There are some general business macro topics that affect everything, not just discrete parts of the organization. It could be economic trends, governmental regulation, the stock market, geopolitical realties, or simply looking at your business from a 30,000 foot view. This category deals with big picture issues.
The Growth Trap There is a dangerous assumption many business owners make when things start moving in the right direction. They see revenue increasing, backlog growing, new opportunities appearing, the team staying busy,…
For Leaders, Spring Is a Choice: Planting the Seeds for What Comes Next I’ve always loved the changing of the seasons. There’s something grounding about it. A quiet reminder that everything has its…
Why New Ventures Never Get to the Next Level in Lower Middle Market Companies and Startups In my experience, most new ventures do not fail because the original idea was weak. They fail…
Winning in Business (and Why Most Success Books Get It Wrong) Most business advice is built on stories. A company hits a winning streak, someone writes a book about it, and suddenly we’re…
My Journey with Capacity Building: A Look Back Before Looking Forward Recently, I was going back through my notes—old books, highlighted passages, workshop materials, training videos, and years of conversations with business leaders…
What Happens to Execution Momentum? Every January, I see the same pattern play out. Leaders come back from the holidays energized. Plans feel crisp. Whiteboards are full. Offsites are optimistic. And for a…
The CEO’s Playbook for 2026 Most CEOs I work with aren’t short on ideas, intelligence, or ambition. What they’re short on is clarity, focus, and execution capacity in an environment that keeps getting…
Leadership Is a Daily Choice — And Most Leaders Drift Without Realizing It Most leadership breakdowns don’t happen because someone isn’t smart enough, committed enough, or hardworking enough. They happen quietly. They happen…
Family businesses can be a tremendous source of pride, purpose, and financial security—but only when everyone understands the difference between being an owner, being an employee, and being a family member. When those…
“Do you think the world was created by an accountant? No! The universe was created by the combustion of a creative explosion.” — Robert Redford I decided to revisit this article after hearing about…
Uncertainty Is Reality “The storm doesn’t build your skills; it reveals them.” Uncertainty isn’t a visitor—it’s the neighborhood we work in. Every leader, whether running a start-up, a family business, or a large…
The Fed isn’t punishing business owners—it’s rebalancing an overheated economy. That doesn’t mean you should freeze. It means you should move with purpose, not panic.
Growth by itself isn’t the goal. Sustainable, balanced growth that outperforms your market and strengthens your business foundation—that’s the win. “You’re not in business just to stay busy. You’re in business to build…
Launching a new business venture or starting up a company is an exhilarating journey filled with potential and promise. Yet, this path is often laden with hidden obstacles—what we can call “business landmines.”…
As a small business owner, achieving and maintaining success requires a clear strategy and a commitment to continuous improvement. One effective way to ensure your business remains aligned and driven toward its goals…
By adapting your leadership style to the needs of your business at each stage, you can navigate the challenges and guide your organization to sustained success. Keep learning, stay flexible, and always lead…
When faced with challenges or uncertainties, entrepreneurs should return to the fundamental principles outlined in Chrisman, Bauerschmidt, and Hofer's model: Entrepreneur, Industry, Strategy, Resources, and Organization. By systematically diagnosing and addressing issues within…
Running a small business is as challenging as it is rewarding, especially when it comes to financial management. As a business advisor, I've observed many common errors that can jeopardize a small business's…
Understanding and managing growth rates is crucial for the success of small businesses. Each business will have its own ideal growth rate, depending on its industry, target market, and internal resources. Striking the…
Failure happens. No one gets it right every time. In the journey of business, not every leader sails smoothly through the seas of success. The reality is stark yet often understated: the risk…
Not all risks are equal. Prioritize them based on their likelihood and potential impact on your business. Focus your resources on high-probability risks that would leave you significantly vulnerable, while having contingency plans…
Years of experience and observation in my coaching and consulting practice have shaped these commandments. By adhering to these principles, small business owners can establish a solid foundation for success and effectively navigate the challenges that…
Scaling and replication are two different approaches to organically grow your business. Scaling involves increasing the size and scope of your existing business operations. In contrast, replication involves creating a duplicate of your…
Growth is hard work. For the past 27 years, I’ve worked as an executive coach, Vistage Chair, trainer or management consultant with hundreds of organizations. They have varied in size from just under…
People often ask me if there is a simple formula for achieving CEO success that every leader should follow. I believe there is, and unfortunately, few leaders have the discipline and commitment to…
In this session, one of Vistage’s top executive coaches, Ed Robinson, brings together a panel of successful Maryland-based CEOs to share their experiences as founders and valuable lessons learned.
