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Area Business Leaders on How They Managed the Pandemic — and What Has Changed

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Cover Story

Five Years After COVID

Though COVID-19 had been in the news since late 2019, this week marks the fifth anniversary of what most consider the real start of the pandemic: when Massachusetts leaders shut down most businesses for what many hoped would be only a few weeks.

Everyone remembers what happened next: weeks stretched into months, the economic impacts reverberated for years, businesses adapted and pivoted, and some did not survive. But most did, and many came out stronger (or at least wiser) on the other end.

We asked the leaders of some of those businesses for their recollections about the difficult days of 2020, how they navigated the challenges, and what has changed because of the pandemic — in some cases, for good.

 

Jeff Fialky, Shareholder, Bacon Wilson

Jeff Fialky

Jeff Fialky

During the early winter of 2019, the management of Bacon Wilson had been following the news regarding what was then loosely described as a virus that was spreading around Asia and later into Western Europe. By early to mid-February 2020, it was becoming increasingly clear that we were all engaged in a global health crisis, and by March, the daily updates had reached the critical mass, resulting in en masse event cancellations and business closures.

Bacon Wilson, like many local businesses, held a number of internal meetings on how to approach the impending business closures. Ultimately, our office shut down in-person activities in mid-March 2020 and provided services remotely to the extent possible.

I recall that, at the time of the shutdown, I was running a large case load of business, real-estate, and financing transactions, nearly all of which were immediately put on hold or terminated by the party participants. I vividly recall the fears that I had those first few weeks, with stories running in the media harkening back to the 1918 Spanish flu, and the resultant financial and economic implications. I think many of us were testing out internal fears of a worst-case scenario during those initial days while we were experiencing a business climate that was unprecedented during our lifetime.

Following the first month or so, business continued remotely to the extent possible, and conference calls started to become calls on the then mostly unknown service called Zoom, which ultimately became a defining technology for the COVID era, which continues to the present. The practice of law is not known, perhaps, for technological innovation or being a leading indicator of change, but permitting face-to-face communication with clients via remote technology was a game changer for many industries, which the legal community adopted immediately.

Over the first six months or so of the COVID era, and with the introduction of masks, hand sanitizers, and other protective health measures, slowly the Bacon Wilson offices restaffed with in-person work (subject to public health orders). There are many now-humorous anecdotes of closings in our parking lot with papers exchanged through partially opened car windows, of papers slid through small holes in plexiglass separators in conference rooms, and all sorts of unique and creative ways of protecting (to the best knowledge at the time, which evolved daily) and providing comfort to understandably concerned clients.

Despite the continuing health concerns that may have been experienced, the business community and climate flourished. Of the transactions in my workload that had fallen apart during the March shutdown, nearly all had come back, and that time would signal the start to a flurry of business activity that would persist through COVID and following. The pandemic years were some of the highest-volume years our firm had ever experienced.

Initially, one can point to lower interest rates, which continued to prompt commercial and residential real-estate transactions, as well as the continued and increased interest by private-equity firms in business mergers and acquisitions. Then, following the CARES Act, and with the influx of federal funds pouring into the market by virtue of the Paycheck Protection Program, the momentum increased precipitously and continued well into 2023.

Notwithstanding the vigor of the economic climate, Bacon Wilson nonetheless experienced the same challenges as other employers with increased employment and operating expenses during the height of the COVID era. Staffing shortages were magnified by increased and accelerated retirements and transitions.

Many of those COVID-era challenges have stabilized in the past couple of years. The attrition in staffing that we had experienced during the height of the pandemic has waned substantially, and operating expenses have also steadied. The changes and leveraging of technology have remained, highlighted by in-person meetings and consultations now taking place via Zoom or Teams, technologies widely adopted and appreciated by our clients for their convenience.

While higher interest rates have had a cooling effect on the market, we are thrilled that the firm has continued to see clients continue to experience economic growth and ride the tailwinds inspired by the success of the economy during the COVID era. We have never been busier, success that we attribute to the loyalty of our clients and the dedication of our staff and attorneys.

 

Sally Rider, Founding Partner and Managing Director, Rider Productions, LLC

Sally Rider

Sally Rider

In the early days of COVID, we at Rider Productions were extremely positive and hopeful that business would be back to normal in a relatively short time. But after much research and discussions with industry experts and legal minds, we realized our company would be canceling all our 2020 (and going into 2021) conferences, events, music festivals, and a nice book of travel business around the world.

The first step was to maintain the health and safety of our employees and have ongoing, open dialogue of the days at present and the days ahead. It was then time to delve into the programs and funding support available to small to medium-sized businesses in the entertainment and travel industry. That process was inundating, ultimately manageable, and somewhat financially rewarding. Still, the entertainment industry was hit hard.

So, how to adapt in a new world? We immediately got on the outdoor pods scenario and invested in short-range FM radio transmitters. The public at large was reluctant to embrace this new initiative, but soon became so anxious to be out, be seen, and see others that it became a ‘thing’ for a while. We focused on outdoor festivals in hopes for approvals from the state and the will of the people to deliver when the time was right. Our company ended up being one of the first producers in the area to hold a large-scale event — a four-day camping and music festival. We were diligent, attendees were diligent, and all was well.

The corporate arena was much more stringent in holding in-person events. Companies saw that Zoom worked well for their employees, so, ‘hmmm, maybe we can hold events remotely as well?’ Again, this was certainly a ‘thing’ for a while, but we ultimately want to be together to celebrate our goals and successes and be part of the community that we love to live in. Now, corporate events are back to pre-pandemic numbers, and we’re seeing them increasing as well.

The travel side of our company completely stopped during COVID. We had grown a nice book of business that we worked hard to obtain, and it just stopped. We canceled all our clients’ trips. It hurt. We now know that travel is back and booming, and folks are traveling personally and certainly corporately. We now see ourselves checking and adhering to new travel guidelines, which are continually changing and must be watched.

