Frameworks for CEOs and senior executives

A framework is a repeatable way of thinking about a commercial problem, and the ones collected here are the models The Executive Summary uses with chief executives and their teams to work out why a business is not growing as fast as the market around it. Each page defines the framework in plain language, shows how it works in practice and points back at the article it came from, so you can read the thinking behind it before you put it in front of a board. Between them they cover how a company sees itself against how its buyers see it, how a sales conversation should be built so the customer does the discovering, why safety and trust decide enterprise deals more often than features do and how a leadership team gets ready for scrutiny from investors, regulators and acquirers. Treat them as working tools rather than as theory.

The 8 Skills for leaders in the age of AI Leadership

The 8 Skills for leaders in the age of AI

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece called "How many people can I fire?". For some reason, it upset a number of folks who don't agree there will be job cuts and massive shifts from AI. I had quite a few emails - and believe it or not, I really like it when people write in with what they

Dan Ilett · 6 min read min read
How to Fire Someone Leadership

How to Fire Someone

Over Christmas, I read The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. My friend Todd Wade, an excellent Chief Information Security Officer, gave it to me for my birthday. It's a warts-and-all account of how hard it is to be a CEO and the junk you have to deal with as part of the job.

Dan Ilett · 3 min read min read
The Quality of Your Thoughts Leadership

The Quality of Your Thoughts

Being a CEO is highly stressful and sometimes you have to wonder why you took it all on. Hiring the wrong people, not hitting the number, deploying the wrong project - and having to ask 'have you done it yet' about 100 times a day. If everything works, the team did it. If one thing goes

Dan Ilett · 7 min read min read