How others have built a resilience in volatile times.

It turns out resilient businesses don’t just survive disruptions—they turn them into opportunities.

With rising economic uncertainty, shifting market conditions, and talent shortages, leaders are searching for ways to make their companies stronger, adaptable, and future-proof. The businesses that stay ahead aren’t the ones that “wait and see.” They’re the ones that build resilience into their foundation.

If your company isn’t structured for resilience, growth will feel like a roller coaster—highs that don’t last and setbacks that hit hard. But your business can adapt, scale, and maintain momentum no matter what comes your way.

Here’s how others have built a business that can handle anything.

1. Define Core Business Values (So Decision-Making Becomes Easier)

If your business lacks clearly defined values, you’ll constantly be reacting instead of making proactive, confident decisions.

Your core values:

• Guide how your team operates under pressure

• Define what your business stands for (and what it doesn’t)

• Act as a filter for who you hire and what customers you serve

Without strong values, businesses chase short-term wins instead of long-term success. Companies with a clear mission and values outperform their competitors because they make consistent, aligned decisions—especially in uncertain times.

Pro tip: If your team can’t name your company’s values without looking them up, they aren’t clear enough.

2. Align Your Team Around a Collective Purpose (So They’re Invested in the Business’s Success)

The best employees don’t just want a paycheck—they want a mission to rally behind.

If you’re struggling with then your team isn’t connected to the company’s purpose.:

• Employee disengagement
• High turnover
•A lack of engagement / commitment

Here’s how to fix it:

Communicate WHY the company exists beyond making money. What’s the bigger impact?

Align individual goals with company goals. Employees should see how their work drives business success.

Make sure every role has meaning. People don’t stay in jobs where they feel like a cog in the machine.

A strong purpose attracts top talent and keeps teams engaged—even in challenging times.

3. Map Customer Needs to Your Business Strengths (So You Stay Relevant & Profitable)

Businesses don’t fail because they stop working hard—they fail because they stop being relevant to customers.

Resilient companies consistently ask:

• Are we solving real problems our customers care about?

• How are customer needs shifting, and how can we adapt?

• What strengths make us uniquely positioned to serve them?

The best way to future-proof your business is to stay ahead of customer expectations. If you assume what worked yesterday will work tomorrow, you’ll fall behind. Customer loyalty isn’t automatic—you have to earn it by staying aligned with what they need.

4. Craft a Strong Value Proposition (So You Stand Out in Any Market Condition)

In uncertain times, customers and clients cut unnecessary spending—but they still invest in what they see as essential.If your value proposition isn’t clear, compelling, and focused on solving urgent problems, you risk getting cut from their budget.

A strong value proposition should answer:

• What do you do that no one else can?

• Why does this matter to your customers right now?

• How does your offer create value?

Businesses that clearly define their value continue growing—even when the economy slows. If customers don’t see your business as essential, it’s time to refine your positioning.

Final Thought: Resilience is Baked in, Not Hoped For

Building a resilient company doesn’t mean avoiding challenges—it means structuring your business to adapt and thrive, no matter what happens. When you define your values, align your team, focus on customer needs, and sharpen your value proposition, you create a company that can navigate change, seize opportunities, and continue growing.

Contact me:
I’d love to discuss what you’ve learned so far and how my experience can contribute to your company’s resilience and growth. Let’s talk.

WATCH The VIDEO:
https://www.shariburk.com/resource-videos/v/hosted-with-custom-z9ehj-dwh9x-5y5yd

Or download the interactive workbook:
https://www.shariburk.com/resist-business-bs

What 1.5 Years of Stalled Sales Taught Us About Clarity, Alignment, and Execution.

Omojo was stuck. The product was innovative, the team was smart, and the market was ready—but after a year and a half, they still couldn’t break through into the US market. Sales conversations stalled. Retail partnerships fizzled. No matter how many pivots they tried, nothing worked.

And the worst part? They didn’t know why.

Everyone had a different theory:

- The product needed a rebrand.
- The customers didn’t understand the science.
- The pricing was off.
- The marketing was too vague—or too specific.
Each department pointed to something different. But the truth was simpler. They weren’t aligned on the story—or the strategy.

