Being at the top can be isolating, but the Vistage CEO Advisory Board is providing peer-to-peer support to the top business leaders on Long Island.
“The dilemma of being a CEO, a business leader on top is sometimes you feel lonely,” Vistage Long Island Chairperson Fenella Kim said. “At the top are issues and challenges that we feel as a business leader that we can’t speak or discuss with our employees.”
This is where Vistage steps in, an advisory board of local business leaders who come together to workshop ideas, provide feedback and offer support to their fellow business leaders as they embark on similar issues.
Vistage is a global organization that provides peer-to-peer support for CEOs and business leaders, spanning across more than 40 countries with 45,000 members.
While large businesses and publicly listed companies operate with their own board of directors, Vistage caters to small and medium-sized businesses that may not be large enough to solicit their own internal board.
“It is there to help guide the management and guide the CEO; to give the management outside perspective and different board advisors’ individual experiences to help contribute to the growth and guide the business through challenges and difficulties,” Kim said.
Kim compared the advisory board to scaling a mountain, both finding success in following an experienced guide up the peak and doing it with your teammates.
“Everybody is their subject matter expert in their industry,” Kim said. “Every one of these board members they are amazing in what they do… So we want them to share their resources, their ideas, their creations, their opinions and their perspectives on things.”
In turn, a member sitting across from them on the board, regardless of their industry, can be inspired to bring that action to their business or find a solution to a problem they’ve been seeking to solve.
But the impacts are resounding, Kim said.
“It means creating more job opportunities here on Long Island, it means that it increases more revenue for the business and it means that it helps contribute more to the society and the community,” Kim said.
Kim was introduced to Vistage by being a board member herself. Kim has built several financial tech companies over her 20-year career and is the founder of Leader Transcend LLC, which partners with local businesses nationwide to help with their development.
Learning of its first-hand benefits, Kim said she was inspired to establish the Long Island chapter of Vistage to bring the skills she learned to better her business and leadership skills to even more business leaders.
Kim said she promised her Vistage mentors Norm Brodsky and the late Hal Cherney that someday she too would pay it forward, and now she is answering that calling.
The Vistage advisory board comprises individuals from non-competing businesses, meaning only one business leader per industry is permitted on the board.
Joining the board is by invitation only, with Kim curating the members for the advisory board.
“I’m looking for board members who are hungry,” Kim said. “Hungry and who want to scale their company further and has big dreams and big visions and has great products and services.”
Other attributes Kim looks for are a lifelong desire to learn, humbleness, dedication to building a better team and a willingness to give back.
Kim’s advisory board for large company CEOs has 12 members, with space for about six to eight more to join. Once filled, Kim said she wants to establish other boards to cater to different business stages, sizes and leaders.
Individuals interested in joining or learning more can email Kim at Fenella.Kim@vistagechair.com.
