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Culture is Strategy This post is part of my ongoing series exploring lessons from Jim Collins’s book, BE 2.0 Why Culture Matters More Than Strategy People often say “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Jim Collins takes this further: culture doesn’t just influence strategyit becomes your strategy. .”
He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. In his post he asserts, “You get the VCs you deserve” and the corollary “You get the performance out of your board that you deserve.” By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them.
I recommend you read Fred Wilson’s recent blog post about the need for a well articulated business strategy before pushing a particular business model. He then brought her to board meetings so nobody could accuse him of not having a business model. The Need for Strategy. My take on his argument is this: 1.
I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.
Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community.
For startups, a good Board is better than no Board, but a bad Board is worse than anything. One component of a good Board is a high value add Independent Board Member, which in my experience, often doesn’t get added early enough (for a variety of reasons). I knew I wanted to help build it from the ground up.
I have been writing a series on how startup boards get selected, who sits on them and what to avoid. I started this series in part to help entrepreneurs but also to help newer investors because I’ve know with so many new companies you have so many new board members and many people are trying to figure out there respective roles.
When Pete approached me for advice, I recommended the “Failure-Proofing” strategy, which is a pragmatic and easy-to-use technique to defend against planning and project disasters. He recruited Ann, a member of the firm’s Advisory Board, to be an independent facilitator. 3 Key Steps to Preventing Disasters in Implementing Decisions.
I’m a stickler for focus, being efficient with capital and building out operational excellence, so our strategy initially was very constrained. This division of labor and responsibilities has proved invaluable and they are both on the board so we have good and robust debates. The Early Years.
As I shared in a previous post , when I was president of Click Workspace, a startup coworking space, our board chairman delivered feedback that hit me hard: I wasn’t paying enough attention to our financials. Many founders would leave board meetings with lengthy to-do lists. What are the biggest risks to the company?
Many board meetings are bored meetings. This is a shame since the value that the right board could add is immense if you select the right board members and manage them effectively. Yesterday I wrote a blog post about what the role of a board actually is. Some boards are highly functional, many are not.
When you set up a board it is often initially a combination of the founders and the early investors. This post sets out how I believe founders (and investors) should think about independent board members having worked with many of them for the past 20 years. The board is where large equity investors get their representation.
As an EO strategy summit facilitator, I have witnessed first-hand the value of these events for the community. Strategy summits are opportunities for growth, connection, putting steel to the grindstone, and sharpening processes to drive transformation. The other 99 percent? Alignment.
Associates often shadow partners at board meetings so that they can help follow up with the company on important initiatives between board meetings. I think it’s great for some people because it really does give you some solid benefits: board exposure / experience. Helping be the VC “presence” at key events.
recently released a “Climate Action Strategy” with lofty environmental goals. The post 3 Tips for Getting Investors on Board With Your CSR Mission appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Also set concrete, quantifiable goals. As an example, Levi Strauss & Co.
You can work as a consultant, an interim executive, a board member, a deal executive partnering to buy a company, an executive in residence, or as an entrepreneur in residence. . As a next step, we recommend that you register at the major expert network websites, as well as LinkedIn and job boards, if you haven’t already.
March 18, 2025) Last week, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Board approved the creation of the Next New Jersey Program – AI and the AI Innovation Challenge Administration Grant Program.
While it might be tempting to jump right in, it’s important to take the time to evaluate successful outcomes and develop a strategy to achieve your goals. How can you get others on board to help support your vision? Ask yourself: How can these dollars make the greatest impact in your community? Evolve with your ecosystem.
Work with community resources and local workforce boards. Additionally, many states have regional workforce development boards that will assist you in finding such training programs and future workers. The post Navigating Supply Chain Disruption: 7 Strategies for Small Businesses appeared first on StartupNation. You got this!
One area I’ve had much discussion with the companies in which I’ve invested in is bringing on board an operationally focused CFO. I think Ophir would agree that the business was transformed after we brought on board Phil Schraeder at the CFO (and later promoted to COO). And board confidence matters in growing companies.
” List all possible causes of that failure Identify the most dangerous factors Develop mitigation strategies immediately This process helps you see risks your optimism might otherwise blind you to. Their candid feedback revealed a stark truth: The angel investment landscape had fundamentally changed, but our model hadn’t.
At any moment in time one of Upfront’s associates are likely to be working on: a pricing strategy, a market-expansion strategy, an M&A review, or helping build a company’s first board deck template. We’ve done all of these recently. We encourage you to judge us by our actions.
In particular, I''m always trying to improve as a board member, but their aren''t any programs or classes for that. A program like these could help you work on your strategy and help get you up and running quickly on shared backend tools as well. You certainly wouldn''t lose too much of your money, since these are diversified pools.
No wonder people are questioning where the boards of these companies were. No one from the firm leading the deal will join the board. Is it really surprising to anyone when we talk about "party rounds" as financing strategies we''ve created companies with unprofessional environments and founders behaving irresponsibly?
