Company

You’re right. It’s a click-bait title. But I can only work with a handful of clients at a time so on this site I put a lot of the tools and approaches I’ve used for over 30 years with clients…

Here’s How to Take The Next Step. How Do I Get Out From Under the Day-to-Day and Work On My Business? That’s the most common question I hear from owner/operators. You’ve got people to sell or make what customers pay…

Management is getting work done through others. Here's How. Care about the output not the work. This is a subtle but powerful distinction. Here’s what I mean. When you get in your car for a trip to the grocery store,…

Incentives are powerful - but hard to get right. “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome” - Charlie Munger. If only business were that simple. The problem is we rarely want just one outcome. We need a…

Different Outputs from a Single Person. When I read about the distinction between a Visionary and an Integrator in the EOS literature my first thought was “Those are just different names for CEO and COO - concepts that have been…

Even though you think you can. I know it’s not a great idea to tell your audience that they’re wrong. But in my experience of working with hundreds of SMB owners it’s true. We aren’t really working on our companies…

I'm Obsessed with systems - as if you couldn't tell. The colored blocks represent the major systems and with subsystems listed within them. Each system produces a number of outputs (results). Any successful company is producing relevant outputs in all…

Plus a Special Announcement you won't want to miss. People confuse management and Leadership. They're not the same. This post is about why you need both but if you confuse them you might end up with neither. But first a…

Your Maturity as a Manager is Shown in the Answer. Often when people hire me it's because they're frustrated with the repeated failure of an employee. They complain (or vent to say it more gently). That's rarely useful unless it…

This video explains the definition of urgent vs important. Here's how to use this tool in ways that aren't obvious. The goal is to allow you to focus on more strategic and important work and less on the merely urgent.…

You Need Actionable Insights not a Number. TL; DR You absolutely should survey your employees because an anonymous survey will tell you things that you won't learn otherwise. The goal of course, is happy, engaged employees, who do good work…

A presentation to TRIBE about Output Thinking and the Three levels of Management. Knowing the different outputs managers at different levels must produce. Makes your company more productive and easier to scale.

Here's How to Fix it. Humans are great at making quick judgements. Discernment may be one of our superpowers as a species. We immediately come to conclusions about what's going on and what needs to happen next. We say people…

What's up with all the letters? I've been working with a few clients recently who are hiring their first assistant. It's hard for some people and I get why. I imagine it's kind of like having a butler or a…

Take it. But Don't Follow It. Take My Advice. But don't follow it. I spent many years mentoring start up founders and I always warned them about mentor whiplash. That's when two mentors with similar credentials would give them opposite…

The problem is the exceptions - and that's the rule! There are so many benefits to systemizing your company. Without systems, work gets done by people with a lot of knowledge, expertise, and intuition. But that wisdom is locked in…

Warning: This is a Nerdy Post. "I don't want to just learn what this guy does. I want my company to learn it." I heard those words from a buyer (we'll call him Bob) who had recently bought his company…

That's the first lesson from the greatest NCAA basketball coach. John Wooden is famous for being arguably the greatest basketball coach in college sports and for propelling many of his players on to stellar careers in the NBA. He's also…

Revenue doesn't come from where you think it does. One problem I run into when helping clients adopt Output Thinking is that entrepreneurs often don't go deep enough. Here's what I mean. If you ask where does revenue come from…

If you can't find enough experts here's a better way. This Post is Based on Two Ideas. The only reason to hire people is that you need them to produce results (which I call outputs). Outputs come from two places:…

How to stop wasting time and get your message across. Ed was a salesman. He practically lived in his car. And often when he was on the road in meetings all day, the team in his office needed to get…

To grow, your company must do hand-offs well. Before we start, I’m asking for a favor. Many of you have bought my book, Output Thinking, and for that I am grateful. If you have, I'm asking you to please leave…

It should change how you spend your time! The short answer is I don't know. I can only tell you what it's like to work with me. There are coaches that range from quasi-therapists to straight up consulting. My definitions…

Management is getting work done through other people. It happens differently at the three management levels - even if the same person manages all three.

