The boss needs to know

The CEO of a major cola company returned from an overseas expansion trip and delivered the grim news to the board: the venture had failed. Naturally, the board wanted answers.

“What happened?” they asked.

The CEO replied, “When I took on the assignment, I was confident we could open a profitable new market. No one had introduced our product there before, so I thought we had a real first-mover advantage. But when I arrived, I quickly ran into a problem. I didn’t speak the language.”

The board leaned in. “So how did you deal with it?”

The CEO said, “I decided to rely on visuals. We created a three-part poster campaign. The first poster showed a man crawling through the desert, exhausted and desperate with thirst. The second showed him drinking our cola. The third showed him smiling, refreshed and fully revived. We placed those posters in busy streets, public markets and major corners all over the city.”

One board member nodded. “That sounds reasonable. So why didn’t it work?”

The CEO hesitated, then admitted, “Because while I knew I didn’t understand the language, I failed to understand the culture. I forgot that in that country, many people read from right to left.”

So instead of seeing: Exhausted. Drinks cola. Refreshed.

They saw: Refreshed. Drinks cola. Collapses in the desert.

This is the problem when the boss is not knowledgeable about things.

Seth Godin recently published an article titled “Henry Ford knew how to drive.” [1]He explains that Ford not only understood his product but also the system needed to produce it. Godin references Scott Belsky, former Adobe chief product officer and Behance founder and Sarah Jones, a Tony Award-winning solo performer. His message is clear: expertise in your craft is no longer sufficient. Leaders must now make decisions within systems that evolve faster than our comfort zones.

I have interviewed Seth Godin before and met him again last November in New York. He remains one of the marketing leaders I respect most. What sets Seth apart is his enduring relevance, which is rare in a field where many experts are temporary. He does not follow trends; he understands them. In a world filled with fleeting attention, lasting relevance is a significant achievement. His recent insight resonated with me, as it mirrors a difficult lesson from my own experience.

Earlier in my career, I did not know how to prepare seminar and workshop programs and relied on others for this task. I believed lesson planning was a complex process reserved for specialists. One individual reinforced this perception, making it seem unattainable for someone without experience. Trusting this was my mistake. Lack of knowledge creates vulnerability, and ignorance can be costly. Eventually, this person took over lesson preparation and secured the account, leaving me at a disadvantage.

This experience taught me that ignorance does not foster humility; it can lead to helplessness. From then on, I committed to learning and preparing the entire seminar-workshop curriculum myself. This decision transformed my training career and gave me greater freedom, confidence and creative control. This aligns directly with Seth Godin’s message.

Today, leaders must make decisions in areas outside their original training, such as AI, supply chains, vendor management, sales, employee health, culture, technology, branding, finance and compliance. The list continues to grow. A business owner may excel in their field, but now must also understand digital tools, customer experience, hiring, delegation, positioning and strategy. Even solo entrepreneurs are expected to think like larger company CEOs.

As Seth notes, every CEO now faces greater challenges — not due to a lack of intelligence, but because leadership responsibilities have expanded beyond any one person’s expertise. At this point, leaders can either avoid the challenge and hope for the best or choose to learn. Hope is valuable, but it cannot replace learning as a business strategy.

The better approach is to learn the system in order to lead it. You do not need to be an expert in every field to make informed decisions. Instead, you must understand enough to ask the right questions, assess answers and make sound choices. Leaders are paid not just for their knowledge, but for their ability to make decisions. Good decisions require informed understanding.

This is the core leadership challenge today: not knowing everything, but refusing to remain uninformed about what matters. Leaders should seek sufficient understanding to lead wisely and turn complexity into clarity. This is how careers advance, businesses mature and leaders stay relevant.

Leaders must continue learning as markets and systems evolve. Those who succeed are often the ones willing to adapt and learn what is needed in the moment. Ultimately, CEOs are responsible for decisions, and the quality of those decisions depends on their understanding. By committing to learning, leaders can avoid the pitfalls of ignorance that I once experienced.

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