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Business Meeting
The Pioneer Circle

The Pioneer Circle has been operating since 2022. 

Pioneer Multi-Industry

Pioneer Group members come from multiple industries including:
  • Aerospace and Defense

  • Construction

  • Distribution

  • Energy

  • Food & Beverage

  • Health Care

  • Hospitality

  • Manufacturing

  • Professional, Scientific & Technical Services

  • Real Estate

  • Telecommunications

The Pioneer Circle is co-sponsored by PBO Advisory Group and Endeavor Bank. 

The monthly meetings are hosted at Knobbe Martens

ACG San Diego
ACG San Diego

Ray Adler

The Pioneer Circle Chair

For the past 30-plus years, I have improved the performance of over 200 small to middle-market companies in a wide range of industries from financial services, banking, construction, and related trades, medical, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, service, technology and childcare companies to name a few.

For companies looking to take their business to the next level, I offer a proven, practical system and a simple set of tools that help leadership teams get better at three things: Vision, Traction, and Healthy.

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1. Vision is about getting leaders 100% on the same page regarding where the organization is going and how it’s going to get there.

2. Traction is about helping leaders become more disciplined and accountable so they can achieve every part of the Vision.

3. Healthy means helping leaders become functional and cohesive leadership teams.

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EOS® (the Entrepreneurial Operating System®) is a proven system that consistently helps companies achieve more revenue, growth, and profit while delivering a better balance of life to business owners and leaders. Bottom line: when you simplify a business and permanently resolve issues, the business scales faster is easier to manage, and is considerably more profitable.

Pioneer Discussion Topics

Discussion topics covered in a CEO Circle
  • Acquisitions and post-closing integration

  • Best practices for raising outside capital

  • Best ways to conduct for virtual work process

  • Business development and strategic alliances

  • Equity compensation for key employees

  • Establishing / protecting company culture

  • Exit planning, when and how

  • How to build a practice of accountability

  • How to develop and execute a strategic plan

  • Optimizing your management team

  • Real estate strategies

  • Revenue building process, concentration

  • Risk management

  • Setting a motivational vision and mission

  • Using dashboards for KPIs

Mike Ford – PBO Advisory Group, President

The Pioneer Circle – Co-Sponsor & Member

Mike is the original founder and current President of PBO Advisory Group. He has more than 30 years of management consulting, business advisory and outsourcing experience, and provided services to more than 400 clients in the various sectors.

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Mike received a BS degree from Bowling Green State University (Ohio) in Political Science & Economics and has two Master’s degrees from The Ohio State University.

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Mike’s career includes over 14 years with Deloitte - 8 years in their consulting group and 6 years as the Managing Director for Resources Global Solutions (NASDQ: RECN). He is the co-founder of several professional services firms including NBS Finance (Temecula, CA) and RoseRyan’s Southern California division. Mike also worked 7 years as the Sr. Vice President for the west coast Enterprise Risk Management division for IPSA International.

Mike-Ford-Headshot.jpg

360° Peer to Peer feedback

The CEO presents an in-depth review around the following topics:

•    Mission statement and value proposition
•    Vision and values
•    Goals for next three years
•    Strategic focus, ideal customer, brand promise
•    Business model, product/service differentiation

•    Leadership team development
•    Proposed funding and fund raising
•    M&A advice
•    New service offering

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Steven Sefton – Endeavor Bank, President

The Pioneer Circle – Co-Sponsor & Member

Steve has more than 36 years of banking experience in Southern California. He most recently served as President and past CEO of Regents Bank, the largest division of former Los Angeles-based Grandpoint Bank, a title he held from May 2012 until joining the Endeavor team in June 2017. During his time with Regents, Steve oversaw the purchase and merger of another community bank, while growing the Bank's loans and deposits at a healthy rate, the key metrics in banking. In prior assignments in his career, Steve has opened two regional offices and each time grew the region to over $100 million in loans and deposits, the size of a small bank.

The Pioneer Circle – A Word from The Chair

For CEO’s Seeking Exponential as well as Incremental Business Growth.

Each member of the group will identify a 12-month transformational business goal. One-year goals will be broken down into quarterly “Rocks.” Progress will be tracked monthly to drive accountability. Issues that hinder execution will be solved so that each member achieves one, meaningful transformational goal. Incremental business improvements will come from the leveraging the vast experienced of our seasoned CEO members every month.

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