Book Review of CEO Tools

CEO Tools: the Nuts-n-Bolts of Business for Every Manager’s Success
Author: Kraig Kramers,
Publisher: Gandy Dancer Press, 2002

In CEO Tools: the Nuts-n-Bolts of Business for Every Manager's Success, Kraig Kramers, a veteran CEO, lays out the tools he used to make his various organizations rise to success. The book includes financial, communication and organizational models. These tools are neatly introduced in “How to” form and can be equally useful for managers, executives and CEOs alike. The book also comes with a CD containing many of the models discussed in the book in useable formats.
If you are number-phobic this book will challenge you (but that ain’t so bad, is it?). But, the book is much more than numbers. The tools can be though of as a heart rate monitor for your company.  On top of the tools, the acronyms are titillating. My favorites are 12MMA, CoCal, T12M and MST. YES! You will have to read the book to get the scoop on these gems.

I wish I had read this book ten years ago. This book should be bundled with “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. The combination of these books should be mandatory reading for every CEO and those that aspire to be the Big Kahuna.

Have you read this book? Let us know what you think.  Please comment below

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Seven Rules of Strategic Guessing

Rule Number Five

 

The incredible rule number five is that you must face the brutal facts confronting your company. This is a command, if you will, given to us by Jim Collins in Good to Great. It means honestly facing the issues that challenge your organization, determining solutions, and implementing them in an intelligent way.

 

Your planning team can do this by defining critical issues facing the growth of the company both now and in the future. Let’s say you’re a training company that utilizes technology. Some of the questions you ask your planning team might be:

1. How is the organization going to transition from our old CD-ROM technology to the new “streaming” technology? How are we going to fund this transition?
2. What new products are we bringing out in the next year?
3. How are we going to grow 20 percent per year for the next three years?
4. What improvements do we need to make for us to reduce costs by 10 percent?

Typically, these types of critical issues are addressed by writing a white paper.

 

“What is that?” you ask.

 

“Good question!” I respond.

 

A white paper is a three- to five-page paper that addresses the critical issue. Sometimes a white paper will take on a number of critical issues that are similar in nature. For instance, the white paper “What is Our 2012 Sales and Marketing Plan?” might address the issues of (a) what new products are being introduced next year and (b) how to grow by 20 percent. However, it would not explore the question of what improvements need to be made in the plant to reduce costs by 10 percent. This issue would need a white paper of its own.

 

White papers are written between planning sessions by the members of the leadership group who are best suited to address the problem. This group can also include members outside the planning team who have useful knowledge to contribute.

 

The paper outlines research and analysis for the issues and provides the “answer” submitted by the smaller group to the entire planning team. The entire planning team will read the paper prior to the second session; everyone is invited to bring feedback, questions, and concerns. In the second session, the critical issues are dealt with and problem solving can occur.

 

For more information about writing white papers click here.

 

 

Building a G.R.E.A.T. Company

Defining a Great Company
In the article “Good to Great,” Jim Collins defined a great company in the following manner: "The good-to-great examples that made the final cut into the study attained extraordinary results; averaging cumulative stock returns 6.9 times the general market in the fifteen years following their transition points. These are remarkable numbers, made all the more remarkable when you consider the fact that they came from companies that had previously been so utterly unremarkable.”

This is a fine definition for companies which are large enough for you and me to know about and be their customers; but what about small- to mid-size companies? For this market, I would add to Collins’ definition by saying that great small to mid-size companies are also defined by LOVE, a term I do not use lightly.

In small to mid-size companies, the primary stakeholders LOVE a great company. The owners LOVE the company because of superior financial performance and because they see their firms as their life’s work. The CEOs LOVE the company because it enables them to make a difference in the world and leave a powerful and potent legacy. The customers LOVE a great company because it provides superior service. And the employees LOVE a great company, as demonstrated by the performance of the company and employee retention.

Interested in learning more about my small business programs?  visit the CMI website.