share a common goal: helping leaders connect financial results, strategic execution, and market realities.

The DTEC workshop is a business acumen masterclass that builds on the skills participants develop in our simulation-centric training programs. By examining what Wall Street is saying, how executives deliver their quarterly story, and what the numbers reveal, participants learn how to spot patterns, evaluate trade-offs, and link business choices to shareholder value.