How CEOs succeed: 'think big, start small, move fast'.

• Author: Ogg, Sandy
• Position: CEO DEVELOPMENT

Concerned about your CEO being properly focused and delivering value faster? Board members can use the forces of Mobilization to focus the CEO and the organization on the few big choices and initiatives that create real value.

Bain released research in 2012 on public companies generating above $500 million in revenues in 12 developed and emerging economies. There was no good news. Eighty percent of the 2,000 companies they assessed believed they were doing well. Yet, according to stakeholders, only about 10% were actually doing as well as they thought. And only 11% were able to sustain profitable growth.

It should come as no surprise then that the CEO's tour of duty has shortened considerably. Not just for well-publicized failures like Ronald Johnson and his 17-month tenure at J.C. Penney. Leadership turnover at the world's top public companies has been silently picking up pace. CEO tenure in the top 2,500 companies dropped from 8.1 years in 2000 to 6.3 years in 2009, according to data from Booz & Company. In 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fortune 500 CEOs were averaging 4.6 years. In the private equity sector today, we have observed a more than 50% turnover of CEOs within the five-year investment cycle.

We have a problem.

We all need CEOs to succeed. Our businesses and our societies depend on it. Yet CEOs today are overpetitioned and underserved. They have less and less time in which to deliver value. What can board members do to help them focus their attention and energy on the right things at the right time--without reverting to micromanaging?

The best work differently

What helps CEOs put in place the set of actions that will ultimately create value in the short- and long-term? I have been living with this question for over 30 years. Through observation, reflection and discussions with leaders in companies around the world, I have discovered that the best CEOs work differently and are supported differently than the less successful ones. Successful CEOs somehow get to the profound simplicity on the other side of complexity. Somehow they transform and power up their organizations to keep generating new, more and better value for their customers and shareholders--faster than their competitors.

A few years ago I began working with CEOs in the world of private equity, where the focus is on creating value in a tight timeframe. I looked at the information these CEOs had, the choices they made, and what changes they made based on...