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Matt Sharrers is no stranger to high-performance environments. Upon retiring from playing professional hockey, he quickly rose through the ranks to VP at a Fortune 500 company before his thirty-fourth birthday. From there, he joined SBI, a go-to-market strategy consulting firm as its first employee, and helped scale it and shepherd it through two liquidity events.
When SBI’s founder wanted to pursue his next thing, Matt was chosen to succeed him. That crucial moment began a trial-by-fire that initiated Matt into an elite club with unique challenges but no roadmap. After a bumpy start, Matt navigated his way through a less-than-perfect landscape. Over fifteen years, he helped lead the scaling of SBI into one of the largest boutique firms in GTM consulting. He’ll walk you through how he did it, and how you can, too.
List of contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
- PASSING THE BATON VERSUS THROWING IT AND RUNNING
- CAN I REALLY DO THIS?
- WORKING WITH THE FOUNDER
- AM I DOING IT RIGHT?
- CULTURE CORNERSTONES
- STRATEGY: WHERE TO PLAY AND HOW TO WIN
- THE CONTINUOUS NATURE OF PROCESSES
- STRUCTURE: FOCUS ON ROLES, NOT PEOPLE
- BUILDING YOUR TEAM
- BUILDING YOUR TWO BOARDS
CONCLUSION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
About the author
MATT SHARRERS is a coach, investor and advisor to CEOs and the PE firms for whom they work. Sharrers spends his time enabling these CEOs to accomplish uncommon goals that alter their personal trajectory.
Currently, Matt serves on 5 boards and is the Executive Chairman at SBI, a B2B strategy consulting/growth advisory firm that he and his partners sold a majority stake to CIP Capital in January of 2020. Sharrers resides in Scottsdale Arizona and when not working with CEOs can often be found doing pull ups, playing average golf, or reading.
Summary
The first roadmap for a Founder-CEO succession like no other.
If you’ve been tapped on the shoulder to follow a founder or you’re interested in being in the running, be forewarned that this isn’t your average transition. The founder has skills, talents, and personality that have built the company and the culture. It’s the Second CEO’s job to respect the founder and their vision while creating a culture and vision of their own and adding massive value. But how?
Matt Sharrers knows, firsthand, what you have to get right and what common roadblocks you should be on the lookout for. He details it all in The Second CEO: Accelerating Scale When Following the Founder. Sharrers understands what it takes to create culture and value when you’re following a founder. And not just because he did it himself, leading through double-digit revenue growth, but also because he has coached and mentored dozens of Second CEOs through their transitions as well as their first years.
This book takes you step-by-step, through your own journey, whether you’re already in the running or you want to be. And whether the founder is leaving entirely, staying on in a different position, or moving solely to the board, Sharrers has you covered with real-life stories and tips from founders, serial Second CEOs, and private equity investors. And he offers his own advice, called Key Accelerants, that will best position you to drive the kind of growth you need to get to your next benchmark.
In The Second CEO, Matt Sharrers brings his decades of helping leaders improve the enterprise value of their companies to you in an interactive format. Each chapter details his proven process for cultivating culture and driving value and helps you craft your own plan. You’ll learn about the crucial mindset you need, discover the qualities far more important than degrees or even experience. You’ll learn what you need to do during the first twelve months and beyond—to think and act like the leader who’s going to take the company to the next level.
