I was in a meeting this past week with a Business Owner of a mid-sized company and we were talking about, what else, how to create a social media strategy that leverages his business strategy. While that was an interesting and lively discussion, it wasn’t the point – it was about “innovation” in his organization…
Sign up today for our “Leadership in Innovation” session on May 9th. It is kick-off to our CEOtoCEO Innovation Teams. WAIT – even if you are not able to participate in one of our Innovation Teams, you can still attend this session. It is dual purpose – a kick-off to the annual series and an…
Over the past several months we have been talking with a variety of companies and executives about how they are creating innovative environments and innovative cultures in their organizations. While we have heard some great success stories, we have also heard many tales of concern about how to build an “innovative organization and culture”. This…
We had the privilege of having David Allen, Executive Vice President of McKinstry speak to our packed house of CEOs last week and as usual, it was both entertaining and insightful. There were many highlights, which we will continue to share in subsequent blog posts, that focused on real world examples of how McKinstry is…
Sometimes timing is in your favor – it is for us at CEOtoCEO and the recent launch of our CEO Discussion Group and CEO Innovation Teams thanks to a recent survey report by RHR International. I first saw this story talked about on the Chief Executive site and upon further reading found some amazing statistics…
The death of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Steve Jobs has brought a lot of talk about the characteristics of the ideal chief executive officer. 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…
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…
At the start of the July CEOtoCEO Breakfast John Hartman asked the 52 CEOs attending, “What are some of the qualities and characteristics of your best employees?” 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…
As business leaders we are approached by a number of community organizations to help support their cause. Most provide worthwhile services that benefit the communities we do business and the needs have escalated over the past few years. The “asks” are made from members of numerous charitable organizations, our employees, clients and trade partners. You…
I had the privilege of getting to meet and talk with Randy Gardner, CEO of Red Dot Corporation a while back and he shared with me a great story. He attended one of our CEOtoCEO Breakfast meetings and saw David Katri from Clark Nuber present their Strategic Map. He really grabbed onto that idea and…