In the CEO Afterlife

APRIL 28, 2012

To most of us, mentors are people of experience and knowledge who help the less experienced advance their careers and/or their education. In the early days of my 40 year business career, I was lucky to work under two gentlemen who instilled several critical success factors that guided me from Brand Manager to CEO. Strategy.

Mentor 228

Mentor Advertorial Kotter Hamel 228

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 30, 2013

I call the opposite of a strategy tourist a Strategy Execution hero. I believe the behavior of strategy tourists offer us a very useful career guide. Change jobs regularly to outrun major execution challenges. Blame the market, other departments or poor IT-systems for the fact that you are not taking brave, independent action.

Strategy 58

Strategy Strategic Planning Porter Simon 58

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 18, 2012

The way in which we market presidents is broken, much like the way that we traditionally market businesses is broken. I say "market" presidents rather than "select" them because the way in which an organization commits to market its products and services can substantially determine the quality of the product it produces and sells.

Marketing 8

Marketing Politics Health Care Entrepreneur 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 3, 2016

In every aspect of business, we are operating with mental models that have grown outdated or obsolete, from strategy to marketing to organization to leadership. Many of the paradigms we learned in school and built our careers on are either incomplete or ineffective. The Porter model of strategy isn’t obsolete.

Porter 8

Porter Competitive Advantage Senge Network Economy 8

Strategy Driven

AUGUST 5, 2011

At the beginning of my career, I was a radio DJ. It occurred to me that this was a talent to watch, as I was already familiar with established composers such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others. Every way in which a company markets must be commensurate and fit under definable business strategies.

Learning-by-Doing 63

Learning-by-Doing Leadership Strategic Planning Open-book 63

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

As one of my executive MBA students recently told me, “I know that I have to carve out more time to think strategically about my business, but all my peers are executing to hilt and I don’t want to fall behind.”. Below are six tips that came out of a conversation with my executive MBAs: 1. Keep the time to evolve your work.”.

Porter 10

Porter Delegation Learning-by-Doing Project 10

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 15, 2014

The academic study of strategy took a big leap forward in the 1970s when Michael Porter of HBS looked at earlier economic research on industry structure and noticed that market power — which economists wanted to minimize — was the same thing as sustained profitability, which corporate executives wanted to maximize.

Strategy 8

Strategy Rivkin Game Theory Porter 8