The Corner Office

CEO Blog

If you’re a CEO, there are only a few things only you can do. And shaping, engaging, and elevating your Board of Directors is one of them. Yet, many mid-market CEOs don’t see their boards as strategic allies—they see them as passive, disconnected, or, worse, political. And the data backs this up.  According to PwC:

You’re in the boardroom again. Another meeting. Another round of discussion without decisions. You walk out shaking your head—frustrated that everything still feels stuck. Execution is slow. Politics are creeping in. Teams are misaligned. And deep down, you know why.Your Core Team isn’t acting like a First Team. This is the silent killer of execution

In every organization, there’s noise—and there’s impact.And the best CEOs know the difference. The reality is this: not all roles are created equal.Some are essential. Others are exponential. A small group of roles—often less than 15% of your workforce—have an outsized influence on your strategy, innovation, customer experience, and long-term growth. Ignore them, and you’ll

Somewhere between back-to-back meetings, board prep, and inbox overload, the view narrows. You start making decisions based on reports, secondhand updates, and dashboards. Strategy becomes a spreadsheet. Culture becomes a survey result. Customers become personas. But here’s the truth no one says out loud:The desk is a terrible place to view the world. As CEO,

In a recent closed-door roundtable with a group of high-performing C-suite executives, I asked a simple but telling question: “What’s your biggest challenge with your senior leadership team?” What followed wasn’t surprising—but it was sobering. Beneath the surface of well-crafted strategies, strong balance sheets, and ambitious growth goals, a pattern emerged: breakdowns in accountability and

Your brand is out there. The campaigns are running. Your logo shows up in all the right places. But here’s the question that too few CEOs ask: Is our marketing actually driving growth—or just activity? In today’s competitive, digital-first world, marketing is more than a creative function. It’s a strategic engine of growth, brand equity,

You’ve got the vision. The strategy is clear. Growth targets are bold. But something’s not clicking. Despite the momentum, deadlines slip. Teams are stretched. Customers wait longer. Leaders are busy managing chaos instead of scaling the business. If this sounds familiar, it’s time to ask a tough question: Is your operation built to support the

It happens quietly. Your company is growing, deals are closing, strategy is humming—and then, friction starts to appear. You can’t fill key roles fast enough. Leaders are burning out. Culture feels fragile. Engagement dips. Performance conversations stall. Suddenly, it’s clear: your people engine is misfiring. In a world where talent is the ultimate competitive advantage,

It’s a tale as old as time: marketing blames sales for not following up on leads, and sales blames marketing for delivering the wrong ones. Meanwhile, the business suffers—leads go cold, opportunities slip, and customer trust erodes. But here’s the truth that every CEO must confront: when sales and marketing are misaligned, growth slows, brand

You’ve built something remarkable. But what happens when you—or your top leaders—aren’t in the chair tomorrow? For many CEOs, succession planning feels like tomorrow’s problem. It’s uncomfortable. It’s complex. It’s easy to deprioritize when you’re in growth mode or battling today’s fires. But here’s the hard truth: if you haven’t planned for continuity, you’ve planned