Benefits of Membership
For over 40 years, the ABL Organization’s helped ambitious Tech and Healthcare CEOs accelerate the growth of their companies, enabling these Adaptive Business Leaders to take their organizations to the next level – including raising funding and “taking money off the table.”
As the premier forum for CEOs in the healthcare and tech industries, ABL’s monthly confidential Round Tables offer a unique opportunity for its Members to discuss their toughest issues and receive valuable feedback from their peers. Our professionally-facilitated, peer-mentoring approach blends the most current business thinking with real-time case studies, enabling our members to avoid pitfalls and take advantage of new opportunities.
For our Healthcare members, our Round Tables are particularly valuable as the industry undergoes massive changes in payment reform and governmental mandates. For both our Healthcare and Tech Members, our industry expert speakers and cutting-edge issue discussions better enable them to navigate business challenges and succeed in an ever-changing landscape.
But that’s not all – we also publish ABL Online, a bi-weekly Member News & Trendletter, to promote our Members and their companies’ latest achievements and the trends that can lead to opportunities for even greater success. Each year, we also hold the Innovations in Healthcare ABBY Awards event, recognizing digital health and other companies for their innovative approaches and technologies that are reducing the cost of quality care.
What’s most exciting about ABL, however, is our position at the nexus of the two fastest-growing sectors of the economy – technology and healthcare. With Tech Round Tables held throughout Greater LA-Orange County, and Healthcare Tables from Orange and LA Counties to the Bay Area, our Members have access to a diverse and dynamic community of CEOs and industry experts with whom to connect and collaborate.
Admittedly, ABL is not for everyone. But you owe it to yourself to take the next step by scheduling a call with us, to see if it’s right for you.
LEARN HOW ABL MEMBERSHIP CAN BENEFIT YOU!
What Our Members Value Most
Members are able to stay abreast of industry trends that affect their business and keep ahead of the curve in their rapidly changing industry. Connections made within the groups – and throughout the ABL Organization – further accelerate business growth. Members experience full value and a solid return on their investment of time and fees when attending the monthly sessions on a regular basis.
HOW ARE ABL CEO ROUND TABLES DIFFERENT FROM OTHER CEO GROUPS?
Among the most frequently asked questions we hear at the Adaptive Business Leaders Organization (ABL) is, “How is an ABL CEO Round Table forum different from a Vistage group?” (Variations on this theme include “How are you different from YPO, The Alliance of CEOs,” and seemingly dozens of other “networking” groups.)
The answer is FOCUS. Frankly, not all “contacts” that one makes while “networking” are equal, nor is the quality of their business advice. The better another person understands your industry and its unique competitive, operational, and regulatory ecosystem, the more specific and valuable their executive insights, guidance, and referrals can be.
For over 30 years, I’ve witnessed time and again a Tech CEO pose to his or her fellow Technology Round Table mates a question that only someone at the CEO-level in a tech firm, who’s dealt with similar challenges, could respond to adequately. These include questions like: how to deal with prima donna developers, what are the nuances associated with rewriting programs in a new computer language or on a new platform, what’s the best way to transition from “waterfall” to “agile” development, or how to determine the tax implications of various ways of granting equity?
And, the same thing is true for our Healthcare Members, where in their Healthcare-Industry-Only Round Tables, they can candidly and confidentially discuss how, in each of their sectors, they can survive and thrive under a barrage of changes in legislation, regulations, reimbursement, and patient expectations, while integrating the new Health IT solutions necessary to meet the radically changing requirements and mandates of the marketplace and payer community.
Fortunately for our current Members, our Founding Chairman, Walter Bauer CEO of Informatics General, had been a member of TEC (The Executive Committee, now Vistage). And, while he appreciated the value of hearing about the “general business” issues faced by CEOs in other industries, he noticed that his fellow members’ eyes glazed over when he spoke about many of the challenges he faced running his software technology company. So, in 1983, Walt proposed three requirements to our founding professional facilitators: 1) each Round Table would be composed of only technology CEO Members – or individuals running corporate tech divisions; 2) the sessions would only last half a day (many groups require full-day meetings); and 3) cut the price in half (ABL Membership has typically been less than half the investment of other CEO groups). Six years later, in 1989, we applied the same criteria in the formation of our first Healthcare Round Table – and have for all of our industry-focused Round Tables ever since.
ABL’s current Technology Chair, Dave Berkus, who’s been an active ABL Member since 1988, posted that he finds the greatest value in ABL, in “the constant hearing of stories by these CEOs of how they were able to adapt to changes in their environment and alter the course of their leadership, adapting to external influences that had changed in their industry or the economy.”
Unquestionably, these stories are all the more meaningful because they’re from fellow Technology CEOs, who reside in a similar tech-focused environment. And, the same is true for our Healthcare Members as well.