The Strategy Skills Podcast: Management Consulting | Strategy, Operations & Implementation | Critical Thinking

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 190, an episode with a highly regarded lecturer, Carole Robin. Get Carole’s book here: https://amzn.to/3lAmUhi Carole Robin, Ph.D. was known as the Queen of Touchy Feely and received the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award and the Silver Apple award for contributions to alumni programming. She was the Dorothy J. King Lecturer in Leadership at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where she helped to further develop the Interpersonal Dynamics Course including co-developing the Executive version. She also became the Director of the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program. When she retired in 2017, a scholarship was established in her name. Subsequently, she co-founded Leaders in Tech, a nonprofit which brings two decades of lessons to Silicon Valley startups. Carole was a partner in an international consulting firm and a senior manager in a Fortune 500 company. She has provided executive coaching, leadership development and executive team building to a wide range of business, govern

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 189, an episode with Rocketship.FM hosts, Michael Sacca and Mike Belsito. Michael Sacca is the General Manager at Dribbble.com and co-founder of Rocketship.FM. He was the President at Crew, the freelance design and development marketplace, and former parent company of Unsplash, the popular stock photo website. At Crew he secured key partnerships with Squarespace and the BDC before leading the company through it's acquisition by Dribbble in 2017. His writing has been featured in the Harvard Business Review and his popular product management podcast has been written about in Inc, Forbes, The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur respectively.  Mike Belsito is the author of Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us and co-founder of Product Collective which organizes INDUSTRY: The Product Conference, one of the largest and top-rated product management conference series anywhere in the world. Mike has been named one of the Top 40 influencers in the field of Product Management on severa

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 188, an episode with a sought after international speaker and leader, Simon Mainwaring. Get Simon’s new book here: https://amzn.to/3wxrEZX Simon Mainwaring is the founder/CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy accelerating growth and impact for purpose-driven brands. He’s a member of the Steering Committee of Sustainable Brands, the Forbes Business Council, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London. His company We First was included in Real Leaders list for the Top 100 Impact Companies in the US for 2018 and We First was a B Corps ‘Best for The World’ Honoree in 2019. He is a Jury Member at the Cannes Lions Festival for the Sustainable Development Goals in 2021 and a Jury Member of PRWeek’s ‘Purpose Awards’ in 2020. Simon’s first book, We First was named as Best Marketing Book of the Year by strategy+business, was a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestseller. Simon was a Real Leaders Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World in 2020, and he has been fe

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 187, an episode with a sought-after business advisor and speaker, Jon Picoult. Jon Picoult is the founder of Watermark Consulting and a noted authority on customer and employee experience. He helps companies impress their customers and inspire their employees, creating “raving fans” that drive business growth. He worked with some of the world’s foremost brands, personally advising CEOs and other members of the C-Suite and helps organizations capitalize on the power of loyalty, both in the marketplace and in the workplace. His insights have been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, Inc., NBC News and Forbes. Jon held senior executive roles at Fortune 100 companies – leading service, operations, distribution, technology, sales and marketing. Early in his career, at the age of 29, Jon earned the distinction of becoming the youngest executive officer in the over 150-year history of a leading, global

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 186, an episode with a professor at Queensland University of Technology, Amanda Lotz. Get Amanda’s new book here: https://amzn.to/3jzSLhK Amanda Lotz is an educator, media scholar, and industry consultant. She is known for her expertise in media industries, television studies, digital distribution, the business of media, net neutrality and other aspects of digital media policy. Amanda is a professor at Queensland University of Technology and leads the Transforming Media Industries research project. She is the author, coauthor, or editor of ten books that explore television and media industries including We Now Disrupt This Broadcast: How Cable Transformed Television and the Internet Revolutionized It All, The Television Will Be Revolutionized and Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television. Media Disrupted: Surviving Cannibals, Pirates and Streaming Wars (MIT Press, 2021). Her books explore the connections between internet-distributed services as well as the busin

