Bold Exec

Create a Crisis Mentality

United Airlines has been in a financial and operating crisis for years, many cancelled flights with made up excuses, combative customer service a "not our problem" attitude.  They haven't brought their employees or customers into the problem to help create a permanent solution, and therefore won't achieve one. They have a crisis, but not a Crisis Mentality!

jetBlue had a spike crisis, with many cancellations and people sitting on planes for long hours.  They openly acknowledged it, the CEO said publicly he was "mortified", they changed operating procedures, issued a passengers' bill of rights, and inundated their customers with apologies and compensation.  Within a week most of their previously happy, but subsequently very disgruntled, passengers were back in the fold.  jetBlue will be stronger for taking a crisis situation and turning it into a Positive Crisis.

Positive Crisis Summary

Developing a crisis mentality is mandatory to effect sustainable change.  Don’t expect you can significantly change performance by speeches, edicts, communications through management meetings, or any other standard technique. Topics: Positive Crisis; what is it?; The Dysfunctional Corporate Family; Create a Crisis Mentality; Action-based Decisions; War-room Tactics; The Performance Pill; The CEO’s Guide to Crisis. Currently being Published.

The Personnel Matrix Summary

Probably the most important, and toughest, decisions you’ll face are regarding personnel.  Assessing is difficult.  Having the courage of conviction of your decisions is difficult.  Implementing the correct action is difficult.  This session provides a framework and guidance on making those decisions smart and fast.  Topics: The Tough Choices; The Decision Matrix; Star Performer; Mercenary; Still Valuable; Poison; The CEO’s Guide to the Personnel Matrix. To be Published 1Q07.

Decisive Action Summary

The very best way to manage a business that has been floundering is to, first, decide on a reasonable course of action, not necessarily the perfect one but good enough and, second, put 100% effort of the entire organization into achieving progress on that direction.  Many companies flounder because they waste energies “perfecting” their strategy; the accompanying indecisiveness renders the organization rudderless. Topics: Find True Northwest; Forget Brilliance; Define Critical Problems; Face Changing Technologies; Deviations Strengthen the Course; The CEO’s Guide to Decisive Action Trumps Perfection. To be published 2Q07.

Not your Founding Fathers' MBO's Summary

Everyone knows about management by objectives, it’s old hat.  The original methods for implementing are way out of date, and generally counter-productive and time-wasting as performance time frames have significantly shrunk and everyone knows how to game that system. This approach is on the cutting edge of performance incentivization.  Topics: Fourth-generation Management by Objectives; Clear the Deck; Beyond the To-do List; Relentlessly Pursue Priorities; The CEO’s Guide to 4^th Generation MBO’s. To be published 2Q07.

Aggregate Wisdom Summary

Consultants can sometimes be of value, but in almost every case I’ve found that the inherent wisdom within the employee ranks was totally sufficient to determine both a strategy and a set of accompanying tactics.  All it takes to harness that wisdom is clear two way communications; from the CEO to all employees through no filters, and to the CEO employing patience and an experience based listening filter. Topics: Power To and From the People; Direct Communication; Corporate Culture Sensitivity; Harvest Organizational Wisdom; The CEO Rudder; The CEO’s Guide to Aggregate Wisdom; Smart Company, Smart CEO. To be published 2Q07.

Progressive Downsizing Summary

Everyone faces the necessity of downsizing an organization in their career.  Most do it poorly, losing organizational respect, losing effectiveness, gaining irritability.  There are many ways to go about it; but the Cut and Fill method assures gaining effectiveness and organizational espirit de corps and reduced costs simultaneously.  Topics: Beat the Bloat; Voluntary Termination; Across the Board Destruction; Targeted Reductions; Cut and Fill; The CEO’s Guide to Progressive Downsizing. To be published 3Q07.

Decision Making Summary

Decision making is an art and a science. Decisions need not only be mostly correct, but have to be done in a timely fashion, using the best of the organization’s skills in the process, incorporating a buy-in along the way, strengthening the organization in the process, and creating effective results.  The old adage of “making more than 50% correct” is, well, old and a recipe for failure. Topics: Industry In-experience, Bad Decisions, No Decisions; Going Deep; Calibrating Your Managers; Hands-on CEO’s; The CEO’s Guide to Decision Making in the Real World. To be published 3Q07.

Smart Decisions with Smart Data Summary

It is imperative that any organization get smarter as it progresses, and the one systemic way to do that is by investing early on the time and thought processes to grow in the data of the business.  This is nothing to do with data-mining, using market and customer date to create assts; but rather the internal data of the company and its operations.  Major benefits will come downstream from this approach. Topics: The Power of Information; The Minimum; Integrate What the Data Reveals; The CEO’s Guide to Smart Decisions with Smart Data. To be published 3Q07.

The First 100 Days Summary

When you acquire a new business or take on a new management role, the decisions and actions you implement in the first 100 days are crucial.  Most LBO groups have a rather formalized “first 100 day” process, determining what needs to be done first, what are the priorities, and on what specific schedule.  The primary purpose of a “first 100 day” approach is to clean the landscape of distractions, move aside those people, things, places, facilities, assets, and other factors that keep up clogging the wheels of progress, so that on the 101^st day all energies can go toward making the company great.  Specific Topics not yet created. To be published 4Q07.

Eliminating Waste Summary

Waste abounds in almost every organization in many different categories including cash, expenses, capacity, fixed assets, and organizational and personal credibility. Giant progress can be made by attacking each of these head on. Topics: From Cash to Capacity; The Liquid Balance Sheet; Management Capacity and Distractions; Inefficient or Unnecessary Processes; The CEO’s Guide to Eliminating Waste. to be published 4Q07

Begin Again Summary

Human nature dictates that each of us become satisfied with our management reign, we’ve made great decisions even though some of them haven’t totally worked out.  We get stuck; defending those decisions and the people we have in place. Fire yourself mentally before someone else does actually.  Go out the door; come back in with a fresh look.  Detach yourself from your previous decisions as if you were just hired.  Save your company; save your job. Topics: The Merits of Starting Over; The Turnaround; Public Turnaround; Timing the Turnaround; The Lure of Consistency; The CEO’s Guide to Begin Again. To  be published 4Q07.