Welcome to the Vistage Ireland blog

As a Vistage Group Chair operating in Dublin, I am very conscious of the challenges and opportunities facing CEOs today.
The dictionary of disaster words has been exhausted to describe the current economic and financial position of the country in which businesses have to operate. 

And yet, every CEO has to get up and lead his or her business every day, and find ways of dealing directly and through his/her staff with a myriad of issues, all of which are more complex and time-consuming today:-
- retaining existing customers and maintaining the relevance of service offerings and products……
- finding new customers and products, determining if a revamp of the website be cost-effective….
- dealing with suppliers seeking ever tighter credit terms and sourcing new ones……..
- finding ways of cutting costs and improving operations, maybe logistics, IT, financial management, CRM etc without damanging the business………..
- finding ways of using scarce working capital more effectively……….
- dealing with the banks and shortage of credit…….
- making the right decisions about employees, whether it is deciding to stay on course, cut numbers, reduce pay or taking a risk with new specialist hires….
- and maintain morale in the workforce so that the firm can operate to the best of its capability.

Leadership and management has never been so challenging, nor the stakes so high for businesses.  Whether managing a large organisation with many senior professionals or a smaller organisation with a limited staff, the opportunity that Vistage gives to CEOs to meet in a Vistage designed, confidential setting to thrash out these challenges and identify the opportunities with other experienced CEOs can make all the difference…….

Vistage was set up by an American CEO for CEOs over 50 years ago and it has honed its service to its 15,000 members over the years to provide relevant and reliable support, advice and expertise.  If you would like to know more contact me at 01 4968460/01 2916039.

Kyran Fitzgerald, a well known business journalist will provide monthly articles commenting on business subjects and the first ones are published here. You have the opportunity to tell us what subjects you would like covered, by emailing …… or to post your comment below the articles…

2 Responses to “Welcome to the Vistage Ireland blog”

1. David
   7:57 am on July 30th, 2010

   Hi
   I would like to see more info on how banks are really helping “the small business”
   All the small businesses i know are being severely crippled by the banks and are slowly dying.
   Because banks are not lending to small businesses to help them through the recession by increasing their cash flow.
   Surely our small businesses are the life blood of the economy.
   I always thought the banks were in the business of lending money, so why are they hanging on to it,”its may ball and you can’t have it attitude”
   Why one law for one, Didn’t after all the banks have public bailouts.

2. Ian Bowland - the Ireland Self Catering Guy
   5:25 pm on November 4th, 2010

   Etain
   You’re absolutely right – business is getting tougher and demands even greater. There are myriad issues affecting us all. However, I’m a firm believer in concentrating on the few key issues (80% of sales come from 20% of products – so make those better) and through doing just that and managing time better you can be immediately be far more productive. I set myself tasks and don’t answer the phone, look at emails or any other distractions until I’ve finished that task. I set a stopwatch for myself at http://www.online-stopwatch.com so I feel I’m under time pressure – it may sound corny but it really works!!