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Recent Articles from Todd Ordal
The baling-wire-and-braces strategy
Many organizations have the same wire and braces that the Wyoming house did. Rather than correct problems or prevent them, they use contingency measures or adaptive techniques. While often good short-term solutions, when you don’t correct or prevent problems, you end up with an organization full o...
A half-caf, nonfat strategy
When business demands that you take a hard right, you can’t waiver. If you’re like the woman in front of me at Starbucks today — unsure about the size, caffeine dose or foam — you won’t have a shot at success. My favorite coffee shop calls a decaf, nonfat cappuccino a “why bother.” A close cousin...
Maximize, minimize or optimize?
Maximizing market share sometimes means you buy it from your competitors, and that most always means margin degradation. Bigger is sometimes better, but not always. Shooting for market share above all else is a bit like marketing for eyeballs on the web. Many eyeballs don’t carry wallets!
A business story about execs who deliver
If characters in a series don’t develop, you question the author’s ability. Studly young spies who kill bad guys with their pinkie must turn into wily veterans who use their head as well as their hands. Likewise, business leaders must bolster raw enthusiasm and intuition with systems, techniques a...
The value of being there
People have chastised Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer for bringing back the Stone Age because she wants her people in a common work environment (they called them “offices” back in the time of the Flintstones). I have news for all of you writing apps in your mother’s kitchen: When your company gets big, yo...
How to work with anyone
How to Work with Anyone: That was the title of a blog post I saw recently. I didn’t read it. What a dumb objective! Why would you want to work with “anyone” when you have choices? This isn’t North Korea! Let’s get a few exceptions out of the way. If you’re in the military, you have fewer choices a...
Behind the power curve
When leaders get behind the power curve, bad things can happen, just like in airplanes. If there’s a lot of existing cash flow and a relatively large addressable market, it can take awhile for things to go “clunk.” However, if the business is low and slow — with a finite amount of cash, an increas...
Tune out the noise
As I coach executives, I often ask them to stop and reflect on what they’re hearing — from their organization, their board, their investors, their competitors, the market — and identify critical messages from merely noise. Guess right, and you cross the finish line in the lead. Guess wrong – and y...
Time for a cattle prod — or an encouraging word?
A CEO I know recently reported to his board that his company would miss quarterly and annual targets. His business model depends on consumer preferences and, frankly, in the world he’s in, you win some and you lose many. Luckily, this was a seasoned board of directors that didn’t throw a temper ta...
The greatest leader you’ve never heard of
No real tools, no wireless technology, no air travel, no iPads, no horses, no guns and in fact, no written language. Yet this guy unites the people of a huge geographic area and builds an aligned group of beautiful structures into a highly functioning organization that would be nearly impossible t...
Buckle up for a rough ride, Superman!
How would you like to be in the publishing business right now? If you read the headlines and have a pulse anywhere north of two beats per minute, you know the publishing industry is in deep doo-doo. However, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal both have circulation increases (print plus...
The success secret you can’t see, smell or taste
If you put 100 executives in a room and ask them to define “strategy,” you’ll likely get 200 different answers. People use the term loosely. However, when you’re talking about business strategy, it’s too often used as a synonym for important, critical, large, thoughtful or expensive. It can be all...
