Success is Not Linear

In this Issue

1. Success is Not Linear
2. Another Form of a Business Accelerator
3. Scary...and Instructive
4. Tool or Tutor?
5. The Coming HR Storm
6. Econ Recon

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Success Isn't Linear

As a business leader, you'll encounter moments that challenge the very foundation of your vision, stamina, and motivation on your path to success. The game of business requires a serious and thoughtful approach. Click to read?Nancy Solari‘s article on 5 key ways to meet the biggest challenges you'll face as a leader .

Use these 5 rules to help you navigate and win during challenging times in business.

Another Form of a Business Accelerator

Typically, we think of a business accelerator as a program that helps early-stage and startup companies grow and become profitable quickly.?

Many Vistage members call Vistage a business accelerator – not because it helped them in early stage growth, but rather because it provides a platform for growth and development that goes beyond traditional business support.?

I invite you to experience the resources of Vistage through an upcoming event in Chicago on October 1: The Road to Growth: Accelerating Your Legacy

In this afternoon workshop, you have the opportunity to participate in a keynote, panel discussion and hosted networking. Michael Kramer, CPA will deliver “The X Factor” outlining a 4-part system to realize extraordinary growth.

Our panel will discuss Accelerating Success: Growth and Exit Strategies for Your Company.? You will hear from and have time to interact with our panelists:

·????? Chuck Dushman, MBA , Area Managing Partner, Chief Outsiders

·????? Andrew Hansen , ?Founder-Owned Business Advisory, William Blair

·????? Maria Faletti Jugin, MS, SPHR , Human Resources Consultant, Insperity

·????? Eric Krucke , Advisory Director, Aprio

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If you are a CEO, owner or founder interested in sustainable and scalable growth, join us for this educational afternoon.? Registration:?The Road to Growth: Accelerating Your Legacy .?

Scary...and Instructive

Businesspeople are encouraged (and warned) to take the long view as regards the future, but it’s instructive from time to time to take the long view as regards the past as well.

To that end, the American Business History Center offer three views of American business the past 30 years.? Each of the three links below allow you to watch the rankings of the top 20 US firms in terms of market value, number of employees and profitability change in real time from 1993-2023.. You can watch 30 years of business history is less than three minutes for each of these time series.???

• Most Valuable American Companies 1995-2024 ?
• Largest American Employers 1994-2023 (One company was the number one employer for nearly the entire 30 years. Can you guess who it is?)
• Highest Profit US Companies 1994-2023

Over a generation, the change in the American business landscape is scary for the current winners. The change can be viewed as hopeful for those aspiring to greatness …and instructive for everyone.

For a deeper dived into success and failure, let me remind you about Jim Collins’ least well known book (but in some ways most important offering), How the Mighty Fall, ?which explores the?reason successful companies end up on the “ash heap” of business history. If you want the short version, ?this 24-minute interview of Jim Collins with Charlie Rose summarizing the book is a must see.

Tool or Tutor?

New technologies are usually accompanied by an initial frenzy when large amounts of time, talent and treasure are thrown at a new technology leading to a bubble, a bursting and then the real long term build out begins. Prior examples include electricity, railroads, the internet and now AI.

AI thought leader Greg Shove has a blog post (reprinted in Scott Galloway’s “No Mercy, No Malice”?blog) that is required reading to get the most out of AI. Shove thinks that too many of us “mistake GPT for ‘Better Google.’ ‘Better Google’ is Google. Using AI as a search engine is like using a screwdriver to bang down a nail. It?could?work, but not well. That’s what Bing is for. The reason people make this mistake? Few have discovered AI’s premier use case: as a thought partner.”

AI’s highest and best use may be more tutor than tool. Meet your new “Thought Partner .” In it Shove cautions, “If you’re using “AI is a bubble” as an excuse to ignore these [AI] capabilities, you’re making a big mistake.”

For anyone in the professional services arena, I still have seats available for this Friday’s afternoon (12:45 -2:30) workshop, AI in Action: Practical Tools and Strategies for Trusted Advisors, in the ?Rosemont area (Chicago). All levels of knowledge workers are invited.

The Coming HR Storm

Vistage Speaker and employment law expert Hunt Lott looks ahead at HR and shares some high level concerns and warnings in his recent “Take 5 Video” in which he shares the three biggest forces affecting HR in the next decade . In this post he cites an article by SHRM president Johnny C. Taylor that you may want to review and discuss. Here is an executive summary of the article .

Econ Recon: Ups…and Downs

GDP Revised Upward:? Second quarter GDP was revised upward from 2.8% to 3.0%! But according to economist Brian Wesbury, there’s another metric moving up that may be more important. Check out a this one-page recap Q2 GDP …and other things.

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Confidence Index is Down: ?GDP may be up but that’s a backward-looking metric. How about what’s ahead. This executive summary of the WSJ/Vistage Small Business CEO Confidence Index took a tumble in August.??Check out what it means for your business.

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I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. Labor Day is the official end of hot dog season. Seriously, it's recorded as such on the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council website. Make the most of this short week - with or without a hot dog.

Sue Tinnish, PhD,?Vistage Chair, Facilitator, & Executive Coach

Find me easily at: 847.404.7325, [email protected] , Twitter:?@STinnish, LinkedIn: www.dhirubhai.net/in/suetinnish , Website: https://vistage.com/chairs/sue.tinnish