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Appointing a chief of staff is a critical first step for any CEO looking to make impactful leadership decisions. But an executive who merely utilizes their chief of staff as an administrative extra set of hands risks missing out on meaningful transformation opportunities. The critical decision to position a chief of staff as a true executive partner, when executed well, can be a bold investment that impacts a CEOs legacy. Based on my own experience as a chief of staff for a Series A unicorn-to-be and my current work coaching and placing these professionals, Ive seen firsthand that todays chiefs of staff act as leadership amplifiers. They occupy a unique position at the top of the organizational chart, where they can operate across teams without being burdened by the direct management of a department. This freedom allows them to shield their CEOs from distractions and ensure they focus on the work that truly matterstheir unique strengths, vision, and decision-making. An open secret and unfair advantage Understanding and defining the role remains a challenge. As a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz put it, appointing a CEO-whispering talent as one of the firms inaugural chiefs of staff made sense because nobody knew what that meant. I’ve seen this asymmetry of understanding first-hand in hundreds of conversations with executives. For Jamie Hodari, CEO and cofounder of Industrious, a chief of staff is a clear necessity. Who wouldnt want to be in two places at once? The best chief of staff relationship enables exactly that. Sitting alongside his sixth chief of staff since founding his company, Hodari told me, Ive never encountered a hard problem at work where two smart people trying to think through it wasnt preferable to one. But Ive also spoken with CEOs who have been given the misguided view that this position is merely an administrative role with a fancy title. Bridging this executive knowledge gap promises so much upside that McKinsey and BCG have intensified their thought leadership around this role in recent white papers and podcasts. Christie Horvath, CEO of pet healthcare company Wagmo, says that she views her chief of staff as an extension of her own brain. The chief of staff on her team takes on tasks that can be delegated to other departmentstheyre often CEO-led initiatives where the chief of staff must operate as a true strategic partner, not just a project manager. Unleashing emerging leaders Ive seen chief of staffs being tasked with all sorts of significant initiatives by savvy CEOs. These might include projects like: Spearheading the hiring process for other C-Level roles Company-wide Rhythm of Business and Stakeholder Management Plans Standing in and speaking for the CEO in high-stakes meetings . . . all with little to no guidance. Their often-uncommon career trajectoriesspanning disciplines like consulting, law, and product developmentalso equip chiefs of staff to bring fresh, outsider perspectives that might not otherwise appear in executive leadership meetings. And while 75% of chiefs of staff support CEOs, many others work with CFOs, CHROs, or department heads, tailoring their expertise to the leaders scope. Hire for a partner, not a position A trusted right hand can create new value that even the CEO or board of directors might not see. While the position is usually leveled as a middle-management role, the chief of staff is one-of-one in the corporate hierarchy, reporting directly to a boss several levels more senior. These individuals command competitive salaries even in a challenging job market, reflecting the rigors of the position. We see this in the data from our most recent Ask a Chief of Staff compensation reportcompared to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average chief of staff salaries across industries are approximately 49% higher than the latest median salary figures for general and operations managers. Taking on the $150 billion pet care industry as a leadership duo with her chief of staff, Horvath shared with me that, a huge part of what makes this partnership successful is the “chemistry”how easily my chief of staff can anticipate what I envision. The key is to hire someone who complements your skill set and shores up areas where youre less effective, rather than duplicating your strengths. The most important takeaway for CEOs is that this role is not merely a positionits a partnership. Empowering a chief of staff as a true C-suite partner is a bold future-focused move, requiring the highest degree of self-awareness, trust, and adaptability from a chief executive.
