March 2010: A Note from Jeff Mack
Moving Forward in 2010

I attended my monthly Vistage meeting in mid-February. This was not the normal all-day meeting of approximately 15 local CEOs huddled together all day helping one another work on important issues in their respective businesses. Rather, this was an all-city gathering whereby several hundred local CEOs met at Meydenbauer Convention Center in Bellevue to hear one of the country’s most informed economists, Alan Beaulieu from the Institute for Trend Research.

Mr. Beaulieu entertained and enlightened us all morning with his expertise and insight affecting us all today, as well as twenty years in the future. Here’s a hot tip from Alan - don’t even think about downsizing that house as the kids move out. He touched on many different industries, global and domestic, and most importantly on the key trend indicators that we can watch to gain early warning about our own particular industry (think about the canary in the mine shaft).

In the afternoon, we broke into group sessions with the purpose of drilling down into particular areas of focus. One of the three sessions was entitled Moving Forward in 2010. One of the premises from the morning session was that “you must do something rather than wait for an upturn.” With that challenge in mind, this particular focus group broke into several smaller groups of 10-15 people to determine their top 5 imperatives and then present them back to the larger group.

Not too surprisingly, the responses were very similar across most of the groups. Here is how they ranked:

1. Business Development. Everybody in the organization plays a role in business development one way or another. Provide staff more training to become more effective at business development. Complete account and territory planning. Leverage existing relationships with current customers.
2. Increased Efficiency. Streamline costs, increase productivity. Manage costs, processes and procedures. Implement best practices.
3. Product Improvement. Diversify products and services; create value-added services.
4. Improved Talent. Add “A” players to the team. Swap out “C” players for “A” players. Increase and improve training programs.
5. Capital Investment in New Technologies or Equipment. Procure new equipment while it is still relatively inexpensive. Invest in improved technology systems to increase visibility into operations and provide strategic advantage.

There you have it – the game plan and bottom line for many of the top CEOs in the Puget Sound region. They believe in their businesses and their communities, and they are backing those beliefs with strong investments.

 

What do top CEOs in the Puget Sound region see as their top 5 imperatives for Moving Forward in 2010?

In summary,
1.Business Development
2. Increased Efficiency
3. Product Improvement
4. Improved Talent
5. Capital Investment in New Technologies or Equipment