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BSG From the Boardroom

A curated selection of executive opportunities, industry highlights, and unique insights in executive search.

    Links to Leadership - January 2015

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    2015-04-11 - Links to Leadership, finalized - 392x101

    Links to Recent Articles On Executive Leadership For Builder Leaders & their Investors
    January 2015

    BSG Team Ventures is dedicated to thought leadership on topics of interest and relevance to executives who are building their companies, and the investors who invest in them. We call these executives Builder Leaders - and this is the talent in which we specialize on behalf of our clients.

    There is a tremendous amount of research being published on leadership, and our goal is to curate that material and share it within our community. For ease of browsing, we have provided a list of sources, and we have categorized the articles.

    Feel free to forward this to other leadership peers, executives in portfolio companies, or investors who may have interest in staying current on the latest thinking in these areas.

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    Curated Articles
    Sources
    Syndicated Publications Business School Research Independent Publications

    - BCG Perspectives

    - Deloitte

    - Ernst & Young

    - Forbes

    - McKinsey

    - New Republic

    - PricewaterhouseCoopers

    - The Washington Post

    - Duke University Fuqua School of Business

    - Harvard Business School

    - Kellogg School of Management

    - Stanford Business School

    - BSG Team Ventures

    - The Metropolitan Corporate Council

    - Pratch and Company

    For CEOs For PE Investors For VC Investors

    It's All About Day One

    All too often, leadership transitions have an aspect of "known unknown" that isn't fully considered. Underestimating these complications can lead to team dysfunction and hamstring even the strongest leaders. HBR Professors de Janasz, van der Graaf, and Watkins dissect the treacherous ground that can be office politics, and they suggest four fundamental questions that every transition team should answer before moving forward.

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    Demystifying innovation: take down the barriers to new growth

    It is all the rage these days. You have to have it. It is so misunderstood. It is innovation, and this PwC survey clarifies seven (7!) misconceptions that only serve to mystify innovation; as well as provide a framework that will engender it organically.

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    Global Human Capital Trends 2014

    For all the surveys that are done out there, well more than half don’t do service to their topic. Deloitte’s 2014 Trends in Talent is the exception. Great summary of top 10 trends, global coverage, deep respondent set (2500+), and clean writing. A must read for all CEOs of growing companies where not just domestic but global talent market intel is of interest, and those who invest in small, mid, and largecap sectors.

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    Private Equity and the CEO: Partners in the Quest for Value

    Although it is ostensibly a partnership, the CEO-PE relationship can be rife with conflict. Authors for Boston Consulting Group interview a diverse mix of PE professionals and CEOs to determine the misalignment of priorities and misunderstandings that cause the best-intentioned agreements to go sour. BCG account required for access. Audio download of the article available to BCG members.

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    Successful CEOs of Private Equity Funded Ventures

    The grand old Harvard business professor (and one of the first venture capitalists) Georges Deriot famously told his students he would rather invest in a B venture with an A person than an A venture with a B person ... but what defines an "A person"? Executive assessment pioneer Leslie Pratch and Chicago School of Professional Psychology associate professor Jordan Jacobwitz provide a psychologically driven analysis of what makes successful CEOs tick.

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    Where are the Deals?! Best Practices of Private Equity Funds in Originating Investments

    This presentation deck by serial entrepreneur and angel investor David Teten draws from a wide range of data to highlight origination strategies that garner consistently higher returns that are driven by quantity and relevance of incoming investment opportunities. He highlights the importance of leveraging the Web and social media as effective tools for increasing deal flow and brand recognition despite potential loss of confidentiality. Please note: The presentation deck is available for free perusal; the partner article is not. We have provided links to both below.

    See Presentation Deck »

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    Buy Local? The Geography of Successful and Unsuccessful Venture Capital Expansion

    Just about half of all venture capital firms have their main office in one of three cities: San Francisco, Boston, and New York. It should be expected that this pronounced clustering has a significant impact on the success rate of investments and, thus, the performance of venture capital firms that are located at a hub city. In addition to doing a thorough analysis of data on the basics, this survey also explores questions such as the success of new investments in a location in which the VC firm already has one or more investments; and the success of branch office investments vs main office investments.

