NEW ORLEANS – Going into its fourth year, Louisiana Economic Development (LED) is again offering regional CEO Roundtables; which convene 15 to 18 qualified, key decision-makers from Louisiana-based small businesses.
These businesses will meet for half day sessions over the course of a year (10 times). The application period is open through March 31 for roundtables commencing in July of 2017.
Participation in the CEO Roundtables provides access to numerous benefits, including peer-to-peer learning through discussion, interaction and the sharing of experiences that allow participants to learn from each other’s achievements and mistakes. CEO Roundtables also provide support through highly qualified facilitators, expert guest speakers and connection to various small business resources.
For consideration, applicants must be a CEO, business owner or key decision maker in the company. The company should typically employ at least five but not more than 100 employees and have an annual revenue between $600,000 and $50,000,000. The company should ideally be in a target industry as identified by LED including: manufacturing, finance and insurance services, administrative services and emerging industries. It should also deliver products or services to customers outside the company’s local market area or demonstrate the capacity to do so. The company must be organized for profit to perform a lawful, commercially useful function. Additional consideration will be given to companies that demonstrate high growth potential.
CEO Roundtable Tentative Topics include:
OVERVIEW & DIAGNOSTICS (ROUNDTABLE 1):
A detailed examination of the business to explore various facets of the company’s health. This process identifies areas targeted for improvement necessary to move the company forward.
VALUE PROPOSITION, & GOALS (ROUNDTABLE 2 & 3) VALUE PROPOSITION:
What is the promise of gain that a client can expect to realize as a result of purchasing the company’s products or services?
• Core Purpose — Simply stated, why does the company exist? This is the business’ fundamental reason for being.
• Core Values — Foundational statements of professed beliefs shared by an organization. Core values inform all aspects of
the business.
• Goals — What are the top five goals and within those five, the single most important goal that must be achieve. Then, what is the
BHAG — the Big Hairy Audacious Goal? The BHAG identifies the stretch result that ownership and top management- may have for the business, but perhaps never articulated.
MARKETING & SALES (ROUNDTABLE 4 & 5):
• Market Segment — Which market segment is the target segment for the company’s offerings?
• Market Channel — What are the proper channels to address your customer segment?
• Marketing Process — The collection of actions necessary to identify and target market segments. • Sales Process — Managing the transition process of a potential buyer from a prospect to client.
PLANNING (ROUNDTABLE 6 & 7):
• Strategic Planning — The process of finalizing the goals and PHAG and defining the action steps, financial resources, human and other resources necessary to realize those goals.
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY (ROUNDTABLE 8 & 9):
• Staffing Needs Analysis — The examination of an entity’s bandwidth to accomplish revenue producing anti/or administrative activities.
• Meeting Rhythms — The schedule at which certain segments of the organization interact in a group setting. Typically defined as annual, quarterly, weekly, and daily meetings along with who meets when and what topics/agenda items are addressed.
• Time Management — The organization of activities in a workday with the stated goal of maximized efficiency and task completion.
• Employee Survey — An examination of the company’s health by talking to those in its employ. Employee surveys can reveal inefficiencies in systems, ethical and legal issues, client issues, sales problems, etc.
WRAP-UP, SUMMARY & GRADUATION (ROUNDTABLE 10):
A conclusion to and overview of the previous nine roundtables and graduation of participants.