The difference matters. A lot! Outputs and Systems are all about management. But there's another important aspect of running a company. Leadership. These two words are often confused or interchanged, but they really are separate skill sets. The distinction is…

Yes. Sort of. But that's where the money is. This post is a long answer to a question raised by Tim Ludwig - @tsludwig on Twitter (now X). Tim asked: If you were developing a scorecard or checklist to assess…

But who makes them in your company? The reason you hire people is to produce some output: widgets, or hamburgers, or sales. I wrote a whole book about this Output Thinking: Scale Faster, Manage Better, Transform Your Company. But a…

Why? Because they make a manager's job harder. These are not magic words that you can sprinkle over your company to get amazing results - despite what some consultants will try to tell sell you. These are words that if…

It's why you hire people. PLUS a Big Announcement. My book, Output Thinking is now available for Pre-order Special. If you pre-order before Dec 5 and email a copy of the receipt to John@CEOBootCamp.com I'll send you a PDF copy…

Here's something I bet you didn't know if you speak English. There's something every speaker of English knows but most don't know they know. It's the reason you can say "my big, fat, Greek wedding" but saying "my Greek, fat,…

They all fall into 7 Buckets. We've discussed HERE that the purpose of a system is to produce an output. And we talked HERE about documenting the systems that produce those outputs so they are repeatable & scalable. Those outputs…

Subsystems are the Key. Imagine you want to delegate dinner. You have someone with all the skills needed. What do you tell them to do? You could say any of these things: Make me something delicious and have it ready…

It's a part of systemizing your company. What is C.A.F.E? In a previous post the picture has a bucket called C.A.F.E. and I've been asked to explain what it is. Someone even asked if it's clickbait. I didn't mean it…

Each Requires a Different Type of Documentation. WELCOME! There's been an influx of new subscribers recently so I'll start with a short intro of who I am and what this is about. I've been a business owner for over 40…

Andrew Lynch hosted me on his podcast to talk about this book by Andy Grove. Andrew Lynch was kind enough to invite me on his podcast, The Rereadables, to discuss the book High Output Management by Andy Grove. Grove was…

There are only seven reasons to spend money or have someone work in your company. It's the lens I see a company thru when I'm helping a client grow their company, make more money and have a better life. I…

It's not the numbers - it's what's in your head. Most SMBs Don't Need a Dashboard - but they are cool. Here's how to use one if you need to. Dashboards Track Output. When you realize your company is an…

There are only 4 outputs every company needs. Budgets are a tool to help you spend money better. But they are often short sighted because they focus on inputs not outputs. Picture from. What is a budget? Let's start there.…

Management is a system - with 3 levels. Management is getting work done through other people. We'll discuss the people part in another article - it's just as important. This one’s about the work. If you think about that definition,…

There's actually a maturity scale. In the 1980's Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute along with the US Department of Defense, developed a way to rank the maturity of software systems. They called it the Capability Maturity Model. I have…

YES. At different times for different reasons. Let's unpack. GREAT BOOK. Bill Campbell was an amazing guy. Therapist. A therapist helps you deal with emotions. This is important because emotions run our lives. Don't believe me? Here's an example, you…

A simple tool for making communication easier. Trust is a very important part of any company's culture. It comes from knowing what to expect and "where someone comes from" in other words, their motivation. But motivation is often hidden behind…

It's not as easy as you think. When you hire people, you expect them to produce some output. The output is the most important part of any function you have people perform. So it makes sense you'd want to measure…

Two Types - Internal & External. My client rescheduled our time twice in a row due to emergencies. It got me thinking that there are two types of emergencies. To over simplify (a little) one type is internal. A machine…

Think of your company as a collections of functions rather than a hierarchy of people. People perform the functions to produce an output.

One of the biggest frustrations for any business owner is when an employee doesn't perform to your expectations. The higher level the employee, the worse it gets. The root cause it often a mismatch between our expectations and their performance.…

Learn how functions helped me run a company 1,500 miles from my home. I'll show you the 3 things a company needs to do and how the CEO function can systemize the company to do them better. Why functions with…

In a previous post I discussed the 4 Parts of a Function and why it's useful to see your company as a compilation of functions rather than jobs. If you haven't read that one, it will make more sense to…

Your Organization is Made of Functions Not Jobs. When you think of your company structure, you probably think of people with jobs and job titles. Thinking of people performing functions is a better model. That's because in most companies, many…

The above tweet brought several questions to my mind. . If a remote employee hired someone else to do their job, would you even know? . How would you know? Why would you care? Let's deal with the last one…

Learn how to tweak your Income Statement and make it more useful in making decisions to run your business better. This collaboration between and Marina Parkin CPA will give you insight from an accountant and a business owners.

