Alliance Perspectives

How Anyone Can Achieve Breakthrough Thinking
October 20, 2017

While the world is changing at an exponential rate of speed as industry after industry is being transformed, most CEOs are either seeking breakthrough ideas that will disrupt back, or are in fear of falling behind – or both. Here, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay shares four types of breakthroughs as learned from Olivia Fox Cabane and Judah Pollack’s latest book, The Net and the Butterfly: The Art and Practice of Breakthrough Thinking. The authors describe not only their findings based on neuroscience, but also provide practical tools one can use to increase the probability for creating breakthrough ideas.

Case categories include: Entrepreneurship   Executive Development   Founder’s Insights   Leadership   

In Pursuit of Smarter, Better Leadership
May 30, 2017

Every successful CEO strives to be more effective, make better decisions and become more productive, which are key reasons why we bring leaders together at the Alliance of CEOs. Learned through Charles Duhigg’s new book, Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay shares three valuable concepts for improving individual productivity.

Case categories include: Executive Development   Founder’s Insights   Leadership   

A Message to Alliance Members from Paul Witkay
October 14, 2008

The implicit understanding among Alliance members has always been that in exchange for your willingness to share your knowledge and experience, you gain access to the extraordinary collective wisdom of the entire community of CEOs. I believe that during volatile times, it is even more critical to share our experiences, knowledge and ideas with each other. Read my recommendations as to how to best use the unique resources within the Alliance community of CEOs.

Case categories include: Founder’s Insights   Strategy & Planning   

How COVID-19 Is Affecting Alliance Companies – Week 92
December 13, 2021

Since March 19, 2020 Alliance leaders have participated in a CEO survey to measure how businesses are experiencing the COVID-19 crisis -- to gauge the depth of impact, the latest business trends and the progress of returning employees to their workplaces. Here, you'll find the most recent Week #92 (December 13, 2021) CEO Survey results.

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Case categories include: CEO Survey   Health   Leadership   Strategy & Planning   

“Return to Workplace” Planning and Strategies During COVID-19
April 29, 2020

In the spirit of sharing the collective wisdom of our Alliance community during the COVID-19 crisis, we invited leaders from world-class organizations to share their critical considerations for “Return-to-Workplace” (RTW) planning at our Alliance Leadership Forum on April 29, 2020.

Presenters in areas of Health Issues (One Medical), Employee Issues (Lattice Semiconductor), and specific industries including Manufacturing (Flex), Construction (Webcor Builders) and Scientific Laboratories (Triple Ring Technologies) shared their Back-to-Office principles and timelines, employee health, safety and training plans, strategies for risk mitigation and more.

Case categories include: Culture   Health   Human Resources   Leadership   Operations   Strategy & Planning   Trends   

How COVID-19 Is Affecting Alliance Companies - Week 1
March 19, 2020

In a flash survey completed by members of the Alliance of Chief Executives taken on March 19, 2020, just a few days after the USA’s first shelter-in-place order, 75% of the CEOs report negative impacts, while 9% are being positively impacted. Collectively, these Bay Area leaders believe it will be 4.9 months before we return to “normalcy.” The survey was completed by CEOs in the six Bay Area counties who were issued the shelter-in-place order on March 17. The State of California just expanded this order statewide on March 20, and more than likely, other states will follow. CEOs in other regions can look to this data to help make their own plans.

Case categories include: CEO Survey   Health   Leadership   Strategy & Planning   Trends   

Leadership in a Digital Age
February 03, 2020

As Alliance members John Aisien of Blue Cedar, Linda Hand of Prealize Health, John Kelly of Zenreach, Johnny Loiacono of Movius, Alon Matas of BetterHelp.com, Rick O’Connor of Invicta Medical and Said Ouissal of ZEDEDA can attest, accelerated change has profoundly impacted the challenges they face–including how they manage, who they hire and how they communicate. It also forces business leaders to confront an almost impossible question: How does one lead when everything seems subject to change in today’s digital age?

