Notes on power, strategy and decision
Perspectives for business owners, CEOs, shareholders and boards facing consequential decisions.
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Boardroom Alchemy
The real board decision is usually shaped before the meeting. Governing well means making the informal visible: mapping interests, preparing the decisive conversations and designing the meeting.
Reading the Signals
Most crises are months in the making. The quiet signals — late information, disagreements off the record, a board that agrees too easily — are data to act on while the situation is still shapeable.
The Silent Partner
At the top, candour becomes scarce. An independent advisor with nothing to sell and no seat to protect offers what few others can: an honest view, and a place to think before deciding.
From Vision to Empire
Scaling is not simply doing more. Moving from a company that depends on its founder to one that can grow without them is the hardest transition most owners make.
Strategic Leadership in Times of Crisis
Crises do not reward the fastest reaction. They reward the clearest one. Narrative control, red lines and sequence separate a survivable event from a self-inflicted one.
The Chair’s Hardest Conversation: Replacing the CEO
Removing a chief executive is the most consequential decision a board can take. Most boards take it too late, and many handle it worse than the problem that prompted it.
The Anatomy of a Deadlock: Why High-Stakes Negotiations Stall and How to Restart Them
Deadlock is rarely about the last remaining point of disagreement. It is usually about what that point has come to represent for each side.
Family Wealth, Family Peace: Keeping the Business Away from the Dinner Table
Family businesses rarely fail because of the market. They fail when business disagreements become family wounds, and family tensions become business decisions.
The First 100 Days of a New CEO
The first hundred days rarely decide whether a new CEO succeeds. But they almost always decide how much time and goodwill the CEO will have to prove it.