Bibliomotion Launches MIGHTY MIDSIZED COMPANIES by Robert Sher

Boston, MA

Bibliomotion begins their fall 2014 season with Robert Sher's Mighty Midsized Companies: How Leaders Overcome 7 Silent Growth Killers (September 16, 2014).

In the book, Sher points to seven insidious killers that erode growth and can drive even successful midsized ($10 million to $1 billion in revenue) companies into extinction. He offers clear, tangible, actionable advice about dealing with these killers and how companies can grow in spite of them.

"Problems specific to midsize companies are not always visible. Sher writes passionately about the ways in which leaders can become aware of these challenges and rally their management teams. This is a quiet but hard-hitting game plan."
-Publishers Weekly

Learn more in Bibliomotion's interview with the author:

What inspired you to write Mighty Midsized Companies?

RS: I'm tired of seeing the same pitfalls stop the growth of midsized companies. It is painful for both management and ownership. I've seen and felt it in my own battles with the killers as a CEO, and my work with my clients over the years. My research changed the book, honed the message, and discovered new prescriptions to be certain. But seeing and feeling the pain that the killers extract from good, hardworking business leaders is what influenced the course of the book.

What was your favorite part of the writing and publishing process?

RS: I love learning and thinking, so the research interviews were incredibly fun, as was the synthesizing of all 100+ interviews and hammering out the key takeaways and how we were going to deliver them in the text. I like writing, and I had some great editorial help, so I got to do the fun part of the writing, and had expert help polishing it up.

Who do hope reads your book? What do you want them to get from it?

RS: This book is for the leaders of midsized companies, businesses that don't get nearly the attention accorded their smaller and larger brethren-even though they share equally severe headaches. It attempts to highlight critical barriers to growth and provide specific steps for recognizing and overcoming the unique challenges of midsized companies-challenges that smaller firms (less than $10 million in revenue) and bigger firms (more than $1 billion) rarely experience. In the end, I want my readers to be better able to make their midsized businesses mighty, growing companies.

If readers take away one thing from this book, what do you hope it is?

RS: That for midsized businesses to grow consistently, leaders must pay special attention to how, when and to what extent leadership teams and systems are developed, structured and operated. Powerful, sustainable leadership does not develop organically for midsized firms. It must be built thoughtfully, operated with discipline and modified as the company grows. If not, the seven silent growth killers will make management's lives miserable.

What are you reading right now?

RS: I'm reading the posts of great business thinkers on line, from sites like Forbes, HBR, and many others. I'm curating that thinking for my community.

About Mighty Midsized Companies:

Midsized companies are often overlooked by Wall Street and mainstream media outlets, though they are an integral part of the nation's economy. A thriving midsized company sector is essential for a healthy economy, but easier said than done, largely because the factors that throttle growth of midsized companies can be quite different than those of their smaller and larger business brethren. Some of these factors are well known, but others can creep up on management teams and go almost unnoticed until it's too late.
Drawing upon his own experience and interviews with more than 100 companies, author Robert Sher runs through seven "silent growth killers" that plague midsized companies and which, if not addressed, eventually cripple growth. Mighty Midsized Companies offers clear, tangible, actionable advice about dealing with these killers and growing despite them.

About Robert Sher:

For more than two decades, Robert Sher was the CEO of a midsized company. Since 2007 he's been a personal advisor to more than 80 mid-market company CEOs and their management teams, helping them identify the growth killers and help the company recover. Since 2011, he's been researching the vulnerabilities of the middle market, and has interviewed over 100 middle market executives (most of whom are not his clients). Sher began writing about these issues as a columnist at Forbes.com in early 2012, the publication's only contributor focused on the management challenges of midsized companies. More recently, Sher was asked by CFO magazine to write a regular column in its online edition for mid-market chief financial officers.

About Bibliomotion:

Bibliomotion is a book publishing house designed for the new publishing landscape. While many publishers work to retrofit old processes for new realities, Bibliomotion was founded by book-industry veterans who believe the best approach is a fresh one - one that focuses on empowering authors and serving readers above all else. Moving away from the top-down model that has dominated the publishing process for years, we give each member of the team - including the author - a seat at the table from the very beginning and in doing so, work side-by-side to launch and sell the best content possible, making it available in a variety of forms.

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