The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 306, an episode with one of America's most respected and accomplished voices on women as leaders and their relationship with power, Carolyn Buck Luce. Have you ever wondered what the world looks like from someone else's point of view? We are all born different, with unique perspective, set of skills, talent, and experience, and with this combination, we can write our own story and design a life that is aligned with our purpose and meaning. As Carolyn said, "If you want to live in a way that is worth dying for, you can choose the most epic story for yourself knowing that you already have everything you need to have a life of meaning and purpose. The only question is how you want to invest your time, your trust, your talent, and your treasures." Carolyn Buck Luce is a sought-after speaker, she was appointed by New York City's former Mayor Bloomberg to his Commission on Women's Issues and has co-authored numerous articles in the Harvard Business Review on women's leadership, as well as diversity and inclusion. Across five decades, Carolyn has been a successful diplomat, Wall Street banker, management consultant, healthcare futurist, talent innovator, professor, author, philanthropist, wife, mother, and grandmother. Carolyn's life journey navigating a man's world has given her a unique perspective on living an epic life of meaning and purpose, regardless of the obstacles. Today, she uses her proprietary Decade Game to coach leading women around the globe to step fully into their power at home, at work, and in the world. Connect with her at [email protected]. Get Carolyn's book here: Epic!: The Women's Power Play Book. Carolyn Buck Luce Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 305, an episode with a leading expert in digital marketing, Dr. Mindy Weinstein. In this episode, Mindy discussed how to leverage the principle of scarcity to influence customer decisions, boost sales, and positively impact your business. She also shared the four types of scarcity: time-related, supply-related, demand-related, and limited edition. In this conversation, Mindy highlighted the importance of using scarcity ethically and developing marketing tactics that align with your product or service that aim not only to sell but to help your audience and customers. Dr. Mindy Weinstein is a leading expert in digital marketing and has been named one of the top women in the industry globally. Founder of the digital marketing firm Market MindShift, she has trained thousands of professionals from organizations of all sizes, including Facebook, The Weather Channel, and World Fuel Services. She has a doctor of philosophy degree in general psychology with an emphasis on technology and is a marketing instructor at Grand Canyon University and the University of Denver, as well as a program leader for The Wharton School and Columbia Business School. Weinstein uses her experience and knowledge as a marketer, researcher, teacher and scholar to help businesses increase revenue. She is the host of the popular podcast, Persuasion in Business, and is a global speaker. Weinstein is married, the mom of two boys, and calls Arizona home. Get Mindy's book here: The Power of Scarcity: Leveraging Urgency and Demand to Influence Customer Decisions. Dr. Mindy Weinstein Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 304, an episode with Dr. Ella F. Washington, the author of The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion. How do we build an environment where employees feel safe to be themselves? Who is responsible for creating an organization that values and embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion? And what do we truly need to achieve, sustain, and maintain the workplace utopia that we dreamed of? Dr. Ella F. Washington is an organizational psychologist and DEI expert with a wealth of experience through her involvement as the Founder and CEO of Ellavate Solutions, a Professor of Practice at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, and the co-host of Gallup's Center of Black Voices Cultural Competence Podcast. Dr. Washington continues to deepen her research pipeline and thought leadership as a Gallup Senior Scientist studying inclusive leadership, strengths and other DEI workplace topics. She has global consulting experience in the human capital space, which has allowed her to impact clients across a myriad of industries including financial services, sports & entertainment, oil & gas, higher education and government. Previously, Dr. Washington worked at Gallup and led the Diversity and Inclusion practice where she provided insight to clients on issues of culture, strategic DEI and engagement. The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion. Dr. Ella F. Washington Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 303, an episode with Frank O'Connell, the author of Jump First, Think Fast. In this episode, Frank takes us on his career journey as he successfully explores multiple industries from baked goods to sporting apparel to video games. He shares the lessons he learned and how he built lasting relationships as he worked in different industries. Frank O'Connell is known for his unconventional approach for high performance through his strategic thinking, brand building, breakthrough marketing, and new product ideas. His accomplishments include serving as president of Reebok Brands, president of HBO Video, CEO of Indian Motorcycle, and chairman and CEO of Gibson Greetings, Inc. He spent the first fourteen years of his career developing well-known brands at Arnold Bakery, Mattel, Carnation Company, and Hunt Wesson foods, among other brands in the baking and natural foods industry. O'Connell was a senior partner with The Parthenon Group, a top strategic consulting company for seven years. He also spent sixteen years on the board of TreeHouse Foods Inc., and he is an investor and board member at Schylling, Inc., a toy company and is cofounder of Tuckerman Capital. He has also served on numerous Cornell University boards where he earned his BS in Economics and an MBA. Get Frank's book here: Jump First, Think Fast: An Unconventional Approach to High Performance. Frank O'Connell Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 302, an episode with a Professor of International Business and Strategy at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Ravi Sarathy. What happens if a company or country regulates its own digital currency? In this episode, Ravi Sarathy answers very interesting questions about blockchain and cryptocurrency. He outlines the features and capabilities of a blockchain, the implications of using it, and how organizations can leverage blockchain to their advantage. Ravi Sarathy is the author of Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain, published by MIT Press in Oct. 2022, in which he explains how companies can gain a competitive advantage by developing and deploying blockchain capabilities. Ravi has published in journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Small Business Economics, and California Management Review. His previous book was Firms within Families: Enterprising in Diverse Country Contexts. His research interests are in global strategy, technology strategy, and family business. Ravi holds a Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan, and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has taught executive education programs for companies such as BAE Systems, LG Electronics (S. Korea), Masa Shipyards (Finland), Mathworks, EMC, and others. He was a Fulbright scholar, as the Fulbright-Flad Chair in Strategic Management at the Technical University of Lisbon. