Bill Canady

“From Panic to Profit” Book Signing Day

Most growth plans are bloat with a mission statement. Simplify first — segment, fix pricing, clean up cash. Then grow. If your last dollar of revenue made you less profitable, you haven't earned the next one.

Every business I've run had the same map. Four boxes. In a classic 80/20 business, A products to A customers bring about 64% of revenue. B to B: about 4%, often eating 120% of the profit the rest makes. The Art of Making Honey, free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

One week of training cannot teach five years of decisions. Adam Povlitz on preparation, field experience and continued learning. What did you only learn after you started? #CEOLeadership

Two products sell for $100. One keeps 80% as material margin, the other 50%. On the machine the work waits for, the favorite earns about $267 an hour. The other, about $741. Rank by what an hour of it earns. The 80/20 Company, free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

We had the better product, better pricing, a 20-year relationship — and lost the contract. The culprit wasn't sales. It was our nine-day quoting process against their 48 hours. When you lose, suspect a process before a person.

Day one as CEO of an industrial distributor. The charge: fix it, and fast. 863 days later, revenue was up more than 40 percent and profit two and a half times. Writing the plan is easy. Running it on day 400 is the job. The books, free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

Five levers move your margin. Pull them in order: pricing, procurement, mix, operations, overhead. Each needs one owner, one number and one date. A lever with no number is a wish. The 80/20 Company, free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

Cut what you buy by 1% and EBITDA rises 6.2%. To make the same money through sales, you need about $3 of new revenue for every $1 you save. Work the spend before you push the sales line. Cost Is a Choice, free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

It took me thirty years to build this library: books on the problems a CEO carries. To celebrate, I'm giving away 1,000 copies. One per person, ebook or audiobook, numbered 0001 to 1000. Free until midnight Eastern, Dec 31. eighty20publishing.com/first…

At 40 my bloodwork came back pre-diabetic. I ran it like a turnaround: data, 80/20 the inputs, few critical moves, weekly tracking. Six months later the metrics turned. Your body keeps books too.

The CEO Mandate: Stop Running Without a Mandate nitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1nxeLMNZg…

Today at noon ET: The CEO Mandate, live. Bring the number you're held to and your biggest execution challenge. We'll find the gap and the few moves that close it. 60 minutes, free: eighty20publishing.com/works…

How much can you spend to win a customer? What comes back from its margin in 18 months. At Keelson, the composite in The 80/20 Marketer: about $80,000 for a Fort customer, $3,300 for a B customer. Set the ceiling before the budget. Free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

I wanted a 5%-acceptance MBA with no undergrad degree. So I found which college sent the most grads there, enrolled, finished summa cum laude in three years, got in. Most people aim at the goal. Operators aim at the door that leads to it.

In Get Paid's worked example, one cartridge sold to 611 buyers at pocket prices from $38.40 to $61.10. The biggest buyer paid $55.80. Moving the bottom third to the median: $143,880 a year, on one item. Get Paid, free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

More than 70% of PE-backed CEOs are replaced during the hold, per Heidrick & Struggles. Thursday at noon ET I'm teaching The CEO Mandate live: the number, the gap, and a 100-day plan to close it. Free, 60 minutes: eighty20publishing.com/works…

A target meant to move nine points in a year has moved two by month four. Heading the right way, and still behind: 22% of the result, 33% of the clock. On pace means the result keeps up with the time. FORGE, free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

A thermal threw my Cessna 200 feet on final approach. What saved me wasn't courage — it was checklist. Process is what stands between you and the moment your judgment isn't available. Build it before you need it.

Ironwood, the composite in The Strategy Management Process: a $15.8M gap, 31 ideas on the wall, and four leaders who could each carry one. The line went in after four. Funded, deferred with a year, or declined. There is no fourth. Free until Dec 31: eighty20publishing.com/first…

My first 30 days in a CEO seat, I change almost nothing. Listen. Learn. Leverage. The org already knows where the problems are — nobody asked. Acting fast and looking decisive is the wrong instinct. Listening is faster.