CEO Think: Blog
How Dynamic Cost Management Boosts the Bottom Line
Midsized firms dedicated to growth tend to focus on revenue, earning more and more as they expand. But the meaningful measure is the bottom line, and that means managing costs, an unheralded and often neglected task. Costs get set and then forgotten. Time passes, circumstances change, especially in a volatile period, and margins slip. Driving new business doesn’t by itself improve profitability.
How Midsized Companies Must Train Employees to Work to Standards
As midsized companies scale, the number of teams doing similar work grows, but the way they do those jobs can differ significantly – with mixed results. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) become essential – some at the working layer (warehouse, packers, sales, etc.) and some at the organizing layer (foremen, managers, etc.). Without clear processes, consistent across the company, efficiency and quality plummet. But are written SOPs enough? As you’ll learn, no.
Lessons from One Law Firm’s Pre-Pandemic Shift to Hybrid Work
Description: Now that people are putting their masks aside, company leaders are faced with a litany of operational and cultural questions about when and how to return to the office. Hanson Bridgett — a full-service, midsize law firm in California — began working on all that (and more) about 14 months before the pandemic began. The firm’s leadership didn’t foresee the crisis, but starting in 2018, they had been looking to reduce fixed costs and spend the savings in creative ways to become more competitive. In this article, I present four lessons from the firm’s successful shift to remote and hybrid work. As Hanson Bridgett has demonstrated, announcing a hybrid work policy does not mean immediate implementation. They’ll patiently work out the details, communicate carefully, achieve alignment, and then implement. Midsize companies would be well advised to do the same.
How Midsized Companies Can Train Their Managers
Company leadership spend a lot of time running the place, but do they forge a common view with managers of actually how to manage? Many managers are promoted through the ranks and have never studied management. Those who have bring diverse perspectives and approaches. So leadership often does not share the same language of management. Problem-solving discussions may resolve an immediate issue, but how can leadership coalesce around a unified approach at a deeper level?
Beyond the Tipping Point: How Teamwork Drives Midsize Company Growth
The CEO didn’t grasp it at first, but he and his company had just reached the “tipping point.” His response, personally and as the firm’s leader, would determine whether recent growth would continue or whether the company would stagnate and fail to reach its potential.
How To Raise Your Employment Offer Acceptance Rates With Kindness
Finding the best candidates in a hyper competitive market is challenging enough. But once you have made your choice, how do you make sure top talent accepts your offer?
How Midsized Companies Can Launch Powerful Mentoring Programs
The once fledgling start-up has become a thriving midsize company, yet the core knowledge remains rooted in a small group of senior leaders with careers winding down. Unless the expertise – and the culture – are spread, the excellence that propelled growth can dissipate. How can a hectic enterprise share core competencies and keep driving growth as another generation leads?
Keeping Score: Getting the Best Out of Hiring Panels
Hiring panels can be a mixed bag, and don’t always deliver. Multiple interviewers should bring more viewpoints and help dig deeper and choose the best candidates from the pool.
How Midsize Companies Can Adapt to Changing Demand
Description: The pandemic has accelerated change that will significantly affect demand trends, and forward-thinking midsize companies must understand the change in demand patterns and adapt through innovation. One midsize company, Kern Oil & Refining Co., has an impressive track record of adapting to major changes in demand. They’ve been successful because of three main capabilities: investments in innovation, extensive external information-gathering, and a culture of collaboration. Midsize companies in every industry can have a big role in making the future better. But their work must begin now, fueled by systematic investment in those three areas.
Be Intentional About Your Culture
By Megan Patton
Principal and People Practice Leader
Company culture serves as the background for everything the company does. It incorporates philosophies around how the company treats its people, customers and vendors and how it is perceived both in the marketplace and as an employer. Culture drives conversations around values, implementation of policies, development and growth of employees and how to both on-board and off-board individuals. In short, culture defines how people behave within a company.
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).