When my clients talk with me about what they want to achieve for the year, I inevitably walk to the whiteboard or tear out a page from my notebook and start to draw my Key Levers Chart. It is about focus. It is about knowing which levers I have to pull in order to achieve
In working with early stage companies, I focus them on the proof-points they want to nail, in time for the next inflection point of their business, often coinciding with a next series round of investment. Why is this important? Proof–points are company deliverables that have to be completed in time for that inflection point, that
It was the early 2000s. The dotcom boom was in full swing. Startups cropping up left right and center, and our industry was no different. As a member of APL’s Executive Team, I had responsibility for Information Strategy, and the CEO, Flemming Jacobs, and I had a clear execution plan – prevent intermediation of the
I am a big believer in the performance and productivity of the sales team; that sales people have to be part of the team as well as understand that their success relies on how well they work with other groups in the company. Having said that, sales people must see themselves as CEOs of their
Meditate Exercise Write Read Work Be with/Reach out to/Be present with the people that matter in my life None is more important than the other
Visibility along the supply chain consistently sits as a top priority for customers of supply chain companies. They want it, they need it and it has become a commodity. If you don’t have supply chain visibility as part of your product suite, you aren’t getting the business. But visibility is about reporting what has transpired,
It seems to get harder and harder to find great Customer Service these days. Corporations are taking people out of the equation, pushing us to automation. I can’t do a foreign currency transaction via teller or online; When I pick up my currency, I wait in long lines because of staffing reductions, because I am
When you have the experience of a few turn-arounds under your belt, you pick up a few habits that serve you well in running your business, no matter what. I look at the businesses I run along the bell curve of profitability.: The left side of the curve contains my EBIT Killers. These are the
In speaking to an Executive MBA class, I chose to do a career walk for them. I walked them through my career from first job out of college to today, highlighting not the jobs and positions I held, but the lessons I learned, the perspective I gained, the decisions I made and didn’t make, the
When I ran DHL in the US, I often visited the courier stations as the couriers were loading the vans to start their delivery and pickup routes. I soon came to realize that one of the traits of the super salespeople is that they would visit the stations, bring donuts and coffee, or the like,
