One of the most effective strategies for a small to mid-sized company is to focus on one particular market or product line and, within that area of focus, be significantly better than the competition. A focused strategy ensures that your limited resources are concentrated to create the maximum advantage. This not only applies to financial

I came of age in the late 1970s in the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era that felt devoid of any grand sense of cause or direction or purpose.

What is a good choice? Good shouldn’t be defined primarily in terms of education, skills, or specific prior experience (although these will certainly factor into the choice). The primary assessment of good should be, “Does this person fit with our values? Is this person willing to buy into what we’re all about? Is this person likely to live with

Judicious use of analysis is good, as long as you don’t fall prey to “analysis paralysis.” There are seldom enough facts or data to eliminate all risk or to make a decision based solely on those facts. Furthermore, all business analysis is dramatically affected by your assumptions. Two people looking at the same set of facts will often come to

Finally, taking the internal and external assessments into account, make key decisions about how you intend to go about achieving your current mission. This is analogous to mapping out the route you are going to take up the side of the mountain. Break the strategic decisions down into each of the key components of the business. We find the

You must retain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time you must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. You must believe you can survive the camp and will live to see your loved ones again, and at the same time you must stoically accept

Which brings us to a crucial question: How do you know when you’ve crossed the demarcation line, when it’s time to make the shift from “develop” to “replace” for a key seat? I’ve come to believe the best approach is to ask considered questions and let those questions guide you to an answer. I’ve distilled years of reflection down to seven questions

Everything starts with people. There are two fundamental principles in Stage 1: Cultivate Level 5 leadership. First who, then what (get the right people on the bus).

When Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, introduced me at a gathering for KIPP Schools in 2014, he surprised me by saying that when he was a young entrepreneur, he’d read Beyond Entrepreneurship six times.