The implicit understanding among Alliance members is that, in exchange for their willingness to share their own experience and knowledge, they gain access to the extraordinary collective wisdom of the Alliance community of CEOs. Our members do amazing things and we've been collecting some of their "lessons learned" in Case Studies that preserve and highlight the wealth of knowledge in our membership. We also interview our members from time to time on matters of interest, and you'll find their thoughts here as well.
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The Alliance creates private, safe environments where leaders have confidential conversations, exchange strategic insights, and challenge conventional thinking. Something magical often happens when talented leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences come together. They find ways to collaborate on new strategies, extraordinary ideas and opportunities, and sometimes create entirely new companies. Here, we share a few of the many impactful connections made by our amazing community, with a spotlight on Alliance members Alex Ashton of Image Design Works, Nate Harding of FoxEye Robotics, Joe Heanue of Triple Ring Technologies, Lynn Heublein of SkinSpirit, Cal Lai of Ask.Vet, Phil Murphy of GNU Group, Dave Summa of Business Model Innovations and Dean Zikria of AsthmaTek.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Strategy & Planning
Disruptive innovations are being announced almost every day. New technologies are enabling scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to create a constant stream of innovations designed to make our lives better. Inspired by his recent travels exploring the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu, witnessing the amazing examples of how different species adapted to dramatic changes in their environments, Alliance Founder & CEO, Paul Witkay discusses the need to take advantage of all of our collective wisdom to identify fresh approaches to today’s increasingly complex challenges.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership
When it comes to finding ways to give back to our communities and the world at large, Alliance members contribute an enormous amount of their time, energy and passions to a wide range of worthy initiatives inside and out of their professional roles. Here, we highlight the impactful work of just a few of our Alliance members: Stéphane Bette of SpineGuard, Peter Cooperstein of Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria, Ross Fernandes of Q Analysts, Marc Guillet of Agile Physical Therapy, Mark Johnsen of Wealth Architects, Rod Kalune of RK Logistics Group, Michel Lopez of e2f and Sandy Walker of the YMCA of Silicon Valley. We invite all Alliance members to share with us their stories of giving back so we may continue to engage, support, educate and inspire one another.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership
It’s more comfortable to surround ourselves with people who share similar views and values. But we must learn to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. The world is changing more rapidly than ever and our ability to change typically happens when we think differently than we did before. Therefore, it’s imperative that we seek out as many intelligent people as we can with experience, knowledge and ideas different from our own. In this article, Alliance Founder & CEO, Paul Witkay, describes the need for CEOs to surround themselves with intelligent diversity so they will be better equipped to think creatively, and to make big, strategic decisions that move their organizations forward.
Read MoreCase categories include: Executive Development Leadership
As Alliance members Evan Bailyn of First Page Sage, Ann Barnes of Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO), Ross Fernandes of Q Analysts, Everett Harper of Truss, Paul Lipman of BullGuard and Bernie Tobin of Crescendo Bioscience will argue, leveraging a virtual workforce is definitely worth the effort. While the benefits can be significant, there are no guarantees of success. Only by planning properly, finding employees with the right mindset, focusing on culture and investing wisely in technology, can leaders ensure their teams are all on the same page, even when they aren’t in the same place.
Read MoreCase categories include: Culture Operations Organizational Design Trends
We are now living in an age in which technology cycles outpace planning cycles. Undergoing an exponential pace of change, we can no longer depend upon creating a plan to be executed. Agility and speed will typically trump a larger competitor’s size or ability to scale. In this article, Alliance Founder & CEO, Paul Witkay, reflects on our current pace of change and the need for leaders to broaden and deepen their access to ideas, information and other leaders.
Read MoreCase categories include: Strategy & Planning
With the increasing speed at which technology is fueling change, running a real-time business can be a huge difference maker. But as Alliance members Chris Beall of ConnectAndSell, Victor Chapela of Suggestic, Yvonne Linney of Transcriptic, Dennis O’Malley of Caliva, Rodney Pearlman of the Bluefield Project and Jack Peurach of Ekso Bionics can attest, theory and practice are two different things. One thing is certain, running a business in real-time can lead to incredible breakthroughs and achievements, but it also comes with a heavy set of challenges.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Operations Sales Strategy & Planning Technology Trends
The key to creating good strategy is understanding that the world is constantly changing and that markets evolve in both predictable and unpredictable ways. To succeed, leaders must continuously review their current situations, challenge their assumptions and, when appropriate, be willing to change their strategic direction. In this article, Alliance Founder & CEO, Paul Witkay, reflects on his own indoctrination into corporate strategy in the late 1980s while working for Air Liquide America, and notes similarities mentioned by Richard Rumelt in his book, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy.
Read MoreCase categories include: Strategy & Planning
Alliance members Ian Cohen of Experian Consumer Services, Himanshu Dwivedi of Data Theorem, Ted Elliott of Jobscience, Ju-kay Kwek of Switchboard Software, Ersin Uzun of Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and Christy Wyatt of Dtex Systems, discuss the sweeping new Data Privacy and GDPR rules taking effect, and how organizations should reconsider the ‘what, where and why’ behind their data practices.