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, at the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney, and other institutions. Get Ravi's book here: Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain: Lessons in Disruption from Fintech, Supply Chains, and Consumer Industries (Management on the Cutting Edge) Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we explain how leadership is defined at great firms like McKinsey and BCG, and how we also manage leadership transition at FC. It will surprise you to see how different the mindset can be and that we think about these issues all the time. The most important role of a partner is to leave the firm in a better place than when she/he joined, and to hand over a client relationship to a newer partner. The ability to maintain this cycle is critical. If the mechanism is not there, even proud and great firms suffer during leadership changes. You want to avoid that. The cycle must be continuous. Click here to see the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Let's be honest. Most consultants simply go into Google and search for any reports / analyses to compile market trends/an industry analysis fact pack. In other words, they do not put much thought into it beyond ensuring they are not caught for plagiarism. This is because many consultants think of the market trends or industry analysis as an output to deliver, which will never be used, and it does not matter what comprises the analysis. For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic from week 4 of the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study, where we discuss how/why we built a bespoke market trends pack for the client addressing the issues important to them and them only. We used this market trends analysis to guide the executives on the issues we considered important to their strategy. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss how to convert insights into Strategy Maps. It is a powerful tool to create prescriptive / forecasting models to explain and predict strategy options. This is how to move from being a consultant to thinking and presenting like a partner. It is complimentary and available on iTunes, Youtube, Spotify, and many other podcast players. The Video version of this episode is available on youtube - https://youtu.be/hcStB7fjsJ0 Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss how to know what is corporate strategy. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss what big picture thinking is. At least once in your life, you would have received feedback to be a more big picture thinker. The problem is that everyone will have a different definition of big picture thinking and many of the definitions are vague, counter-intuitive, or wrong. Based on advising some of the consultants on the study, this podcast provides a very simple, intuitive, practical, and correct definition of the big picture concept. It also explains why it is so important and how to use it. Keep in mind that this study is being updated on our website where you can view the training videos and PowerPoint slides. This is a huge study and will offer the most realistic training for both consultants and industry professionals. Pure corporate strategy studies are rare. This is a unique training opportunity. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 296, an episode with Nick Santhanam, the CEO of Fernweh Group, an investment company adapting an engaged investor & operator model (EIOM) to create alpha in the industrial and industrial technology sector. In this episode, we dig deep into the prevailing narrative about the decline of manufacturing in the US and if that is the case, the actions needed from the government to bring back the US as a thriving manufacturing nation. Nick Santhanam is a former Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company's Palo Alto office and was the leader of their global industrials practice. In addition, Nick was the global convener of several McKinsey annual events, including the Industrial CEO event (GILS), Industrial-tech and Semiconductors CEO event (T-30), Food Processing CEO event (FPH-30), and Senior Tech Influencers Summit (TEDS). He co-authored several of their leading industrials research: McKinsey on Industrials, McKinsey on Food Processing and Handling, and McKinsey on Packaging. He is also on the Advisory Board of Smithsonian Libraries, given his passion in continuous learning. Early in his career, Nick worked as a technical manager at a printed circuit board (PCB) and ceramics manufacturer in New York. He also worked as a manufacturing engineer at another PCB and ceramics manufacturer in their Delaware facility. Nick has an MS in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois and an MBA in Strategic Management and Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Ford and Palme Scholar. Get Nick's book here: The Titanium Economy: How Industrial Technology Can Create a Better, Faster, Stronger America. Asutosh Padhi, Gaurav Batra, and Nick Santhanam Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 295, an episode with a highly regarded global executive, Daphne E. Jones. In this episode, Daphne shares her inspiring journey of overcoming criticism, judgment, racism, and doubt. She was told by her career counselor that Black girls don't successfully make it in college, but should instead go to secretary school. Today, Daphne is a corporate board member who has held CIO and other leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Hospira (now Pfizer) and General Electric. With the right mindset and perseverance, Daphne defied everyone's doubts, overcame life's challenges, and emerged victorious. Daphne also discussed the role and significance of finding the balance with your 5 F's (faith, family, finances, fitness, and furthering your career) to succeed in life. She also elaborated on the 4-step EDIT methodology (Envision, Design, Iterate, and Transform) that enables women to transform their mindset to win. Daphne E. Jones has 30+ years of experience in general management and executive level roles at IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Hospira, and General Electric but began her career as a secretary. At GE, she served as SVP for Future of Work, SVP & CIO for Product Engineering, Imaging, and Ultrasound, and as Senior Executive & CIO for Global Services, all of which composed a $13 billion segment of GE Healthcare. Jones serves on the board of directors for AMN Healthcare, Inc., Barnes Group Inc., and Masonite International Corp, and is the recipient of numerous domestic and international awards. She recently started a company that teaches leaders how to prepare to serve on boards. Get Daphne's book here: Win When They Say You Won't: Break Through Barriers and Keep Leveling Up Your Success Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss about financial strategy. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss scenario planning's common problems. Scenario planning / Scenario Analysis is a powerful tool in consulting. This is how to move from being a consultant to thinking and presenting like a partner. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic from the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. This podcast is for those who have mastered all the basics on slide design and formatting. In this podcast, we discuss how to determine if your PowerPoint slides are influential on a study. Influential PowerPoint slides may not be the most beautiful pieces of work or even the ones with the most effort, though it is usually at least the latter. