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Much of modern management thinking is built on a narrow and deceptively comforting habit: studying winners and working backward. From a small set of outliers, we extract traits, frameworks, and moral lessons, then present them as generalizable insight. This habit has consequences. When winners become the primary dataset, success is treated as evidence of virtue,…
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Do you ever reflect back on business school lessons — however hazily recalled, perhaps even misattributing the author — and think: now I get it? I had one of those moments recently. I remembered a phrase from many years ago that I’ve quoted more than once over the course of my career: logical incrementalism. For…
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I see no shortage of posts aimed at owners warning about valuation gotchas. Founder dependence is usually near the top of the list: no capable lieutenants, no delegation, value looks more like a job than a business. There’s truth in that. But it’s also incomplete. In many early and mid-stage companies, a founder-centric model isn’t…
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Founder Dependence Isn’t Always a Problem — Until You Want Options I recently read a LinkedIn post highlighting a red flag in acquisitions: if the founder can’t step away and the business can’t run without them, you’re not buying a business — you’re buying a job. Yes! Great insight. Dead on. For cash-flow–driven acquisitions, standalone…
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How’s It Like the Game – Can you spot the differences? But Founders don’t have time for games. They want solutions – not titles. The real question isn’t whether you need a CFO or a Controller. The question is: do you have a foundation that lets you make confident decisions and grow value? 1: The…
Financial Foundations with Jim Curham 