If you're a CEO or entrepreneur and you have any interest in growing your company, a peer group is essential. Meeting monthly with a group of fellow CEOs who provide advice and informally hold you accountable makes for excellent positive-pressure.
I measure the success of a peer group by how many "ah-ha" moments I have per year. In its best years, my peer group would net me about ten. Imagine having a staggering "ah-ha" moment every single month, where you suddenly feel incredibly dumb. But with that comes a flood of passion and urgency to improve. That's what a peer group delivers.
For the past five years, I've been a member of a group made up of CEOs in industries like construction, manufacturing, automobile, biotech, and water. In 2016, I didn't get many "ah-ha" moments from the group. I decided to make a change.
Being the CEO of a technology company, and being about thirty years younger than the average age of the group, one would question if it was ever a good fit. I can say without a doubt that what I learned in that group trounces any lessons gleaned from a "tech startup CEO" group.
Why? There are many business truisms that transcend industry, business size and age. In my experience, peer groups made up of tech CEOs suffer from echo chamber disease.
Tech CEOs think there's always a technology solution to every problem.
"Customers aren't paying you on time? Your invoicing system just sucks."
"Customer acquisition a problem? Just search producthunt.com for lead gen tools."
A lot of addressing the symptom, not the problem.
Tech CEO groups also have a bias towards reinventing every business area. "Let's think up HR from scratch" is much harder, and more costly, than considering "what are some tried and true HR trends that work across several different industries?"
So my base requirement for any peer group is that I be one of only a couple technology companies in its membership.
Since I'm in the market for a new group, I've spoken to chairs in every org I list below. What follows is my take on each group, and what their ideal member profile would be.
.markup--p-anchor}\ This is the group I was in. Well, sort of. I was in a group of ex-Vistage members that went "rogue," because Vistage raised membership fees during the crash of 2008 which left a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of CEOs who were facing lay-offs and dramatic cost-cutting. So they quit and spun up their own thing.
That said, the group I was in continued to follow Vistage's "issue-processing" model, so I have a good sense of its benefits.
The pros of this group are plenty. You'll have access to CEOs from companies in all types, sizes, ages, and situations. There is a metric ton useful advice to be mined there. Monthly speakers and annual summits round out your exposure to advice.
So that's the good stuff. There's really only one bad thing I can cite about Vistage and it's a doozy: the average age of a chapter is 55. If you're in your 30s, while the advice you get will be hugely beneficial, you'll also become an expert on succession planning, retirement, heart problems, and other topics that only a sexagenarian would be passionate about.
Good prep for what's to come, I suppose.
Young Presidents Organization (YPO)**\ **You're setting up your tee shot on a gentle dogleg-left par 5. The person next to you is pontificating about the maintenance intervals of a Piper M500 turboprop. Not just any Piper M500. His Piper M500. The one he flew here to Jackson Hole, the location of this month's meeting.
How does the above sound to you? Cool? You'd probably be a great fit for YPO if you can afford the $20–30K/month required to keep up appearances.
In exchange for the monthly "boys weekend," you get a lack of member diversity, and a lack of peer accountability. I'd rate it low on the "ah-ha" meter unless it's "I need to buy a jet."
Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO**)\ **If Vistage/YPO are for Tim Cook, EO is for Steve Jobs. The key word here is entrepreneur. Vistage and YPO are designed for folks who came up through the ranks and eventually became a CEO. Nothing wrong with that, or their advice. But EO focuses on founder-CEOs. That can be a good thing if you're an entrepreneur yourself.
There's something unique about an entrepreneur-CEO's approach to growing a business that can't be easily replicated by an operational CEO who's there to make sure the lights stay on, and to figure out how to add 10% more lights next year.
The average age of an EO chapter is 40.
Like Vistage, there are monthly meetings, speakers, and annual summits, so no value is lost there.
Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC)**\ **This is less of a peer group and more of a "concierge service" for entrepreneurs. By becoming a member, you get access to a service that connects you to experts in the issue you're experiencing.
Having trouble scaling sales? Talk to some of the best-performing growth VPs in the country.
Need HR advice? Talk to a CHRO who just rewrote an employee handbook for a 2,000-person company.
If you're a tactician that wants easy access to best practices, I'd give YEC a look. Otherwise, there are no monthly meetings, summits, or speakers. My sense is there's also no model for peer accountability, etc., which rules this group out in my book.
especially if you aren't already in a group.
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