Here is my weekly operating cadence as chairman and CEO of a $1.5 billion PE-backed industrial company: one 45-minute executive review on Monday morning built on leading indicators for the five EBITDA levers, one 60-minute
Here is my weekly operating cadence as chairman and CEO of a $1.5 billion PE-backed industrial company: one 45-minute executive review on Monday morning built on leading indicators for the five EBITDA levers, one 60-minute
In the first week with a new management team I ask a short list of questions — one for the CFO, one for sales, one for operations, one for the CEO, and one for everybody
The visionary needs an operator the moment the company’s growth depends more on finishing things than on imagining them — and in my experience that moment arrives two years before anyone admits it. I’ve spent
The turnaround sequence I have used for thirty years is five steps in a fixed order: visibility first, focus second, price third, mix fourth, cost last. That order is not a preference. It is the
I run a board meeting in ninety minutes, and I open every one of them the same way: with the gap. Not last quarter’s narrative, not a safety moment, not a market overview — the
For leaders navigating the complexities of today’s business environment, achieving sustained, profitable growth while fostering operational excellence is paramount. Bill Canady, CEO of Arrowhead Engineered Products and Chairman of OTC Industrial Technologies, was featured in
All enterprises, even the most innovative, strive at some level to become efficient creatures of habit. At some level the aim is to transform the business into a money-making machine. Switch it on and it
It’s a familiar narrative: every election year, businesses brace for economic and political uncertainty, with layoffs often seen as an inevitable consequence. However, while elections may cause turbulence in political offices (such as one party
The fourth and final step in the First 100 Days is launching an Action Plan, which defines the imperatives and tactics necessary to execute the strategy (Step 2) within the 80/20 segmented structure outlined in Step 3. Like the three steps that precede it, Step 4 aims at progress (not perfection) toward delivering on the goal set in Step 1. Every day of the First 100 Days is dedicated to making sound, informed decisions and taking actions based on them. Action, however imperfect, injects the company strategy into the real world, where it not only can begin the needed turnaround but where it is also tested against reality so that in can be continuously improved.
All four steps taken in the First 100 Days move toward creation of a Business Plan and an Action Plan. Step 3, Build the Structure, is the Business Plan, and in Step 4 we Launch the Action Plan to begin executing the strategy. Of course, the Business Plan at this point is in an early, partial iteration, subject to change as the plan is tested against the reality of the next three to five years.