Case categories include: Leadership   Strategy & Planning   Technology   

The Power of Collaboration
December 02, 2019

The Alliance creates private, safe environments where leaders have confidential conversations, exchange strategic insights, and challenge conventional thinking. Something magical often happens when talented leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences come together. They find ways to collaborate on new strategies, extraordinary ideas and opportunities, and sometimes create entirely new companies. Here, we share a few of the many impactful connections made by our amazing community, with a spotlight on Alliance members Alex Ashton of Image Design Works, Nate Harding of FoxEye Robotics, Joe Heanue of Triple Ring Technologies, Lynn Heublein of SkinSpirit, Cal Lai of Ask.Vet, Phil Murphy of GNU Group, Dave Summa of Business Model Innovations and Dean Zikria of AsthmaTek.

Case categories include: Leadership   Strategy & Planning   

CEOs Who Give Back
June 06, 2019

When it comes to finding ways to give back to our communities and the world at large, Alliance members contribute an enormous amount of their time, energy and passions to a wide range of worthy initiatives inside and out of their professional roles. Here, we highlight the impactful work of just a few of our Alliance members: Stéphane Bette of SpineGuard, Peter Cooperstein of Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria, Ross Fernandes of Q Analysts, Marc Guillet of Agile Physical Therapy, Mark Johnsen of Wealth Architects, Rod Kalune of RK Logistics Group, Michel Lopez of e2f and Sandy Walker of the YMCA of Silicon Valley. We invite all Alliance members to share with us their stories of giving back so we may continue to engage, support, educate and inspire one another.

Case categories include: Leadership   

Are Virtual Workforces Worth the Effort?
January 25, 2019

As Alliance members Evan Bailyn of First Page Sage, Ann Barnes of Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO), Ross Fernandes of Q Analysts, Everett Harper of Truss, Paul Lipman of BullGuard and Bernie Tobin of Crescendo Bioscience will argue, leveraging a virtual workforce is definitely worth the effort. While the benefits can be significant, there are no guarantees of success. Only by planning properly, finding employees with the right mindset, focusing on culture and investing wisely in technology, can leaders ensure their teams are all on the same page, even when they aren’t in the same place.

Case categories include: Culture   Operations   Organizational Design   Trends   

Going ‘Live’ - Running a Business in Real-Time
October 03, 2018

With the increasing speed at which technology is fueling change, running a real-time business can be a huge difference maker. But as Alliance members Chris Beall of ConnectAndSell, Victor Chapela of Suggestic, Yvonne Linney of Transcriptic, Dennis O’Malley of Caliva, Rodney Pearlman of the Bluefield Project and Jack Peurach of Ekso Bionics can attest, theory and practice are two different things. One thing is certain, running a business in real-time can lead to incredible breakthroughs and achievements, but it also comes with a heavy set of challenges.

Case categories include: Leadership   Operations   Sales   Strategy & Planning   Technology   Trends   

Preparing for the Next Wave in Data Privacy
June 01, 2018

Alliance members Ian Cohen of Experian Consumer Services, Himanshu Dwivedi of Data Theorem, Ted Elliott of Jobscience, Ju-kay Kwek of Switchboard Software, Ersin Uzun of Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and Christy Wyatt of Dtex Systems, discuss the sweeping new Data Privacy and GDPR rules taking effect, and how organizations should reconsider the ‘what, where and why’ behind their data practices.

Case categories include: Finance   Human Resources   International Business   Marketing   Operations   Sales   Strategy & Planning   Technology   Trends   

Tom Siebel: CEOs Must Take the Tech Reins
February 09, 2018

In an exclusive interview with the Alliance of Chief Executives, Tom Siebel, Chairman & CEO, C3 IoT, says a major “extinction event” is under way in the form of a multi-layered digital transformation that will crush organizations that aren’t prepared to survive. The technologies driving this transformation include cloud computing, big data, social media, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). And every CEO should understand them all.