Read MoreCase categories include: Finance Human Resources International Business Marketing Operations Sales Strategy & Planning Technology Trends
Healthy communities of the future will need to not only foster trust but also life-long learning, as well as be socially and economically inclusive. Here, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay, shares his learnings from Thomas Friedman’s latest book, Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, and the value of local communities providing a solid foundation to help people adapt to inevitable progress.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Trends
Tom Siebel, Chairman & CEO, C3 IoT
In an exclusive interview with the Alliance of Chief Executives, Tom Siebel, Chairman & CEO, C3 IoT, says a major “extinction event” is under way in the form of a multi-layered digital transformation that will crush organizations that aren’t prepared to survive. The technologies driving this transformation include cloud computing, big data, social media, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). And every CEO should understand them all.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Technology Trends
While the world is changing at an exponential rate of speed as industry after industry is being transformed, most CEOs are either seeking breakthrough ideas that will disrupt back, or are in fear of falling behind – or both. Here, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay shares four types of breakthroughs as learned from Olivia Fox Cabane and Judah Pollack’s latest book, The Net and the Butterfly: The Art and Practice of Breakthrough Thinking. The authors describe not only their findings based on neuroscience, but also provide practical tools one can use to increase the probability for creating breakthrough ideas.
Read MoreCase categories include: Entrepreneurship Executive Development Leadership
Accountability for CEOs can range widely depending on the structure, size, ownership and stage of the business. But the bottom line is that CEOs are accountable for delivering on their promises to all stakeholders and doing what is best for the organization. Learn how Alliance members Sunil Bhatia of Infogain, Christopher Burnley of Corefact, Jonathan Corr of Ellie Mae, Craig Goehring of Brown and Caldwell, JR Matthews of Tregaron Capital, Sean McCarthy of CytomX Therapeutics, and Doug Murray of Big Switch Networks, meet the complexities of accountability head on.
Read MoreCase categories include: Entrepreneurship Executive Development Leadership
Peter Koshland
New businesses that tap into large and severely under-met needs are destined to grow rapidly. But if the founders starve the company of capital, their conservativism eventually will kill growth. Even more important, it will burn out the founders. It is also avoidable. The story of Koshland Pharm and its Founder, Alliance member Peter Koshland, illustrates this well. In this Forbes article from Alliance Director and Founding Principal of CEO to CEO, Robert Sher, learn how the key to stability and long-term sustainability for growing, profitable businesses is increasing throughput.
Read MoreCase categories include: Executive Development Leadership Operations Strategy & Planning
Automation will soon reshape the way we work in very profound ways, and present enormous economic and societal benefits. According to Alliance members Steve Cousins of Savioke, Irit Eizips of CSM Practice, Lisa Im of Performant Financial, Mike Jellen of Velodyne LiDAR, Jane Macfarlane of the Sustainable Transportation Initiative at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, John Pavlidis of Vytronus, Lizz Vilardo of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and Christy Wyatt of Dtex Systems, embracing innovative technology may be the best way to not only survive tomorrow’s robot revolution, but actually lead it.
Read MoreCase categories include: Entrepreneurship Leadership Technology
Every successful CEO strives to be more effective, make better decisions and become more productive, which are key reasons why we bring leaders together at the Alliance of CEOs. Learned through Charles Duhigg’s new book, Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay shares three valuable concepts for improving individual productivity.
Read MoreCase categories include: Executive Development Leadership
Alliance leaders know that today’s labor force is experiencing fundamental, permanent change. Alliance members Laura Bergheim of Wordsmithie, Andy Berkenfield of Duncan Channon, Nathan Collins of SRI International, Ross Fernandes of Q Analysts, Glo Gordon of Cisco-Jasper, Kathy Zwickert of NetSuite, and Alliance Director Marion McGovern, share their strategies for growth in the gig economy. This transformation will create critical questions for today’s leaders, and their solutions will be customized for each unique situation. Given the track record of Bay Area innovation, we think it’s not a matter of if the answers will come, but when.
Read MoreCase categories include: Human Resources Leadership Operations Strategy & Planning Trends
Todd Johnson
If trust is the foundation of all strong, positive inter-company relationships, then transparency is the primary path to achieving that trust. This article by Alliance member Todd Johnson, President of Kollective, identifies and describes the essential categories of content that form the foundation for best practices in employee engagement; content that builds trust and positively influences company culture long-term. Keep these ideas in mind as you build and fine-tune your own blueprint for internal communications success.
Read MoreCase categories include: Leadership Operations Strategy & Planning Trends
Alyson Watson
Stories of company sales are riddled with strife. The staff that is asked to weather the transition often experiences wage cuts, department rollbacks and painful non-alignment among competing business units. Alyson Watson, former President of RMC Water and Environment, survived to tell the tale of her company’s acquisition. Better yet, the story is one of harmonious success, a triumph that began with letting go of control.
Read MoreCase categories include: Ethics Leadership M&A Strategy & Planning
In a fast-changing world, Alliance members Joe Budelli of ABBYY USA, Bill Grosso of Scientific Revenue, Arwed Niestroj of Mercedes-Benz R&D North America, Barb Paldus of Finesse Solutions, Glen Shu of Bay View Funding and Antoine Villata of Planisware USA share their strategies for preparing to meet future market needs.
Read MoreCase categories include: Entrepreneurship Leadership Strategy & Planning Trends
The Alliance of Chief Executives is an active community of business leaders that focuses on deep strategic exchanges, challenging existing assumptions and generating fresh ideas.
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