Celebrating Leadership Tenacity. Reflecting on 2020 and Surging in 2021. Today Featuring: Rob Miller, President, Drummond Scientific

The year 2020 will go down in the history as the most disruptive period highlighted by wide swings from bullish GDP growth rates in most economies to the deepest cuts in GDP, employment and the global trade. The social disruption of this pandemic will linger on for several years into the future. The small-to-medium size companies were and still are the most exposed to the risk of either closing down for ever or be injured for a very long time. Leadership Tenacity or the lack of it, is the sole difference between the companies that thrived-survived in this chaos or perished during the last 9 months. 

Defining Tenacity: 

Considering Covid-19 Pandemic is a guerrilla and a business leader is a wrestler. A tenacious wrestler will keep fighting till the guerrilla is tired.  

This is #8 of my series of Leadership Tenacity during Covid-19. These leaders and 6 more in my Vistage CEO group display true grit and all 14 continue to pivot their companies for greater growth in 2021. In this war like situation, they are keeping their teams grounded in reality, inspiring their companies to better future, and hitting impressive growth targets. As their trusted advisor, I have the privilege of working closely with them. These are their stories, and my narration.

April 16, 2021:

Continuing our coverage of tenacious leaders, today we will be learning about Rob Miller's tenacious leadership

Rob Miller is Founding Member of my Vistage CEO Peer Group.

Rob Miller is President of Drummond Scientific in Broomall, PA. Rob is no stranger to make tough choices. Prior to becoming President of Drummond Scientific, he was a US Marine, then he came to work for Drummond Scientific in Broomall, PA, simultaneously, he earned his MBA from UPENN’s Wharton Business School, while raising two young sons along with his wife. The year 2020 was among the busiest for Rob and his team, and his young family. He packed so much in every day that there were no time left in the 24 hours to call it a night. 

 Rob’s climb in 2020 is anything but typical. He personifies Tenacity of Leadership. In these most difficult times: 

(1) He led his senior leadership team to recognize the tremendous opportunity on hand to serve the nation during the pandemic. He and his team inspired the workforce of 100+ for a mission of designing and producing many thousands of Covid-19 testing kits. Rob and his team worked day & nights and made it happen. 

(2) Rob and his leadership team were equally busy building funnel of new business development for 2021 and beyond. 

(3) Rob and his leadership team pivoted the 70+ year old company as “late stage manufacturing company for early stage inventors of medical devices”.  

Rob Miller says about his Vistage experience “Participating with Vistage has been an amazing resource as an executive and a valuable asset to help navigate the business challenges of 2020. Since joining, I’ve really appreciated our group’s perspectives, experience, and open discussion. Vipon’s leadership and the voices at Vistage were critical inputs to help jumpstart my Team’s ability to pivot, and help our customers in new and more meaningful ways during the pandemic.”

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Rob Heflin is one of the founding member of my Vistage group. 

Rob Heflin is co-founder of a global innovation company, BPG International, which creates and commercializes new and unique fragranced consumer products, sold to consumers through a wide breadth of retail channels. Some of BPG’s products are showcased at www.Bright-air.com. Rob operates in a fiercely competitive consumer retail industry in North America including Target, Amazon, Walmart, and the Value channel. BPG also collaborates with many well-known leading CPG companies and national brands. With global manufacturing locations, his team manages a very complex sourcing and supply chain operation spread over several countries in three continents. 

Rob says, “The decision to join Vipon, our local CEO group and the global Vistage network has proven invaluable.  I was fortunate to join the Vistage network just prior to the pandemic impact. Being able to leverage the full breadth of the Vistage portfolio over this past year has played an instrumental role in our ability to successfully navigate this challenging and unchartered territory. The thought leading speakers, fact based reporting, 1:1 mentoring with Viponand a talented, supportive CEO group have helped both our company and me personally on many levels.  

Our company has benefited from leveraging the full Vistage network for executive recruiting, strategic sourcing and sharing business best practices. I am personally grateful for the support Vipon and our CEO group have collectively provided to challenge & broaden my perspective, expand my knowledge base and grow as a leaderFebruary 20, 2021:

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Continuing our coverage of tenacious leaders, today we will be learning about Rich Wilson

Rich Wilson is Founding Member #6 of my Vistage CEO Group. He is Managing Partner and CEO of Helm Partners. Helms Partners is at the forefront of technology and telecommunication advisory services. Rich combined two companies to form Helm Partners and it was featured in INC 5000. 

The Covid-19 created unique challenges in 2020, as well as creating new priorities for companies around the technology in which Helms operates. The clients are now looking for much more than historic connectivity and voice services. There are new challenges and new requirements for teams working from home, including deeper collaboration and use of omni channels, more resilient and secure networks, and the ever increasing need for AI. Rich needed to fast-pivot his company to embrace these new directions or accept average performance. 

