Differentiated

After a year of global disruption, organizations that want to stay relevant are transforming the way they manage and interact with their customers. Understanding what matters most to their customer yields groundbreaking results, especially for purpose-driven organizations, and crafting a differentiation strategy using a customer mindset has never been more important. With a unique ability to see beyond what is, Strategy Innovator Karla Raines leads her clients to discover authentic differentiation and helps them craft plans to realize a competitive advantage.

In Differentiated: The Breakthrough Approach to Strategy for Purpose-Driven Organizations Raines provides an alternative way of approaching strategy that runs counter to norms, practices, and views, and is perfectly tailored to strategically minded individuals—such as executives, board members, consultants, and senior staff—who are committed to accelerating success for their organizations. Suited for leaders who appreciate strategy, as well as those looking for current thinking and fresh approaches optimized for today’s realities, the book is full of valuable learning moments and concepts that challenge outdated thinking. Each chapter opens with a real-world story that illustrates the practices to follow with examples that allow readers to see differentiation in action, learn how to set themselves apart by questioning assumptions, and discover how to transform guesswork into grounded decision-making.

Offering a fresh approach to strategy, one that maximizes digital tools to foster strategic thinking and acting, Raines provides readers with relatable insights and innovative lessons including:

- Customer mindset is your equity lens: why embracing your true customer is critical to your organization’s strategic relevance

- Why it’s time to swap the SWOT: the new way forward in strategic analysis

- Going beyond the Tipping Point: pushing past a “what we do” to a “why we matter” mindset

- Back away from brainstorming and Post-it notes to create a process steeped in creativity

- How to retire the old methods of planning where one size fits all and competitors define direction

- Fostering a holistic appreciation of the people whose lives you promise to impact through your mission

- Recognizing that the old boundaries no longer apply: creative thinking fueled the realization that you compete in more than one industry

“It’s never been more important to differentiate your purpose-driven organization. Invention and originality are essential as we emerge from the pandemic,” Raines says. “There is no reset button. We are forever changed and organizations must change as well to deliver on their mission promise. Your ongoing success depends on your ability to clearly articulate distinction in the marketplace, craft a resilient strategy to advance it, enthrall others to invest in it, engage with customers to achieve it, and demonstrate relevance through mission impact to sustain it.”

AUTHOR BIO

Karla Raines is an accomplished strategist serving purpose-driven organizations in dynamically competitive industries. As principal and co-owner of Corona Insights, a highly regarded research and strategy firm based in Denver, Karla has helped hundreds of organizations craft their strategic plans. Along the way, she devoted more than ten thousand hours to mastering the art of strategy. A skilled associative thinker, Karla uses her intuition and both sides of her brain to make cognitive leaps. She sees new opportunities in a shifting strategic landscape and conveys them in ways that build buy-in and excitement for her clients. Comfort with ambiguity is critical to her success as a strategist and as an abstract artist. Karla engages more boldly as a consultant because of her artistic endeavors.

With a unique ability to see beyond what is, Karla leads her clients to discover authentic differentiation and craft plans to realize a competitive advantage. Abstract painting propels Karla's professional creativity and risk-taking as it fuels her soul. Artists look at the world differently, and creativity opens a new portal. Years of painting have taught Karla to get out of her own way, not to tell herself no, and be open to the power of flow. She wouldn't have discovered Differentiation Zone® without it. 

Karla earned her MBA from The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and her BS in industrial engineering from Iowa State University. She and her husband, Kevin, live in Denver, Colorado.