Even though all waves do crash to shore, most of the water still returns to the ocean to once again reform in a new wave configuration. Cycles follow patterns. Thank goodness, business leaders…
Whereas business is easily quantifiable in terms of financial success, measuring the impact of a life is more qualitative and difficult to discern. It’s all about choice. What you must believe is that…
I've witnessed a disturbing trend lately among many entrepreneurs. They want to work the hours of a successful person without yet attaining actual business success. All this talk about work-life balance has made…
In summary, get the basic business math right, avoid becoming too reliant on debt, make informed personnel decisions, commit to delivering high-quality customer service, and good things will happen.
There is a dark side to our competitive nature as individuals that often begrudges the success of others. I'm not sure why this and there are probably many psychological and neurological explanations. What…
It's important to celebrate your accomplishments! It's easy to forget why you work so hard when you're busy running a company. Running a business can be challenging, particularly in the past few years.…
Business ownership has never been for the faint of heart. Ongoing change and adaptability are part of the success equation. Even when things go well, there are problems you will have to navigate.…
It's important for everyone to get involved in their community but especially business owners/leaders. No business operates in full isolation from its surroundings. At minimum, you will want a friendly and cooperative relationship…
Business is challenging enough without encumbering it with seasonality issues. I've seen many talented and hardworking small business owners struggle under the weight of non-seasonal business volume. It isn't easy to staff appropriately,…
Being wise and responsible does not mean avoiding risk altogether. In fact, it requires embracing the right risks at the right time, along with the necessary investment in resources. As the saying goes,…
I often ask my clients to think of this as their business Grade Point Average (GPA). Their goal should be to achieve a 4.0 GPA, which is the equivalent of an A grade…
here is a significant benefit to working with a diverse range of clients over many years. You start to recognize patterns, seeing what works and what gets organizations in trouble. I have compiled…
I've always enjoyed the company of fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners. It is inherent to their nature to be risk takers and problem solvers. They are rarely satisfied with the status quo…
Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future is more than a book about China; it’s a challenge to how we think about progress, power, and responsibility. By immersing you in “China’s quest to…
If you’re focused solely on today’s income, you’re likely sacrificing tomorrow’s wealth. The Secret Stock Market gives you the clarity, tools, and strategic mindset to shift from business operator to business architect—someone who…
Armstrong walks you through the layered approach, showing how great leaders don't just build businesses; they build other leaders. The book breaks down how to intentionally create layers of leadership that align with…
This isn’t about buzzwords. It’s about picking the right opportunity, pressure-testing your model, serving real customers fast, and keeping cash healthy while you build a team you can trust. You’ll get clear frameworks…
Growth targets and dashboards can’t answer the bigger questions: What’s the point? What’s enough? What kind of leader do I want to be? Handy doesn’t preach; he shares honest accounts of choices and…
Most companies don’t stall for lack of effort—they stall because the systems that got them here can’t carry them there. The Breakthrough Company lays out how solid, real-world firms push past the plateau:…
This isn’t just about General Electric. It’s about any company—big or small—that grows faster than its systems, confuses activity with progress, or lets pride outrun the facts. If you lead people and manage…
If you want your company to outlast your own leadership, start with BE 2.0 by Jim Collins. Use it to realign your team around enduring values, strengthen your culture, and prepare your organization…
At the center of Traction is the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical framework designed to help leadership teams align around what matters most and execute on it relentlessly. Wickman’s premise is straightforward:…
