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The Leadership Journey
- December 15, 2020
- Category: Leadership and People
So many things have happened over the past year. It’s challenging for leaders when it feels like the ground is shifting under our feet. Leadership isn’t a destination, it’s a continuous journey – one that can empower us to navigate through uncertain times. If you’d like to learn more, here’s a quick message from Ken -
Introducing Our New Book: Next Level Leadership – Navigating the Dramatic Changes Coming in the 2020s
- December 8, 2020
- Category: Leadership and People
Has 2020 been a crazy year or what? Everything – from societal views to governmental and business systems are being re-engineered. It’s an incredibly challenging time for leaders in small to mid-market companies. The good news is there’s a method to the madness. If you study historical technology disruption cycles and their impact on society
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Are You Working IN Your Company or Working ON Your Company?
- August 25, 2017
- Category: Leadership and People
As most of you know, I spend a lot of time talking about the role of the CEO at a mid-market company. There are plenty of great business books written for Fortune 500 companies by CEOs and researchers. There are also plenty of books about startup entrepreneurs and small business owners. But the bookstores are -
Four Solutions for Common Tactical Marketing Challenges
- August 10, 2017
- Category: Marketing and Distribution
In previous posts, I talked about common high-level marketing challenges, as well as operational marketing challenges, facing many of my client companies. Today’s focus is on tactical marketing challenges. Tactics are important; rarely do my CEO colleagues ever tell me their strategy isn’t sound. Success almost always comes down to execution. While I don't evaluate -
Organizational Culture – The Scoreboard for Your Business
- July 26, 2017
- Category: Leadership and People
In professional sports, a major focus of each year centers around the draft. The draft, and the typical free agency period that follows, is the time when a team can acquire new young talent and sign proven veterans. It forces each team to determine its strengths and weaknesses, to identify its most essential needs, and
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Values, Vision, Mission & Purpose – What Changes & What Stays the Same?
- July 8, 2017
- Category: Leadership and People
The recent scandal at Volkswagen demonstrates how a lack of values can severely damage or potentially destroy a company. Even a global market leader. Other companies that have collapsed from a lack of values – Enron, WorldCom, Stanford Financial – did so because their values, vision, mission and purpose were not authentic; they were simply
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Why Culture Matters
- November 17, 2016
- Category: Leadership and People
Have you ever heard the statement “culture eats strategy for lunch?” The concept was originated by the late Peter Drucker, and the quote later refined by Mark Fields of Ford Motor Company. The idea behind the concept was not to take sides between strategy and culture (meaning one is better than the other), but to
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6 Tips for the First-time CEO – or One That Is Struggling
- July 21, 2016
- Category: Leadership and People
Being a CEO of a mid-market company can be a lonely place, especially if it’s your first time as a CEO. Throughout my career as a mid-market CEO, I've experienced most of the ups and the downs: Exhilaration from building a company from the ground up and achieving a successful exit Exhaustion from continual 70-hour -
How to Break Through the $10 Million Revenue Barrier
- February 18, 2016
- Category: Leadership and People
Starting a company and growing it past $25 million in revenue is no small achievement. In fact, fewer than 25% of all US companies ever achieve this mark. To get there, you have to seize an opportunity, be aggressive, make intelligent decisions and take calculated risks. After passing the $5 million mark, most founders feel
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Volkswagen – Will It Collapse from a Lack of Values?
- September 29, 2015
- Category: Leadership and People
A week ago Friday, news broke that Volkswagen admitted to cheating on American air pollution tests. They did it by installing sophisticated software that was able to reduce vehicle emissions while the vehicle was being tested by emission control. This allowed their vehicles to pass emission tests yet emit up to 40 times the legal