Tag: Chief Executive Officer

If you are comfortable with your strategic planning, then you need to shift your perspective, escape the trap of “tried-and-tested tools” and focus on key areas that very likely will bring “fear and discomfort,” said business consultant Stacey McKibbin in a presentation to San Diego business executives.
McKibbin, president of Multivariable Solutions and a coach with Sage Executive Group, challenged business leaders to understand that in today’s hyper-competitive environment, strategy “is more of an intuitive and messy process, not the analytical process we’ve made it to be.”
The breakfast meeting in early November was sponsored by Sage Executive Group, a fast-growing, San Diego-based peer advisory group for top managers ranging from CEOs and C-level executives to sales and marketing directors.
Effective strategic planning embraces the unknown, requires unwavering focus by a small group of top executives who have inherent trust in each other, and demands a commitment of time each week over a year or more. “Once strategy is nailed, execution is very systematic and sequential,” McKibbin said.
It is critical to assemble the right team, a group of four to five leaders drawn from the top ranks such as CEO, co-founders, head of sales or marketing, all with one attribute in common – trust. The team’s main job is to determine the focus for the future, concentrating not on everything the business does for every customer, but on its most profitable and value-driven core. This is the 7 percent that effectively defines the company and draws customers who are attracted and sustained by “value” of what the company provides and are willing to pay for it.
“This becomes you Number 1 thing to focus on,” McKibbin said.
For more information on McKibbin’s presentation, you can reach her at stacey@multivs.us or (844) 433-3328.
Click here to learn more about Sage Executive Group.

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.
 

Are you hiring the best athletes available?
There is a practice among successful pro sports teams that drafting the best athlete available is the way to develop winning teams. I believe this is also true in business and by doing a small study lately I came to the realization that there is a strong correlation to successful salespeople, sales leadership and C-suite executives.
I know that many of you will say, OK, this is just my way of saying that because I was a successful amateur and professional athlete that it then led to my success in business. In reality, I recognize that I always hired people who were high school and college athletes and never knew why until a study I did in November of this year.
At a meeting of 10 Sales VPs, we had by show of hands how many were successful athletes in high school. We were 10 for 10. Five of our members were not at the meeting, but I know them all and we were now 15 for 15. Next I asked the 10 attendees to think of the two best people they had ever hired in their careers. Again we were 20 for 20 on the competitive athlete front.
To carry my research further, I met with 10 CEOs the next day and asked the same question. Nine of 10 were competitive athletes. One CEO did not play sports in high school because his parents were educators, but after he got on his own, he became expert at the martial arts and still runs several miles every day. Then we went to the best two people they had ever hired, and we were 18 of 20. The two exceptions were performing musicians who were used to playing in front of crowds.
After seeing these amazing numbers, we then asked why this was a factor and what attributes did athletes have in common.
They were used to scoreboards and being judged every time they played.

• They had to try out and make the team every year. If they let down, they were replaced.
• They had to be on time for practice.
• They were used to hard work and balancing education and sports. 100% of them had jobs that they worked either after school or in the summer.
• They were coachable.
• They were competitive, but team oriented.
• They were always working on improvement.

I am sure my small sample size will allow some to question if this is merely a coincidence or if there is some merit to looking into people’s background to determine if these are factors that should be taken into account when hiring.
So my takeaway is, hire the best athlete available but don’t forget performing musicians.
Weekly Wisdom by Jerry Rollins, CEO and Chairman of Sage Executive Group

My observations of great teams in both my business and professional sports careers have led me to believe that there are parallel practices common to both.  Here are the 6P’s of great teams.

• Preparation: They prepare in advance and always expect to win.
• Plans: They own and understand them. One-page plans are the best.
• Practice – They constantly practice their craft and are involved in perpetual learning and self improvement.
• Persistence – They don’t quit in the face of adversity or obstacles; they take great joy in dealing with challenge.
• imPatient – They want it done yesterday and feel today is the best time to make things happen.
• Party – They have lots of celebrations and recognition for achieving milestones; then they set more aggressive goals and move on to the next one.

