Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Stronger, More Focused

As business leaders, we strategize, plan, implement and drive our vision forward — especially now, when many of us are deep into budgeting for the upcoming year.

This year certainly forced many of us to adapt in ways we never imagined. Now, as we look toward 2021, we have to decide if we are going to continue on the new path COVID has forced us onto, or do we return to a more “normal” work environment. This unknown adds to the uncertain business climate that we’ve been dealing with over the past nine months. We all want to make sure we are doing everything possible to move our businesses forward while at the same time providing a safe workplace.

Florida’s business community is resilient and steadfast. I am confident that we will come out of these times stronger and more focused than when we went in.

Our cover story this month highlights some of Florida’s top women leaders. The biggest challenge in producing a feature like this is that there are so many exceptional women leaders in Florida. But our editorial team looked across industries and regions to identify a cross-section of just some of Florida’s amazing and influential women leaders.

Many of us have had phenomenal women business leaders guide, inspire, challenge and influence us during our careers. I can point to two such women to whom I owe a debt of gratitude: Gloria Scoby, (now retired) senior vice president and group publisher for Crain Communications, and Fawn Lopez, publisher and vice president of the weekly business publication Modern Healthcare.

The impact that both of these women had on my career at Crain’s Chicago Business, where I spent nearly 15 years prior to joining Florida Trend, had been nothing shy of amazing. I still lean on the advice they gave me when making business decisions today. I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from them. I often think of one particular piece of advice that Fawn gave me early on: “Be firm with your decisions, but always make sure to be fair.”

This issue also includes a special custom content feature on Tampa/ Hillsborough County. This special section explores Hillsborough County’s business development efforts and its economic drivers — including education, health care, technology, manufacturing, finance, real estate and arts and culture, to name just a few. You will be amazed to learn about all the growth initiatives, excitement and energy coming out of the Tampa/ Hillsborough County region.

Let’s take the lessons we’ve learned this year and use them to our advantage as we plan for a successful 2021.

I am confident that we will all continue to accomplish good things together.

— David Denor, Publisher
[ddenor@floridatrend.com]

 

Read more in Florida Trend's November issue.
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