Yes it's true - standard financial statements aren't designed for making management decisions. In this video I partner with Marina Parkin CPA and discuss how to get the most from your financial statements. We focus on cash because no matter…

Hiring Part 3 - How to select the right job candidate. How to interview, ask Behavioral Interview Questions and use System 2 decision making. This goes along with Part 1https://youtu.be/iLLXQjdMZxk and Part 2 from Learn what's even better than a…

Running out of cash is why companies die - even if they are profitable. This tool is one I use at to help clients see their cash problems in time to do something about them.

In this session from htps://CEOBootCamp.com we cover the 2nd part in the hiring process. You'll learn ideas to find candidates and ways to filter out the inappropriate ones. 0:06 Intro. 0:30 4 Parts of an Effective Hiring Program. 2:13 Find…

The Training Grid is a tool that shows you who's been trained on which tasks. It's something I use with my clients as But don't be fooled by its simplicity. It's a very powerful tool and I cover several ways…

Part 1 of How to Hire Better. These are tips from my work at If you want to build a great company, you need to have great people. But the hiring process is hard. Here we break down the first…

3 Reasons Management is hard and ways to make it easier. We define management and discuss why interaction with the people you manage is not like social interaction. There's a different skill set involved. This video is a bit different…

Hiring can be the most problematic part of running your business - but when done well the rewards of a good team are critical to success. Most job descriptions describe a person's position in the org chart (who they report…

I'm on a bit of a rant. But this is important. And I put it in the category of "Management" because as a manager, it's your job to devise and enforce communication standards in your company. Do this and it…

First let's define management. . MANAGEMENT is getting work done through other people. There are two parts to that - the work and the people. A great manager melds those two together to produce an amazing outcome. The work is…

I'll explain how unit economics is the foundation for a profitable business. Based on insights from you'll learn the business model formula and how a startup becomes a scale up. Knowing the unit economics of your business will allow you…

Put a Careers link on your website. . This is one way you can get the word out when you're hiring. Putting ads out is nice but most jobs get filled by people who know people. The good ones aren't…

I have a client who needs a new CPA. . Part of the reason is technical. They are in a narrow niche of the construction industry but have a general purpose CPA. They need someone with the experience to answer…

A manager gets work done through other people. This is impossible without delegating. But delegating is a skill that must be learned. There are three things to communicate in order to delegate well. I said communicate, not broadcast. That means…

What? These are one-on-one meetings that you have with each of your direct reports on a regular basis. . Why? These are not status updates - not about the work. They are more important (and less urgent) than that. The…

That's a question as well as a headline. I'd love to hear, in the comments below, what's changing for you as your company grows. Here are some things I've noticed in my companies and those of my clients. Even if…

At one extreme, a company is like a one-man band. You do everything. But at the other extreme it's like a symphony orchestra where the conductor doesn't make any of the music the audience has paid to hear. Just like…

If you’re an entrepreneur in any incubator or accelerator you've probably got access to a mentor — or several. And there’s the problem. More often than you think, different mentors will give you conflicting advice about what to do. Who’s…

. The Capability Maturity Model was developed to rate the maturity of a process for software development. It was funded by the US Department of Defense and written by Carnegie Mellon University in the early 1990s. I've adapted it to…

No question entrepreneurs have a hard time giving up authority, or letting go. Check out this article by Jason Fried of 37 Signals. You often hear business owners say things like “No one can do it as well as I…

Let's say you're driving when you come to a fork in the road and don't know which way to go. So you pick one and drive on. An hour later you realize you're going in the wrong direction. What do…

It takes commitment to build a business - or for that matter, to build anything. But what exactly does that word mean? I've been thinking about it lately and I've come up with this short cut. Commitment is not measured…

Mark Suster just posted a great piece on taking time to THINK as an Entrepreneur. Here’s the money quote (paraphrased). 1. I think the best leaders are Thinkers. They often need teams of people to help them Plan how to…

People who are not seasoned in sales often think discounts are more powerful than they are. As a result they end up giving away things they don’t need to. Here are some tips on using discounts. Rules for Giving Discounts.…

