To combat founder stagnation, Kavak's CEO undertakes a rigorous annual exercise of "firing" himself. He defines the ideal CEO profile for the company's next phase and then objectively assesses if he can evolve by letting go of old habits and personas to fulfill that role.

A simple yet powerful technique to maintain customer-centricity is to place an empty chair in the meeting room, explicitly symbolizing the customer. This physical reminder forces participants to consider the customer's perspective in every discussion and decision, preventing internal focus from dominating the conversation.

Instead of seeking consensus, your primary role in a group meeting is to surface disagreements. This brings out the real challenges and priorities that are usually discussed behind closed doors, giving you the full picture of the problem before you ever present a solution.

Teams stuck in a relentless, task-focused "doing mode" often make poor choices without realizing it. To break this cycle, intentionally introduce dissonance through conflict, a devil's advocate, or an external voice. This "dig in the ribs" forces the team to pause, look up, and reconnect with their wider purpose.

Large corporations can avoid stagnation by intentionally preserving the "scrappy" entrepreneurial spirit of their early days. This means empowering local teams and market leaders to operate with an owner's mindset, which fosters accountability and keeps the entire organization agile and innovative.

As part of their annual strategy refresh, a top CEO leads her team in a "blank sheet" exercise: designing a new company from scratch to compete with them. This proactive self-disruption forces them to identify their own weaknesses and market gaps, generating fresh ideas to incorporate into their actual business strategy.

At Crisp.ai, the core value is that the best argument always wins, regardless of who it comes from—a new junior employee or the company founder. This approach flattens hierarchy and ensures that the best ideas, which often originate from those closest to the product and customers (engineers, PMs), are prioritized.

Instead of scheduling rigid, three-hour co-founder check-ins that often get canceled, adopt a 'counter-puncher' mindset. Keep important topics top-of-mind and seize spontaneous opportunities—like another meeting getting canceled—to have those crucial conversations. This fluid approach is more effective in a chaotic startup environment.

The common practice of hiring for "culture fit" creates homogenous teams that stifle creativity and produce the same results. To innovate, actively recruit people who challenge the status quo and think differently. A "culture mismatch" introduces the friction necessary for breakthrough ideas.