Sunday, May 1, 2011

Are You CEO Material?

Norm Brodsky wrote a column in the May issue of Inc. Magazine and I wanted to highlight the 5 points he made regarding whether you are the right person to be your firm's CEO.

I believe Norm's point is that some entrepreneurs may not have the qualities to become a the CEO of their firm when it transitions from the "entrepreneurial stage" to the "management stage".

Here is a summary the five qualities:

1). CEOs have to be leaders vs. entrepreneurs who can by pied pipers.

2). CEOs should have teh ability to see "around corners". They have to be able to think strategically.

3). CEOs need to be passionate problem solvers.

4). CEOs have to be able to put the company first and check their ego for the good of the firm.

5). CEO must be financially literate in a way that goes beyond accounting.

I decided to post this summary largely due to this last point.

In the CEO Peer Groups my business partner and I lead we have found it to be very important to help our members get comfortable with their financial statements.

It is my experience that, regardless of the size or age of a company, the CEO must be able to tell the story of his/her firm through the financial language contained in their statements.

Each quarter our CEO Peer Group members comment on how valuable the time we spend with them exploring, questioning and digging out the "story" being told by their financial performance.

It is critically important as the recovery continues and companies need capital to grow, that CEOs know how to talk to the outside financial community about their business in terms the financial professionals understand.

I would encourage you to take Norm's advice and work on your ability to understand, relate and communicate in the financial language of your business.

Learn more about Critical Mass for Business at www.criticalmassforbusiness.com

9 comments:

hillary said...

Did the column appear on the online version of Inc Magazine? If so, would it be possible to put a link to that column here?

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Shylame said...

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