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Six Myths About Venture Capital Offer Dose of Reality to Startups

Venture capital is the exception, not the norm, as a funding source for startups. More VC-backed new companies fail than succeed, and since 1999 VC funds have barely broken even. Those are just some of the myth-busting facts revealed by Diane Mulcahy, director of private equity at the Kauffman Foundation and a former VC herself, in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review that focuses on entrepreneurship.

ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter April 25 2013

How to Avoid the Seven Sins of Customer Experience

Customer experience can ultimately be an organization’s primary competitive advantage, if it is managed correctly. Exceptional customer service produces loyal customers who buy more, refer friends, resist special offers from competitors and forgive the occasional mistake. A new research report on customer experience sheds new light on the “seven sins” of customer experience — key missteps that make organizations stumble when it comes to customer interaction.

 Sharon Daniels CEO Briefing Newsletter , Leadership & Strategy April 18 2013

Most CEOs Rise Early; Few Complain About Work/Life Balance

The Guardian newspaper’s Tim Dowling, Laura Barnett and Patrick Kingsley spoke to seven CEOs including AOL, Vodafone, Virgin Money, and Ericsson about their work/life habits and learned than most CEOs start their day by rising as early as 5:00 Am in order to sort through their commitments. The reporters sought to learn how seven successful people manage their affairs and become high effective.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter , Leadership & Strategy April 18 2013

5 Critical Errors That Triggered Ron Johnson’s Removal at JC Penney

17 months after he recruited former Apple retail executive Ron Johnson to run J.C. Penney, hedge fund manager and activist investor William Ackman led the revolt that ousted his own pick. Other Apple veterans who followed Johnson are headed for the exits as well. Could any of this have been prevented? What were the major mistakes that led to the ouster? Time magazine’s Brian Tuttle points to five big mistakes that led to Johnson’s ouster.

ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter , Leadership & Strategy April 18 2013

Smart Manufacturing vs. Robots: Why America’s Manufacturers May Have a Bigger Image Problem than They Thought

When asked to describe the impact on the economy of modernizing factories with advanced technology and automation, nearly two-thirds of Americans told pollsters that it either made no difference or actually hurt the economy, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal Economics Bureau Chief, Timothy Aeppel. The percentage who thought it was bad—37 percent of the total—rose with lower household income and among those with lower education. But even among the well-educated and better-off, there was a surprising degree of rage against the machines. 31 percent of those with incomes over $100,000 said modernizing factories hurt the economy, while a quarter of college graduates felt that way.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter April 9 2013

The Four Best (and Worst) Uses of Market Research

In an informal poll of top executives the single biggest obstacle to successful innovation was, “actionable insights.” Yet every year companies spend billions of dollars in search of “actionable insights” only to come up empty-handed. To add insult to injury, in many categories, breakthrough innovations are launched by unproven upstarts, begging the question: How is it that small teams with modest resources and limited industry experience are repeatedly able to win the innovation contest?

 Taddy Hall CEO Briefing Newsletter April 9 2013

Why H-P is a Poster Child for Dysfunctional Governance and Silicon Valley Incestuousness

Ray Lane will step down as chairman of Hewlett-Packard after a rocky two-and-a-half-year tenure. The surprise move is in addition to the surprise resignations of two other board directors, John Hammergren, CEO of McKesson, and G. Kennedy Thompson, former CEO of Wachovia, who nearly lost their seats at the March annual meeting.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter April 9 2013

CEO Confidence Jumps 9.5% in April to Highest Level Since May 2011

The CEO Confidence Index, Chief Executive’s monthly gauge of CEOs’ expectations for business conditions for the next 12 months, saw its highest month-over-month gain in the past two years, rising 9.5% to 6.07 out of a possible 10.

ChiefExecutive.net CEO Confidence Index April 8 2013

The Sage of Omaha Speaks to CEOs About Uncertainty

Warren Buffett chides CEOs about their “hand-wringing” over “uncertainty” when faced with capital allocation decisions. In his 2012 Berkshire Hathaway annual report, Buffett says America has faced the unknown since 1776 and that “opportunities abound for America. Further he says “American business will do fine over time. And stocks will do well just as certainly, since their fate is tied to business performance.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter April 3 2013

Making Sense of CEO Pay

Two contrary developments reveal decidedly mixed developments in CEO compensation. In order to justify its pay to its top executives, Citibank is forever fiddling with the rivals it compares itself with. Conversely, in a clear sign that it is unhappy with the direction of the company the board of J.C. Penney cut the pay of its CEO Ron Johnson by almost 97 percent.

 ChiefExecutive.net CEO Briefing Newsletter April 3 2013

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