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills Episode 291 with the first-ever Chief Design Officer and SVP of PepsiCo, the world's second-largest food and beverage company, Mauro Porcini. In this episode, Mauro talked about how his career started and how his love of what he is doing helped made PepsiCo what it is today. He also talked about the step-by-step process of designing and establishing a new culture in any corporation and how this would lead to innovation, eventual growth, and overall success. In the past eight years, Mauro and his design team have won more than 1,100 design and innovation awards and in 2018, PepsiCo was recognized by Fortune in its Driven by Design list. He was previously 3M's first Chief Design Officer. Porcini has been recognized with several personal awards, including Fortune's 40 under 40, GQ Italia's 30 Best Dressed Men, and Fast Company's 50 Most Influential Designers in the United States. In 2018, he was awarded a knighthood (cavaliere) by the president of the Italian Republic. He lives in New York City. Get Mauro's new book here: The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People. Mauro Porcini. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss value chain analysis. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 289, an episode with Linda Yates, the founder and CEO of Mach49, the leading growth incubator for global businesses with clients including Goodyear, Hitachi, Intel, JetBlue, Nestlé Purina, Prudential and Shell. In Linda's new book The Unicorn Within, she empowers large companies to beat startups at their own game—to build a pipeline and portfolio of new ventures to drive meaningful growth through teachable, repeatable, scalable method focused 100 percent on execution across the spectrum of venture creation from Ideate to Incubate, Accelerate, and Scale. She also offers keys to managing the Mothership and seizing the Mothership advantage to ensure your ventures reach escape velocity and thrive. Linda Yate is a seasoned CEO with over 25 years of experience creating global strategy and driving innovation for large multinationals around the world. A native of Silicon Valley, Linda spent a decade as a member of the Board of Directors for NYSE-traded Sybase Inc. (now SAP) and has been a board member and advisor to many entrepreneurs and private companies. Linda was previously CEO of Strategos, pioneering the field of Corporate Innovation with Co-Founder and Chairman, Professor Gary Hamel. She is a Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute. She has been interviewed by Reid Hoffman for "Masters of Scale" and other programs. Get Linda's book here: The Unicorn Within: How Companies Can Create Game-Changing Ventures at Startup Speed. Linda Yates. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic from the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study, where we explain how benchmarking analysis, or what is also called best practice analysis, should be used for the top-down analysis and why they are so difficult to manage in a real study. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss value chain mapping. We have seen many value chain mapping examples. We have seen good value chain mapping, bad value chain mapping, and incomplete value chain mapping. Ultimately, given the nature of how value chain mapping will work, it can and cannot do a few things. So if value chain mapping is presented to do things it cannot do, then it is flawed. When you do value chain analysis, 1.) it is far more useful to see where profits will shift over time. 2.) assign some probabilities of what are the odds of this happening. And 3.) what influences those probabilities? You are analyzing the entire sector, the entire industry. A lot of things influence a sector. Consumer spending can change with the recession. Recession can change things. Different legislation could cause profits to move from point x to point y. Competitors making a misstep could cause it, new competitors entering, and competitors going bankrupt. So whenever someone says "I am certain this will happen", you should question their business judgement because you cannot predict the future. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 286, an episode with a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, and consultant, Dr. Cindy McGovern. Get Cindy's book here: https://amzn.to/3Cys1ae Most of us view "sales" as a pushy, manipulative, and one-sided thing. But really, "sales" is understanding what others need and trying to deliver on those needs. Regardless of the nature of work—whether you're selling a product, service, or idea, you are selling yourself first and it is a life skill that everybody needs. Therefore, it is important to first build trust and develop your personal brand around it which will make selling easier. In this episode, Dr. Cindy defined sales in a different light. She discussed how to sell yourself and how to proactively manage your personal brand. Dr. Cindy McGovern is the founder of Orange Leaf Consulting, which helps organizations, entrepreneurs, and individuals create dynamic and robust sales processes. Before launching her business, McGovern was a college professor of communication as well as a successful sales professional. She has worked with hundreds of organizations of all sizes and specialties across the globe and is now one of the most sought-after business and sales authorities. Get Cindy's book here: Sell Yourself: How to Create, Live, and Sell a Powerful Personal Brand. Dr. Cindy McGovern. https://amzn.to/3Cys1ae Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 285, an episode with Ashish Kothari. In his book "Hardwired for Happiness" Ashish outlines an easy-to-follow recipe that can help anyone increase joy, health, love, and meaning in their lives. His transformational approach is secular, interdisciplinary and integrates learnings and best practices across the fields of science and spirituality. Get Ashish's new book here: https://amzn.to/3yyzfdh Ashish is an executive coach, author and founder of Happiness Squad, a company focused on helping individuals and organizations unleash the power of happiness and well-being to achieve their full potential. Ashish is a deep expert on happiness and human flourishing having read over 450 books and trained under masters across the disparate fields of spiritual wisdom traditions, psychology, and neuroscience. Prior to starting Happiness Squad, Ashish spent over 17 years at McKinsey and Co, a premier management consulting firm, supporting thousands of leaders and their organizations succeed through increasing their effectiveness, building more human-centric cultures, and developing new mindsets and capabilities at scale. He served as the co-dean for the Centered Leadership as well as Reenergizing organizations training programs at McKinsey and is a highly sought-after expert on leadership and well-being, both internally and externally. Ashish is a Newfield-certified ontological coach trained to help leaders overcome obstacles through the use of language, mood, and somatics to shift how they observe the world. He also has a Master's in Business administration (MBA) with a specialization in Organizational behavior from Chicago Booth and a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India. Ashish