CEO Think: Blog
Innovation: Food Convergence
The convergence of the food, personal care, healthcare, and health services industries is happening, and this article explores opportunities in this area, and the deep strategic thinking that must happen for ideal positioning. READ MORE >
Who Holds the Presumption of Integrity?
Who has greater moral authority, the classy start-up or the established brand? Small companies are presumed to possess integrity and higher quality. But is this conclusion always valid?
Small Firm vs. Large Firm Innovation
Does innovation fundamentally differ when you’re talking small firms vs. big firms? Lisa Noble, CEO of Farmhouse Foods, provides some insights into what makes a company successful for more than a century.
The Answer is NOT Inside Your Head
Changing economic environments can kill business predictability. High level executives may have to work cross-departmentally when needed to galvanize the right combination of efforts. But they must do one thing for sure: stop thinking about it and get out there.
When a Business Tune-Up Isn’t Enough
Project your business trend lines out to 2020. Do you like what you see? Minor tune-ups may not do the job when you need an engine rebuild.
When Your Engine Conks Out
When the engine on your boat – or company – dies, what do you do? Here’s a case that may inspire those who worry they’ll lose their engine before arriving in port.
Surrendering Gracefully
Don’t be shy about fighting battles, even when the odds are long. But know how to pick your fights: there are some cases when you just can’t win. It’s all about getting beyond the problem with the least damage. Here’s my process for upping the win-loss average.
Out of the Industry Innovation
Innovation is required to keep our top line and bottom line growing over time. But why risk cash and time on innovating from scratch when you can find ready-to-go innovations in another industry? Here are two CEOs who did just that and improved their bottom lines in the process.
Connecting with your Team
Being a leader puts you in a powerful position to get more accomplished than doing it alone. But the transmission of that power is team communication. Without systematic and regular communication, you’re demoting yourself from leader to worker.
Robert Sher’s Performance Review Process
There are many ways to do this, and many points of view, but this is the process I use(d) in my company and find works quite well. View my presentation slides on this topic.
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).