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E-Commerce
Maybe I should begin this article by arguing that nothing spices up a mundane meeting like a creative, beautiful, or hilarious background for your Zoom calls. But the reality is that most of us just need to hide messy offices, guestroom beds, or dirty-dish-filled kitchens. These three websites offer up almost half a million free Zoom backgrounds for your perusal, so forget tidying up and get that scrolling finger ready. Pexels: Something for everyone The undisputed king of free Zoom backgrounds, Pexels houses more than 450,000 photos and more than 50,000 videos in its Zoom section. With that many options, you have . . . well, options. Whether you’re looking for something professional, fun, or quirky, Pexels has you covered: nature, home, office, space, peopleyou name it. If you cant find it here, it might not exist. Photos can be filtered by orientation, size, and color to help you whittle down your selection. They can also be sorted by popularity or latest additions. Unsplash: Modern masterpieces With only (only?!) 10,000 or so Zoom background images, Unsplash cant hold a candle to Pexelss giant collection, but this site specializes in slick backgrounds that will make your Zoom calls look posh and polished. There are some great options here, mostly skewing to the modern end of the spectrum. Theyre like what your office could look like if you had the time, money, awesome lighting, and daily cleaning service. Images can be filtered by landscape and portrait orientations, and sorted by relevance, date, and curated, which features hand-picked selections. Freepik: No nonsense, no distractions When you need a background to hide your background, Freepik has a wonderful selection of understated options. There are lots of plants here. Lots and lots of plants. However, theres also a great selection of slightly-blurred backgrounds that give your setup a nice, real-life depth of field to make things seem as realistic as possible. With not-quite 4,000 images on hand, this is the smallest collection of the bunch, but its a great place to start if youre looking for something neutral and nondescript. Its also got the most robust searching features, with more than a dozen filtering options to help you hone in on a most excellent downloadable.
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E-Commerce
The Super Bowl is a magical time and place for brands. A rare and brief three-or-so hour moment when people want to see commercials. Every marketers Xanadu. What defines a great Super Bowl ad is obviously subjective, no matter what the Ad Meters, and any number of other measurement tech tells you. Hell, even your own brain might be lying to you. The real scorecard is unique to each brand and what it considers the worth of up to $40 million or more in investment around the game. My criteria for a good Super Bowl ad remains relatively simple: Is it fun or emotional in a way that is both entertaining and memorable? An easy question to ask, but as each year proves, much more difficult to answer. Before I get into my top 5 list, here are the honorable mentions. The coffee wars come to the Super Bowl! Im a fan of Dunkins work with Ben Affleck, created by Artists Equity Advertising (the ad arm of Affleck and Matt Damon-founded Artists Equity). This years spot was a funny take on the coffee wars, using a part-Warriors, part-Anchorman dynamic to continue the adventures of the DunKings. I also really liked Starbucks Hello Again, by Anomaly, which aimed to remind us why we liked the brand in the first place. However, the spot could be used as a case study in how crucial the right song can be, because this ad wouldnt hit nearly as hard without AC/DCs classic Thunderstruck. After 27 years, its about time we saw another Nike commercial in the Super Bowl. Hare Jordan is arguably a Top 10 all-time Super Bowl commercial, so getting the swoosh back feels right. Now in So Win, the brand used Led Zeppelin and a murderers’ row of female superstars to stylishly continue its swing back to the ultra-competitive attitude Nike was built on. My admiration for what FanDuel has created with Kick of Destiny is well-documented, and continues this year. While the main event isnt technically an in-game adthis year cleverly embedding itself within the Fox pregame showit remains one of the best-ever Super Bowl brand ideas. Speaking of all-time big game brand ideas, another shout-out to Doritos for bringing back Crash The Super Bowl after an eight-year hiatus. The spots were fun, funny, and the contest remains a benchmark in fan participation. And lastly, a shout-out to the brands that decided to go full emosh and actually pulled it off with impressive results. The NFLs Somebody, Lays Little Farmer, and Googles Dream