Whether you lead one company or five, whether this is your first year in business or your fortieth, welcome to America’s largest boardroom. This is where people who run companies talk about how to do it.
We bring business leaders together, give them powerful discussion prompts, collect their insights and experiences, then give that knowledge away. We provide help for today’s entrepreneurs, as well as those who’ll be running your companies tomorrow. There is no magic bullet to success. We don’t have a revolutionary new system for sale. In fact, we don’t sell anything at all. The Executives Institute is a 501(c)(3) educational charity on a mission to collect, distribute and preserve the volumes of wisdom and experience of America’s entrepreneurs, so that we can leave this profession a little better (and a little safer) than we found it.
First, we curated 100 classic business books, the titles you know if you’ve been in business long enough. These are the ones entrepreneurs and executives keep on their shelves for decades, not for decoration, for direction —dog-eared, highlighted and margins full of notes.
Then, from each of these books, we distilled one fundamental guiding principle, a Rule, and created a list of talking points for leadership teams, discussion prompts for executive groups, and hard truths for entrepreneurs.
100 Rules of Business.
Now, we’re sharing that list with executives across America, asking you to tell us —
How’d that Rule play out in your company?
We’ve created a simple list of conversation starters, talking points designed to help those of us who are hell bent on figuring it out on our own, to open up to ourselves and our colleagues, about what works, what doesn’t, what might and what we’ve learned the hard way.
It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top.
Every business, and every business leader, gets off track now and again. Everyone at this table understands that. When business is good, our standards can slip, our discipline might fade. But, over the years we’ve learned that often a simple reminder of a basic principle, or a return to the fundamentals is all that was needed to get us back on track.
Walk into your next meeting and ask your team —
Which fundamental rule of business are we ignoring?
Your insights and your experiences become part of a national archive of entrepreneurial wisdom. Classic business books plus today’s real world experience.
Timeless business principles. Collective modern insights.
And, to make it enjoyable, we’re doing this with no subscription or membership, no pop-ups or distractions. We’re not even collecting emails. Just a list of common sense best practices and executive talking points, free for all to use, for generations to come.
Thanks for being here, we hope you find value in our work.
Each of The Institute’s fundamental Rules of Business has roots. Those roots are planted in one of these books, by someone with the discipline to put the lesson down on paper so the next builder didn’t have to start from zero.
These are the books behind the Rules.
Talking Points 📌100 Rules of Business
Master the fundamentals and you’ll strengthen the foundation of every business you ever build. Ignore them, and the cracks will show. They always do. Study this list with an executive group, your leadership team or on your own.
Work on the list however you want, just do the work.
Turning Points 📔 Executive Study Groups
Anyone can read the Rules, the value comes when someone says, “Hey, let me tell you how that played out in my company”. We’re hosting the most candid discussion in America around the biggest boardroom table ever built.
Bring your experience and a notebook.
🪜 The Executives Institute Endowment
The What Do You Need Fund exists to provide practical financial assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners facing a legitimate need or unexpected challenge. We don’t make business loans. We don’t take an ownership stake. And we don’t pretend we can solve all your problems.
When we can help, we’ll try.
💻 Contribute. Add your insights.
The Main Street experience of executives across America is the most valuable contribution our Institute can receive. We building an archive. This is an opportunity for you and your organization to help shape the collective wisdom of business leaders for generations to come.
The insight you share might be the turning point someone else is waiting for.
🤝 Preserve. Support The Executives Institute
As a federally recognized 501(c)(3), the Institute is sustained entirely through voluntary contributions from individuals and organizations who believe this mission matters. Every contribution, whether $25 or $10,000, advances the same mission. No contribution purchases additional access.
Support exists for one reason: To keep it that way.
This is our standard, our business model.
Everyone is trying to make their websites smarter. We’re just trying to make ours quieter. We’re building a very simple, completely free platform for people who are running businesses to study the Rules without distraction or pressure.
Remember when you could visit a website…and just read?
A little about us, our core values and our structure
Over the years, I’ve had hundreds of entrepreneurs say to me, “I wish there was a way to collect and share all of the best advice and experience of the other small business owners across the country”.
I agree. So we built it. (I should say —we’re building it, with your help).
Orientation, a guide to practicing the principles.
This year, we’re laying the foundation for a national archive of small business stories, with the intent that it never actually be finished. We are inviting executives across the U.S. to help shape the cirriculum by sharing the lessons they’ve learned.
September, 2026 | Welcome to The Executives Institute.
Our first full year of operation will begin Monday, January 4, 2027. Today, the site is still under a lot of construction as we build out each of the 100 Rules of Business and the full ourEDGE Entrepreneurial Challenge. Browse around, let us know if you see value in this project, and if you’d like to be involved in some way.
Thank you for being here. I genuinely appreciate it. Kurt McSparron, Founder and CEO | If there is anything I can do to help, text me at 701-541-1073 | email: kurt@theexecutivesinstitute.com | connect at LinkedIn