Tag Archives: Gazelles

Just another Friday at ABG

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Who’s happy it’s Friday? I know I am! If you’ve been keeping up with ABG Capital this week, you probably saw that we had a ton going on. Before I get into that though, I’d like to mention a little something about our Giving Back initiatives. Throughout the year we are always looking for ways that we can give back to our community. There are a few things we do every year and there are always new things we’re trying out as well. So far this year we’ve already sold roses and carnations for Valentine’s Day, potted flowers for Mother’s Day, and raffle tickets for a Cinco de Mayo basket as a way to raise funds for Make-A-Wish. Next week we are heading to the National Cemeteries of the Alleghenies to clean headstones in order to help them prepare for their Memorial Day ceremonies.

I want to look a little further to an event where YOU can get involved in too. July 19-21 the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank will be hosting their annual Blues Festival at Hartwood Acres. There will be volunteers from our entire organization who attend this event as a way to donate their time to a cause. If you are interested in joining over 700 other volunteers for this great event, you can visit www.pghblues.com starting on Monday, May 13th to sigh up.

While we’re talking about our ABG Capital Giving Back initiatives, do you remember earlier this week when we wrote about Eric Butler? He’s a VoIP Innovations employee who is growing his beard for a cause! The Pittsburgh Penguins are in the Stanley Cup playoffs and are currently holding a Beard-a-Thon challenge that raises money for the Mario Lemieux Foundation. Please check out the blog post we wrote about him that covers all of the information and rules of the Beard-a-Thon.

ABG Capital Executive Team

From left to right: Nick Medina, Ron Eggert, Jeff Tapolci, Jason Tapolci, Lowell Smith

The last piece I want to mention is that our ABG Capital Executive Team is at the Gazelles in Orlando this week. They are attending a two-day leadership summit that features a number of fantastic speakers. I’ve been getting pictures from their trip and uploading them to our Facebook page! Don’t forget to check them out!

I hope everyone had a great week and has a great weekend 🙂

ABG Capital Heads to the Gazelles

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It’s that time already? Yes it is! This week at ABG Capital, our Executive Team will be attending the 2013 Gazelles Leadership Summit presented by Fortune. Jeff and the team attend Gazelles events twice a year and they are usually in May and October. This year, Jeff will be taking Ron Eggert, Jason Tapolci, Dan Ravenstahl, Lowell Smith, and Sharon Kolesar. Nick Medina from M2 Telecom, a strategic partner of GlobalPOPs and VoIP Innovations, will also be joining them.

Gazelles LogoThe summit will be held on May 9-10 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort. During these two days they will hear from speakers from a wide variety of industries, but who all share a common interest: Leadership. A few of the speakers will be Jack Stack, Founder and CEO of SRC Holdings as well as author of The Great Game of Business, Laurie Bassi, author of Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, and Giovanni Livera, World Champion Magician, Celebrated Inventor, and author of Live a Thousand Years: Have the Time of Your Life.

Jeff makes it a point to attend these events every year and every time he gets back, he strives to educate the ABG Capital staff on the new techniques and best practices he’s learned. In this case, he will come back from the summit with information about leadership and he will strategize new ways that he and the Executive Team can work to implement any new tactics. When they return next week, you can expect that we’ll be filling you in with all the tips they got from this summit. Hopefully they’ll even take some pictures that we can share with you!

ABG Capital to Participate in Strategic Planning Session

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ABG Capital

ABG Capital

December brings us many things.  The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is among us, the final quarter draws to a close, many businesses are preparing year-end reports, and thoughts of the upcoming New Year are in our heads.  Many people take the time to reflect, both personally and professionally, on the past year and look forward to 2013.  On a personal level, many look at what they have accomplished over the year and make new resolutions for 2013.  Corporately, businesses may draw up year-end reports and analyze numbers to determine their goals for the upcoming year.  At ABG Capital, we do all of those things.  We utilize our ideals to enhance our work and personal lives.  Our ideals are to cultivate ideas and people through our C.O.R.E. (Cultivate, Overcome, Respect, and Evolve) Values for the purpose of Giving Back.

Employees of ABG Capital utilize these ideals personally in many ways.  We participate in various activities throughout the year, where we are given an opportunity to Give Back to our community.  These activities include working at the food bank, fundraising for Make-A-Wish, and cleaning headstones at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies.  In addition to Giving Back, employees also are encouraged to live healthy lifestyles.  We do an annual Biggest Loser contest, where interested employees weigh-in on Fridays, and the biggest loser receives a cash reward.  Also, we bring in an inspirational speaker/author in on a regular basis to educate our team about healthy eating habits.

In terms of business, we take our goals, or New Year’s resolutions, very seriously.  Every year around this time, our companies participate in Strategic Planning Sessions, where goals for the upcoming quarters are brainstormed and strategized.  These 2-day sessions employ strategic planning and executive education adopted from the Gazelles Growth and Leadership Summits.  As discussed in this earlier post, http://blog.abgcapital.com/?p=141, ABG Capital sends key employees to these Gazelles Summits to gain valuable training on how to lead and grow their companies.  This education, along with a Gazelles coach, enables each of ABG Capital’s portfolio companies to evolve solid annual strategic plans.

As 2012 draws to a close, employees at ABG Capital are busy preparing for holiday festivities, gathering gifts and monies for Giving Back causes, and focusing their energies on having a productive 2013.

ABG Capital Team Attends Gazelles 2012 Fortune Growth Summit

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ABG Capital

ABG Capital

Two weeks, a team from ABG Capital was traveling to the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Arizona for the Gazelles Fortune Growth Summit.  There, the team spent two full days listening to talks by bestselling authors and business leaders whose expertise ranged from management to marketing while soaking in the beautiful Arizona landscape.

Some of the speakers they heard from were Jim Kouzes, Executive Professor of Leadership at the Leavey School of Business and Author of The Leadership Challenge; Chip Conley, Founder of Joie de Vivre Hotels and Author of Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness & Success; and Vijay Govindarajan, Professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Author of Power of Reverse Innovation. 

Pictures from the Summit can be seen here:  http://abgcapital.shutterfly.com/188