CEO Think: Blog
Legal Lessons for Mid-Sized Firms from the Apple-Samsung Patent War
Justice is generally NOT served when a big company does battle with a middle market company. Legal fees can crush the mid-market company long before any “just” outcome occurs. To a mid-market firm, the risks of waging legal war with a big firm can be enormous. READ MORE >
When Shooting for Growth Can Leave You Broke
What is the right way to determine how fast to spend when cash flow is negative? Read about how the confluence of market predictability, execution confidence and forecasting acumen affect good decision making. These three big variables must be taken into account long before the runway grows short.
Why You Need Dissatisfied Employees
Olympic athletes are NOT satisfied until they win their medal, so they work like crazy before competing. My newest Forbes.com post asserts that dissatisfied employees are essential. Not dissatisfied with their boss, their company or their job, but dissatisfied with the level of progress toward their goals. It lays out five key elements to keeping them in a healthy state of dissatisfaction.
Assessment Tool for Measuring Risk & Complexity of Acquisitions
Making an ill-advised acquisition can be deadly. Buying a company is a massive decision, often with high complexity and risk. But how risky and complex is your deal?
7 Essentials to Sell Your Company at a Premium
Imagine how bad it must feel for a business owner or CEO to toil for years, only to have to accept a low price (or nothing) when they sell the business. It happens all too often. This article lays out seven essentials for a pleasurable exit. Mid-market CEOs under-invest in training themselves on how to prepare their firms for an exit.
The Case for Stack Ranking of Employees
Increasing performance, reviewing performance, and rewarding performance are tough subjects that must be handled skillfully. Microsoft’s stack ranking of employees has been a topic of a number of posts recently that isn’t working out too well when it comes to their employees’ innovation. So how does the middle market company practice these evaluative techniques without alienating their employees or stifling the essential creativity necessary for growth?
Believe It or Not, Some CEOs are Underpaid
Far from the popular demonizing of CEOs as arrogant and greedy, too many mid-market CEOs actually think too little of themselves. They do not require their executive teams, business partners and boards to treat them with respect.
12 Signs that an Acquisition Will Crater
If half of all acquisitions fail, how can mid-market CEOs pick the winners and avoid the flops? This is the fundamental puzzle I am looking to solve with my recent research, and I’ve identified 12 critical risks CEOs must assess in a potential acquisition before they commit.
How to Assess the Headache Quotient of a Potential Acquisition
Assessing the complexity of risk of different types of acquisitions is a critical mid-market CEO skill. My Forbes.com post this week explains the importance of being able to forecast the complexity of planned acquisitions, and gives insights about how to do so.
Google Can Survive Too Much Innovation. You Can’t.
For a mid-market company, choosing where to place your innovation bets is a dangerous game. Where you spend your time and invest your dollars are decisions that can make or break you. How much time should a CEO and his team invest in looking at “new ideas?” And how does a CEO select the most promising innovations and ignore the rest?
Robert Sher is founding principal of CEO to CEO, a consulting firm of former chief executives that improves the leadership infrastructure of midsized companies seeking to accelerate their performance. He was chief executive of Bentley Publishing Group from 1984 to 2006 and steered the firm to become a leading player in its industry (decorative art publishing).