If you're a Chief Executive Officer, your job is to execute. What does it mean, in terms of daily tasks, to be the company’s top “executer”? Many of the companies that surmount the challenges of growth have maintained attitudes most commonly found in young companies. What is the “FOUNDER’S MENTALITY”? In sports, the “Sports Illustrated Jinx” is believed to affect athletes who appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and in the entertainment industry, the term “Sophomore Jinx” refers to successful new performers who do not live up to the quality of their debuts. What is the “CEO Disease” and how is it related to CEOs achieving the SUPERSTAR STATUS?

1. The impact of CEOs achieving superstar
status on the performance of their firms
SINGULANCE | MOST INNOVATIVE EUROPEAN LAW FIRM

2. THE CEO
IF YOU’RE A CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, YOUR
JOB IS TO EXECUTE. IT’S WRITTEN RIGHT INTO
YOUR TITLE.
What does it mean, in terms of daily tasks, to be the company’s top “executer”?
It’s tempting to view the CEO as primarily a thinker; someone who mulls and shapes strategy.
> Strategy is just theory unless it’s actually translated into frontline routine.
> The CEO’s job is to make sure the company actually is executing the strategy.

3. > LIBERATE YOURSELF FROM YOUR OWN STAFF. Apply a 60/40 rule:
devote 60 per cent of the time to “must-do” tasks like governance and
investor relations and the other 40 per cent to personal focus on
strategic execution. Constantly review the 60 percent to decide if really
need to do them or can delegate them to others.
> DISENTANGLE YOURSELF FROM THE BYZANTINE BICKERING OF
THE PROFESSIONAL MANAGERIAL CLASS. Avoiding growth-killing
complexity means stay focused on the insurgent mission to serve
customers. This sense of mission fades first and fastest at the upper and
middle layers of the company as they become diluted with professional
managers.
> LAMINATE YOUR “STRATEGY ON A PAGE” AND FIND JOY IN
TALKING ABOUT IT FOR THE THOUSANDTH TIME. The best CEOs
create some sort of strategy on a page. The role of a CEO is to simplify the
complexity and stick to a few themes that are easy to understand.
> CELEBRATE THE DOERS. Every company needs thinkers, but CEOs
need to fight the natural tendency of corporate hierarchies to glorify them.
Instead, they must remind everyone that it is the doers — the key
employees who directly support customers — whose actions advance the
mission of the company.
> BE THE QUESTION GUY, NOT THE ANSWER GUY.
> IGNORE THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM OF COACHES. CEOs hear a
lot of bad advice urging them to stay in their box and work through the
management structure.
How the Best CEOs Get the Important Work Done | James Allen, HBR
THE BEST CEO

4. Many of the companies that surmount the challenges of growth and demonstrate higher levels of business
and financial performance have maintained attitudes and behaviors most commonly found in young
companies run by strong, successful founders. These attitudes and behaviors are specific and observable.
You can call them the “FOUNDER’S MENTALITY”.
THE FOUNDER’S MENTALITY
Barriers and Pathways to Sustainable Growth: Harnessing the Power of the Founder's Mentality | Chris Zook and James Allen, BAIN & COMPANY

5. THE FOUNDER’S MENTALITY
Barriers and Pathways to Sustainable Growth: Harnessing the Power of the Founder's Mentality | Chris Zook and James Allen, BAIN & COMPANY
Three primary traits:
> A sense of insurgent mission, characterized by a sense of higher purpose, a long-term horizon, and a few
spikes in capabilities and assets that make a company special and are the centerpiece of its business model.
> An obsession with the front line, characterized by an intellectual curiosity about every detail of the
customer experience and of how everything in the business works. Executives use instincts formed at the
ground level to make every decision; frontline employees are empowered and are the heroes of the
business; and the customer voice is central to all decisions.
> An owner’s mindset, characterized by a powerful sense of responsibility for employees, customers,
products and decisions; an antipathy to bureaucracy; and a bias toward speed in decisions and actions.
The Founder’s Mentality tends to decline as companies grow in scale and become more mature.
Barriers and Pathways to Sustainable Growth: Harnessing the Power of the Founder's Mentality | Chris Zook and James Allen, BAIN & COMPANY

6. THE FOUNDER’S MENTALITY
Barriers and Pathways to Sustainable Growth: Harnessing the Power of the Founder's Mentality | Chris Zook and James Allen, BAIN & COMPANYBarriers and Pathways to Sustainable Growth: Harnessing the Power of the Founder's Mentality | Chris Zook and James Allen, BAIN & COMPANY
Companies that maintain the Founder’s Mentality as they grow tend to move and adapt
faster, be more open-minded, and anticipate and adapt to the future better than those that
lose the Founder’s Mentality as they age.
> Since 1990, returns to shareholders in public companies where the founder is still involved
are three times higher than in other companies.
> Companies that are in the top 20% in terms of performance, regardless of whether they
are still founder-led or not, are four or five times more likely to exhibit the attributes of the
Founder’s Mentality than the bottom 20%.

