I believe a stronghold strategy is something every leader ought
to incorporate into their vision for their company's
future.
"Stronghold: One Man's Quest to Save the
World's Wild Salmon" is the biography of Guido Rahr, one of the
world's greatest fly fishermen and conservationists. Rahr is a
friend of mine and the Chairman and CEO of The Wild
Salmon Center, a nonprofit on whose board I sit.
He also has the makings of a management genius, though I doubt
he would ever think of himself that way. Because what's true
for Pacific salmon populations is also true for both growing and
established companies.
Rahr first honed his insights about strongholds in his college
thesis at Yale, after discovering the work of one of America's
pioneering 19th century fish conservationists. Even in the late
1800s, the Atlantic salmon rivers of the eastern seaboard were
largely too polluted and industrialized to support the native
species. So rather than fix what was already broken,
