Not so long ago, Russia had an explosion at a missile testing site. All good, says Vlad the Putty. No problem. Then, mysteriously, four nuclear monitoring sites went silent. “Transparency” and “Russian government” are two terms rarely used in the same sentence unless it also has the words “no, nyet or are you kidding?” Dictatorships […]
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, […]
Strategy is about ideas, not brute force “One man on a wall was worth 10 beneath it.” —Game of Thrones Taking the high ground for military advantage is a well-worn axiom. Building moats, putting men on walls, using the element of surprise, concentrating forces, and employing many other phrases of war are often used in […]
“Reason is, and ought to be, the slave of the passions and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.” —Thomas Hume Hume’s use of the word “passions” is currently thought to mean “desires.” As a guy who favors thinking over feeling in decision-making (i.e., if you’re a Myers Briggs […]
A successful CEO recently told me how several of his senior leaders presented potential acquisition targets to him in the past year that were “must do” deals. Funny, he thought, that after they were outbid or lost for some other reason, they became “no big deal” deals. Only fools would completely ignore opportunities that they […]
It’s early season and I’m skiing on a Tuesday, which is a luxury. Weekend traffic in Colorado ski country is soul robbing. (If you’re planning a trip, think about Utah!) We have a better-than-average snowfall, and on my first chairlift I notice that a snowboarder ducked a rope and got a great line right under […]
Satisfying needs is how you trade your stuff for money I’ve just scratched the surface in my quest to better understand Paul Romer’s insight into growth. Romer won the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences — shared the win, actually. One of Romer’s central themes is that resources are fixed and innovation is unlimited. […]
This is a picture of a monkey backpack my wife bought for one of our grandsons today at OfficeDepot. He’s not yet 1 year old, but as you can see, the backpack is quite small. It’ll probably hold a diaper or two and a tube of mushed pea baby food. It was on sale for […]
What is strategic planning? Well … for one thing, it’s perhaps the most misused phrase in business! Let’s start with what strategy is. On second thought, let’s start with what strategy is NOT! It’s not a budget. It’s not a fat document. It’s not that thing you do every November. It’s not a mystical chant. […]
It turns out that erasing $100 billion in market value takes less time and energy than bolting together parts to achieve it initially. It doesn’t take the brightest bulb in the chandelier to see that keeping the trains on the tracks, the coal-fired turbines spinning or the airplanes flying all at the same time is […]