Lina Group, Inc. is a strategy firm focused on helping companies each differentiate and dominate as the Go-To in their chosen markets in order to achieve sustainable growth and higher margins. We work with organizations in extremely crowded, competitive markets, with an emphasis on technology-driven sectors requiring continuous innovation. We are especially experienced in helping companies decide where to play and how to position. We also have unusual expertise in defining innovative, complex enterprise solutions aimed at C-level and senior executives and in developing strategies for how to price, create, market and sell them.
Lina Group clients typically want to maintain or achieve dominant market positions through differentiation, an exceptional customer experience, and high-value offerings. Examples of what we do:
Assist/coach senior management in implementing all or aspects of the Apollo Method for Market Dominance
Develop new company vision
Design, lead and/or coach the senior team on strategic planning initiatives
Help the senior team analyze and choose markets
Identify new markets and sources of revenue
Define the company’s Go-To positioning
Define and roll out new high-value offerings
Launch new solutions, products and/or services
Led by Theresa Lina, the company was founded in 1992 and is composed of senior practitioners with backgrounds from major consulting, technology, and enterprise solutions companies.
Theresa Lina is the author of the bestseller, Be the Go-To: How to Own Your Competitive Market, Charge More, and Have Customers Love You for It. She is also a long-time Silicon Valley business strategist and practitioner who specializes in helping companies become differentiated, innovative, and more profitable market leaders. As founder and president of Lina Group, Inc., she has more than 25 years of strategy, technology, innovation, and marketing expertise. She helps senior executives apply the Apollo Method for Market Dominance™, a strategy and execution framework for long-term profitable growth, which she created and detailed in her book. Theresa has also been involved with Stanford University since 2006. She is on the teaching team for several leadership, innovation and strategy courses at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in the executive education program. She is also involved with the Department of Management Science & Engineering (MS&E) in the School of Engineering and advises the Stanford Marketing Group, a student association.
Theresa has taught, coached, mentored and consulted to executives at hundreds of firms and startups globally, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Nike, Disney, Spurs Sports & Entertainment (San Antonio Spurs), Accenture, Intuit, Facebook, HP, PayPal, Oracle, Cisco, VMware, Intel, Dell, AT&T, Verizon, GE, IBM, Visa, WL Gore, and REI, to name just a few. She has worked across industries, ranging from technology, entertainment and financial services to healthcare, heavy industry, aerospace, energy, and more. Known for her creativity and lateral thinking, clients particularly value her ability to monitor market trends, quickly synthesize complex situations, and cross-pollinate best practices from other industries to help companies develop innovative strategies. She brings a fresh energy, wisdom, humor and optimism to each situation, able to see exciting opportunity where others may only see challenges. She has particularly deep expertise in defining, developing, and marketing complex enterprise solutions sold at senior levels in the organization. She also brings a strong customer- and market-orientation, particularly to companies that have traditionally been product-driven.
Theresa’s experience as a practitioner includes roles as Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for VC-backed companies in cloud services, analytics, e-commerce and digital integrated marketing. She also helped these firms raise millions in venture capital financing, conduct M&A activities, and integrate acquisitions. Theresa began her career at Accenture, where she helped found the Communications Industry Group and lay the foundation for what has become a multi-billion dollar business. Working with the managing partner, she oversaw that group’s strategic planning, marketing, financial and business operations activity in 48 offices across 20 countries. She also helped craft Accenture-wide strategic planning processes and served on the firm’s global marketing council. She earned a number of company awards for her innovative programs and results.
Theresa’s personal interests led her to found an educational research and entertainment company during her tenure with Accenture. The company provided outreach programs to schools in underprivileged areas and invested in the creation of public television content. Ms. Lina served two terms on the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), Southeastern Chapter, where she chaired a national children’s media literacy initiative and served as a judge and co-writer/producer for the regional Emmy Awards. Today, her passions lie in children’s causes, environmental stewardship, and diversity and inclusion efforts, including mentoring minority and women entrepreneurs.
Theresa is a popular public speaker and makes frequent media appearances. She holds a degree from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. On a personal note, Theresa is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is an avid sailor. In 2017-18, she and her family spent a year traveling around the world.