“Continuous improvement” is the mantra for business success. While the phrase usually refers to business operations, it’s also applicable to those organizations’ leadership as well.
As CEO for one of the fastest-growing nonprofit organizations in the country, we have been impacted by the same market trends, supply chain challenges, labor shortages and lack of affordable capital for the past decade as every other business. During a period of both robust growth as well as unprecedented uncertainties, it has been more important than ever to remain a steady, positive and empowering leader to our team of 6,000. Every single leader at Goodwill has a company-sponsored executive coach. Their role is to help our leaders seek out their own wisdom and reach their greatest potential. Regardless of where we are in our career, it is incumbent on each of us to reflect on the impact we are having on the world around us and to seriously ask ourselves the question, “What more can I be doing to improve myself and my team?”
The cover story this month focuses on helping CEOs be even stronger leaders for their organization. In Business Magazine sought out experts in various business pillars to provide tips and insights on self-care, best practices, and more. From finances and profitability to health and wellness, we speak to those empowering leaders about what it can take to be at your best.
Company leaders getting caught up in myriad priorities is the problem Dan Adams addresses in his feature article “Is Your Company Headed for the Commodity Death Spiral?” As he explores ways out of “death spiral,” Adams’ point is business founders will establish their company with a laser focus on delivering superior, differentiated value — but that may gradually become a chase to keep profits up by cutting R&D, resulting in an undifferentiated product and a need to continue cutting costs.
Attorney Stephen M. Kohn offers his Roundtable article on whistleblowers and SEC guidelines as a warning to businesses that “Providing potential witnesses with any monetary incentive or disincentive to hide information from law enforcement is an obstruction of justice.” But this article also serves to underscore the importance of companies’ leaders keeping in touch with what is going on throughout their organization.
This March edition of In Business Magazine also offers its annual “Giving Guide” in the ramp-up to April 2nd’s Arizona Gives Day, the fundraising powerhouse that has made an increasingly tremendous benefit to our community since its founding in 2013.
I’m honored and pleased to be a part of bringing you this edition of In Business Magazine, helping strengthen our business community with valuable and relevant information.
Sincerely,
Tim O’Neal
President and CEO
Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona
Tim O’Neal is the president & CEO for Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona and Thrive Services Group, headquartered in Phoenix. Under O’Neal’s 25-year leadership tenure, the organization has increased retail revenues by 3,000% and offers a broad array of human service programs for more than 50,000 people each year. O’Neal holds a Certificate in Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management from the Harvard Business School Executive Education program and graduated from Goodwill Industries International’s Executive Leadership Development program.
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