Watch now: Vistage Chief Research Officer Joe Galvin and speaker Dr. Gleb Tsipursky discuss why CEOs should let their employees experiment with AI.
The rise of generative AI (Gen AI) is fundamentally transforming the workplace. However, unlike previous technological innovations that required executive buy-in and structured top-down rollouts, Gen AI is being rapidly adopted by individual workers to streamline tasks, boost creativity and maximize efficiency.
As noted in our recent report, Generative AI: Automating the Knowledge Worker, while businesses are still struggling with challenges related to integration, governance, and strategy, employees are already utilizing AI tools to automate workflows, optimize decision-making and unlock new levels of productivity. AI also improves the quality of work produced, saving hours or even days on routine tasks.
This shift mirrors the Industrial Revolution, when steam engines replaced physical labor. Today, instead of powering factories, AI automates cognitive tasks, freeing time for strategic thinking and higher-value work. As employees gain both confidence and experience, they’re sharing knowledge and refining processes, creating a ripple effect that will ultimately reshape productivity across entire organizations.
The new skills required for AI productivity
Simply using AI isn’t enough — workers must learn how to use it effectively. Those who move beyond web searches to develop essential AI skills will gain a competitive advantage. To maximize Gen AI’s potential, individuals should focus on mastering the following:
Prompt engineering: Understanding how to ask AI the right questions to get the most accurate and useful results.
AI interpretation: Refining and validating AI-generated outputs for accuracy and effectiveness.
Building a digital AI toolkit: Customizing AI-powered automation for specific job functions.
Forward-thinking workers will continuously refine their AI strategies, adapting as the technology evolves. Those who master these skills will not only work more efficiently but also become invaluable contributors to their organizations.
Businesses are lagging
While individuals already incorporate AI into everyday tasks, many businesses are still testing the waters. According to Vistage Research, just 22% of CEOs report that their business actively uses Gen AI in daily operations, up from 16% in Q2 2024, while 38% are still in the testing phase.
The delay isn’t due to a lack of awareness but concerns about security, governance and strategic implementation. Businesses are worried about data privacy, misinformation and potential employee misuse. However, by delaying adoption, companies risk falling behind their own workforce. Employees who have already integrated AI to streamline their workflows will expect their employers to follow suit. If businesses fail to keep up, it could lead to frustration and reduced efficiency.
How business leaders can keep up and invest in Gen AI
Rather than slowing AI adoption, business leaders should empower employees to experiment and innovate. Here’s how:
Equip workers with AI tools. Provide access and encourage exploration to uncover productivity gains.
Invest in AI training. Move beyond surface-level use and build digital fluency across the organization.
Develop governance frameworks. Implement policies that prioritize security while fostering innovation.
Scale AI adoption strategically. Learn from early adopters within the company and expand successful applications.
The biggest mistake leaders can make is waiting for the perfect AI strategy rather than taking advantage of the immediate productivity improvements it can offer. Vistage Research shows that roughly half (45%) of CEOs plan to increase their technology budgets for AI investments in the coming year, a sizable increase from 30% in Q2 2024. However, 55% of those moving more slowly risk falling behind competitors. Leaders must balance providing employees with AI tools and training while planning for scalable and sustainable adoption.
AI isn’t waiting for organizations to catch up; many workers already use it to transform their work, often without their employers knowing. In fact, a 2024 joint report from LinkedIn and Microsoft found that 52% of workers who use AI on the job are reluctant to admit to using it.
The companies that will thrive will embrace and encourage AI experimentation at the individual level and scale from there. The best leaders empower their workers in real-time and fine-tune their strategy as it evolves.
When the U.S. announced the implementation of tariffs on April 2, 2025, it sent shock waves throughout the national and global business community, leaving many leaders increasingly uncertain — and wary — about their future, further illustrated by the significant drop in the U.S. stock market.
While tariffs are neither net new nor totally unexpected, what’s changed is their impact on CEOs’ thinking. Vistage’s most recent CEO Confidence Index survey, which was conducted the first two weeks of March before the tariffs went into effect, found that nearly 2 in 3 (69%) business leaders expected the new tariff and trade policies would hurt their business.
Another major impact?
Price increases, of course. The playbook for dealing with tariffs has not changed radically over time. Leaders of impacted businesses must readjust their pricing strategy, rethink their supply chain, and arm and prepare their customer service and salesforce to deal with the inevitable customer objections. And many leaders have already begun preparing accordingly.
Nearly half (44%) of our CEO survey respondents noted they have already increased their prices since the start of 2025, and even more (51%) expect to raise prices over the next 3 months. Of those increasing prices, 13% are planning hikes of more than 10%. However, while the direct impact of tariffs is price increases, the bigger problem is the mass uncertainty that the “Mr. Miyagi” approach to tariffs (tariffs on, tariffs off) has yielded.
This lack of clarity regarding what’s next has already begun to paralyze CEOs, making it increasingly difficult to plan and forcing them into an even more conservative position. With so many factors at play, the business community is generally at a loss when it comes to predicting how the tariffs will continue to change and evolve over time.
We can anticipate that these price increases will compound to rapidly accelerate inflation, in addition to the likelihood of reciprocal tariffs in the form of tariffs on U.S. goods being exported or even the possibility of consumers in other countries deciding to boycott American products. Beyond the higher costs businesses will have to charge for goods and services, it’s these potential far-reaching impacts that are keeping CEOs up at night.
Amid so much complexity, one clear thing is that turning up the dial on prices alone cannot serve as the holistic solution to navigating tariffs. Pricing increases do not address the long-term implications of uncertainty, unpredictability and instability, all of which are making conducting business and leading an organization exponentially more difficult.
As a result, we can expect to see leaders begin to make more drastic moves, such as reductions in hiring and decreases in business investments. The labor market will absolutely be impacted. And as consumers drive two-thirds of the economy, CEOs will have to navigate longer sales cycles and consumers’ reluctance to spend money due to a lack of confidence in the labor market.
These changes will likely impact the economy in other ways, too. Business investment accounts for nearly 18% of the economy, and as CEOs and businesses become more conservative and reduce investments, we’ll see that soften. Meanwhile, government spending accounts for another 17% of the economy, and with the reductions in government spending already taking place, we can expect that part of the economy will take a hit, too.
So while, at a surface level, tariffs may look like a pricing strategy problem for CEOs, the anxiety our CEO Confidence Index picked up on indicates the larger issue at hand. While we have a tried and tested playbook for navigating tariffs, the real trouble with tariffs lies in the uncertainty, instability and unpredictability that is making CEOs more conservative, more cautious and less optimistic.