is married and lives with his wife Lizzie, son Ashwin and their dog Ms. Puggles in Boulder, Colorado. He serves on the advisory board of the CU Leeds business school. Get Ashish's book here: Hardwired for Happiness: 9 Proven Practices to Overcome Stress and Live Your Best Life. Ashish Kothari. https://amzn.to/3yyzfdh Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 284, an episode with CNBC's Senior Media & Tech Correspondent, Julia Boorstin. Get Julia's Book here: https://amzn.to/3ekjT4Y In this episode, Julia speaks about female leaders and their struggles in facing gender bias and "pattern matching" in largely male-dominated industries. She discusses the key commonalities of female leaders who thrived in spite of the challenges that made them uniquely equipped to lead and grow successful businesses. Julia also shared her journey of becoming a CNBC senior media and tech correspondent. As an expert, she shares tips on how to prepare for interviews, how to become a better communicator, and how to respond to opportunities. Julia Boorstin is CNBC's Senior Media & Tech Correspondent and has been an on-air reporter for the network since 2006. She also plays a central role in CNBC's bicoastal tech-focused program "TechCheck" delivering reporting, analysis, and CEO interviews with a focus on social media and the intersection of media and technology. In 2013, Boorstin created and launched the CNBC Disruptor 50, an annual list she oversees, highlighting private companies transforming the economy and challenging companies in established industries. She also helped launch the network's 'Closing the Gap' initiative covering the people and companies closing gender and diversity gaps. Julia is a graduate of Princeton University, she has been a reporter for Fortune magazine, as well as a contributor to CNN and CNN Headline News. She also was an intern for Vice President Gore's domestic policy office. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. Get Julia's book here: When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them. Julia Boorstin. https://amzn.to/3ekjT4Y Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 283, an episode with an expert on organizational paradoxes, Wendy Smith. Get Wendy's Book here: https://amzn.to/3fF1b8C When faced with a tough decision-making situation, it is common for us to assess and select what we believe is the best deal and then move on. We tend to assume that we need to pick one option and eliminate the other. But what if we could actually succeed in pursuing both options? In this episode with Wendy Smith, we discuss how leaders and individuals can effectively respond to contradictory yet interdependent demands and have the mindset shift needed to successfully navigate a paradox. Wendy Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management and faculty director of the Women's Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware. She earned her PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, where she began her intensive research on strategic paradoxes—how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory yet interdependent demands. Working with executives and scholars globally, she received the Web of Science Highly Cited Research Award (2019, 2020, and 2021) for being among the 1 percent most-cited researchers in her field and received the Decade Award (2021) from the Academy of Management Review for the most cited paper in the past 10 years. Her work has been published in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, and Management Science. She has taught at the University of Delaware, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania–Wharton while helping senior leaders and middle managers all over the world address issues of interpersonal dynamics, team performance, organizational change, and innovation. Wendy lives in Philadelphia with her husband, three children, and the family dog. Get Wendy's book here: Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems. Wendy Smith, Marianne Lewis, Amy C. Edmondson. https://amzn.to/3fF1b8C Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 282, an episode with a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Sean McLain. Get Sean's book here. This episode with Sean McLain revolves around the story of Carlos Ghosn, one of the world's most feared and admired business executives who had remarkable success, yet faced a catastrophic fall. He was accused of financial misconduct and arrested for a bevy of alleged crimes—all of which he vehemently denied. Sean is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Los Angeles, covering EV startups like Rivian, Lucid, and Japanese and Korean automakers. Since 2016, Sean McLain has overseen The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the largest automakers in Japan, including Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, and received the Malcolm Forbes Award by the Overseas Press Club of America for his coverage of the former Nissan and Renault executive's arrest and detention. Sean graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, and lives in Tokyo. Get Sean's book here: Boundless: The Rise, Fall, and Escape of Carlos Ghosn. Nick Kostov and Sean McLain Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 281, an interview with a leadership coaching legend, David Noble. Most leaders experience a lack of motivation to continue the things they once had a passion for. So, how do you rekindle the fire of motivation when it starts to die? The key is to know your "why" and assess if your reason is strong enough to continue the journey. In this episode, David shares the role he plays in reframing things and bringing the best out of leaders, executives, and CEOs. David shares a powerful new framework called MOVE that characterizes great and extraordinary leaders. Most of us dislike having only one strategy to win. In David's framework, he discusses the four simple yet powerful options that will take you to the same goal: lean in, lean back, lean with, and don't lean. David Noble has more than twenty years of global experience advising CEOs, their teams, and major investors on leadership and strategy, and an additional fifteen years as a top executive. He was named by Thinkers50 as one of the world's top coaches. Noble has served as a senior adviser to Egon Zehnder and Oliver Wyman. Get David's book here: Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High. David Noble and Carol Kauffman. