Too much innovation at the top of a midsized company can kill growth.

• READ MORE

The world is littered with the hollowed-out shells of firms that tried to do too much and spent too big trying to grow too fast. Many of those firms were midsize companies; they didn’t have the resources of the big firms to sustain setbacks, nor were they scrappy like most small companies, making do with the resources they had.

• READ MORE

Taking your balance sheet and income statements for the past four years (or for any past set of periods) and putting them in common size format is a fast track to analyzing changes in your financial conditions.  There is just no way you can look at standard financial statements and see the same thing as quickly.

• READ MORE

Kiss growth goodbye without processes.  Truth be told, I get emotionally upset every time I see a firm with promising growth blow it due to poor processes.

• READ MORE

CEOs of midsized firms must learn to stop tinkering with their strategy.  Most midsized firms have core businesses begging to scale, and tinkering with a successful strategy kills growth.

• READ MORE

I had 22 venture capitalists around the table last week and the discussion was quite interesting. We focused on how early stage Israeli VCs can work with American VCs for the B round and beyond.

• READ MORE

There are times when a CEO should step down and replace himself.  Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft is doing just that.  I’m a big believer in CEOs.  They can do great things, and can adapt amazingly—if they have the energy and choose to change.  My work is all about helping CEOs step up their game.  But many CEOs, usually in tough times, wonder if they should hang it up.

• READ MORE

Robert Sher was quoted in the Inc. Magazine’s September print issue in this article about innovation— asserting that too much innovation can actually hurt your business.  The article reviews statistics that prove the point, and distinguishes between different types of innovation.

It underscores the importance of picking the best ideas—and developing them, as well as focusing on scaling high-growth core business opportunities to cash in on proven innovations, and to reduce focus on new ideas during those intense high-growth times.  Read the story on-line here.

• READ MORE

Writing a simple plan for a project or campaign—even just a page or two makes for better execution.  Why?  The writing forces more careful thinking, allows for better coordination between team members, and memorializes our best thinking.  They also are helpful in getting approvals from the boss and other team members.

• READ MORE