As a leader, it is crucial to understand the advantages and disadvantages of internal versus external growth and how acquisitions can provide access to new assets, resources, and talent. Discover how to unlock the potential of strategic acquisitions to fuel company growth.
This presentation focuses on the financial landscape of mergers and acquisitions, specifically designed to help you understand the key considerations and financing options available, whether you’re a smaller company looking to expand or a mid-sized business ready for larger deals.
Learn about the different funding sources available to different-sized buyers and gain an understanding of the importance of EBITDA in determining deal value, with specific details on how to:
Assess acquisition readiness: Determine if your company is truly prepared for the complexities of mergers and acquisitions.
Navigate financing options: Understand the various financing avenues available, from debt financing to private equity, and how to leverage them effectively.
Mitigate risk & maximize value: Learn how to identify and manage enterprise risk, ensuring you’re obtaining optimal value in every detail.
About the presenter
Mark S. Taffet is the founder and CEO of MAST Advisors, Inc., a corporate finance and strategy consulting firm focused on maximizing the value of middle-market companies. MAST’s services include assistance in corporate sales, acquisitions, mergers, private capital raising and the development of sophisticated strategic operating plans. Mark has 30 years of business experience: five as an operating executive (food services and investment banking) and 25 years as an investment banker and corporate strategist.
Mark is a Vistage Chair with a CE group serving members in the New York metro area.
Among policy shifts, none are weighing more heavily on small businesses than tariffs. Tariff impact isn’t just about added cost — it’s about strategic paralysis. The abrupt imposition, reversal and reimposition of tariffs have created an environment where long-term planning feels impossible.
That paralysis has led the WSJ/Vistage Small Business CEO Confidence Index to drop another 15.7 points from March to April, reaching 69.7. Once again, the key driver is economic pessimism, as the latest survey reveals that 57% of small businesses expect the U.S. economy to worsen over the next 12 months, a 43-point increase since January.
Negative impacts of tariffs are far-reaching
Now, more than 7 in 10 (72%) small businesses expect negative impacts from changes to trade and tariff policies. This growing proportion indicates that tariffs are beginning to affect demand for even those who are not directly impacted. While concerns about immigration, labor laws and tax policy persist, it’s the unpredictability of tariffs that’s most destabilizing.
The uncertainty & chaos [surrounding tariffs] is causing customers and prospects of ours to pause spending initiatives.
— Lou Balla, President of Nuage Consulting Group, Inc., Manhattan Beach, California
The result is a growing wave of defensive decision-making, characterized by postponed investments, paused hiring and pricing shifts driven more by risk management than opportunity. Indeed, there was a significant drop in demand as evidenced by revenue projections among small businesses. Over 1 in 4 small businesses (27%) expect decreased revenues in the year ahead, nearly double last month’s 14%.
Softening demand has downstream effects on the workforce as well. The proportion of small businesses planning to decrease personnel in the next 12 months has grown to 18%. While this figure may be impacted by productivity gains from leveraging new technologies like AI and embracing automation, reductions are more likely a response to softening demand. Certainly, it will be crucial for all small businesses to examine operational efficiencies during this time, taking advantage of slow periods to further enhance their operations.
The cyclical nature of rising prices
As businesses become more conservative in their spending, a significant factor is the need to cover increased prices. Over half (55%) of small business leaders report that the prices they are paying for goods and services have risen by more than 4%. With the March inflation rate at 2.8%, this indicates that the costs small businesses face are greater than the pace of inflation; in fact, 30% of small businesses report increases exceeding 7%.
The most common strategy is passing costs on to customers. Our April data shows that 47% of small businesses have increased prices since the beginning of the year, and 60% plan to raise their prices in the next 3 months. This cycle of cost increases followed by price increases will only drive inflation up in the future.
The result? Small business confidence can’t gain traction in an environment where trade policy is unpredictable and ever-changing, and prices are on an upward trajectory, eroding future demand. Constant forecasting and evaluation of pricing playbooks are necessary for small businesses to mitigate uncertainty and maintain margins.
We are taking a wait-and-see approach on some spending. Letting cash accumulate until there is more clarity.
— Chris Borglum, President of Kay Park Recreation Corp., Janesville, Iowa
April highlights
The April WSJ/Vistage Small Business CEO Confidence Index was calculated from an online survey sent to CEOs and other key leaders who are active U.S. Vistage members. The survey, conducted between April 7 and 14, 2025, collected data from 508 respondents with annual revenues ranging from $1 million to $20 million.
Current economy: Nearly 6 in 10 (58%) small businesses believe the U.S. economy is worse than a year ago, a 16-point increase from last month, while just 14% believe the economy is better, a 22-point drop since the beginning of the year.
Future economy: Pessimism rose for the fifth month, with 57% of small businesses expecting the U.S. economy to worsen in the next 12 months, a 14-point increase from March. Economic optimism among small businesses also declined, with just 1 in 4 (25%) believing the economy will improve in the next 12 months.
Revenue projections: Demand is softening as 45% of small businesses expect increased revenues over the year ahead, a 15-point decline from last month. More significant is the proportion of small businesses that expect revenue decreases in the next 12 months, nearly doubling from 14% in March to 27% in April.
Profitability projections: Slightly more than a third (35%) of small businesses expect profitability to improve in the next year, a 12-point decline from last month, while an equal proportion (35%) expect declines in profitability.
Fixed investment plans: Plans to decrease fixed investments increased by 13 points, with 29% of small businesses expecting to reduce their fixed investments. This is the same proportion as those planning to increase fixed investments.
Workforce expansion plans: Just 35% of small businesses plan to increase the size of their workforce in the next 12 months, while the proportion of those planning to decrease has risen to a recent record of 18%.
The May 2025 WSJ/Vistage Small Business CEO Confidence Index survey will take place from May 5 to 12, 2025.
In today’s volatile economic times, proactive pricing strategies are a crucial lever for CEOs of small and midsize businesses to achieve their business goals. The latest Vistage CEO Confidence Index survey revealed that 44% of CEOs have raised prices since the beginning of the year. Additionally, nearly 7 in 10 (69%) CEOs expect to be negatively impacted by changing tariff and trade policies, and as a result, over half (51%) plan to increase their prices in the next three months.
In light of these challenges, we asked Kirk Jackisch, president of Iris Pricing Solutions and a Vistage speaker, to share his insights into managing pricing amid inflation, tariffs and stagflation. His expertise provides a roadmap for CEOs to navigate these complexities effectively.
