Tag: Business Strategy

CEO Coaching: Change Altitude To Change Perspective

People fly for several reasons but most often to get from point A to point B with little energy. To accomplish this, the pilot undergoes a formal trip planning process; a climb up to a turbulence-free, energy-efficient altitude (considering engine efficiency, headwinds, drag, etc.); autopilot activation; and a relatively straight-line cruise until it’s time to […]

CEO Coaching: Is Growth Necessary?

There are many business growth axioms and metaphors, mostly about trees, rivers, or children. But does a business really need to grow? Can it just tread water? Can it stay in childhood? Must it keep moving like a shark or die?  I’ve run into a few business leaders who aren’t interesting in growing, all in […]

CEO Coaching: Opposing Innovation

When automobiles were first developed, some cities banned them. Thoroughbreds and quarter horses went on strike nationwide, looking for protective legislation. Many people nowadays will feel like a thoroughbred soon. Writers in the broadcast industry already do. I drove past a picket line at Fox Studio in L.A. last week. The thing is, complaining won’t […]

CEO Coaching: When Customers Become Cows

“Would you like fries with that?” has been around as a revenue enhancer since I was very young. Seems like a good question and no doubt enhances revenue (and waistlines) significantly. At some point, however, upcharges are damn annoying! I wrote some years ago about my wife buying a monkey backpack for a 1 year […]

CEO Coaching: Be of Two Minds

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” —Warren Buffett Sixty percent of CEOs surveyed by The Conference Board believe that economic conditions will worsen in the short term, and I suspect they’re correct. Warren Buffett, however, is on a buying spree. Over the short and medium term, emotions play a […]

CEO Coaching: The Vision Thing

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The Little Prince”[1] “It sure would help if we knew where we were going!” the chief marketing officer said to me. I […]