“ … organizational culture represents the collective values, beliefs, and principles of organizational members and is a product of such factors as history, product, market, technology, and strategy, type of employees, management style, and national culture. Culture includes the organization’s vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits.” —excerpt from Wikipedia’s definition of […]
I discuss strategy with my colleague, Don Van Winkle. Take a listen! Todd Ordal coaches CEOs to higher levels of success. He is a former CEO and has led teams as large as 7,000 people. Todd is the author of, Never Kick a Cow Chip On A Hot Day: Real Lessons for Real CEOs and Those […]
There’s a huge difference Todd Ordal Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Is it Superman? No, it’s just another heroic CEO. Resembling Jimmy Olsen in his early career, our hero is somehow transformed by his newly refurbished office on mahogany row into […]
One of the dumbest things I ever did was sell my two shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock many years ago. “Warren Buffett is getting old,” I said to myself, “and he certainly can’t continue this kind of record!” Well, he has! The overall return (based upon market value) of Berkshire Hathaway stock for the past […]
Don’t take cultural change lightly My wife and I recently read articles about Pope Francis publicly tongue-lashing his curia for the extreme office politics it practiced. One of us compared it with the mafia, but I won’t say which because one of us is a practicing Catholic. My wife didn’t ask me, “If the curia […]
I was shaving blind the other day in a hotel room after forgetting to replenish my travel-size shaving cream. I made do with some hair conditioner, which has the appropriate friction coefficient, but because it is virtually colorless, you can’t see which parts of your face you have shaved and which you have missed, you […]
No. 1: Don’t take it lying down Todd Ordal “Toddy-boy, you’re just going to have to deal with the ambiguity!” Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s, said that to me after significantly changing our growth targets. I’d just spent weeks working with my team on capital plans, new store locations, staffing plans, etc., for the coming […]
…or South Park kids? Todd Ordal If you’re like me, perhaps a certain musical piece can send your mind to a wonderful place. I returned home recently from a business trip where I saw a particularly engaging company with a bright, tight-knight leadership team that focused on doing business the “right” way. As I thought […]
Prepare for bends in the road But know you can’t predict everything Todd Ordal “Management is prediction.” —W. Edwards Deming I used to live in the Twin Cities and drive back to western Minnesota where I grew up to visit family. My wife and I joked that once you got onto I-94, you could fall […]
The faster you move, the brighter they have to be Todd Ordal Author E.L. Doctorow once said: “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” This also describes running a business. You can only see […]