Resources to run a better business.

I love concerts. The energy in the crowd, the songs I’ve heard thousands of times before, and the musicians. These incredible artists, many of whom I’ve been watching and listening to for decades. And every time I see some of my favorite bands, I think, “They still sound amazing. How is that possible?”

Every important business decision can be hashed out on a legal pad. ‍Technology is ubiquitous, in our lives and in our companies. And technology gives us access to data: lots of it. Data, and the insights it can generate, are extremely valuable—but data is not a substitute for human leadership.

Crews & co. and clients land a spot on the Inc. 5000. Find out where we landed.

The C-suite was frustrated.‍They had been running regular quarterly meetings for years. Leadership was aligned. They implemented OKRs at the senior level and had seen positive results in the business.‍Then they rolled out OKRs to the rest of the organization.

When you ask your leadership team a question, here’s an easy way to tell if they’re giving the right response.‍How long does it take to get an answer?‍If you ask a question like, “Are we on track with this initiative?” you should get a yes or no answer.

Every so often, I come across a company that just gets all the fundamentals right.‍The last perfect business I featured was a firewood stand that sold bundles of wood for five bucks.‍Today, I want to tell you about the guys at Royal Nautiq.

I press hard on holding team members accountable, especially senior leaders. Accountability must be embedded into a company’s culture. Otherwise, the other work—the vision, the strategy, the planning—doesn’t amount to much.

I bet you know who McKinsey is. Deloitte, too. Probably Accenture, Gartner, and BCG as well. That’s brand recognition. A funny thing about a brand—once the brand becomes familiar enough, the brand itself becomes more important than the product.

Did you know…AI is an expense? Many companies seem to have forgotten that in the race to be first in AI adoption. But the bill is coming due, as the big frontier AI companies are reducing subsidies and raising rates on their most popular products.