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 280, an episode with a renowned digital entrepreneur and founder of ENTRE institute, Jeff Lerner. Get Jeff's book here. In this episode, Jeff discussed how he was able to build a multi-million dollar company from scratch and the key elements behind his success. At the age of 18, Jeff started his first business after dropping out of high school and becoming a musician. After the first one failed, Jeff continued starting more businesses and failed at them too. Despite years of trying and numerous unsuccessful businesses, one of which had left him $500,000 in dept, he chose to keep going and eventually built multiple successful businesses. Instead of retiring early, Jeff chose to spend his time inspiring and helping others build their businesses. After becoming an authority in startups, he established ENTRE institute, an online education company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs how they could start their own businesses. To date, ENTRE Institute has taught over 150,000 across the world. Get Jeff's book here: Unlock Your Potential: The Ultimate Guide for Creating Your Dream Life in the Modern World Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episode here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 279, an episode with a practicing emergency physician at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Richard Winters. Get Dr. Richard's book here. As a physician, Dr. Richard shares how he managed, adapted, and remained calm during times of covid. He discussed some of the best practices that can be adapted from the medical field into the space of business. We speak about leadership, administration, and leveraging your expertise to be effective in your career. In this episode, we also discussed one of the traps that most leaders face today where they strive to become successful in their career, and groom and develop new leaders while taking into account the fear of being replaced. As director of Leadership Development for the Mayo Clinic Care Network, Dr. Winters facilitates retreats and delivers programs that train leaders at healthcare organizations worldwide. Dr. Winters graduated from the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in 1994. He is board certified and residency trained in Emergency Medicine from the University of California, San Francisco at Fresno. He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas Executive and Professional Coaching Program and is a professional certified coach through the International Coaching Federation. He completed a Healthcare Management Executive MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to his work at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Winters served as managing partner of a democratic physician group, chair of emergency medicine, president of an 800-physician medical staff, and CEO/founder of a managed care startup. He lives in Rochester, Minnesota with his family. Get Dr. Richard's book here: You're the Leader. Now What? : Leadership Lessons from Mayo Clinic. Dr. Richard Winters Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episode here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss what a strategy workshop will not give you at the end. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss one important thing every consulting case study must produce. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss one important thing you always need to present in all of your management consulting projects, a business case. If you are not presenting a business case to a client, or a benefits case, I prefer the word benefits because it makes it clear you are looking for a benefit for a client, if you are not presenting a benefits case to a client you are making it very difficult for the client to make the decision to implement what you are saying in your recommendation as part of your management consulting project. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 275, an episode with Cassie Holmes, a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management and an award-winning teacher and researcher of time and happiness. In society today, we generally equate productivity with the number of activities we do, regardless of the value it brings us and how it contributes to our well-being and happiness. We often feel "time-poor" for having too much to do and not having enough time to do it. As a result, we feel less happy and less fulfilled. On the contrary, people with too much free time feel unproductive and lack a sense of purpose. So how should we think about time and happiness? In this episode, Cassie discusses how we can recreate our approach to time and transform every moment into a happier hour. She shares how we can spend time optimally, create moments of gratitude and fulfillment, and live life with no regrets. Cassie earned her PhD at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and her BA at Columbia as a psychology major. Cassie's research has been widely published in lead academic journals and featured in such outlets as NPR, The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. Happier Hour is her first book. Get Cassie's book here: Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most. Cassie Holmes Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 274, an episode with Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and currently a professor at Harvard Business School. He has written two of the most enduring leadership classics of all time: Authentic Leadership and True North. Now, Bill has written a new book aimed at the next generation of leaders, the Emerging Leaders Edition of True North, coauthored with millennial entrepreneur Zach Clayton. Get Bill's new book here. This book is a clarion call to emerging leaders to step up to lead their organizations with their hearts, not just their heads, as authentic leaders who lead with purpose by inspiring and coaching their teammates. It heralds the end of the baby boomer era of Jack Welch, when too many leaders focused on maximizing shareholder value and taking shortcuts rather than building sustainable enterprises to serve all of their stakeholders. Our best hope for a better world is to empower the next generation of emerging leaders – not just those on top – to follow their True North to make this world better for everyone. The stories in this book, which came from 220 interviews with exceptional leaders, illustrate that most authentic leaders first discovered their True North through their life stories and crucibles, developed self-awareness, and then found their North Star – the purpose of their leadership. Wisdom learned from leaders like Satya Nadella, Mary Barra, Ken Frazier, Indra Nooyi, Ursula Burns, and Hubert Joly will guide emerging leaders at all levels in their development. Bill joined Medtronic in 1989 as president and chief operating officer, was chief executive officer from 1991-2001, and board chair from 1996-2002. He is currently a senior fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has taught leadership since 2004. He is the author of Discover Your True North and The Discover Your True North Field Book, Authentic Leadership, Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis, Finding Your True North, and True North Groups. He has served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Novartis, Target, and Mayo Clinic. He received his BSIE with high honors from Georgia Tech, his MBA with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar, and honorary PhDs from Georgia Tech, Mayo Medical School, University of St. Thomas, Augsburg College, and Bryant University. True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace, Emerging Leader Edition. Bill George & Zach Clayton. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss consulting workshop best practices. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe

