Running a business without strategy is like driving your car without a clear destination and map to get there. It is both confusing and inefficient. Business isn’t something you make up as you go along. The leader needs ensure he/she is well informed about external industry dynamics and the needed related internal capabilities. The best leaders anticipate, then create the future using a well-informed strategy to make it happen. They also ensure everyone in the organization is clear about this direction and why it’s important.
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,…
During a Vistage coaching session today, I revisited a tool I’ve used many times over the years. It reminded me of something simple: Sometimes the old tools are still the best tools—especially when…
Growth Regardless of Obstacles: How Small Business Leaders Build Sustainable Growth in Any Economy Growing a business is rarely a smooth, predictable process. In fact, most business growth happens during seasons that feel…
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…
The winners over the next 3–5 years won’t be the ones with the fanciest tech or the biggest marketing budgets. They’ll be the ones who operationalize these four levers across their business—one strategic…
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…
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” — Albert Einstein Running a business is never a straight line. Some years, things hum along smoothly. Other times, the landscape changes—customers evolve, the competition stiffens,…
Contingency planning isn’t about living in fear. It’s about being smart. It’s about protecting what you’ve worked so hard to build—your people, your reputation, your financial stability—so that when the wind shifts, you…
As we approach the end of 2024, it’s an important time to step back and take a comprehensive look at the past year and plan for 2025. Intentional reflection and forward-thinking vision mark…
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…
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…
The New Makers of Modern Strategy reminds leaders that strategy isn’t a binder—it’s a living set of choices you make under pressure. Read it to sharpen your judgment, tighten your plans, and align…
In a world full of slide decks and “big ideas,” the winners are the teams that ship. Bossidy and Charan cut through the noise and show you how to build a culture where…
Markets are noisy, talent is scarce, and attention is fleeting. The teams that win aren’t just fast—they’re deliberate. This book helps you slow the game down: define what you truly want, map the…
From tax shelters to AI recommendation engines, the advantage increasingly goes to whoever best manipulates the rules. If you lead a business, run operations, or set policy, you need hacker-level situational awareness: where…
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:…
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…
Introduction Straight from the Gut is Jack Welch’s candid and deeply personal account of his journey from a young engineer to one of the most successful CEOs in business history. In this autobiography,…
Jack Trout isn’t subtle with the title. And he doesn’t need to be. His point is simple and hard to ignore: if you don’t stand out in the mind of the customer, you…
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…
Tom Searcy’s central argument is simple: instead of chasing dozens of small, transactional deals, you identify and pursue a handful of “whales”—large, high-value clients that can fundamentally change your business.
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.…
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…
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.…
At the center of the story is a struggling company brought back by a leader who does one thing well: he forces his executive team to act like a team. Not a collection…
Philip Kotler makes a distinction most people miss. Marketing is not advertising. It is not branding. It is not clever messaging. Marketing is the entire system of identifying, creating, delivering, and capturing value.
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 book cuts through one of the biggest myths in business: There is no single strategy, structure, or innovation that guarantees success. No magic formula. No shortcut. Instead, performance comes from a combination…
American Icon by Bryce G. Hoffman tells the story of Ford Motor Company in the years leading up to and through the 2008 financial crisis—and the leadership of Alan Mulally, the outsider CEO…
Layered Leadership by Lawrence R. Armstrong Book Excerpts INTRODUCTION Leadership, whether of a startup; Small, mid-sized, or large firm; team; church; or any organization, must work as a whole across the continuum…
Five Stages of Decline: Hubris Born of Success Undisciplined Pursuit of More Denial of Risk and Peril Grasping for Salvation Capitulation to Irreverence or Death “The concept of hubris is defined as…
I have been a Charles Handy fan for many years and find that his work only becomes more prescient and meaningful with time. It’s amazing how he could envision the world we would be doing…
Central Thesis Leadership is layered, not linear. Enduring organizations align several layers—self‑leadership, team development, clear strategy, disciplined execution, market focus, innovation, culture, and succession—so each layer reinforces the others. The leader’s ongoing task…
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 transition from good to great is not easy, but it is possible with the right mindset, leadership, and culture. By embracing Level 5 Leadership, focusing on the right people, confronting the brutal…
