In the heat of the kitchen, every chef is both a leader and a mentor, harnessing the symphony of clanging pans and roaring flames to craft a harmony of flavours, with a team that follows the rhythm of success as their recipe.
Dear CEO, why should you read this book?
Once upon a time ... is a good start to any book, especially if you were brought up on fairy tales. But running a business is not a fairy tale. If you are new to or junior in your role, you will be happy for any help within reach. I want to give you the best possible help.
In the past, CEOs were primarily strategic leaders, but this role has changed completely. In a fast-changing world you need to be so much more. Not only a beacon for your company, safeguarding the profitability of the company, but also emotionally equipped to guide four generations in your company. You will need to adapt to stay relevant. This book is designed to help you surge forward in pursuit of your goals or at least to help you think about your personal ambition.
That is the main reason I wrote this book. I have had more than twenty years of experience helping companies to grow through the people who work in them. This has been as a consultant with Markies Consulting BV, a company I co-founded. Even as a representative of my own company, I know how awkward, uncomfortable and lonely it feels when you start a new job as CEO at a company. You need to strike a balance every day between working on strategic insights, mental perseverance, emotional intelligence, people management and business acumen.
WHy sHouLd you read tHIs Book?
WHERE YOU CURRENTLY STAND
WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO
YOUR GOAL FOR THE NEXT 100 DAYS
WHAT YOU HATE DOING!
YOUR PERSONAL 3-YEAR GOAL
YOUR PERSONAL 5-YEAR GOAL
Where you currently stand
Record your current mood and what you are doing at this moment professionally. This is your starting point. Nothing more and nothing less. It is your point of departure.
What you love to do
In the daily rat race, people tend to forget there are things they actually love to do professionally. The goal is to do more of the things you love to do – your passion – instead of being drawn into the things you hate doing. Easier said than done, yes, but by recording them and reviewing them regularly, you will notice that you start focusing more on the positives than on the negatives.
your goals for your first 100 days as ceo
What are the top three things you want to achieve professionally in your first 100 days? Summarise them in a few words. Make your goals as tangible and measurable as possible. Ideally the second and third goals will result from the first or second step.
What you hate doing
The hate list: list all the things you want to avoid doing. This is to remind you, particularly during your first 100 days, what you should not be doing, or should be doing as infrequently as possible. Each of these things is like the little devil that sits on your shoulder, the one that you want to ignore as much as possible.
three-year and five-year goals
One hundred days is not much time in the course of one’s life. But the decisions you make in these first 100 days will stay with you for a lot longer. Look at these 100 days as the time when you plan out what you will be doing for the next three to five years. Not many people take the time to think about what their three- or five-year goals are, but what you do today has a long-term impact on our professional and personal lives. Whether you are a newly appointed CEO or aspire to that role, several years of preparation and clear decisions will be required to achieve your goal. Setting a goal allows you to base all your decisions around achieving that goal. How? By breaking the goal down into periods of 100 days to a year.
journey defined by passion, resilience, and a steadfast commitment to both personal and organisational growth.
Elena’s passion lies in maintaining focus on the opportunities ahead and ensuring that her team remains engaged and motivated. She believes in the power of clarity, guiding her team like a lighthouse through the foggy landscape of complex business challenges. Her leadership philosophy is rooted in empowerment, trust, and ongoing education, celebrating everyday successes as a reflection of her company’s overall triumphs.
elena’s advice is: ‘trust your team, support and encourage them.’
A pivotal moment in Elena’s career was navigating the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the leader of an essential manufacturing business within the food industry, she faced the challenge of keeping operations running smoothly. The key, for Elena, was being very present, communicating constantly, being hands-on with the operation, and addressing all concerns with the utmost consideration and compassion. She learned a lot about resilience during that time. It was an unprecedented few years that left everyone exhausted, exhilarated and frankly, thankful they had each other’s backs. It required a huge amount of change management and a single-minded focus on people first. It changed how we do business for the better.
How is elena’s work life balance? challenging or at peace?