Understanding the pricing landscape for CEOs
Proactive pricing strategies are a best practice emphasized by Jackisch, even in times of low inflation. But in today’s highly volatile environment with lots of uncertainty, it is even more important to have a “Pricing Playbook” that ensures the business stays ahead of rising costs, which can include labor, benefits, tariffs, foreign exchange and other operational expenses.
Outside of tariffs, the current situation is compounded by weakening demand, resulting in many companies experiencing “stagflation,” where demand decreases while costs continue to rise. This presents a unique challenge, Jackisch notes, “with the demand falling, business leaders get very nervous.” This scenario necessitates a nuanced approach to pricing, striking a balance between maintaining margins and adapting to a shifting market.
Introducing aggressive pricing strategies to maintain volume can result in competitors responding in kind, increasing the possibility of a protracted term price war. It is best to watch your market share if it is holding, then aggressive pricing actions should not be considered, Jackisch says, except in response to a competitor’s pricing actions.
Establishing a pricing playbook: scenario planning for pricing strategies
Creating a plan is crucial for CEOs in uncertain times. Jackisch explains, “We call them playbooks, pricing playbooks, but it is really scenario planning.” These playbooks allow businesses to plan for possible cost, share and volume scenarios, planning on how they will adjust their pricing strategies in each situation accordingly.
In the current environment, understanding the net impact of tariffs and other cost changes enables companies to make informed decisions about pricing, in addition to other factors such as production locations and supply chain adjustments.
Key components of a pricing playbook
Cost analysis: Understanding the direct and indirect impact of tariffs and other cost changes is essential. Jackisch highlights the importance of doing this spreadsheet work to assess the net impact on overall costs.
Production adjustments: Companies may need to consider making production adjustments to mitigate the impacts of tariffs. These include increasing order efficiency, reducing the cost of your product and moving production to a country less — or not at all — impacted by tariffs.
Pricing levers: Jackisch outlines five pricing levers that can be considered once you understand the final impact on your business:
No change: This is used in situations where there is a nominal financial impact, expect the tariffs to be brief, or where you may not be able to raise prices.
Modest increase: This is a “shared pain” approach where you share the impact of the tariff with customers through slightly higher prices and margin dilution.
Keeping profit dollars neutral: In this approach, if you were making $10 in profit before the tariff, you adjust prices to make $10 after the tariff
Maintaining margin neutrality: Raise your prices to keep your profit margin the same
Taking a larger increase than your cost analysis would indicate: This is used in a scenario where you might have some product prices you decide not to change, or you want to guard against additional cost shocks, such as another increase in tariffs or a change in FX as a result of tariffs.
Each lever offers a different approach to managing pricing in response to cost changes. Most companies are using a combination of these levers.
Do’s and don’ts: Avoiding common pricing mistakes
Do use product differentiation to maximize results
Differentiation remains a key factor in developing pricing strategies. Jackisch advises CEOs to identify areas where their products or services have unique value. “If I’m differentiated, I can take bigger increases,” he explains, “without putting volume at risk.” This approach allows businesses to leverage their unique offerings to justify price adjustments and take smaller increases where the situation is more competitive
Don’t drop prices to maintain volume
Jackisch warns against the temptation to discount to maintain volume, especially when market share is holding (or maybe even increasing). “If you promote through discounts to increase volume, you are increasing the risk of starting a price war, which is inherently difficult to recover from,” he cautions. Instead, CEOs should focus on monitoring their market share as a proxy for whether there is a pricing issue that needs to be addressed through a pricing action.
Four actionable takeaways for CEOs on pricing strategies
1. Develop a pricing playbook: Start scenario planning now to prepare for potential cost changes. This proactive approach will enable quick decision-making when market conditions shift.
2. Focus on differentiation: Identify and capitalize on areas where your business offers unique value. This differentiation can provide the pricing power needed to navigate challenging economic conditions.
3. Avoid price wars: Maintain market share without resorting to price cuts. Focus on value and differentiation to sustain profitability.
4. Monitor costs and adjust accordingly: Regularly review cost structures and adjust pricing strategies to reflect market changes.
By implementing these pricing strategies, CEOs of small and midsize businesses can effectively optimize their businesses during these uncertain times. As Jackisch emphasizes, “Get started yesterday.” Proactive planning and strategic pricing will position small and midsize businesses for success in today’s dynamic economic environment.
Sports Reference President and Vistage Leadership Award Winner Sean Forman joins the podcast to share how he turned a lifelong love of statistics into a business that fuels data and information for the world’s top sports leagues. Sean also takes Vistage CEO Sam Reese through his pivotal decisions to stay out of the sports betting market but double down on the Immaculate Grid acquisition that changed the game for the business.
Key takeaways
1. Define and declare a purpose
➤ Forman’s “democratize sports data” mission gave his company clarity and direction. → Action: Revisit your company’s purpose. Is it clear, compelling, and lived out in daily decisions—or is it just a tagline? A well-defined mission builds internal alignment and external trust.
2. Build value through scalable features
➤ Sports Reference’s growth came from continuously adding new features that customers requested, delivering long-term user value. → Action: Identify simple features, services, or processes you can automate or scale to deliver exponential value over time.
3. Create systems that allow you to move fast
➤ Because of backend prep and team alignment, Forman could act quickly when the Immaculate Grid opportunity appeared. → Action: Assess whether your systems, processes, and people are primed to act when opportunity knocks. Speed often rewards the prepared.
4. Invest in employee growth
➤ Generosity with education created alumni who now work in MLB and the NBA, extending Sports Reference’s influence. → Action: Design talent development with a mindset of abundance. Great cultures invest in people knowing that some of your best may outgrow you — and that’s okay.
5. Foster honest disagreement to build alignment
➤ Forman actively encourages his executive team to challenge assumptions, believing that real commitment only follows honest debate. → Action: Normalize healthy conflict. Before your next strategy session, set the expectation that disagreement is a strength, not a threat.
Reflect: Are there any revenue streams we’ve accepted that might be eroding our brand, values or customer trust?
Transcript
Sean Forman: We went from having like 4 million page views a day to 10 million page views a day, and it was just kind of a mind-boggling growth curve for us. And so, there were reports that the Yankees were playing it on the team bus, and the Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks were playing it after their quarterback meetings, and Fenway Park, they put it up on the jumbotron during a rain delay and stuff, and so-
Sam Reese: Oh, wow. Wow, that’s terrific.
Sean Forman: Just all these people were playing it on air during broadcasts and stuff, so it just really caught on. I’ll be very fortunate if we ever have a deal that goes as well as that one does again. It was phenomenal for us.
