The Corner Office

CEO Blog

#6: The Growth Multiplier — Engaging Stakeholders A mid-market CEO once shared with me: “I thought we had a great strategy, but when I rolled it out, our investors pushed back, customers didn’t get it, and employees were confused. I realized I hadn’t brought them along.” That’s the danger of neglecting stakeholder engagement. You can

#5: The Overlooked Growth Lever — Board Effectiveness A CEO once confided in me after a board meeting: “That felt like a waste of time. We spent two hours reviewing financials, half the room barely spoke, and no one challenged our strategy.” That board wasn’t broken. But it wasn’t effective either. And ineffective boards are

#4: The Silent Killer of Growth — Misalignment A mid-market CEO once told me, “We’re moving too slowly. Execution feels stuck.” On the surface, it sounded like a strategy or operations problem. But as I dug in, I discovered the real issue: the company wasn’t aligned. Each leader had their own priorities. Culture was described

#3: Your Vision Isn’t Clear Enough High turnover. Low engagement. Leaders working hard—but not on the right things. These are symptoms of a deeper issue: lack of Vision Clarity. Without a compelling vision, execution scatters, culture drifts, and growth leaks value every day. The Enterprise Value Impact Companies with clear vision grow 58% faster, achieve

#2: Your First Team Doesn’t Work Like One You walk into executive team meetings expecting alignment—and instead get polite updates, turf wars, and half-hearted consensus. That’s not a First Team. That’s a group of silo leaders pulling in different directions. And when your First Team fractures, execution fragments. Growth bottlenecks. Enterprise value erodes. The Enterprise

#1: You’re Stuck In the Business—Not Leading On the Business Leading a mid-market company is exhilarating—and exhausting. But here’s the hard truth: when you spend most of your time in tactical meetings, operational firefighting, and decision fatigue, you’re not leading—you’re surviving. And survival mode leaks value. Productivity slows. Strategic bets stall. Leaders disengage. The Enterprise

I was with a mid-market CEO recently who said: “Every year our planning feels like a financial exercise. We sit around the table, tweak the budget, and call it strategy.” That’s not strategy. And it’s not how you build enterprise value. If you want to grow with intention, your plan for 2029 — and your

A CEO told me recently: “We always end the year with good intentions, but by the time we finalize our plan, Q1 is already slipping away. We spend more time catching up than leading.” That’s the danger of waiting too long. If you want to create enterprise value in 2026, you can’t afford to coast

A CEO I work with once told me: “Every December, we scramble to finalize next year’s plan, and by the time it’s ready, Q1 is already half over.” The result? Teams reacting instead of executing. Opportunities missed. Growth stalled. That’s the danger of waiting too long to plan. If you want to hit the ground

(Just Ask the CEO Who Did) Strategy isn’t just about vision. It’s about making informed decisions—where to double down, where to expand, and, just as critically, where not to go. One of the most overlooked competitive advantages in business today isn’t technology, talent, or capital. It’s insight. Real, unfiltered insight from your customers, employees, and