HERDING GAZELLES  

Karl Stark and Bill Stewart are Managing Directors and co-founders of Avondale, a strategic advisory and principal investing firm focused on growing companies. Karl, based in Chicago, and Bill, based in San Diego, have a combined 30 years of experience helping businesses achieve and sustain profitable growth. Their strategic and financial advice helps companies unlock the value drivers in their business and focus investment around the most profitable growth opportunities. Avondale, based in Chicago, is a high-growth company itself, and is a two-time Inc. 500 award recipient. @karlstark


Colossal Riches to Rags Entrepreneurial Story

David Siegel, CEO of Westgate Resorts, reveals a few things about why bigger is not necessarily better and how to keep your growing business from crashing.  Read story

Move Fast and Ask for Forgiveness Later

When all other options fail, a company learns to be a nimble competitor.  Read story

Should You Build an Adjacent Business?

As an entrepreneur, you are always looking to build the next thing. Here's how one successful healthcare CEO is looking to grow beyond her core business.  Read story

Using Your Customers to Drive Business

Your network of customers, friends, and family can be your biggest assets in building your business. Contactually CEO Zvi Band gives tips on leveraging exist...  Read story

Take a Crooked Path to Growth

Successful companies don't grow in a straight line. Here are three ways growing companies manage their growth through the ups and downs.  Read story

8 Takeaways From Entrepreneurs at SXSW

A group of entrepreneurs share their insights from SXSW.  Read story

5 Tips for Surviving the Shark Tank

If you get an opportunity to pitch your business to investors, following these five principles will help you secure funding for your growth.  Read story

7 Investment Principles for Entrepreneurs

Those of us who have large investments in private businesses aren't like typical savers. We need a different strategy for our personal investments.  Read story

3 Steps to Keep Growing

Your business is not a start-up anymore. How do you allocate capital and resources to create sustainable growth?  Read story

What's Your Company Really Worth?

Here are the approaches buyers will use to determine your company's current value and prospects for growth.  Read story

When It's Time to Take the Back Seat

An entrepreneur can become an inhibitor to growth for a company passed the start-up phase. It may be time to disengage.  Read story

Open-Plan Office: An Introvert's Worse Nightmare

According to author Susan Cain, open-plan offices are disastrous, particularly for introverts.  Read story

5 Indicators of Future Business Success

Measuring performance by looking at the P&L is like driving by looking in the rearview mirror. Here's a better way to predict performance.  Read story

Don't Just Play to Win--Win Beautifully

Adopting a more vibrant approach to teamwork can improve the flow and performance of your organization.  Read story

Your Start-up Needs Some Structure

As your company grows you need to think less like an entrepreneur and more like a CEO.  Read story

5 Ways to Create Your Long-Term Vision

It is too easy to lose sight of the long term as you focus on delivering results this week. Here are five steps for turning your vision into action.  Read story

3 Reasons to Treat Employees Like Family

Applying some basic family principles to your employees can go a long way to improving loyalty and retention--especially during tough times.  Read story

Why Fewer Customers Will Help You Grow Faster

Focusing on a smaller number of customers might actually fuel your growth instead of impeding it. Here are four ways to make it work.  Read story

Make Better Decisions Using Customer Data

Gathering data is not enough--it's what you do with it that drives profitable growth.  Read story

How to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Do you need to take your business into uncharted territory to accelerate growth? Here are four areas of expansion to consider.  Read story

Best Advice: Fake It Until You Make It

Transitioning vision into reality for a new business, a new model, or simply an internal process may require pushing well beyond the status quo.  Read story

Difference Between Brute Force & Strategic Growth

As your company grows it may be necessary to move away from your brute force approach to a more calculated plan.  Read story

Growing Like Gangbusters? Then It's Time for Change

Tomorrow's growth won't resemble today's, especially if you're growing at a rapid pace.  Read story

Selling Your Business: Timing Is Everything

Knowing the right time to sell is key to getting the best return for your business. Here are five things to consider about your exit strategy.  Read story

What Your Customers Would Love to Tell You

Customers are your best insight into launching a new product if only you're willing to listen.  Read story

Get Inside Your Customers' Heads: 3 Ways

Find new ways to mine the most important insights to improve the customer experience.  Read story

3 Unconventional Strategies for Fast Growth

As you develop an execution plan for your long-term growth strategy, you may have to disrupt the status quo.  Read story

The Profitability Illusion

If you aren't providing profitable products and services, you may not be creating true customer value across the business.  Read story

How Your Business Can Avoid Extinction

Businesses can learn from the evolutionary prowess of penguins and Facebook.  Read story

The Sticky Customer Trap

Are you creating value with your best customers, or is it just an illusion? Here's how growing revenue can lull you into complacency.  Read story

The Growth Company's Dilemma

When your business isn't a start-up but it isn't yet acting like a "big" company, your role as CEO must evolve from jack-of-all-trades to team-builder.  Read story

What Investors Want to Know Before They Commit

A Fortune 100 investor outlines what questions he would ask before signing on the dotted line.  Read story

Nurture Your Most Profitable Customers

Profitable growth is more achievable if you focus on identifying your most valuable customers--and keeping them happy.  Read story

4 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

What special mix of ingredients separates the best business-builders from the rest of the pack? Entrepreneurs from Brightbox share their perspective.  Read story

Growth With No Capital? No Problem

Small businesses can overcome limited resources by following three basic steps.  Read story

Do Entrepreneurs Destroy Businesses?

Entrepreneurs are calculated risk takers, but do they have the right skills to manage a sustainable business?  Read story

6 Fundamentals to Minimize Growing Pains

Gino Wickman's Traction , outlines a more structured approach to management that improves productivity and performance throughout the business.  Read story

4 Demotivators That Will Cost You

Keeping everyone on your team focused and motivated is not easy, especially if you fall into one or more of these common traps.  Read story

3 Steps for Motivating Your Team

Successful businesses are built around people, not ideas. Here's how to keep your team motivated and working toward a common goal.  Read story

Create the Spark That Will Ignite Your Start-up

You can't launch a successful business on just an idea. Discovering your strategic asset is the key.  Read story