Elena’s response: ‘A decade ago I moved from a high-stress, fast-paced 12-hour day executive position in an extremely urban environment to my current role as CEO and Chair of the Board for my family business, located in a very rural part of the country. Night and day differences in commute, hours at the office and environmental stress. Today, I am a five-minute drive to my office and work regular hours allowing me to dedicate more time to community and industry boards as well as volunteering. Today I have time to go to the gym regularly, to spend quality time with my family, and to enjoy a more balanced and peaceful existence. While my responsibilities have increased from the perspective of risk and reward, my life overall is much improved and work-life balance is in sync.’
elena says, ’there are far more benefits to being the ceo than there are negatives.’
Elena’s guidance for aspiring leaders resonates with the principles of showing courage and respect to others. She encourages her colleagues to embrace new challenges, push beyond comfort zones, and take risks, all while nurturing the relations within their teams.
It is said that it is lonely at the top. Is that the case for Elena? ’No. I believe in surrounding myself with really good people – people I enjoy working with every day. Considering the amount of time we spend at work it is imperative that we like and respect the people we spend so much time with. Additionally, I have no issue with the phrase “the buck stops here”. I own that.’
‘People are the most important asset we have,’ says elena.
They work towards a three-year strategic plan knowing that the business can and will change pretty regularly. Their plan revolves around growth of the business, quality output and a safe work environment. Workplace culture is also a focal point, as people are the most important asset a company has. The demand for metal packaging ebbs and flows with the economy and Ohio Art adjusts with it knowing that metal is the most recyclable and renewable packaging available today.
succession planning.
Elena’s personal plans for the future align with the company’s executive succession plans. They have an excellent President who will step into Elena’s position when she retires in five to eight years. She will remain Chairman of the Board for a period following her retirement.
some candid advice from elena for first-time ceos:
‘Volunteer for new things and opportunities. Never shy away from doing something outside of your comfort zone. Be adventurous. Be brave. Consistently
A suggested format for scheduling conversations with customers.
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Customer name: Appointment: Contact:
Figure 2.
Here are some of the questions you can ask customers:
1. What are the primary reasons you chose to do business with our company?
2. What are the biggest challenges or pain points you face in your industry?
3. How would you describe your experience working with our company so far?
4. What are the most important factors you consider when evaluating a vendor/supplier in our industry?
5. How do you feel our products/services compare to those of our competitors?
6. What new products, services, or features would you find most valuable from our company?
7. If you could change one thing about how we work together, what would it be?
8. What are your long-term goals and priorities for your business?
9. How can we better support you and your team in achieving your goals?
10. Is there anything else you think I should know as the new CEO?
c omplexity in decision-making
Simplicity. As a newly minted CEO, you will face a new challenge. I am not talking about the role overall, but one specific aspect of it. You have been accustomed to working in a sheltered and well-restricted area of decision-making. In the past, you had to discuss and agree decisions with your own team and some other teams that influenced your decision-making. As a CEO, you are the captain and you will notice that every decision has its pros and cons and everybody is watching you, awaiting your decision. It is like being in a pressure cooker! But you must make decisions, sometimes hard ones and sometimes ones that each member of your management team disagrees with.
How can you structure your decision-making?
The world of neuro-marketing has captivated Harry, and he has surrounded himself with specialists in this domain. Harry believes that by delving deep into an understanding of the left and right brain functions one can comprehend the impulses that drive our decisions. It is essential to acknowledge that 95% of all decisions we make are emotionally driven. This realisation presents a monumental challenge for us. Guiding his clients through this paradigm and emphasising the emotional aspect of their decision-making process is a fundamental aspect of Harry’s work. He noticed a shift in the market where brands are increasingly moving back from a rigid transactional approach to a more seductive approach.
a rapid growth story
The year 2007 was a pivotal period in Harry’s career. The agency experienced a positive trend with significant success catering to blue-chip clients like IKEA, Mercedes, Alken Maes, Randstad, Opel and more. In 2003, they won the budget for Telenet, one of the largest Belgian telecom companies. The collaboration focused originally on promoting faster internet, but rapidly expanded to include telecommunications, interactive TV, and new capabilities like content and digital marketing. Despite LDV’s growth to an 80-person agency where Telenet constituted 34% of their revenue, the company faced challenges after losing a major pitch. This led to the necessity to let go of 30 employees in stages to avoid mass layoffs. This difficult period taught Harry the importance of transparent communication and prompted his decision to limit any single client to representing no more than 15% of the total revenue.
