CEO Weekly Outlook

Good morning, all. Welcome to our first CEO Weekly Outlook, a weekly roundup of what CEOs, owner-operators and other senior managers within private middle market companies are reading. Start your week with essential insights, tips and advice on managing, growing and financing or selling your business.

Every Monday, we’ll cover stories that offer essential Business Insights. For example, today we’re reading about a CEO’s perspective on the skill gap between C-level leaders and newly minted MBA graduates. The discussion answers the difficult question of how to retool your MBA education to reflect changes in technology and tools before you reach the C-Level years later. Some strategies for ensuring that a skills gap doesn’t exist? Being a guest speaker, staying involved in recruiting, and seeking analyses from junior employees.

We’ll also cover articles that can help a CEO develop their Transactional Toolbox. For example, CEOs are wondering what private equity investors think they do for the companies they buy. A survey done by Harvard Business Review talks about how private equity firms decide to invest in companies and what they can provide outside of financial engineering tactics.

Finally, we’ll highlight one Middle Market Move of the Week – great businesses making great deals.

Business Insights

• Tough choices for succession in the family business
• Are companies any good at picking stars?
• How one retail brand made more money from the marketing cloud
• What mountain climbing can teach you about business
• Entrepreneurs raising the next generation of chief executives
• People remember what you say when you paint a picture
• The trouble with focusing on time-to-market
• Three potentially fatal words: ‘My gut says’
• A CEO’s perspective on the skill gap between C-level leaders and newly minted MBA graduates
• You need an innovation strategy

Transaction Toolbox

• Restructuring a family business to protect assets
• PE backed company senior executives could greatly benefit from wealth maximization planning
• What private equity investors think they do for the companies they buy
• Revised SEC rules make it easier for smaller companies to raise capital

Middle Market Move of the Week:

There’s quite the appetite for natural foods. This week, 19-person, MN-based Live Better Brands, manufacturer of Way Better Snacks (funky-flavored tortilla chips such as sriracha flavor) inked a spicy deal with a minority equity investment from Alliance Consumer Growth (ACG).

Live Better will use the investment to expand its sales and distribution strategies and build brand awareness. The CEO of Live Better commented on the investment from ACG: “We believe ACG’s expertise, particularly in targeting health-minded consumers who demand more out of their snack foods, will be very valuable as we look to accelerate our growth and further develop our brand.” Read the full press release here.