The Hidden Cost of Misalignment

What looks like a sales problem is often a vision problem in disguise. When a company’s teams don’t share a clear understanding of Who the customer is, What matters most to them, And how the offer solves a pain point. Execution turns into educated guessing. And guessing is expensive. Omojo had a great product—but without alignment, it wasn’t landing.

What We Did in One Day

We brought the full team into a single, focused strategy session—not to brainstorm, but to align.

- Who is the customer we’re really trying to reach?
- What’s the exact problem they’re trying to solve?
- Why haven’t they taken action yet?
- Where is our messaging, offer, or model getting in their way?
- Do we even have the right mix of products?
We mapped the value prop to customer priorities—fast. The team saw where they’d been speaking past the buyer and where the sales process and marketing messaging was breaking down. By the end of the day, they had a new narrative, a new market entry model, and a clear plan. Three Months Later: 10,000 Stores

The results came fast. With their new clarity:

-New name. New brand. New packaging. New messaging.
- Retail partners finally understood the positioning.
- Sales materials clicked instead of confusing.
- The team moved with confidence instead of debate.

Within 90 days, they landed in 10,000 stores. That’s what alignment unlocks: speed, simplicity, and results.

Strategy Isn’t Just What You Know—It’s What You All Agree On. It wasn’t that Omojo didn’t have the right answer. It’s that they had too many answers. Once they aligned around the one that mattered to their customer, the sales took off.

If your growth feels stalled—even with a good team and a solid product—it might be time to stop guessing and get aligned. Want help doing that in a single session? Let’s talk.

Closing the Trust Gap Between Marketing and Tech

Finally Make Strategy Stick.
At first glance, everything looked promising. A privately held SaaS company had great people, strong products, and a loyal customer base. But when I stepped into their leadership team session, something felt off. The marketing team and the tech team were at odds.

It wasn’t just tension. It was mistrust.

They weren’t collaborating. They were moving in parallel silos. And despite their best efforts, nothing strategic ever stuck. Marketing would push initiatives. Engineering would ignore them. Strategic decisions died in the gap. The root cause? A complete lack of trust and shared context.

What Silos Really Cost You

Everyone talks about cross-functional collaboration, but most companies are still flying blind when it comes to what the other team is solving for. Without shared understanding, every initiative feels like interference.

- Marketing sees engineering as blockers.

- Engineering sees marketing as reckless.

- Leadership gets stuck playing referee.

Until there’s a shared definition of what the customer truly values, you’re stuck. Every function optimizes for their own goals instead of a shared outcome.

Here’s How We Fixed It

We didn’t start with roles or org charts. We started with truths:

- What trends are shaping our industry?
- What do our customers really care about?
- Where do we disagree about our customer?
- Where is trust already working (even if imperfectly)?

Then, we created clarity and shared ownership by:

- Mapping customer needs to internal strengths
- Defining what each department actually needed to succeed
- Uncovering the friction points in their execution loop
- Establishing a shared purpose they could all believe in

Once the conversations were grounded in reality—not opinion—the finger-pointing stopped. The teams started to see each other as partners, not roadblocks.

The Outcome. What changed?

- Strategic plans didn’t just look good—they got executed.

- Marketing and tech started collaborating early instead of reworking late.

- Customer satisfaction scores climbed. Internal morale did too.

- They uncovered opportunities together that no single department could’ve seen alone.

Final Thought: Strategy Dies Without Trust

If your teams aren’t collaborating, it’s not because they don’t care. It’s because they don’t see the same picture. Bridge the trust gap with shared insight, real conversations, and co-ownership of the outcome—and suddenly, execution gets a whole lot easier.

Want to close your team’s trust gap and get execution moving again? Let’s talk.

If growth is slow, your innovation process might be the problem — but maybe not.

Your Innovation Approach Might Be Slowing You Down

If growth feels harder than it should, your innovation process might be the problem. Misalignment, endless meetings, and unstructured ideas don’t just waste time—they kill momentum.

So, I built a quick assessment to help you uncover what’s really getting in the way.

• Takes five minutes. No deep soul-searching required.

• One email, that’s it. No spamming your whole team.

• Anonymous input, no awkward pauses. Because people are way more honest when they’re not being watched.

• Want a breakdown? I’m willing to walk your team through the results and show you how to fix it fast—so you won’t have to be the bearer of bad news. But no pressure if the results do it for you.

Five minutes now could save you months of frustration. Most teams already have the talent—they just need a simple way to activate it. Let’s make sure yours is actually ready to innovate (and not just stuck in another strategy meeting).

