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.”
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.
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?
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.
How can you make your workplace different in a way that will attract the highly skilled people you need most? Andrew Giacomini, Managing Partner at Hanson Bridgett, shows how an enlightened approach to team culture makes a law firm stand out.
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.
Too many entrepreneurs focus on the controllable risks, figuring that’s all they can manage. But John Keagy, CEO of ServePath, shows us how to focus on creating value while factoring in the uncontrollable risk: market acceptance.
Most CEOs don’t start thinking about selling their business until it’s too late. This piece explains why you are better off planning for a sale when things are going well.
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).