Changing, growing, and adapting to the environment around us has always been in play with Rider Productions. COVID certainly affirmed that you must do your very best, surround yourself with the best people you can find, and take the risks.

We truly are heartfelt for the pain, suffering, and losses that were experienced by us all during COVID; it was a difficult time. I don’t believe we’ll forget it anytime soon, and people are clearly appreciative to be out and about in the world.

Kay Simpson, President and CEO, Springfield Museums

Kay Simpson

Kay Simpson

On March 13, 2020, we announced that the Springfield Museums would be closed from March 14 to April 3 to slow and stem the spread of COVID. What started out as a two-week closure stretched into months as the pandemic intensified into a global public-health emergency. It wasn’t until July 13 when the Museums cautiously opened back up to the public in alignment with then-Gov. Charlie Baker’s Phase 3 of the reopening of Massachusetts.

Prior to the reopening, staff installed plexiglass barriers in our Welcome Center, established sanitation areas in all public areas, and created directional pathways through the Museums to limit visitors being in physical contact with one another. From the onset of our closing, management and trustees were united in their commitment to keep staff employed through remote work that fostered the development of virtual programs, classes, and tours that were available on the Museums’ website.

As soon as we were able, staff came back to work in our buildings so we would be ready for visitors to return safely. Our commitment to keep staff employed during the shutdown enabled us to reopen as soon as possible, a decision that has had a profound impact on our recovery from the pandemic. Visitor studies show that institutions that laid off employees and were closed for longer periods of time have experienced a slower rebound in visitation.

The pandemic has changed the Museums in undeniable ways. Many staff now have hybrid work schedules, sanitation stations are in place throughout the facilities, and a variety of our programs can be accessed through our website. The shutdown compelled us to rethink the way we do business, experiment with new online approaches, and navigate our way into a post-pandemic world. Above all, we learned the importance of innovative thinking, deepening our relationships with our communities, and embracing change as the key to our future sustainability.

 

Jim White, President and Partner, Go Graphix

Jim White

Jim White

For 20 years, we’ve kept our heads down, grinding forward — learning, growing, and focusing only on excellence and worrying about what we can control. Then came the pandemic … and all bets were off. The fear was real, both personally and professionally. Around St. Patty’s Day of 2020, business came to a grinding halt.

The Go Graphix team? Rock stars. But keeping it together wasn’t easy. Between legitimate absences, borderline excuses, and some opportunistic sick days (or weeks!), stress levels were through the roof. All we knew was that we had to keep our team intact and safe — without a playbook. So we masked, distanced, sanitized, and even misted chlorine cleansers nightly after everyone had gone home. It was insane.

Just to keep our printers running (and our sanity intact), we churned out free “Frontline Hero” lawn signs. The hum of the machines was oddly soothing. Then, out of nowhere, Baystate Health called, asking, “can you make temporary plexi protective barriers?” Hell yeah, we could! Next came orders for social-distancing decals. That’s when we realized we were essential, and no one was shutting Go Graphix down without a fight.

We jumped on early orders for acrylic panels before the rush (good call, as our costs nearly quadrupled in no time). Supply-chain chaos made getting hardware a nightmare, but we powered through, outfitting Baystate, countless restaurants and businesses, and more than 80 colleges and universities.

The pandemic tested us, stressed us, and nearly drove us crazy. But Go Graphix has emerged stronger, savvier, and more resilient than ever.

 

Ben Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer, Balise Auto Group

Ben Sullivan

Ben Sullivan

When COVID changed everything, we remained focused on three things:

• Doing the right thing for our customers. We never charged our MSRP for vehicles (which was unfortunately rampant across the country due to inventory shortages), and we reworked our operations to meet our customers where they felt most comfortable — offering home delivery and service pickup and drop off — and doing whatever it took to take care of our customers.

• Doing the right thing for the community by supporting first responders. We couldn’t give them a hug, but we could wash their car for free and offer 50% off all service work so healthcare providers could get safely to their critical jobs. It total, Balise gave away more than $1 million in services to first responders.

• Doing the right thing for our associates. We wanted to take as much uncertainty out of their lives as we could. Coming to work was voluntary, and we guaranteed their pay, covered 100% of their health insurance, and offered flexible work schedules.

Doing the right thing has always been core to how we do business. COVID just reinforced that delivering on that promise is what matters most.

 

Ray Berry, Owner, White Lion Brewing Co.

Ray Berry

Ray Berry

Two months into construction, like a light switch, everything shuttered, construction came to a halt, and uncertainty set in. To compound the situation, we knew our construction budget and operational projections were no longer reliable. We lost a full year of revenue and a lot of momentum, but our team grinded it out, and 13 months after our projected opening date, we finally opened our doors.

Our trade has changed dramatically since then. In the last two years alone, 17 Massachusetts breweries closed, several have merged, and many more are entertaining exit strategies. There is a lot of data to suggest why, but in my opinion, much of the shift accelerated with the arrival of COVID, and some breweries could not rebound.

To sustain, White Lion had to pivot from a destination brewery to a much more robust attraction incorporating more entertaining options to create a deeper experience. The days of being a conventional brewery where customers grab a pint and move on to visit the next brewery are no longer the norm — it is an exception.

Some of our changes include incorporating lunch six days a week, onboarding food-delivery services, offering live entertainment several times a month, and hosting community and business events all year long. These are important pieces for sustainability, and our team takes pride in adding these extra layers for our consumer base.

 

Lynn Gray, General Manager, Holyoke Mall

Lynn Gray

Lynn Gray

During the COVID pandemic, Holyoke Mall, like many businesses, faced unprecedented challenges. With temporary closures, health and safety restrictions, and phased reopenings, we quickly had to adapt.