How can you resign from your job with dignity, compassion, and grace, without burning any bridges with your employer? For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we share simple principles to help you leave your role in a way that leaves a positive impression on your superiors, colleagues, and organization. Do you have a story about resigning? Tell us more with a comment below. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss the overall goal of every consulting interaction. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss ten warning signs for a consulting workshop. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 269, an episode with Gaurav Gupta, the Director at change management and strategy execution firm Kotter. Get Gaurav's book here: https://amzn.to/3ApxT5J The level of complexity and the pace at which things are changing in modern society requires leaders and organizations to be more reactive to change. Companies can no longer depend on a linear, methodical, deliberate approach to change. Instead, the key is to rely on a more agile, organic approach where employees are engaged and motivated to participate. As Gaurav mentioned in this episode, "The more organizations, individuals, teams, and leaders can start to frame change as an opportunity, the more people are going to run towards it because there are changes we embrace." In this episode, we discussed the level of change that organizations face today and how they can effectively manage, adapt, and embrace the shifts required in the business. We discussed the kind of leader who thrives in situations where the organization goes through a fast-paced change. Gaurav Gupta worked with clients in industries as diverse as food and beverage, oil and energy, healthcare, chemicals, and finance. Gaurav draws on his extensive global (having worked in over 10 countries) and diverse functional experience in collaborating with business leaders to develop and implement effective transformation efforts. Prior to joining Kotter, Gaurav led the operations for the European office of Stroud International, a management and operations consulting firm. Gaurav combines his passion for international development and education by serving as an executive board member for a non-profit, Medic to Medic, that sponsors medical students in Uganda and Malawi. Gaurav holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Middlebury College and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University. Get Gaurav's book here: Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times. John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, Gaurav Gupta. https://amzn.to/3ApxT5J Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 268, an episode with an attorney and the host of the No Straight Path Podcast, Ashley Menzies Babatunde. The pressure of keeping up with today's competitive world is undeniably haunting. Most people spend a considerable amount of time at work and struggle to maintain their wellness and wellbeing. Many people are unhappy because they try to achieve too many things in life and lose track of the simple things that truly matter. In this episode, we speak about the gravity of maintaining wellness, prioritizing the time for taking care of yourself, finding your purpose, and living a life with a sense of completeness. We discussed how we can create a healthier and happier society while being successful in our careers and life. Ashley Menzies Babatunde was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Ashley is a litigation associate in O'Melveny's Los Angeles office. Her practice focuses on Health Care and White Collar Defense & Corporate Investigations. Ashley is a storyteller, optimist, professional heart-warmer, and hopeful romantic. She is passionate about the intersection of humanity and career. She has realized that her achievements or her failures do not define her. Instead, she is defined by the human qualities that have allowed her to achieve success and overcome challenges. Check out Ashley's podcast:No Straight Path aims to humanize success from the millennial perspective. The world often sees the shiny resumes, highlights shared on social media, and job titles associated with a person's LinkedIn profile. We rarely see the story behind it. And when we do, it's often in a memoir towards the end of someone's journey. The podcast aims to delve into the story behind the success with a closer to real-time approach. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 267, an episode with an award-winning advisor, speaker, and author, Christie Hunter Arscott. Get Christie's book here: https://amzn.to/3Qia05S Most of the time, the word risk is associated with fear and uncertainty. We tend to struggle with harnessing the power of risk-taking. But the first bold step sheds light on that. As Christie mentioned in this episode, "An intentional and strategic risk, even when the output is not what you desired, still can propel you further than if you made the consistent choice to play it safe." In this episode, we discussed the power of intentional risk-taking in building one's career. We spoke about how to encourage women to take chances on themselves to face intentional, intelligent, and strategic risks. Christie Hunter Arscott is a leading expert on how we can harness the power of intentional risk-taking to create more dynamic and vibrant careers and organizations. A Rhodes Scholar, Christie has been named by Thinkers50 as one of the top management thinkers likely to shape the future of business. Christie was also selected for the biannual Thinkers50 Talent Award shortlist of the top global thought leaders in the field of talent management. Christie's research and writing have been featured across international publications, including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fortune, European Business Review, TIME, Fast Company, Business Insider, and more. Her article "Why So Many Thirtysomething Women Are Leaving Your Company" was selected for the Harvard Business Review collection of the top articles on diversity. Christie has spoken worldwide to organizations and institutions, including the World Economic Forum, Harvard Business School, the University of Oxford, and the Global Women's Forum for the Economy and Society. Her corporate clients include Bacardi, Deloitte, PWC, HSBC, and more. Christie holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Brown University, a certificate of Distinction in General Management from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and two Master's degrees with a focus on gender research from the University of Oxford. She currently serves on the Women's Leadership Board of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Get Christie's book here: Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty, and Launch a Brilliant Career. Christie Hunter Arscott. https://amzn.to/3Qia05S Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss the importance of corporate strategy. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 265, an episode with a veteran Silicon Valley dealmaker, Touraj Parang. Get Touraj's book here: https://amzn.to/3bmsDGj In this episode, Touraj takes us through his unique, decades-long experiences as an entrepreneur and investor. He shares the lessons he learned when he sold his first startup – with no exit plan – for pennies on the dollar. It was then followed by great success with his next startup as he applied his learnings and prioritized executing an exit strategy. Touraj discussed the key things to consider and the red flags to avoid when selecting investors and co-founders. Touraj Parang is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and M&A expert who has sat in every seat around the table, structuring and negotiating strategic transactions since the late 1990s, including as a corporate attorney at legal powerhouses WSGR and O'Melveny & Myers. Touraj has been a founder, executive, and trusted advisor to several fast-growing technology startups with exits to LinkedIn, Instacart, Vistaprint, Postmates, and Amplify, among others. He has also spent nearly a decade on the acquirer side of M&A deals as a corporate development executive at Webs and GoDaddy. Exit Path draws on