Weekly Wisdom by Jerry Rollins,  CEO/Chairman of Sage Executive Group
 

Stacey McKibbin and Chuck Hunter, both experienced business management consultants, were recently named co-coachs to work with CEOs from mid-sized firms who are members of Sage Executive Group, a fast-growing peer advisory organization.
In their mentoring and training roles heading up the Ascent division of Sage Executive Group, they lead monthly meetings with a dozen business executives who share ideas, explore solutions and develop strategies to expand their companies.
McKibbin’s executive experience includes heading Multivariable Solutions, a Carlsbad business consulting company. She also was an adviser for McKibbin Enterprises in San Diego helping companies build profits and more effective management structures.
Hunter’s leadership positions include serving as CEO at Multivariable Solutions, which he founded in 2009, and holding senior/C-level positions at multiple companies, including Lockheed Martin, where he navigated mergers and acquisitions, and at CamelBak, where he helped develop the startup outdoor equipment maker into a global company. 
As Sage coachs, McKibbin and Hunter lend their guidance and knowledge to interactive discussions in which chief executive officers and other business leaders in companies with revenues up to $4 million annually foster a better understanding of their challenges, both professional and personal. A separate division offers groups for CEOs leading companies with higher revenue levels.
 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. As a result, Sage knows what it takes to create an effective and value-driven member experience. For more information, contact Sage Executive Group at (800) 648-1063 or visit www.sageexecutivegroup.com.
Stacey McKibbin and Chuck Hunter, both experienced business management consultants, were recently named co-coachs to work with CEOs from mid-sized firms who are members of Sage Executive Group, a fast-growing peer advisory organization.
In their mentoring and training roles heading up the Ascent division of Sage Executive Group, they lead monthly meetings with a dozen business executives who share ideas, explore solutions and develop strategies to expand their companies.
McKibbin’s executive experience includes heading Multivariable Solutions, a Carlsbad business consulting company. She also was an adviser for McKibbin Enterprises in San Diego helping companies build profits and more effective management structures. Hunter’s leadership positions include serving as CEO at Multivariable Solutions, which he founded in 2009, and holding senior/C-level positions at multiple companies, including Lockheed Martin, where he navigated mergers and acquisitions, and at CamelBak, where he helped develop the startup outdoor equipment maker into a global company.
As Sage coachs, McKibbin and Hunter lend their guidance and knowledge to interactive discussions in which chief executive officers and other business leaders in companies with revenues up to $4 million annually foster a better understanding of their challenges, both professional and personal. A separate division offers groups for CEOs leading companies with higher revenue levels.
 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. As a result, Sage knows what it takes to create an effective and value-driven member experience. For more information, contact Sage Executive Group at (800) 648-1063 or visit www.sageexecutivegroup.com.
 

Sage Executive Group, which started two years ago as a peer advisory organization for CEOS, has launched four new groups for business executives in finance, operations, sales and marketing and business development and for CEOs in small to mid-size companies.
Founded in San Diego by business leaders with over 45 years of collective experience with peer advisory counseling for chief executive officers, Sage Executive Group offers like-minded leaders an opportunity to learn together in a collaborative process of problem-solving.
Sage Executive Group has created new opportunities for chief operating officers, finance officers and sales and marketing executives of fast-growing private companies in the region.  It also has added Sage Ascent, a group for CEOs of small and mid-sized companies.
“Our groups meet monthly for interactive, dynamic, half-day sessions where we address and solve critical issues impacting our members business and personal lives, ultimately improving leadership effectiveness and bottom line performance,” said Tom Deverell,  a Sage group coach.
The four new groups are:
CFO/COO: Members are C-level executives who interact with peers to expand their leadership expertise. Titles include COO, CFO, General Manager or Chief Legal Counsel. They meet each month for 2 1/2 hours to explore challenges ranging from creating and following a business plan to developing financial metrics.
Sales and Marketing: Members oversee sales and/or marketing for firms with revenues exceeding $4 million annually and are seeking ways to deal with sales and marketing challenges, expand their network and improve leadership skills. They meet each month for 2 1/2 hours to share ways to achieve goals and overcome obstacles, both personal and professional.
Ascent CEO: Members, like chief executives in the pioneering Sage CEO groups, meet monthly for five hours to learn from each other and tackle their most pressing issues. Their companies have sales from $1 million through $3 million.
Business Development: Members of this newest Sage group,  Advisory Council to Executives, are  experts in their field who are expanding their connections in the community and finding new ways to share their expertise as “go to” business contacts.
About Sage Executive Consulting
Sage Executive Group is broadening its CEO training and mentoring program to include other high-level executives while retaining key goals of providing a confidential forum for business leaders to share ideas, solve problems and exchange peer feedback. As a result, Sage knows what it takes to put together an effective and value-driven member experience that has made it a leader in the field.
For more information, contact Sage Executive Group at (800) 648-1063 or visit www.sageexecutivegroup.com.
 

Veteran San Diego business executive Tom Deverell has been named coach for a group of chief executive officers who meet to share ideas, explore solutions and develop their companies as part of the expansion of Sage Executive Group, a peer advisory organization for CEOs and top-level leaders.                                                                                    
Deverell, who served for 10 years as CEO of San Diego-based Officia Imaging, will act as coach and adviser in the monthly,  interactive sessions of about a dozen CEOs aimed at addressing and solving critical issues in their business and personal lives. “I have succeeded in leading a diverse mix of technology and start-up firms, and am now drawing on that experience to mentor top executives in identifying and overcoming their biggest challenges, both in profits and managing personnel,” Deverell said.
His previous business experience includes rising to president of IKON Office Solutions over a 25-year career and helping build a startup that developed software for the real estate industry.
In addition to Deverell’s appointment, fast-growing peer advisory startup Sage Executive Group, founded in San Diego in 2012, is expanding its membership options to include C-level executives in finance, operations, marketing and sales.
The Sage Executive Group mentoring and training process has been developed by leaders who have over 45 years of collective experience with peer advisory groups for CEOs and other high-level executives. For more information, contact Sage at (800) 648-1063 or visit www.sageexecutivegroup.com.
 

