CEO Leadership Insights - July 2025

“I have always believed in planning big;

and I have always discovered after the fact,

if anything, we didn’t plan big enough.”

Alfred P. Sloan

1875-1966

Chairman and CEO of General Motors

Five Leadership Lessons from a Marine

Leadership in any area of life is important, but it isn’t usually literally a matter of life or death.  In war, however, it certainly is and perhaps the United States Marine Corps knows this better than anyone as the Corps has long been known as “the first to fight.”

My fellow Vistage Chair, Michael Malone, served in the Marine Corps for over four decades, attaining the rank of Colonel, on active duty and in the reserves.  In a blog post he shares 5 leadership lessons from the U.S. Marine Corps.

Thanks, Mike for this article and for your long service to our country and Constitution.

“The Hidden Cost of Standing Still”

When uncertainty prevails or a recession begins, a company’s investment in marketing is often one of the first areas to feel the cost reduction ax. This may be understandable without being wise.

Vistage Speaker Marc Emmer in a new post on the Vistage website observes “Marketing can influence enterprise value, unlike ever before.”

In many SMB companies, the marketing function is not as well developed or as valued as the sales function. But to quote the father of modern management, Peter Drucker: “The Aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous”.

To help you manage the marketing function, Mr. Emmer offers his annual benchmark on marketing spending and practices, (with) findings from the CMO Survey, a joint effort from Duke University, Deloitte, and the American Marketing Association. 

CEOs would do well to remember a few other words of Dr. Drucker on the subject  “Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two — and only these two — basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.’

I think the marketing function in your enterprise will be well served by spending a few minutes with Mr. Emmer’s executive summary of  “Marketing '25: AI, uncertainty and the cost of standing still.”

Is Your HR Department A Profit Center?

That’s the question that Vistage Speaker and Employment Law expert Hunter Lott says that you should be able to answer in the affirmative.  He wants your HR Department to be truly strategic, profitable and not merely an administrative cost center.

If you’ve got four minutes, he’ll tell you how to make your HR Department an Outlier.

Econ Recon:

Uncertainty 29X:  “29:”  That’s how many times the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee used the word “uncertainty” (or something like) in the minutes of a recent meeting. Despite this, ITR Economics’ Brian Beaulieu also points out the positive economic news on the retail side, which for some will be bad news because it doesn’t suggest a need to reduce interest rates.  Mr. Beaulieu sorts it out for you in his latest Fed Watch posting.

Who’s Carrying the Load?:  We hear a lot about income inequality, and a frequently suggested remedy is to increase taxes on high-net-worth individuals. But do you know who pays most of the taxes and how “equitably” that burden is shared?   Economist Brian Wesbury does and will explain it to you in his latest “Three on Thursday” blog post which offers a great one page overview of “Federal Taxes: Who’s Carrying the Load?”

Friends,

As you navigate your challenges and opportunities this year, who are you turning to for advice?

Don't go it alone. My CEO peer advisory group consists of 18 high-performing, non-competing business owners. They share their experience to help each other solve their biggest challenges and capture their best opportunities, all in a confidential forum. As a result they grow faster, with less stress.

Contact me if you think you may be a candidate for our team. Typical members are growth-oriented CEOs/owners of southeastern New England businesses with revenues between $10 million and $200 million.

Do away with being 'lonely at the top'.

Scott