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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

Intel’s Software Inside Is on the Rise

“If Intel’s future chief executives continue rising through its ranks, then the real news isn’t that Intel named Brian Krzanich its sixth CEO. It’s that Intel software chief Renee James may be in line to succeed him,” writes Mark Hachman reporting for ReadWrite.com. Intel’s CEOs generally emerge from the president’s office or that of the COO—Krzanich’s former job. Last November, the elevation of Renee James by Intel’s chairman Andy Bryant, along with Krzanich, Dadi Perlmutter, Intel’s chief of its chip business, and Arvind Sodhani, head of the company’s internal VC unit, Intel Capital, as possible successors to Paul Otellini, marked a departure for famed semiconductor company.

ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter May 9 2013

States in Fierce Competition Over Tax Reform

Just as countries vie with one another to be agreeable places in which to do business by having congenial tax rates, U.S, states have come to realize that in order to attract jobs and diversify revenue, they too, must adjust their tax structure accordingly. Long having struggled to attract business and diversify its economy, New Mexico recently passed a tax reform package which will likely cause nearby states like Arizona, California and Nevada to take notice and possibly rethink their own efforts at reform. Texas’ governor Rick Perry, who runs a fairly low-tax state environment, is calling for even more reductions.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter May 9 2013

The Power of Recognition

Effective employee recognition boosts performance—but what makes a program effective?

 CJ Prince CEO Briefing Newsletter , Leadership & Strategy May 8 2013

2013 Best & Worst States for Business

In Chief Executive’s ninth annual survey of CEO opinion of Best and Worst States in which to do business, Texas leads the way while Florida edges closer; Arizona and Nevada move up while California sinks lower in CEOs’ estimation. Business leaders see states moving on pro-growth policies faster than Washington.

 JP Donlon Best & Worst States May 6 2013

Five Questions Board Members Need to Ask About Cloud Computing

Board members are hearing more and more from their management teams about the noteworthy business benefits of cloud computing, such as: Cloud strategies make the enterprise more efficient and agile. Cloud computing allows delivered services to be more innovative and more competitive. Cloud computing reduces overall operating costs. But how confident can boards be that management plans will achieve these benefits? Is there a way to know that, even if the benefits are real, increased operational risk will not outweigh those benefits? Fortunately, by understanding what cloud is and what it is not and by asking a few key questions of management teams, boards can gain that confidence—in management plans and strategic goals, as well as in the decisions made in response to those plans.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter May 2 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

Why CEOs Must be Ninja Innovators

Successful innovators often rely on instructive failure, particularly when it tempers success and corrects for arrogance. Ninja innovators never stop learning from others.

 Gary Shapiro CEO Briefing Newsletter April 29 2013

How Smart Manufacturing Changes Everything

Automation of processes that increase yield and raise productivity, is the core of what people think of when they speak of smart manufacturing. Smart is not limited to process change but opens the door to the use of new materials. Rather than stocking inventory 3-D printing capability allows custom built job-lots of one. Smart is certainly transforming manufacturing but it also transforms companies themselves. Witness Valin Corp. a San Jose supplier to the semiconductor that nearly perished in the wake of the dotcom bust of 2001.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter April 25 2013

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