Vistage Success Stories: What’s yours?

Once a month, I’ll select a Chair from among the thousands of CEO peer advisory groups we lead from across the world and share Vistage success stories from a particular group.  To find such stories, I don’t have to look across our 20,000-member community.  All I have to do is ask any one of our Chairs because each of them has members with stories to tell about the way their group guided them through a difficult challenge or gave them the courage to seize a promising opportunity.  It’s why CEOs who join Vistage Groups stay with their group for an average of seven years.

Starting close to home, Alan Sorkin, a Chair here in San Diego, has some wonderful success stories from his local group that I’d like to share with you.  I’m taking the liberty to post them here (the member names have been changed in the spirit of confidentiality) in the hope it will trigger an idea for a story you’d like to tell us – a story about how your peers helped you or how you may have lent a hand to someone else.

James was hired as President of a software company that was delivering double-digit growth six years in a row. He was frustrated with his two owner partners who were unable to maximize results as they were seldom on the same page making execution extremely difficult.  James turned to his peers in his CEO group to discuss his option. Later, he identified a company who would provide $40M in funding for expansion and to buy out the partners. Now the company is in the midst of several acquisitions, and James couldn’t be happier.

Elliot’s home improvement company was experiencing rapid growth. With the assistance of his Vistage group, he learned to delegate more effectively and received the guidance he needed to weather the recession and positioning the company for sale. He was eventually acquired by the largest manufacturer in their category for $12M and stayed on for a 5 years to grow the company from strong regional player to a multi-channel national brand.

Ira founded his company in 2002 hiring a CEO because he loved sales. Two years ago he fired the CEO for mismanagement and took control back with revenues down dramatically, turnover high and service poor. Ira is a learner who embraces and implements much of what he learns through his Vistage group, particularly when it comes to accountability.  Ira’s company adopted a strong culture of accountability tracking KPI’s, which Ira referred to as “Getting things done and having fun!” Recently the company sold for $35M.

As you can see, the stories don’t have to be long, they just have to be yours!  Visit our Facebook page to tell us your story. I look forward to reading them.

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