One-liners for Executives

One-liners are very short statements that purport to capture the essence of a situation. At their best, they can bring clarity and precision to complexity and confusion. They can also focus decision-making. The knock on them is that they can oversimplify and create only an illusion of an understanding. Regardless, one-liners are part of every executive’s world. Here are 15 of the … [ Read more ]

Denial, Fear, Greed and Pride: The Four Horsemen of the Executive Apocalypse

A question John McCallum’s MBA students inevitably explore with the CEOs who visit his class is the personal characteristics that are most likely to get in the way of a successful executive career. Over many visiting CEOs and over many years, there is remarkable commonality in the responses: denial, fear, greed and pride, a kind of four horsemen of the executive apocalypse.

Of CEOs and Accounting

It’s not that big of a stretch to say that many CEOs – too many, perhaps – would rather learn how to hit a three wood than move up the knowledge curve on accounting. But just like you can’t ask your caddy or anyone else to hit a three wood for you, you cannot – or at least should not – ask your CFO to … [ Read more ]

Options Development is Crucial to Good Decision Making

In business, it is important to have options. Before making a decision, a manger should list the options and then decide.

John S. McCallum

The Austrian School puts great emphasis on individual choices and the crucial role that prices, acting as signals, have in those choices. The more prices depart from what they would be in a free market, the more concerned Austrian School economists become about economic performance.

The Austrian School believes in an absolute minimal role for government in economic affairs. In the jargon of the Economics 101, … [ Read more ]

John S. McCallum

The difference between a great career and a bad one is a couple of things every so often you elect to say or not say or do or not do.

In War and Business, It’s the Terrain that Matters

Add the dictum, “Know the terrain” to “Know your customer” and you’ve got the two most important principles that a manager needs to follow to compete successfully. At first, and perhaps even later on, the playing field may not be level, but managers who consider the observations of this Ivey Business Journal regular contributor will surely be able to compete with any player, under any … [ Read more ]

The Black Swan: A Terrific Read for Executives

When this regular Ivey Business Journal contributor recommends a certain book, executives can be assured that they will derive value from the book. Even if it is a black swan.

John McCallum

What makes economic forecasting so difficult is that, ultimately, it is a call on the behavior of people. It is the willingness or not of consumers to spend, executives to invest and create jobs, savers and money managers to buy stocks and bonds and so on that determines the direction of everything that matters about the economy. Unfortunately for the economic forecaster, behavior is driven … [ Read more ]

John McCallum

Some thoughts for executives on how to use an economic forecast: First, the economy involves myriad variables and interrelationships of varying measurability and complexity. Not every business depends for its prosperity on the same variables and relationships. Executives should know the key economic drivers of their business and focus on forecasting them. Having said that, economic growth is big for almost everyone; a rising tide … [ Read more ]