Archive for the “Advisory” Category
Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, Executive Coaching, Venture Capital, tags: adviser, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
Most founders think that the process of selling their company is the most difficult – but that is not the principal reason that companies do not transact. Unfortunately, many founders discover much too late that they are the reason.
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The closing table is no place to finally come to terms with the fact that you are about to sell your interest in a business that you may have spend years building up. It is no place to come to terms with the fact that tomorrow morning you will wake up and either have no place you have to be or nowhere near the authority over the people you built into a team. Coming to terms with the facts of life may mean that: Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, Venture Capital, tags: adviser, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
Change is a fundamental and unavoidable part of life. Sometimes there is more change and sometimes that change presents much more difficult challenges. During those times, companies need to adapt more quickly and more surely to new realities.
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In the aftermath of two important developments – the election of a new and transformative administration in Washington and the financial and economic downturn, I have found myself working with companies that are in need to refocus and, in some cases, reinvention. For the most part, these companies are well established, mid-market businesses with proven management teams, established customer bases and value propositions that historically served them well. Many of them are government contractors with long-standing relationships with clients and programs – established contracting vehicles – and a business model that drove them through years of growth. Lately something is not working nearly as well as previously? Revenues may have flattened – customers may have started to seek other alliances – the business development team has begun to lose traction – business is not going as well as it had. That is generally when I am contacted by either the CEO, Chairman of the Board or the lead investors. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, Turnaround Management, Venture Capital, tags: adviser, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
Most M&A transactions fail to close for reasons that do not relate to the structure, timing or fairness of the deal. In fact, the emotional state of the principal seller is a far more potent factor than any thing that the lawyers or accountant might focus on. Increasing the chances of an actual closing involves helping the seller come to terms with the implications of the decision to sell.
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One of the most difficult decisions that a founder faces is when and to whom to sell his interest in a business – a business that he might have spent a considerable part of his adult life building. It is a decision that is often made and unmade many times along the way. Frequently and after much work and discussion, a founder will end up deciding not to sell. The result is lost time, resources and reputation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, Blog, Turnaround Management, Venture Capital, tags: adviser, advisor, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
Sometimes management teams lose focus on the fact that the principal goal of business involves producing increasing revenues. Sometimes they get caught in the trap of incessantly talking about increasing revenue.
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I recently facilitated an all-hands session for a company. We were focusing on the results of an extended process of reorganization and re-resourcing. Both of the efforts had been very successful and the company was poised to move forward. However, as the meeting got under way, I sensed a general reluctance to moving on to the next phase – implementation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, tags: advisor, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
Change is one of those altars that is well worshiped at – not one of those forgotten gods whose supplicants infrequently visit their shrine. But wanting is not the same as having – it is sometimes not logical – but I have found it to be true.
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One of the inevitable results of growth is change. This maxim is as true for organizations as it is for individuals. When ‘what has been’ morphs into ‘what is new’, opportunities proliferate but dislocations occur that affect every part of a company. I recently helped one navigate these perilous waters. The experience brought several important lessons into focus. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, Venture Capital, tags: advisor, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
There are lots of reason why a business fails – but one is particularly insidious. Failure that results from not being held accountable for your actions and their results is an unnecessary call to a futile end.
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Recently, I was recently invited by three different investors to ‘take a look’ at companies that they had invested in. The pattern that I found was so strikingly similar that I set to thinking about what I was finding. I began to think about the roots of the pattern. The more I thought about it, the more I found myself staring at one of the principal reasons that only one in ten start-up companies make it to their fifth anniversary. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, Blog, tags: adviser, advisor, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
“What happened? We were doing so well – started out with such energy and focus. What has brought us to the very brink of disaster?”
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I recently was asked to intervene in a situation that brought into focus one of the most common reasons why companies fail – the difference between knowing what has to be done and doing what has to be done. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, Blog, tags: adviser, advisor, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
“It seemed like such a good deal. We were getting funded and getting all this free advice to boot. Now the money is gone and the advice seems to have been less than useful.”
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Over the years, I have developed a habit that has served me well. I calculate the cost of the meeting by adding up the value of each participant’s time, the cost of the facility and any materials used and then compare that with the value of what is being produced by the meeting. It is a crude measure, I will allow. However, it does add a certain reality check to the proceedings. Here are some examples: Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, tags: adviser, advisor, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
Aligning executive compensation with desired results is a major challenge for any board of directors. Getting it right can mean reducing friction within the executive team, eliminating forays along tangential paths, reduction of self-serving gaming of the system and much better operating results. Getting it wrong can bring all those problems and many more.
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One of the major sins committed by Boards of Directors comes in the structuring of the compensation scheme for senior management – particularly the scheme for the CEO. Historically, most members of a senior team have received a multiple of their base salary in the form of options. In the past, boards have linked the rising value of the shares of a company to the incentivization of management – in other words, give them options that are only valuable if the share price increases. The weakness in this scheme is the increasingly difficult challenge of creating a public market for shares – as through an IPO. Now that companies are ’staying private’ longer – or, sometimes, not going public at all – the options become valuable only if another private investor comes along with an interest in purchasing them. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II in Advisory, tags: adviser, advisor, advisory board, board of directors, CEO, chairman, coaching, consulting, director, Executive Coaching, Governance, Leadership, leadership assessment, leadership coaching, leadership development, leadership styles, Life Coaching, management assessment, non-profit, nonprofit, Personal Growth, spirituality, turnaround, Turnaround Management
Dr. Earl R. Smith II
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
www.Dr-Smith.com
Innovation – such an easy word to say. So why is it so hard to get it going within an established corporate culture?
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In the first four articles in this series, I discussed the difficulties of cultivating and maintaining innovation in a corporate environment. In this article, I would like to describe two companies. They addressed the challenge of cultivating innovation from two quite different directions. The first was a case of too much innovation while the second was the more traditional case of too little. Read the rest of this entry »
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