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Seven companies whose leaders have honed their management expertise as members of Sage Executive Group, a San Diego-based peer advisory organization, were chosen for the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing, privately held companies in the nation.
“Sage Executive Group fosters creative approaches by company leaders to build and expand their business, and we are pleased that their work has generated significant success – and recognition that they are among the fastest-growing firms in the country,” said Jerry Rollins, Sage Group’s CEO.
Here are the seven companies, their CEOs,  and their ranking:
PrescribeWellness, a cloud-based services company that helps pharmacists provide coordinated care and preventative healthcare services. CEO: Al Babbington. Headquarters: Irvine. Rank: #134
Beer Home Team,  a full-service real estate company and also the Number One real estate team in Southern California for the nation’s largest brokerage, Keller Williams Realty. CEO: Daniel Beer. Headquarters: San Diego. Rank: #831.
Pro Back Office, an accounting services firm that offers operational accounting and strategic consulting expertise in San Diego, Phoenix and across Southern California CEO: Jennifer Barnes. Headquarters: San Diego. Rank: #892
PacWest Painting. A third-generation painting company that provides accountability and dedication from large commercial projects to home cabinetry and interior finishes. CEO: Tony Hady. Headquarters: Escondido. Rank:  #2826
Zeeto Media. Collects data by asking questions across Zeeto’s network of publisher partners to integrate with paywalls, registration forms and subscription pages. CEO: Stephan Goss. Headquarters: Rank: #3273
New Horizons Learning Group, an educational services company that offers technical, application and business skills courses at locations in California, Arizona and Nevada. CEO: Kevin Landry. Headquarters: Orange County. Rank: #3910
Dobi & Associates. Sells cedar grilling planks and wraps to warehouse club stores, groceries and restaurants. It also is an international distributor helping manufacturers manage excess inventories. CEO. Glen Dobi. Headquarters: San Diego. Rank: #4986
In addition, Sage member Tommy Reynolds is owner of three Hardcore Fitness gyms in the San Diego region, part of the fitness and training company that has locations from Santa Clarita, California, to Orlando, Florida. The company is ranked #592.
The Inc. 5000 rankings were compiled by Inc. Magazine and are based on percentage revenue growth from 2013 to 2016.
Sage Executive Group establishes and operates peer advisory groups for CEOs, presidents, partners and founders of privately held businesses in San Diego and Orange counties. The Sage process has been developed by leaders with over 45 years of collective experience with CEO peer advisory groups.
For more information, contact Sage Executive Group at (800) 648-1063 or visit www.sageexecutivegroup.com.
 
 

Jack Farnan, Human Resources vice president for HM Electronics in Poway, learned an important lesson about managing change in an unlikely place – the spiritual home of the Dalai Lama high in the Himalayas.
An avid mountain climber, Farnan was on his way to an ascent in Ladakh when he had a chance to spend  time with thousands of Buddhists who had come to hear the Dalai Lama teach at a  monastery in northernmost India, a refuge in exile from his historic home in Tibet now under Chinese control.
The Dalai Lama places a premium on the “importance of personal change in the world,” Farnan said, and that is a message that can – and should resonate – with the chief executive officers charged with bringing change to their organizations.
Farnan, who has 25 years of experience in identifying and developing executive talent, laid out seven key characteristics of a successful CEO in a presentation to members and guests of Sage Executive Group, a premier peer advisory group based in San Diego. Farnan is currently VP of Human Resources at HM Electronics, a global company that designs and manufactures wireless communication products.
His conclusions are based on research on the requisite skill sets for CEOs to survive and prosper.
Most important, Farnan said, is that top leaders are decisive. Research shows that CEOs with this one trait “were 12 times more likely to succeed.” The components of success then flow from the ability to understand how “personal change” is translated into the workplace. Critical characteristics of these top leaders are:

• They are decisive.
• They engage for impact.
• They adapt proactively.
• They deliver reliably.
• They hold themselves and others accountable.
• They are Level 5 leaders.
• They have a growth mindset.

Farnan said that ultimately successful leaders lead by example, and “we can do so much with just changing ourselves.”
 