Sam Reese: Welcome everyone to another episode of A Life of Climb podcast. I’m your host, Sam Reese. With me today is Sean Forman, President of Sports Reference. Sean, thanks for joining us on the podcast.
Sean Forman: Sam, thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Sam Reese: I just want to start with your business just because it’s so cool, and I’m a huge sports fan. All of us have watched games or read articles, it’s filled with all these amazing stats, but I don’t think many of us think about where these stats come from. So the answer is your company. Tell me a little bit more about Sports Reference. Tell us a little bit about the business.
Sean Forman: We’re really just all about sports data. We run a series of seven sites, we call them the reference sites, Baseball Reference, Basketball Reference, Hockey Reference. I basically started out in 2000 and took data that was in the Baseball Encyclopedia and put it online as Baseball Reference in February of 2000. And it started just all the complete player stats, all the complete team stats, league stats, leaderboards, all that kind of stuff, and from there we’ve expanded dramatically. We also have every box score for every game back to 1901, excluding Negro League games. We have every NFL box score for every game ever played, every NBA box score, every NHL box score. We have a very complete record now of all these sports, and we’ve expanded into college sports, we’ve expanded into soccer.
Sean Forman: And so those are kind of the bones of the site. We’ve added a number of other things along the way. We have a game, Immaculate Grid, which hopefully some of the viewers like to play every day.
Sam Reese: I’ll ask you about that in a little while.
Sean Forman: Yes. And then we have a subscription product which is kind of allows you to get inside of our database and query. That’s been the basis of the business for the last 25 years, and we’ve been fortunate that there are a lot of sports fans out there who want to think about these things, answer these questions, and luckily they found us along the way.
Sam Reese: What a great passion that is. So data and numbers, those definitely have been your passion. And you got your Ph.D., and was your Ph.D. at University of Iowa?
Sean Forman: Yes, it was.
Journey from college math professor to startup founder
Sam Reese: You started as a math professor, and what made you take this leap and tie those analytical skills to sports? How’d you get here?
Sean Forman: I mean, to be honest with you, it was something that had been happening all along the way. My dad was a high school football coach, and every Friday night he’d bring the stat book home, and I was a fifth grader who was compiling the stats for him and helping add up how many rushing yards people had and things like that. Junior high, kept the tackle chart. In high school I played football, but I also was the sports reporter for the local newspaper. I grew up in a very small town in western Iowa, and so I did that as a job. And so it’s always something that’s been percolating in the background.
The ignition event for me was I was very into fantasy baseball and was in several leagues, I’d have to drive to Chicago for a draft. I had these very complicated, large spreadsheets that I had printed out and used and stuff. And so I started writing about minor league prospects and trying to predict who the best ones are, and that led to me writing for a book called The Big Bad Baseball Annual, and I thought, how could we promote this book? How could we get more sales on the book? And so I thought this idea of taking a sports encyclopedia, putting it online, would draw in a lot of users, sell a lot of books.
And it quickly, I launched it, like I said, in February of 2000, and within a couple months it was clear that this was kind of its own thing. And so we moved it, I got the name Baseball Reference, moved it off into that domain and kind of started it as its own thing there. So for the first six years I was doing it part-time, I was in graduate school at this time, started at Saint Joe’s here in Philly in fall of 2000. And so for six years I was doing this on the side. I probably could have stopped earlier, but I wanted to get… I felt like if this fails, if I do this before I get tenure, there’s no way I’m going to get a job coming back as a professor. And so I actually kind of stuck it out through the tenure process, got tenure, then took a leave, and then decided I was going to do the site full-time, and never looked back. So it’s been a very slow burn to kind of get to where we are at this point.
Purpose: Democratizing data
Sam Reese: One of the things I read about you, and maybe you could just add a little color to it, one of the passions that got you there is this goal that you called it democratizing data.
Sean Forman: Right.
Sam Reese: Tell me what you meant by that.
Sean Forman: We try to be very intentional about our purpose as a company. And our purpose is we democratize sports data so that our users enjoy, understand, and can share the sports they love.
For us, data democratization really has two major prongs. One is just making the data easy to use. There are tools on our site where you can download the tables you see into Excel, where you can in some cases purchase large data sets. I’d say every intern we’ve hired probably has demoed a project where they scraped site data from our site and used it in a class report or something like that. We don’t look down on that, we don’t discourage that. As long as you’re not impacting the performance of our site, we’re okay with that.
And so it’s really about making that data available so that everyone can have an opportunity to study it, to share it, and to enjoy it. The second piece of that is we really seek out data that for sports and for athletes that have been under-covered. We are the only site to have the complete history of women’s college basketball at the NCAA level. So back to ’82, ’83, when the NCAA finally recognized women’s basketball should be an NCAA sport, we have complete stats, season stats for all of the players who played in division one from that year to the present.
Sam Reese: Terrific.
Sean Forman: We have complete box scores for every women’s tourney basketball game as well back to ’82 to ’83. And so that’s an important thing to us. We’ve had full WNBA stats for over 10 years now. In 2020, there was a move to recognize the Negro Leagues as major leagues, several of the Negro Leagues as major leagues, and so we worked very hard on that. Within about six months, we got that up on the site, integrated those stats into the white major leagues of the time, and so now we’re showing Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston alongside Stan Musial, and Whitey Ford, and players like that. So those are the types of things that we like to do.
On being responsive to customers
Sam Reese: One of the things that we were talking about here internally that we’re fascinated is about the way you assign value to something like a sports statistic, and especially in those early days starting the company, and what did you learn about establishing yourself in the market and find a way to price and sell the service effectively? That’s what I think seems so hard is you see this incredible brain that knows how to put data together, but then to turn into a business, how did you figure all that out, and what’d you learn?
Sean Forman: I wish there was some master plan, but it’s really just kind of coming up against an obstacle and trying to overcome it at each step. So we are largely advertising supported, so it’s not like we don’t have a lot of pricing power over the people who come to our site and advertise. And a lot of it’s programmatic at this point, so we may not even know who the people are. So for us it’s really about demand generation, and so getting as many people onto the site.
And so a little bit of it was we moved very early, and so Google was very good to us, and we became very ingrained in our SEO, and did really well in terms of driving audience that way. But also even from the start, and we still do this, we answer every user email we get. So I think we’re very in tune with what our users are looking for and what our users want in the site, and it allows us to perhaps be a little more responsive.
