Sometimes, a company develops a new line of business that isn’t obviously part of the existing business. The question soon arises whether to separate the new business, and how to do it. Here are some basic ways of separating a business so that it’s more separate from an existing business: Putting it in a separate…

“What do we have to do to hit our targets?“ From the board perspective, this question is the one I always want to hear from the CEO and the entire senior leadership team. If the first response to adversity is “let’s lower the bar,” then you need to readjust the team’s mindset. Seriously. And quickly.…

Somebody asked a question about forming two related entities, one for-profit and one nonprofit. The idea was that certain facilities that would be used by the nonprofit could be used in slack time by other businesses paying a market rate. The business model seemed to be that there would be grants for the nonprofit, which…

The HBR recently shared the results of a study showing that an increase in the amount of flattery received by a CEO disproportionately increased the likelihood of the CEO being fired. “You look mahvelous” Flattering the CEO increases chance of getting [him] fired http://t.co/2odFtkwBW3 — rickcolosimo (@rickcolosimo) November 5, 2013 That link is dead: look…

Nancy Lublin’s column in Fast Company is always interesting, even moreso when I disagree with her. A column from February, “We Really Need to Talk,” (oddly renamed on the web as “Foundations’ Four Biggest Faux Pas”) is a little list of four points she’d make to foundations. To me, they boil down to versions of…

This LinkedIn question asked about mission drift for non-profits. There are a couple different layers of answer, depending on what’s going on and who’s asking. First, the fundamental concern: will the change of mission jeopardize nonprofit status (and that typically means jeopardize 501(c)(3) status, which means deductibility of donations by donors)? The answer depends on…