As Harry looks towards the future, he aspires to transition from the role of CEO to a brand influencer, guiding the managing director through this organisational shift. His focus is not only on personal growth but also on securing a future for the company based on its core values. Harry explained, “This is an ongoing endeavour to align organisational goals within the larger WPP holding and ensure the continuation of our DNA.’
Life Balance
As the founder and CEO of the agency, finding the right balance is not always easy. Instead of referring to it as work-life balance, Harry prefers the term ‘life balance.’ Despite challenges in disconnecting from work after hours, he has trained himself to achieve a reasonable life balance, though not always successfully. The year 2023 proved to be a challenging time due to the aftermath of the COVID crisis and a high interest rate of 12%. This led to significant industry-wide issues such as mass layoffs and centralisation in large groups. While these types of challenges are difficult to ignore, they can also provide energy. Fostering resilience and staying true to personal values can help maintain a healthy life balance. Seeking inspiration outside his comfort zone through activities like inspirational trips and coaching at local charities serve as a remedy for Harry to counteract routine and insular thinking patterns.
For young entrepreneurs venturing into the world of management, Harry emphasises the importance of defining values and embedding them into company culture. He advises that it is crucial to prioritise focus and decisiveness, using KPIs as tools to measure progress, while always acknowledging the human aspect of business interactions.
It is like running a marathon... alone.
Harry felt the absence of true soulmates, particularly after the departure of ‘The L’ (Johan Leyssen) and ‘The V’ (Werner van Reck) of LDV, indicating that the void they left was never truly filled. The sense of camaraderie that had existed among the founders is irreplaceable, making it indeed lonely at the top. Harry used the metaphor of running a marathon to describe the experience, highlighting that while the initial part is done as a team, the final stretch must be tackled alone as a CEO, with the key challenge being to remain visible to the team during that sprint.
MISSION KEY PARTNERS
VISION
VALUES
Figure 6.
COST STRUCTURE TANGIBLE RESULT
KEY RESOURCES
TANGIBLE RESULT 03
KEY PROPOSITIONS
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
GROWTH CANVAS
CHANNELS
CUSTOMER SEGMENTS
REVENUE STREAMS
What are the internal values of your new company?
Another great exercise is to discover the internal values of your company via the Markies Employer Branding Canvas:
VISION
What’s the vision of your company (Tomorrow and why)
MISSION
What’s the mission statement (Today and how/what)
EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION
What sets your company apart from the competition and the rest
Work environment
Work life balance Career Culture
Reward mechanism
PURPOSE - INTERNAL WHY
What is your purpose?
Why does the organisation or project exists?
EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION PLAN
what and when are the highlights of your external communication plan
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PLAN
What are the highlights of your internal communication plan
EMPLOYER BRANDING CANVAS
AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION
what is the age segmentation and typical department segmentation?
ROADBLOCKS FOR SUCCESS
what could negatively influence success and what is needed?
WHAT IS SUCCESS define a goal (12/24 months away)
TEAM DYNAMICS
What is the DNA of your team or teams?
‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’
– MIKE TYSON
Looking ahead, aligning personal and organisational plans is essential. Maurizio’s experience in creating three to five-year strategic plans underscores his need for flexibility and preparedness for the unexpected. This alignment ensures that neither the personal nor the organisational agenda is in conflict, achieving consistency and harmony in both realms. For young managers embarking on their first leadership roles, Maurizio offers this advice: ‘Choosing the right people to work with is crucial. It’s not just about skills and competencies, but also about shared values and unified vision. Diversity within the team brings significant value, but it must be balanced with a shared ethical approach to avoid serious issues down the line.’
‘Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely daydreaming, but vision with action can change the world.’
– NELSON MANDELA
Inspiration often comes from those closest to us. For Maurizio, the positivity, optimism, and resilience taught by his mother have been guiding principles in his journey. This story of passion, strategic vision, and an unwavering commitment to holistic well-being defines the essence of Cocooners and its dedicated leader.
PHASE 4 CHANGE
(10 days)
This phase emphasises implementing change. This can involve assembling the management team, demonstrating leadership and deciding whether to adjust the organisational structure. Important questions such as ’How can I create a scalable company?’ and ‘How can I prepare the organisation for change?’ are also addressed.
