…on working ahead of today

As I’ve recently embarked on this new endeavor, and get to speak candidly with clients everyday, I’ve found myself in the midst of an interesting conundrum. Often I hear from my clients that certain recommendations and business needs to support growth aren’t viable based on the current state of affairs - and I can equally often sense and see the frustration in trying to lean into innovation, while maintaining a view of reality that is perhaps not as rosy.

These kinds of discussions generally lead to thinking creatively about how to avoid utter disruption of the status-quo, while building for the future in a way that feels exciting and not distracting. The common conversation framework is usually a crawl-walk-run strategy, putting all the hopes and dreams of the business’s innovative future on paper, but creating guardrails so there aren’t immediate expectations of profound growth and change where it isn’t reasonable. Much like any budget or diet or timeline, the intention of this type of design isn’t to identify failure or success against an arbitrary deadline, but rather to identify the next goalpost, and create true consideration for how to get there. It’s almost always expected that the outcome will look a bit different than the outline, but without anything to support the movement, how will you work ahead of today?

If you’re a marketer or retailer working to balance the future with the reality of today, The Kramer Consult is here to help - your ability to grow in an unencumbered way could be just one conversation away!