You might expect that 10 speakers at a gathering of more than 100 San Diego-area executives would talk about making money, planning strategy and maximizing profits.
But it was people, not profits that took center stage at the annual “Sage Talks” event hosted by the peer advisory organization Sage Executive Group at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar on Dec. 13.
Overcoming personal adversity and bouncing back from professional setbacks were the broad themes presented by many of the presenters, who modeled their 18-minute talks on the popular Ted Talks format.
Jeremy Poincenot, who lost his sight to a rare genetic disorder at age 19 while attending San Diego State University, said he had to learn the “importance of interdependence” when he could no longer pursue the independent lifestyle of a college student. That interaction in the form of coaching from his dad on every shot, helped him win an international blind golf championship.
Aaron Chang, who was a senior photographer for “Surfing” magazine for more than 25 years, received the painful message from a litany of New York agents that his photography was “unmarketable.” He went on to fame and success and now owns galleries in San Diego and Solano Beach that bear his name.
And Stacey McKibbin hit rock bottom on a street corner in Pacific Beach, abandoned by a boyfriend and betrayed by the alcoholics in her family. She pulled herself up to run her own company and speak to hundreds of business leaders about “the key” to achieving leadership.
Videos of the talks will be posted soon on Sage Executive Group’s YouTube Channel.
Other speakers included:
Peter Scott, founder of Fearless Life Academy: “Fear: The Hidden Cause of Stress”
Dan Negroni, founder of launchbox: “Depolarizing Millennial Madness”
Susie Japs, managing director of Wejungo: “Why You Suck at Interviewing”
Sarah Hardwick, president of Zenzi Communications: “Three Ways to Waste Your Marketing Budget”
Gary London, president of The London Group Realty Advisors: “It’s the Top of the Market – Beware”
Patrick Combs, president, Great Thinking Co. “The Greatest Business Story Ever Told.”
Mark Moses, founding partner of CEO Coaching International: “Make Big Happen”
Sage Executive Group is a fast-growing membership network and advisory group for business leaders. What sets SAGE apart in working with the region’s top executives is a philosophy that emphasizes values, guiding business leaders to achieve greater success in business management and performance while also carrying out responsibilities to family, community and personal health.
 

Four experts on mergers and acquisitions addressed the question of what is happening in today’s “frothy” investment marketplace at a panel hosted by peer advisory organization Sage Executive Group.
There is a “crazy supply dynamic for quality assets,” said Craig Dupper, a partner with Solis Capital Partners based in Newport Beach.
He was joined on the panel, held at the San Diego office of Knobbe Martens law firm on Oct. 18, by Rose M. Thiessen, a partner in Knobbe Martens; Troy Romero, president of Romero Park law firm;  and Kerry Morris, partner in Shoreline Partners:
The question was raised by Jerry Rollins, the panel moderator and CEO of Sage Executive Group, a San Diego-based peer advisory and learning organization for CEOs and other top-level executives.
Romero said he has seen a significant rebound in the number of deals his firm has handled, from 17 in 2007 to zero in 2009 when the recession hit across the country to 14 expected this year.
“Some industries are hot,” said Morris, “valuations are at an all-time high.” But he cautioned that investors need to carefully examine financial analytics and that the customer base needs to be “rock solid,” preferring to use the word “choppy” to describe the M&E climate.
Across the board, panelists expressed wariness about the political climate and outcome of the presidential election. Thiessen said that as an intellectual property attorney,  she is especially interested in “the shape of the Supreme Court” after the new president makes a new appointment, especially on a court that has become increasingly involved in patent decisions.
That led to strong advice to business owners who may be interested in selling, or who might be surprised to find that someone is interested in buying their company.
“Make sure you have ownership of intellectual property,” Thiessen said.
And “if your company is based on a technology, it should be beautifully tied up,” Romero said.
Every company that might be attracting investors needs a playbook that provides short-term tactics, long-term strategy and “valid, timely and accurate financials,” Rollins said. “I have seen $100 million companies without a plan.”
And he noted that with the highly publicized, billion-dollar buyout of Ballast Point Brewing Co. last November, company owners still need to be careful not to have “unrealistic expectations.”
The event was hosted by Sage Executive Group and sponsored by Knobbe Martens and City National Bank.

Four of San Diego’s top craft brewers, including Steve Wagner, co-founder of Stone Brewing, addressed the issue of multi-million-dollar acquisitions at a panel on Thursday, Aug. 25, hosted by Sage Executive Group and moderated by Sage CEO Jerry Rollins (far left).

Speakers who joined Wagner on the panel were Matt DelVecchio of Duck Foot Brewing; Tomme Arthur of The Lost Abbey and Port Brewing; and Jeff Bagby of Bagby Beer Company.

A story in the San Diego Union Tribune on Sunday, Aug. 28, described the tongue-in-cheek reference to the inevitability of big bucks brewery acquisitions as the “puppy dog syndrome.”

