Growth Insights for CEOs

From Economic Insight to Growth Strategy: What CEOs Should Do Now
At our most recent CEO Growth Talks, I spoke with Taylor St. Germaine, Senior Economist at ITR Economics. The timing couldn’t have been better — the latest GDP numbers had just been released, and Taylor broke down what they mean for CEOs planning growth.
As always, ITR brought a clear and fact-based perspective. The economy is growing. Consumer spending is strong. And while some industries are facing headwinds, opportunities abound for leaders who are ready to act.
But the real question for CEOs isn’t just what the economy looks like. It’s: how do you prepare your business to grow in this environment — and the one coming next?
Recent Posts

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: Has Your Company Failed to Order the Breakfast of Champions?
Tue, Sep 13, 2016 — You are a hard-working, dedicated CEO who wants to grow your company – so you have taken the necessary steps to understand your market and develop insights about growth opportunities. You have even transformed those insights into a cohesive strategy, and worked with your team on a successful execution plan. What’s more, you have metrics and milestones galore. Congratulations! You’re ready to grow! …Right?

The Rise and Fall of Executives
Wed, Jul 24, 2013 — This blog is written by guest blogger Per Ohstrom. In my years in business, I have noticed how top executives often come out of Operations, which is a little counter- intuitive considering the number of highly trained Finance, Marketing or R&D managers there are in organizations. I have also seen execs crash and burn, who used to be well performing in a functional role. What’s going on? In a report from the Chally Group “Why Global Leaders Succeed and Fail”, published by Right Management, the researchers share some interesting findings.

Start Creating a Winning Culture: 7 Things CEOs Can Do Right Now
Wed, Jul 10, 2013 — The Problem Many people write about importance of creating a winning culture for your company, but few give tangible, actionable suggestions for improving it. I was hopeful I found something that did when my local business journal recently did a feature on culture. They asked the executives at the top 34 winners of their annual best places to work contest what they won’t tolerate in their culture, in search of what made them the best places to work. Unfortunately, the results were somewhat disappointing. Several responses were okay (a recurring theme was “gossip”), some were lighthearted (my favorite was “not putting the toilet seat down” - submitted by a man), but most were platitudes of political correctness, telling the reader little about how to actually create a winning culture.