WholeCEO With Lisa G Podcast · 2026-06-17 · 26 min
What if the most important person advising your company was never on the org chart? Dennis Cagan invented the trademarked Shadow CEO® role in 1983 and has spent four decades being exactly that person for some of the most successful companies in America. With 74 boards, multiple CEO stints, including one public Unicorn, and a keynote at the very first COMDEX show in 1979, Dennis has seen every version of what separates the CEOs who execute from the ones who just plan. In this episode, Dennis shares the famous chalk mark story that explains exactly why knowing where to apply expertise is worth more than the expertise itself. He breaks down what it takes to succeed in disruptive times, why a B-grade idea with an A-team beats an A-grade idea with a B-team every single time, and what the one thing is that was always present in every CEO who made it through when everything was working against them. This is the conversation your board wishes it could have.
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