To lead a group of leaders, a top executive will achieve greater success by embracing a philosophy of coaching forward, of looking through the front windshield rather than the rear view mirror, advised sales expert G. A. Bartick in a presentation to Sage Executive Group.
His talk was hosted by San Diego-based Sage Executive Group, a peer advisory organization that gives high-level executives a confidential setting to improve their business performance and enhance their personal lives. His talk at a June 16 breakfast meeting at the Corporate Alliance office in San Diego was part of an ongoing series of learning events hosted by Sage.
Bartick, president of R3 Consultants, urged executives to “quite coaching to the past and start affecting the future.” As part of that commitment, he said that even the most well-intentioned leaders become caught up in the problems of the day and need to practice – and then execute – how to  “catch  people doing more things right and fewer things wrong.”
Looking through the front windshield is not only a metaphor for focusing on what is ahead, rather than what is behind, Bartick said. It also puts a premium on setting  “crystal clear expectations”  for what is coming down the road.
In addition to that forward-looking vision and ability to communicate, the role of leading leaders becomes more effective if the executive takes time to “get in the weeds, to pay attention to what is happening on the field of play.
Bartick likened that management mind set  to being a “conscious, competent coach,” a leader who loves helping their associates figure out how to set up the project, pricing and resources.
That often translates to giving people “the what and the why” of what they need to do to excel in the jobs – and meet the company’s management and personnel goals.
For executives in the room, that is a leadership style they described with words like “insightful,” “aware” and “inspired.”
Sage Executive Group’s identity, and resulting rapid growth, has made it a key player in management training and development in the San Diego area. It  has grown from an initial concentration on CEOs from large and mid-size companies with annual revenues of more than $4 million to a wide range of peer groups for C-level executives and sales and marketing experts from companies with sales of $1 million or more.
For more information, go to www.sageexecutivegroup.com.

SAN DIEGO – Sage Executive Group, a San Diego-based membership network and advisory group for business leaders, announced record growth in its membership. Sage has grown from startup four years ago to a premier peer advisory organization for CEOs of more than 90 San Diego and Orange County members, with total revenues from their businesses exceeding $1.5 billion and averaging a 15 percent growth from 2014 to 2015.
As part of its expanding role to become a key training and development organization for leading San Diego-area companies, Sage has expanded its reach to include special groups for sales leaders, creative agency executives, marketing professionals and facility managers.
What sets Sage apart in working with the region’s top executives is a philosophy emphasizing values, encouraging business leaders to put people before profits, and learning how to effectively balance business demands and responsibilities to family, community and health. Members, ranging from CEOs of large-scale companies to up-and-coming sales executives at new enterprises, meet monthly to share ideas, solve problems and exchange feedback about their professional and personal challenges.
“Sage offers camaraderie and support of people who are going through some of the same things you are,” said Sage member Steve Wagner, co-founder and brewmaster of Stone Brewing Co. “We share and give each other ideas for how to better balance life, and take good care of your business and your family.”
Sage’s growth has been guided by founder and CEO Jerry Rollins, a successful San Diego businessman and entrepreneur whose management approach is grounded in his early career as a professional hockey player. His sports experience of coaching and being coached, as well as his expertise in business team building, has translated into Sage’s emphasis on values-based leadership.
Sage’s identity, and resulting rapid growth, is founded on groups of 10 to 12 like-minded executives who meet monthly in half-day sessions led by a seasoned business leader. Members work together to address and solve critical issues impacting their business and personal lives. Each group offers a scholarship to a member who leads a nonprofit organization in the local area. Sage also holds quarterly networking events featuring a presentation by marketing and sales experts. Sage members contribute to educational growth by offering aspiring students college scholarships on an annual basis.
Sage Executive Group was launched in 2012 by Rollins, who served as the CEO, president and owner of four companies for more than 21 years, and San Diego entrepreneur Brian Yui, a specialist in building companies from the ground up.
For more information, contact SAGE Executive Group at (800) 648-1063 or visit www.sageexecutivegroup.com.
Media Contact: Chuck Buxton
chuck@sageexecutivegroup.com or (619) 892-8119