This one is worth sharing…
THE MAGIC BANK ACCOUNT
THE AUTHOR IS NOT KNOWN. THIS MESSAGE WAS FOUND IN THE BILLFOLD OF LEGENDARY ALABAMA FOOTBALL COACH PAUL BEAR BRYANT AFTER HE DIED IN 1982.
Imagine that you had won the following *PRIZE* in a contest: Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use.
However, this prize has rules:
The set of rules:
1. Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.
2. You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
3. You may only spend it.
4. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.
5. The bank can end the game without warning. At any time it can say, “Game Over!” It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.
What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted right? Not only for yourself, but for all the people you love and care for. Even for people you don’t know because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?
You would try to spend every penny, and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right?
ACTUALLY, This GAME is REAL …
Shocked ??? YES!
Each of us is already a winner of this *PRIZE*. We just can’t seem to see it.
The PRIZE is *TIME*
1. Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.
2. And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is not credited to us.
3. What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost.
4. Yesterday is forever gone.
5. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING…
SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds? Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. Think about it and remember to enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.
So take care of yourself, be happy, love deeply and enjoy life!
Here’s wishing you a wonderful and beautiful day. Start “spending”….
“DON’T COMPLAIN ABOUT GROWING OLD!”
SOME PEOPLE DON’T GET THE PRIVILEGE!’
Weekly Wisdom by Jerry Rollins,  CEO/Chairman of Sage Executive Group
 
 

I listened to an old Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast and came across a brilliant session on six questions every CEO must ask.  Here is my summary.
Q1 – WHICH GAUGES SHOULD WE BE WATCHING?
Finding the right metrics to guide you about the health of your organizations. Choose the right three of four and watch them attentively.
Q2 – WHO NEEDS TO BE SITTING AT THE TABLE?
Good decisions need good input, and great leaders are decisive but inclusive in their decision processes.
Q3 – WHERE DO I MAKE THE GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORGANIZATION?
I find it interesting that when companies grow and the 2nd level of leadership is upgraded, the CEO often feels lost and sometimes wants to contribute too much. Resist that feeling and stay focused on what you do well, while allowing your people to achieve their goals without your assistance.
Q4 – WHO’S NOT KEEPING UP?
The book TopGrading tells us that this is a constant challenge. We as leaders need to help our people grow, but if they are not capable or don’t want to grow, we must transition them with dignity.
Q5 – WHAT HAVE WE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THAT IS NO LONGER THE BEST WAY TO…?
“We have always done it this way and it works, OK?” is a way of thinking dangerous to any business. Innovation is what keeps you a leader in your industry versus being an average player.
Q6 – WHAT WOULD A GREAT LEADER DO?
This drags you out of your comfort zone. I have many great mentors who have taught me well. When facing a big decision, I always ask myself, “is that the right decision, or the easy one?” The tough road is often the best one to travel.
Weekly Wisdom by Jerry Rollins,  CEO/Chairman of Sage Executive Group
 

Stone Brewing Co. has grown into the nation’s 10th-largest craft brewer by tapping into its customers’ thirst for freedom, one of six key emotional measures of values-driven marketing, Zenzi Communications CEO Sarah Hardwick told a group of San Diego business executives.
Hardwick described the six markers – freedom, purpose, tradition, pleasure, security and prestige – in a presentation hosted by Sage Executive Group, an peer advisory organization that bring together CEOs and top executives from across the region to learn and share ideas in shaping new directions for their companies.
Some of the most successful firms in establishing a brand identity, such as Chipolte and Nike, “make an emotional connection” by understanding and catering not only to the product needs of customers, but also to what is important to them – and the people they talk to personally and through social media. “”A brand is not what a company says it is. It’s what people tell each other that it is,”,” said Hardwick, who founded Encinitas-based Zenzi Communications in 2002.
Stone, which started out as a small craft brewery in San Marcos in 1996 producing about 2,100 barrels, has expanded to a major brewing facility combined with a specialty restaurant and extensive gardens in Escondido. Produced exceeded 213,000 barrels in 2013. It is now planning new brewing operations in the southern United States and in Berlin, the beer heartland of Germany. For Stone, “attitude is everything,” Hardwick said. It has built “an engaged and passionate audience” by fostering “a point of view” that appeals to independent-minded freedom seekers and is manifested in the name of one of its signature beers, Arrogant Bastard Ale.
The company, founded by brewing icons Greg Koch Steve Wagner, has put a premium on beer as a “passionate experience” and fosters its values in its own employees, who now number about 900. “Their employees are the most passionate representation of the brand,” Hardwick said, a fundamental reason that Stone trusts and builds its own identity.
In summary, Hardwick said “values are the missing link in making deeper connections” as companies seek to engage a diverse and often fragmented customer base.
Hardwick gave her talk at the quarterly networking event on Aug. 14 held by Sage Executive Group at Mintz Levin law firm in San Diego. It was hosted by SkyRiver IT.
Commentary on leadership from Stone CEO Greg Koch and on the Sage experience from Stone President Steve Wagner is available on Sage’s YouTube channel.
Chuck Buxton