I like to think that I have learned a lot in managing business teams for nearly 15 years. One area where it is particularly evident – at least to me – that I have grown is in the area of collaborative planning. When I first became CEO of a company in 1997, I largely kept [...]
Business
One of the hardest things I do for work is attend cocktail receptions. Yeah, I know, poor me. Go somewhere for free food and drink and casual conversation. It’s the same look I get when I complain about having to travel to Key West to speak at a conference in the dead of winter. But [...]
Many entrepreneurs assume that to be successful they need to be acquired or go public in an IPO. Netscape, Google, and more recently LinkedIn teach us this, it seems. High-tech companies, then, are often built to sell. That tends to mean a focus on revenues over profits. It drives fundraising activity, as acquirers and public [...]
For the last couple of years, I spent more than 200 days a year on the road. That’s a grueling schedule that doesn’t lend itself to healthy habits – especially for someone like me who has a lot of friends in the restaurant industry and a passion for trying great food. Despite the challenges – [...]
I’m an early morning person. I generally rise around 5:30 AM. In fact, even on vacation I’m hard-pressed to sleep in beyond 6:30 or 7:00. One of the reasons I like getting up early is that it is quiet. At home, the wife and kids are still asleep. It gives me a chance to knock [...]
Most successful startups have a sense of urgency about them. It is something that individuals can exhibit and can be manifested across an entire team or company. Urgency can help breed success. Misplaced or misunderstood urgency can be extremely damaging, however. In my experience the sense of urgency in business is often not well comprehended. [...]
Anyone who has ever worked for me knows that I love data to help me make decisions. Sure, I use my gut feelings a lot, too, just like any entrepreneur, but when I have access to good data and it makes sense, I want to use it as an aid. Often, data conflicts with anecdotal [...]
Like most entrepreneurs, I negotiate and sign a lot of contracts. And while I’m not a lawyer, I sometimes feel like one after as much time as I have spent with — and as much money I have paid to — attorneys over the past 15 years of running businesses. But what interests me more [...]
As I get back into the swing of things at the helm of CustomScoop after a multi-year absence from the day-to-day operations, it makes sense to undertake a review and planning process. Sure it goes against my desire as an entrepreneur to jump in and start trying new ideas right away, but this is a [...]
Spring represents a time of change. Not content with simply watching the return of grass and flowers as temperatures warm and the snow melts, I decided that I needed bigger change. Or perhaps more accurately, change decided to find me. Sometimes the right path is so obvious that one must simply follow it. Here’s the [...]