What is in it for you? This phase is about implementing strategic changes and leading the organisation through transformations. It is about ensuring that your team follows the vision and embraces changes.
The stages of digital maturity
Digital maturity is made-up of these characteristics of organisational structure, process, tech architecture and tech deployment. How does your company stack up?
Hub
Traditional
Siloed business units
localised applications and decision making
Siloud data
Business-unitbased machinelearning models
Figure 11.
Bridge
Centralised data: science team
Agile development teams
Elastically scalable cloud based data platform
APLs For sharing data eternally
Real time insights shared across business units
Business ownership of apps
Unified, modified data platform
Advanced and automated machine learning models
Platform
App-enabled mature capabilities and insights
Distributed innovation and citizen developers
Integrated foundation of software, data and AI with consistent architecture and integrated APLs
Advanced AI-development abilities
Native
Democratised, data-driven information combined with very deep AI expertise
Agile culture, end-to-end solution ownership
Customer list self-maintained tools and platform infrastructure
Optimised and highly automated machinelearning technology
Companies ready to incorporate digital technology will be most successful if they fit the characteristics in the right columns of this table. Otherwise, there is work to be done before implementing the change to digital.
CEO STORY Spin
Location: USA and Canada (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington DC and Boston)
Pieter Vanermen – CEO
10 years CEO
Founded the company
the best way to predict the future is to create it.
Pieter explained: ‘At SPIN, people come together to socialise and celebrate play. At their core is the drive to connect through ping pong—a game that transcends age, gender, ethnicity, and all physical boundaries. They are the original ping pong social club, your offline social network, a place to call home. They welcome diversity and embrace the unconventional.’
SPIN is a ping pong social club, with nine clubs in major US cities and Canada: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington DC, and Boston. They employ over 500 people, and they organise corporate events for the Fortune 500 companies, such as Google, Meta, Apple, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, etc. They host more than 6,000 events per year, sometimes up to 60 events per day. Their purpose is to connect people over ping pong. They encourage participation. Do it together and never alone.
#UnitedbyPingPong / www.wearespin.com
Performance & rewarding
Do you manage performance? Being a data-driven company implies that you have a performance culture based on leading and lagging KPIs. These KPIs are used to evaluate and predict the performance of a business, project, or initiative.
‘A connected culture fuels a long-term growth mindset.’
Leading KPIs are input-oriented and predictive measurements that predict the future trends in a business. They usually change before trends or outcomes start to manifest. For example, by monitoring progress in real-time, they predict the likelihood of achieving business objectives. Using these performance measures enables you to take proactive actions to keep your business on track to achieve your objectives. An example of a leading KPI would be the number of new customer inquiries. This can indicate future sales, as more inquiries often lead to more sales. Here are a few examples of leading KPIs:
– Sales pipeline. Measures the number of deals a sales team has underway and their value. This provides insights into future income, assuming the transactions close.
– Marketing campaign metrics. These can include email open rates, social media engagement and website traffic. They predict future interest and sales.
– Employee satisfaction. Through surveys and assessments, a measure of employee happiness helps to predict future productivity and retention rates. Happier employees are generally more productive, loyal and provide better customer service.
– Customer satisfaction. Through surveys or customer interviews, assess your customer satisfaction to predict repeat business and brand loyalty.
– Number of new customer enquiries. This helps in predicting future sales, a high number of enquiries often lead to more sales.
– Industry growth indicators. If your industry is expanding, your business has a higher probability of growing as well.
On the other hand, a lagging KPI is an output-oriented and explanatory measure that indicates the outcome of a business after a certain time period has passed. They often show the ultimate result of various activities over a specific time frame, and usually, measure something that has already happened. For example, a business’s total yearly sales are a lagging KPI. Here are a few other examples of lagging KPIs:
– Revenue growth. The increase or decrease in your company’s sales from one period to the next.
– Customer acquisition costs. The cost associated with convincing a potential customer to buy a service or product. This KPI provides insights into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
– Churn rate. The number of customers who have stopped doing business with you during a specific period. It provides you with insights into customer satisfaction and product/market fit.
– Customer satisfaction. This is usually measured by surveys or interviews after a customer interaction, it is a lagging measure of service/product quality.