7. THE NONSENSE
> “THE CEO SHOULD LOOK UP AND OUT.” This is the notion
that the CEO’s job is to manage the board and outside
stakeholders, leaving day-to-day operations of the companies to
others. This is poppycock. One would hope the CEO attained his
or her position by being one of the best operators in the business.
Why abandon that strength once they are in the ultimate position
to exercise it throughout the company?
> “THE CEO SHOULD WORK THROUGH THE LAYERS AND
NOT CONNECT DIRECTLY WITH THE FRONT LINE.”
Nonsense. Messages must be delivered directly. A CEO who
communicates through layers is a CEO who dooms the
organization to drivel.
> “THE CEO MUST RISE ABOVE THE DETAILS OF THE
BUSINESS.” Total nonsense. Revenue comes from customers, and
customers care massively about the details of the business. Deep
customer loyalty is born of the infinite decisions required to get
these details right. The CEO must live here.
> “THE CEO’S JOB IS TO SET THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION
AND THEN LEAVE THE EXECUTION TO OTHERS.” Utter
nonsense. Strategy is meaningless without execution. Execution is
where strategy turns into results. Do both.
How the Best CEOs Get the Important Work Done | James Allen, HBR

8. GREAT CEOS REALIZE THAT
THE SALES FORCE ARE THE HEROES OF THE BUSINESS
Companies with over performing sales force
Companies with over performing CEOs

9. > The “tournament” for CEO status and public attention is largely
conducted by the media.
> the value consequences of superstar status are unclear.

10. The belief that prominent achievers subsequently underperform is widely-held in many contexts.
> In sports, the “Sports Illustrated Jinx” is believed to affect athletes who appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
> In the entertainment industry, the term “Sophomore Jinx” refers to successful new performers who do not live up
to the quality of their debuts.
> In academia, Paul Samuelson describes (the vulgar view of) “Nobel Prize Disease” as winners withering away
“into vainglorious sterility” and “preaching to the world on ethics and futurology, politics and philosophy”.
> And in business, the media has coined the term “CEO Disease” to refer to the tendency of CEOs to
underperform after achieving the top position in their organizations.

11. > CEOS ACHIEVING SUPERSTAR STATUS CEOS UNDERPERFORM, BOTH RELATIVE TO THEIR PRIOR PERFORMANCE AND RELATIVE TO A MATCHED
SAMPLE OF NON-SUPERSTAR CEOS (UNDERPERFORMANCE IS BETWEEN 15 AND 26% OVER THE THREE YEARS).
> THEY SPEND MORE TIME ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THEIR COMPANIES, SUCH AS ASSUMING BOARD SEATS OR WRITING BOOKS.
> THEY SPEND MORE TIME ON SELF-PROMOTING. SELF-PROMOTING CEOS MAY EXAGGERATE THEIR OWN SUCCESSES.
> THE RESULTS SUGGEST THAT THE EX-POST CONSEQUENCES OF MEDIA-INDUCED SUPERSTAR STATUS FOR SHAREHOLDERS ARE NEGATIVE.
Superstar CEOs | Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, Berkeley

12. Corporate governance become more important as CEOs’ status increases: strong share-
holder rights limit the ability of powerful CEOs to destroy value.
Superstar CEOs | Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, Berkeley

13. Media coverage also has a dark side for shareholders. By increasing CEO status, the media enables
CEOs to take actions that destroy value.
Superstar CEOs | Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, Berkeley

14. 85% OF YOUR FINANCIAL SUCCESS IS DUE TO YOUR PERSONALITY AND ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE, NEGOTIATE
AND LEAD. SHOCKINGLY, ONLY 15% IS DUE TO TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE.
CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

15. Corporate and IP Attorney, Startup & Venture Capitalist Legal Counsel
Acquisition International's 2016 Legal Award Winner - Corporate & IP Attorney Of
The Year Italy
Founder, Partner and Head of the Business, Corporate and IP department | SINGULANCE
Author of:
(i) Il contratto in generale nell’attività negoziale. Casi questioni e tecniche argomentative
tra diritto nazionale ed internazionale
(ii) L’impresa globale. Internazionalizzazione e mercati internazionali: il diritto degli affari e
del commercio nel mondo
(iii) L’impresa innovativa. Startup e Venture Capital tra diritto e finanza: questioni di diritto
dei contratti, commerciale, societario, della proprietà intellettuale applicate alle Startup ed
al Venture Capital
linkedin.com/in/massimilianocaruso | singulance.com
MASSIMILIANO CARUSO

16. ACQUISITION INTERNATIONAL'S 2014 LEGAL AWARD WINNER - BEST
FOR CIVIL LAW
CORPORATE LIVEWIRE'S 2015 LEGAL AWARD WINNER - MOST
INNOVATIVE EUROPEAN LAW FIRM
ACQUISITION INTERNATIONAL'S 2015 LEGAL AWARD WINNER - BEST
LAW FIRM FOR CORPORATE
GLOBAL LAW EXPERTS 2016 LEGAL AWARD - INNOVATIVE LAW FIRM
OF THE YEAR IN ITALY
ACQUISITION INTERNATIONAL'S 2016 LEGAL AWARD WINNER - BEST
INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM ITALY
SINGULANCE
SINGULANCE.COM