The Unfinished Puzzle: Why Leaders Must Frame the Work Before Filling the Details
The Unfinished Puzzle: Why Leaders Must Frame the Work Before Filling the Details

Some habits never leave you. They simply evolve. For me, puzzling has always been one of them—a quiet, obsessive activity that pulls me in completely and refuses to let go until the last piece clicks into place.

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Best Practice, Leadership, Motivation, OrganizationHenning SchwinumVendux LLCpuzzle, frame
Founders Don’t Need to Be Great Salespeople. They Need to Be Great at Hiring Them.
Founders Don’t Need to Be Great Salespeople. They Need to Be Great at Hiring Them.

The myth of the founder-as-superseller has done real damage to early-stage companies. We have romanticized the image of the charismatic CEO who can close any room, and as a result we have pressured technical, product-obsessed, or operationally minded founders into roles they are temperamentally and skill-wise unsuited for.

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Leadership, Sales, Start-up, SkillsHenning SchwinumVendux LLCsalespeople, greatness, founder, friends, family, hiring
10 Numbers That Will Reshape How You Think About Fractional Executives in 2026
10 Numbers That Will Reshape How You Think About Fractional Executives in 2026

The fractional model has stopped being a workaround and started being a category. Each data point below is sourced from research published in or based on 2026.

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Change, Fractional Sales Leader, Interim and Fractional, RecruitingHenning SchwinumVendux LLCfractional, executive, top10
To The Last Page: How Childhood Reading Built My Discipline, Curiosity, and Leadership Focus
To The Last Page: How Childhood Reading Built My Discipline, Curiosity, and Leadership Focus

Reading was not assigned—it was inevitable. Books were not just a pastime; they were my primary form of entertainment, my travel to a different place and time.

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Skills, Organization, Motivation, LeadershipHenning SchwinumVendux LLCbook, reading, childhood, discipline, leadership
When a CEO Confirms It: Hiding a Fractional Executive Is the Mistake
When a CEO Confirms It: Hiding a Fractional Executive Is the Mistake

In last week’s CEO Masterclass, I laid out the common reasons why fractional executive engagements go sideways. Then one of the CEOs in the room did something that made the lesson land harder than any slide could: he squarely confirmed it.

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Best Practice, Fractional Sales Leader, Interim and Fractional, Leadership, Organization, RecruitingHenning SchwinumVendux LLCMasterclass, ceo, mistakes, CEO, fractional, HR, Executive
Three Siblings, Shifting Alliances: How Time Turned Rivalry into Enduring Partnership
Three Siblings, Shifting Alliances: How Time Turned Rivalry into Enduring Partnership

Today, I am deeply fond of them. We live on different continents, see each other only once or twice a year, and yet every meeting seems to strengthen our bond. It feels stable, intentional, and enduring.

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Organization, Motivation, COVIDHenning SchwinumVendux LLCsiblings, sister, alliances, partnership
AI and the Fractional Executive: A New Operating Model
AI and the Fractional Executive: A New Operating Model

Fractional executives have always sold one thing above all: pattern recognition compressed into fewer hours. Artificial intelligence is now rewriting what those hours look like — for GTM leaders (fCMOs, fCROs), fCFOs, fCOOs, and fCTOs alike.

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Change, Fractional Sales Leader, Interim and Fractional, Leadership, OrganizationHenning SchwinumVendux LLCAI, artificial intelligence, Artificial intelligence, operations, fractional, executive, CRO, CMO, CTO, COO, CFO
Why Sports Technology Companies Keep Cycling Through Sales Leaders. And The Fix.
Why Sports Technology Companies Keep Cycling Through Sales Leaders. And The Fix.

The problem isn't product complexity. It isn't market conservatism. And it isn't price; sports technology is full of non-negotiable procurement decisions made at prices nobody expected the buyer to accept. The problem is translation.

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Leadership, Sales, SkillsPaul ClarkeVendux LLCTechnology, technology, sports, sportstech
Am I Doing Too Many Things at Once?
Am I Doing Too Many Things at Once?

Someone asked me recently — with genuine curiosity and perhaps a touch of concern — how I manage to keep all the plates spinning. They rattled off my activities one by one. By the time they finished, even I had to pause.

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Fractional Sales Leader, Interim and Fractional, MotivationHenning SchwinumVendux LLCtoomuch, founder, management
Fire in the Cold: What a Winter Hike Taught Me About Motivation and Leadership
Fire in the Cold: What a Winter Hike Taught Me About Motivation and Leadership

This one begins on a cold January Sunday, somewhere far enough from home to feel like an expedition, with frozen ground under our feet and one simple promise that kept us moving: there would be a fire, and we would grill sausages.

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Motivation, Leadership, Organization, TeamHenning SchwinumVendux LLChike, winter, fire, sausage