The CEO’s Playbook For Growth In An Uncertain Economy
April 29, 2025
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The founder of a $600 million construction company recently called me, frustrated with the younger leaders he was bringing up in the business to take over for him. “Okay, so what is the soul of your business?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he told me.
“What’s been the key to getting from startup to $600 million?” I asked. He knew the answer immediately. “We do very complex projects,” he said. “Through it all—the Great Recession, supply-chain challenges, the pandemic—we never missed a deadline. In a way, the promise that we deliver on time, is the essence of our strategy. Now, we’ve missed four deadlines in the last 36 months.”
It was clear: He needed to return to Founder Mode. “Dave,” I told him. “I give you permission to go back in and maniacally micromanage that piece of the company until you find the person who can do it as well or better than you.”
When Airbnb founder Brian Chesky shared at a Y Combinator event how running his company like a corporate manager led him astray, he touched off a firestorm. Y Combinator founder Paul Graham wrote a viral “Founder Mode” essay on the difference between corporate Manager Mode and Founder Mode.
Most of those chiming in missed something crucial: Founder Mode isn’t about micromanaging for its own sake. It is about remaining focused on the business’ soul. As Tom Peters famously said, you can outsource everything but a company’s soul. I would argue you can delegate everything but the soul.
It’s the founder’s job to be hands-on with the soul of the business. You are allowed to be a maniacal micromanager—and even be an a-hole if needed—because you cannot let the soul slip away.
To protect the company’s soul, you need to identify what drove its success and remain dedicated to it until someone equally committed can take over.
Steve Jobs understood this. He fixated on design at Apple because that was the company’s soul, lunching daily with former design chief Jony Ive to keep this front and center. Ive maintained that focus after Jobs passed away, but after Ive left in 2021, innovation stagnated.
Randy Amon, founder of ABL Electronics (later sold to APC), emphasized his focus on the customer experience (the company’s soul) by handing out business cards reading “Head of Customer Service” with “Owner” underneath it. His obsession with getting that aspect of his business right led to an innovation he personally spearheaded—a transformative time-saving technology for his industry. Randy went on to be SVP of customer care for $40 billion Schneider Electric when it purchased APC, injecting his obsession into this behemoth organization.
A key to keeping the soul alive is having team members experience it firsthand. Aflac requires every employee to file a claim to better understand that customer experience. Ritz-Carlton’s Horst Schulze had his “ladies and gentlemen” (his label for employees) stay at five-star resorts to see what the customer experience should be for the other “ladies and gentlemen” (customers) they served.
Acquirers purchasing valuable firms often inadvertently strip away a company’s soul in the push for efficiency, ultimately destroying value along the way. One founder who perfected the integration of acquisitions through an intense focus on the employee experience saw his process ruined by the strategic firm that acquired him. That firm later sold the division for a fraction of what they paid.
The bottom line is that the soul matters—design, the customer experience, the algorithm, on-time delivery, etc.—and the founder’s job is to keep it alive. Too much is at stake to let a company lose its soul.
Chief Executive Group exists to improve the performance of U.S. CEOs, senior executives and public-company directors, helping you grow your companies, build your communities and strengthen society. Learn more at chiefexecutivegroup.com.
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