Family Business – Page 17 – www.exkalibur.com

Death … Taxes … AND Succession Planning!

The sudden resignation of Ken Lewis from Bank of America highlights, yet again, the risks that family and other businesses take in failing to prepare for the inevitable succession of leadership.
A succession plan doesn’t mean you have all the work done and the perfect successor is comfortably waiting in the wings, although that would be desirable. It does mean, at a minimum, that you have an interim CEO in place who can hold down the fort while certain details are worked out and long term plans are implemented. Developing an emergency plan also gives the Board or family a chance to discuss these often thorny subjects without stockholder worries, employee hand-wringing or the emotional burden that comes with a fallen leader.
Often, this process highlight gaps within the family or board about the suitability of a particular successor. (more…)

Jobs Credit: White Elephant? Red Herring?

How do you create jobs? Finally, this question is finally getting some attention in Washington ... sadly, it took increasing painful unemployment reports to get this front and center ... but from the ground floor where we live, I don't see the efficacy of some of the programs being considered.…

CEO Round Table – Q309 Update

During the last several meetings of the CEO Round Table, we’ve invested a lot of time with leading experts to discuss “Talent Management” issues. Experienced CEO’s understand that building a high performance company centers around the recruiting, retention and performance of talented executives. In building our knowledge and insights into these critical challenges, we’ve improved our recruiting skills, launched goal and performance management initiatives among member companies and learned about the strengths and weaknesses of compensation as a high performance driver.
In my experience, few CEO’s devote the necessary time to Talent Management. (more…)

SBA Loan Program disappoints again

Despite all the recent publicity about the SBA's "helping hand" to small business, recent reports tell another story. Loan volume in dollars is down $3.6 billion, around 27%, and 25,000 fewer businesses have been served this year. Pretty woeful record when programs to support Wall St. and the banking industry…

More Accountabilty for Directors?

Gretchen Morgenson, a NY Times columnist, reports that shareholders are speaking out more than ever as they seek to hold directors accountable. It's a welcome trend, as we know that too many directors are really just cronies of the owners and don't provide the unbiased, independent feedback that's expected of…

Why Planning is critical – and why you don’t do it!

The need for planning is a common theme at Exkalibur and John Maxwell, a well-recognized source of leadership insights, has written extensively on this subject. He recently wrote about Principle-Centered Planning as a way to emphasize the value of planning, particularly in such uncertain times. His metaphor about white-water rafting…

Congratulations to Mary’s Pizza Shack

Congratulations to Vince Albano, CEO and member of the CEO Round Table, and his entire family and team. They have just been awarded Business of the Year by the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce.Vince was elected as CEO in June as part of a realignment within the Mary's Pizza Shack…

Win in a tough economy

You've heard much of it here before ... Take Action, Plan Carefully ... so take a minute to reinforce that mantra by reading a short article from the Harvard Business web site from Jeff Stibel, brain scientist and entrepreneur.As we know, small businesses employ more than half of our private…

Small Business Loan Program? small ….

Small-business owners applauded when the Small Business Administration unveiled a lending program in May. But ... no surprise here ... the program is off to a slow start. With $255 million, the program is prepared to make about 10,000 loans of up to $35,000 each. As of Monday, the agency…