Articles by Sterling-Hoffman
Our team offers perspectives gained from working along-side some of the sharpest people in the software business, our clients.
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Missed the Number? Send Your CEO a Japanese Death Poem
By Angel Mehta, Managing Director
Published: April 2005
A Vice President of Sales is never as good, or as bad, as his numbers suggest. Yet the VP Sales gets paid more money, and gets fired more often, than any one else on the management team. What’s behind the madness? Angel Mehta discusses what every Software CEO should know about Japanese Death Poetry, Forrest Gump, and the Anna Karenina Principle - before they decide to restructure the sales organization from the top down.
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Want to Win? Forget YOU Exist
By Mark Fitzpatrick, Partner
Published: April 2004
It has destroyed more startups than Microsoft. It has brought market leaders to their knees. And no one is immune. Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs... Sales Executives and Technical Managers alike will all confront it at some point: Ego. Before we can fix it, we have to understand where it comes from. Mark Fitzpatrick, Partner at Sterling-Hoffman, discusses precisely how ‘ego’ develops and why getting rid of it may be the next stage of evolution in the never-ending pursuit of competitive advantage.
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Secrets from the Farm: On Fear, Honor, and Building Companies
By Angel Mehta, Managing Director
Published: October 2003
An act of betrayal years ago eventually led Angel Mehta to a ranch in Kansas City, where he hoped to persuade a wealthy yet mysterious business guru-turned-farmer to invest in a new startup. Instead of financing, the farmer offered a series of paradoxical insights about the secret to building great companies – relevant to every CEO, entrepreneur, or executive that has ever struggled with fear or obsession.
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Bruce Lee says your new VP Sales will Fail
By Angel Mehta, Managing Director
Published: April 2003
What does investing in the stock market have in common with hiring a VP Sales? It’s the fact that enormous amounts of due diligence up front in both cases often yield the same results as throwing a dart. Enterprise software CEO’s considering a strategic hire at the executive level should pay serious attention before they buy in to a search firm’s promise to deliver 'only the best'. Paraphrasing Bruce Lee, Sterling- Hoffman's Angel Mehta offers a sobering & controversial commentary on why the success mantra ‘Hire only A+ players’ is flimsy at best, and how enterprise software companies can increase the chances that the next executive hire will actually succeed
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What Executives & Tom Cruise will soon have in common: an Agent
By Angel Mehta, Managing Director
Published: February 2003
It’s often been said that the best executives seem to know the least about managing their careers – many even fail to keep their resumes up to date – because they’re busy creating value for their shareholders. But that doesn’t mean that career management is any less important. So how does a CEO ensure that he/she’s not missing out on the next big thing? Enter Canal Street Talent, a firm that watches over the careers of it’s very select Executive clientele so that they don’t have to.
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Tragic Flaws: Why Companies Really Fail - Part 2
By Angel Mehta, Managing Director
Published: January 2003
In this follow up to his article on the importance of emotional maturity, Angel Mehta delves further into the topic of why companies fail to execute. Drawing on his experiences in executive search, Angel describes two tragic flaws that ruin executive careers and often represent the 'real' reason behind organizational failure. Most Investors and seasoned executives have encountered personalities of the kind described, but only a select few may have the courage to confront these flaws within themselves.
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Maintaining a Positive Culture in a Tough Market
By Mark Fitzpatrick, Partner
Published: December 2002
Even for the optimists among us it has been a tough road in this market. So what makes some continue to charge ahead and make it happen while others languish under the pressure of negativity and cynical thinking? Mark Fitzpatrick provides advice to help those endeavoring to keep morale up in the face of conservative buyers and volatile conditions.
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Why do Companies really Fail?
By Angel Mehta, Managing Director
Published: August 2002
Most people talk about a 'failure to execute', but Angel Mehta argues that there is something even more fundamental behind the majority of corporate failures - especially for startups. And it has nothing to do with technology, high profile investors, or market factors. The first of a series of articles on a mission critical success factor that ranks among the lowest of business priorities.
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