Why every new (or sitting) CEO needs another 100 days
- Hans Smellinckx
- Dec 5
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Introduction
Every CEO knows the concept of “the first 100 days” when he or she steps into a new role.But what far fewer CEOs do, is consciously take another 100 days – even if they’ve been in the same seat for years.
And that’s exactly where there’s a huge lever for SMEs and scale-ups in Belgium and the Netherlands.
In my work as a strategic sparring partner for CEOs and in the book “100 days to leave your mark as a CEO”, I see one common thread: the companies that keep growing have CEOs who regularly do a conscious reset. Not only in the company, but also in their own role. This way you avoid feeling "alone" in your company.
Why your first 100 days are never “over”
The context in which your company operates is changing faster than ever:
Markets are shifting
Customer expectations are changing
New technology and AI are pushing business models forward
Talent is becoming scarcer and more demanding
Yet we often see this pattern:
The CEO keeps acting according to agreements, structures and routines that once made sense, but no longer work today.
The result: you’re stuck in operational busyness, ad hoc decisions and putting out fires, while you should actually be safeguarding the strategic direction.
Four reasons why you need a 100-day reset as a CEO
1. Your company has changed
Maybe your revenue has doubled.Maybe you’ve gone more international.Maybe your product portfolio has exploded.
But your structures, processes and decision-making have often not evolved along with it.A 100-day reset creates space to take a fresh look at:
your business model
your growth strategy
the way you create value for customers
2. Your role has changed
In the early phase as founder/CEO you do almost everything yourself.Later, your job becomes:
attracting the right people
providing direction
making choices
safeguarding focus
If you don’t redefine your own role, you’ll automatically keep pulling everything towards you. That slows growth and turns you into the bottleneck.
3. Your environment has changed
Board of directors, investors, banks, family, management team…Everyone has expectations. Sometimes explicit, often implicit.
A 100-day reset is the moment to:
clarify expectations
realign what the company needs
say goodbye to patterns that no longer help
4. You have changed
You as a person are also not the same as five or ten years ago. Different energy, different private situation, different ambitions.
The question is: does your role as CEO still fit who you are today?Or are you still playing the same old script?
What does a 100-day plan for a sitting CEO look like?
A 100-day plan for a sitting CEO is not a copy of an onboarding plan. It’s a combination of:
1/ Diagnosis
| 2/ Choosing focus themesTypically 3 to 5 domains, for example:
|
3/ Concrete action plan in blocksYou break the 100 days into logical chunks:
| 4/ Communication as a leverYou make visible what you are working on.Not to sell yourself, but to build trust and clarity with employees, customers and stakeholders. |
An exercise you can do today
Take 30 minutes and answer the following questions for yourself:
What is your most important strategic assignment today as CEO of this company?
Which activities in your agenda barely contribute (or not at all) to that assignment?
Which three decisions do you need to make in the next 100 days to take your company to the next stage?
Which people do you need beside you to make that happen?
Write it down. Share it with one trusted person.And don’t make it a theoretical exercise, but the starting point of your new 100-day plan.
How the book can help you
In the book “100 days to leave your mark as a CEO” I describe step by step how to set up such a 100-day plan as the CEO of an SME or scale-up. No buzzwords, but concrete hooks and questions.
Order my book here: https://www.lannoo.be/nl/100-days-make-your-mark-ceo
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