Tag Archives: leadership

New or Better?

Posted on January 16, 2018 by

When new technologies arise there is a real desire to create a Disruptive Product(TM), to focus on the new and to avoid simply making a better version of the current market leader. Don’t fall into that trap. It is almost … Continue reading →

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Industrial Business Models – Choice #1

Posted on January 9, 2018 by

Hardware is dead. Hardware is booming. Hardware is hard and no one should do it. Hardware is different. Hardware is the same. IoT, IIoT and additive manufacturing attract attention to heavy industry – where a thing is being produced and … Continue reading →

Posted in Disruption, Industry, Innovation, Materials Science, Theory | Tagged , , , , , ,

Trust: “We’re not following rules, but expect you to.”

Posted on January 2, 2018 by

There are many great political and social points in Catton’s histories of the American Civil War.  In his 1961 book The Coming Fury, he discusses how Southern plantation authors were going to Union generals and asking to have their slaves returned. … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Disruption, History, Industry, Methods, Policy, Trust | Tagged , , , , , , , ,

“What does it take to be CEO?” Reflections a year after leaving.

Posted on January 1, 2018 by

The question caught me off guard. My interviews after resigning in October ‘16 were split between pure startups (IoT, Industrial, Fiber and Filtration related mostly), where having had the CEO title was enough, and bigger companies / past customers (mostly … Continue reading →

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“What does [did] it take to be[come] CEO?” Answer: Goals / Failure / Reality

Posted on January 1, 2018 by

StrengthsFinder is a great way to talk about personal motivations (Learner, Activator, Strategic, Context and Input). DiSC profiles (Persuader / Inspirational) are also helpful – but this tool still feels more tailored to corporate HR. StrengthsFinder is an amazing framework … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Industry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“What does it take to be (a good) CEO?” Answer: People

Posted on January 1, 2018 by

All of the successes were from bringing in good people, helping them frame problems and getting them the tools they needed to be successful. The failures? They were mine – mostly due to not properly resourcing a problem with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Disruption, Filtration, Innovation, Invention, Marketing, Materials Science, Methods, Textile, Theory, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Growth by Document

Posted on September 7, 2016 by

The current business has experienced pleasant success despite a challenging market.  We grew our ASP from $40,000 by nearly 20x, increased our industrial installation base by similar numbers and have figured out how to grow in a long sales cycle market. … Continue reading →

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