If it's important, YOU own it.

No excuses. They're reactive and don't relieve you from your responsibility in the success of your company. You don't have to DO everything. It's your job to ensure that everything your success depends on is on track. If something is off track, you need to know soon enough to correct course.

This doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself. You'll never be successful with that approach. In a large company, you need cross-functional partners. Google is heavily matrixed. I couldn't accomplish anything without others. My projects involve 4 other teams on average. When you add stakeholders, it's more like 10 teams.

As a CEO, this is a little more obvious. Of course the CEO owns everything. success isn't limited to the company though. Beyond employees, businesses need suppliers, partners, vendors, and customers.

Map your stakeholders

Identify what's critical

Early warning systems: Pre-mortem, KPIs, communications