Many of our tenants pivoted toward and expanded their BOPIS (buy online, pay in store) and curbside pickup options. This shifted from a nice-to-have feature to an essential option that customers still expect businesses to offer today. Restaurant takeout and delivery options became a necessity to survive, and five years later, many of our food-court tenants and restaurants that had never previously offered delivery services are still using DoorDash and GrubHub platforms today.

The increased use and shift toward online shopping during the pandemic forced retailers to offer new and exciting ways to enhance the customer experience. They are introducing more experiential components within their brick-and-mortar locations and enhanced their omnichannel presence to make products more interesting and accessible. This shift is still prevalent five years later.

As retailers consolidated storefronts, our leadership focused efforts on more experiential offerings, which we had started prior to 2020, bringing in more entertainment and lifestyle venues (Planet Fitness, Round1, Altitude Trampoline Park, etc.). Customers longed for reuniting with friends and families outside their homes after having been restricted for so long and needed outlets to reconnect and socialize.

Holyoke Mall has experienced a renewed energy as we are seeing pre-pandemic-level foot traffic. This is a major indicator we are giving the customers what they are looking for in terms of offering a diverse mix of tenants including not only core retail, but also unique dining, entertainment, and lifestyle options.

 

Nathan Yee, Director of Hospitality, Bean Restaurant Group

Nathan Yee

Nathan Yee

The early days of COVID were filled with uncertainty. They were long and exhausting, but they ultimately pushed us to learn how to do more with fewer people and resources. We re-engineered our systems and processes to mitigate the effects of rising food and labor costs.

The restaurant business has always required adaptability — this was true before COVID and remains true today. Failure wasn’t an option; we embraced every challenge as an opportunity to stay true to our values in an unprecedented time.

One lasting impact of COVID is that we now operate with smaller menus. We’ve honed in on what we do best, eliminating the extras. In hindsight, while COVID presented immense challenges, it ultimately made us better restaurant operators — both today and for the future.

 

Greg Desrosiers, Vice President and Co-owner, Hadley Printing

Greg Desrosiers

Greg Desrosiers

Looking back on COVID seems like it was yesterday. It is hard to believe it has been five years since the start of the pandemic. I guess it feels like yesterday because the hangover of COVID is quite present in our society.

With the onset of COVID, there were more orders being canceled than placed. Everything ground to a halt within days. It was a concerning period to navigate in business, and no one knew the duration or outcome. The positive part of COVID was the strong resurgence of business in 2022, as the economy returned to normal and demand was high across the board, which eventually led to supply-chain issues and inflation.

It was the year and a half period in between that became the largest challenge we have ever encountered during our time in business. Like most businesses, we were able to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program and used it exactly how it was intended, to keep our staff employed and paid. We were operating on 50% of our normal work volume and supplementing the rest with equipment and building maintenance.

One of the most obvious after-effects of COVID that directly affects our daily operations today is inflation. We have seen a tremendous increase in our raw materials, a loss of suppliers that have either closed or have been acquired due to industry consolidation, and an increase in wages of our employees who are in need of more money to live on. Inflation is something I see at best slowing down but most certainly not reversing itself. We had no choice to pass along some of these costs in our prices, but we cannot pass along all of it, so we had to be innovative and find creative ways to do more with less.

To combat the rise in operating costs, we have diligently crossed-trained almost every employee to be able to assist in multiple ways, so if we are slow in one department, we can move that employee to another department that is busier.

In addition to cross-training our workforce, we have also made investments in more technologically advanced equipment. We recently invested in a second digital printing press that allows us to produce short-run orders more efficiently. This new upgrade also allows us to print envelopes digitally, where in the past, we printed envelopes via traditional offset printing. This new investment can also run a larger sheet size, allowing a wider array of economical service offerings to our clients.

Our new digital press is more automated than a traditional offset press, so it can be run with fewer touches by our employees. That allows us to produce products more efficiently and more economically through automation.

While the future continues to remain unsteady, we are readily prepared for it.

Rudy D’Agostino, Partner, Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

Rudy D’Agostino

Rudy D’Agostino

It is incredible to look back five years ago and see the shift COVID-19 caused worldwide. Almost overnight, drastic changes occurred as businesses were forced into shutdown, only emergency personnel were allowed to travel the roads, and supply resources were depleted. COVID’s challenges caused businesses to pivot, making adaptations to the ‘new norm’ almost overnight.

Businesses were affected drastically in 2020, and many organizations continue to function with several changes that they were forced to incorporate five years ago during the pandemic. For example, remote work became the norm for many companies, and today it continues, although it has been changing to a hybrid model. This remote working environment required a significant investment in computer technology and related internet security.

Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. (MBK) was deemed an essential business during the pandemic and, thus, didn’t have to shut down, but we shifted employees to a remote hybrid schedule to limit the number of staff in office. In 2025, MBK still offers the opportunity for our team to work a hybrid schedule. The use of software such as Teams or Zoom is used for communication and assists in creating the balance of flexibility and promoting a healthier work-life dynamic.

In 2020, we had virtual monthly staff meetings and even hosted a creative facemask contest, which highlighted how the firm can maintain morale and camaraderie, even when part of the team was physically apart. Putting a positive spin on the pandemic helped individuals power through a time of uncertainty.

 

Michele Anstett, President, Director, and Owner, Visiting Angels West Springfield

Michele Anstett

Michele Anstett

There are certain historical events that are so momentous, a person will always recall where they were when the event happened. The unwelcome arrival of COVID in Western Mass. was one of those events for me. I will never forget the day when Gov. Baker issued a stay-at-home advisory and ordered all non-essential businesses to close. We were working on packing up the office, getting ready for our move to a new location. After hearing the order, I decided to close the office.

