Alliance Perspectives
The implicit understanding among Alliance members is that, in exchange for their willingness to share their own experience and knowledge, they gain access to the extraordinary collective wisdom of the Alliance community of CEOs. Our members do amazing things and here we've collected some of their lessons learned to preserve and highlight the wealth of knowledge in our membership. Alliance Founder & CEO, Paul Witkay, also shares his perspectives on topics such as leadership, strategy and innovation.
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Leadership - Search Results (92)
Jim Pouliot
Values Based Organizations
April 16, 2008
CEOs are too tolerant of executives that aren't top performers and that don't behave according to the values that the organization holds dear. CEO Jim Pouliot of CSAA talks to the Alliance about his experiences cleaning up executive teams. This essay explores why CEOs continually struggle with this issue, and what they can do about it.
Read MoreCase categories include: Human Resources Leadership
Rich Bravman
Creating and Owning a Category
April 11, 2008
This CEO has a system for finding new market categories and taking commanding market share leadership. He's done it over and over again, and he tells us how in this essay.
Read MoreCase categories include: Entrepreneurship Leadership Strategy & Planning
Leaping Ahead: Courage or Discipline?
January 08, 2008
Read how taking leaps with your business can pay huge dividends. By having the courage and discipline to put innovative business ideas into action, the owner gained huge competitive advantages. The concept is laid out, as well as important steps to get started.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Strategy & Planning
Business Temptation
November 24, 2007
Thriving business gets customer requests to jump into a new business. After resisting, they go for it with excellent success. When is it wise to start another business?
Read MoreCase categories include: Entrepreneurship Leadership Strategy & Planning
Elaine Tajima
Don’t Let Success Destroy your Culture
October 06, 2007
This firm's success brought in so much business that it wasn't as much fun as it used to, and that endangered the quality of the work being performed. The CEO identified a customer in particular that was causing most of the problems and resigned the account, allowing her culture of fun and originality to survive.
Read MoreCase categories include: Human Resources Leadership
Ceil McCloy
Board Benefits
August 21, 2007
An entrepreneurial couple brought in outside board members to help bring in key accounts and to aid in their decision making. They diluted ownership's vote to 50%, but the payoffs far outweigh the lack of freedom. Important pros and cons are discussed, as well as some guidelines for adding outside board members.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Operations
Cal Lai
The Overly Optimistic Entrepreneur
May 23, 2007
Optimism is a natural part of entrepreneurship, but it can go too far. A bad string of luck nearly sinks the CEO's dreams before persistence starts to pay off.
Read MoreCase categories include: Entrepreneurship Leadership
Uwe Druckenmueller
Shifting Gears from Startup to Scaled Enterprise
April 12, 2007
Every successful startup goes from an entrepreneurial stage to a professional enterprise. Learn how the entrepreneur also successfully made the crossing point without hitting the wall.
Read MoreCase categories include: Human Resources Leadership Operations
Dave Kearney
Closing the Feedback Loop
February 10, 2007
Customer feedback is an important part of every successful company. After scaling up his business, a CEO struggles with his company's feedback system before closing the loop and improving response rates. Effective processes for handling feedback are examined.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Operations Sales
Rand Morimoto
A Door to High Caliber People
January 30, 2007
Getting involved in non-profits opens doors and is good for business. Multiple benefits are reached when the CEO joins the board of a local charity. The right ways to go about getting involved in charity work are examined.
Read MoreCase categories include: Ethics Leadership
Tom Oliver
Brainstorm vs. Budget
December 12, 2006
A feature-rich product is designed, but after months of development work, it is discovered that it cannot be built. Key features are dropped so that it can finally go into production.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Operations Strategy & Planning
Ron Johnson
Learning from Pure Innovation
October 06, 2006
Innovation leads to powerful results. A CEO fosters a rich culture of innovation by getting the most out of his top team.
Read MoreCase categories include: Human Resources Leadership
Jeffrey Morrison
Vision Vector
August 06, 2006
CEOs of startups must work very differently than CEOs of firms that have made their place in the market. They must be hands-on with prospective customers and with all the key decisions, from sales to marketing to engineering/product development, in order to keep the business on a straight vector towards its vision.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Operations
Tom Friel
It is Never Forever
July 06, 2006
Planning for succession is a difficult topic, but an essential one. Clarifying the line between dependency and leadership is critical, and much of the work of succession is reducing dependency on the CEO.
Read MoreCase categories include: Exiting Leadership Strategy & Planning
Rick Gaan
Managing Young Employees Yields Insights for All
June 21, 2006
Showing genuine concern for your employees is good for business. The founders buy a troubled business with young, troubled employees, and turn it around by deeply engaging and tapping the potential in each employee.
Read MoreCase categories include: Human Resources Leadership
Alan Huttman
Re-Framing Price Increases Leads to Stepped-Up Profits
June 12, 2006
A CEO in an old-line, low-margin business finds a way to re-frame his pricing model to get his team and his customers to accept it. He modified his sales incentive package to better target the results he was looking for.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Sales
Bud Michael
The Courage to Fire
June 10, 2006
An incoming CEO fires the most senior technical expert because he won't embrace the new values that must take hold for the firm to survive. The bold move works without significant damage.
Read MoreCase categories include: Human Resources Leadership Operations
Jeff Rodek
Decision Making Illnesses
March 31, 2006
The process of making good decisions is critical. Some firms/teams are bad at decision making, and the results can be ugly. Four decision making illnesses are discussed along with some suggestions about improvement.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership M&A
Jeff Rodek
Every Business Needs a Common Enemy
February 28, 2006
Identifying a competitor or two as an "enemy" to beat is a powerful leadership tool that CEOs should use to galvanize business improvement at every level.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Operations Sales
Dave Dutton
Forged by Fire
January 21, 2006
A semiconductor equipment manufacturer was in deep trouble, and replaced its founder with a new CEO, Dave Dutton. He created a new leadership culture amidst the transition chaos. The new top team prospered as did the company.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership
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