Job all struck a nice balance for the brands and the moment. OK, now on to my top 5 ads of the 2025 Super Bowl. Stella Artois “David & Dave: The Other David” Its a premise that could be explained in one line: David Beckham finds out he has a secret American twin named Dave. This is Artists Equity Advertisings first Super Bowl spot for a brand thats not Dunkin’, and here we have the companys other co-founder Damon in a starring role. I spoke to execs at the agency for a story coming out later this week, and they told me the brief from the brand was to shift Stellas image in the U.S. as an upscale beer to more of a quality everyday beer. Enter Dave Beckham. Weve seen David pitch for the brand plenty of times, in ads, on Hot Ones, and beyond, but here we get to see a funnier side of the soccer legend. Mountain Dew “Kiss From A Lime” Mountain Dew has long-been one of the more experimental Super Bowl advertisers. In 2021, it enlisted John Cena to challenge viewers with a contest to be the first person to tweet the correct number of Mountain Dew Major Melon bottles that appeared in the ad for a chance to win $1 million. In 2018, it partnered with sibling brand Doritos for a surreal rap battle between Peter Dinklange and Morgan Freeman. And of course, 2016 gifted us the classic Puppymonkeybaby. This year the brand went all in on the big game version of unhinged. Seal as a seal? Directed by Taika Waititi, not only is this absurdity bullseye consistent with the sodas identity when it comes to the Super Bowl, it delivers an on-brand ear-worm care of a 1994 love ballad. Whats not to like? (Its still in your head, isnt it?) Uber Eats “A Century of Cravings” Uber Eats made a relatively late decision in September to completely change its Super Bowl plansa planning process that typically starts in July. A spot starring Matthew McConaughey, in which he floated a conspiracy theory that the function of all sports is to act as a catalyst for us to eat more food, got a great response. Could they continue that in the big game? Short answer: yep. Here it goes deeper. Not deep like finger-rolling a booger in your Lincoln deep; just different deep. A decade on, The McConaissance is still deep in its commercial era, and here the Oscar winner keeps the streak alive by giving us a history lesson of his earlier conspiracy. Its a fun instalment of an overall celebrity-soaked ad strategy that manages to stand out, even as Pringles put up a strong challenge to its multi-celeb approach. I think people now have a clearer understanding of our brand and tone because were consistently showing up with a very specific type of spot that is landing a specific type of humor, Ubers head of marketing for North America Georgie Jeffreys, told me last week. Even if the message changes, the core tenets of our brand are the same. Bud Light “Big Men on Cul-De-Sac” Just like at a bar, it was a close call between this and Bud Lights blood rival Coors Light. Both ads are really funny and pretty much exactly what a light beer ad in the Super Bowl should aim for. What puts Bud Light over the line here is how it not only meets the above criteria, but does so with solid brand consistency. A great big game ad that doesnt feel like a one-off is often a rare species. This isnt the first time weve seen Post hit the field for Bud Light, and the work Gillis has done over the past year has completely reinvigorated the brands personality. Todd Allen, Bud Lights senior vice president of marketing told me that it was a no-brainer for the brand to keep the momentum going and continue to lean into Gillis brand of humor. Theres absolutely no bigger stage to deliver a laugh than the Super Bowl, and when you combine a comedic powerhouse like Shane with Bud Light, I think we have a winning formula, said Allen. Liquid Death Safe For Work I mentioned the importance of the right song earlier with Starbucks, and here it applies just as much, but in a totally different way. Instead of relying on a classic song or new hit banger to tap into the audiences existing affinity, Liquid Death crafted its own hilarious, pseudo-country jam about drinking on the job. The cops are drinking, the surgeons are drinking, the pilots are drinking, the court judges, the football refs, even the school bus drivers are all drinking on the job. Liquid Death is no stranger to celebrities. Its worked with Martha Stewart, Bert Kreischer, Tony Hawk, and more. But here, the brand shrewdly avoided any big names knowing full well its exactly the opposite of what the majority of Super Bowl advertisers would do. The sharp contrast between the parade of celebrity pitchfolks and this lack of Hollywood star power, makes the ad stand out for all the right reasons.
Category:
E-Commerce
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