Nine speakers gave presentations at the inauguration of the Sage Talks event hosted by Sage Executive Group at the Grand Del Mar hotel in San Diego on Feb. 8, 1015. Here is a summary of their talks with links to YouTube videos of their presentations.
TONY BARON: Speaker, writer and theologian. The Awakened Leader
Author of The Art of Servant Leadership and director of the Graduate School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University in San Diego. Scholar in Residence at the Center for Executive Excellence in Carlsbad.
In his presentation, titled “The Awakened Leader: Three Little Words That Will Transform Your World,” he talked about how 80 percent of organizations they don’t have a purpose-driven approach. In his book, as in his presentation, he encourages companies and individuals to practice the art of giving back. He also encourages CEOs to have a high trust level with employees, and to let know employees that they will care for them and their families
He ended his presentation with his grandson’s words: “ I know you love me because you are with me.”
MICHEL KRIPALANI: CEO, Oceanhouse media. Commit to 3
A developer of mobile apps, his previous work at startups includes Presto Studios, a video game developer, and an intereactive multimedia company. His company mantra is, “Creativity With a Purpose.” He is a UCSD alumni.
In his presentation, he explained that things doesn’t happen overnight. For an entrepreneur , he said we need to ask ourselves : “How we are spending the time?” Make the change you need to change behaviors, he said.
Kripalani told the story of how his family taught him to take care of the important things first . He ackowledged the power of habit and the value of commiting to three things to do each day. In his own life, he keeps a chart on how he is spending his time. He recommended three of his favorite books that changed his daily focus:

1. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. By Charles Duhigg:

2.  Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts – Becoming the Person You Want to Be. By Marshall Goldsmith. The right behaviors matter. But getting it right is tricky. Even when we acknowledge the need to change what we do and how we do it, life has a habit of getting in the way, upsetting even the best-laid plans. Feedforward can cover almost all of the same material feedback can. Imagine you have just made a terrible presentation in front of the executive committee. Your manager is in the room. Rather than make you relive this humiliating experience by detailing what went wrong, your manager might help you by offering suggestions for future presentations. These suggestions can be very specific and still delivered in a positive way – without making you feel even more humiliated.
3. The One Thing. By Gary Keller. Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls — family, health, friends, integrity — are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. Success demands singleness of purpose. “A different result requires doing something different.”
ALAN NEVIN: Director of Economic and Market Research at Xpera Group. The Great Divide.
Nevin has an extensive background in real estate economics, lending and market analysis. He serves the development, investment, legal and public agency communities with residential and commercial real estate valuation, feasibility and real estate advisory services and litigation support.
He gave an economic forecast for the next years. With record low interest rates, this is the time to buy real estate. His presentation included graphics that compared other states and showed how California is and will stay for the next 20 years a place for innovation and opportunities. The millenial babies will inherit great capital from their parents that will actívate economy and spending for the next 25 years.
JOE KESHMIRI: President of CEO Institute for Global Innovation. From IQ to EQ, and Now XQ
Keshmiri advises business organizations on innovative strategy, leadership, integration of intergenerational/international cultures, and managing change.
He explored the meaning of Emotional Intelligence and how an organization’s performance can suffer when the leaders and managers have a low EQ behavior.  Emotional Intelligence is the ability to effectively manage emotions and bring a high level of psychological understanding to collaboration and team work.
“Learning more about emotional intelligence can help individuals and teams develop into a fleet of top performers who produce higher levels of profitability while creating an energized healthier workplace,” Keshmiri said.
From the perspective of a marketing student, it is clear that a well-developed emotional quotient can help in building a marketing strategy and sensing at a deeply emotional level what speaks to a customer what makes them attach to the Brand they like.
SAMANTHA ANDERSON, Co-founder of 41 Orange. A Hybrid Social Media Strategy
San Diego-based 41 Orange specializes in social media and has managed more than 50 different campaigns for live events, restaurants, B2B service providers and e-commerce companies.
Anderson showed the importance of a company giving the best response to clients and replying on time to customers via social media, pointing out that to date there are 90 millions reviews in Yelp
She pointed out that 53 percent of customers will share a negative experience. A company must avoid this kind of critical review or risk losing a client . A company needs to respond promptly and have a planned strategy to respond on time and be able to assist customers. Companies need to coordinate customer service, social media and marketing to effectively implement a hybrid strategy for talking to customers.
STEPHEN COBB: Senior Cyber Security executive for ESET. Cybersecurity and Cybercrime
Cobb talked about the importance of securing the information in a company and in our lives and of raising awareness of cybersecurity and cyber threats. Make sure that the solutions we buy have effective security, because as technoloty progresses, we are more exposed and in danger to have our data stole
Wearable products and companies are a source of information about people. Data criminals target endpoints and servers. Wearables are endpoints that rely on servers for many of the benefits they deliver. In other words, the wearables business will be targeted by cybercriminals. We all will be put at risk if we don’t think about the security of the data from day one,
BRIAN SMITH: Creator of the UGG import company. The Birth of UGG
Smith, who was born in Australia and studied at the UCLA Graduate School of Management, talked about the birth of UGG. He pointed that every company starts with a concept, with a brand. It is like and infant that you need to care for and nurture through the toddler years.
When introducing a new product , a new theory in the business market, there will be a tremendous resistance. You need to have perseverance. In the case of UGG, the company and brand started in the surfer environment. But surfer shops were not interested in selling boots and that was the challenge . Smith teaches that in the journey to success, you need to find the right message, develop the need and have a passion for the product.
WADE HANSEN: CEO of investment banking firm Cabrillo Advisors. What is My True Value
When you want to sell your business, you need to know how much you are worth. That is when you need someone to help you set the value of your company.
Sometimes difficult situation arise like a divorce when different interest want the value of your business to be different. Your work so hard you need to know how much is your company and not settle with any offer. Take the time to hire professionals to give you the value of your company, and then you will be ready to make the right decisions.
G.A. BARTICK: President of R3 consultants. Leading Leaders
Bartick showed that it is not enough to be enthusiastic and to engage a customer to get the sale. You need to have a plan and a strategy to close the deal At the end of his presentation he gave each member a copy of his recent book, Silver Bullet Selling, in which he gives six steps to improve sales performance and build trusting relationships with customers.
The event sponsors for the event were:
Halo BI: A San Diego based firm offering intelligent business solutions for companies with significant supply chains that are facing rising raw material, transportation and employee costs.
GLC – Growth and Liquidity Consulting Group: A La Jolla boutique investment bank and consulting firm serving a variety of venture-backed and other privately held companies.
Thrivent Financial: A Fortune 500 financial services non profit organization headquarteered in Minneapolis that helps Christians with investment decisions and offers a range of financial products.
PM Talent Global: A San Diego technology services company providing expert guidance on comprehensive solutions and strategic staffing focused on effective outcomes.
Voit Real State Services: A provider of commercial real estate services throughout Southern California and nationally, with expertise in commercial real estate ownership, operations, tenant-corporate representation and full service brokerage.
By Cecilia Johnson
UCSD Extension Business Program graduate student and Sage Executive Group intern.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In building a successful team, there’s an important lesson to be learned in both business and in sports, according to Jerry Rollins, CEO of Sage Executive Group.
It’s wisdom he acquired not in a graduate school business class, but in the day-to-day challenges of drawing the best from available talent, whether from the sales force of a company striving to meet profit goals, or a professional hockey team hustling to score victories.
“What I learned in business,” said Rollins in a presentation to about 50 business executives in August, is that “there’s a very thin line between winning and losing.” Key factors to success are shared vision and values, commitment to goals “owned” by everyone in the organization, and leadership at every level of the company.
Rollins’ talk drew from his experiences helping grow companies and helping chief executives work together on some of their toughest problems in the confidential environment of Sage Executive Group, peer advisory organization created three years ago.
Much of the video features his give and take with executives making critical budgetary and personnel decisions. Every team has A, B and C players, and the discussion centered on the importance of having an action plan for every employee and a way to assess and deal with the effect they have on the company’s success or failure. Hiring, too, is a critical component in which the team leader has a critical responsibility for recruiting from a carefully cultivated network of high performers.
To view Rollins presentation, and his interaction with top San Diego-area CEOs, go to Building Great Teams.

