Vistage International Reviews

Pros

Vistage promotes employee development with trainings, book club, etc.

Cons

The work can be very fast paced.

Pros

Exposure to best practices in business through speakers and chairs; a sense of mission among employees. It's a people-driven business.

Cons

Massively dysfunctional place. Chief officers in every department, competing for scarce resources and to protect their fiefdoms. Hierarchical top-down model that was cutting edge in 1957.

Advice to Senior Management

Do something truly innovative. Trust your people.

Pros

I've been at other companies that say that they value work/life balance, and then completely disregard that when times were busy. Vistage truly places an importance on making sure employees are happy and not overworked.

Cons

The pay is a little less than other places I have worked. But when you take everything else into account, it is a very minor complaint.

Pros

The status quo at Vistage is overachieving, but in a good way. We've consistently grown 15%, 8%, and 8% in the last three years. You can't ask for better performance and stability.

The norm for employees is to get your MBA at night. You can learn from virtually any of your peers because they are so bright and collaborative. Essentially Vistage is in the business of providing professional development to CEOs, business owners, and executives, so they expect world class customer service and performance from their employees. If you can deliver, the rewards are amazing, not just in compensation but in personal and career development.

Just named one of the TOP 125 training companies in the WORLD by Training Magazine, the opportunity to learn and grow yourself professionally is unparalleled. They leverage what they provide their members for their employees. The amount of revenue they spend in developing their employees and their business coaches is quite rare but it allows them to provide the very best in what's current and new.

The On-boarding of new employees is world class. Not only do you get a nice welcome basket, but you also get assigned a PAL, a buddy from another department to take you to lunch and help navigate your first couple months. You also have the chance to meet with every single department on your first day, so by day two, you already have a bunch of friends and familiar faces.

Overall, I am proud to work for Vistage and intend to have a long career with the company.

Cons

There is a lot of change, but you have to realize that it's good change. Everyday we have CEOs and C-level executives discussing in groups how best to deal with the economy and how to thrive in the new normal. So wouldn't it make sense that Vistage would leverage this knowledge and make changes to anticipate and stay ahead of the market trends?

You have to roll with the punches. If you do, you'll realize you're a better person and professional because of it.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership at Vistage knows what they're doing. Sometimes there can be a disconnect between headquarters and the Business Coaches in the field, but overall we're in it together.

Most of us work at Vistage because we believe in our mission. We believe that if we can help leaders and CEOs of companies, we can make a difference. If a CEO is happy and able to grow his/her company, he/she is providing jobs and essentially driving the economy.

Some people say we're a little company that thinks we're solving world hunger. I say, what's wrong with that? We believe in what we do and we're passionate about it. That's a good reason to come to work everyday.

Pros

Vistage is focused on helping the SME business owner or leader with improving their ability to manage and grow their business AND with improving and maintaining their life balance. The company is in the midst of making fairly massive structural changes (after 54 years in business). This means that department responsibilities have changed, impacting many employees. While the company tried hard to work with employees who were impacted, some who couldn't (or wouldn't) function in the new environment were let go. The good thing here is that the company made the tough changes and focused on the important things that needed to get done in order to survive and grow.

The fact that this strategy worked was reflected in the fact that an across-the-board raise (albeit small) was given to all employees in October reflecting the fact that the company is strong in the midst of the recession and management wanted to reward the employees who created that strength.

At least quarterly the company holds "all hands" meetings that share financial results, important news from various departments around the company and recognizes employee achievements. There are at least half a dozen significant employee awards that are given out every year including Rookie of the year, Emerging leader, Most valuable etc, etc.

Cons

There is a ton of work to do. I've been with the company several years and there is still a group of long-term employees who show up at 8:39, take an hour and fifteen minutes for lunch and leave at 4:50. Many of those people who spent years at headquarters when it was more of a country club atmosphere were swept out over the last couple of years. These were also the employees who most resisted making the changes that Vistage desperately needed to make to survive.

As newer employees have come in this has improved since many more employees are open and anxious to change. By the way, the turnover has never been 65% - that number is just flat wrong. (I know, I see the numbers). There was a year when it approached 30% but that was an atypical spike when some of the massive changes were being made.

Generally management is very supportive of a balanced work/life with the exception of the very top level where it is not unusual to receive an instruction over the weekend with an expectation that it will be completed by Monday morning. But this happens at the executive level and it rarely bleeds down to the "ranks". And yeah, I know for sure because I am often that last one out of the building so I know who is here working late and who isn't. In general if you fired a cannon down the hallway at 6:00 PM you wouldn't hurt anybody and for sure you wouldn't before 8:00 AM. Again, I'm not sure what the other reviewer is talking about.

