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To Lead with Authenticity, Embrace Struggle

Struggle and leadership are unquestionably intertwined. Whether attempting to turnaround a fledgling organization, trying to discern the best way forward in today’s competitive marketplace, or rallying stakeholders around a new initiative, struggle is simply par for the leadership course. Yet cultural taboos have prevented executives from speaking openly about their struggles, fearing that such disclosure would indicate weakness, indecisiveness, or even incompetence.

Steven Snyder CEO Briefing Newsletter June 12 2013

Fact Versus Fiction for Nearshoring and Onshoring: Global Supply Chains Are Here to Stay

The death of the global supply chain is premature. Some media report that US labor costs are lower than China labor costs. Others contend that fuel costs are so high that global trade is no longer cost effective. And then we have those that only look at how shipping times from Asia to the US have become longer, creating issues from an agility perspective. While each of these perspectives is true, they are not valid augments for relinquishing global supply chains and bringing manufacturing closer to home with onshoring and nearshoring.

James A. Tompkins CEO Briefing Newsletter June 12 2013

3 Rules for Understanding How Value Leads to Better Performance

The first rule is “Better Before Cheaper”: being price competitive is far from irrelevant but when it comes to position in a market, exceptional performance is caused most often by greater non-price value rather than lower price. There are two dimensions of value along which any company can differentiate itself: price value and non-price value. Research reveals that exceptional companies typically focus on non-price value, even if that means they have to charge higher prices. Price-based competition is a legitimate strategy. Competing with better, rather than cheaper is systematically associated with better long-term performance.

 Michael E. Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmad CEO Briefing Newsletter June 6 2013

Before You Buy That Aircraft! Consider a Few Critical Tax Considerations

A CPA serving middle market companies notes how CEOs can get carried away when it comes to acquiring an aircraft—and offers four tips to avoid ugly surprises.

 David Rosen CEO Briefing Newsletter June 6 2013

Rinse and Repeat: What’s Behind the Encore Succession at P&G

Procter & Gamble’s announcement that A.G. Lafley, who ran the 175-year-old Cincinnati consumer products company from 2000 to 2009, would replace CEO Bob McDonald, set business pundits and cable channel talking heads into overdrive. Wasn’t Lafley partially responsible for the current state of affairs at P&G? What about the board of directors? Is Lafley’s recall a knee jerk reaction or master stroke of pragmatism?

 Steve Rosenbaum CEO Briefing Newsletter June 6 2013

Are You Really Ready for Disruptive Innovation?

Innovation is like ice cream – it sounds great and comes in many different flavors. But innovation is not always a simple or quick decision for any organization, not even for those that make continuous transformation look easy and seamless like Salesforce.com. Salesforce – the company that pioneered and continues to dominate the now crowded Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market – has always been innovative. As its founder and CEO Marc Beinoff remarked in his Consumer Electronics Show keynote address earlier this year, an innovative spirit fuels almost everything Salesforce does today.

Patrice Murphy and Daniel Dworkin CEO Briefing Newsletter May 30 2013

IT Is too Important to Leave to the Technologists

It’s no secret that information technology is core to modern business. To make the most of IT investments and innovations, chief executives must understand how technologies enable their company’s competitive advantage. Yet how many of today’s CIOs are considered the leading candidates to succeed their CEOs? Precious few—a weakness that CEOs and their boards should consider changing.

Alan Kisling CEO Briefing Newsletter May 22 2013

Learn (Don’t Just Manage): Three Critical Steps to Help Navigate Through Perilous Moments

Nearly a quarter century has passed since Stephen Covey, who sold 20 million books and authored Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, cautioned against allowing the urgent to crowd out the important. He reminded leaders of the tremendous pull of the urgent demands of today and advised being more mindful of addressing the complex challenges of tomorrow. Covey’s wisdom and insight remain timeless, but the demands of our volatile and uncertain world have exposed an even greater vulnerability. CEOs should note three critical steps: getting unstuck; building new capabilities and routines; and sustaining the changes.

 Kerry Bunker, Art Gechman, and Jim Rush CEO Briefing Newsletter May 9 2013

Leaving a Legacy: Embedding Success—and Succession—In Your Organization

How difficult is it for a company to remain on the Fortune 500 list? Jim Collins, of Built to Last fame, wrote in 2008 that since the list’s inception, nearly 2,000 companies have appeared on it—and only 71 companies from the original 1955 list were still running strong. The Kauffman Foundation, in a recent report, noted that after seeing relatively low turnover in the 1960s and 70s, Fortune 500 turnover accelerated to new highs in the 80s and 90s. And Peter Senge of MIT’s Sloan School of Management writes that the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company is only about 30 years. With such an uneven record, any successful CEO preparing to depart from his or her company should rightly be concerned about the legacy he or she is leaving behind—but that legacy is about far more than the CEO.

 Randy Ottinger CEO Briefing Newsletter May 2 2013

Four Fundamentals of Revenue Growth

With recovery from the recession still moving at a snail’s pace, how worried should you be about your company’s future revenue growth? In a word: very. “But wait,” you might say. “Corporate profits are at their highest levels in 60 years, with profitability as a percentage of GDP at an all-time high of 10.3 percent. Companies are holding trillions in cash reserves, and are looking stronger than ever after squeezing every dollar of cost they could find out of their operations over the past four years.” This is correct, but it fails to tell the whole story.

Laurie Brunner CEO Briefing Newsletter May 2 2013

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