A new peer advisory group has been created for marketing professionals under the leadership of Angela Hill, CEO of creative agency Incitrio, Sage Executive Group announced today.
Members, who are active in shaping marketing plans and strategies for their companies, will meet monthly to learn best practices from their peers, share ideas, explore technological solutions, and discuss challenges in a rapidly changing marketing environment. Positions include: Marketing Director, Digital Marketer, and MarCom Manager.
“Being part of the Sage Marketing Group will enhance the skill set of market professionals in leveraging innovative technology, learning best practices from one another, and developing ROI-driven strategies to accelerate revenue growth for their employers,” Hill said
Hill founded Incitrio, an award-winning global branding agency, in 2004 in Solana Beach. The Incitrio strategic branding process has been developed over two decades through big agency experience and a long roster of Fortune 500 past clients. The agency provides full-service marketing solutions focused on helping clients achieve their revenue growth objectives. Hill is also a board member with Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego County and teaches Branding, Web Design, and Online Marketing at the University of San Diego.
Sage Executive Group was established in 2012 in San Diego and operates peer advisory groups for CEOs, presidents, and partners, as well as for C-level executives in finance, operations and sales. The Sage process has been developed by leaders who have over 45 years of collective experience with CEO peer advisory groups. For more information, contact Sage Executive Group at (800) 648-1063 or visit https://www.sageexecutivegroup.com.