For this episode, let's revisit one of the classics by Strategy Skills where we discuss why everyone should read Bill Matassoni's book. Every now and then, someone comes along and makes the subject of management both fun and insightful. That’s what Bill Matassoni has done in his memoir—a combination of compelling stories and contrarian substance—that covers his forty-year career selling what he calls “ephemeral things.” In addition to the memoir, Bill plays host to a series of videos that are entertaining, irreverent, and filled with his conviction that marketing is the primary driver of progress in both commercial and social markets. MARKETING SAVES THE WORLD: Stories Why Capitalism Works. Bill Matassoni Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 184, an episode with the Vice President for Communications of Texas Roadhouse and Kent Taylor's close friend, Travis Doster. Get Kent's new book here: https://amzn.to/30Q9SW7 Kent Taylor was the Founder and CEO of Texas Roadhouse, one of the most successful restaurant chains in America. It was founded in 1993 and is currently operating 647 restaurants in 49 states and 10 foreign countries. In 2016 and 2018, it was recognized by Forbes as America’s Best Large Employer. On the 18th of March 2021, Kent died at the age of 65; just a few months before his book was finally released in the market. In this episode, Travis Doster talks about the humble beginnings of the iconic Casual Dining food chain. He talked about how Kent made out-of-the-box strategies that contributed to the company's legendary success. He also talked about how Kent handled more than 80 rejections as he pitched the idea for his business. For business owners who are facing difficulties during these trying times,

Learn more and see the application guidelines: https://www.firmsconsulting.com/experts-published-author-program/ Apply: email team@firmsconsulting.com This is a part of a 10-episode program to help our clients and customers measurably and radically transform their careers through The Author Program. How would your career, reputation, and earnings change as a published author? Imagine your client interactions when potential and current clients saw your thinking in a published book before they met you? Imagine the time you would save not having to explain your ideas and the value you could add to them? Imagine the fee premium you could earn? Imagine avoiding awkward meetings trying to establish your credibility? Imagine how many potential clients would find you and reach out to you? Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit one of the classics by Strategy Skills where we discuss the most important concepts you need to understand in order to advance your career. Be reminded about what is Corporate Strategy and how is it different from the other types of strategies. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit one of the classics by Strategy Skills where we answer a question from our audience. Facing a "horrible" client is a common experience in the business world. You could say that it is part of the journey. It can be hard to know what you should do during this situation. But it is exactly in these types of situations that we learn a lot. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 180, an episode with the former Global Futurist at Hewlett Packard, Jonathan Brill. Get Jonathan's new book here: https://amzn.to/3uG0m2F Jonathan Brill is an expert on resilient growth, innovation, and decision-making during uncertainty. He helps organizations by preparing them to profit from radical change. As a former senior leader in HP, he directed the company's long-term strategy programs. He was also a creative director at Frog Design and the managing partner of innovation firms that created over 350 products. He is currently the managing director at Resilient Growth Partners and a board member at Frost & Sullivan, a major market intelligence firm with offices in 46 countries. He also develops products for both fictional heroes and real people as the Futurist-in-Residence at Territory Studio, the creative visionaries behind the sci-fi tech in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, Ghost in the Shell, and Blade Runner 2049. He advises globally on product innovation a

Learn more and see the application guidelines: https://www.firmsconsulting.com/experts-published-author-program/ Apply: email team@firmsconsulting.com This is a part of a 10-episode program to help our clients and customers measurably and radically transform their careers through The Author Program. How would your career, reputation, and earnings change as a published author? Imagine your client interactions when potential and current clients saw your thinking in a published book before they met you? Imagine the time you would save not having to explain your ideas and the value you could add to them? Imagine the fee premium you could earn? Imagine avoiding awkward meetings trying to establish your credibility? Imagine how many potential clients would find you and reach out to you? Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Learn more and see the application guidelines: https://www.firmsconsulting.com/experts-published-author-program/ Apply: email team@firmsconsulting.com This is a part of a 10-episode program to help our clients and customers measurably and radically transform their careers through The Author Program. How would your career, reputation, and earnings change as a published author? Imagine your client interactions when potential and current clients saw your thinking in a published book before they met you? Imagine the time you would save not having to explain your ideas and the value you could add to them? Imagine the fee premium you could earn? Imagine avoiding awkward meetings trying to establish your credibility? Imagine how many potential clients would find you and reach out to you? Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 177, an episode with the CEO and Co-Founder of Bolster, Matt Blumberg together with his Co-Founder Jack Sinclair. Get Matt's book here: https://amzn.to/3oqmBsv Matt Blumberg is a technology entrepreneur. He spent his entire career creating startups, scaling them, and sharing best practices of what works and what doesn't work for other CEOs and team members in the entrepreneurial community. His innovative email marketing company, Return Path, grew to $100mm in revenues and helped it to a successful exit in a strategic sale to Validity in 2019. Blumberg's company Bolster, an on-demand executive talent marketplace, helps accelerate companies' growth by connecting them with experienced, highly-vetted executives for various roles. It recently conducted a study on Independent Board Members and Board Diversity, which revealed that most early-stage startup boards lack racial and gender diversity as much as boards of more established startups. In this episode, Matt and Jack talked ab

