February 2013
Are You Still Struggling With Uncertainty?
We can all agree that the level of uncertainty in today’s business environment is high and most likely will be no less in the future. Faced with ongoing uncertainty, we are seeing many business owners and CEO’s dismissing the value of strategy because they believe it’s too static. In many cases these leaders have the […]
January 2013
Family Business Owners on Public Policy
Economists seem to be in agreement that 2013 will be a repeat of 2012, with only a slight uptick. GDP growth will be at best 2%, unemployment marginally better at 7.5%, and consumer confidence flat to slightly up. A recent survey completed by the Family Enterprise USA (FEUSA), an independent non-profit organization, provides a look […]
December 2012
Who is the Chief Execution Officer?
One would think the answer to this question should be fairly simple. However, the sad reality is that most organizations really do not understand what the title and responsibilities of Chief Execution Officer involves. In our experience, the problem stems from the fact that most Chief Executive Officers and leadership teams don’t have the skills […]
November 2012
How Can Organizational Structure Unlock Strategy?
Even though 2012 elections are now decided, they will not reduce the “dizzying velocity of change in our economy,” as stated by Robert Safian author of Secrets of a Generation Flux Leader (Fast Company – November 2012). We are witnessing the boom of companies such as Apple, Facebook and Amazon; and the bust of companies […]
October 2012
Stop Wasting Valuable Business Resources
I had a client recently tell me that one of his mature, declining businesses needed to be resurrected. In reality, the market dynamics were all running against this decision. The product line had run its useful course as substitutes were becoming more important to the end user. Competitors were dropping pricing to maintain share and […]
September 2012
Execution Intelligence (XQ)—Without it, You Can’t Succeed
If you have been following our newsletters, you know we are fans of Harvey McKay, author of several books including one of his original books, Swim With the Sharks, and his most recent, The McKay MBA of Selling in the Real World. In a recent newsletter, McKay wrote about the importance of execution. Consultants would […]
August 2012
Why Companies Struggle to Execute Strategy?
The focus of many of our past newsletters has been the importance of strategy execution (i.e., realizing an organization’s vision [February 2011]; the principles of good strategy execution [March 2012]). Yet, recent research suggests that senior management continues to struggle with the challenge of executing strategy (McKinsey, January 2011; Strategy institute for thought leadership, July […]
July 2012
Business Killer – Complacency
From the Wall Street Journal, Friday, May 18, 2012…”Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chairman and CEO had just committed the most expensive blunder of his 30-year career, failing to detect the risk of trades that had begun to generate huge losses at the bank.” Dimon was quoted as saying “The big lesson I learned: […]
April 2012
What is Strategy?
I recently came across an article written by Steve Tobak published on CBSNews.com. Steve is a former tech executive and now a strategy consultant to that industry. His article really resonated with me because over the years I have spoken to hundreds of owners, CEOs and Presidents and in many cases, whenever I ask the […]
March 2012
Why Are We Not Achieving our Strategic Goals?
Does this sound familiar to you? You’ve held your strategic planning meeting with your management team late last year, identified key strategic projects, assigned responsibilities and you were off and running. Everyone was on board, or so it seemed. What’s happening? Why are we not making any progress against these projects that are critical to […]
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