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    The Brutal Ageism of Tech

    The founding of companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Amazon are still recent history, but their origins have already been mythologized: Billion-dollar ideas dreamed up by young men tinkering in a garage. That imagery is so powerful, it has become a benchmark against which venture capitalists measure the entrepreneurs that they meet and listen to. This article re-introduces a valuable marker for entrepreneurial success that gets overlooked in the hunt for the next wunderkind: experience

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    Investors prefer entrepreneurial ventures pitched by attractive men

    Nuff said.

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    Executive Compensation On Leadership On Talent Acquisition and Interviewing

    Does your CEO compensation plan provide the right incentives?

    Do you ever think to yourself, "Darn, my CEO is riskier than I'd like. Why is that?" Or maybe your CEO isn't risky enough. This McKinsey Quarterly article, co-written by the director of and a researcher for Stanford's Corporate Governance Research Program, analyzes the "convexity" of the company share price to the CEO's pay-off, and how payoff structure influences long-term behavior.

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    Inside the Black Box: The Role and Composition of Compensation Peer Groups

    This paper might be best partnered with a nightcap because its dry nature will no doubt put you to sleep. However, it has important insight into the nature of variation in CEO compensation. Notably, the research (which was derived from data on publicly traded firms) suggests firms construct compensation peer groups by skewing towards higher paid peers, even if they are outside of their industry.

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    Incentive Equity Compensation Survey: Private Equity Firm Portfolio Companies

    Sometimes it's worth taking a breather, assessing how things stand, and determining how they're different from what came before. Kramer Levin did just that with their 2013 Private Equity Portfolio Company Incentive Equity Compensation Survey, which analyzed key terms in incentive equity compensation programs offered by 31 private equity portfolio companies that they represent. In addition to a general summary, they also provide a comparison to similar data presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008. Perhaps neither the material nor the delivery are the stuff of a bestselling thriller; but if they did, then we'd be in Hollywood, and we'd all be reading screenplays.

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    It's Not the CEO, It's the Leadership Strategy that Matters

    Hold your horses. Forbes author Josh Bersin isn't completely discounting the CEO contribution to successful business performance. He does, however, remark upon a prevailing factor in businesses that maintain robust long-term performance: the continual development of leaders at all levels; and he ties the value of a CEO his ability to drive leadership culture.

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    Are women better leaders than men? Harvard Business Review piece gets whirlwind of response

    Let us imagine the ideal leader: someone who takes initiative and champions change; someone who practices self-development and develops others; someone who inspires and motivates others and builds relationships. Did you imagine a woman? Perhaps you should. According to a survey of data conducted by leadership assessment gurus Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, women consistently rate higher in a majority of the competencies that define outstanding leadership. In the accompanying Harvard Business Review blog article, they examine possible conclusions from these data and supply further anecdotal evidence. Although the write-up is bite-sized, it provides some valuable food for thought.

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    The CEO's role in leading transformation

    What did Steve Jobs and Mahatma Gandhi have in common? (No, this does not end with them going to a bar.) They were able to enervate people and infuse them with a common purpose. Despite common perception, this ability is not limited to "charismatic" people only; but people who are able to effect transformation do recognize four key roles they must play, which are outlined in this McKinsey Quarterly article.

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    The art and science of executive selection: Selecting leaders to capture the value of the deal

    Naturally, there are deviations from the mean, but candidates for executive positions are, by and large, intelligent and accomplished people. But just as not all tools in a toolbox are equally suited for a specific purpose, not all candidates are a good fit for a particular role or corporate environment. This article by Deloitte outlines key steps to consider during the selection process as well as a holistic approach towards the art of candidate selection.

    Read More »

    The Curious Case of Video Interviewing: Reducing Costs and Improving Efficiency

    In many ways, recruitment and human management are still floundering in the dark ages. New and interesting technologies exist, but not everyone is taking advantage of them. This report by Aberdeen Group summarizes reasons companies make the switch to video interviewing as well as key performance indicators that demarcate the difference between companies that use it and companies that do not. Please note, this article is free, but registration is required for access.

    Read More (free, but registration required) »

    How to Hire Like Warren Buffett

    Noted philanthropist. "Oracle of Omaha". The most successful investor of the 20th century. Not that Warren Buffet needs much introduction. In this CBS News article, he explains the three categories of characteristics that he considers necessary and sufficient for a good leader. He also discusses the simple tests he uses to get a bearing on those characteristics. Here's a hint: board games are on the table (pun completely intended).

