Why do good companies stop growing? Host Heidi Schalk talks with Craig Apatov, founder and managing partner of Ascension Growth and Innovation Strategies, a 25 year old consulting firm focused entirely on top line growth for middle market companies and divisions of global corporations.

Craig explains war gaming, where leaders study their own business through a competitor's eyes, and why growth strategies so often stall during execution. He walks through Ascension's AIMS framework (Analytics, Insight mining, Marketing optimization, Sales enablement) and shares how market research helped Midwest Can launch the Flame Shield Safety System and become the first fuel container brand to own safety. He also reveals what drives his own firm's visibility, the costly lesson of buying an email list, and his parting truth: when executives say everything is fine, it never is.

Bio:

Craig Apatov is an accomplished senior level executive with over 30 years of experience working for several of the world’s leading Fortune 100 organizations. 

In 2003 after a long and decorated career of strategic marketing and business development accomplishment, he founded Ascension Growth & Innovation Strategies (management consulting) and Ascension Studios (agency) both Atlanta-based firms focused on helping companies accelerate organic growth and improve business performance. 

Ascension works extensively with growth focused, middle market companies and private equity organizations in the industrial manufacturing, financial services, consumer products, business services, and healthcare industries. 

Prior to starting Ascension, Apatov worked in general management, strategic marketing, and business development roles at Foote Cone & Belding Advertising, ConAgra Brands, Walt Disney, Time Warner, Citibank, General Motors,  Miller Zell Retail Solutions and Mattel Toys.

He is known for his significant accomplishments in the areas of growth strategy, new product/service development, and business model transformation.  Apatov served as Chief Marketing Officer in three different organizations. Among his most noted professional accomplishments were:

-The creation of $150 million in marketing partnerships for Walt Disney animated television programming

-The successful development and launch of the GMAC/Ally Bank – now the nation’s largest and most successful online financial services provider with assets over $180 billion.

-Spearheading Citigroup’s move into ecommerce with the development of the first virtual credit card, digital wallet, and online shopping portals as part of a massive project called “Click Citi” 

-The development of the original go-to-market strategy for AutoTrader.com – now the world’s dominant online automotive marketplace

-At Con Agra, led the strategic reformulation and aggressive national ad campaign for Hunt’s Ketchup focused on the brand’s superior taste doubling market share vs. category leader Heinz

-Repositioning of Mattel Hot Wheels business leveraging core brand “racing” equity to expand into race sets, battery operated vehicles, and radio-controlled cars thereby doubling brand revenue

Apatov holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and has done graduate work at the University of Southern California. He has lived and worked in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and conducted business around the globe. 

He guest lectures on progressive strategic growth and advanced marketing/sales enablement topics at the undergraduate and graduate levels for Georgia State University, University of West Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, Emory University and the University of Georgia as well as many professional organizations. He also teaches “growth strategy” for the Herndon Directors Institute targeting minority executives in Fortune 500 firms seeking board roles. 

Craig is married and lives in the Douglasville, Georgia and Chattanooga, TN. His wife is a senior executive for Paramount/CBS Television, and they have two grown children, both married.

To connect with our guest, click on the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigapatov/ 

Website:  https://ascensionstrategy.com/ 

Connect with me:

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidischalkcoaching/

Website:  https://hlhgrowthsolutions.com  

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