Summer 2011

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Inside the Summer 2011 Issue:

Resiliency and Survivability
When it comes to disaster planning, Larry Lang, CEO of QuorumLabs, borrowed the idea of using a “chaos monkey”—a member of the team whose job is to “think of the most chaotic thing they could do, and how would we recover from that.” It’s just one example of how Alliance members plan for worst-case scenarios, a very particular skill that was driven home by the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The scenes of devastation were a reminder that disaster can strike anytime, and that no one is ever truly safe—but that does not mean one should not prepare.

Alliance Community Activities
Recent Alliance CEO Community Activities included a variety of CEO events such as:
CEO Roundtables in which Bay Area CEOs and Top Teams discussed “Scaling Up From A Lean Base,” “Building Companies on Private Equity Fuel,” and “Building High Functioning Executive Teams” and keynote discussions with Nancy Duarte, author of “slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations” and high-performance researcher Paul Limbrey.

Managing Multiple Constituencies: A Case Study
Some companies have a simple ownership structure, but Alliance member Jim Harrison, CEO of MLSListings (Group 310), has multiple overlapping constituencies which blend ownership, industry associations, governance, sales channels and customers. Read how Jim listens to his constituents, builds relationships and connects interests to create positives for everyone.

New Members
Check out our newest Alliance members, who run a wide range of companies in industries such as biotherapeutics, fitness equipment, cloud storage solutions, Internet search, genomics, LED technology, medical devices, semiconductors, solar power systems and many others.

Upcoming Events
We've got some great events coming up, including our Alliance Spring Dinner; CEO Roundtables on “Leading Your Board of Directors,” “Building & Managing Personal Net Worth Outside the Business,” a Top Team Roundtable on “The Engaged and Motivated Workforce; and keynote events with Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla, and former Alliance member Rob Majteles of Treehouse Capital, who will discuss the art of “Board of Director Brainstorming.” Alliance members are invited to attend all keynote discussions, even if their private group is not meeting that day.

Also inside: Member News; photos of recent Alliance events; and more. Download it now!