We have met thousands of business owners over the past 20 years and few pass the test as a true CEO. Most are very smart and very capable business people that put CEO on their business card. What is it that makes a CEO successful? In Break Points we talk about a number of issues, including their ability to communicate, ability to attract great talent and their ability to instill loyalty in everyone they touch. Great visionaries are usually very good at figuring out how to get from point A to point B, but great CEO’s know how to take hundreds or even thousands of people on that same journey.
We believe there is also a difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur. Most business owners take a skill set they have or a business that they know and turn it into a venture that produces revenue. There are millions and millions of business owners, and many of them create great companies that employ lots of people. The true entrepreneur, on the other hand, creates a business that is scalable and reproducible and owns IP (Intellectual Property) that brings exponential value to a business. The most profitable businesses we have seen are the ones that own something, not just resell other people’s products.
The challenge is to decide which products to invest in and how do you fund those investments.
