Make Or Break: The First 100 Days

Getting a fast start is essential for a new CEO, although it can be a tricky path to navigate. Jessica Mudditt asks leaders to share their winning strategies.

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No period of time is more crucial for a new leader to set themselves up for success than the first 100 days. It is a concept that is well understood in global politics – and in business too, it is apt.

Mess it up and you will quickly be shown the door, says the CEO of consulting firm Vantage Performance, Michael Fingland. Over the past 14 years, he has worked with more than 200 CEOs in setting priorities for their first 100 days. He divides his clients into two broad categories: the ‘turnaround CEO’ and those at companies that are profitable but struggling to scale up.

A turnaround CEO is installed in the midst of economic downtown, industry-wide disruption or some other crisis. The focus for the first 100 days should be on stabilising the business and returning it to profit.

“It’s a very hands-on, intense period – you’re racing against the clock to avoid the business collapsing,” he says.

In a stable business environment, fast-tracking growth and stakeholder management should be the top priorities.

In both scenarios, the first 100 days are a period of intense pressure. As the director of Bates Communications, Scott Weighart, says, “In your first 100 days as CEO, you’re living life in a fishbowl.”

“It’s a time of incredible scrutiny,” agrees Finland. “Everyone is looking to you to come up with a plan and staff may be incredibly nervous because they’ve got their jobs and mortgages to worry about.”