Have you ever wondered what CEOs think about?
Having been in different executive roles with P&L (Profit and Loss) responsibility and having held the top job a few times, I can tell you that the best CEOs think about a bunch of things that could, if they let it, get really complicated and confusing unless they find a way to simplify things.
To get the growth they want, they think about customers, shareholders, partners, employees, systems, finances (working capital, cash flow, equity, debt, etc.), liabilities and risks, strategies, competitors, political and economic factors, technology, real estate, assets, sales, marketing, brand, operations and the list goes on and on and on.
To avoid getting a daily migraine, I always take a lot of complex and often concurrent crises and simplify it into one of four different categories. Virtually everything that goes on in a CEOs mind can be slotted into one or more of these buckets – all with the goal of growing the bottom line and increasing the value of the organization. I call this my “3 Ups and 1 Down.”
As a leader, executive or CEO, you can use the following 3 Ups and 1 Down to help you understand what lever to pull in order to achieve growth, solve a problem, or focus the organization around an issue.
That’s it. With this simple model, I like to say: “Anyone can be CEO.” And… anyone can drive growth.
Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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Tags: Business Growth, CEOs, Customer Satisfaction, Growth, Productivity, Revenue, Robert Murray, Robert S. Murray