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Often when a business is in crisis, the management team rally. They sell harder, they pay attention to details, they take waste out of the operation…. they just plain execute. They do extraordinary things. When the Train gets back on track. When the ride is once again smooth, the urgency and... Read More
Being a great startup founder is all about managing the tensions between competing forces. For instance the constant drive for perfection versus the need for urgent action. Great entrepreneurs balance these forces to perfection. Weak entrepreneurs give each force equal play or don’t spend enough time on that which will... Read More
We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. As a turnaround executive I had the opportunity to get hyper-experienced in failure at hyper speed. It is the horror of these failures that contributed to the Cranky in Mr Cranky. While the number 1 reason that companies fail... Read More
“I’d like you to invest in my product…… want to see a demo?” “I’m looking for an investor. Let me show you my demo?” Demo, Demo, Demo, Demo, Demo, Demo. Look I know you’ve spent a ton of time, studying the market, understanding your competition, gathering user input, coding and building the perfect... Read More
CEOs spend much of their time on the What – defining, refining product. Most spend even more time on the How – Operations, how to develop product, manufacturer it, sale and support of the product. Typically CEOs I poll spend 15% or less of their time on the Why. Tackling the real... Read More
Image by vmcampos Let’s talk about sales. Customers don’t care about our online brand conversations. The desire for customers to have personal relationships with brands remains the greatest myth pushed by today’s online marketers. Then there’s the assertion that increased engagement will lead to stronger relationships. Mmmm, not necessarily. Chatty versus cheap toothpaste, who... Read More
Academia has kept pace with the disruptive hyper-change rate of PR and Marketing Theory about as well as middle east despots. It use to be that brand management was a Public Relations/Management thing. Today, Brand Management is dependent on Product Management. So here’s my MBA thesis on New Brand Marketing. With... Read More
Is Microsoft Innovative? Not as much as they once were. Is Yahoo innovative? How about RIM, or HP. These companies are decades away from their last innovation and all but Microsoft are a few last gasps away from the once innovative corpse of Kodak.What is it about innovative companies that... Read More
I’ve worked with many a CEO who acted and failed as their company’s Chief Revenue Officer…. spelled S A L E S P E R S O N. The problem with that is while most entrepreneurs have the ability, the drive and audacity to sell, few of them have the... Read More
(Photo courtesy of buchokoy on Creative Commons)Whether you’re a CEO seeking a board of advisors outside your company, or an HR director trying to create greater alignment within an organization, establishing or joining a peer advisory group may be just what you need. While peer advisory groups have been around... Read More
Sometimes I’m listening to an entrepreneur tell their story, winding through the details of their new-founded passions, and I hear it: the red flag, the corporate Achilles Heel. Unaware of what beans they’ve spilled, they continue spewing pivots, PHP, and leanness, but I’ve stopped listening. Finally, I regain my composure,... Read More
I was talking to a very smart, pragmatic, startup founder who had laid out his strategic plan to me as if it was a master plan for a chess match. He had anticipated all the possibilities, run scenarios on changing market and economic conditions, anticipating competitive countermoves… he had thought... Read More
If the only way to divine a company’s core values is to read them on their web site, then their core values aren’t core values, they’re marketing hooey. When you say core values and their eyes roll, then you don’t have core values, you have delusions. When revenue at all costs is... Read More
I’ve been running a Vistage Group for three years. Over the last few months, my current group has filled to the point where I now have a waiting list. Why is that?Vistage Members achieve better results. According to a D&B survey Vistage Member Companies significantly outperformed the average US company.So... Read More
I’m an entrepreneur, you’re an entrepreneur, we’re all entrepreneurs. We’re startup folks. We’re intuitive and fast moving. We listen to our gut, and our gut is always right. We don’t need structure, meetings, badges, or metrics…that’s for the big guys. I’m a hipster iGal/iGuy. I’m like the living, breathing, re-incarnation... Read More
It is said that time is money. This is particularly true for a for a cash-starved, resource-restricted, high-growth startup rocket. Yet typically, startup CEOs don’t have a grasp on the value of their time. So let’s do the math together.Let’s start by placing a value on your time. You are... Read More
I’m going to stop waiting till next year – I’m not waiting till next week, next month, next year. The next time I look at an item on my to-do list for the 2nd or 3rd time, instead of putting it off again for another indefinite future execution date that... Read More
There's nothing more lonely than being a CEO. Your executive team has an agenda, your partners have an agenda, your board have an agenda. Where do you go for unbiased council.Vistage is a 50 year old organization with over 14,000 members in 60 countries. According to D&B companies led by... Read More
SAN DIEGO, December 10, 2010 - Vistage International is among an elite group of 125 companies acknowledged for its learning and development programs. Training magazine, the leading business publication for learning and development professionals, recently named Vistage among its Top 125, a prestigious list that includes companies such as Microsoft, UPS, Verizon,... Read More
