Advice for CEOs

Newport Board Group, a national professional services firm of CEOs and senior executives, asked our partners to recommend how CEOs should grapple with changes that are transforming how middle market companies recruit, evaluate and retain talent.

Talented, committed employees, motivated by the upside they see for themselves in their employer’s success, are the best source of a company’s competitive advantage. But CEOs of emerging growth and middle market companies must face the reality that their workforce is changing rapidly. Workers and employers don’t expect jobs to last as long as they did in earlier generations. Companies can opt for alternatives to permanent employment, such as outsourcing work to an external service provider, deploying short-term contractors or using the services of a professional employer organization (PEO). Talented millennials and other younger workers bring an independent attitude and (often) a freelancer mentality. The internet has transformed recruiting and made it possible for even small firms to tap workers located on the other side of the globe.

The success of a CEO has a lot to do with the performance of their Chief Marketing Officer, Manager of Sales or other executive who heads the sales force. Traditionally, sales managers have been successful salespeople.

Newport partners have decades of experience running companies. We interviewed a number of them and asked them to articulate some basic principles about management that their experience has taught them.

Some of the best advice that a CEO can get is from those who have walked in their shoes. We asked a group of CEOs who happen to be partners in Newport Board Group: “What is the best advice you could give a CEO trying to take their company from $5 million to $25 million in revenue?” In our next several blogs we present their responses.

Newport Board Group partners are participating in a number of upcoming sessions of Expert Webcast. Expert Webcast describes itself as a “digital source of expertise for the professional and business communities, locally, nationally and internationally.” Each session focuses on a single issue and brings together a panel of distinguished professionals from leading law and accounting firms, investment banks and consulting/advisory firms.