I recently created a vlog on “When to Change Strategy” and wanted to share some interesting observations (at least to me!) of changing business because of the pandemic. There’s little joy in Mudville from the pandemic, but there are always lessons! The grocery industry has had to pivot (heavens I’m tired of that word!) dramatically […]
Stability in business is good, but only if you’re meeting your objectives. Phrases like “operating like a well-oiled machine,” “keep the train on the tracks” and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” all pay homage to stability. In some regards, the CEO’s job is to create stability. Shareholders look for stable (and rising) growth […]
A fellow executive coach and I had a good call recently when he suggested that most everyone is on their heels right now, both in business and personally, and the future is foggy. As I’ve been a longtime proponent of slowing the game down and asking the right questions, I thought I’d share a few […]
We have many pine trees in our yard and love them. Except, of course, for what they do to our gutters. The picture is actually from the front of my house. After a quick trip to the Homeadvisor website and a bit of research on Google, I decided that I needed gutter guards. 10 minutes […]
I recently read Robert Gates’ book, “Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World,” and was struck by his section on Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been a quagmire for decades — never really a country, just warring tribes. The Soviets sent more than 1 million soldiers there, lost […]
Of all the questions a CEO must answer, “What’s our strategy?” is one of the most daunting. If you can’t explain it in a few sentences, how can your people execute it? Significant changes to company strategy (e.g., “Where do we play, and how do we win?”) are frequent in startups but less so in […]
The CEOs’ Top Challenge: Getting Your Arms Around Required Changes I’ve spoken with many CEOs in the past few weeks, and each is considering what changes they’ll need to make to their “operating system” — basically, how things get done. Where to start? How do you get your arms around this? It’s a lot to […]
My friend, Paul, called the other day to trade thoughts on how the coronavirus pandemic was affecting the business world. While still deep into the crisis, he was thinking about the future of a company where he’s a board member and asking, “What happens on the other side?” Great question! Is it too early to […]
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 Who Want To Be (Morgan James Publishing). Connect with Todd on LinkedIn, […]
I’ve argued that strategic thinking isn’t so much an innate skill, but rather a process combined with the determination to do it. I’ll double down on that here! But what about the “vision” thing? Some visionary leaders have the innate creativity, drive, curiosity and hutzpah to build something great and didn’t major in business, can’t […]