CEO

As a young child I always had a passion for buying and selling. Long before my 10th birthday I started finding and selling golf balls, then bikes, skateboards and, by the time I was 13, I was buying and selling gold, diamonds, artwork and cars. After university, that passion continued and I started buying shares

Humans have been baking since 600 BC. While it was a necessity back then, it has now evolved into an art form. Back then, baking was only limited to making simple essential bread. Now you can bake rich and indulgent pastries. Different ingredients and techniques are needed to make different bakery products. Bread and cookies

Going to an interview will always hide surprises. No matter how well prepared you are for the critical appointment with your interviewer, there is no way they will not come up with something that will catch you off guard. As the conversation and initial introductions move on the team will become slightly more casual and

A prospective client recently approached me about working with “Ted,” an operations leader at one of the company’s facilities. For years, Ted had been the target of a consistent stream of complaints from his team and their efforts to remove him. We discovered that the problem was that Ted would frequently give directives on how

Turning your Supply Chain Aha! into a Transformation Opportunity. The toilet paper shortage of 2020 had a silver lining for supply chain management.  Seemingly overnight, individuals, households, teams and organizations comprehended the criticality of supply chain, validating its value.  And, many organizations have used this as an aha! moment to assess, innovate and strengthen their

The last 12 months have been a time of immense uncertainty. The pandemic affected many jobs, uprooted career plans, and left people questioning their professional futures. Most of us, globally, were left wondering how to protect ourselves better and future proof our careers. Job displacements are, of course, nothing new. Industrial revolutions of the past

Scenario planning is not exclusively an enterprise organizational tool. It can be just as effective with high-level global issues like climate change and disease, or even smaller business units and functional issues within an organization. It is a strategic tool for problems, big and small. Strategy development and the identification and mitigation of related risks

Within the field of organizational studies, it seems well-settled that there is a difference between being a “manager” and a “leader.” Equally well-settled is the principle that some managers can and do evolve into leaders. But is there something beyond being a leader?  Is there a general organizational role into which a leader can evolve?

The “water cooler talk,” a seemingly casual, friendly conversation with co-workers and managers that was much lamented after the past year of workplace shutdowns. Beyond connecting with coworkers on a personal level, these one-on-one conversations are deeply valuable in solidifying professional relationships by building collegiality with peers and managers, and investing in oneself by developing

I don’t know how many people are sick to death of working from home, but I know I am. Maybe that makes me an outlier. There’s just something I miss about the routine of taking the train into work, seeing the team all together. It’s ultimately nostalgia, the same way I might feel about the

In the current environment of economic growth, executives are increasingly looking towards M&A transactions as an efficient and effective means of expanding into new markets with growing revenue streams, accelerating digital transformation, and expanding overall capabilities. Yet as seen in many high-profile transactions, even when the stakes are highest, acquisitions can also lead to major

Family is emotions, business is economics and they are inseparable in a family business. Traditionally speaking, a family-owned business is defined as one with two or more family members involved in the ownership and control, participating in building the world economy. The senior management is likely to be headed by a CEO or in decision

Northwestern Mutual is unapologetically trying to return office life to its pre-pandemic norm in large part because CEO John Schlifske believes the strategy will give the financial-services titan a competitive edge in an industry that is enjoying a robust post-pandemic surge. He also thinks getting almost all NM staffers back to work together physically is

In business and life, we often find ourselves at a crossroads or an intersection, if you will.  Imagine you’re sitting in your car, and the light is red. Once it turns green, you can’t just sit there. Throwing it in reverse (or making a U-turn) is not typically a good option, so you are forced

The global pandemic catalyzed enduring change in how work gets done and the roles business leaders are now expected to take. Even before the 2020 lockdown, CEOs found themselves whipsawed by rising pressures to lead their companies through change, and shorter time frames to do it in. In 2019, two out of five new CEOs

As greater numbers of Americans receive the vaccine for the coronavirus, more offices are opening up at least on a temporary basis. Few companies are back in the office at 2019 levels, and most do not anticipate ever getting back to that level. For those companies that are choosing a hybrid approach, however, they have

Too many times, the emphasis placed on Diversity, Inclusion and Tolerance Programs, or DI&T Programs, relate primarily to issues of minorities, such as race and religion. Instantly, this makes many people think, “OK, so this program is really not about me” or “OK, this is just another program for the minorities” and so on. The

A CEO change is always an exciting moment for all parties involved. Boards invest immense time and resources to find the next CEO for the firm. Stakeholders, inside and outside of the firm, are on their toes, as they try to anticipate where the new leader will take the organization. And last but not least,

In 2017, Wynne Nowland had to do something few CEOs have ever had to do: come out as transgender and let her staff know she’d be living and working as a woman from now on. But when she tells the story today, Nowland, who spent roughly 30 years at Bradley & Parker before taking the

Women’s issues aren’t just for women, they are issues for business, for men and for society, yet the minute they are framed as ‘women’s issues’ or even the more neutral ‘gender’ issues, there is a tendency for whole swathes of people, mostly men, to disengage. They think it’s all over Many men seem to think