Your company does not rise or fall on your decisions alone. It rises or falls on whether the people around you can carry them out.
Every CEO eventually hits the same wall. You have the vision, the strategy, the direction. What you need is a senior team that can execute it without you in the room, a number-two you can hand real weight to, and leaders who think the way you think when you are not there to tell them. Most CEOs try to build that by hoping their best people figure it out on their own. The ones who actually build it give their key people a room of their own.
That is what a Vistage Key Executive group is. It is a peer advisory group for the senior executives who report to you, the people you are counting on to run the company alongside you and, one day, after you.
Why your best executives need their own room
You cannot develop your number-two by talking to them in your own conference room.
The people who report to you cannot be fully honest about the hardest part of their job, which is often working for you, in front of you. They cannot test a tough call with peers who understand the pressure, because their peers are your other direct reports, and the politics are real. And they rarely get exposure to how senior leaders at other strong companies actually operate.
A Key Executive group solves all three. Your executive sits monthly with 16-18 senior leaders from other non-competing companies, in a confidential room, led by a trained Vistage Chair. They get honest counsel from people who carry the same weight, exposure to how the best operators think, and a place to grow into the leader you need them to be. For you, the CEO, it is the most direct investment you can make in your own succession plan and the strength of your bench.
How my Key Executive group works, and why it is different
Vistage NYC Key Executive Group
Most Key Executive groups run in isolation from the CEO group. Mine does not, and that is the whole point.
I run my speaker programs across Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Every expert speaker who presents to my CEO groups also presents to my Key Executive group. That single decision changes everything, because it means the CEO and their key executive are learning the same material, from the same expert, in the same week.
Then, on Friday, after their respective Vistage meetings, the CEO and the executive sit down together. They are not starting from scratch or translating across a gap. They share the same language, the same frameworks, the same prompts. The conversation moves straight to what matters: what new possibilities do we see, what could we do differently, what are we going to act on. The learning compounds because it happens in parallel and then converges.
This is the difference between sending an executive to a class and building an aligned leadership team. One develops an individual. The other develops the working relationship between a CEO and the person they rely on most. The whole system is designed to do one thing: support the CEO in optimizing the business by making the people around them better.
Why CEOs put their key people in this group
The CEOs who invest in this are not doing it as a perk. They are doing it because they have done the math.
A CEO who grooms a strong number-two buys back their own time and de-risks the entire company. A CEO whose senior team shares their language and frameworks spends less time correcting and more time leading. A CEO planning an eventual transition, whether a sale, a step back, or a true succession, knows the value of the business depends on whether it can run without them. Every one of those outcomes runs through the strength of the executive team. This group is where that strength gets built.
Put simply: investing in your key executive is not an expense for them. It is an investment in your whole organization, and in your own freedom.
What the program includes
The Vistage Key Executive Program is built on the same foundation as the CEO groups, tuned for senior leaders:
- Monthly peer advisory meetings. Twelve full-day meetings a year with a group of up to 16 senior executives from non-competing industries, led by me as your Vistage Chair.
- World-class speakers. Eight+ expert speakers a year, the same caliber that present to the CEO groups, deliberately shared across both so the CEO and executive learn in parallel.
- A global community. 24/7 access to the Vistage network of tens of thousands of business leaders across more than 20 countries.
Who belongs in this group
The Key Executive group is built for the senior leaders a CEO depends on most.
That typically means C-level executives (COO, CFO, CMO, and others), senior and executive vice presidents, managing directors, and the number-two being groomed for succession. These are direct reports to the CEO at established, structured companies, the people carrying real responsibility for executing the company’s strategy day to day.
The best candidate is an executive the CEO genuinely wants to develop and keep, someone with the drive to grow and the maturity to give as much counsel as they take. If that describes someone on your team, they likely belong in this room.
How it connects to your CEO group
This group works best when the CEO is also in one of my CEO groups, because that is what makes the parallel-learning model possible.
When a CEO is in my Chief Executive group and their key executive is in my Key Executive group, the shared speakers, shared language, and Friday debriefs turn two separate memberships into one aligned leadership system. You do not have to be a CEO member for your executive to join, but the CEOs who pair the two consistently get the most out of it.
Is this right for your executive?
This is the right move if you have a senior leader you are serious about developing, if you want your team aligned to your thinking rather than guessing at it, and if you are thinking ahead about succession and the long-term strength of your bench.
It is not the right fit if you are looking for a quick training course or a one-time workshop. This is ongoing development for a leader you intend to keep and grow.
The best way to know is to talk it through. I am happy to discuss whether a specific executive on your team is a fit, and to arrange a guest visit so they can experience the room. Use the contact link or reach out directly. I qualify and confirm every seat personally.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Vistage Key Executive group? A Vistage Key Executive group is a confidential peer advisory group of up to 16 senior executives from non-competing companies who meet monthly, led by a trained Vistage Chair, to develop their leadership skills, make better decisions, and drive results for their CEO. It is designed for the C-level executives and senior leaders who report directly to a CEO.
Who should join a Key Executive group? Senior leaders who report to the CEO: C-level executives such as a COO, CFO, or CMO, senior and executive vice presidents, managing directors, and the number-two being prepared for succession. Mark Taylor confirms fit individually.
How is Mark Taylor‘s Key Executive group different? Mark runs his speaker programs Tuesday through Thursday, and every speaker who presents to his CEO groups also presents to his Key Executive group. This means a CEO and their key executive learn the same material from the same expert in the same week, then debrief together on Friday with shared language and frameworks. The model is built to align the CEO and their senior team, not just develop one individual.
How often does the group meet? The Key Executive group meets for a full day each month, twelve meetings a year, with at least eight expert speakers across the year.
Does the CEO need to be a Vistage member too? No, an executive can join the Key Executive group whether or not their CEO is a member. That said, the parallel-learning model, shared speakers and Friday debriefs, works best when the CEO is also in one of Mark’s CEO groups.
Why would a CEO invest in this for their executive? Because a stronger executive team de-risks the company, buys back the CEO’s time, aligns the senior team to a shared language, and strengthens succession planning. CEOs invest in the Key Executive group as an investment in the whole organization and in their own eventual transition, not as a perk for the individual.
Where does the group meet? In Manhattan. Mark Taylor’s groups serve CEOs and senior executives across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
