Many of you have heard me say that the key to being a successful midmarket CEO is to carefully manage the elements of your business that have the greatest impact on your company’s value. And many CEOs have a clear understanding of this and spend countless hours working to improve these areas of their business.

I always enjoy chatting with you about the things that are happening in your business and your life, and hearing your questions and providing recommendations. These conversations also remind me of how similar we are in our experiences and ideas. This post covers a topic I talk about often but haven’t written much about. The

Several years ago, I was working with the CEO of a client organization. We were working in his office on the 8th floor, and when the lunch hour arrived, we decided to head out for lunch and continue our work. Earlier that morning when I had arrived, I had taken the main elevator to the

I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that one of the greatest qualities of a leader is the ability to learn and use the art of delegation. Like so many who find themselves in charge of something, I bought into the old proverb, “if you want something done right then do

Many of us give careful consideration to the external threats to our company. Competition, economic conditions, global uncertainty, supply chain, cash flow and access to capital are all things that can harm our business. Some of us give careful consideration to the dangers lurking within our company – our people. However, our focus is typically

I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with many great CEOs of mid-market companies over my career – outstanding men and women who will leave a lasting impact on the business community. Some of them are innovators who created a new category of products or services. Some of them are professional managers who took

Recently, the Wall Street Journal discussed the scathing portrait of the General Motors Co. corporate culture, painted in the 315-page report on the company’s mishandling of deadly defects in ignition switches in up to 2.6 million cars. You can read the full report by Anton R. Valukas here. Before we dive into the report, let’s

Hiring is an interesting topic of discussion amongst executives. Most think they’re really good at it, but not everyone has the metrics to back up their claim. For the majority of mid-market companies, poor hiring creates the single greatest expense to the P&L. A single hiring mistake can cost as much as 5 times the