The Business Group, Inc.

 Our Executive Management Team 

Bob Dawson, CITE  ~  Managing Director

Bob is no stranger to looking at Return On Investment opportunities, or to the travel industry. As a commercial banker for ten years during the 1970's, Bob was selected to be a U.S. Small Business Administration ( SBA ) Certified Lending Officer. Using his financial and management skills, Bob entered the travel industry in 1982. As a travel agency owner in the New England area, Bob built a successful travel business which included corporate, group and leisure clients. This led Bob to the field of incentive travel, and a move to the San Francisco Bay Area.

As President of an Incentive Marketing company in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bob quickly grew the company to become a major player in the Incentive Marketing industry. Armed with a background in both commercial travel and Incentive Marketing, Bob joined the staff of a large regional travel company located in the Silicon Valley area of California. Under Bob's direction, this travel company quickly gained entry into the Incentive Marketing industry. Bob's success with this group led to his promotion as Vice President, Sales & Marketing for the entire $65 million company.

In October of 1991 Bob formed The Business Group in an effort to bring Return on Investment services to other travel and non-travel related companies throughout the world. During the same year, Bob earned an elite membership as a Certified Incentive & Travel Executive through SITE (Society of Incentive & Travel Executives).

Bob has authored two home-study courses related to Incentive Travel, lectured on the topic of Incentive ROI to Incentive audiences worldwide, and is considered an expert in this field. Bob recently co-authored an ROI seminar that will be offered by SITE to Incentive professionals, introducing them to some of the methods Bob has developed to calculate Incentive Program ROI.

Bob's involvement in the Marketing Industry includes his commitment to giving back. He has actively served in industry associations (SITE and the Silicon Valley and Sacramento chapters of the American Marketing Association), where he has held positions of President, Board Member and Regional Chairperson.

Susan Nelson  ~  Director of Operations

Susan joined The Business Group as Director of Operations after a distinguished career in the High Tech Industry. Susan's career in high tech started in the technical sales environment, during the early growth years of Silicon Valley, where she was exposed to the intricacies of direct and indirect sales and marketing. Using her skills in marketing and sales, she was able to present and sell new technological concepts to a marketplace that was just starting to grasp the need for such innovation.

With the continued growth of high technology and with Silicon Valley taking a leadership role in this industry, Susan soon found that her talents were indeed of value to companies looking to advance in this area. She joined a start-up computer manufacturing company where her skills in technical sales and marketing were quickly put to work in the Operations organization of the company. Working within the Operations organization of this Silicon Valley start-up company, Susan focused on the development and implementation of Operational models and processes whose success could be measured as a revenue source for the company.

In 1987, Susan joined another start-up Silicon Valley Company, one that would soon become a leader in high tech innovation and a Fortune 100 Company. Susan spent 14 years working in the Operations Organization of this computer manufacturing company. Her job responsibilities during this time period included new product development in the Supply Management and Logistics Organizations and Supply Chain improvements. Susan's ability to work with key strategic partners, on the achievement of mutually beneficial objectives, resulted in significant improvements in the partnerships the company enjoyed with both Suppliers and Customers.

Susan brings a unique customer perspective to clients of The Business Group. Utilizing her skills and knowledge of the manufacturing to end user distribution model, she is able to identify areas for revenue enhancement that are traditionally not measured. These abilities are well suited for the ROI environment that represents The Business Group in the Incentive Industry.