I know early on when I was doing, when I was working on the site, I was doing a lot of the programming. We were a very small team at that point, 3, 4, 5 people. And so I was answering user emails as well. And so very often something would come in, I’m like, “Oh, that’s a great idea, we should just do that,” and then spend the afternoon on it and get something out there, kind of iterate on it a couple times. And so that feature that we built in 2005 now has continuing value for us through 2025, and so I kind of view each of those features as kind of an annuity that’s paying off over time. And we’re making this upfront investment, but that feature as users come to it, it’s automated so it updates every day.
So it’s been kind of how I view the business as we’re kind of building all these little mini features and they accrue value over time, and are paying us off over the long haul. So far it’s worked, and we’re hoping to continue that model, and doing subscription features as well and things like that.
Sam Reese: Is there anything you would’ve done really differently or advice you might give another leader about bringing a new product to market that were lessons that you learned?
Confidence in decision-making
Sean Forman: It took me a long time to become confident in my decision-making abilities, and that the things that I was thinking we should do are worth doing. And I think that’s been the biggest benefit to me of Vistage and working with Vipon Kumar, the leader of our group, and just having somebody who holds me accountable for what I’ve planning to do, and having somebody who reinforces my intuition about how we should approach things has been really helpful. And I think that’s why we’ve gone from in 2019 we had 11 employees and now we have 43, and it’s really because of growing confidence and growing capabilities in that regard.
Leadership tenant: Generosity to others
Sam Reese: So moving forward, in your timeline, one of your tenants, leadership tenants is, it says “Generosity to others.” And tell us a little bit about how that creates value for you in return as a leader.
Sean Forman: A little hard to put into words. I feel like the more generous we are with the users, the better long-term success we have. There are different places where I know that we’ve left money on the table, maybe we don’t have as many ad units as we could have on our page, or maybe there were partners, civic partners we could work with. But in terms of treating the users well, I always feel like that over the long term it’s going to pay off for us.
And there’s that, but I also think investing in our employees is part of that as well. We have a very generous continuing education benefit, and some people have used them for, one of our employees just finished a Masters of Fine Arts, he’s writing a novel.
Sam Reese: Wow.
Sean Forman: And I would be sad if he left the company, but if he becomes a famous novelist, I think that would accrue to our benefit going forward, and that would be a feather in our cap. And we also have a very, very elaborate internship program as well. We bring in industry experts, often former interns to come and speak to them over the summer, three, four times a year. It’s short term, it’s a cost, it also takes some time for us to manage that program, find things for them to do, things like that. But we’ve also hired three very excellent full-time employees out of that program as well. And so they’ve become long-term members.
We have former employees who are working for the Oklahoma City Thunder. We have one who’s becoming an assistant pitching coach for the Toronto Blue Jays this year, we have another who’s an assistant GM for the New York Mets, might be GM someday. So all those things I think accrue to our benefit over the long term, and I also think is something that we as a company take a lot of pride in.
Sam Reese: You made a big decision a few years ago to not get involved with legalized sports gambling, and this is just such a huge growing industry that I’m sure probably offered some pretty big immediate financial opportunities. So walk us through how you made that decision here, because it had to be tempting.
Sean Forman: We certainly considered it pretty strongly. We actually hired a banker to kind of go into the market and see what kind of opportunities might accrue to us if we did. This happened, I think 2019 is when PASPA maybe was ruled invalid by the Supreme Court. And so that kind of opened this tidal wave of legalized sports betting state by state in the United States. And so obviously we have users on our site who are coming because they want to get information for doing sports betting. We have users who love sports and would be prime targets for sports betting as well.
Sam Reese: Yeah.
Sean Forman: And so as we were going through this, I think we kind of had this feeling, oh, we’ll just kind of put the gambling stuff over there and then it won’t really spoil what we’re doing fully, and kind of became clear that we weren’t being serious in how we were engaging this. And so I kind of brought it to the team. If we do this, the expectation is that we’re going to put gambling everywhere, and that they’re going to have to… It’s going to be in your face, because they’re going to want a return on their investment that if they’re putting half a million dollars or something like that into the site over a year, they want get that return back.
And as we are looking at the revenue models and things like that, kind of what we landed upon is we didn’t want to win if our users were losing. And that’s really what it felt like because a lot of these deals involved us getting a cut of whatever your losses would be if you sign up through our site.
Sam Reese: I see.
Sean Forman: We’re not opposed to sports betting. I do a little bit of sports betting just for fun, but we’ll allow you to advertise your sports book on our site, we just don’t want to do any of these revenue share deals where we’re winning because you’re losing hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars every other month. We set a decision, that’s what we’re going to do. We’ve stuck to it since then.
I think Ben Thompson talks a little bit about a strategy credit where maybe a decision you’re going to make anyway has some strategy value, and to us, I think the industry right now is just so inundated with gambling messaging, that we’re a little bit of an oasis in that way, and I think a little bit of a safe space for people who want to avoid gambling messaging. And so hopefully that’s been to our benefit. I certainly don’t feel like it’s hurt us financially. Maybe we’ve forgone some marginal revenue. We’re still doing well and still happy with where we’re at.
Acquiring Immaculate Grid
Sam Reese: Tell me about this other decision we mentioned a minute ago, but this decision that you made, the acquisition of that viral baseball game called Immaculate Grid, which has sort of been described as, I love the Wordle of baseball. How did you spot that opportunity? And it seems like a big shift, tell me how that all came together and how that’s helped your business, because you’ve got like 20 million people coming to your site now.
Sean Forman: So Immaculate Grid, it’s a 3X3 game, basic premise is across the top there’s a category, down the sides there are categories, and then you find a player that matches the two categories. So maybe it’s New York Yankees, 30 home runs, so maybe you put Aaron Judge in there. Or maybe it’s Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, and then you put Mike Stanley in there or somebody else. So this is one of those things where having this stage as a resource has really helped me, because I’m not sure we would’ve jumped on it as quickly as we had if I didn’t have that group to bounce things off of. But this was 2023, and the game launched, another gentleman, Brian Minter created it, and that game launched in April of 2023.
And I started noticing our baseball traffic numbers are actually rising substantially over what they were last year. So maybe we’re like 10, 15, 20%, which was kind of unexplained, because people were talking about baseball being kind of down a little bit in popularity and stuff, and pace of play, and the game, and stuff like that. And I think that had, when they just started doing the pace of play stuff. Well, I thought, maybe pace of play is fixed and people are back to baseball now.
Started doing more research and it became pretty apparent pretty quickly that what was happening is people were either cheating playing the game, coming to our site, or they were checking their answers afterwards and looking for other solutions to the game. And so it became very obvious very quickly that there was kind of this synergy between the game and our site, and that they were really kind of feeding off each other, and that there was an opportunity there.