Visiting Angels is a senior home-care business, and we are an essential business. However, the admin staff could work from home. The focus of the business abruptly changed from advancement to survival. Every day, the focus was on protecting clients and caregivers. I felt that I had become a commander leading the troops to fight a battle while also protecting civilians. Many clients canceled our services because their loved ones could take on the caregiving role. We went from 70 clients to 19 clients in two weeks. I thought to myself, “I don’t know if we can survive this.” But we did.

We tackled the early challenges such as staying informed, learning how to slow the spread, obtaining essential safety supplies, setting up protocols, the daily health check-in of caregivers, assigning a risk-factors watch list, and so many more. There were endless webinars and Zoom meetings that we needed to attend. The information about COVID kept mutating just like the virus itself. The information online was a great tool for so many aspects of our business, especially for hiring and interviewing. We still use many of these methods even after five years.

The biggest challenge was obtaining personal protective equipment. We asked for donations of handmade masks. I supplied a family in Westfield with six yards of fabric. This military family of five utilized the mandated home time to serve the needs of healthcare workers. My aunt, a seamstress in Chicopee, also created masks from donated sterile surgical fabric. A fabulous woman from the Majestic Theater would sew and donate about 10 masks at a time. We also received face shields from a family in the Berkshires.

We kept our morale up by participating in local community events. People had helped us to stay safe; now it was our turn to curb elder isolation and support other essential workers. We did drive-by-parade birthday celebrations, provided nostalgic snacks at senior center drive-thru events, participated in safety awareness campaigns, and (my favorite) provided sponsorship of chair yoga in East Longmeadow with instructor Sheila Magalhaes of Heartsong Yoga, a program we continue to sponsor even now.

It’s amazing to think that it has been five years since the arrival of COVID in Western Mass. I believe the events increased resilience today when a problem arises for people and businesses. Now, I always ask myself, “how can I make this happen?” and try to think outside the box.

 

Elizabeth Barnes, Chief Operating Officer, NAI Plotkin

Elizabeth Barnes

Elizabeth Barnes

I have experienced firsthand how the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed property management. In March 2020, building operations and maintenance procedures were forced into a rapid evolution. While the immediate crisis has passed, many changes have become permanent fixtures in the industry.

The pandemic accelerated digital transformation in property management. While many firms such as ours were already rolling out online portals to our homeowners and tenants, many property managers were not as prepared. Online portals now handle everything from maintenance requests to amenity scheduling and document management. These technological solutions have proven to increase efficiency and reduce operational costs, making their continued use a business imperative.

Enhanced cleaning protocols and improved HVAC systems have become standard features rather than luxury additions. Many buildings now maintain hospital-grade air-quality standards and implement sophisticated air-quality monitoring equipment.

The economic impact changed how property managers approach financial planning. Many properties now maintain enhanced emergency funds and reserves to ensure operational continuity during unexpected challenges. Insurance has become more complex due to rising construction and repair costs, prompting our property managers to seek comprehensive coverage while implementing risk-mitigation strategies.

Property managers have developed more sophisticated communication systems and stronger relationships with occupants. Digital platforms have become central to operations, enabling real-time updates on building operations and immediate response to maintenance requests. These platforms integrate announcements, document sharing, and community forums, creating stronger connections between our property managers and residents.

The industry continues to evolve, with increasing integration of artificial intelligence and automation in building management. Properties now compete to offer comprehensive health-focused amenities, while buildings are designed and operated with a focus on resilience against future crises. Space usage has become more flexible and adaptable, responding to changing occupant needs and market conditions.

The COVID pandemic has created new standards and expectations in property management. Success requires managers to remain adaptable, technologically savvy, and focused on occupant well-being while maintaining operational efficiency. Those who embrace these changes and continue to innovate will be better-positioned to meet evolving needs while maintaining their competitive advantage in a transformed market.

Vistage Group Helps Business Leaders Bring Issues into Focus

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Features Special Coverage

Meetings of the Minds

Korey Bell says Vistage has acted like a board of directors

Korey Bell says Vistage has acted like a board of directors for small companies who don’t have such a body, and has helped with some important issues.

 

Korey Bell had an issue.

It hasn’t been entirely resolved, but he’s making some real progress, thanks to some other business owners he was able to bounce things off.

The issue concerns pricing of the services provided by his company, Westside Finishing, which, despite that name, is based in Holyoke (yes, it started in West Springfield). More specifically, Bell noted that he held the line on prices, despite inflation and soaring costs of labor, material, and just about everything else, while almost all his competitors had raised theirs. He had questions about what to do and when, but needed a sounding board, like a board of directors.

And he had one in the form of a group of area business owners and managers — many of them in various stages of leadership transitions — called Vistage. This is a global entity with chapters across the country that total more than 23,000 members. The group now serving Western and Central Mass., led by business consultant Ravi Kulkarni, is in its infancy stages, having been formed in the spring.

Bell, the second-generation CEO who took over Westside Finishing from his father a few years ago, was one of the group’s first members. He credits the others in the room with being good listeners, solid providers of advice, and, perhaps most importantly, peers who will hold him accountable when he decides to move forward with something.

“We all do things differently, and that’s a refreshing perspective,” he said. “I may be thinking of attacking a problem one way, but at the meeting, some of the other members are able to ask the questions to get you looking at the problem in a different light. You might come into a meeting with a plan, and by the time you leave, you might have turned that plan on its head, but you’re more comfortable with the plan you came up with with the group then you were with your own.”

“You might come into a meeting with a plan, and by the time you leave, you might have turned that plan on its head, but you’re more comfortable with the plan you came up with with the group then you were with your own.”

Will Maybury, chief financial officer at East Longmeadow-based Maybury Material Handling, agreed. Maybury, son of company president and CEO John Maybury, is poised to take the helm at the company in a few years (there is no firm timetable) and he joined Vistage to help prepare him for that moment and learn from those who already have the title he aspires to.

“Where I saw the biggest value for myself is the growth opportunity the group provided me as someone coming into the CEO position,” Maybury said. “I’m able to surround myself with people who have been in the role and get an outside perspective, while also giving myself some personal growth and networking to help me transition into the role.”