Case categories include: Leadership   Technology   Trends   

The CEO Answers to Everyone, but How?
October 13, 2017

Accountability for CEOs can range widely depending on the structure, size, ownership and stage of the business. But the bottom line is that CEOs are accountable for delivering on their promises to all stakeholders and doing what is best for the organization. Learn how Alliance members Sunil Bhatia of Infogain, Christopher Burnley of Corefact, Jonathan Corr of Ellie Mae, Craig Goehring of Brown and Caldwell, JR Matthews of Tregaron Capital, Sean McCarthy of CytomX Therapeutics, and Doug Murray of Big Switch Networks, meet the complexities of accountability head on.

Case categories include: Entrepreneurship   Executive Development   Leadership   

How To Avoid Throttling Your Startup’s Growth And The Burnout That Comes Next
July 24, 2017

New businesses that tap into large and severely under-met needs are destined to grow rapidly. But if the founders starve the company of capital, their conservativism eventually will kill growth. Even more important, it will burn out the founders. It is also avoidable. The story of Koshland Pharm and its Founder, Alliance member Peter Koshland, illustrates this well. In this Forbes article from Alliance Director and Founding Principal of CEO to CEO, Robert Sher, learn how the key to stability and long-term sustainability for growing, profitable businesses is increasing throughput.

Case categories include: Executive Development   Leadership   Operations   Strategy & Planning   

Who Will Lead the Robot Revolution?
June 01, 2017

Automation will soon reshape the way we work in very profound ways, and present enormous economic and societal benefits. According to Alliance members Steve Cousins of Savioke, Irit Eizips of CSM Practice, Lisa Im of Performant Financial, Mike Jellen of Velodyne LiDAR, Jane Macfarlane of the Sustainable Transportation Initiative at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, John Pavlidis of Vytronus, Lizz Vilardo of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and Christy Wyatt of Dtex Systems, embracing innovative technology may be the best way to not only survive tomorrow’s robot revolution, but actually lead it.

Case categories include: Entrepreneurship   Leadership   Technology   

In Pursuit of Growth in a Gig Economy
January 30, 2017

Alliance leaders know that today’s labor force is experiencing fundamental, permanent change. Alliance members Laura Bergheim of Wordsmithie, Andy Berkenfield of Duncan Channon, Nathan Collins of SRI International, Ross Fernandes of Q Analysts, Glo Gordon of Cisco-Jasper, Kathy Zwickert of NetSuite, and Alliance Director Marion McGovern, share their strategies for growth in the gig economy. This transformation will create critical questions for today’s leaders, and their solutions will be customized for each unique situation. Given the track record of Bay Area innovation, we think it’s not a matter of if the answers will come, but when.

Case categories include: Human Resources   Leadership   Operations   Strategy & Planning   Trends   

The Foundation of Trust and Transparency: Essential Executive and Internal Communications Topics
January 04, 2017

If trust is the foundation of all strong, positive inter-company relationships, then transparency is the primary path to achieving that trust. This article by Alliance member Todd Johnson, President of Kollective, identifies and describes the essential categories of content that form the foundation for best practices in employee engagement; content that builds trust and positively influences company culture long-term. Keep these ideas in mind as you build and fine-tune your own blueprint for internal communications success.

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Case categories include: Leadership   Operations   Strategy & Planning   Trends   

Selling the Company? How Relaxing Control During the Sales Process Can Increase Value
January 02, 2017

Stories of company sales are riddled with strife. The staff that is asked to weather the transition often experiences wage cuts, department rollbacks and painful non-alignment among competing business units. Alyson Watson, former President of RMC Water and Environment, survived to tell the tale of her company’s acquisition. Better yet, the story is one of harmonious success, a triumph that began with letting go of control.

Case categories include: Ethics   Leadership   M&A   Strategy & Planning   

Preparing for Tomorrow’s Customers Today
October 28, 2016

In a fast-changing world, Alliance members Joe Budelli of ABBYY USA, Bill Grosso of Scientific Revenue, Arwed Niestroj of Mercedes-Benz R&D North America, Barb Paldus of Finesse Solutions, Glen Shu of Bay View Funding and Antoine Villata of Planisware USA share their strategies for preparing to meet future market needs.

Case categories include: Entrepreneurship   Leadership   Strategy & Planning   Trends