CEO to CEO’s Thought Leadership Campaign Overview

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Thought Leadership Overview

We are launching a research-based thought leadership campaign leading up to our next book focused on growth drivers of emerging midsized companies (annual revenues between $15 and $150 million). Over the next two years, we will have a constant stream of research activity and publishing, including quantitative research, qualitative research, published articles, videos, whitepapers, small books and, finally, a full-size book.

Our nine growth drivers are grouped into three themes:

People
  1. Growth Driver #1: Consistently recruiting enough high-quality talent at all levels to fuel growth. (Scheduled for Spring 2019)
  2. Growth Driver #2: Actively developing the high-potential talent already within the organization, reducing the learning curve and internally supplying some of the leaders for the next generation. (Summer 2019)
  3. Growth Driver #3: Excellent teamwork, where teams throughout the organization enjoy working together in a cohesive fashion and are highly productive and effective. (Fall/Winter 2019)

Market
  1. Growth Driver #4: Sales and marketing functions that deliver predictable (and positive) results and can be scaled up to get more sales when desired. (Spring 2020)
  2. Growth Driver #5: Market intelligence gathering: Regularly collecting and recording information about the markets in which the company plays (competitors, customers, talent pools). (Summer 2020)
  3. Growth Driver #6: Growth strategy that is strategic, looking for and entertaining acquisitions, joint ventures, new regions and adjacent opportunities. (Fall/Winter 2020)

Execution (2021)
  1. Growth Driver #7: A data driven company that collects data systematically and analyzes it against targets on an ongoing basis to become more efficient and effective. (2021)
  2. Growth Driver #8: Planning. Firms create higher-level strategic plans that look forward 3-5 years, as well as separate shorter-term operational plans the clarify activities for all leaders in the year ahead.(2021)
  3. Growth Driver #9: Financial Capability: Firms clearly understand the financial wherewithal they have and the financial demands required to achieve their targets. Their accounting and finance functions not only record history with accuracy but anticipate the informational and financial needs for the future in detail. (2021)

For each growth driver, we will find and identify 100 qualifying companies for quantitative research, and from those we will do research interviews with about 10-15 of them to drive qualitative research. This is a follow-on research program after our research-based book, Mighty Midsized Companies; How Leaders Overcome 7 Silent Growth Killers. We are not looking at public companies or not-for-profits at this time.

During our research, we will post monthly articles/videos revealing interesting stories we have uncovered. Every four months, as our research wraps up for each growth driver, a white paper will be released which we will broadcast through webinars and other outreach. As we present the white paper, we will simultaneously be conducting research and writing the next growth driver/white paper. The vast majority of our findings will be shared first with those companies who participate in our research. They will see much deeper into our work and will have direct contact with the researchers.

When each theme is concluded, we will publish a 20,000-word book integrating the three drivers, available first to research participants. When all three themes (all nine drivers) are complete, we will publish a 60,000-word book covering the entire topic.

Quantitative Research

We are targeting delivery of quantitative research on about 1,000 privately-held emerging midsized companies. They first answer our initial survey, where we will confirm they qualify for the research program and collect some firmographics. Next they will all answer a survey asking a few questions for each growth driver, enabling us to broadly assess their level of performance in each. Based on their interests, each will be able to further participate in a survey for each of the growth drivers where they can answer a questions about best practices. With this information, we can correlate company performance with strengths in each driver, and use of certain best-practices.

We are also adding an objective, third-party assessment of their financial success relative to peer companies using a company called InfoVera, and their assessment tool called TEVO. With just seven financial data points and their NAICS code (industry classification), InfoVera benchmarks companies to their peers based on financial data collected by commercial banks and investment banks and rates them on a uniform scale from 300 to 850 (just like credit scores). This will provide an interesting analytical perspective to validate the impact of the nine drivers of growth on actual financial results relative to their peers.

Qualitative Research

After receiving the 100 quantitative survey results, we will select 10-15 companies to interview for each growth driver. Interviews with the CEO will be recorded and transcribed, but will be kept confidential. We will seek to understand the journey of each CEO and company. The focus of each interview will include understanding innovative best practices, real-world blockers to improved performance, what efforts were made to overcome the blockers, and whether their efforts were successful.

We will ask the CEO and his/her direct reports to take a DISC assessment to help us understand behavioral impacts on the nine growth drivers. We plan to use Everything DiSC’s Work of Leaders assessment on the CEOs to more deeply understand successes or failures in each of the nine growth drivers.

DISC is a tool to categorize people based on known behavioral tendencies. D = dominant; I = influential; S = steady; C = conscientious. One of the themes of the research is how these different personality types cope/adjust/interact to be more successful.

Examples:

With TEVO’s scores and DISC, we will analyze:

  1. What is the correlation between (L2) TEVO scores (performance based) and business acumen around the nine growth drivers.
  2. What is the correlation between (L2) TEVO scores and DISC types of CEOs (or their teams).
  3. What correlations exist between DISC types of CEOs and successful tactics discovered in our research.

ABOUT CEO TO CEO

CEO to CEO, Inc. improves the skills of the leadership team of midsized businesses who are navigating major shifts in their business or marketplace. We help these CEOs and their top teams rapidly elevate their game and lead their companies to the next level and beyond.

We work with the senior-most executive at companies or divisions with revenue from about $20 million to $500 million that are facing significant opportunities and challenges. Our clients are very talented CEOs who nonetheless feel they are still learning their craft; realize their company’s performance depends on improving their own performance; and want to enhance their skills rapidly and on the job.

Robert Sher, Founding Principal of the firm, is a columnist on Forbes.com and has published nearly 200 articles about mid-market business leadership and has written a book titled The Feel of the Deal: How I Built my Business Through Acquisitions. As an operating CEO, he successfully acquired and integrated four companies.

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About Robert Sher

Robert Sher, Author and CEO AdvisorRobert 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).
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Forbes.com columnist, author and CEO coach Robert Sher delivers keynotes and workshops, including combining content with facilitation of peer discussions on business topics.

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