2026 M&A Playbook: Opportunities For Mid-Market Growth
Strategic M&A is no longer just about scale—it’s a lever for resilience, growth and long-term succession. Here’s how business owners can turn market optimism into opportunity.
Strategic M&A is no longer just about scale—it’s a lever for resilience, growth and long-term succession. Here’s how business owners can turn market optimism into opportunity.
Algorithmic pricing engines
are the hottest thing in marketing, but
they’re also a hot item with antitrust lawyers and legislators.
In an age where competitive advantage erodes quickly, leaders must embrace deliberate innovation and course correction early. Insights for a winning formula.
Selling your business may be years away, but the groundwork for a successful exit starts now. These five strategic actions can boost valuation, reduce risk and ensure you’re ready when opportunity knocks.
For decades the formula was straightforward: find cheap land, secure tax breaks, tap into available labor, plug in. But that playbook is being rewritten. From power shortages that delay projects by years to AI reshaping workforce needs, today’s location decisions require navigating a fundamentally different landscape.
To navigate accelerating change and growing complexity, today’s leaders need more than data—they need imagination. Forming a “Futures Team” can expand foresight, challenge assumptions, and help organizations stay resilient and future-ready.
CEOs want to know what’s driving growth. CMOs will earn their trust by delivering the data that provides those answers, with no translation necessary.
Essential must-read business books from 2025—delivering the insights CEOs need to lead, adapt and grow.
Companies spent billions rebuilding for resilience, digitizing operations and deploying AI. Yet 2025 exposed serious fault lines in execution. Here’s how CEOs can reset before 2026.
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.