Salmon are destined to die after swimming upstream. Downturns can make businesses feel like they’re nearing the end too. But companies and their CEOs have the potential to re-invent themselves, depending on their environment. Here are five forces that determine whether your environment is “structurally favorable.”
The market and your competition are changing all the time. Similarly, the sales and marketing function of your business needs tending all the time. But which principles apply to business aspects that are 80% science and 20% art?
Any business cycle downturn produces unique opportunities for the CEO who is prepared to take advantage. What systems and people should you have in place, and when should you strike?
In the adverse conditions that exist in today’s economy, CEOs must be realistic about achievable objectives, not over-spending or panicking in futile attempts to grow revenues or profits. What’s your call: do you change direction or continue to buck the headwinds?
It’s time for all us CEOs to begin practicing the skills of managing in a rebounding economy. Not that all of us are out of practice; companies rebound in all sorts of economic conditions. And companies go through their own personal “downturns” all the time–even in a strong economy.
Why do businesses, or projects, or business leaders get stuck from time to time? Much of my consulting practice seems to center around this issue. I’ve identified five reasons why companies get stuck in the first place.
Businesses grow and win because they invest in areas that make them more unique, and more special. They do not succeed because they invest their cash so that they can save overhead. So how should we be investing in our businesses so they emerge better and stronger? There are three basic parts to the process.
Partnerships between two firms are often difficult to manage and often fail to bring results. This essay digs into one of the more extreme partnerships and how it was made to work with Igor Gonda, CEO of Aradigm Corporation (OTCBB:ARDM), a life sciences firm.
Entrepreneurial vision can translate into business success. Cecilia Trost and David Marks of TEECOM demonstrate how discipline and organization can transform potential into performance.
Having the cash to grow is usually the last prerequisite before implementation of the growth plan. But there are many other prerequisites that take longer than getting money. You need a proven, repeatable, scalable process that you’ve tested, that can produce predictable results.
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).