IT “dashboards” have become highly seductive to CEOs of midsized companies. Who could resist up-to-date, easy-to-digest information on business performance, and how the team is performing? Not many CEOs. Yet if they knew how long and how much money it will take to install such systems – months and sometimes years – they might think twice. But whether or not companies implement them (and there are good reasons to implement them at the right time), these automated dashboards don't replace good old-fashioned management techniques.

Discovered on Linkedin Pulse. Originally published on Forbes. 

The growth tales of travel insurance company Seven Corners Inc. should be a familiar one to midsized companies in every industry.  Founded by Jim Krampen and Justin Tysdal in 1993, the company grew steadily year after year in its first 20 years, to just shy of $40 million in revenue.  Believing nothing could stop them, the founders (who made themselves co-CEOs) raised their ambition: $100 million in revenue by 2020.  But in 2014, growth came to an abrupt halt, and it left the founders searching for answers.

Discovered on Linkedin Pulse. Originally posted on Forbes online.

Originally posted on Linkedin Pulse. 

Companies that are hungry to grow should look forward to economic slowdowns. This time provides the perfect opportunity for companies to accelerate their growth by buying weak competitors and snagging market share at a bargain.  But they can only do this if they have the capital. Now is the time to accumulate that war chest.