– Renewal rates. For subscription businesses, the rate at which paying customers renew their subscriptions is a lagging KPI of customer satisfaction, product value and more.
– Profit margin. The percentage of revenue that a company keeps as profit after accounting for all its costs gives insights into its financial health and operational efficiency.
In summary, leading KPIs are forward-looking measures, while lagging KPIs look at past performance. Both are essential for a well-rounded understanding of your business’s performance and for setting strategic objectives. Ideally, you will use a combination to measure success, predict future performance and learn from past experiences.
How can you plan the next 100 days?
As a CEO, you will have to work together with your senior leadership team to plan and develop strategies for your next steps. Remember the CEO should act as the ‘captain’ throughout the entire strategic planning process, setting the tone for the efforts to come. Also, it is not about strategy vs. execution; it is about strategy and execution. An effective strategic plan will drive execution and consequently, the success of your organisation.
How your change process will look:
Try using a structured approach to develop an overview for each change you want to make. Here is an example:
Change request
Change originator:
Change receiver:
Dates of submission: Priority High Medium Low
Attention area:
Process/sub process: BU Head:
Change request category:
Project Manager / Project Lead:
Scope of change
Impact on solution doc, LOI, SOWs, project plan, SLAs or other as described
Impacts on schedule
Business, process and system impact
Financial impact (cost estimate associated with the CR)
Total estimated effort required
Implication of not making change
Key benefits of accepting CR
Potential threats of accepting CR
Supporting documents (if any)
DESCRIPTION
CHANGE
REQUEST APPROVAL STATUS
Approved Pending Rejected Cancelled
Client sponsor: Name: Title:
Date approved:
Organisation sponsor: Name: Title:
Date approved:
Comments
14.
Approved by: Title:
Date approved/meeting
Work on your image for the future
You are the new top dog on the block. Show it. Shout it from the rooftops! And start by creating a social media presence that counts.
Figure 18.
The role of a CEO extends beyond the boardroom, and you should have a digital counterpart, particularly on LinkedIn. As the professional networking platform of choice, LinkedIn offers a unique opportunity for you to showcase your leadership, vision, and capabilities to a global audience. A well-designed LinkedIn profile is not merely a static resume; it serves as a dynamic personal branding tool that can significantly impact your ability to lead effectively and drive your company’s success.
Firstly, a compelling LinkedIn profile enhances visibility and credibility. By presenting a clear and cohesive message about your achievements, leadership style, and vision, you can attract top talent, investors and business partners. An optimised profile, including relevant keywords, professional headshots, and impactful headlines, ensures that your profile appears prominently in search results, thereby increasing your reach and influence.
Secondly, LinkedIn serves as a powerful platform for CEOs to engage with stakeholders. Through regular updates, thought leadership posts, and participation in industry discussions, you can foster relationships with both internal and external audiences. This engagement not only helps in establishing you as an industry thought leader but also in communicating your company’s culture, values, and strategic direction to a broader audience. Effective use of LinkedIn features such as articles, endorsements, and recommendations further enhance your professional brand and authority.
Finally, a well-maintained LinkedIn profile can be a game-changer in career progression and business development. By consistently updating your profile with new achievements, skills, and industry insights, you can ensure you remain relevant and front-of-mind within your network. This proactive approach can open doors to new opportunities, including partnerships, speaking engagements, and board positions. In essence, a powerful LinkedIn profile acts as a 24/7 online presence that continuously works towards enhancing your professional journey and the company’s growth.
Here are some to-dos for your LinkedIn profile:
– Close down the old job - that’s finished! (change the end date of your previous job).
– Add the new position and describe what your plans are. Your employees will visit your profile, so it is another great way of communicating who you are and what your vision is.
– Connecting to the right company sounds obvious, but it amazes me to see the number of CEOs who are not properly connected to the right company. Ask your marketing team for help if this happens to you. If they tell you that there is no company page, well, you know what to do ASAP.
– Create a personal link. It shows that you are a professional, not an amateur. And check if your contact info is still correct (while remembering to add the website of your new job and to delete the old one).
– Upload a professional picture of yourself and ask the marketing department what the standard company background is. (If one does not exist … have one created, for use by all C-level employees in your new company. Set