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE INNOVATION ASSESSMENT PAGE

Please let me know what you think!!

Innovation That Drives Business — Not More Meetings.

Innovation isn’t optional anymore—it’s survival.

With markets shifting, technology evolving, and customer expectations changing at lightning speed, companies that don’t innovate risk becoming irrelevant. In fact, experts predict that half of the S&P 500 will disappear in the next decade.

But here’s the problem: Many organizations jump into innovation projects without aligning their core business first—which often creates more chaos than success.

If you want your innovation project to drive real business growth instead of just becoming an expensive distraction, you need a structured approach.

Read on or WATCH THE VIDEO. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Align on Your Core Business First

Before you dive into the future, make sure your present is solid.

If your leadership team isn’t aligned on what your company does best today, launching an innovation initiative will be like building on quicksand. Your project will lack direction, drain resources, and create internal confusion.

If you’re unsure whether your team is fully aligned on your core business strengths, pause and fix that first before moving forward.

Step 2: Use a Future-Back Approach

Most business leaders think from the present forward—reacting to what’s happening now.

The problem? By the time you react, it’s often too late.

Instead, use a future-back approach:

• Identify key game changers coming to your industry.

• Visualize where you want your business to be in five years.

• Work backward to define the innovation focus areas that will get you there.

This keeps your company ahead of the curve instead of constantly playing catch-up.

Step 3: Choose the Right People for Your Innovation Leadership Team

Innovation isn’t a solo effort. You need a team.

Pick three to seven people from your leadership group who:


✔ Have diverse perspectives (not just the usual voices in the room).


✔ Are willing to challenge assumptions and push boundaries.


✔ Understand the company’s long-term vision and core strengths.

This group will be responsible for defining the big focus areas for innovation—NOT for coming up with specific product ideas (yet).

Step 4: Brainstorm Future Game Changers

As a leadership team, identify the biggest external forces that will impact your business.

• What major technology shifts are happening?

• How are customer preferences evolving?

• What market disruptions could change the playing field?

Now, arrange these on a timeline based on when they’ll have a significant impact on your industry.

This exercise gives you a realistic roadmap of where the world is going—so you can innovate proactively instead of reacting too late.

Step 5: Define Your Innovation Focus Areas

Now that you have a vision of the future, it’s time to decide:

What areas of your business need innovation the most?

These could include:

• Reinventing a core business function (e.g., upgrading an outdated process).

• Developing a disruptive new product or service.

• Expanding into a new industry or geography.

• Reimagining your business model entirely.

IMPORTANT: At this stage, you’re not coming up with specific product ideas yet. You’re identifying broad focus areas where innovation will have the highest impact.

Step 6: Align Innovation Areas With Your Vision

Before assigning resources to an innovation area, gut-check it against your company’s core identity.

For each focus area, ask:


✔ Does this align with our long-term vision?


✔ Does it support our company values and culture?


✔ Will it create a powerful value proposition that attracts customers, talent, and partners?

If an idea doesn’t support your bigger business strategy, cut it now before wasting time and resources.

Step 7: Define the Scope for Each Innovation Project

For each innovation focus area, answer these questions:

• What’s the challenge? Define the specific problem you’re solving.

• Why this challenge? How does it align with your company’s core strengths?

• Who will you serve? Which customer segments are you creating value for?

• What are your weak points? Identify assumptions that need testing or unknowns that must be addressed.

• What does success look like? Define clear success criteria—so you know when you’ve achieved your goal.

Step 8: Set Up for Execution (or Risk Wasting Time)

A great innovation ideas means nothing if it doesn’t drive your business. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Assign a dedicated innovation team and team lead. No accountability = no progress.

2. Set a budget. Unfunded innovation projects lead to frustration and failure.

3. Establish a timeline. Without deadlines, projects drag on indefinitely.

4. Decide on your execution framework. If using structured innovation toolkits, set milestones every 2-4 weeks. If not, triple your estimated timeline.

It sounds counterintuitive, but structure is the key to brilliant innovation.

Final Thoughts: Innovation Needs a Plan, Not Just Ideas

The reason most innovation projects fail isn’t a lack of ideas—it’s a lack of how to make decisions and move forward.

