Page 4 - BusinessWest September 5, 2022

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4 SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 FEATURE BusinessWest
Meetings Minds
Vistage Group Helps Business Leaders Bring Issues into Focus
KBy George O’Brien
orey 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 specif- ically, Bell noted that he held the line on prices, despite inflation and soaring costs of labor, material, and just about everything else, while
“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.”
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.
Andhehadoneintheformofagroupof 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 serv-
ing 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 for- ward with something.
“We all do things differently, and that’s a refreshing perspective,” he said. “I may be
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.