A great stat in this blog by Brent Hodgson – He can count five or maybe ten true “disrupter” start-ups over recent years out of 32,439 start-ups in AngelList’s directory. And we all know the overall success rates of start-ups. It just shows how fixated we are on shiny things. It’s why CEOs are way more likely to buy strategy or marketing advice than risk and compliance.

It’s also why, if you want to be able to influence the CEO, it is best to bring your message about a non-sexy topic in a sexed-up way. It needs to be about one of three things:

      1. Increased revenue (political or policy impact in the public sector)
      2. Decreased cost, or
      3. Them – their personal growth, protection or one of their pet loves or hates.

Influencing is art and science. Which means charm or lack of charm is not the issue. It is getting inside the heads of who you want to influence that is most important.