 Rich’s is a profile in Leader Tenacity. His climb in 2020 was steep and his team needed to reset its go-to-market strategy, re-define its delivery offerings, and improve and exploit its channel partnerships and the customer segmentation. In 2020, Rich’s challenges in 2020 included: 

(1) Re-pivot his company for the second time in two years. 

(2) Restructure his team. 

(3) Provide best solutions to his customers for staying fully connected when dealing with Covid-19 triggered WFH (Work From Home). 

(4) Keep his team motivated 

(5) Take care of his family and himself 

(6) Grow his company’s market standing. 

(7) Set 2021-22 strategy for high double digit percentage growth.   

Rich’s Vistage experience in his own words “Vistage has delivered on all fronts. The speakers and materials enable continued learning in typically challenging areas including sales and business management. The Members meetings enable open and honest dialogue about challenges resulting in the sharing of decades of experience and ‘tough love’ guidance. I consider Vipon’s one-on-one sessions to be my business ‘counseling sessions’, where questions are asked and ideas tested until I realize for myself what needs to be done. The experience and the group are what you make of it, so you need to participate and invest, but if you do the ROI is significant.”February 4, 2021

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Continuing our coverage of tenacious leaders, today we will be learning about Ed Collison

Ed Collison is Founding Member #5 of my Vistage CEO group.

Ed became CEO and Owner of Hobbs & Company, Inc. in late 2019. He joined the Vistage CE5958 in March 2020, right when Covid-19 was shutting down our economy. Imagine yourself in Ed’s shoes, a new owner of an electrical contracting company who was making plans to grow his company by 20% in 2020, and then Covid-19 curbs his company strategy. Some of Hobb’s & Company, Inc’s clients were forced to shut down operations, which lead to delayed payments.

Ed’s climb was not a typical one by any stretch of the imagination, but he abounds with grit. Ed brought this up during the Vistage session, which provided him with plenty of ideas. Ed’s one on 1 with his Chair focused on solving operational challenges and building a strategic direction. The plans that were laid out were fearlessly determined. Ed’s relentless pursuit of achieving his objectives is a testament to his tenacity in the face of an unprecedented challenge faced by a professional executive becoming an Owner and CEO.

Ed’s climb in 2020 was remarkable and rewarding. He and his company’s achievement are included but were not limited to:

1. Revenue growth of >50% in 2020.
2. Increased the number of employees.
3. The business was more digitized than in 2019.
4. Book of business is more robust for 2021.
5. Built their customer base with new customer and business segments while providing better quality service to their current customer base, who plan to grant increased business opportunities.

"Vistage CEO Group experience has been one of the best investments for myself and my company, Hobbs & Company, Inc". says, Ed Collison. "Vistage is a peer group that has offered me genuine advice, and members help each other out. My peer group commitment has me thinking more globally about my business than I would have otherwise. It has provided me with a sounding board for ideas and philosophies that may have never come to fruition. The opportunity to listen to other companies’ challenges and visualize how they can apply to Hobbs & Company, Inc. has me thinking outside the box. It has let me bring new thinking and fresh ideas to my business. Having the chance to be surrounded by thriving business minds in a non-competitive, caring environment is rare, and Vistage CEO Group does just that."

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January 28, 2021

Continuing our coverage of tenacious leaders, today we will be learning about Bill McLaughlin

?Bill McLaughlin: is founding member #4 of my Vistage CEO group. 

Bill is Founding Partner of The How Group (https://howgroup.com) in Conshohocken, PA. The How Group with its different business units is an epitome of highest standard of conduct, professional management and among the ‘best places for work”. Covid-19 was a surprise to everyone, and most companies reacted with panic. However, Bill and his partners had successfully managed 2008-9 crisis, and they knew Covid-19 was way more than 2008-9. Bill and his partners responded to Covid-19 induced economic shut down with detailed deliberation of scenario planning: what could be the different futures? Bill and his partners successfully steered their business units, took care of their employees, and empowered most of them to work from home. Bill and his partners stood guard of their long held belief – ‘more good comes from doing good’, and their involvement with communities are well known. In addition to taking care of the business, Bill and his partners are focused on helping his employees to create passive income opportunities. It is my belief that Bill is one of those rare individuals who will most likely miss a flight in order to help a stranger at the airport. 

Bill McLaughlin “I come to Vistage group meetings for diverse peer perspectives of my group members from different industries very different from my own. This is my safe space to discuss my ideas and my challenges. My monthly 1:1 meetings are equally insightful for expanding my bandwidth.” 

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January 20, 2021

Continuing our coverage of tenacious leaders, last week we covered Brian Fox, today we will be learning about Josh Altman (GetPhound.com)

Josh Altman  is founding member #3 of my Vistage CEO group. 

