Advice for CEOs

On January 28, 2016 Newport Board Group partner and Southern California Managing Director Richard Munro took part in a national Expert Webcast, Duties of Officers and Directors of a Distressed Company. Other participants included experts from distinguished firms such as investment bank DelMorgan & Co. and law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

Your Customer is Never Right To be successful in the marketplace, companies must balance the desires of current customers with a bold vision of where their technology and service could take their customers.

Employee diversity is a subject that has recently inspired considerable debate—and some controversy. A prominent line of business thinking says that, for their own self-interest, companies should aspire to build a work force that reflects the demographics of their markets and customers. We asked Newport partners what they see as to what extent employee diversity is a priority with their clients and other companies they know. Here are their responses.

Newport Board Group Partner Rick Williams, a member of the firm’s New England practice, will be the moderator of a business event on a topic that is important to all organizations. The event, in Burlington, VT on April 12, is titled From Gray Hair to Flip Flops, Leading a Multigenerational Workforce.

Acquisition of a company that can be a platform or foundation to “roll up” or “bolt on” complementary acquisitions is a long standing strategy for private equity and other investors. Technology-based tools and metrics programs to support realizing synergies and economies of scale in these situations are more powerful than they have ever been. Our firm has partners who as executives have executed rollup strategies successfully and are ready to advise others in doing so. Such strategies are particularly promising in market spaces where there is excess capacity due to stagnant growth or even market shrinkage. In these markets efficiency and low operating costs--rather than innovation--is the best path to profitability. There has been a lot of talk that, with deals becoming ever scarcer, private equity firms are drawn to bolt-on strategies. But--what is actually happening in the marketplace? We asked some of our partners to weigh in.

Especially since the recovery from the Great Recession, one frequently hears—from company executives, business news shows, and local Chamber of Commerce meetings--some version of the following: “Companies have many open positions they need to fill to grow their business, but just can't find the qualified talent."