Advice for CEOs

The 100 day plan is an important business process that is central to several specific business situations-- and broadly relevant to others. It is a key step executed by private equity (PE) firms immediately after a close of a transaction. In a very different context, a 100 day plan is also essential to turning around a company that has negative cash flow and is in danger of losing access to credit and even going bankrupt.

CEOs of emerging growth and middle market companies have many ways to get advice. But most of these approaches such as courses at business schools or all day seminars require time away from the office that many CFOs can’t afford. Imagine that you could have coffee with a group of 10 CEOs who are ready to share some pithy, hard won advice based on their many years of experience leading and building companies. Newport Board Group asked a group of our CEO partners what advice they would offer in this situation. Here is what they said.

One of the most valuable assets that everyone has access to is the mistakes you have made—if you can honestly assess the lessons they can teach you and apply them the next time you face a comparable situation. This principle is particularly true for CEOs, whose mistakes can hurt the future of their company, their employees and customers and even their communities.

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.

Rick Williams, a partner in Newport’s New England practice, recently published this article on the web site of the Boston Business Journal.