Who is Brian Deese?
Do you know who Brian Deese is? I didn't have a clue until Monday when I read a very disconcerting New York Times article entitled: "The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling GM." Well, Brian Deese is in fact the 31-year old staffer for President Obama referenced in the aforementioned article, and who also happens to be the primary influencer/driver behind the policy decisions now guiding GM. This…
Workforce Reduction…
Workforce reduction is not an operating strategy...Regrettably, tough economic times are often the precursor for ushering in massive rounds of corporate downsizing, rightsizing, layoffs, corporate restructurings, and the like. Reducing headcount in an economic downturn is almost a Pavlovian response for many executives. It's as if workforce reduction is priority number one in some corporate…
Are You A Thought Leader?
Thought Leadership…What is a thought leader, and what does thought leadership mean in today’s business world? As much as some people wish it wasn’t so, a thought leader is not someone who simply restates someone else’s views and positions. Furthermore, beyond uniqueness of thought, a true thought leader’s positions also challenge established norms and conventions. Moreover, the true litmus test…
Ego and the Art of the Deal
While the art of closing a deal requires great skill, it takes almost no effort whatsoever to blow-up a transaction. One of the fastest ways to watch a deal vaporize right before your eyes is to let your ego write checks that your skill can't cash. If you want to close the deal, be sure and check your ego at the door. Over the years I have watched over-inflated egos kill more deals than virtually…
CEO Surveys
Do CEO Surveys constitute a reliable bellwether, or are they little more than well packaged corporate propaganda pieces? The answer is yes on both accounts. Not only does N2Growth conduct CEO Surveys, but so do most other consultancies. It has been my experience that the determining factor in whether or not CEO surveys are reliable can be found solely in whether or not the data is being published…
What would you do?
What would you do if you didn't need to work? Would you golf more, travel, volunteer, spend time with family and friends, teach, or go into politics? A friend of mine called me today, told me that the sale of his business had closed and that he had enough money to never need to work again. He informed me that he had put together a list of people he respected and was calling to ask what I would do…
Crisis Management Can Be Profitable
Crisis management can in fact be a profitable endeavour when handled properly. If you are in business for any length of time you will at some point in time be party (willing or unwilling) to a major crisis that can affect not only the company you work for, but your career as well. A large portion of my practice deals with advising corporations and executives during a crisis to protect the…
The Hierarchy of Knowledge
Today's Myatt on Monday's question comes from a CEO who asks: "what is the best way for me to synthesize the overwhelming amount of incoming information I receive while making the best decisions possible in a timely fashion?" While I have written often on the subject of decision making, today's question is a bit more narrow in scope asking for advice surrounding the filtering of various inputs.…
Attorney-Client Privilege
Attorney-client privilege is an often discussed and mostly misunderstood legal enigma. It has been my experience that many business people don't have a clear understanding of when this privilege exists and when it doesn't. This possibility for confusion can sometimes lead to a consumer of legal services thinking that their legal matters are protected when they are not...In fact, I had an…
Employment Agreements
The need for a sound employment agreement is not something to be trivialized. I recently received an e-mail from a CEO who was unceremoniously "asked" to resign by his board of directors. He asked me to author a post on the value of employment agreements in the hope of preventing other CEOs from unnecessarily subjecting themselves to a forced resignation scenario. So, in today's post, I'll…
Blogging for M&A
I think it's fair to say that Blogging for M&A has arrived when two banks merging spawns a blog. I saw a tweet (code for twitter post) from Dan Schawbel about the new Wells Fargo - Wachovia Blog which is dedicated to topics directly related to the Wells Fargo / Wachovia merger, and I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to applaud the efforts of Wells Fargo on this initiative. This is the…
The Counter-Intuitive CEO
Great CEOs are counter-intuitive. They don't subscribe to herd mentality, rather they use their contrarian instincts to exploit opportunities, to create advantage, to build strong leadership teams, to expand market share, and to increase brand equity. A global recession is nothing more than an excuse for poor leaders to assign blame for weak performance elsewhere. [Tweet "The counter-intuitive…
The Next Collapse…
It seems as if the more layers of the onion we peel back on the chaos in the capital markets the worse the news seems to be. I have long been a believer in the axiom "where there's smoke, there's fire," and trust me when I tell you that the fire is far from being under control, much less extinguished. You see while most of the attention in the mainstream media has been focused on the debacle in…
Increasing Sales in a Down Economy
Increasing sales in a down economy should be a subject near and dear to the heart of all those that read this blog. Few things are as important in today's economy as building your sales funnel and increasing revenue. It is no wonder that amongst the most frequent e-mail inquiries I receive each week are messages asking for suggestions about how to increase sales. This week I received an e-mail…
Are CEOs Getting a Bad Rap
Are CEOs getting a bad rap? In a word, yes. As a top CEO coach, I can tell you that CEOs are under siege...in fact, I would go so far as to say that CEOs as an occupational class are in a state of crisis. I understand that Americans are upset about the economic debacle we find ourselves presently entangled in. I'm upset and outraged as well. What's frustrating to most is that there are many more…
CEO Job Searches
CEO job searches are extremely competitive in today's market. Other than running for political office, there is no interview process that will subject you to such a rigorous vetting process. I was recently interviewed for the September issue of "CareerSmart Advisor" in which I was asked to articulate what it takes to successfully secure a CEO position. In the text that follows I have provided a…