A recent book published by A.G Lafley, the CEO of Proctor & Gamble and Ram Charan, the globe-trotting uber consultant, called The Game Changer is all about the turnaround at consumer giant Proctor & Gamble. Fortune carried an excerpt about it in their "America's Most Admired Companies" edition, which argues…
The NY Times recently published an article entitled “If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow“, a summary of research completed by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck and published in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Her mission was to try to better understand why certain people achieve their business potential while others fall short.
After thirty years of careful research, she concluded (more…)
In my column appearing in the North Bay Business Journal June 30 edition, I continue the series exploring the financial challenges of accelerated growth. This particular column illustrates the value of financial analysis, but more broadly, should encourage you to make sure you have strong financial leadership in your organization. My experience is that many middle market businesses consider that investment as “indirect overhead” and not as a productive source of profitability. Nothing could be farther from the truth and for evidence, (more…)
In our search for the quintessence of leadership, we've quoted many CEO's about the qualities of great leaders. Following the maxim that if failure doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management and founder of the non-profit Chief Executive Leadership Institute,…
Bill Taylor, the cofounder of Fast Company and author of Mavericks at Work, wrote a recent post about Zappos, the online shoe retailer that expects sales to top $1 billion this year after first year sales of $70 million only 5 years ago. In many ways, Zappos success is the…