Case Study 6: BRAVER
The R&D restaurant in Yountville serves the best tuna tartar in the area. On the ad sign, the pyramid of thinly sliced toasted bread intends to rival the unique taste of the meal. As you walk through, you admire the ceiling design shaped to represent the inside of a giant wine barrel. Happy customers are enjoying wine and beer while busy servers are presenting impeccable food choices.
Julie River, CFO, Danielle, CMO and Ken, CRO are celebrating a semi-successful month as you approach the table.
“Don’t blame the CMO,” Ken says, smiling at Danielle. “Generally, CMO’s have the shortest tenure of any C-level executive because they’re not setup for success.”
Julie shakes her head. “The math on how much pipeline is needed rarely works. We don’t have alignment on our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and on which accounts drive the greatest Lifetime Value (LTV).”
You laugh. “It’s so great to see you talking about Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy as a leadership team.”
Danielle smiles at you. “Our product isn’t purpose-built because we keep changing the ICP. Sales and Marketing don’t orchestrate actions based on a common account strategy, so our tech stack is not configured with the right workflows.”
You smile back, savoring the taste of fresh tuna. “Danielle was hired, and the CMO budget was cut in half, wasn’t it? While the top line revenue goal doubled YoY, with no way to track pipeline or conversions?”
Ken laughs. “We like to parade our Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) vision but when it comes to funding, there is mixed follow through. And that’s not just Julie’s job; it’s all our job as commercial leaders.”
Julie takes a sip of her sparkling water. “So how do we fix GTM?”
Ken looks excited. “The TL;DR is the change management framework: BRAVER
Baseline State
Research Paths with Purpose
Adapt Options to Role
Voice to Amplify
Exemplify Values and Results and
Reward Values and Results.
Ken has it written on a napkin.
Julie and you smile at Ken’s growth mindset.
Danielle pulls out a table, “We can discuss this table in the next leadership meeting.”
| Baseline ARR | $500M |
| Target Growth Rate | 15% |
| Target “Rule of” | 40 |
| New Logo % of NNARR | 60% |
| New Logo % Sourced by Marketing | 75% |
| Expansion Logo % of NNARR | 50% |
Julie nods. “We can start with Nvidia and research their strategy. They’ve invested in more than forty startups. CB Insights publishes research, and we can use AI tools that are capable at quoting sources.”
You chime in, “There are also many GTM specific frameworks like MEDDIC or MEDDPIC or SPICED that will be embedded in new GTM digital humans. What are we missing?”
Danielle chimes in. “We need to re-think the shape of our human organization and refocus more learning and development days towards AI governance, delineating when to delegate authority to AI agents, handling AI escalations, AI inspection and approvals.”
How do you coach post this meeting, leveraging career and role modelship as your lenses to the world?
You look at your HeroMash watch. Peter Drucker would have said that the number one difference between a Nobel Prize winner and others is not IQ or work ethic, but that they ask bigger questions.
You are Marie. How would you encourage and coach Ken (CRO), Danielle (CMO) and Julie (CFO) to channel their best role models to demo balance between AI strategy and human capital strategy?