The heading here
Is This a Leading Indicator of Trouble? Yes.
We might think that CEO exits are the canary in the mine, but they are actually lagging
indicators. The underlying problems—market shifts, team fatigue, cultural
rot—happened months or even years before. And unless you’re actively scanning for
the weaknesses inside your own business, you’re likely already behind.
Public companies have boards to sound the alarm. Their shareholders demand it, but
you don’t. You are the board, the alarm, and the one who gets burned if you don’t act in
a timely fashion.
Here’s What SMB CEOs Should Do—Now
- Audit Your Strategic Clarity—If every team can’t articulate the company’s strategy
in one sentence, it’s not strategy—it’s noise. - Evaluate Your Org Chart for Scalability—If your growth depends on hiring more
people instead of doing more with better systems, you are effectively scaling
inefficiency. - Install Your No. 2—You need a president or COO yesterday. Someone who runs
operations while you, the CEO, drive growth. Without this, you’ll stay stuck in the muck
of low profits and never get above $5 million. - Productize Your Offering—Custom work doesn’t scale. You need to package your
expertise and define outcomes. Set your price for value, not time. - Build Your AI Stack—If AI isn’t saving you 20+ hours per week by now—on
proposals, reporting, or internal ops—you’re already falling behind competitors who are
using it to move faster and smarter.
What “Being Ready” Actually Means
“Ready” is not a mindset—it’s a an entire system, and the health of your business
depends on it. Here’s a to-do list for every SMB CEO who wants to remain in their
position:
- Create repeatable packages with defined outcomes.
- Delegate 80% of daily operations.
- Automate the non-human work.
- Do not rely on any one client, platform, or person.
- Look around the corners and build for what’s next, not just maintaining what you have
now.
If this is not your reality today, make it your roadmap for 2026.
SMB CEOs do not have the luxury of learning late. You either build systems that scale
under stress—or like the CEOs of Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestle, an