So he had only launched it for baseball. We also had basketball, football, hockey, soccer. And so we really saw an opportunity there to take his game, it would work exactly the same for these other sports, and we’d always seen the opportunity there being a platform for all these sorts of things across all of the sports. And so we had done a lot of work to standardize things across the sports already. And so it really plugged in almost seamlessly. And to be honest, he actually approached us first, because I think he saw the opportunity as well. Part of the, like I said, having a good reputation is with your users, opens up some of these opportunities as well.
So I actually had a Vistage meeting maybe the day after he reached out to me. I prepared something quick, talked it over with Vipon, presented it to the team, and they’re like, “What are you waiting for? Why haven’t you jumped on this?” And I had an executive team meeting and everybody kind of reaffirmed that decision, and so quickly negotiated a deal with him. And I think it took us maybe two weeks from initial discussion to signing the deal, and then another week to get everything done for the baseball site, moving it over to our infrastructure, using our images, stuff like that, our logos. Thanks to all this standardization we had already done, it took us literally four weeks to get it out on basketball, football, hockey.
Sam Reese: Wow.
Sean Forman: And we went from having 4 million page views a day to 10 million page views a day, and it was just kind of a mind-boggling growth curve for us. And so there were reports of the Yankees were playing it on the team bus, and the Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks were playing it after their quarterback meetings, and Fenway Park, they put it up on the jumbotron during a rain delay and stuff.
Sam Reese: Wow, that’s terrific.
Sean Forman: And so yeah, just all these people were playing it on air during broadcasts and stuff, so it just really caught on. You know we’re… Branch Rickey I think, “Luck is the residue of design,” but we were fortunate to be in a position to do that. It kind of pulled on a number of things that we had been doing already, kind of planning for the standardization. I’ll be very fortunate if we ever have a deal that goes as well as that one does again, but it was phenomenal for us.
Sam Reese: Well, I can’t imagine you’ll, you’ll ever forget having at Fenway Park showing up on the board.
Sean Forman: Right.
Sam Reese: I mean, that’s something you dream about. What an incredible milestone for your business here.
Sean Forman: Right. Yeah, yeah.
Challenging assumptions
Sam Reese: Well, I don’t usually do this, but I wanted to read a line from this Vistage Leadership Award nomination, because I think it just says a lot about you, and this is a quote from one of your employees talking about how you handled that acquisition. Says, “A good leader would have considered all the potential implications and effectively communicated why the path they had decided was the best path forward. A great leader welcomes the challenge to their assumptions.” So they talked about you. So where did that come from for you that you were open to those challenges, and wanting your people to question you on the assumptions?
Sean Forman: One of the management gurus that I really like is Patrick Lencioni, and he really talks about fostering a executive team situation where everybody’s free to say what they want, and they can be direct, and they can really surface their disagreement. Before our executive team retreats, before our strategy meetings, things like that, I tell our team, “Disagreement is good, don’t hold it in. If you disagree with what’s happening, you need to say so, because otherwise you’re not going to commit to the path forward.”
I try to really foster that, I try to draw that out, use some of the examples he has in his books about pointing out when good disagreement is happening in meetings to encourage more of it. And so, that’s something that I’ve actually had to work on. And I’m a bit of a conflict-averse person myself, and so been working really hard on more direct communication, thinking really about why am I feeling unsettled about this, and actually voicing it, and elaborating on it. So it’s taken work to get to that point.
Sam Reese: Well, you’re following a superstar. He’s a great friend to Vistage, and Lencioni’s just done a ton of work with us, and I think it’s like the standard book all leaders need to read is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
Sean Forman: Right.
Sam Reese: It all starts with trust. If you don’t have trust, then you’ll never entrust. You have to have those difficult conversations here. I know as I was listening to you, I know early on my days as a CEO, I definitely had some imposter syndrome. Has that ever crossed your desk as well?
Sean Forman: Of course.
Sam Reese: It does? Yeah.
Sean Forman: Absolutely. Yeah.
Sam Reese: Where does it come from from you? I want to… What is-
Sean Forman: I mean, I don’t have an MBA, I did not go to school for business at all. My parents, my dad was a teacher, my mom was a medical records administrator, so it’s not like I grew up working in a business, so it’s probably that lack of experience.
Even after I had been teaching for a number of years, I would still have nightmares the week before classes started that I had forgotten where the classroom was, and all that stuff. And I was speaking to my dad and he had taught high school for 30+ years and he said, “Oh yeah, I still got those, even after teaching for 30 years.” So I think it’s a natural thing. And I think if you’re… The people who don’t have the imposter syndrome are kind of the ones I worry about a little bit. I think having a little bit of that humility and feeling like you don’t have it all figured out can often be a good thing.
Sam Reese: I want to ask you about your experience with Vistage, you told a great story about how you found sharing some of those challenges with your group, both getting advice. It was interesting, I remember I had a similar situation on acquisition almost 20 years ago and everybody said, “Why do you not already own that company?” Can you just talk through a little bit more about the value you feel from the interaction of your specific group, just how that supports you as a leader?
Sean Forman: Yeah. I mean, I’ve been in the group now five years. I actually got my five-year little trophy yesterday, so-
Sam Reese: Congratulations.
Sean Forman: … thank you for that. So yeah, there were a group of about five of us who have been there for five years. So being the leader is sometimes a lonely job, and so having other people who are going through similar situations to you, or seeing other people have to deal with issues not necessarily of their own causing that are more significant than the ones I have to, also kind of puts my problems in perspective, and makes me feel like I can certainly manage this if they’re able to manage that. And also just getting people who will check in on me if something has been difficult or something like that, it’s really been helpful.
Sam Reese: Before I ask you about other advice you might give other leaders here, what’s the sport you’re most excited about? Because you’re a guy that digs into the numbers here. Is it baseball? What’s the one that you just get geeked out on?
Sean Forman: So historically it’s baseball. I grew up a huge baseball fan, played baseball, fantasy baseball. Kind of walked away a little bit from my baseball fandom. I still go to a number of games, still watch a few games. I’m really into soccer now, so I’ll be watching the US men’s national team tonight, I’ve been to a number of their matches, I’ve been to Europe several times to watch matches.
So I think for me it’s kind of the new thing, and it’s such a rich world, and there’s so much kind of cultural aspects to it, tied into it. So I really… And we launched our soccer site I think seven years ago now, so I really felt I had to immerse myself in it before I could create a site for it. And so that was probably a five to six-year process, because it was one of those cases where I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I didn’t know a lot, and so took me a number of years to figure out how the soccer world worked, and what the stats looked like, and things like that. But I’ve really come to enjoy it, really come to love it, and I watch quite a bit of soccer now at this point.
