"Growth infused ACG, with much of the membership gain from service providers who were hunting and doing deals."
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Trust by Carl Wangman & Judith Iacuzzi Trafford Publishing
book review by Arthur Gershman
Trust is a business history, or more precisely, a business association history of the ACG—Association for Corporate Growth. ACG is an association of middle market corporations and service providers who seek growth for their businesses. Trust is the story of how the association grows from a small group of businessmen in the early 1950's into a group of more than fourteen thousand today. There are three major components to the story: the ACG itself; InterGrowth, the major annual trade meeting; and ACG Global, the international arm of the organization. An overview of the history of these three components is given in the first four chapters of the book, while the next four chapters are devoted to the history of the New York, Chicago, Toronto, and Los Angeles organization Chapters. Subsequent chapters discuss membership growth, visibility, and association governance.
The book offers eye-opening anecdotes, such as the time when Conrad Tuerk chaired InterGrowth. The lead speaker, Al 'chainsaw' Dunlap withdrew as he was about to be "indicted for cooking the books at Sunbeam Corp." Mr. Tuerk uses the incident to describe how ACG members pulled together to arrange for an excellent substitute speaker.
The co-authors come well equipped for their task. Wangman majored in history at Yale and took away honors. Iacuzzi is a trained journalist, having earned a master's from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. Both have many years of service with the Association. This is a book which will not only enhance understanding and promotion of ACG, but describes how a vial, global business community was forged through the passion and need of responsible business.