I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with over a dozen top DC-area Business Leaders every first Wednesday of each month. This varied group of Forward Thinking Leaders meet monthly to: discuss the impact of the latest trends on their businesses challenge each other’s thinking on strategy and tactics hold each other... Read More
A video from Steven Johnson. How do you germinate innovation? Is it DNA? Is it nature or nurture? Is it environment. Is there a process and environment that you can create to generate innovation?... Read More
During my years as a turn-around guy, I’ve boarded many a unseaworthy, leaky vessel. This has afforded me the opportunity to be responsible for more sunken ships than the entire WWII German u-boat fleet. You see sometimes the boat comes about when you push the tiller and other times it... Read More
Image Courtesy of and article as seen in Tech Cocktail Lightning in a bottle is a rare mixture of secret sauce and execution. What is Apple’s secret sauce? How about Google’s or Facebook’s? These companies are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Apple, with its iconic Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad products, is the... Read More
Avis use to sell against #1 rental car firm Hertz by bragging that they were #2 and because of that they tried harder. If that’s the case RIM, the maker of the former Crackberry-turned-Elderberry, BlackBerry has to make herculean efforts to please because they're lucky if they're # 4.Yet according... Read More
To angel and venture capital investors, companies seeking capital are driving buses on which the investor is hopping on for the ride. These companies are vehicles that investors hope will take them from point A (the investment) to point B (10X returns). Experience tells investors that the odds are against ever... Read More
Picture Credit: Tech Cocktail Hello white shoe law firm! Meet the pants-around-the-knees, skateboarding, slacker Millennial Generation. How you going to keep them down on the farm now that they’ve seen Paree? You know they aren’t making worker bees like they use to. Old school law firms historically grew on the backs of... Read More
So the board meeting ends, and a few of the board members and I go out for steaks, single malt scotch and cigars. The CEO has not been invited, and we drink, laugh, blow smoke rings and make CEO jokes. Two board meetings later, the board fired the CEO, and... Read More
Do you have what it takes to lead a startup? Are you the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Do you possess the common schizophrenic traits of endless energy and passion coupled with cool steely-eyed, ninja-assassin calm that keeps your head above water when all others are drowning? More importantly are you... Read More
(As Seen At Startup America.org)I’ve been a turn-around guy for a long time which means I’ve witnessed corporate failures often and up close. Within all those failures I found a common theme… bad executive decision-making. Typically I couldn’t point at one major cataclysmic, bone-headed decision. More often than not the... Read More
Are you ready to take your company to the next level? Is it time to go and get you some of that easy flowing venture capital cash? Most of the time the answer is a simple nope. A company must be the right type of company at the right... Read More
How many times have you stopped and thought about the perfection of inhaled air. Maybe after running for miles as you struggle to breath, you recognize the beauty of oxygen that always surrounds you. How many of us appreciate how wonderful it is to simply walk. When things go wrong,... Read More
Many entrepreneurs believe that the key to success is listening to their customers. That's great advice if you are looking to them for feedback on product quality, your service, your market, your competitors, incremental improvements, their needs. Some companies look to their customers for vision. If the customer isn't asking... Read More
A question asked by a rookie start-up CEO, "Should I hedge my investment in my company?" I'm sorry but that question forces me to pull out my nerdomness by quoting my favorite coach and mentor;Master Yoda, "Try? There is no try, there is only do or do not!"If you are... Read More
Two words: Dress Barn. Seriously, is that a brand that is suppose to make a woman feel sexy and desirable? I can just imagine a woman saying to herself, “Hmmm, I’d like to find me some clothing amongst domesticated cattle.”“Great Moo Moo, Shirley!” “Thanks, I got it at Dress Barn.”I... Read More
On a recent visit to Dogabah, I had the good fortune to sit down with well-known business coach, galactic rebel and Jedi Master, Yoda. In my short visit with him, I asked him to share with me the underlying wisdom of 5 of his most famous quotes and to apply... Read More
Simon Sinek on his golden circle. True leadership starts with a belief system... the why (similar to Daniel Pink's purpose). Most companies tell their story by what they do and how it is done. Simon suggests you should start with the why followed by the how and the what.... Read More
Lightning in a bottle is the rare mixture of Secret Sauce and execution. What's Apple's Secret Sauce? How about Google's or Facebook's? These companies are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Apple with its iconic iPhone and iPad products is the epitome of execution over secret sauce. Innovation and proprietary IP has not led to... Read More
Raising investment capital is brutal. It’s a jungle out there. Early stage capital has never been more difficult to raise. There are too many business plans chasing too few open wallets. The entrepreneurs who can capture the imagination of an investor on the first slide has a higher probability of... Read More
The Motivational Power of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose Thought provoking excerpts from Daniel Pink's book, "Drive." A must read for business leaders. Mr. Pink discusses the power of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose as key motivators for right-brain workers versus the traditional view of cash as a motivator. A must read and head... Read More
