How Exceptional Companies Grow

Jonathon McKay, Sarah Ahern, and Joe Lynch discuss how exceptional companies grow. Jonathon and Sarah are partners in PATH, a supply chain market research and business management firm that helps businesses understand their customers, employees, and the market better to drive long-term growth.

About Jonathon McKay

Jonathon McKay is a highly experienced partner at PATH specializing in exceptional growth strategies for the supply chain industry. With over 15 years of expertise, Jonathon leverages customer insights, market trends, and employee engagement to drive success. Focused on logistics, manufacturing, and distribution channel strategies, Jonathon helps organizations make confident decisions for bold growth. Key areas of emphasis include customer loyalty, employee engagement, differentiation, and profitability. Jonathon is not only a strategist but also a dynamic facilitator, conducting nationwide workshops on employee engagement, customer loyalty, leadership development, and growth metrics. These workshops provide practical insights for organizational success. As a Net Promoter Score Associate and Certified Innovative Leadership Coach, Jonathon is committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences and guiding leaders on growth journeys. With a Bachelor’s in Economics, he analyzes economic trends effectively.

About Sarah Ahern

Sarah Ahern is a trailblazing female leader and mentor in data and business management, a 4x entrepreneur with a social impact focus, and a builder in the woman-owned business community and beyond. Sarah is an Owner and Partner at PATH, a research and growth strategy with a four-decade history dedicated to supply chain organizations. Her unique approach to research and strategy is based on a decade-long career launching successful B2B and B2C programs and products across North America. She has helped major corporations, nonprofits, startups and more build human-focused experiences by using the power of research to transform the way businesses understand their customers and employees – and improve their bottom line and outperform the market. Her expertise is in new product/market strategies, customer and employee experience, and change management. Sarah is a 40 Under 40 recipient, a certified Innovative Leadership Coach, and an active board member in the Ohio community.

About PATH (People are the How)

PATH is a 40-year-old supply chain market research and business management firm that helps businesses understand their customers, employees, and the market better to drive long-term growth and customer loyalty. PATH uses data to turn down the noise and bring the voice of customers to life, so businesses can make confident decisions that will help them outperform the market. PATH is committed to helping businesses succeed in the ever-changing supply chain landscape. With their deep expertise and proven track record, PATH is the partner businesses can trust to help them make the right decisions for their future.

PATH offers a variety of services, including:

Customer benchmarking: PATH helps businesses build the capability to understand their customers’ needs, wants, and pain points better than anyone else can.
New product and new market validation: PATH validates whether customers want a business’s new products or services before they are launched, so businesses can be confident that their investments will drive growth.
National voice of the customer programs: PATH collects feedback from thousands of customers across the country for large organizations, using those insights to ensure businesses maintain and grow their market share.
Employee engagement, market research, strategic planning, and more.

Key Takeaways: How Exceptional Companies Grow

PATH is a 40-year-old supply chain market research and business management firm.
They help businesses understand their customers, employees, and the market better to drive long-term growth and customer loyalty.
PATH uses data to turn down the noise and bring the voice of customers to life, so businesses can make confident decisions that will help them outperform the market.
PATH offers a variety of services, including: customer benchmarking, new product and new market validation, voice of the customer programs, employee engagement, market research, and strategic planning
How Exceptional Companies Grow:
- Focus on people first and foremost. Note: PATH stands for “People are the How.”
- Develop a competitive advantage mindset.
- Determine what game you’re playing in the market – price/commodity vs customer experience.
- Use data to know who their best customers are and what they want – exceptional companies don’t guess.