This may be news, but boards of directors can offer bad advice. Having served on more than forty boards, I’ve seen such a variety of good and bad advice that my stories could fill a book. (oh, wait. They have…) So, lets delve into board composition, risk of an unbalanced board, and one of those […]
Dave Berkus
Where’s Your Team Playbook?
This one comes straight from football. From experience and from information about the competition, a coach creates a playbook that contains detailed plans for actions or plays that the entire team must know without question and execute without pause in order to win games and advance toward the playoffs. But you know that of course. […]
Can Your Team Overcome Messy Problems?
Some problems seem impossible to surmount Leaders and teams can be overwhelmed. We’ve all probably experienced this. Several big problems hit us at once. Or the system goes down, stranding everyone. Or worse yet, “We’ve been hacked.” Add the twist of ransomware? The inevitability of a big problem As we grow our businesses, we inevitably […]
Hire for Your Core, Partner for the Rest
A trend for businesses large and small There is a major trend shaping up that is worldwide, already identified by hundreds of thousands of startup and small business CEO’s. By carefully recognizing and focusing upon the very core of the business, these CEO’s are allocating their scarce cash resources to hire the best talent they […]
Are You a Remote Manager? A Good One?
Are you a virtual manager? Can you be effective if you are a “virtual” manager, commuting from home or a home office and being with your employees only part time? Measuring your performance In a virtual environment, people measure you mostly by your actions, and remember only the most recent good work you’ve done for them […]
Can You Name the Two Most Powerful Words for Business?
Here’s a puzzle where the answer come first. “Help me.” Over the years I have heard many stories from entrepreneurs, students, news reporters, even my children, all telling me that they could not get someone’s attention they wanted or needed until they used the words, “Help me.” The simple request is disarming, enlarging the object of the request […]
Do You Take Those Loyal, Key Customers for Granted?
Ok. We know that an executive’s job is not easy. Nor is there much time in a typical day for outreach of any kind. Especially in your growing company, you are drawn into daily process issues by all of your direct reports, often responding to questions and problems, leaving little time for strategic thought. That’s […]
How Much Do You Spend on R&D? Is It Enough?
Why do profitable, mature businesses die away? One of the most obvious reasons mature businesses die away—when we look in the rear view mirror—is that they did not spend to renew their product or service when newer entrants into the business arrived with better products and services built upon newer technology. Should be an easy fix […]
Should a Leader Support Constant Change?
The worrying that always precedes a change When a new CEO or manager is hired into a company, for a while lots of energy flows from the top and new ideas seem to be generated daily. It is one reason not to fear the unknown when upper level management long in place turns over, often […]
Reinvent Your Business!
Businesses that forgot to reinvent If only newspaper publishers, book publishers, record companies, and movie producers would have had the vision to see their future as we now see it, we might have become a digital society with much less disruption and loss of jobs than we have experienced these past years—and continue to experience. […]