Sam Reese: I’ll ask you one other question. Any other advice you’d have for other leaders out there that you’ve learned in your journey that might be helpful to them?
Lifelong learning
Sean Forman: I mean, for me it’s really just been a lifelong learning about it. There’s so much free information out there. There’s information, it’s not free, but I mean information that Vistage provides as part of your membership that I’ve gotten a lot out of, that you mentioned some of the speakers, and things like that. But also things on blogs, the newsletters, Harvard Business Review subscriptions. I mean, so many books, I’ve read probably hundreds of business books. And you mentioned Patrick, I think I own at least eight of his books, I’ve probably read them like 27 times if I count them all up. For me, it’s just that continuing to learn and continuing, as a new problem comes up, a new opportunity comes up, for me it’s really about reading, and learning, and thinking about how to approach that.
Sam Reese: Well, I’d say that’s definitely better than an MBA. That is much better than an MBA. So I think you’ve was surpassed it with your success, and staying with continuing learning, and plus you’re reading the right, those are the big names in it. But what a pleasure, Sean, spending time with you. What an incredible story. It’s so easy to see, just spending a few minutes with you, how passionate you are about what you do, and how important it is for you to lead a great company. I have to thank you for being a Vistage member, because that’s just what makes our company great is being able to serve people like you.
Sean Forman: Well, thank you Sam for having me, it’s been a pleasure.
Sam Reese: Thanks for joining us for this edition of A Life of Climb podcast. Friendly reminder to please subscribe or follow the podcast to get all the latest episodes. And please visit vistage.com/podcast for more resources to support you on your leadership journey.
Looking to stay informed on 2025 capital markets activity and buy-side M&A trends? Join this interactive panel discussion featuring three William Blair experts who will highlight key deal-making trends, including highlights from the firm’s latest proprietary quarterly survey on the state of the lending market.
Takeaways include:
Observations about the current state of the equity capital markets and IPO landscape
Discussion of the evolving debt capital markets and impact on M&A activity
M&A trends and strategies for success when considering an acquisition
Note: William Blair is a strategic partner of the Vistage Transaction Center. Visit the center to access additional resources for buying, selling and building a healthier company.
How to attend
Date: May 9, 2025
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT
*Please use the blue box on the side to register.
About the presenters
Dan Polsky Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets
Daniel Polsky is a managing director for William Blair based in the firm’s New York office. He joined William Blair’s investment banking team in 2021. Prior to William Blair, he worked for Lehman Brothers, Barclays Capital and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Eugene Kim Managing Director, M&A
Eugene Kim is a managing director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at William Blair, based in the firm’s New York office. He is a member of William Blair’s M&A leadership team and serves on the firm’s fairness opinion committee. Prior to joining William Blair in 2017, Eugene spent 11 years in the M&A group at UBS, where he advised clients across a variety of sectors and geographies.
Darren Bank Managing Director, Leveraged Finance
Darren Bank is a managing director for William Blair, based in the firm’s Chicago office. He joined William Blair’s investment banking team in 2016. Prior to William Blair, he worked for Macquarie Capital and CDW Corporation.
Effective communication is the foundation of strong leadership, successful teams and organizational achievement. When individuals communicate well, companies thrive. And executive presence can provide the powerful communication skills you’ll need to foster meaningful connections.
But what is executive presence? Well, you know it when you see it — or rather when you feel it.
Say someone walks into the room — or logs into the virtual meeting — and something shifts. They don’t have to say a word, yet you and others lean in, feeling invited, connected and engaged.
That “something” is executive presence. It’s not how they look; it’s the energy they invite and create.
And yes, it can be developed. On purpose. Authentically. And it is different than being the loudest, smoothest or most charismatic person in the room. Could it be that person? Sure. But it could also be the quiet and awkward person. What’s important is that they openly connect and truly “see” you.
The trouble is that executive presence is often treated like this mysterious, elite quality you either have or don’t. People toss the term around in leadership conversations and employee assessments: “Do they have leadership potential? Do they have executive presence?” It’s become a “yes, they have it” or “no, they don’t” checkbox on a 360 evaluation
But ask five people to define it, and you’ll get five different answers. For some, it’s about confidence. For others, polish. For some, it’s charisma. And for too many, it’s reduced to how you “look the part.”
Executive presence isn’t something you put on. It’s how you connect to others.
Executive presence is not a performance; it’s a practice. And, like any solid practice, it starts with awareness.
And underneath all of that? It’s about relationships.
It’s not about you; it’s about them
Executive presence isn’t just about how you show up — it’s about you seeing others. It is reciprocal. It’s the link between you and the people you lead, listen to and build with. It’s the bridge. The connection. The invitation to trust. To open up to others and be available.
The usual suspects — eye contact, posture, vocal tone, attire — don’t define executive presence. They’re the tools, the ingredients. The various communication elements support the connection when used intentionally to value and engage with others.
Because here’s the truth: Executive presence without connection isn’t presence. It’s performance. And when it comes to leadership, especially within high-trust, high-accountability spaces, we need to acknowledge the need to go deeper. We need executive presence with purpose. That allows you to connect and be in a relationship with others, whether it’s your team, your clients or your board.
Executive presence lives in the body
When working with leaders, we all see this: brilliant thinkers, skilled communicators and seasoned executives who feel a gap between who they are and how they’re perceived. Maybe their voice gets tight in the boardroom. Maybe they ramble when they care too much. Maybe they’re told they need to “command the room” but aren’t sure how to do that without pretending to be someone they’re not.
That’s where being authentic comes in. Executive presence is the alignment of voice, body, mind, and values. When you’re clear on what you stand for — and when your words, tone and body all agree — you can show up, see others and be present. That’s when people trust you, follow you and want to hear more.
This isn’t about learning to sound like someone else. It’s about sounding like you. Remove the accumulated gunk and allow yourself to be clear and present.
Here’s what executive presence can look like:
Authentic alignment: When what you say, feel, and value are in sync, people feel it and trust you.
Clarity over charisma: People trust clear communicators regardless of the polish.
Embodied intelligence: Your breath, body and voice shape how people experience you.
Relational awareness: Executive presence is felt in the reciprocal connection. You see them and allow them to see you.
Why executive presence matters more than ever
In today’s workplace, executive presence isn’t a luxury — it’s an anchor.
Leaders are stretched thin. Communication is more complex. Trust can feel fragile. With hybrid teams, back-to-back meetings, and ever-shifting expectations, the ability to show up as grounded, aligned, and authentic isn’t just nice to have — it’s necessary.