Touraj's unique, decades-long experience involving hundreds of M&A transactions, strategic partnerships, and venture capital investments totaling billions of dollars in aggregate value. He is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer at Serve Robotics, a startup shaping the future of sustainable, self-driving delivery that he helped spin out of Uber, and an Operating Advisor at Pear VC, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he enjoys collaborating with and providing strategic guidance to mission-driven entrepreneurs. He earned his JD from Yale Law School and his BA in Philosophy and Economics from Stanford University. Get Touraj's book here: Exit Path: How to Win the Startup End Game. Touraj Parang. https://amzn.to/3bmsDGj Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 264, an episode with startup entrepreneurs Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba. Get Ash and Hasan's book here: https://amzn.to/3Q8ctPD In this episode, we speak about the concept of unfair advantage and the process of identifying and managing it so it's your edge over any competition. Many people have the limiting belief that they don't have something authentic to offer, but what they don't realize is that we all have unique skill sets and talents. It only takes self-awareness to realize that the ingredients to success are already within you. Ash Ali is an award-winning serial tech entrepreneur and angel investor. Ash sold his first internet business at just 19 years old (and most recently, his Dubai-based on-demand mobile app startup in 2018). As the first marketing director of Just Eat UK, which IPO'd for £1.5 billion, he was included in the Top 250 Growth Hackers, as well as the Top 100 Asian Tech Stars in the UK. With over 20 years of hands-on experience creating and growing startups, he has consulted, advised, and invested in hundreds of startups at various funding stages. Ash is a highly sought-after international speaker and expert on digital disruption and tech transformation, and has spoken at numerous global organizations and conferences, including Salesforce, Ernst & Young, and TEDx. He is currently co-founder of Uhubs, a new skills training platform that helps entrepreneurs and professionals upskill. Hasan Kubba is an author, entrepreneur, and startup strategist. Hasan is a specialist in technology startups, marketing, and fundraising. With his own London-based digital marketing business and startup investment experience, Hasan is particularly strong at breaking down complex business concepts into simple and effective strategies and tactics. His recent TEDx talk titled Startups, Entrepreneurship, and Unfair Advantages was voted the highest ever on the official TED subreddit. He is passionate about the future of entrepreneurship and digital disruption globally and is an in-demand startup mentor to early-stage entrepreneurs, workshop trainer, and international speaker. Get Ash & Hasan's book here: The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed. Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba: https://amzn.to/3Q8ctPD Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 263, an episode with an artist, researcher, author, and educator at Northwestern University, Julio Mario Ottino. Get Julio's book here: https://amzn.to/3b4390g Individuals and organizations face complex problems and challenges today that demand a new way of thinking to grasp underlying solutions and opportunities. In this episode, Julio shares the beauty of the coexistence of art, science, and technology – rather than being separate disciplines – to navigate the complex world. Julio was born in Argentina and grew up with twin interests in physical sciences and visual arts, finding beauty in math and art, and seeing creativity as being one thing, rather than something that lives in compartments. Art provided a cathartic means of expression while he grew up in turbulent times. He managed to create a solo art exhibit while drafted as an officer in the Argentinian Navy. When he moved to the United States to pursue a doctorate, his research achievements followed. Most of the early attention Ottino received stemmed from pioneering work in chaos theory and a combination of scientific insight and visualization. His research work has been featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Scientific American, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and other publications. He has supervised more than 65 Ph.D. theses, written over 250 papers and two books, and has given invited presentations at over 200 universities in the United States and around the world, as well as at organizations such as Accenture, Boeing, Google, 3M, and Unilever. An academic entrepreneur, Ottino was the founding co-director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and educational and research initiatives in design, entrepreneurship, and energy and sustainability. As dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, he founded educational and research partnerships with Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Pritzker School of Law, Medill School of Journalism, Feinberg School of Medicine, School of Communication, and School of Education and Social Policy, as well as with external partners ranging from the Art Institute of Chicago to Argonne National Lab. In 2008, he was selected by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as one of the "One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era." In 2017, Ottino was awarded the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education from the National Academy of Engineering for the concept of whole-brain engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Get Julio's book here: The Nexus: Augmented Thinking for a Complex World–The New Convergence of Art, Technology, and Science. Julio Mario Ottino. https://amzn.to/3b4390g Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 262, an episode with a professor at Queensland University of Technology, Amanda Lotz. In this episode, Amanda shares her insights as a media expert about Netflix's recent announcement that they are introducing an ad-supported version of their streaming service. She spoke about the challenges that Netflix may face as it goes down the advertising route. Amanda discussed the pros and cons of a subscription-based model versus an advertisement-based model and what it will be for Netflix as it launches its new strategy. Amanda Lotz is a media scholar, professor, and industry consultant. Her expertise includes media industries, digital distribution, the future of television, the business of media, and net neutrality. Amanda leads the Transforming Media Industries research project in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology. She is the author, coauthor, or editor of eleven books that explore television and media industries, including Netflix and Streaming Video: The Business of Subscriber-Funded Video on Demand, Media Disrupted: Surviving Cannibals, Pirates and Streaming Wars, 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. Her most recent books explore the connections between internet-distributed services such as Netflix and the legacy television industry, as well as the business strategies and revenue models that differ. Her award-winning book, The Television Will Be Revolutionized, now in its second edition, has been translated into Mandarin, Korean, Italian, and Polish. She is frequently interviewed by NPR's Marketplace, has appeared on BBC, CNN's The Nineties, HuffPost Live, and ZDF (German television network), and has been interviewed for articles in the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, Wired, and Men's Health among many others. She publishes articles about the business of television at Quartz, Salon, The New Republic, hosts the Media Business Matters podcast, and tweets about television and media @DrTVLotz. