May 3, 2019

Purpose Driven Leadership: A Better Leader, Better Business

Purpose Driven Leadership: A Better Leader, Better Business

It used to be that business was for-profit or non-profit, and never the twain shall meet. Companies were profit-driven or purpose-driven, but not really both. A survey of Fortune 1000 CEOs and C-suite executives found that 51% believe there is an inherent tension or conflict between a company being profit- or purpose-driven. Such thinking is now becoming outmoded and has reached something of a turning point.

This departure from long-held economic thinking could be a revolutionary change for shareholders, however, many investors are coming to see greater employee purpose and personal “why” working to support long-term success for the company, and in an altruistic sense, the world. Corporate America has taken a look around and some conscientious players noticed that resources were being stripped at an unsustainable rate and decided to alter the way they were doing business. Now, it’s commonplace for a company to have a defined corporate social purpose beyond generating a profit.

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March 19, 2019

Warfare at the Top: CEO vs Chairperson Battle Royale

Warfare at the Top: CEO vs Chairperson Battle Royale

We just experienced possibly the largest wave of CEO departures in recent history. Was it due to falling profits? Poor succession planning? Or is there more drama behind the scenes? Think firings, hurt egos, politics, and personal infighting. Author Isabelle Nüssli uncovers one of the big reasons for turmoil at the top ― the fractious relationships between egos at the executive level, particularly between CEO and chairperson. Hence the brilliant title of her new book, Cockfighting: Solving the Mystery of Unconscious Sabotage at the Top of the Corporate Pyramid.

“When you read the news, usually the reason [given for the CEO leaving] was strategy misalignment or different leadership style or different chemistry, etc. But the story that is not put out to the public is that there was a relational conflict, which apparently is the case most of the time,” says Nüssli.

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March 14, 2019

Interim Management Helps Businesses Plan for Brexit Uncertainty

Interim Management Helps Businesses Plan for Brexit Uncertainty

The UK — and everyone else – are anxiously awaiting March 29 when Article 50 will either be extended or revoked. If neither occurs, the UK must leave, deal or no deal. Only a few weeks away, one thing is certain. Everything will change. Brexit could turn UK trade on its head.

Brexit is forcing organizations to cope with immense uncertainty. How does a business strategically plan with an unknown number of unknowns? The anxiety of Brexit has halted UK companies’ transformative efforts in their tracks.  Many experts are hypothesizing just what consequences will result, from ports unable to process inbound or outbound shipments, to decreased operational inefficiencies, to economic stagnation.

“Scenario planning in today’s 24-hour information culture and the dynamic global nature of business means that CEOs are being pressured by investors, the business media as well as the increasingly influential special public bodies, to explain their strategic direction and the benefits this will bring to customers as well as shareholders. This was challenging before Brexit but is now more so and a lot of CEOs are struggling with this,” explains Gaby Weidlich, a UK-based interim CEO.

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March 8, 2019

InterimExecs RED Team Member Appointed to Lead Colorado State Department

InterimExecs RED Team Member Appointed to Lead Colorado State Department

RED Team Member, Michelle Barnes, was recently appointed by Colorado Governor, Jared Polis, to lead the Colorado Department of Human Services as Executive Director. With an annual budget of over $2 billion, the state department oversees programs ranging from the state’s child welfare division to youth corrections and mental hospitals.

A four year government appointment, the assignment has many parallels to Michelle’s work as an interim executive, where she parachuted into many challenging situations. As a expert Interim CEO, Michelle has led many non-profit and mission based organizations going through change, transition and transformation across a variety of industries from environmental, to outdoor industry, health and medical, youth leadership, entertainment, affordable senior housing, and human service.

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February 28, 2019

How to Prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

How to Prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

“We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another”, says Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Innovation has been accelerating for the past 300 years, but with today’s pace of technological advances, Schwab says the speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. We are now entering a 4th Industrial Revolution where when compared to previous industrial revolutions, we are evolving at an exponential rate rather than linear rate.

Schwab describes: “The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.”

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December 18, 2018
Robert Jordan

What is My Business Strategy? Owners Need a Game Plan

Robert Jordan | CEO, InterimExecs
What is My Business Strategy? Owners Need a Game Plan

No organization is immune to challenges, not if it has any ambition. But how do we as owners and leaders put our strategy hat on to see down the road, or attempt to see, to predict where markets will go, how customers will act and react? To play the great game of chess in the real world – which is strategy.

Sometimes that is easier said than done. The eloquent Mike Tyson put it so well when he said, “everybody has a plan until I punch them in the mouth.” We would do well to remember how limited our brilliant strategies in fact are, how fragile in the face of ambiguity, uncertainty and future black swan events.

Just look to history to see how companies have been blindsided with the punch they never saw coming. Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975, but put launch on hold in fear of cannibalizing their film business. We all know the story from there….Kodak who? Or take Blockbuster – which failed to pivot when Netflix showed up. And then Borders and Barnes & Noble, crushed under the Amazon onslaught. And the examples of business strategy gone wrong go on…

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June 28, 2018
Robert Jordan

Latin Got Interim Right 2,000 Years Ago

Robert Jordan | CEO, InterimExecs
Latin Got Interim Right 2,000 Years Ago

My daughter eagerly accepted an internship at the morgue. Wait – how does she put it? The medical examiner’s office. Regardless, all I hear is morgue. Anyway, let’s move past the whole your-daughter-is-around-dead-people issue because here’s the interesting thing. They ask their interns to sign a statement agreeing to work pro re nata.

This was a new phrase for me: pro re nata. It is latin for “in the circumstances” or “as needed” or “as the situation arises.”

I believe the phrase is really a guiding light for the best interim execs around the world, because the best leaders operate as needs demand – pro re nata.

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May 14, 2018

RED Team Members Publish Book On Interim Leadership

RED Team Members Publish Book On Interim Leadership

Congratulations to InterimExecs RED Team members Damon Neth, Bill Mince, and Jim Treleaven on the publishing of their new book, X-Formation. Damon, Bill and Jim made a conversation we had a few years back into a reality, combining their expertise to create the comprehensive book on the unique makeup of interim leaders and how they transform companies and bring incredible results to organizations worldwide.

The InterimExecs team added insights on finding, assessing, and engaging interim executives, drawing from years of matching companies with interim leadership. Check out X-Formation on Amazon here: http://a.co/3S42UdS!

March 6, 2018

The Best Organizations Have a Good Company Action Plan for the Future

The Best Organizations Have a Good Company Action Plan for the Future

How many owners or executive teams are truly confident that their organization is operating at it’s best? How many have a true action plan for the future? And how many of those can actually execute on the plan?

Donald Sull, a lecturer at MIT and an expert on strategy execution surveyed hundreds of companies on how strategy is executed and found that many lack agility or have difficulties adapting to market circumstances. In a HBR article he reported that most organizations either “react so slowly that they can’t seize fleeting opportunities or mitigate emerging threats or react quickly but lose sight of company strategy”.

These fears are echoed by executives across companies and industries.

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February 26, 2018

Case Study: Interim CEO Aligns NonProfit Member Network of Eye Banks

Non-Profit, Vision Share, is the consortium of eye banks that banded together in 1998 to get corneas ready for transplant, into the hands of surgeons around the globe. With 18 eye banks, the consortium provides a space to share best practices, help advance innovation and technology, and pool resources to reach surgeons fast.

After having a full-time CEO on board for two years, the board determined they were not getting the results they were looking for.

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