I was asked a question on Quora recently, specifically about start ups but I think my answer applies to more established companies as well. Hope you'll find it useful. The Original Question. How do bootstrapping start-ups in New York handle…

Shadow Coaching. Surgeon Atul Gawande has a great article in New Yorker about hiring a coach to help him become a better surgeon. He doesn’t call it this, but what he’s describing is “Shadow Coaching”. A shadow coach watches you…

By "most CEO's" I don't mean most of the people who have CEO on their business card; not those in charge of very large, public companies. Most of us run companies with less than 100 people. In fact, 50% of…

My wife broke her leg recently so I’ve been doing all the driving and grocery shopping. She is able to use a wheeled stool to get around the kitchen and cook again which she is very grateful for – as…

Jason Fried says that the office is a lousy place to get work done because of 2 things: Managers & Meetings. If that's true, then you're not doing it right. And, of course a lot of people aren't doing it…

I almost called this post the ideal team for RUNNING your company. But that would be wrong. You can run it however you want. Some people want to be in charge of everything. Fine. Some want to just do stuff…

It's simple: Give them what they want! Hey, just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. If you don't have happy employees this will change everything. I mean EVERYTHING. The good news is it works. And the better news is…

The title of this post is a play on the title of one of the best business books I know: Up The Organization by Robert Townsend. Townsend was president of Avis Car Rental in its prime and has some witty…

Think for a minute about what would happen if your employees were better motivated. Would there be fewer problems at work? Would you get to spend your time doing different things? What kind of things? Would it mean more money…

"What's new since we talked last?" I asked. "Meetings," she said. "I'm doing one-on-ones with my people, like we talked about.". She is a client. Her company makes web sites and on-line products for a specialized industry. They've got a…

Animal trainers have a saying "It's never the animal's fault" Because animals don't speak, trainers need to find non-English methods to communicate what they want. If the animal doesn't perform, they try to find a better way to communicate, they…

What would you pay for a tool that could transmit the wisdom of your smartest people out to everyone in your whole organization? One that is able to reduce errors in the most complex activity and achieve consistent results time…

Joel Spolsky recounts his move from a Microsoft to (eventually) Juno Online Services in New York. Eventually, though, I started to discover that the management philosophy at Juno was old fashioned. The assumption there was that managers exist to tell…

...is acknowledging what they are worst at. They think they're good (or good enough) at everything. But consider that every company needs to get results in four areas. This means the company needs skills such as: Designing a product customers…

Leadership has been getting all the spotlight in recent years, but management is really where the action is if you want results. Management is the hard work of developing (as well as sustaining) an environment that supports people to be…

Everyone knows that to grow a business you have to delegate. But it's hard. Here's why. Most of what you do (and want to delegate) is knowledge work. Peter Drucker coined the term Knowledge Worker to mean someone who works…

Why you should hire the best: In almost every category the best is way beyond good. You'll get 10 times the results from the best people than you will from really good people. It will be more fun to work…

I agree with Peter Drucker that this one is overrated when running a company. Skill in management is much more important. Nevertheless, leadership can be a useful skill, and it's much simpler than you'd believe by reading or listening to…

Being a leaders means people follow you. That's all. If you look historically at the leaders that people followed fiercely, you'll find some of the most destructive, self-serving, and vicious leaders in government, religion and yes business. Hitler was Time…

I've been asked whether management is one or the other. How we ask a question often blinds us to a useful answer. Management, like most aspects of running a business involves both. My quick distinction is that the science of…

Guy Kawasaki has a great post on how to fire someone. I was conflicted by one point that he makes: his dismissal of the idea that you should fire someone quickly. He says you should give them a second chance.…

Systems that support, not hinder what people do, and allow them to do it better. Most of us don't think of systems that way. Instead we feel they hinder the "real" us. But, as Seth Godin says here, "If process…

Work is defined as moving objects at or near the surface of the earth, or telling others to do so. The first is uncomfortable and ill paid, the second is more enjoyable and better paid. ~ Old Joke (which isn’t…

What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bi-lingual. What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Tri-lingual. What do you call a person who speaks only one language? An American. - Old Joke. Numbers are…

I actually believe most small companies have too few meetings. As a result effort is wasted, ideas aren't shared, mistakes take too long to correct, and the cost is high. The problem is that most meetings are run so poorly…