A CEO’s Insights

Innovation is essential for business success – and one of the most challenging imperatives for any CEO. Here are three articles from the past year that got me thinking differently about the topic. In search of innovation: Hunting for the right kind of white space. Taddy Hall describes the need to…

Every company, regardless of industry sector, is becoming a technology company. That’s necessary, but not sufficient, to succeed in this new era of business. What will win the day is how quickly learning can be applied to meeting customer needs through the orchestration of technology and human…

A recent MIT/Sloan Management Review survey of digital maturity in businesses across industry and around the world uncovered an intriguing divide. Respondents in insurance, finance and entertainment were more likely to say that their organizations would not exist or would be materially weakened as…

All business leaders want to maximize their company’s profit and efficiency. We develop strategic plans to guide our growth, market to attract customers, implement customer service strategies to retain existing customers, and do our best to staff to those needs. But I expect that most leaders…

The evolution of a company is, in some ways, like human evolution. You’ll find a lot of failed experiments in the homo sapiens family tree: offshoots that didn’t have quite the right physiological makeup to succeed in their environments. Although it’s common to use the phrase “survival of the…

I recently read an article that compared the CEO’s role in this era of disruptive transformation to both a martial arts master and the leader of a jazz band. I like those images because they convey not only flexibility but speedy reflexes and keen awareness of what’s happening around you. Being…

Digital disruption. Business transformation. Transform now or be left behind. Today is the slowest rate of change you’ll ever see. As business leaders, we read – and probably utter – phrases like these every day. Ironically, concern about the pace of change and the need to get ahead of it has…

These reports paint a picture of a rapidly-changing business landscape: new companies starting, new deals being made, new technologies gaining a foothold. And every business leader is aware of how his or her own industry is being transformed. But how much are we relating these developments to the…

I recently read an article in the Denver Business Journal about the inaugural Smart Cities Symposium held here. An ad popped up as I was reading, promoting a land auction in a nearby mountain community and noting that the parcel to be sold has senior water rights. You couldn’t have asked for a much…

As a CEO who is focused on preparing my company to thrive in the coming decades, one of the things I relish about the Metro Denver business environment is the spirit of innovation. I’m far from alone in my curiosity about new approaches to serving customers, and my quest to tailor and deploy new…

The latest detailed Monthly Economic Indicators report from the Metro Denver EDC mentions (p. 6) a recent study showing that Colorado could receive a multi-billion dollar economic boost if our schools became the best in the nation (https://coloradosucceeds.org/best-schools/home/). I recently co-…

These monthly indicator reports provide a great real-time picture of what’s shaping business in Metro Denver, and are a useful early warning system of the trends that are developing over the coming months. And in the fast-moving world of business today, we need to look at these reports in the…