Readers of Business Report are familiar with the magazine’s regular Executive Spotlight feature, which routinely highlights five things you should know about an area executive. But this morning, Business Report unveils a new monthly Executive Spotlight video series featuring leaders of Capital Region business and industry sharing their professional challenges and lessons learned.
This morning’s inaugural video features Laurie Aronson, president and CEO of both Lipsey’s and Haspel.
From firearms to fashion, Aronson has mastered managing two disparate family businesses, paving the way for both to grow and excel in their respective industries. She has worked in retail her whole life, spending her teenage summers at her family’s sporting goods store, Steinberg’s Sports Center, working behind the knife counter and wrapping gifts during the holiday season.
“I feel so lucky and fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity that my family has given me,” Aronson says in the video, which runs about two minutes. “One business on my father’s side of the family, and the other on my mother’s side of the family.”
Whether she’s assessing the quality of new fabrics for Haspel, a high-end men’s clothier, or leading the development of a line of exclusive firearms for Lipsey, the nation’s leading wholesale firearms distributor, Aronson is constantly striving for what she calls her next BHAG, or “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.”
But when it comes to her definition of “success,” Aronson says she doesn’t measure it by numbers, names or titles.
“Some people define success as money or sales goals. For me sometimes success at the end of the day is just keeping all of my arms and legs intact and, you know, getting home in time to fix dinner,” she says. “But it’s not defined by name and title. At the end of the day just being happy with what you’ve been able to accomplish is a success.”
Watch the new Executive Spotlight video with Aronson, and also be sure to read the full Q&A from the new issue of Business Report. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find:
What is a great piece of advice you have personally received? Did you have occasion to put it to use?
“Best piece of advice I received was from my father, Richard Lipsey. ‘Give a firm handshake.’ I put it to use every day! In fact, I often surprise people with it.”
