Heidi Farris is the CEO of ActivTrak, focused on helping organizations use data to understand and optimize the way teams work.
As we begin the new year, economic forecasts predict steady growth in 2025, with Goldman Sachs projecting a 2.5% increase in U.S. GDP—outpacing consensus expectations.
While this is positive news, business leaders remain cautiously optimistic as they navigate the path forward. A recent Forrester survey of business and technology decision-makers found that most anticipate modest budget growth this year. However, inflation, high interest rates and potential tariffs may offset expected gains.
In 2025, leaders must rely on data-driven decisions to maximize ROI, fuel growth and secure a competitive edge.
Based on my experience scaling multiple high-velocity SaaS companies and driving operational excellence, I’ve found that revenue growth and value creation can often be achieved by focusing on three core areas: investing in people, optimizing processes and leveraging technology.
Invest in people.
Businesses that prioritize workforce investments tend to see faster revenue growth and stronger customer retention. According to the American Opportunity Index, competitors in the same industries with similar workforces and business models can have very different results based on how they manage talent.
Strategic talent management is a powerful lever for success—here’s how to harness it in today’s workforce:
1. Align teams across departments.
This is the backbone of company success. Regular CEO communication about company objectives and fostering cross-departmental collaboration to achieve those goals helps to ensure everyone grows in the same direction. This accelerates decision-making, boosts efficiency and fosters creative problem-solving and innovation.
When employees understand how their day-to-day actions contribute to broader company success, morale and motivation increase.
2. Empower customer-facing roles.
Customer-facing teams play a critical role in building loyalty and driving revenue. Ensuring they perform at their peak starts with asking the right questions: Are workloads balanced to prevent burnout? Are teams adequately staffed to meet demand? Are they using the right tools to streamline their work? Do they receive regular updates and feedback on their performance?
Addressing these concerns holistically creates an environment where customer-facing teams thrive and deliver exceptional results.
3. Invest in skills for growth.
Regular upskilling programs—such as training on new tools, emerging AI applications, customer engagement strategies or cross-collaboration techniques—keep teams competitive and improve overall performance.
Upskilling also boosts employee retention and instills a sense of value and empowerment, motivating employees to contribute and remain committed to an organization’s success.
Invest in processes.
While investing in people is essential, optimizing business processes delivers immediate benefits to the bottom line and ensures teams work effectively to meet customer needs. Here are a few key areas for process improvement:
1. Address bottlenecks.
Bottlenecks caused by overloaded resources, manual processes or a lack of support or training can drag productivity. Identifying those roadblocks and addressing them by automating tasks, introducing new technology or redistributing workloads streamlines workflows and frees employees to focus on higher-value work.
2. Measure inputs and outputs.
Tracking KPIs like CSAT ratings, case resolutions or closed sales opportunities reveals inefficiencies.
Likewise, integrating BI tools such as Google Analytics, Power BI or Tableau with workforce analytics provides a clearer view of how employee productivity and technology usage align with business outcomes. This combined data makes it easier to optimize resources and improve workforce performance.
3. Drive continuous improvement.
According to McKinsey, organizations that embrace rapid experimentation and continuous improvement can increase productivity by 25% or more.
At my company, we champion this approach by empowering teams to suggest and implement process improvements—whether through adopting new AI tools for software development, as my company’s CTO has written about elsewhere, or enhancing product marketing. This mindset keeps us agile, adaptable and focused on continuous growth.
Invest in technology.
AI continues to transform how businesses operate, offering exciting opportunities to work smarter and stay ahead. In 2025, leaders must focus on what works, eliminate what doesn’t and experiment with new ideas to unlock AI’s full potential. Here are a few ways to start:
1. Rightsize tech sprawl.
Many companies waste resources on software or SaaS tools that employees rarely access, with nearly half going unused.
Workforce analytics help organizations understand which tools employees rely on—and which ones to eliminate. This cuts costs, simplifies workflows and makes room for more effective technology solutions.
2. Experiment with AI.
AI empowers teams from development to marketing to customer service to streamline workflows and make better decisions. For example, product marketing teams can use AI tools to build custom GPTs to analyze customer feedback, accelerate product development, refine product messaging and improve service delivery.
These tools help organizations maximize agility, adapt more effectively and focus on the activities that drive results.
3. Invest in agentic AI.
Deloitte predicts that 25% of enterprises using GenAI will deploy AI agents in 2025, growing to 50% by 2027.
These tools handle tasks autonomously, boost knowledge worker productivity and streamline workflows of all kinds, empowering teams to focus on high-value activities that strengthen customer relationships and grow revenue.
Conclusion
By investing in people, optimizing processes and leveraging technology, I believe we can unlock transformative growth that strengthens teams, drives profitability and delivers greater value to customers in 2025 and beyond.
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