Category: Strategic Planning

Phil Holberton

Phil Holberton

Dedicated to helping you achieve your maximum potential

Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Every CEO should remember the proverb that “every silver lining has a cloud.”  The business translation of this adage was best put by Vistage Speaker Pat Murray who has warned thousands of Vistage members that the “second worst thing that can happened to a company is success.” In that spirit,

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Second Order Consequences and the C-Suite

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Being a C-Level Executive means having a point of view about the future.  Many executives limit their thinking about the future to the initial impact of a particular change but don’t think about what happens after that. Business (and life) is often like a row of dominoes:  we push one

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Tectonic Tech

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Reading Time: < 1 minute “Technological advancement is greatly overestimated in the short run and greatly underestimated in the long run,” remarked science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.  The Director of Industry Strategy for Adobe shares  “6 Tectonic Shifts in Tech Every Executive Should Know” based on research at the World Economic Forum.  You have probably

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Crimes Against Pizza

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Quality isn’t everything.  Case in point: Domino’s Pizza.  Founder Tom Monaghan discovered that the key to success in the pizza business wasn’t great pizza, but free delivery.    But no competitive advantage lasts forever and the company’s subpar pizza began to deliver subpar results, no matter how fast it’s delivered, especially

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Econ Recon

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Reading Time: < 1 minute A Strange and Powerful Truth:  Alan and Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics in a short but important blog entry dispel some nonsense about declining American incomes…and issue a warning about the consequences for CEOs of rising ones.  Find out what they have to say about Managing Your Labor Costs. Take

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Surfer Dude Sales Advice

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Great advice can come from unexpected quarters if we are ready for it.  To wit:  check out this short story about how a father’s advice created a great salesman and how we often make our jobs harder than they need to be.  Consider some surfer dude sales advice before you

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Got Peers?

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Reading Time: < 1 minute If you’re reading this  and have not availed yourself of membership in Vistage or other C-Level Peer Group,  take a few minutes for an overview of peer power by a man who literally wrote the book on the subject.   Leo Bottary, author of  “The Power of Peers” was recently interviewed

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I, Pencil

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Those who are concerned that China’s economy will surpass ours should consider the following “required reading.” China just announced to great fanfare that after years of effort and millions in investment, it has managed to produce… a ballpoint pen! (This was accomplished in the US about 80 years ago).  Before

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Do the Exit Interview FIRST

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Reading Time: < 1 minute Most CEOs know that job tenure is far less today than the “lifetime employment” of generations past;  but if so, why not find out what the prospect intends to do AFTER they leave your employment.  That’s what LinkedIn’s head of recruiting was challenged to do by his CEO.  Maybe you should

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Walt Disney – His First Vision and His Future Vision

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Reading Time: < 1 minute The year 2016 will mark the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney’s passing (that makes a boomer feel old!).   After his death, several CEOs tried various departures from Disney’s original vision.   In recent years, the company has returned to its roots of focusing on great content in general, and superb storytelling in

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