Leadership of Greater Nashua 2024 had another amazing day together! Our time in January was spent diving into the world of High Tech, Media and Communications; something we all use or come across in our daily lives which makes it even more interesting. The day began with Tim Bishop, Director of Legislative Affairs, with BAE Systems. Everyone is familiar with BAE in Nashua but something I learned and was not aware of is that Nashua is BAE’s Global Headquarters! As a New Hampshire resident, it’s special such a large company and 16,000 employees also call New Hampshire “home”. It’s well-known they have a global footprint with locations in 30 different states but something else I learned is that 95% of the work done here locally is electrical/technology based which means we have a lot of wicked smart people in our zip code.
Similar to everyone in LGN 2024, BAE’s main objective is to help people. I especially liked their motto, “We serve, supply and protect those who protect us”. 85% of their contacts are with the Government so they are truly focused on helping the people that protect us. Tim shared with us that BAE received the first award for onshoring chips (semiconductor and phone chips). This is a very big deal for BAE and for our country that we can begin to source something this important domestically. BAE is genuinely doing some great things for not only our community but for the country as well.
Our next speakers were Eric Carlson and Roy Swonger from Oracle. Oracle has been part of Nashua for a long time but their history was intriguing. The name Oracle itself was derived from an NSA code word meaning “database”. Oracle acquired DEC back in 1993 for a whopping $110 million which was a lot more money back then than it is today. That said, they made that money back in revenue over the next 18 months. That may be the deal of the century! Eric and Roy were great storytellers. They used a great line that I thought was worth sharing about DEC, (and you can put companies like Kodak and Blockbuster in this same category) “A company gets successful by changing the world and fails thinking the world won’t change.” This illustrates the importance and willingness to adapt in order to thrive.
Oracle is everywhere and in almost everything we do with 0% consumer presence. What does that mean? Their database is known for two things; Spatial/Graph Technologies and Cloud Computing. The next time anyone pulls out their phone and Googles “Pizza Near Me” to find a local pie shop you can thank Oracle for working hard for you behind the scenes. The Cloud Computing component is also special. Cloud Computing is similar to getting electricity. You get it from a utility (Eversource) instead of generating it yourself (which would be a nightmare if you ask me). Each time you send something off to “the cloud” Oracle is also working hard for you behind the scenes.
Last and certainly not least we heard from Jim Schachter, President & CEO, New Hampshire Public Radio. Jim is one of those people you meet for the first time and you feel like you’ve known him for years. He has a very calm demeanor but he’s not afraid to challenge your opinion; good traits for a long time reporter. First, I was impressed with the overall reach of NHPR. They have 150k listeners out of 1.4 million people which gives them a whopping 11% market share. That’s unheard of and speaks to the thoughtful content to they put out. On top of that, they have 400k readers and 45k that subscribe to one or more newsletters. 500 corporate sponsors believe in their mission as well. The fact that 70% of New Hampshire journalists have left the business since 2000 is heartbreaking. This stat shocked me but also shows how important the people we have left are. Jim said “NHPR enhances lives and builds trustworthy relationships in our community. Our duty is to hold people/institutions with power accountable”. That’s powerful.
Let’s just say I’ve become a subscriber of NHPR and have already dove into their podcast, Bear Brook. There’s a reason Stephen King called it “the best trust crime podcast of all time” … I’d highly recommend checking it out! It’s unreal. Lastly, a call to action. If you want to nominate a non-profit for an audio postcard from NHPR please email giveback@nhpr.org
What a day to be part of LGN Class of 2024. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
– Mike Ferris, Edward Jones
The afternoon started with a leadership presentation by Betsy Houde, Executive Director, Community Partnerships and operational Support, Southern NH Health. She shared a lot of great advice that she has learned over decades in leadership positions. She reviewed her own “top 10” leadership points with the class:
- Figure out what you are healing from and deal with it
- Pay attention to the details
- Don’t let other people define you
- You don’t need to have all the answers
- Take enough “downtime” to recharge
- Shift the energy
- Become someone you’d be interested in meeting
- Surround yourself with brilliant people
- Learn how (and when) to say no
- Use “confusion” as the best form of confrontation
From there the class moved on to group presentations of our Leadership Book Reports.
The class had been divided into 4 groups and over the last month, each group was given a different leadership book to read. The 4 books are as follows:
- Leadership 101, John C. Maxwell
- Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson, MD
- The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz
- The “New” One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard, PhD and Spencer Johnson, MD
We wrapped up the day with some group activities from Nathan Karol, President, of Cardinal Consulting. We first met Nathan at the Retreat back in September, where he worked with us on team-building exercises. One of the exercises at the Retreat was to write down our “personal and professional goals for our LGN experience”. Our responses were sealed in an envelope to be reviewed at a later date.
We opened these envelopes during this session, reviewed what we wrote, and had open discussions on where we were at with meeting our goals. Several other group exercises were done that allowed us to get to know our classmates better. We are at the halfway point of this program and some of us realized there are people in the class we have not talked to yet. It is important for us to continue to connect and hopefully maintain these relationships after the program ends.
It was a great session and we are looking forward to next month.
–Adam Pouliot, Nashua Fire Department