This financial leader could well have come through the finance org at another startup or at a larger company but they often also can come from strategy consulting (Bain, BCG or McKinsey) or through investment banking (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.).
As I grow into my new role as EO’s Global Board Chair , I begin by looking back on my entrepreneurial journey over the past decade and see now, with the benefit of hindsight, how my understanding and approach to leadership have drastically evolved. Or as one of my EO Board Chair predecessors, Marc Stockli, once wrote, as a Leader’s Leader.
A channel sales strategy is crucial to scaling a startup. If not, Evan recommends that you go back to the drawing board. However, most startups fail to launch and execute a successful channel sales program. What is your ideal partner profile and how can you be meaningful to them?
VCs aren’t experts at every aspect of a startup at the same level across the board. If that’s not a conversation you have upfront, the founder may come off as a bit dismissive when they hear the color commentary—and why shouldn’t they? Maybe that would be helpful for a founder to share: “I’m excited to have you as part of this round.
Harding remains a board member and an integral executive team member. Prior to joining LUUM, Lawson’s 15 year career included shaping brand strategies and product development across global brands such as Apple, PayPal and Movado.
Cambium has partnered with brands, developers, and mass timber manufacturers seeking high-quality materials with reduced carbon footprintsnot just as an ethical choice, but as a sound business strategy. billion board feet of usablewood. The numbers tell thestory: Every year, the U.S.
So much of this is gut feel with a thin later of strategy retrofitted to seem more than random. The biggest problem is that what gets lauded as successful strategy isn't replicable--or at minimum should never be advocated. Maybe you reminded them unconsciously of an entrepreneur they regretted passing on in the past.
Some investors may have succeeded with this strategy but at Upfront we decided to stay in our lane. When we get involved in Seed investments we usually represent 60–80% in one of the first institutional rounds of capital, we almost always take board seats and then we serve these founders over the course of a decade or longer.
But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert. What is the right organizational strategy for a large UK conglomerate to operate more effectively? We are their sparring partners, their sounding boards.
The 15 Best Strategies for Developing New Business in a Crowded Market In the quest to uncover effective strategies for developing new businesses in a crowded market, we turned to fifteen Founders and CEOs for their tried-and-true tactics. By analyzing the feedback and sign-ups, you can gauge the demand for your product.
These overachievers and members of The Oracles share their strategies to sharpen your focus, prolong your concentration and beat distractions once and for all. Create a five-step customized strategy. . I’ve incorporated these strategies for optimal performance. Grace Lackey | The Oracles. Lewis Howes. All rights reserved.
Board Meetings. If you’re not taking this zone-out down time I’ll bet you’re not having enough strategic reflection on your job, your company, your strategy. Every so often I find myself caught up in a really hectic 3-4 week schedule where it seems like I float endlessly betweens meetings. Conferences.
If you're a beginner learning the ropes or a veteran B2C marketer making the shift, trying to work with anything other than a purpose-built B2B email marketing strategy is a recipe for disaster. 6 key strategies for designing a B2B email campaign You get it: B2C or generalized email strategies are a no-go for your B2B campaign.
MyEO DX attracts EO members who are looking to transform or reinvent their business strategies or overall engagement with entrepreneurship. Some MyEO DX members are angel investors and serial entrepreneurs with deep knowledge about the process and strategy behind buying and selling companies. Who is the ideal attendee for DX22?
We don’t lay claim to being the only VC to change or think about the future or to having the only or best strategy. Investing early in the lifecycle of a startups history where we can have the biggest impact on strategy & team development and deliver the highest returns if we are successful. First task for Kyle?
When DataSift sets up a board meeting (next one in London, last was in NYC) we have investors from NYC (IA Ventures), SF (Scale Ventures) and the founding team + chairman in London. I will commit to traveling to NYC seven times per year for board meetings. All I would ask is that you hold 1-2 board meetings / year in KC.
Caryn Marooney is general partner at Coatue Management and sits on the boards of Zendesk and Elastic. Should your SaaS startup embrace a bottom-up GTM strategy? Because the best go-to-market (GTM) strategies for startups are like hamburgers: The bottom bun: Bottom-up GTM. The hamburger go-to-market strategy. Contributor.
On investment strategies I have “ Deflationary Economics ” 6. I am VERY careful in board meetings and in startup pitches to tell entrepreneurs, “I feel very strongly about my opinion on this topic. On marketing I talk about “ Arming & Aiming ” 4. In the End Go with Your Gut.
In her 20-year leadership tenure with the organization, Winnie has held volunteer positions ranging from Communications Chair to Global Board Director, and has been instrumental in EO’s progress. She currently serves as EO’s Senior Global Board Advisor for Leadership Communications and Brand.
I’ve seen too many companies go off track by a VC hell bent on the team pursuing the VCs strategy which at times is about chasing the next shiny object. I would think it would be a big f **g nightmare to have a VC on my board who simply doesn’t get what I do and yet my perception is this happens often.
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