It’s Day Two of PPAI’s North American Leadership Conference—a convergence of business owners, innovators, change agents and industry leaders that’s taking place this week in Nashville. This morning, speaker and entrepreneur Michael Burcham presents the opening session on disruptive innovation—and in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we share his list of the seven key things a successful business leader should focus on every week.
1. Study your business model. Don’t rest on prior laurels. Many CEOs fall in love with the past. What made you money in the past will likely become more costly to do with lower revenues in the future. You need to think about cannibalizing your own business model. If you don’t, someone else will do it for you.
2. Follow trends in other industries. Study other categories and markets—you will find innovations you can bring to your sector that will position you ahead of the competition. Get a picture of where the world is going and how you plan to be part of this future.
3. Celebrate successes more. This isn’t done often enough. Companies are often too busy to do so, but it’s important that employees feel something good happened. It builds momentum and it’s good for the soul.
4. Understand all the problems the company faces. Most CEOs hope their problems will go away. As a CEO, my fear is “not knowing” all the problems or issues. You need to unlock them in order to collectively attack them. Lead team meetings that encourage tough questions.
5. Don’t isolate yourself. Too many CEOs are hermetically sealed; they hide in their offices and avoid the company breakroom. I’ve found it’s best to listen to real people and find out their needs. If you lose your connection to the people, you eventually lose your way.
6. Reward execution. Set the bar high and only put people on your leadership team who have audacious goals and an ability to execute. Winning isn’t just based on intelligence and talent. Execution always wins.
7. Make corporate culture a priority. You are the chief culture officer—if you abandon the role, it will get filled by the noise of the day. Once it’s diluted or damaged, restoring the culture is very, very hard.
Source: Michael Burcham is a CEO, coach, strategist, entrepreneur and innovator. He is currently CEO of Narus Health, a healthcare organization supporting individuals facing life limiting and life threatening medical conditions. He was also the founding president and CEO of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, an innovation center helping launch new healthcare and technology businesses that has been recognized nationally as one of the country’s leading startup organizations. He also serves as co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and is a strategic advisor and board member to a variety of startup firms and venture capital funds involved in healthcare and technology. Burcham is a frequent national speaker on executive leadership, entrepreneurial thinking and innovation.