By aligning on your core business, thinking future-back, defining clear focus areas, and structuring execution, you set your company up to innovate in a way that actually leads to growth.

Let’s Talk About Your Innovation Strategy. I have a simple framework or two that

I’d love to discuss what you’ve learned so far and how my experience can contribute to your company’s growth.

Let’s talk. Schedule a call here.

Make Smarter, Faster Decisions Without Second-Guessing Yourself

Why Decision-Making Feels Harder Than It Should

You have a successful company. You know how to make good calls. So why does decision-making still feel like an uphill climb sometimes?

Usually, it’s because of one (or more) of these common pitfalls:

The Overthinking Spiral – Somewhere between the data analysis, the brainstorming, and the “what if” scenarios, the momentum dies.

The Fear Factor – No one wants to make the wrong call. But the truth is, there’s rarely a perfect decision. The best leaders move fast and adjust.

Acronym Soup & Fuzzy Logic – You know those meetings where people throw around acronyms and buzzwords, but no one’s totally sure what they mean? Yeah, those don’t help.

How to Make Faster, Smarter, No-Regret Decisions

Start With the ‘Why’

Most decisions get stuck because we skip straight to “How do we do this?” before asking “Why are we doing this?”

To break the cycle, ask yourself:
WHY are we making this decision? No fluff, no buzzwords—what’s the actual goal?
WHAT does success look like? If you can’t define it, you can’t hit it.
HOW does this move us forward? Not just look good in a PowerPoint.

If you can’t answer the why in one sentence, you’re not ready to decide.

Use a ‘Decision Filter’ to Simplify Choices

Instead of treating every decision like a brand-new puzzle, create a repeatable filter that makes choices faster and easier:

• Does it align with our big-picture strategy? Or is it just a shiny distraction?

• Will it actually move the needle? Or just make someone in a meeting feel smart?

• Do we have the team/resources to pull it off? No? Then let’s not talk about it.

• If we don’t act now, will we regret it later? Speed matters.

If a decision fails these questions, it’s either not the right move—or not the right time.

Move Fast, Adjust as Needed

The best companies aren’t the ones that always get it right—they’re the ones that move quickly and adapt.

• Make the best decision you can with the information you have.

• Execute, observe, and adjust.

• Keep the momentum going.

The Payoff: Faster Decisions = Faster Growth

When you simplify decision-making, everything else speeds up:

• More clarity. No more overthinking.

• More action. Decisions in hours, not months.

• More momentum. Every good choice builds on the last one.

Want to make faster, smarter decisions without second-guessing yourself?

Let’s talk. I help business owners and leaders eliminate bottlenecks and create decision-making systems that work.

Uncover overlooked opportunities and weak points in your Business Strategy—fast.

Combine Value Chain Analysis and the Business Model Canvas.

In today’s business landscape, companies that collaborate—internally and externally—are the ones winning.

Businesses that engage cross-functional teams and utilize their ecosystem can gain a competitive edge. That’s where Value Chain Analysis and the Business Model Canvas come in.

These two strategic tools help small to medium business owners clarify their strengths, uncover weaknesses, and build a more resilient, scalable business model — fast. Whether you’re focusing on growth, innovation, or long-term transformation, this approach ensures your business adapts and thrives.

Here’s how to apply both tools to your business strategy—fast and effectively.

Watch the video here instead.

Step 1:
Map Your Value Chain to Reveal How Your Business Actually Works

A Value Chain Analysis is a visual breakdown of how value flows through your business ecosystem. It goes beyond cash flow, helping you see where value is created, exchanged, and potentially lost.

How to Conduct a Value Chain Analysis

• Gather the Right Team: Choose three to seven people from different parts of your business. Diverse viewpoints = better insights.

• Map Your Value Chain: Identify all entities involved—suppliers, partners, distributors, and customers. I created these workflows in Miro, Identify Non-Cash Value Exchanges: Consider data, intellectual property, brand reputation, or customer loyalty. These hidden forms of value are often the key to long-term competitive advantage.

• Refine the Value Map: Take your time here. The clearer your value chain, the better your business decisions will be.

Once you have a detailed value chain, you’re ready to expand your insights with the Business Model Canvas.

Step 2:
Build a Business Model Canvas to Identify Gaps and Opportunities

The Business Model Canvas, created by Alexander Osterwalder, is a simple yet powerful tool that helps you see how your business creates, delivers, and captures value.

