Alder Koten Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Charlie Solórzano | The Race Conditions Model™ | U.S.-Mexico Executive Search
April 10, 2026
COO succession planning showing when operational leadership outlasts company conditions

COO Succession: When Your Operator Outlasts Conditions

She built the system. The company outgrew it. She stayed. Not because she failed — because she succeeded too well. This isn't decline. It's drift. The conditions changed. The operator didn't. If you wait for the signals, you're already late. Plan succession while the system still works.
April 17, 2026
VP of Operations to COO transition showing the horizon jump between operational and strategic leadership

VP of Operations to COO: The Horizon Jump That Fails

The VP of Ops improves systems. The COO decides which systems should exist. This is the largest horizon jump in most organizations — and the least understood. The mistake isn't the person. It's assuming the next level is more of the same.
April 22, 2026
CMO CRO alignment showing marketing and sales conflict over lead definition and attribution

CMO vs CRO Conflict: Why Marketing and Sales Misalign

Marketing is paid for volume. Sales is paid for conversion. Different incentives. Same funnel. No shared owner. The leads aren't garbage. The follow-up isn't lazy. The system is misaligned. Fix the system, and the argument disappears.
April 24, 2026
Executive contract extension timing mistake showing how companies commit to performance that reflects conditions no longer present

Executive Contract Extensions: When Timing Gets It Wrong

The most expensive executive contracts aren't wrong hires — they're right hires locked at the wrong moment. Performance peaks are the most dangerous time to commit. What the Red Bull–Pérez contract mistake reveals about how companies overcommit to good talent at exactly the wrong time.
April 27, 2026
Talent magnet executive hire showing how one leader changes the talent market and attracts subsequent hires

The Talent Magnet: How One Executive Hire Attracts More

Some executive hires fill a role. A few change the talent market around the company. The talent magnet's value isn't what they produce individually — it's who they pull in behind them. What separates a talent magnet from a strong operator, how to identify one during the search process, and why this is the most mispriced hire in executive search.
April 29, 2026
COO first 100 days onboarding showing how operators fail from undefined scope and authority before execution begins

COO First 100 Days: Why Operators Fail Before They Start

The COO role fails fastest in the C-suite — not because of capability, but because it's the only role with no defined edges. Every other executive inherits a domain. The COO inherits ambiguity. What the first hundred days actually require, and what the CEO owes the operator they just hired.
May 1, 2026
CHRO value recognition showing invisible leadership contribution to organizational stability that only becomes visible after departure

The CHRO Nobody Noticed: When Invisible Value Disappears

Nothing happened while she was there. That was the point. The CHRO's output is negative space — and organizations don't measure what doesn't happen. What the best CHROs are actually doing while nobody notices, why they leave, and what collapses in the six months after they do.
May 4, 2026
CFO role AI disruption showing what survives automation — judgment, conviction and relational trust between data and decision

CFO Role in the Age of AI: What Actually Survives

Half of what made your CFO valuable five years ago is now a prompt. The variance analysis is automated. The models are built before lunch. What survives the compression is everything that lives between data and decision — judgment, conviction, translation, and the conditions for truth. And that's where the job now begins.
May 6, 2026
PLG sales team hiring showing why product-led growth culture resists traditional sales leadership and causes first VP failure

PLG Sales Team Hiring: Why the First VP of Sales Fails

The product sold itself for three years. Then the board said hire a sales team. What follows is one of the most predictably failed hires in tech — not because the candidates are wrong, but because the search is. Why PLG companies define the role before they define the conditions, what the collision actually looks like from inside, and the model that actually works.
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