by Rick McPartlin | Jul 26, 2011 | Directional Unification / Alignment, Strategy, Structure
As a fledgling salesperson, I believed product knowledge, excellent communication and hard work would lead to success. With a few years under my belt, I believed that the additional processes and skills I learned through training would allow me to achieve even greater...
by Jane Adamson | May 20, 2011 | Culture, Guest post
A note from Rick McPartlin This post is the first of many guest posts we’ll begin publishing for the CEO Challenge. As we announced yesterday, Jane has launched Sherpa Advisory and will focus on guiding companies with 25-500 employees to achieve excellence in...
by Rick McPartlin | Apr 5, 2011 | Bellcurve, Directional Unification / Alignment, Revenue Growth, Strategy
“Faced with economic headwinds, many global corporations are struggling to grow their businesses profitably. “Meanwhile, many business leaders continue to seek growth by extending their existing product lines and brands, as well as by entering new...
by Rick McPartlin | Mar 1, 2011 | Strategy, Structure
Teenage Girl, Sailing Solo, Is Missing – NYTimes.com The girl, Abby Sunderland of Thousand Oaks, Calif., departed alone Jan. 23, 2010 in her sailboat Wild Eyes. Abby’s brother Zac had already sailed around the world alone and her goal from the age of 13 had...
by Jane Adamson | Feb 1, 2011 | Revenue Growth
A few weeks ago we paused to remember Martin Luther King Jr. One of the things he said, about half a lifetime ago: “We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum...
by Jane Adamson | Jan 4, 2011 | Culture
Happy New Year, Challenge readers! We hope you’ve enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and that your team is invigorated to achieve the company goals you’ve set for 2011. (Not finished with the planning process? Check out this article.) It’s easy to be confident that...
by Jane Adamson | Dec 7, 2010 | Strategy
2010 has been the year of the great stall. The world marketplace has shifted dramatically, and our society can’t stop talking, reading, and writing about it. Yet many of us haven’t gone much further than talk. We haven’t done anything yet. The decisions, changes, and...
by Jane Adamson | Nov 2, 2010 | Cost of Chaos
Imagine that you have a huge digital billboard in your office. It’s something like the national debt clock, and it’s tracking something that is just as critical to your company’s future. It’s the money your organization wastes while trying to...
by Jane Adamson | Oct 5, 2010 | Cost of Chaos, Directional Unification / Alignment, Strategy
You may be one of the fortunate few who has never needed to diet. Your clothes fit season after season. You’ve never sat through a Weight Watchers meeting or closed your eyes in the bakery. Enjoy your good fortune. For the rest of us, dieting is a way of life. We...
by Jane Adamson | Sep 7, 2010 | Revenue Growth, Strategy
Can you imagine being alive in the late 1400s when Christopher Columbus *didn’t* sail off the edge of the world? After a lifetime of believing the world was flat, would you readily accept that it was round? Or is it possible that you might react as many others...