Steve Graham, owner of Toner Plastics in East Longmeadow has been a Vistage member for more than a decade now. He’s not a member of the local group — instead he travels to Boston for meetings there — but is a firm believer of the organization’s power to bring minds together to address common problems and issues, and often help create answers.

“You have an opportunity to speak with other people who are in similar positions of leadership at their companies — entrepreneurs, owners, executives,” he said. “And having an advisory board of sorts, or a board of directors, which is what Vistage boils down to for many of us, is extremely valuable.

William Maybury, now in the process of succession planning

William Maybury, now in the process of succession planning

“You sometimes get reinforcement of an idea that you’ve been thinking about, and it’s just enough to push you over the edge to pull the trigger,” Graham went on. “And sometimes … you get a different view of the problem or the issues that you’re seeking to solve, and it pushes you in another direction; it’s extremely motivating for me.”

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with members of the local Vistage group about what they gain from participation, and how the monthly meetings have helped them become better leaders at a time when managing a business, large or small, has become ever-more challenging.

 

That’s the Idea

As he talked about his group and how and why it was formed, Kulkarni told BusinessWest that there was a clear need for such an entity in Western Mass., where there are few groups of this type focused on bringing young CEOs from diverse industries together around a conference room table.

Those that do exist are mostly regional, with Boston being the closest meeting place, and have requirements for membership that ultimately exclude many of the small businesses in this region. Vistage requires companies to have at least 25 employees and annual revenues of at least $5 million, which brings more area businesses into the mix, he said.

As for how it works, Kulkarni said it’s rather simple — when you put a dozen or so high-performing business executives in a room, these meetings of the minds have enormous potential for creating not only meaningful dialogue about the issues of the day — and there are many of them — but give and take that leads to problem-solving.

“You sometimes get reinforcement of an idea that you’ve been thinking about, and it’s just enough to push you over the edge to pull the trigger. And sometimes … you get a different view of the problem or the issues that you’re seeking to solve, and it pushes you in another direction; it’s extremely motivating for me.”

Elaborating, he said the hallmark of Vistage groups is something called ‘issue processing,’ a structured, thorough approach to helping members think through the dynamics of a challenge.

“It forces you to push beyond your assumptions and get to the real issues,” Kulkarni explained. “That’s critical to understanding and evaluating your options before making a decision and taking action.”

Such was the case with Bell and his issue with pricing and whether to increase his, which we’ll return to later. As he talked about it, Bell said that while Westside Finishing, a powder-coating operation that handles products ranging from cabinets to hand-dryers, has grown exponentially since his father started it as a one-person show and now boasts 65 employees, it is still, in most all respects, a small company.
“We’re not to the size where I would have a formal board of directors that I, as the president or CEO could lean on, bounce ideas off of, or help me with strategizing and planning for the future growth and development of our business,” he explained. “The members of Vistage are all people who have similar, high-level experience in running and managing a business, but at the same time, they have different backgrounds, very similar to what you would find on a board of directors.”

While Vistage is open to business owners and managers at all stages of their careers, Kulkarni said it is especially beneficial to those going through transition, be it in leadership or ownership.

Such was the case with Dave Boisselle, senior vice president of Operations for J. Polep in Chicopee, which has gone from being family owned to being owned by a large conglomerate, National Convenience Distributors. It’s not a small change, he told BusinessWest.

“When you’re sitting in the room and you’re talking corporate, it’s much different from family,” he said. “Family is family; everyone knows what they have to do, and they can talk to each other a certain way. Corporate is all professional, so you choose your words wisely and explain things in much more detail. It’s a much different structure.”

As for his transition to leadership of his company and how Vistage will ease that process, Maybury said he intends to be a sponge and “soak up as much as he can” at the monthly meetings with the goal of being more ready to take the helm. He said he benefits from being in a room where people at different points in their careers and different business situations, can thus provide different perspectives.

“Some people in our group are getting to the end of their careers and want to pass on some knowledge,” he explained. “I’m at the beginning, and some are in the middle; everyone is different, and that brings a lot of perspective to the table.”

Overall, Vistage provides value to members by bringing leaders of diverse businesses who are facing common issues and challenges together in a room to share what are usually different thoughts and approaches to those matters.

Ravi Kulkarni

Ravi Kulkarni says the Vistage group he leads is diverse and looking to add new members from different sectors of the economy.

“People do things differently in their businesses — they have different ideas,” said Graham. “They may have different ways of financing their business that you haven’t considered, for example, and you make some friends.”

Ryan Clutterbuck, president of Pace Engineering Recruiters in Quincy, which specializes in finding artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicle and high-performance and quantum-computing engineers, and another member of the local Vistage group, agreed.

“It’s beneficial to have a group of people that you can share ideas within a safe environment, where they’re willing to give you direct feedback,” he told BusinessWest. “You can’t always run your ideas by people below you, so you need a group of peers who can give you honest and direct feedback, and that’s what I get out of Vistage.”

Such feedback is what Bell sought, and received, when he brought his ‘issue’ to the group a few months ago.

“This year has been the busiest year in company history — we’ve set four sales records from January up until now,” he said while setting the stage for the discussion that ensued. “The issue brought to the group was ‘I’m busier than I’ve ever been, my margins are pretty good, but I feel that I may be leaving something on the table … because a lot of competitors had gone up 10-fold from what I’d done as far as price increases since COVID started.’

“I wanted to make sure I was charging a fair-market price for the service that I’m offering and make sure I’m not leaving a lot of meat on the bone,” he went on, adding, without going into much detail about his actual plans, that members of the group were able to help him answer those critical questions and others that were brought to the table.

“You can’t always run your ideas by people below you, so you need a group of peers who can give you honest and direct feedback, and that’s what I get out of Vistage.”

