Club CEO

Club CEO

By Sean Roth

Real Estate Editor

It's 8 a.m. The boardroom is already brimming with noise. Collected around the table are a group of 11 men mostly in Florida-friendly business attire of tropical shirts and slacks and one woman in a gray business suit.

The group is composed of chief executives of companies that produce in aggregate about $50 million a year in gross sales. Although the companies generate between $2 million and $15 million each annually, they are high profile and fast growing.

This is the Sarasota President's Forum chapter of TEC (The Executive Committee).

Created in 1957, San Diego-based TEC International was founded as a resource structure for top executives. "It's not like there is a CEO class people can take," says Larry Venable, chairman of the Sarasota TEC group.

TEC brings together noncompetitive executives to serve as the CEOs' de facto board of directors. Together they talk through their companies' challenges, leadership issues, employee compensation and the dozens of issues CEOs routinely confront. Each of the executives is expected to share his resources and experiences. Honesty is essential.

"These are just the bottom-line (decision makers)," Venable says. "We also discourage them from doing business together. We want everybody to be able to talk in total candor."

As chairman of the group, Venable moderates each of the group's meetings, brings in speakers four times a year and coordinates the content of the day-long sessions. TEC also provides a library of CEO resources online, including tips and best practices and an e-mail list-serve that covers the entire international membership.

Plus and minus feedback

Worldwide, the TEC organization has amassed more than 11,000 members, making it the largest chief-executive leadership company in the nation. Locally, the Sarasota group has 12 CEO members from companies such as Biolife LLC, New England Machinery, Eurotech Cabinetry, Ameritex Technologies, Super-Sensitive Musical Strings Co., Tarpon Coast National Bank, Esprix Technologies, Textile Automation Group, Eisenmann Construction, Tempra Technology and Trinity Graphics USA.

TEC members pay a monthly fee of about $650, but most TEC supporters compare the cost to having to hire an outside consultant or board of director, both of which can be much more expensive.

Members attend an almost all-day meeting and a separate 1.5-hour one-on-one meeting with the TEC chairman each month. "In our (one-on-one) meetings, I really try to talk to them about what they're doing with their business and what their concerns are," Venable says. "I try to act as a coach, asking them questions."

Throughout the year, members are expected to host one group meeting at their business.

"The host makes a presentation, which gives the group a Plus-Delta opportunity," Venable says. "They share all their financials and any strategies they have and sometimes even give us a tour. Then we get to give them feedback, both plus and minus about what we've seen. Hosts are also responsible for providing the continental breakfast and lunch."

About four times a year, the local TEC chairman brings in a guest speaker to highlight topics such as motivating employees or CEO tools.

The majority of the monthly member meetings are occupied with discussing company problems from the membership. Venable asks members who have a particular problem they want to discuss to fill out a standardized form prior to the meeting.

"It's really pretty simple," Venable says. "I ask them, 'Why is it important? What are your options?' We ask them to consider three or four possible solutions. And 'What exactly do you want from the group?' Sometimes they just want advice on what the best strategy is."

There is typically little outside work related to the TEC meetings, Venable says, but this year he gave the Sarasota TEC membership the added task of writing a strategic business plan.

"I gave it to them back in March, and they have until September to get it done," he says.

As for accountability, Venable says the main way they are held accountable is through peer pressure. "Each month we have a running list of issues," Venable says, "and we constantly are checking to see if they have been resolved. We are always asking at each meeting for status reports."

The Review attended a portion of one of the monthly meetings held recently in the Trinity Graphic office. Overall, the feel of group was akin to a formalized coffee club. The meetings also reflected on the home life of the top executives as well as their business achievements and challenges. CEOs talked openly about everything from national news, major family illnesses, their children's summer activities and even recent family vacations.

Venable says the most common problem his chapter of TEC confronts relate to finding quality employees. For those problems there are few adequate answers beyond headhunting and expansion, he says. "Ameritex (whose President Don Zirkelbach is a member) became so frustrated with the inability to find workers locally, it has opened a second plant in Hickory, N.C."

Members upbeat

When the CEOs talk about their business' current operations, the news is almost universally good.

• Lewis Albert, CEO and chairman of Tarpon Coast National Bank of Port Charlotte, told the group that his bank was scheduled to be acquired later that week. Albert announced he was becoming Florida president for the merged bank and would be looking in the state for new banking properties.

• David Asher, president of Eurotech Cabinetry Inc., said his company was generating sales 50% higher than last year.

• Judith Nickse, president and CEO of New England Machinery Inc., told the group the company booked 18 machines in July. "Given the sale price of our machines, that is pretty big," Nickse says. "We are looking to hire at least two mechanical engineers and some good salespeople."

• Zirkelbach told the group the marine accessory producer has its Hickory location operational, and he is now refocusing the entire company on quality issues.

• John Cavanaugh president of Super-Sensitive Musical String Co. talked about developing a new manufacturing building in Sarasota Industrial Park.

• Doug Goodman, president and chief executive, says Biolife was ready to begin work on the next generation of battlefront dressings.

Asked why TEC is helpful to his business, Francisco Serrano of Textile Automation Group says the group broadens his view. "It helps me change my mindset to that of CEO not just an employer," he says. "It has made my business much more structured and professional."

Zirkelbach says the participation of the other CEOs forces him to defend his own idea to solve a problem. "It gives me a good process to see what best fits my business," he says.

"It also takes a lot of burden off my shoulders knowing that at least once a month I can talk about it in TEC. Where else can you get a CEO board for this cheap?"

Albert says he views the group as a good sounding board for ideas before he takes them to more internal business entities such as his board of directors.

"It can be lonely at the top, trying to run a business," Cavanaugh says. "This gives me a place where I can share ideas with other people. It really gives you the encouragement to make (business decisions) happen. It is extremely good at helping you work through ideas. If it is a cockamamie idea, they can really help to put the brakes on it pretty quick."

Robert Smithson, owner of Trinity Graphics USA, says the group has helped him delegate. "I used to make too many decisions myself," Smithson says. "They really helped me in regard to listening to other people's input, which was almost always correct. It really holds me accountable. And it is the single most cost-effective way for me to help guide my company."