Inspiration

Abdicate from the CEO position

Empty chair

Resigning from the CEO role is a vital decision when you are the principal owner of the company. You must accept the handover to an outsider of not only the control of the business but also your life’s creation and the management of the family fortune. I have, for example, met family business owners, and entrepreneurs, who had their entire lifelong savings in only one share, i.e., in the stock of their company.

To step down from the top position of a business is complicated and will need time for those concerned to process, accept, and enforce. A prerequisite for the successful exchange of the CEO is the understanding, trust, and respect from all parties involved. All shareholders, the board of directors and the top tier management need to be aligned. It is even more challenging when the resigning CEO also is a principal owner and perhaps the founder of the company. It requires rigorous mental, emotional, and practical preparations that take time. It is a life-changing decision, and it’s hard to see all the future implications fully. One of the most important matters is finding out what to do next.

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NPS – some reflections

NPS Loudspeaker

In my previous blog post “Recommend to a friend”, I brought up the background to the measurement of customer loyalty with the Net Promoter Score, NPS [2]. The method is easy to use and popular among commercial companies as well as in the public sector. But, all methods based on a relatively simple model has its weaknesses. In this post, I am sharing reflections and some criticism of the NPS approach.

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Recommend to a friend?

NPS crowdHow likely is it that you will recommend a company to a friend or a colleague? That is the question we are asked more and more often after a finished purchase or being in contact with the customer support at a company where we are a customer. But why is this question asked?

Well, the question is at the core of the measurement of customer loyalty using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) [4]. In this blog post I will present the background to the measurement of customer loyalty using the NPS. But all methods based on relatively simple models have obvious weaknesses. In the next post “NPS – some reflections” I will share my reflections and criticism about the NPS method.

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Coaching – what, when, how?

Coaching

Our society, businesses, and professional life are changing rapidly. These are changes mostly driven by new technology (e.g. Internet), changed attitudes, and patterns of life. It leads not only to a host of new opportunities but also to increased demands for personal and professional development.

Traditional boundaries between work and leisure are dissolved. We must find and decide the work-life balance – which we are not trained for. We are used to eight-hour workdays and where our salary is paid based on hours worked. However, more and more management and highly skilled jobs are unregulated regarding working hours, and your salary is based on what you achieved and not on hours worked.

The role of the leader is no longer about telling what others should do. Instead, you must create a guiding and creative environment that enables your employees to exploit the full potential.

In times of rapid change and increasing demands, it may be difficult to prioritize, understand the consequences, make decisions, and set realistic action plans. It is in these circumstances when personal coaching may come in as a tool for personal and professional development.

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Inspiring Webb Days

 Webbdagarna in Stockholm

Webb Days Logo

I visited Stockholm’s Webbdagarna (Webb-days) from the 22nd to 23rd March. It is Sweden’s leading event and meeting place for anyone working with digital media and digital channels. The conference is organized by Internetworld and gathers some 1600 participants. A major part of the sessions were in English. If you are living in the Nordics and want to follow the digital development and discover new business opportunities, I can recommend a visit to the event. The next conference is held in Malmö on the 17th to 18th May and followed by Gothenburg on the 21st to 22nd September. The next Stockholm event will be held March 21st to 22nd, 2017.

It was overall very professionally organized with many great and inspirational speakers. There are, of course, a lot of topics and information covered during the two days. I can, in this blog, just share a few hopefully inspiring takeaways.

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Pricing

Price Tag

I have, in previous posts, raised the importance of defining the industry and to understand what the company offers to its customers, i.e., which right to existence the company has. Once you know your industry, what to offer, and who your customers are, you then need to decide the price of the product.

A while ago I got the question from some young entrepreneurs asking how to price their products. There are, of course, many different more or less complex pricing and business models. However, I decided to share three very basic methods, and I believe these might also be of interest to some of you who read my blog. The basis for the three models are:

The best CEO in the world 2015

Graf_CSR_1500x1000_mh

Harvard Business Review (HBR) compiles each year a list of what it finds to be the 100 best-performing CEOs. The 2015 survey included 907 CEOs from 896 companies and represented 46 nationalities in 30 countries. The selection of companies was based on S&P Global 1200. This index includes companies that account for 70% of the world’s stock markets capitalisation.

The results of the 2015 survey were exciting and inspiring when a somewhat unexpected CEO took first place.

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New role in 2016?

2016

Image: Adobe stock.

Happy New Year!

We live in a time of rapid change. The main driving forces are globalisation, digitalisation, increased demands on all businesses to become sustainable and, last but not least, a healthy balance between work and private life. More and more jobs are “certified” to include complex tasks and problem-solving with no given work instructions or obvious solution. Abstraction ability and capacity to collect and analyse a variety of different types of material, facts and impressions are becoming increasingly important.

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Best wished for Christmas and a relaxing holiday

To own a company, operate on a Board of Directors or have a senior position in a business is a complex and exciting task. To… Read More »Best wished for Christmas and a relaxing holiday