River Insights

Developing Generations of CEOs

Exchanges: The Experiences of First-Time CEOs
The EXCHANGES report summarizes our study, which is based on in-depth conversations with 75 CEOs. Below is a summary of our findings and the advice of the CEOs who we interviewed.
The Founder’s Leadership Journey
What are the leadership qualities that enable founders to successfully scale their businesses? What are the typical phases of development founder-led businesses, and founders, experience?
CEOs Navigating in a Time Like No Other
The thinking and skillsets CEOs relied on pre-pandemic are not the same ones that will lead them to success while navigating the world we are in today. Agility, the ability to innovate and empathy are just some of the characteristics of CEOs who are successfully navigating this next normal.
Working With A CEO Coach
A sign of self-confidence by the CEO and a clear signal to the rest of the organization that the CEO is open to learning.
Value Destruction By The Unprepared
The Cost of Complacency is Rising. Be Prepared.
CEO Evaluation
Perfunctory and narrow approaches to CEO evaluations leave value on the table. Make CEO Evaluation a tool to advance and sustain the value of your company.
From Great Entrepreneur To Great Leader
Making the personal shift from being the entrepreneur who starts a business to the leader of a larger enterprise.
Multiply Yourself: How Indian Founders Learn to Let Go and Grow Their Business
When it comes to understanding the reasons why some founders succeed and others don’t, we believe that leadership is the difference all the time, every time.
High Energy in the Right Moments Can Inspire
For leaders, energy can be in short supply. Those leaders who can manage themselves, to maximize their moments of high-energy, will be at a great advantage.
Grilled on the Hill: 3 Lessons from CEOs in the Hot Seat
What lessons can CEOs learn from the recent high profile grillings of John Stumpf and other CEOs on Capitol Hill?
Catching up on Algebra: How Young CEOs Accelerate Their Learning
For young CEOs, being the expert does not guarantee you will be a great CEO. How do you catch-up?
Building a Sustainable Family-Owned Business
Family owned businesses contribute an estimated 70% to GDP but 65% of family wealth is lost by the 2nd generation. Owners must work to avoid this.
Applying the KISS Principle to Executive Development
How do you help time-strapped CEO succession candidates who can benefit from deep developmental insights? Employing the KISS principle can help.
Advice for Rising to the Challenge of CEO
An overview of our Exchanges16 "Expect the Unexpected" study. It explores the six key themes around the experiences of the first-time CEO.
Advice from 75 CEOs on Aligning Leadership
5 guiding principles for the new CEO to leverage the role, and power of creative expression, to align leaders. From The River Group LLC Currents blog.

Driving Growth & Transformation

Navigating a Perfect Storm: Notes from The Captains’ Logs
Hear from CEOs and Senior Business Leaders firsthand what they've done since early 2020 to build and sustain agile organizations that respond quickly to the many challenges at hand, while also setting themselves up for longer-term successes.
Emerging Stronger
Preparing for the future, while navigating the present: A challenge for any organization, but much more challenging during a global pandemic. Leaders must not only transform their companies, but do so differently than in the past. While the transformation playbook is similar, winning in the next normal requires a drastically different game plan.
Thriving with Your Remote/Hybrid Team
Pre-2020, many organizations were skeptical about the viability of remote work. Now, over a year into this "crash course," many organizations are reaping the benefits that a remote/hybrid team can provide.
How Your Company Can Beat the Post-Pandemic Odds
It's suggested that only 10 to 14 percent of organizations emerge stronger from crises. What steps can you take to make sure that your organization beats those odds?
Cracking the Code on Failed M&A Leadership
What Disney, Amazon and Exxon did that Omnicom, Lehman and Lucent didn’t.
Merger Integration – Day One – A CEO’s Tale
The Acquisition Closes. It Is Day One. You Are CEO Of The New Combined Entity. What Do You Do?
Continuous Conversations
The heart of performance management.
Leading Through Rapid Growth
A great problem to have?
The Little Book for the Performance Conversationalist
Performance is about people and improving performance is about how you, as the manager of your people, go about coaching, training, teaching, and showing your people how to improve.
The Importance of Redefining Values During Culture Change
Values of the company displayed all over the office is not an unusual sight. More often than not- that is exactly what they are.
Conquer Culture Change by Attacking This Challenge
Changing your culture? Here is a short checklist to reflect on before you begin the culture change process with some helpful tips to help facilitate the change.
Achieving the Promise of Transformational M&A Integration
Here are a few reminders for achieving sustained M&A integration success with the strategic and financial promise intended.
It’s All About Talent: Insights from Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For
Talent management Insights from Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 2016.
Changing Your Performance Management? – Tips for the CHRO
Thinking about changing the performance management process in your organization? Here are some important things to keep in mind during the process.
The Rise of Conversational Leadership
Creating a culture where conversational leadership takes root requires a new type of leadership development.
5 Questions Boards Should Ask About Tax Inversions
Beware of the attractive tax-inversion option. Merger integration is hard enough to pull off under normal circumstances.

Growing Enterprise Leaders

What Makes a Resilient Leader?
It's more than just a catchphrase. They're engaging and adaptable; supportive and self-aware. When challenges face your organization, resilient leaders are the ones you want on your team.
The New Normal of Leadership: Connecting Others in a Disconnected World
Ideas for leading remote teams during challenging times. No rocket science--just helpful reminders and useful techniques.
Leaders Developing Leaders
As stewards of the organization, it is the obligation of senior leaders to energetically lead the development of future leaders.
Rudeness Derails Leaders
It’s not just unpleasant.
The Five Seismic Shifts
Changing the leadership development landscape.
The Single Most Powerful Word in a Leader’s Vocabulary
Much has been written about leadership communication. Yet one word can help leaders become more effective and shift their mindset towards inclusivity.
The Nature of Leadership in the UAE
Creating a culture where conversational leadership takes root requires a new type of leadership development.
Modern Leadership Skills in India’s Family-Owned Businesses
There is a need for modern leadership skills in India’s Family Owned Businesses leadership pipeline.
How to Become a Leader? Do Leadership Work.
A review of Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader, by Herminia Ibarra. Spend less time on introspection and more time learning to do the work that leaders do.
Don’t Leave Learning on the Table with This Simple Trick
Organizations are shifting focus away from formal to informal learning, with a goal of creating a learning culture. But what does that mean?
Do No Harm: What Senior Executives Can Learn from Doctors
Employee engagement and passion are some of the most sought-after goals of organizations today. How can we truly unleash the potential of our people?
Brain Implants for our Future Leadership?
What other learning capability factors will set high potentials apart in the future? Elon Musk recently mentioned there will be need for brain implants.
A Practical Example of Leading HiPos to Victory
Claudio Ranieri's positive, pragmatic and tactically astute leadership style was perfect for underachieving high potentials.
5 Reasons Why Performance Management Conversations Fail
Every year organizations invest thousands of man-hours in the annual performance review.
5 Steps to Boost Your Leadership Bench
It is up to senior leaders to energetically lead the development of future leaders.
The Surprising Way to Develop Leadership Talent
If you’re responsible for developing leadership talent in your organization, you can accelerate leadership skills training by doing this one thing.