Advice to Senior Management

Executive management seems to suffer from a "flavor of the month" mentality; starting a new project every month and then not following through. Although this has improved dramatically in the last couple of years it should still be an area of attention. Pick the critical few, focus on them, follow through.

Pros

- For someone starting out in their career it's a great learning environment; surrounded by CEO's, talented staff and seasoned professionals.
- Work environment pushes each employee to do their best.
- Great benefits and friendly co-workers.
- Can really see the benefits of Vistage when I talk to Members or Chairs... If I had my own business I would join Vistage because I can truly see it help CEOs with problems they might be having in their company or just to grow as individuals.

Cons

- Ideas have to go through multiple levels to be put into action. If you're a creative or innovative individual, you have to be patient to see you're ideas be utilized.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the time to get to know all of your employees- knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your employees will go a long way and help to create new innovative ideas. By focusing on the strengths of your employees you will help feed innovation and creativity because employees will enjoy the tasks they are given and try to excel at their performance.

Pros

The mission, and the chairs - they do the real work of Vistage, and they are the ones that earn whatever respect Vistage has in the community.

Cons

Management, from CEO Rafael Pastor down, has no respect for the employees that do the work. Their compensation is based on meeting the 'numbers' set by Michael Milken, who owns Vistage. Anyone who already works at Vistage is considered incompetent - new execs are brought in at high salaries and high titles at the expense of everyone elses' salaries - and once they've been there long enough they become tainted and are tossed out. You will last 18 months tops - which is about as long as it will take them to work you to death, fail to give you a merit raise because 'we didn't make the numbers' (or your dept did, but no one else's did (!) ) and you will either leave on your own 6 months later out of frustration, or you will be let go because a greener replacement can be hired for less $$. But the executive team will get bonuses because they've managed to get blood from a stone, and have no shame while giving lip service to the 'mission we're all supporting, together.'
This will be a surreal experience, if you end up taking the job - you would be better off banging your head against a brick wall and telling _yourself_ you're worthless instead of letting them do it for you.

Advice to Senior Management

You sold your souls to Michael Milken years ago. Giving you advice would presume that you have the autonomy to make decisions on your own, which you don't. Self-respect is clearly a foreign concept to you, so I have no doubt that you will abandon all dignity as you scrabble for your piece of an ever smaller piece of the over-priced membership dues pie.

Pros

Vistage is an environment where you can get an "MBA” in business if you take advantage of the resources. There is ongoing company training, webinars, access to speaker tapes, a library of content, book club, Toastmasters, tuition reimbursement, and very bright, intelligent staff and people in the Field (Chairs) who are willing to help. Recent additions to the management team have brought much needed, tenured experience to sustain the company’s growth. This is one of the best places I’ve worked. There are many advantages to working here and great benefits. As with any place, the company is what you make of it, and good for people who like a challenge, and can challenge themselves.

Cons

There were changes to staffing in late '09- some due to the vision of the executive leadership wanting to keep the company viable in a down economy. (whcih they did) and some due to needing a fresh team that delivered a higher ROI.(they are) It is a results-oriented company, so if the plan is to show up and collect a paycheck, probably not the place for you. How I would think a leadership organization needs to be...(?)

Advice to Senior Management

We're on a good track, stay the course!

Pros

Located near Del Mar Torrey Hills, and La Jolla, Vistage is a beautiful place to work. I love having passionate co-workers who are bright and innovative. There is a sense we are doing something good, to help better people and the companies they run.

Cons

You must be open to change, and like all companies in 2010, doing more with less.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep hiring top talent.

Pros

The company has been around a long time but they are just now starting to grow beyond their initial model. The management is open to change and growth and it has been really great about communicating the future plans. The level of interaction with the Chair community, the partners and the members has grown exponentially in just the last couple of months with the addition of a private social network for everyone to work in. I would highly recommend Vistage for anyone interested in a great place to work.

Cons

There was recently some shift in the corporate structure that could have been handled better. The need to change was there but it left some residual unease amongst employees. Little by little management has been working to alleviate the worries but with these kind of things it just takes time. The company also needs to work on being communicating directly with members to find out what they want rather than waiting for the Chair community to pass on the message on behalf of members. The Chairs tend to change the message to suit themselves and what gets delivered isn't in the best interest of the member, who is the life blood of the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more available