___ The Value Architects' Club®

A room of ambitious owners
in Northern Ireland working on the questions that don't have clean answers.

Twelve owners. Different sectors. No competitors. A meeting away from people who understand what you're working through – and have already solved many of the things you're stuck on now.

Chaired by Richard McMullan – a Vistage member first, then a trained and successful Vistage chair. Now running his own groups, on his own terms, for Northern Ireland owners. The first group is full; seats are open in the second.

The part of the job most owners can't talk about

Running and growing a serious business is hard, lonely, and largely thankless. Finding the customers, delivering for them, hiring well, keeping it all going year after year – it's no small thing. If someone hasn't done it themselves, they don't really know what it costs you.

Your team can't help you think it through. Your family can't. Your friends can't. They aren't in your seat, and most of the time you can't tell them what you're actually working through anyway.

And the questions that matter most don't have answers you can look up. Should I let this person go? Is now the right time to take on debt? Is my number two really up to it? Do I sell now, or push for another three years? They don't have clean answers. Only judgement – the kind that depends on context only people running similar businesses would understand. And the cost of getting them wrong is real.

So you do it on your own. The expensive, irreversible decisions are yours alone to make. You second-guess. You go round in circles. You get frustrated. And you do all of this while projecting confidence and clarity to your team, your customers, and the bank – because that's what the role demands.

The frustrations don't disappear. They accumulate. And they come out eventually, in the places you'd least want and with the people who least deserve it.

What you get from being in the room

Owners in the room

Different sectors, different stages, no competing businesses. New seats by invitation and unanimous approval of the existing members only.

Full days a year, off-site

Eleven full days each year, phones off, fully present. Seven are working sessions, three include an expert speaker the group has chosen, one is a two-day retreat.

40₊

Real decisions worked every year

Three or four complex issues per meeting, eleven meetings a year. Yours and other people's. Over the years you stay, that compounds into hundreds.

What being in the room actually changes

Not more on your plate. A different way of making the calls you were already making – and a few new ones you didn't know you should have been making.

The decisions get sharper

You stop going round in circles for weeks on calls you'd usually have to make alone. The decisions you bring to the room come out clearer – informed by eleven owners who've made versions of them already.

The blind spots get smaller

Listening to another owner work through a problem, you start to recognise the pattern in your own. The thing you've been avoiding becomes visible because someone else has the same one.

You see what's coming before it lands on you

Being around eleven other owners means seeing what they're dealing with now – which is often what will be dealing with you in twelve months. Foresight stops being theoretical.

The loneliness lifts

You stop being the only person who knows what you're really working through. You're a meeting away from getting help on whatever needs it – and never more than a WhatsApp away in between.

You become a better leader

You watch eleven other people lead under real pressure. Patterns of good judgement become visible. You start importing them into your own seat without thinking about it.

The quiet pressure of being accountable

You commit to the room. You report back. Nobody wants to be the one who didn't deliver on what they said they would. That gentle, continuous pressure changes what you actually do.

How the Club is run

The structure of the book mirrors the structure of the work

monthly

Member working sessions

Seven of the eleven meetings each year are full-day working sessions. Members bring the real issues they need to think through; the room works on them together. Phones off the table. Undivided attention. Confidential.

Three times a year

Expert sessions

Three meetings a year include a speaker the group has chosen specifically – picked to stretch the group's thinking, not to sell to it. The members decide the topics each year, based on what they see coming.

Once a year

The two-day retreat

One meeting a year is a two-day retreat in a beautiful setting, away from the business. Time to think about more than the next quarter – including what you want your life to look like, not just your P&L.

The room

A maximum of twelve members per group. No competing businesses in the same room. Membership is by invitation or referral only, and new members join only after unanimous approval from the existing members. The room is curated because the value of the room depends on it.

Voices from the room

It's not just about the group helping me think through and solve my biggest issues, although that's been brilliant. I've become a better leader and better person by helping other people solve their issues, and by reflecting on those learnings. You see your position more clearly, and the learning is embedded because you've processed the issue.

I'd say it's given me foresight. I'm more likely to see future challenges in my own life or business, and head them off before they become major issues, by preparing myself, my team and the business for those challenges and the growth to come. And it's not just been my business, it's been my health and relationships, too.

Aran Blackbourne

MD, Karl Asset Management

It started as one day a month to work on the business, which led to thinking strategically about the business and then working full time on it. As a result, my business grew. Being in this environment has helped me to grow, too.

The group provided the challenges to my blind spots without which I'd be stuck. It has created, and continues to create, a mindset of possibilities, whereas before I would have been focused on the seemingly insurmountable barriers.

richard moore mbe

Ex-MD, Linden Foods · Chair & Founder, One Equine Trust

ALSO

"Being a member has changed how I run my business. I am more knowledgeable about certain business matters which gives me confidence in what I'm doing. I probably don't worry as much as I know I'm only a meeting away from getting help on a big issue or problem."

CEO, Manufacturing Business

Who belongs in the room

The room only works if the people in it are right for it. These are the qualities every member shares.

ONE

Reliable

We do what we say we'll do

We put in the time and the work the group needs

We're there for each other when it matters

two

Optimistic and good natured

We put in the time and the work the group needs

We face problems head-on, solve them, and look for the opportunity in them

three

Courageous

We say what we think and we don't tolerate BS

We're brave enough to be vulnerable with the group

We set ambitious goals and we expect each other to deliver on them

The track record behind it

Richard McMullan

Founder, Value Growth Catalyst
Author, The Business Exit Blueprint
Creator, CatalystOS™
Chair & Co-Owner, two manufacturing businesses

35+ years leading and advising complex businesses

A decade in strategy consulting, including FTSE 100 clients

Board-level operation in a £370m+ revenue business

Scaled a UK & Ireland retail business from £1.5m to £20m

135+ owners advised across 30 sectors

I joined Vistage years ago because running a business taught me something I hadn't expected. The loneliness of being the leader is real, gets worse as the company scales, and the people around you can't help fix it. Family, friends, employees – none of them are in your shoes, and most of the time you can't tell them what you're actually working through anyway.

What I got from Vistage, and from groups like it, was something I'd needed for a long time: a room of people who got it. Who'd run businesses, who'd made the mistakes, who could push back without an agenda. I learned more in those groups than in any other professional setting – and I came to love being in them.

What I noticed, over time, was that I wanted to be running these groups more than I wanted to be in them. So I trained as a Vistage chair. I ran groups under their model for years. Watching an owner walk in with a decision they've been going round in circles on for weeks, and walk out clear on what to do – that's the work I want to be doing now.

The Value Architects' Club is what I built when I decided to do it on my own terms. For Northern Ireland businesses specifically. More focused than the bigger groups I'd been part of. Without the corporate overhead. Run by someone who's chaired groups for years – and run businesses for longer.

before you commit

Before you pay anything, you come along to a meeting as a guest. You take part in the full day exactly as a member would – bring an issue if you have one, contribute to others' issues, and see for yourself how the room works.

No fees. No commitment. If it's a fit, we'll take it from there. If it isn't, no harm done either way.

Start with the Information Pack

The pack covers everything in full – how the room works, the calendar, what to expect from a guest meeting, who the Club is for, and what membership costs. Read it on your own time, privately, no obligation.

download the information pack

What's inside: the eleven-meeting calendar, the criteria for membership, full pricing and payment terms, and how the first three months work as a no-risk trial.

Seen enough? Book a taster day

If the pack has already answered your questions, the next step is a guest meeting. You'll take part in a full day, bring an issue if you have one, and decide afterwards whether you want to come back.