The Core Idea: What Are You Actually Managing? Before models, ask yourself something more important: What are the “keys” in your business? In my experience, they almost always fall into four buckets: Key…
In Winning, Jack Welch shares hard-earned lessons about competition, strategy, people management, and organizational culture. Rather than offering abstract frameworks, he answers the questions leaders actually face every day—how to win in the…
Start With Why – Simon Sinek Why this book matters Most leaders know what they do. Many know how they do it. Very few know why they do it. Simon Sinek argues that…
For founders, executives, and senior leaders, Trillion Dollar Coach reframes leadership as a daily practice of presence: showing up, asking hard questions, holding people accountable, and supporting them as humans, not resources. It’s…
Parrott makes this clear early: the biggest opportunities don’t come from isolated trends. They come from convergence. AI doesn’t matter on its own. Pair it with labor shortages, and now you have a…
Reflections on Life and Leading This book reads like a distillation of years spent in rooms where decisions mattered—where leaders had to look at themselves honestly and then go do something about it.…
On Leadership and Business doesn’t chase theory. It doesn’t try to impress. It goes straight at the real work—what leaders do, what they avoid, and what it costs them over time. This is…
Nightly Business Report Presents Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn From the Top 25 Business People of Our Times Most leadership books try to give you a formula. This one does something better.…
Service is what you do. Hospitality is how people feel when you do it. You can deliver the food on time, answer the phone correctly, and solve the problem efficiently. That is service.…
KPIs are about identifying the vital few—the numbers that directly tie to outcomes. Revenue. Margins. Customer retention. Cash flow. Operational efficiency. Everything else is noise.
Abe’s Final Masterpiece: A Symphony of Lessons for Business and Life This is a book about mentorship. Real mentorship. Not theory. Not frameworks. Not abstract leadership ideas. Conversations. Stories. Corrections. Perspective. Mark Luterman…
Every leader, every operator, every person trying to build something meaningful runs into the same problem: we don’t just deal with reality. We interpret it. And over time, those interpretations harden into beliefs.…
Kaplan and Norton argue that strategy must become a management system—something that shows up in how you plan, measure, communicate, and lead every day. When it does, execution stops being reactive. It becomes…
The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger is not built on theory or frameworks. It’s built on decisions made over time, under pressure, with real consequences. What you see is how a…
This book doesn’t offer shortcuts. It brings the focus back to something simple—and difficult: How do people actually experience your company? Not what you intend. Not what you say. What they live.
There are names in business that get repeated so often they lose their weight. Peter Drucker is one of them. People quote him. Reference him. Incorporate his ideas into presentations. But very few…
Managing a business, or any organization, I came to see, was more practical art than applied science. Yes, there were some useful disciplines, as in any art form, but what worked best could…
I believe that business and nonprofit leaders need to think differently about what constitutes success. Besides the quality of their people, what differentiates most high-performing companies is their vision, focus, and discipline. Culturally,…
The leadership journey requires you to cogitate constantly on the role you and others should be playing. As you achieve some level of success, your business may challenge your capabilities to lead it.…
By embracing the principles outlined in these sections, leaders can inspire their teams, drive sustainable success, and create a lasting positive impact within their organizations. The path to success involves not just strategic…
By understanding and addressing the stages of hubris born of success, undisciplined pursuit of more, denial of risk and peril, grasping for salvation, and capitulation to irrelevance or death, companies can avoid decline…
The "Harvard Business Review on Entrepreneurship" provides invaluable insights into the critical questions, strategies, and frameworks that entrepreneurs must consider to succeed. By asking the right questions, finding the optimal growth rate, investing…