So, if you’ve ever been told to “own the room” and aren’t sure what that means, you’re not alone.
If you’ve ever left a meeting wondering if you showed up as yourself, don’t worry — that’s just part of your journey of self-discovery and growth.
Embracing your authentic executive presence takes time and practice. With the right mindset, you can learn to show up in a way that truly reflects who you are.
Remember, it’s not just about commanding attention; it’s about connection. It’s about being genuine.
Since COVID-19, many previously office-based workers have either been fully home-based or split their time between the office and remote work.
Could this be set to change?
The results of our Q1 2025 Vistage CEO Confidence Index reveal that 34% of SME business leaders advocate the return of their workers to the office five days a week to reinforce team dynamics. 21% believe that this move would increase collaboration and productivity, while 34% state that it would boost team cohesion and company culture.
With CEO confidence and predictions for the UK’s economic conditions both declining, the full report (downloadable here) suggests that talent acquisition and management are the focus for many SMEs this quarter.
Challenging times ahead
Since Q2 2024, our CEO Confidence Index has revealed a consistent decline in overall economic confidence amongst CEO leaders. This decline continued in Q1, dropping from 91.4 to 87.5 in the last quarter.
53% believe that the UK’s overall economic conditions have worsened in the last year – a 9% increase since Q4 2024. Similarly, while 35% of our Q4 2024 respondents believed that the UK’s economic conditions would worsen over the coming 12 months, this percentage has jumped to 41% in 2025.
With the Chancellor’s Spring Budget featuring announcements likely to impact consumer spending – and little support for SMEs – these sentiments are, perhaps, unsurprising. Despite this, however, SME leaders are demonstrating resilience and tenacity in terms of their own business prospects.
Glimmers of hope
Despite declines in current and future confidence, over half of our respondents still expect their firms’ revenue to increase over the coming 12 months. This figure stands at 56% – similar to the 57% seen in Q4 2024 – and while this percentage has been falling since Q1 2024, our survey reveals other signs of optimism.
38% expect their businesses’ profitability to grow over the next year – up from 34% in Q4 – with just 23% (down from 31%) expecting it to fall. A further 38%, however, believe profitability will remain the same, suggesting that there is still an element of caution and uncertainty for the year ahead.
Despite this uncertainty, SME leaders are unlikely to reduce head counts. Just 18% say their total employee numbers will decrease in the next year (no change from Q4’s figure). However, while 46% stated in Q4 that their head count would rise, this figure has dropped to just 31% in Q1 2025.
Investing in innovation
The Spring Statement may have featured further budget cuts, resulting in further challenges for small businesses. Despite these challenges, though, many SMEs are continuing to invest in their future success.
The majority of SMEs are now embracing AI to improve business efficiency, with 70% of CEOs now actively engaging with AI-based tools.
With the use of new technologies comes the need for additional training and policies. 50% of SME business leaders state that they have invested in training sessions to enable their team to integrate AI into their business operations, while 46% have created AI policies to provide clear and responsible guidelines for its use in the workplace.
What lies ahead for the UK’s SMEs?
There’s no denying that the current UK landscape is challenging for many SMEs – and challenging in a variety of ways. The Spring Statement, the uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs, potential decreases in consumer spending and more are all contributing to fears about what the future could bring.
However, despite these fears, SMEs continue to be positive about their own business prospects, and to invest in both talent and technology. As Rebecca Drew, Managing Director, Vistage International, says, “The ability to adapt, invest in the right areas, and make bold decisions will be what ultimately separates the thriving businesses from those that struggle in the coming months”.
Our Vistage Economic Updates are different from traditional economic forecasts. Behavioural economist, Roger Martin-Fagg, approaches the economy through a behavioural lens, giving an optimistic – yet realistic – look at what lies ahead for SMEs and the wider economy.
Our April 2025 Economic Update is now available to download here: read on for a taste of what to expect.
The Trump effect
Roger’s report draws a vital distinction between risk and uncertainty. While risks can be assigned a probability – the likelihood of an interest rate or tax change, for example, uncertainties like Brexit, COVID-19 or Trump’s presidency cannot easily be calculated, but certainly require scenario planning.
No economic update would be complete without a mention of Donald Trump’s return to the political scene. His seemingly impulsive policymaking, protectionist stance and disregard for traditional economic alliances – and, of course, his tariffs – are creating ripples across the entire globe.
Based on leading indicators, there is around a 30% chance of a mild recession in the US, and the dollar is expected to weaken against the Euro and Sterling. The Trump effect is leading to money moving out of the US and into Europe and the UK, benefiting these economies, while the price of gold – traditionally seen as a safe haven – has surged by over 40% over the last year, signalling heightened uncertainty and fear.
These global shifts may represent a warning, but could also offer opportunities to UK businesses willing to shift quickly.
What about the UK?
Here in the UK, Roger paints a picture that combines challenges with hidden strengths.
As a result of political dissatisfaction and media negativity, both consumer spending and economic activity are suffering. Over the past 18 months, British households have saved an extra £75bn in bank deposits. While this gives individuals a great buffer, it also means a greater amount of money than usual that is sitting idle rather than helping to fuel economic growth.
Despite the introduction of new business taxes, such as the £24bn NIC levy, Roger predicts that the overall impact on the UK economy may be less damaging than media headlines suggest. The real challenge? Working to restore both business and consumer confidence.
In our latest Economic Update, Roger encourages businesses to try and resist the narrative of doom and gloom. Instead, he highlights the structural strengths which underpin the UK – including the resilience and dynamism of our nation’s SMEs.
What should SME leaders do now?
Roger’s call to action is simple: it’s time for SME leaders to lead boldly. By investing in innovation and training, adapting quickly to changing conditions, focusing on longer-term strategy and looking for new opportunities presented by excess savings and shifting money flows, SME owners can chart a confident path forward.
If you’re a business leader looking for practical, grounded insights to inform your decisions in 2025 and beyond, download the April 2025 Quarterly Vistage Economic Update in full. With invaluable data, thoughtful analysis and a perspective that cuts through the noise of sensationalist media narrative, can you afford to miss out?
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Mark S. Taffet is the founder and CEO of MAST Advisors, Inc., a corporate finance and strategy consulting firm focused on maximizing the value of middle-market companies. MAST’s services include assistance in corporate sales, acquisitions, mergers, private capital raising and the development of sophisticated strategic operating plans. Mark has 30 years of business experience: five as an operating executive (food services and investment banking) and 25 years as an investment banker and corporate strategist.
Dan Polsky 
Eugene Kim 
Darren Bank