This is the essence of issue-processing, said Kulkarni, adding that members ask clarifying questions and, by meeting’s end, have the member in question much closer to moving beyond asking questions and acting. And once this action is taken, these same group members will follow up and hold the members accountable for the actions taken, again, similar to the way a larger company’s board of directors would.

Boisselle agreed.

“When it comes to issue-processing, first members listen and then they ask questions and ultimately give suggestions,” he said. “And you start changing your perspective on how you’re going to do things; asking the questions gets you to start thinking, then the advice comes, and then you connect everything together and decide how to move forward.”

Clutterbuck brought his own issue — one of scalability and the personal mindset to accompany such possible growth — to the group and came away with the feedback he was seeking.

“I’d gone through the roller-coaster of ‘are you building to scale or are you building to get to a certain level and then sustain?’” he said. “So, I brought an issue to the table that was related to more my personal mindset of what should I be doing from a target standpoint and a growth standpoint that’s going to beneficial for both the company and the family and making sure I’m not burning out on either end.

“It certainly helped me reset and get back to the original plan that I had developed for the business and the direction I wanted to go in,” he went on as he recalled this issue-procession session. “It was a good conversation to have, because there’s no one else I can have it with.”

 

Meeting Expectations

Moving forward, Kulkarni said his immediate goal is to recruit more members — “we’re looking for those who are hungry, humble, and smart” — and bring the number of business leaders in the room closer to 12, the desired sweet spot.

Doing so will bring more voices to that table and more processing of critical issues facing area business owners and managers.

These company leaders do not have their own board of directors, but they can share one. And this is the essence of Vistage, summed up effectively and concisely by Clutterbuck.

“They say it’s lonely at the top; I don’t necessarily agree with that, but you don’t have a lot of sounding boards,” he said. “It’s not like you can bring these conversations to your employees or people within your organization because they’re deeply personal. This is a good group of people to have real conversations with.”

 

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Adding Definition to the Terms ‘Good’ and ‘Right’

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Cover Story

Ethics in Business

The two words ‘ethics’ and ‘business’ come together in the same sentence often, although what they mean when they are juxtaposed like that depends on whom you ask. A common refrain is that it means ‘doing the right thing.’ But even that becomes somewhat complicated amid questions concerning who we are doing the right thing for. And then, there’s the matter of profit, and the question of if, when, and under what circumstances it comes ahead of ethics. To get some answers, BusinessWest convened a panel of area business leaders for a virtual roundtable discussion. The comments, as might be expected, are thought-provoking, and lead to more questions. Our panelists include Peter DePergola, chief Ethics officer, senior director of Clinical Ethics, and chief of the Ethics Consultation Service, Baystate Health — and also Shaughness family chair for the study of the Humanities, associate professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities, and executive director of the St. Augustine Center for Ethics, Religion, and Culture at Elms College; Sandra Doran, president of Bay Path University; Tom Loper, Associate Provost & Dean in the School of Arts, Science and Management, Bay Path University, and former business owner; Mark Cutting, president and CEO of C&D Electronics; Drew DiGiorgio, president and CEO, Wellfleet; and Patrick Leary, partner with MP CPAs.

Watch the video here:

 

BusinessWest: Let’s start with that phrase ‘ethics in business.’ What does that mean to you?

 

DePergola: “For me, ethics is the philosophical study of morality, and morality, at its heart, concerns how the actions we perform contribute to the persons we become. To me, ethics in business is the way we in which we express and articulate or moral character in business transactions — not just with consumers, but with one another on our teams. We’re a little slow in western culture to pay as much attention to ethics in business as we should; there’s the classic Freeman v. Freeman debate where we talk about the distinctions between profit and corporate social responsibility, and whether we should ever sacrifice things like profit in pursuit of greater common good. So I think the opportunity for business to pause and reflect on itself in a new way is somethings that’s evergreen. Ethics is something that’s been discussed and considered for a much longer time in things like medicine, starting with people like Hippocrates. Ethics in business is no less important than ethics at the bedside.”

Peter DePergola

“To me, ethics in business is the way we in which we express and articulate or moral character in business transactions — not just with consumers, but with one another on our teams.”

Doran: “I think any discussion of ethics also has to include a discussion of morals and values, because each one of those has its own place in how we think about things. Most people think of morals as a more personal aspect of their character and how they view things, the lens through which they look at the world. And when we think about ethics, it’s often framed more as an organization; what are the rules, what is the code that people are going to operate within as part of an organization? That’s a really important consideration for any business or organization: what is the lens, what is the framework? And how are we thinking about ethics in that context?”

 

Cutting: “I’m in the aerospace and defense industry; we service a majority of the prime contractors across the world. Ethics for me is … we are a small, minute part of the supply chain in that industry, and our hope is that, as a small business, we can be treated fairly and ethically. We understand our competition, and we understand that, because we’re small, we may be taken advantage of at some level. Those are the things we think about as we strategize and when we work with these big firms and negotiate contracts. We have to hope that the terms and conditions that apply to us apply to others. It’s a concern, and we hope that we’re on a level playing field. We just don’t know. We’re hoping that everyone who supports that industry is ethical at some level.”

Sandra Doran

Sandra Doran

“Most people think of morals as a more personal aspect of their character and how they view things, the lens through which they look at the world. And when we think about ethics, it’s often framed more as an organization; what are the rules, what is the code that people are going to operate within as part of an organization?”

DiGiorgio: “Our business, Wellfleet, provides health insurance, intangible goods; you can’t touch what we produce, so what we produce is a trust, a bond with our members, our clients. It’s all about ethics at the end of the day. Ethics, for us, means doing the right thing, quite simply put. We have contracts and agreements, and if anyone’s looked at a health-insurance policy, it’s 60 pages long; good luck with that. But there’s a lot of faith that you will act ethically about my claim. We’re part of Berkshire Hathaway, and when you’re trying to manage a conglomerate of companies like Warren [Buffett] does, you really just do it through ‘do the right thing.’ That’s the only way to manage at that level.”

