Listening, Learning, Leading: What’s Next for the Outsell CEO Network
We have been on a listening tour with members over the past few months and based on your extraordinary feedback we are tuning elements of our offering, the CEO Network, to you — CEOs, COOS, MDs, Presidents and Division Heads. It’s not always about the title — it’s about the responsibilities and you’ve told us you want to be in the room with leaders running businesses, organizations, P&Ls, whether standalone or subsidiary — public or private, big or little, division or company.
Over virtual cups of coffee with two dozen members here’s just a few of the things we’re implementing based on what you’ve told us.
- Ensure F2F meetings and meet-ups are the norm and use digital meetings for the rare “can’t wait emergency topic” worth convening over.
- Publish the calendar a year in advance so you can plan trips around attendance and block them on your calendar.
- In return you’re willing to RSVP sooner so that we and you know who is coming and you are better matched with non-competing leaders during morning problem-solving sessions. (This also provides a chance to flag topics you wish to contribute to, or avoid, and allows us to better facilitate and plan.)
- You’ve also asked for no substitutes. Not only do you wish to be with ‘your peers’ with in-common business models, issues, or company types/sizes — you want to avoid fellow members ‘delegating down’ and diluting the experience these meetings have to offer. On rare occasion when one is required you are OK if it’s the same person and that person is in an operating role too.
- You’d like biographies about members in advance of meeting. Ahead of the meeting so you can ‘get to know’ those you may be sitting with before you sit down together.
- Put dinners ahead of each meeting. They are social glue, ‘act as a warm-up’ and offer serendipity of meeting new people while mingling and dining with those you may be in the room with the next day and have not met.
- Add upcoming events to all member communications. Including the Member Newsletter; Outsell Daily Doorway, and signature lines with calls-to-action to RSVP.
- Repeat updates about newly published analysis and proactively send updates about items important to you.
- Continue to meet the need for more case studies through research or P2P discussion and carry progress through from meeting-to-meeting where applicable and create more opportunities for benchmarks, operating practices, and ‘give to gets’ or member to member practice.
- Drop the client advisor role. Go back to our roots of having a community manager to triage inquiries, run benchmarks, and research operating practices, give-to-gets, and can address the unique research needs of the CEO community. Your needs vary — we have 30+ SMEs and growing every day, and the alchemy is in speed to answers which this person can help you navigate too.
- Consider using text or WhatsApp to communicate. Are you open to this? Please let us know as it would save us all a lot of email and back and forth. You have also asked that we put your EA/PA on all communication and give him/her access to the platform or ability to inquire on your behalf.
- Bring back an annual CEO Only event — You miss that extended time together and asked us to lean-back into a one-day event for CEOs in industry. This year we programmed the CEO Summit October 8 in London — brought back at your request and have reserved dates for next year as well.
Your wish is our command. There’s more and we’re super excited to meet the intelligence and operating needs unique to every leader like you.
These calls are where the alchemy happens and are the favorite part of my day. There is nothing like speaking to members and it’s the part of Outsell that brings us our greatest joy!
And remember when you need answers whether our research, our experts, or from your peers, we’ll ensure you have the answers. We are a call away!