Category: Finance

CNBC: Smart Money Value Picks

Karen Firestone was recently on CNBC’s Halftime Report to discuss how her top picks coincide with the consumer’s strong balance sheet. Watch the full video on CNBC.com

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HBR: What I Didn’t Know About Becoming a CEO

By Karen Firestone NOVEMBER 09, 2015 The company I co-founded is now ten years old. While we’re an investment firm, many of the things I’ve learned as CEO transcend any particular industry. In looking back over the years, there are some things that I expected to be tough, and they have been. But there have…

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Why Won’t My Employees Admit They’re Going on Vacation?

As another summer comes to a close, I find myself noticing once again that my co-workers and employees have been very reluctant to both commit to a vacation and to communicate that time off to everyone else. As CEO, I find this frustrating — it’s a waste of time to set up a client visit…

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What to Do When You Almost Have Inside Information

I have spent my career in the investment business and have participated in thousands of meetings or calls with managements of public companies. A few times, I have received inside information, and I guarantee that you know when you’ve got it. When I worked at a large mutual fund company, we had ample instruction on…

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New Hires Create More Anxiety at a Midsized Company

My company keeps growing. We add clients, revenue, profit, and of course, we need to add people when some of us are too busy to handle the added workload. But I’ve noticed a pattern over the past few hires: the very people who would benefit most from additional help at first resist the idea of…

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THE JOY OF RUNNING IN THE DARK

This morning, I did something that I have done at least once and often four or five times a week for nearly 30 years; I went out running in the dark.  This has been a particularly challenging winter with tons of snow, and, more important, lingering ice on the street, but I have my secret…

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Making the Gradual Retirement of a Co-Founder Work

Most people look forward to retirement. They can’t wait to play more golf with their pals, travel, hang out with the grandchildren, perhaps spend more time on non-profits, and generally pursue a more relaxed lifestyle. But some of us don’t really want to retire. Like my partner, with whom I co-founded our finance services company….

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Would You Play Golf on a Weekday Afternoon?

Last summer, I was invited by a few friends to meet at 4 o’clock on a weekday to play a few holes of golf on a sunny afternoon.   As I got out of my car, a guy I know waved and said, “Hey, great to see you, but don’t you still work?”  (Yes.) Over on the driving…

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Why the Market Keeps Going Up and Why It Might Matter to You

I work in the stock market, although I have never written a “market” piece in this venue. So why now? Because the broad indices have steadily climbed higher for almost five years and, until recently, no one outside of those of us trading stocks all day, seemed to notice. Now I have to be careful…

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