In the CEO Afterlife

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The Power of an Enemy

In the CEO Afterlife

For most of my career, I operated within intensely competitive arenas where fractions of market share points were worth millions of dollars. The companies that employed me were generally the underdogs in battles against bigger, better-financed organizations. Maurois was alluding to the notion that those engaged in war, hate the enemy.

Power 208
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Nabob and the Coffee Kerfuffle: How the 120-year-old brand managed to maintain its challenger status.

In the CEO Afterlife

It made sense, because we looked at the competition as our well-financed enemy, and so there was no way we could win at the spending war,” says Bell. “So Within two years, the brand went from a small share to 25% of the Canadian market,” notes Bell. We were big believers in creativity and we had a culture of big ideas.

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