Announcement: A message about Coronavirus

A message from Kenneth Beck, CEO of CEOC

Like many of you, I have been closely monitoring the Coronavirus situation. The media coverage of the virus is creating fear and panic which is having a disproportionate and perhaps premature impact on businesses around the world.

Over the past several weeks, my team and I have been talking with CEO Connection members, government officials and industry experts regarding the potential impact of the Coronavirus on mid-market companies. We wanted to know how they are handling the situation and what we can do to help them – their response was been clear: help us gain access to insightful information and strategies, particularly from other mid-market CEOs to manage both the perceived and real challenges ahead.

As a result, we are taking a number of steps to support our members immediately.

To start, we are organizing small-group video meetings to create forums for CEOs to connect, share insights, and to strategize. Here’s an overview of this program:

• Confidential, Small Group, Video Meetings. CEOC will convene a series of small, interactive, 60-minute video conference calls for our Premium members. Initially, we will host two sessions for eight CEOs each (CEOs only). This format will enable close, confidential conversation and meaningful dialogue. We will consider scaling this program to additional CEO members as well.

• Focused Agenda. The agenda for each meeting will be focused on each CEO sharing what he/she is seeing and doing in four areas:
  • Individual Observations – Both in the U.S. and internationally (if applicable);
  • Financial/Business Impact – Impact to operations, supply chain and financials;
  • People strategy – Communication/morale/remote work strategies; and,
  • Forecast/Planning – Insights about what might happen next, ways to prepare, etc.
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• Facilitated Discussions – Joe Hart, CEO of Dale Carnegie and the Chair of our Talent Management Committee has agreed to co-facilitate these meetings. With 200 operations in 86 countries, Joe has been on the front lines of the Coronavirus situation with his team since the very beginning and can share first-hand insights and strategies.
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• Timing – The first two meetings will be on Thursday, March 12^th at 3 pm Eastern and Monday, March 16^th at 5:30 pm Eastern. If you are interested in participating, you can register by clicking here. We will take the first eight registrants for each meeting and then go to a waitlist.
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• Preparation – As preparation for these calls, here are two useful articles one from McKinsey and one from our very own George Bradt:
  • McKinsey’s article
  • George’s article

In addition to these small group meetings, CEOC is taking other steps to support our members:

• Webinar – We will host a webinar for all Premium CEOC members on Monday, March 30^th at 5:30 pm Eastern to review the types of strategies and insights from the small group meetings, as well as to discuss new developments. To register for that webinar, you can click on the link below.
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• Mid-Market Coronavirus Task Force – We are establishing a task force, which will: 1) Marshal the combined resources of the mid-market; 2) Share best practices; and 3) Implement any actions recommended by the membership. More to come on this shortly.
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• Mid-Market Coronavirus Hot Line – We will create a hotline for members who have specific issues they need to manage. More to come on this shortly.

Our country is at its best when faced with a common challenge. I have full faith that the government (both parties) and medical experts will put their differences aside and once again, as Americans have always done in the face of adversity, rise to the occasion to find a solution that will stop the spread of this disease.   In the meantime, we as the Mid-Market business community will join together to help each other manage the challenges ahead.

You do great things on your own … we can do even greater things together!