After thirty years of working with over  1000’s of CEO’s in eight different countries with revenue from $35 million to $800 million people always ask,  “Is the way a CEO thinks really different than how others think?”  My answer is “the good ones always think different than anyone else.”

CEO’S and managers at all levels need a new and complete mastery of both the foundations of solid management thinking and the practical application of the essential business disciplines.  

FOUNDATION 1:  BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

Learning to think like a CEO will improve the performance of managers at all levels.  Develop a business philosophy consisting of fundamental business principles, your own personal management philosophy and your insights into a particular business opportunity.

FOUNDATION 2:  STRATEGY

The objective of business strategy is to establish a competitive edge in the marketplace that will allow a company to prosper by offering a long-term better value to its customers.  The strategic process involves matching the organization’s internal resources to the external market. 

DISCIPLINE 1:  BUSINESS OPERATIONS PLANNING

Validate strategies, allocate resources, and prepare for implementation.  Project the actions required, resources needed, and results expected to carry out your strategy.

DISCIPLINE 2:  PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

The strength of a business resides in the minds of its people; manage accordingly.  Human concerns are always an issue.  Look closely at your people.  Organize the work to make their weaknesses irrelevant to their performance.  Face up to mediocrity.

DISCIPLINE 3:  CAREER MANAGEMENT

No business can continue to grow and prosper without nurturing its young managers.  Help new managers to know themselves, to communicate effectively, and to make ethical decisions.

DISCIPLINE 4:  SALES

Understand the difference in sales responsibilities for CEOs, sales managers, and sales people. 

DISCIPLINE 5:  NUMBERS

The primary task of accounting is to help operating managers make better decisions.  Equally important is its role in developing sound operating controls. 

DISCIPLINE 6:  BANKING

Bankers are often bad partners.  Bankers offer one-sided deals that require you to accept 100 percent of the risk and the bank to accept none. 

DISCIPLINE 7:  CASH MANAGEMENT

Cash is king.  No cash, no company.  End of story!

DISCIIPLINE 8:  TOUGH TIMES AND TURNAROUNDS

Survival displaces all other rules of management during tough times.  Survivability depends on cash, credit, and product viability. 

DISCIPLINE 9:  ACQUISITIONS

Don’t buy it if you can’t improve it.  Compare the cost and viability of expansion by acquisition to that of internal development. 

DISCIPLINE 10:  LEADERSHIP

Leadership is a matter of combining trained intellect, insightful intuition, and superior character, with character being the dominant factor.  The secrets to leadership are passion, motivation, ethics, courage, communication, judgment, and insight.