 

Loper: “I like to break ethics down into ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ Are we doing something that’s good for folks that are stakeholders? Are we doing things that are not so good? Are we being open and honest? Are we being trustworthy and respectful? All those things are parts of a code of ethics that helps us to deliver on our promise and not come up short. Sometimes we all come up short, we all walk with a limp, as they say, but some people do things intentionally and break those bonds, the contract they’re supposed to have with their stakeholders, and when that’s done, that’s not good at all.”

 

Leary: In public accounting, our job is help other businesses succeed, so we’re privy to a lot of confidential information that is not out in the public realm, and we’ve very cognizant of that. As a public accountant, we’re required to participate in a periodic ethics training specifically on ethics issues, which is interesting because it gives you a chance to pause and look at various scenarios where ethics come into play — not that it doesn’t come into play every day.

“Looking back on my career, and when I’m talking to someone about personal tax planning, I have yet to find someone say, ‘hey, how can I pay the most in taxes?’ Usually, it’s ‘how do I reduce my taxes?’ You need to be careful that you’re playing within the rules, the regulations that are provided out there. There are people that would prefer to skirt those rules, but our job is to make sure that our clients are not doing that, as best we can. We are looking out for our clients, but it’s not just the business owner. It’s the stakeholders as well. Without employees, without customers, without suppliers, you don’t have business. So our business, Mark’s business, Bay Path … everyone here, you’re built on reputation, and it’s easy to lose your reputation and very hard to get it back.”

Tom Loper

“Sometimes we all come up short, we all walk with a limp, as they say, but some people do things intentionally and break those bonds, the contract they’re supposed to have with their stakeholders, and when that’s done, that’s not good at all.”

BusinessWest: We’ve heard the phrase ‘do the right thing’ a few times already. What exactly does that mean? Right for whom?

 

DiGiorgio: “You have to keep things simple from the standpoint of terminology, so people understand. You can talk to someone about ethics, and they may or may not understand how ethics works. But if you say ‘do the right thing,’ you can have a team that focuses on your customer, your member, your team. It’s about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s about treating people with respect, treating people the way you would want to be treated. There’s a lot of ways at looking at ‘do the right thing,’ but most of us understand that, at the end of the day, the ‘right thing’ is the right thing for the person you’re dealing with. Maybe that’s a member on a call with customer service, or maybe five minutes before your lunch break, and you know the call is going to take 10 minutes. Spend the 10 minutes; do the right thing.”

 

Doran: “At Bay Path, our focus is on the student, so we’re always talking about what’s best for the student. But the way we think about doing what’s best in terms of the customer, the student, is ‘how do we build a strong community?’ Because if we have a strong community that supports each other and is invested in everyone’s success, then people generally make the right decisions. If our students are not successful, we’re not successful; if our registrar isn’t successful, then our students are not successful. We’re really focused on this virtuous cycle of success.”

 

DePergola: “There are many different avenues to try to articulate the ‘right thing to do’ in a given scenario. One of the things we try to do is look at decisions to be made from a variety of different perspectives, understanding that our primary goal in that analysis is very likely, although not exclusively, to try to make the small decision 1,000 times to put someone else’s well-being ahead of our own, without sacrificing who we are as a person, what we stand for, at a base level. In the clinical world, we’re asking questions of whether what we’re doing is reasonable; we’re asking why we’re doing it, how we’re doing it — is it proportionate to the good we’re trying to accomplish? When are we doing it — is it the right time? Where are we doing it — is it the right place? We ask questions about ‘what if?’ — we project the foreseeable consequences of the decision, not just at the end of the day, but where does this leave our patient or our stakeholder or our shareholder six months from now?

“And then, there’s ‘what else?’ This is my favorite question of moral analysis because it’s the question of moral imagination. It helps us understand that, when we make a bad decision in business ethics, it’s not because we’re morally bankrupt in some way, but because we’ve been to unimaginative; we’ve focused on an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ option, and we failed to brainstorm for a ‘C’ or ‘D.’ So there are a variety of ways to get at what’s the right thing to do.”

Mark Cutting

Mark Cutting

“If I ship a bad product to a big customer like Boeing, and there’s failure, I’m destroyed in my business and in my industry. It’s a top-down, flow-down thing to make sure everyone’s on the same page concerning the ethics that you believe in.”

BusinessWest: Smith & Wesson recently announced that it will relocate its corporate headquarters from Springfield to Tennessee, a move that will presumably help the company but hurt families in this area and the region as whole. What does this case tell us about ethics and how it is often difficult deciding what it is the right thing to do?

 

Loper: “Smith & Wesson may have shut doors if it can’t move or cut 500 employees, and the people in Tennessee think it’s a great thing. In Springfield, to someone who just lost their job, it’s a bad thing. What is the right thing? It depends son your perspective.”

 

DePergola: “This is certainly my reality in the world of clinical ethics — that the good thing to do is very often, if not exclusively, the least bad thing to do. And I mean that in a very literal sense. It’s not a clear or easy decision between choosing something clearly good or something clearly bad; you don’t need an ethical analysis for that. It’s often choosing something that will have indirect and unintended consequences that are negative and that are unavoidable in pursuit of something good, like maintaining the structure of the company — somewhere. So, really, finding the good is very often a matter of trying to identify the least bad thing to do, knowing that a perfect solution is not possible.”

Patrick Leary

“You’re built on reputation, and it’s easy to lose your reputation and very hard to get it back.”

