David shared both the history of McKinstry and how they started as a small plumbing company on Main Street in downtown Bellevue and now are one of the most respected organizations in the PNW and around the country.  Even President Obama has visited David and Dean (his brother and President) and honored them with an award for their green initiatives and advancements.

Here is a video clip of just a small portion of David’s presentation.  It was interesting to see how McKinstry is approaching innovation and how this ties into comments and suggestions from Harvard Business Review and Ford for example.

If you have some thoughts, comments, ideas, or suggestions to add to this and share with your peer CEOs, please click the “Leave a Comment” link below the Share This button – your peers would love to hear and learn from you.

You can read the results of the survey but I wanted to share and excerpt from the study I found to be most impactful.  They said…

The intensity of the CEO’s job, coupled with the scarcity of peers to confide in, creates potentially dangerous feelings of isolation among chief executives. Fifty percent of all CEOs report experiencing loneliness in the role, and of this group, 61% believe that the isolation hinders their performance. First-time CEOs are particularly susceptible to this isolation, with nearly 70% of those who experience loneliness saying it negatively affects their ability to do their jobs. Nearly half of all CEOs estimate that most other leaders experience similar feelings of loneliness.

This is one of the primary reasons we kicked off our CEO Discussion Group – to allow CEOs, Business Owners, and Presidents to ask questions, share insights, and learn from each other in a “Private and Secure” format.  If you think this would be helpful to you as well, we invite you to visit our CEO Discussion Group page and read more about how it works and why it exists.  It is easy to join and maybe it will help keep all our members in the “right” 50% that don’t feel so isolated and lonely.  I look forward to your questions, insights, and answers….

A marketing question I share with others is “Where does social media fit in with the traditional marketing channels used in B2B?”

John provided some great insight to my question at the breakfast by using this helpful chart in his presentation.  If you are wading into the social media marketing pool and looking for sound advice consider joining the CEO Discussion Group.  John Rubino and my cohort in crime Blaine are both members.  Both are very knowledgeable and helpful.

Companies must adopt marketing strategies that meet the prospect’s intent and lead them to a purchase.  There are a dizzying number of strategies that are necessary to accommodate the point at which the prospect is in the buying cycle.

Many business leaders I visit with on this topic accept that many of these new media strategies need to be incorporated in the their marketing mix but confused as to how to move forward.  To gain some clarity you might be interested in reading the post by Douglas Karr author of ‘Corporate Blogging For Dummies”.  OR plan to attend the upcoming CEOtoCEO Breakfast “Keys to Success In a Social Media Marketing World”

One school of thought holds that successful CEOs are team players, good listeners and humble. In the book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins called such people “Level 5” leaders.

Yet Jobs and other superstars such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg aren’t generally seen in those terms. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Bezos was described as “not always a ‘nice’ CEO,” but rather as one who “can inspire and cajole but also irritate and berate.”

So which is the right model: The humble team player or the arrogant tyrant? Continue reading ..

What do you think are most important factors for a CEO to succeed?

Erik Knutson, CEO of Design Labs

I had a interesting lunch at John Howies restaurant with Bill Gates and Erik Knutson CEO of Design Laboratory recently.  Bill was there, just not at our table and missed a great conversation

Erik’s company helps its clients achieve organizational alignment, manage complexity, and implement goals and changes.    I was interested in Erik’s thoughts on why some CEO’s have great visions and plans for their business but fail to inspire their team to consistently execute the strategies required for success?

In trying to capture Erik’s thoughts to share with you I coincidentally received this video Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action that captures the gist of our conversation.  This is a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers …

Well worth watching and sharing with others.  Let me know what you think.

Rather than “tell” you about all the reasons why you, as a CEO, should attend the event, Tom did a great job of talking about why this event was created, who is speaking, why it is so relevant for CEOs, and how to sign up at our latest CEOtoCEO breakfast.  We happened to capture this on video so we thought the best way to share it with you is to let you hear it from the creator of the event.

John Rubino, President of GreenRubino, was one of these such leaders who shared his insights.  They are a marketing firm that helps organizations in the area of brand, advertising, media, design, and public relations, to give you some idea of his services.  He has been very successful in keeping the right people and attracting the best talent in a tough economy.  When 55% of employees plan to change jobs, careers, and industries when the economy improves, it is important to create an environment that is not only positive but fosters growth.  I believe this number and see it every day in my dealings with CEOs.  In the last year alone I’ve had my share of friends and associates sharing interest in finding the greener grass on the other side of the fence.

John shared two reasons why employee turnover is disruptive and costly  to the health of business.  John credits the creation of a workplace that attracts and keeps key talent as one of the reasons the company continues to grow even during the recession.  He shared some of his secrets to success in the video clip we captured during our July CEOtoCEO breakfast series.

As with most CEOs, they aren’t shy so a number of responses rang out.  They  were great responses and were covering just about every area you could think of, such as honest, self-motivated, smart, team player, etc.  But then one response came from the middle of the room, “four thinkers” was the response.  Wait a minute, and everyone stopped shouting ideas for a moment as I’m sure they were asking the  same question, “What is a four thinker?”  And who said it?

As we looked around the room, we noticed it was one of the regular attendees of the CEOtoCEO breakfast events, none other than Lisa Pike, CEO of ScribeRight Transcription Services.  If you know Lisa, you first know she isn’t shy about offering suggestions or asking great questions.  But this one had us all stumped, what was this “four thinker” thing she was talking about?

She went on to explain that her best employees are “Four-Thinkers.” She said, “Almost any employee, if you show them the steps along the way of 1, 2, and 3, can perform 1, 2, and 3.  But what most can’t think of is 4 on their own. Unfortunately, many people are not taught to think that way; they just do what they’ve been shown. When you find the rare person who uses initiative and logic to figure out and act on #4, you have a valuable gem!”  Great insight – thank you Lisa.

If you haven’t attended a CEOtoCEO breakfast event for a while, see what you have been missing?  Sign up for the next one on September 29th and catch all the action and great insights – like the “Four Thinkers” from Lisa.

With the economy being where it is today, there are overwhelming statistics that say a high percentage of workers truly dislike their jobs and would change immediately if given the opportunity – they don’t want to be at work.  With such a high percentage of this happening in the workplace, is it any wonder productivity is down, the customer experience is at an all time low, and morale just plain sucks?  But there are companies that are saying, “I won’t accept this as the norm and we are going to do something about it around here.”

When Patrick Tessier, CEO of Modern Dental Laboratories, started his business, he wanted to create a workplace he personally would feel good about going into when he drove into the parking lot.  His effort to create a culture where his employees feel good about going into work – and it is succeeding.  Under Patrick’s leadership, Modern Dental has been selected a Best Company to Work For the last four years in a row!

To get a better feel for how Patrick has accomplished this and why it is so important to him, we have a brief video clip of when he told the audience at the CEOtoCEO breakfast how and why this was his passion.

How do YOU feel when you drive into the parking lot of YOUR BUSINESS or where YOU work?