We augment the capability of the CEO and senior management team to address the challenges you face.  The value we bring is:

• Expertise – Our expertise has been developed through experience as the CEO of a number of companies, serving different industries and from start-up to mid-market companies.  Our expertise has been further developed addressing various challenges while working with companies just like yours.  We have also benefited from spending a year documenting our thoughts and experiences in our book – The Enlightened CEO: How to Succeed at the Toughest Job in Business.
• Perspective – Very often a fresh set of eyes and an unbiased perspective is all that is needed to quickly get to the source of the challenge and define the solution.  Working day-in and day-out very close to the business can make it difficult for the existing management team to see issues from a broadened perspective. 
• Additional Resource – Very often CEOs and their senior management teams feel that they don't have the time to pull away from their day-to-day responsibilities and focus on addressing a specific problem.

How We Work

We work in a manner best suited to the problem you face and the assistance you seek.  Some problems lend themselves to an intensive effort over a limited duration.  Examples include defining the approach and creating the documents to support fund raising, accelerating growth for a specific product or conducting an overall assessment of the business.

At other times we are asked to assist the CEO on a broader basis.  While problems often manifest themselves in a limited way, such as slowing sales or missed commitments, the root cause of the problem can frequently be traced to a more fundamental problem.  And it is the CEO who must look at the business from an expanded perspective in order to address the core of the problem rather simply attack the symptoms. 

Ensuring that the fundamentals of the business are in place is the role of the CEO.  This includes having a meaningful vision for the business, clearly linking the strategy to the vision, defining and coordinating the specific actions needed to execute the strategy, ensuring follow-through and making real-time adjustments, and fostering a steady stream of two-way communication.  The issues that surface can often be traced to a breakdown in the linkage in this chain of planning through execution.

Addressing these challenges often involves working with the CEO and senior management over a more extended period of time.  Examples include getting the senior staff to work more effectively as a team, instilling a high performance culture, improving company follow through, and linking strategy with operating plans.  See examples of these challenges and some brief thoughts on each. 

In other situations there may be no immediate problem, yet the CEO knows there is room for improvement and is looking for ideas.  Or the CEO may be new to the company and looking for ideas to improve results.  In these situations, we conduct a standard assessment that looks at vision and strategy, the effectiveness of the management team, the linkage between the strategy and the operating plan, the processes for ensuring follow through and the effectiveness of communications throughout the company.  We help the CEO identify opportunities and prioritize them for action.  See the sample list of questions to get a sense of this assessment.   

Finally, we work with CEOs on a more sustaining basis, acting as a mentor / advisor, or more formally, as an Advisory/Board Member.