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 176, an episode with a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company (Amsterdam), Kayvan Kian. Get Kayvan's book here: https://amzn.to/3kntLLF Kayvan Kian is the founder of the Young Leaders Forum, a program that helps high potential future leaders with the necessary skills, ways of thinking, and insights to become better leaders in a world of constant change. He also has given guest lectures at Harvard Business School, HEC, Sciences Po, and other leading institutions. He believes that we can make this world a better place by sharing hard-fought lessons with each other, that we gained through the most challenging times in our lives. In this episode, Kayvan talked about how to move forward by taking a step back and identifying the things we can control. For those leaders who feel stuck, this is for you. WHAT IS WATER?: How Young Leaders Can Thrive in an Uncertain World. Kayvan Kian: https://amzn.to/3kntLLF Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here:

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 175, an episode with the Eugene O'Kelly II Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Leadership at Stanford Graduate School of Business, David Bradford. Get David's new book here: https://amzn.to/3lAmUhi David Bradford is one of the two researchers behind Stanford's most popular class: Interpersonal Dynamics, where students and leaders learn how to greatly improve personal and professional relationships. He has produced six books, numerous articles, three training programs, and a massive open online course on leadership, team performance, and the influence process. He has worked with and helped some of the biggest companies in the world including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, IBM, Levi Strauss, Raychem, etc. He is currently a member of the Editorial Boards of the Academy of Management Learning & Education, the Journal of Applied  Behavioral Science, and the Journal of Management Education. In this episode, David talked about how leaders can shift their way of thinking and have a bet

Learn more and see the application guidelines: https://www.firmsconsulting.com/experts-published-author-program/ Apply: email team@firmsconsulting.com This is a part of a 10-episode program to help our clients and customers measurably and radically transform their careers through The Author Program. How would your career, reputation, and earnings change as a published author? Imagine your client interactions when potential and current clients saw your thinking in a published book before they met you? Imagine the time you would save not having to explain your ideas and the value you could add to them? Imagine the fee premium you could earn? Imagine avoiding awkward meetings trying to establish your credibility? Imagine how many potential clients would find you and reach out to you? Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Learn more and see the application guidelines: https://www.firmsconsulting.com/experts-published-author-program/ Apply: email team@firmsconsulting.com This is a part of a 10-episode program to help our clients and customers measurably and radically transform their careers through The Author Program. How would your career, reputation, and earnings change as a published author? Imagine your client interactions when potential and current clients saw your thinking in a published book before they met you? Imagine the time you would save not having to explain your ideas and the value you could add to them? Imagine the fee premium you could earn? Imagine avoiding awkward meetings trying to establish your credibility? Imagine how many potential clients would find you and reach out to you? Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 172, an episode with a sought-after public speaker and an influential thought-leader, Charlene Li. Get Charlene's new book here: https://amzn.to/2XhSdFv Charlene Li is a guide on digital transformation, leadership, customer experience, and the future of work. Her career is focused on helping people see the future and thrive with disruption. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Altimeter, a Prophet company. In this episode, Charlene talked about how disruption serves as a key element in order for a company to determine their future and set their path to growth. For those who wants to learn more on how to advance through the future, this is for you. THE DISRUPTION MINDSET: Why Some Organizations Transform While Others Fail. Charlene Li: https://amzn.to/2XhSdFv Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 171, an episode with one of the world's leading female futurists, April Rinne. Get April's new book here: https://amzn.to/38iGhFp April Rinne is a navigator in a world of flux. She is guiding individuals and organization operate in these fast-paced changing times. Her solo travels to over 100 countries in a span of 25 years has developed her to see how the world changes and how the trends will be set in the future. April is a well-known advisor of startups, companies, financial institutions, non-profits, think tanks and government agencies around the globe. In this episode, April talked about a few key points that would make us rethink our views and help us be prepared for what's coming in the future. For those who wants to better understand uncertainties in order to anticipate and adapt to what's ahead of us, this is for you. FLUX: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change. April Rinne: https://amzn.to/38iGhFp Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training