Thomas M. Nies is the founder and CEO of Cincom Systems, Inc. The longest actively serving CEO in the computer industry, Nies was recognized by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 as "the epitome of the entrepreneurial spirit of American business." In 1992, British Prime Minister Edward Heath honored Nies for Cincom's role in bringing the software industry to England. In 1995, he was profiled by the Smithsonian Institute as one of the "pioneers of the software industry," alongside other industry giants such as Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Larry Ellison (Oracle). In 2004, Ernst & Young inducted Nies into its Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame. In 2005, along with the CEO of Adobe, Nies won the International Stevie Award for Best Executive in the International Business Awards—"the business world's own Oscars," according to the New York Post. In 2005, Nies also received the University of Cincinnati Lifetime Achievement award and in 2006, was named as one of the Top Ten IT Visionaries by START-IT magazine. In 2008, Tom and Cincom were featured in a Harvard Business School Study. Email Tom Nies: Tnies@cincom.com
Give Me Liberty or Give Me an IPO One of the most celebrated events in American business is the initial public offering (IPO). Many see it as a transforming event that ensures a company’s long-term survival, signifies an arrival into the business big leagues and creates wealth – or at least increases liquidity and provides […]
How eustress and distress affect companies and lives
On Thursday, March 1, Cincom CEO Tom Nies accepted the Carl H. Lindner Award for Outstanding Business Achievement at the 27th Annual Cincinnati Business Achievement Awards presented by the University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business Alumni Board of Governors. The award recognizes Nies’ outstanding business achievement as defined by his entrepreneurial spirit, […]
“The teacher could be wrong. Think for yourselves.”
A sign with these words used to be placed in British classrooms. It is an interesting idea that any school would remind their students to challenge their teacher’s authority of the material they are teaching.
Innovation and speed to market are two ways to launch and grow a business. Creating, fostering and sustaining the right working environment to do this can be tricky. One way is intrapreneurship, unleashing the power of employees who have entrepreneurial skills and mindsets that work within your company. As someone who founded Cincom with $600 […]
Storytellers create interest in their tales by showing the opportunities and desires of characters set against the conflicts and challenges that confront them. Throughout the course of the story, a character grows to resolve these challenges. Storytellers and story-selling The same can be said of the stories of selling value in complex sales cycles. Jane Austen […]
Leaders deal in ideas. They also deal in ideals. The more relevant and significant the ideas may be, the greater and the more substantial are the …
Leaders deal in ideas. They also deal in ideals. The more relevant …
Is it possible to summarize the essence of all that has been written and taught about the art and science of value-based selling in complex environments into as few as three key ideas? Ideas that can be readily understood, easily remembered and successfully practiced by most sales reps? Is It Possible? The observable universe is […]
The great golfing star Arnold Palmer once said, “Championship golf is 90% mental and 10% technical. But you’ve got to have the technical.” Many motivational and self-improvement writers or speakers would agree, as would almost all good teachers, leaders, managers and executives, and anyone else who has given any serious thought to self-development, organizational advancement, […]
What we do well, we enjoy doing. And, the better we become at something, the more we enjoy its doing — and the better we want to become by doing. Even minute successes or levels of progress engender a greater desire to return to the activity or challenge, enhance and expand the enjoyment […]
All decision making processes are both rational and emotional. These two processes are sometimes hard to separate but they are both at work, especially in sales cycle. Selling becomes an art form when a seller tries to incorporate logic, which will appeal to the rational side of the decision, and present images, appealing to the […]
“Dum spiro spero.” – Motto of St. Andrew’s Golf Club Anxiety! When a person is confronted with some significant event or experience that is believed to be both important and uncertain they may feel anxious. This anxiety-generating situation may be one that is filled with possibility and opportunity, or danger and threat. Either way, anxiety […]
All of recorded history confirms that the relative strength of a nation’s military power largely determines the degree it can assert and enforce its imperialistic, economic and political aims. The waxing and waning of its relative military power tends to closely correspond with the rise and fall of nations. Similarly, the relative power of […]
Entrepreneurial success is about understanding and mastery of key principles, not about following rules
Explaining the difference between Truth Stories and True Stories.
“Can the problems we face be solved by the same minds that created them?”
Software and Hamburgers don’t seem to have much in common, but when you look at the history of fast food chains McDonald’s and Wendy’s it becomes easier to see parallels between the two and Cincom.
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