Think of it as a high-level sketch of your business strategy that shows where you should focus to improve, grow, or innovate.

How to Create a Business Model Canvas (Step-by-Step Guide)

• Define Key Partners – Who plays a major role in your value chain? (Suppliers, affiliates, distribution partners, etc.)

• List Key Activities – What does your business do that directly delivers value to customers?

• Clarify Your Value Proposition – What unique value does your business offer? How do you stand out from competitors?

• Outline Customer Relationships – How do you engage and retain customers?

• Map Out Your Channels – What marketing and sales channels bring customers into your business?

• Identify Cost Structure – What are your biggest expenses in delivering this model?

• Define Revenue Streams – Where does your revenue come from? How can it grow?

At this stage, don’t over complicate it. You’re just getting clarity on your business model—not solving every problem yet.

Step 3:
Identify Weak Points, Risks, and Opportunities for Growth

Too many businesses stop at defining their business model. But the real power comes from digging into risks and weaknesses.

Here’s how to identify and strengthen weak points:

• Individually, brainstorm potential risks and unknowns. Where are you making assumptions that may not be true?

• What parts of your business are easily copied, difficult to defend, or operationally fragile?

• Prioritize the biggest risks. Remove redundant concerns, clarify key risks, and vote on the most impactful weaknesses to address.

This step is critical for resilience—if you don’t identify potential threats now, you’ll be blindsided later.

Step 4:
Turn Insights into an Action Plan (In 30 Minutes or Less)

Now that you’ve mapped your value chain, business model, and key risks, don’t let that work sit in a folder collecting dust.

Here’s how to create a fast, actionable plan to drive results:

• Assign owners and deadlines to your top action items.

• Set a budget—unfunded ideas go nowhere.

• Define a timeline for execution. If using structured frameworks, set check-ins every 2–4 weeks; otherwise, plan for longer implementation timelines.

• Build a system to track progress— through peer meetings, software, leadership progress check-ins, or use all three.

If you need help to accelerate this process, schedule a call here or connect on LinkedIn

Shari Burk

Why I’m obsessed with fixing business growth

For years, I had a sneaking suspicion that my work wasn’t really working. Sure, I could spin the numbers to make any project look like a win (who doesn’t love a good vanity metric?), but deep down, I knew the impact wasn’t sticking. It bugged me—a lot.

I didn’t want to just help companies look successful. I wanted to help them be successful—like, long-term, no-smoke-and-mirrors, actually-thriving kind of success. The problem? Every time I tried, something got in the way. And after asking roughly one million obnoxious questions, I realized the issue wasn’t my strategies—it was the companies themselves.

Here’s what I uncovered:
Nobody really knew what was going on. Jargon, buzzwords, and corporate-speak created a fog of confusion where no one wanted to admit they were lost.
Teams weren’t truly aligned. Assumptions ran wild, blind spots stayed blind, and big decisions got made in silos.
Employee buy-in was… meh. People were being excluded from key conversations and then expected to just get on board—which, shocker, led to skepticism and disengagement.

Once I saw the problem, I couldn’t unsee it. And being the brilliantly naive person I was back then, I thought: Hey, I bet I can fix this!

So I did what any stubborn problem-solver would do—I kept asking questions, learning from the smartest people I could find, and stress-testing ideas in the real world. Luckily, a few bold business owners let me experiment on them (ethically, of course).

That turned into a 15-year side gig to crack the code on real, sustainable business growth. And I finally did.

I figured out how to take six months of painful confusion and tedious meetings and distill it into about eight hours. My first step alone saves C-suite teams 27 to 46 hours (you’re welcome).

Amazon Web Services (yep, that AWS—the backbone of the internet) even sponsored a pilot to put my methodology to the test. The result? Companies documented 110-330% growth in 10 months or less. That’s when I realized something big: quantifying results is kind of important.

Since then, I’ve expanded my approach across different business functions, helping 100+ companies achieve results they didn’t think were possible.

And honestly? That’s my favorite part—seeing companies not just grow, but actually enjoy the process. Because success shouldn’t feel like a soul-sucking grind.

Now, I get to do this at scale—helping more leaders, more teams, and more businesses break through the barriers holding them back. And I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Want to see what’s possible for your business? I’d love a conversation. I imagine I’ll learn something from you and visa versa.