InterGrowth Connections Provide Global Value

ACG has a lot to celebrate. Highlights of ACG InterGrowth – Make The Connection! are profiled in this issue. Ardelle St.George, Vice President of InterGrowth, Carl Wangman, the InterGrowth Committee, and the rest of the ACG staff and a number of our talented chapter administrators delivered on the promise to bring together knowledge leaders and many of you for unparalleled networking in a great setting. You know InterGrowth delivered content when Michael Milken commented on the intelligence he gained from the China Perspectives panel. Further demonstrating the range of content, concurrent sessions to that panel were: Alternative Finance Models: Business Model for the Future; Beyond Compliance: M&A in an Environment of Good Governance; and Problem Deals: War Stories from the Front. As expected, Al Michaels packed the room talking about the business of sports and the impact of cable on network television. Some of us undoubtedly expected a canned speech, but his call two days earlier confirming that ABC had been outbid for broadcast rights for NFL games made the remarks at InterGrowth his first public comments on the change. The Q&A session brought Howard Cosell back to life, and one had the sense Al wished he could stick around for the Celebration of ACG Stars that evening. We celebrated the successes of our chapters in the past year and presented awards to Sid Jaffe, George Stevenson, Den White (ACG Meritorious Service), and Jim Tucker (Immediate Past President); and, yes, one of the semis was for Ardelle’s wardrobe changes. Chapter leaders and the ACG board of directors spent a day implementing our new governance model and discussing how best to grow ACG. There was good debate about the improvements in transparency and budgeting. Paul Stewart, Vice President of Chapter Development, Treasurer Harris Smith and others worked hard to ensure that the annual ACG leadership meeting wasn’t a top-down report but, rather, a time for suggestions, exchange of best practices, and discussion about improving ACG. Ram Charan, noted strategist and author, provided his observations about the ACG organization he has come to know over the last six months. He moved the leadership group of 100-plus members quickly into prioritizing the tactical actions ACG should take in the next four quarters to deliver our value proposition to each chapter and member. If you want to hear more, ask your chapter presidents whether the author of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done let them clear Blackberries (a thank you plug to Jim Balsillie, CEO of RIM) or challenged them to grow. We agreed that marketing, public relations, and communication with each other using the power of the Internet are high-priority action items. We also know that most of you weren’t with us at InterGrowth. We are working to capture and archive the powerful content in the InterGrowth speeches and panels and exceptional chapter presentations so that they’re available on demand. We believe that in addition to the 300 ACG Atlanta members in attendance at their April 28 meeting, many of you would appreciate hearing Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Co., discuss growing iconic brands and how Coke is executing its growth strategies in more than 200 countries. If you have thoughts on this initiative – bringing thought-leadership content to ACG members through the Web – let us know. I close with a thank you to ACG Los Angeles. At the leadership meeting in Palm Desert, Michael Carr, on behalf of ACG Los Angeles, announced a $100,000 investment and strategic assistance to Patrick Hurley and others in making ACG’s Asia initiative a reality this year. Congratulations also to ACG Indiana, which, in only its second year, had 200 attendees at its first annual Corporate Value Awards Dinner. Our business model is working because ACG Indiana leaders were able to benefit from the experience and advice of ACG National Capital, Cleveland, Greater Cincinnati – to name just a few chapters that have had success with annual awards dinners. These events take considerable work, but it’s important to our collective success that we recognize the individuals and companies in our chapters that are growth leaders. Let’s keep the momentum going this month. (c) 2005 Mergers and Acquisitions Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.majournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com