Cutting: “For the management staff at Smith & Wesson, it was a tough decision to make; you’re going to have to let some folks go, but you’re going to be able to maintain your stock value to your shareholders, which, under those conditions as a publicly traded company, is part of your mission statement. You’re there to provide the best and most absolute path to success for that company. It’s a slippery slope when we make decisions like that, and I think, unfortunately, maybe we need to look in the mirror in this state and say, ‘was that the right thing for us to? Maybe we should claw that back, re-embrace them, and change the law.’”

 

BusinessWest: Just how does leadership set the tone when it comes to business ethics?

 

Doran: “You have to show, not tell. Everything a leader does is under scrutiny — they’re being watched with a magnifying glass. But it’s equally important to have a written statement. We all have values, personal values, but it’s very important to have an organizational framework … it’s really important that everyone understands where an organization stands when it comes to things like integrity, inclusivity, and dealing honestly with everyone — in our case, students, faculty, staff, everyone in the ecosystem.

“Everyone in our university, whether you’re a trustee or alum, has a social compact to abide by a common value set and code of ethics, and that was really tested through COVID. Everyone had to support this code of conduct; it was testing, it was mask wearing, it was … maybe you have a relative in Rome and you want to visit them, but you can’t do that, because it’s not good for our community. So the code centered not on what’s good for you, but on what’s good for our community at large, and that was a really good example, I think, of this code of conduct and how leaders set the tone.”

 

Cutting: “When it comes to people being ethical or a company being ethical, it has to be top down. It starts at the top, and it has to flow down to everyone in the company. You talk about the reputation in the industry … it doesn’t take long to lose it. If I ship a bad product to a big customer like Boeing, and there’s failure, I’m destroyed in my business and in my industry. It’s a top-down, flow-down thing to make sure everyone’s on the same page concerning the ethics that you believe in.”

Drew DiGiorgio

“It’s about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s about treating people with respect, treating people the way you would want to be treated.”

Loper: “The recent decision by Smith & Wesson is a great example of how challenging it can be to make decisions in the business world, and by what yardstick. You have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror every day, and there are personal convictions that you have to relate to.

“One of the things I’ve found to be helpful — I’m not sure it’s a solution, but it certainly made it easier for me to look at things when I was in business — is to pull up from the situation that I found myself in as president and think about the different stakeholders and what they were expecting of the organization that I started up or developed, and what responsibilities I had to those stakeholders. That was true whether it was to the city that helped me to get the power that I needed delivered to a place where they had never delivered that much power before, or whether it was the people supplying the material from India, or whether it was putting an ad in the paper to attract people with certain skills to work on a certain piece of equipment — and then seeing people standing in line, waiting for an opportunity to work on that machine, knowing that it hurt other people because I was taking their best.

“I was constantly dealing with matters that bordered on ethical issues, and one of the things that helped me was this concept of conscious capitalism and the idea of thinking more broadly than my own business and trying to take a long view of what value creation is all about, and for whom. And there were constant tradeoffs, and I was always trying to look at bigger issues and make the best decision I could with the information that we had.”

 

DiGiorgio: “We have several keys at our business — security, empathy, honoring commitments, and then, fiscal responsibility. And they all flow together. And if we do those things, that’s going to produce the right results. But you have to establish those keys and set that culture. That’s where it begins.”

 

BusinessWest: Finally, profits and ethics. How do we balance these two important pillars of business?

 

Loper: “You have to take the long view; you can’t just take the short view, as with those quarterly profits. And that quarterly review process that larger corporations, the Fortune 500 companies, have to go through, makes it very difficult to make the right long-term decision. It’s very hard sometimes to make the right decision.

“When you talk about profits, I think you have to understand that there are short-term profits and long-term profits, and it’s not all measured in dollars and cents. Sometimes it’s measured in terms of forests being destroyed that could affect the climate or natural resources being exploited that are not replaceable. This whole concept of conscious capitalism that encourages us to think bigger is not just a theory; there’s a whole collection of major corporations that are part of that whole movement of shared value and conscious capitalism that are doing better on Wall Street than companies that don’t, that historically have focused on a much narrower definition of ‘corporate profit.’ And I think that this is showing the rest of the world that you can do that, and the more global we’ve become, the more influence we’re going to have on that notion of what ‘profit’ really is. We need to have broader measures of success as companies than just profits.”

 

Leary: “I agree. Short-term profits are not indicative of the long-term value of a company. With most companies on Wall Street, you’re looking at quick profits, and some of the biggest frauds that have committed at public companies were for short-term profit for people — and those companies are no longer around.

“When you look at the overall value of what you’ve created as a business owner, it’s not just dollars, or profits — it’s how many families have you helped feed, or how many kids have you sent to college, or what you’ve done for the community — that should all be part of the profit equation. You can do both — you can have profits, and you can have a successful company and an ethical company. You can balance those two; ethics and profits don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, they should be working hand in hand. Ethical companies have a longer-term prospect than those looking at short-term gain, and we’ve seen that through history with companies that have failed. Why did they fail? It’s typically because of some short-term decision that someone made.”

 

Doran: “At Bay Path, our board is very focused on ESG [environmental, social, and governance] investing, and making sure that a company’s values align with our values, and of course we’re also very focused on making sure our portfolio performs, because it’s in the interest off our endowment that funds a large part of our scholarship program. And we’ve been doing some very technical comparisons [between] companies that are more ESG-focused and others that may not have it as a stated part of their practice … and the returns are very similar. That shows that profits and ethics do go hand in hand at many places. It should not be an anomaly, it should not be the exception, and I do not believe that it is.”

 

DePergola: “The real litmus test would be … if the profit started to significantly slow down, would we still do the right thing? I think that confronts us with who we are. And if we’re not sure if we would do the right thing if the profit slows down, then we should take a look at that. Overall, Patrick and Sandra are right: profits and ethics are not mutually exclusive. Doing the right thing consistently over time, getting buy-in, and anchoring things to the mission — what we’re going to stand for no matter what — that’s what people want to be part of. And I think profit follows from that decision to do the right thing.” u