Managing the Growing Company

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Michael Preston and clients
Joel Botwick and Phil Goldweitz
of Prestige Window Fashions

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Michael Preston with client Bill Logan
and his team from Urban Arborists

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Michael Preston with Tom Spier
of client Bear Naked, Inc.

Thank You

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Thank you for your submission. Professor Preston makes an effort to respond to every question he receives.

Meet the Professor

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Professor Michael Preston has over 35 years of management consulting experience and teaches at the Entrepreneurship Program of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. His professional and academic expertise encompasses Leadership, Strategy and Organization, Management Development, Succession Planning and Change Management.

Professor Preston advises corporate executives on growth management, consults to family businesses on transition and organization issues, acts as an executive coach and performs high level special projects for Officers and Directors. His diverse clientele includes service firms, distribution, manufacturing and retail companies, as well as non-profit organizations. His larger clients have included IBM and Citigroup.

He sits on the boards of several companies and also works with entrepreneurs on the establishment and management of new ventures. As a member of Columbia's Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, he counsels students on new business ventures.

At Columbia, Professor Preston teaches Managing the Growing Company to MBAs in the school's Entrepreneurship Program. This course focuses on issues faced by growing midsize companies in achieving professional management. His classes are sought after for the combination of practical tools and intellectual exploration as well as the frequent participation of successful business leaders.

During his 28 years at Grant Thornton LLP, he assisted businesses as a Management Consultant, Partner and Regional Director, and Consulting Department Head of the firm's largest practice. Some of his major clients were Lloyds of London, Motorola, and AT&T.

He co-authored a book: The Road to Success, How to Manage Growth (John Wiley & Sons, 1998) and speaks to various audiences on topics related to management and organizational growth. Professor Preston is active on the Board of FEGS Health and Human Services System. He holds an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern Graduate School of Business at NYU and a BA from Ithaca College.

He is the Cofounder and Director of the Cherkin Preston Foundation whose mission is to help educate children in Kenya.

Ask the Professor

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In the area identified below submit any questions you may have about managing growth to Professor Preston. He will attempt to respond to each inquiry but may not be able to depending on volume of questions and the nature of the inquiry. Include your email address and, if he does respond, the answers will be emailed to you directly and not published at this Web Site.

Contact Information

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Professor Michael Preston
Columbia University
Graduate School of Business
3022 Broadway, Uris Hall, Room 310
New York, NY 10027

Phone: 212 265-4720
Email: mp449@columbia.edu

Visit the Cherkin Preston Foundation website

Bibliography

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Listed below are interesting and useful books for executives who are managing a growing organization.


	Adizes, Ichak; Managing Corporate Lifecycles, Adizes Institute Publications, Santa Barbara, CA 2004	Bossidy, Larry; Charan, Ram; Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Crown Publishing Company, New York, NY 2002.
	Bridges, William; Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change (2nd edition), Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA 1991, 2003.	Burlingham, Bo; Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big, Penguin Group, New York, NY 2005.
Collins, James C.; Lazier, William C.; Managing the Small to Mid-Sized Company: Concepts and Cases, Irwin, Chicago, IL 1995.		Collins, Jim; Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, Harper Collins, New York, NY 2001.
	Collins, Jim; Porras, Jerry I.; Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Harper Collins, New York, NY 1994, 1997, 2002.	Flamholtz, Eric C. and Randle, Yvonne; Growing Pains: Transitioning From an Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm, (New and Revised Edition), Jossey-Bass Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA 2000.
	Gladwell, Malcolm; Blink the Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Little Brown, New York, NY 2005	Gladwell, Malcolm; The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Little Brown, New York, NY 2000, 2002.
	Godin, Seth; Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, Penguin Group, New York, NY 2003.	Hindy, Steve; Potter, Tom; Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ 2005.
	Kaplan, Robert S., and Norton, David P.; The Balanced Scorecard, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA 1996.	Kim, W. Chan; Mauborgne, Renee; Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 2005.
	Kwestel, Mendy; Preston, Michael; Plaster, Gary; The Road to Success: How to Manage Growth, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY 1998.	Maister, David; Managing the Professional Services Firm, Free Press Paperbacks, New York, NY 1993, 1997.
	Menkes, Justin; Executive Intelligence: What All Great Leaders Have, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY 2005.	Mitchell, Jack; Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results, Hyperion New York, NY 2003.
	Moore, Geoffrey A.; Crossing the Chasm, Harper Collins, New York, NY 1991.	Moore, Geoffrey A.; Inside the Tornado : Strategies for Developing, Leveraging, and Surviving Hypergrowth Markets, Harper Collins, New York, NY 1995, 2004.

Advisory Services

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teaching, lectures and speaking engagements
facilitating strategic planning and other meetings
availability for Board positions

Advice & Consultation

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Types of Consulting:

Strategy and Planning
Management Evaluation and Performance Assessment
Executive Coaching
Professional and Management Development
Organizational Development
Operational and Control Reviews
Board Level Studies and Special Projects

Professions and Industries:

Retail, Manufacturing & Distribution
Technology & Telecommunications Companies
Service Firms
- Law
- Accounting
- Consulting
- Public Relations
- Actuarial and Benefits
- General Service Firms
- Advertising
Financial Service Firms
- Banking
- Brokerage
- Insurance
Apparel
Non-profit

The transition from the proverbial “mom and pop” business to a professionally run enterprise can be one of the greatest challenges that any organization can face – and one that many do not survive.

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Professor Michael Preston is an experienced counselor, advisor, Board Member, speaker and author on the topic of managing growth. He is available to assist entrepreneurs, founders and family members, board members and executives in resolving these complex and challenging issues.

In this web site:

Review the Professor’s bio.
Look at the areas of advice and counsel
See information about advisory services
Teaching, lectures and speaking engagements
- facilitating strategic planning and other meetings
- availability for Board positions
Review useful readings: bibliography
Ask the Professor: submit questions about Managing Growth
Contact Information