    Read More »

    For Entrepreneurs For Candidates Books

    Venture Capital Teaching Guide

    What does it mean to grow your start-up? What kinds of funding are available and how can you attract what you need? What should you expect and how should you manage you resources? Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner has a series of easily digestible videos (< 5 minutes!) organized into modules that are a must-view for any entrepreneur.

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    Nature or nuture? Decoding the nature of the entrepreneur

    They're rock stars in suits. Yesterday it was Bill Gates. Today it's Mark Zuckerberg. But the romanticized notion of the person who leaves college to go for broke on an idea -- and wins! -- lends needless mystique. In a brief report (yes, there are 28 pages, but there are pictures, graphs, and ample margins!), Ernst & Young compile data collected from a survey of 685 entrepreneurial leaders around the world to deconstruct the sixty-four thousand dollar question: Are entrepreneurs born, or are they made?

    Read More »

    Executive Selection: What Works and What Doesn't

    Don't let its 1998 publication date dissuade you. This comprehensive report addresses (a) how executives are defined as successful or unsuccessful; (b) how executive selection takes place in organizations; and (c) what determines whether a company will looks inside or outside. To skip straight to the answers, start on page 27.

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    Managing Yourself: Job-Hopping To the Top and Other Career Fallacies

    In the 50s, it was not unusual for an executive to stay with the company for a decade or more; now the average duration an executive may stay before moving on is 3.3 years. No doubt this is due to an organizational shift: loyalty is no longer necessarily rewarded with promotions, so executives take their talent elsewhere. But not all job changes are created equal. IE Business School professor Monika Hamori lays out numbers for four common fallacies regarding career moves.

    Read More »

    The Four Behaviors of Innovative Leaders

    Edison once said, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration" ... but he forgot to mention the work that goes into engendering innovation. This book, co-written by professors from INSEAD, HBS, and BYU Marriott School of Management, explores the patterns of behavior that are regularly exhibited by innovative people as well as ways to begin integrating that behavior into one's own core competencies.

    Buy Book »
    Watch the Forbes Interview »

    Boards that Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way

    Ram Charan, Dennis Carey, and Michael Unseem discuss the top-down optimization strategy that has evolved as a result of boards taking a more active interest in the companies and CEOs they oversee and lead. Using various case studies, they explain the importance of valuable directors who eliminate board dysfunction and straddle the divide between management and board.

    Buy Book »

    Read a Review »

    Video Video Video

    Leadership Heuristics: Key to Establishing Leadership Quickly

    Duke University Fuqua School of Business professor Allan Lind asked, "How can you quickly establish your leadership credentials? Is there sort of a shortcut to being seen as a leader?" Building on research in fairness that indicates the leader-follower relationship is determined in mere moments, Lind and Sim Simkin identified three factors -- or "leadership heuristics" -- that lead to "fast leadership connections."

    Watch Video »

    CEO Huddle Lecture, Winter 2013: Allen Sinai's Predictions for 2014

    World-renowned economist Dr. Allen Sinai is often engaged by governmental, corporate, or private concerns to consult on the global macroeconomic backdrop, with an eye to risks to professionals who need to position themselves in the financial markets. He counts among his advisees multiple presidential administrations, and it was a great honor and a pleasure to have him as our speaker at our CEO Huddles event, winter 2013.

    In his lecture (which is linked below), Dr. Sinai discussed his predictions for the 2014 macroeconomic climate, the biggest contributors to this forecast, and potential “black swan events” that may derail his projections. For just a taste, see this excerpt, where we compare his self-admitted “blue-sky projections” for Actual % GDP Growth for 2014 against what was borne out in reality (source).

    Watch Video »

    2015—10 Realities of the Executive Talent Market: the Good & the Bad

    The Great Recession continues to retreat from recent memory, and the economy continues to recover and to expand, both domestically and globally. What does this mean for talent acquisition and recruitment? In this video, Clark Waterfall, Managing Director of our own BSG Team Ventures, coins a term to describe the current hiring environment – “the blue sky hiring phase” – and he discusses the key positives and the key challenges that can affect both those looking to onboard new talent and those looking to shop their talent around.

    Watch Video »

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    -by Clark Waterfall on Jan 15, 2015 10:54:16 AM

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