Josh is COO of GetPhound based in Conshohocken, PA. GetPhound is a digital marketing agency with expertise in the area of website design/development, pay-per-click marketing (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), and social media advertising. They can assist any service-based business targeting a local audience in driving new business with unique online marketing strategies. Covid-19 driven shutdowns were very un-nerving to the young team of 8. Josh’s curious nature of asking questions helped him vet many creative ideas, which he put to work @ work. Additionally, in our 1:1 meetings, he discussed many operational challenges. Soon Josh was drawing on our peer group’s collective experience and perspectives, and at the same time thinking of ways to ‘not waste this crisis’. Within weeks, he and his partners re-configured their business processes, reset operations, and strengthened the culture of comradery and accountability in their team. GetPhound is all virtual now. The revenue per hour improved, business processes are more agile and team is more cohesive. GetPhound is stronger now than it was before the pandemic.  

 Josh Altman says “Vistage has been a game-changer for us. I don't think we could have joined at a better time, given the current environment. Having this group of experienced leaders/advisors to help navigate me through these scary times was invaluable and forced us to grow faster than I think we normally would have. The ideas and insights gained from each meeting and 1:1's has allowed me to have a much deeper understanding of my business leading to the improvement of process, implementation of new process, and overall better organization in the way we analyze various aspects of the business. I believe that we are now and continue to be in a much better position to succeed moving forward." 

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 January 13, 2021

Continuing our coverage of tenacious leaders, last week we covered Brian Fox, today we will be learning about Sean Forman. 

?Sean Forman: is founding member #2 of my Vistage CEO group. 

Sean is Founder-President of Sports Reference LLC (https://www.sports-reference.com), the top ranked go-to digital resource for more than 15 million sports fans for reference checking historical and recent facts about various sports. Check out the website and you will be mesmerized. Sean’s business, as we thought, was highly dependent on live sports seasons; it was true before Covid-19 hit us. The Covid-19 put a break on sports seasons - the life blood of Sean’s business. Sean Forman made several adjustments to his business strategy and tactics. He shared monthly results with his team. As it stands now after painstaking work, Sports Reference gained more than a million new users in 2020, many are paid subscribers of “StatHead” service. Sean and his team wrestled the guerilla to the ground; 2020 revenue and profits are better than 2019. 2021-2023 are going to be phenomenal. Sean Forman’s story is a case study of execution under tremendous uncertainty. I watched him working it month by month and it is an example of tenacity, grit and agility. 

Below is Sean’s story in his own word. 

Confronting the Truth with Honesty: 

“One of the first signs that the pandemic was going to change how our society functioned was the cancellation, first, of NBA games and then the NCAA Basketball Tournaments. We had all been putting on a brave face that we would probably be able to muddle through without much disruption. Our website thrives on fans looking up statistics and answering questions about games they are watching. With no games our traffic immediately dropped, and given we are an advertising based business, we expected and then saw a dramatic pullback in advertising rates and quality. Fortunately, we had a significant reserve that I felt might be enough to protect us. I immediately went through our budget and P&L line-by-line looking for potential places we could cut, if needed. I made projections for bad, worse and worst case scenarios and presented them to the team on a company zoom call on March 20, 2020. The scenarios showed the team clearly what the triggers for cost cutting and potential furloughs would be and what steps and in what order we'd need to take them. As the pandemic slowdown continued and it became clear we'd be without games for many months, we looked at how the site was being used and were able to lean into our deep historical content”  

Agility and Pivoting: 

“The ESPN documentary, The Last Dance, was especially fortunate for us and led to five of our best traffic days ever (games or no games). We live tweeted the episodes on Sunday nights and featured viewer guides on the front of our basketball site during the entire five weeks.”  

Looking at Future, the Other Side of Covid-19:

“We've been fortunate to come through it as we have and have even added four new members to our staff of fifteen. The sports industry has suffered too many layoffs, but with mass vaccination hopefully around the corner, we are hopeful the industry will bounce back as a whole. I do think that the games will be changed forever and the pandemic has greatly accelerated trends in sports media that have been expected over the next five years.” 

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 Jan 6, 2021

Brian Fox is founding member #1 of my Vistage CEO group. Brian is CEO of Zentis North America (www.zentis-usa.com). Armed with his 30+ years of rich experience in CPG industry, Brian was brought in as CEO of Zentis North America to help bring the company forward and set the organization up for future growth opportunities. 

Zentis operates in one of the most competitive industries (fruit processing) and in the most challenging part of its value chain (food ingredients). Brian is an epitome of grit and compassion – he just keeps going forward on the face of multiple challenges, and at the same time, he always offers help to his fellow CEO Peer Group members. Brian’s resilience is inspirational and his tenacity is un-matched. After two years of well-crafted and oft-adjusted operational strategy, he has built a great a team of great professionals, and set up the organization to achieve its goals and more in 2021 and beyond. 

What inspires Brian Fox? “I am a big fan of the Stockdale Paradox as I believe it to be a great recognition of tenacity in the face of true adversity. “You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” Admiral James Stockdale”