CEO to CEO

You Don’t Have to Swim Upstream

By Robert Sher

It’s been a tough year. Maybe a tough two years. Most chief executives and business owners have kept cranking, pounding away in an effort to make things work. I admire that. It shows determination and resolve, and a positive attitude. I’ve logged many years like that as a CEO, over several downturns. But please, just for a bit, leave the front lines and retreat to the general’s tent, take off your helmet and armor, and over a nice salmon dinner, think about strategy.

The tasty salmon makes you think about a salmon, swimming upstream, jumping up waterfalls, fighting fast currents and dodging bears to arrive at its desired destination. There it mates, lots of eggs are laid, and it dies. Yes, dies.

Are Your Circuit Breakers about to BLOW?

By Robert Sher
There's a lot happening right now in many businesses, and CEO's dashboards are lit up with indicators of overheating, stalling, low fuel and more. I'm starting to hear comments like, "I'm afraid to look at that project", and "We don't talk often (the CEO to the VP) and that's probably good". Comments like that give me insomnia.Download Jan 09 Edition

The Convergence of Business Discipline and Vision

Summary: A corporate executive writes a business plan in her MBA program and leaves the corporate life to become an entrepreneur. She picks an excellent opportunity based on sound research and executives the plan with discipline year after year. Twelve years later the business is going strong and is poised for another growth spurt.

Investing in Growth or Throwing Cash Away?

Summary: Too many businesses spend their positive cash flow on failed attempts to scale up. The article discusses the process for proving scalability of a sales and marketing engine long before starting the spending.

Choosing Relationships over Meteoric Growth

Summary: Two female business partners are offered a huge piece of business by a key client. Although initially excited, they think long and hard about the pros and cons of saying yes. Read how the decision went and what they ultimately decided.

What if the grass really is greener on the other side?

Summary: Sometimes, in business, it’s best to jump ship from your current course. The answers to the following questions will help the reader assess their motivations for moving on as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

Creating and Owning a Category

Summary: This CEO has a system for finding new market categories and taking commanding market share leadership. He's done it over and over again, and he tells us how in this essay.

Leaping Ahead: Courage or Discipline?

Summary: Read how taking leaps with your business can pay huge dividends. By having the courage and discipline to put innovative business ideas into action, the owner gained huge competitive advantages. The concept is laid out, as well as important steps to get started.

Business Temptation

Summary: Thriving business gets customer requests to jump into a new business. After resisting, they go for it with excellent success. When is it wise to start another business?

The Overly Optimistic Entrepreneur

Summary: Optimism is a natural part of entrepreneurship, but it can go too far. A bad string of luck nearly sinks the CEO’s dreams before persistence starts to pay off.