Phil Melugin declined an invitation to join Vistage’s first peer advisory group.
For Bruce Nasby, business conversations are centered on sharing value.
As owner of a global consulting firm and a former executive vice president of Enactus, much of Nasby’s professional career has been spent building partnerships between corporations and charitable organizations. Now, as chairman of Springfield’s second peer advisory group under San Diego-based Vistage Worldwide Inc., he’s trying to connect more of Springfield’s chief executives.
“When I was with Enactus, I wasn’t that engaged with the community because I wasn’t around that much,” Nasby said of his international role with the Springfield-based business education nonprofit. “Now, I kind of know Springfield. I know who the movers and shakers are.”
Vistage entered southwest Missouri in 2012, but it has 20,000 members in 16 countries. Members are owners, CEOs, presidents and managing partners of businesses with at least $5 million in annual revenue and 25 employees. Members rotate monthly meetings at their offices, candidly discussing such issues as internal and external communications, capital expansion and health care costs.
“What happens in the room stays in the room – it’s a very confidential environment,” said Jeff Hindman, who chairs Springfield’s first Vistage group as well as two others in St. Louis, where he runs executive search firm The Hindman Group Inc.
Vistage membership is by invitation, and prospects first interview with the chairperson.
Early stage
Vistage has yet to sign any members to the new group. Nasby said he has about 25 prospects he’ll contact in anticipation of a first meeting in April.
“I’m interviewing them, and they’re interviewing me,” said Nasby, who works full time as president of Global Advisory Associates LLC. “I have to bring value to them, and I need to see that they can work within the group.”
Groups must have eight members, and they’re capped at 16.
Build LLC President Ron Barrett said while he was unfamiliar with Vistage, he sees the value of company leaders educating each other on business practices.
“There are always challenges and curveballs that pop up, and it would be nice to have a peer group to bounce that off of,” Barrett said. “Being with peers that are maybe in the same tax bracket as your business, that’s a very valuable tool that I’d love to be able to access.”
The first local Vistage group launched by Hindman in 2012 has 12 members. Hindman said the focus is on adding the right members to the mix, and typically only one person from a single industry is represented.
The membership roster and dues are held in confidence. Nasby said the commitment to attend daylong monthly meetings is more of a barrier to candidates.
“It varies; it can be a few hundred dollars and it can be a few thousand dollars,” Nasby said. “Usually money isn’t the issue with CEOs – the issue is their time.”
Phoenix Home Care Inc. CEO and President Phil Melugin said the time commitment and cost were two points of concern when he was contacted about joining the first Springfield group around the time of its launch.
“It seemed like a steep price to pay,” Melugin said, noting he currently seeks advice from the accountants, lawyers and bankers with which Phoenix does business. “The value to a group like that – that I might be missing – would be sitting down with an owner and getting feedback from someone I don’t have a business relationship with already.”
Nasby said Vistage identified the Springfield metropolitan statistical area as a market with growth potential based on the number of companies that would qualify for the organization’s minimum sales and employee numbers. Unaware of the company’s triggers for expanding in existing markets, Nasby said as independent contractors he and Hindman do not have exclusive rights to start new groups in and around Springfield.
“As I’m meeting with business professionals, if they don’t meet these requirements I’ll be keeping them in mind if I want to start another group,” Nasby said, referencing separate Vistage groups for small businesses, second-tier executives or business advisers. There is also a possibility for Hindman’s group to transfer to Nasby.
“It’s still being discussed,” Nasby said.
Building business
Nasby, also a member of a St. Louis-based Vistage group, said problems discussed at the table represent common concerns.
“CEOs can go to trade association and networking events to get to know the business community, but when they have to solve issues facing their business they really need counsel from the same kind of people who stay up late at night worrying about payroll and meeting revenue,” Nasby said.
BKD LLP managing partner John Wanamaker said between internal partner meetings, studies by trade publications and an affiliation with a global auditing and accounting group, the firm already has most of the resources it needs when seeking peer advice or benchmark data for performance comparisons. He added that membership in a group like Vistage could hold value for executives who lack a readily accessible counterpart at their own company.
“If you’re the CEO of a manufacturing company, you’re the one who is supposed to have all the answers,” Wanamaker said. “That old adage, ‘It’s lonely at the top’ – who do you ask if you’re wondering about a decision?”
Within Vistage, that person might be the executive sitting across the circle or it could be one of more than 900 experts Nasby and Hindman can schedule as guest speakers for meetings, discussing topics from cybersecurity to family succession planning. The chairmen also hold individual coaching sessions and track members’ follow-through each month on the issues discussed.
“That group will become a very close advisory group for each other,” Nasby said. “That really is the key.”