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 261, an episode with the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, Saleem Ali. Get Ali's book here: https://amzn.to/3aOWwie In this conversation, we discussed numerous examples of major problems around the world, from the resources industry, environmental conflicts, culture, and the system of order and control of many organizations, and how these issues come down to the need for literacy and proper education. Environmental awareness is present today, however, we are lacking science or environmental literacy. Education is not an elite enterprise and someone even without formal education can be a citizen scientist who is seeing and observing the world and continuously gaining much more depth of knowledge and understanding to contribute to solving the problems of the world. Prof. Ali previously served as chair in Sustainable Resource Development and professor of sustainability science and policy at University of Queensland in Australia. He also was a professor of environmental studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Natural Resources and founding director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security. He was also formerly on the adjunct faculty of Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies and the visiting faculty for the United Nations mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica). Prof. Ali's primary research interests have been in the causes and consequences of environmental conflicts in the mineral sector, and the process of using ecological factors to promote peace. Some of Prof. Ali's former research appointments include a visiting fellowship at the Brookings Institution's research center in Doha, Qatar; a Public Policy Fellowship at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia; a Baker Foundation Research Fellowship at Harvard Business School; and a parliamentary internship at the U.K. House of Commons. He has teaching experience in courses on environmental planning, conflict resolution, industrial ecology, research methods, and technical writing. Before embarking on an academic career, Prof. Ali worked as an environmental health and safety professional at General Electric, an Associate at the Boston-based consulting firm Industrial Economics Inc., as well as a consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Health Canada. Prof. Ali is a citizen of the United States of America by birth; Pakistan by parental lineage; and Australian by naturalization. He received his doctorate in Environmental Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an M.E.S. in environmental law and policy from Yale University, and his Bachelors in Chemistry from Tufts University. Get Ali's Book here: Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life. Saleem Ali. https://amzn.to/3aOWwie Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 260, an episode with bestselling author, keynote speaker, workplace expert, and resilience researcher, Adam Markel. Get Adam's Book here: https://amzn.to/3PwE6l6 In this episode, Adam speaks about how he reinvented his career path through valuable lessons and eye-opening life events. He shares his experience as a Jones Beach lifeguard in New York. As a first responder in a life-and-death environment, he learned the importance of cultivating a high-performance capacity and impeccable teamwork. He learned to never let anyone go under the water, not to quit, and to keep going no matter what the conditions were. Years later, after experiencing a panic attack due to stress and exhaustion, he was reminded of another important lesson that he learned at the beach: the importance of taking intermittent breaks. Rest, recover, and recuperate, or you cannot perform well. Lots of people think of resilience as getting up after taking a blow, moving forward after getting knocked down, and bouncing back from setbacks. Resilience is more than that. As Adam mentioned in this episode, "Resilience is not about how we bounce back. It's actually about how we bounce forward. It's not about how we endure life's challenges, adversities, and uncertainties. But actually how it is that we leverage that uncertainty for our growth." Adam is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Publisher's Weekly bestseller, Pivot: The Art & Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life. A leading international keynote speaker, he has reached tens of thousands worldwide with his message of resilience as the competitive edge in today's complex markets. An attorney, entrepreneur, and transformational trainer, Adam is a sought-after business culture catalyst who inspires, empowers, and guides organizations and individuals to create sustainable, high-performance strategies. Adam is also the CEO of More Love Media and host of The Change Proof podcast, where he shares his insights on pivoting and resilience in today's fast-paced market and interviews experts, innovators, and influencers in the areas of business and life. Adam credits much of his success to the principles he learned during his eight years as a Jones Beach lifeguard in New York. He's found that the principles of this type of culture and leadership equally apply to any business that wants to build a competitive advantage to win. After building a multi-million-dollar law firm, Adam pivoted his own career path to become CEO of one of the largest business and personal growth training companies in the world. Here he learned that motivation and inspiration alone are not enough to effectively utilize change. It's about providing leaders, teams, and audiences with effective takeaways to sustain them over time. Get Adam's Book here: Change Proof: Leveraging the Power of Uncertainty to Build Long-Term Resilience. Adam Markel. https://amzn.to/3PwE6l6 Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit the 47th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. As I mentioned in previous posts, the reason we spend so much time on visioning workshop is because if you ever take a senior role in strategy in any company, or if you ever serve as a corporate strategy consultant, running a visioning workshop or corporate strategy workshop, in general, is the skill you must have. And scenario planning is something used extensively in visioning workshops. In this podcast and related article, we discuss what is scenario planning and how to run a scenario planning session during a visioning workshop as part of a consulting engagement. There is also a very elegant way to combine corporate finance and corporate strategy to help companies develop effective strategies under extreme uncertainty. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit the 42nd podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. What I noticed on this, and other studies is that the associates and business analysts are very competitive, in a way that is damaging to clients, to the firm and to their own careers. I am fine with consultants being competitive but I think they go about it the wrong way. You can be competitive and work long hours but you should not seem to be competitive when you are working long hours. I am not saying don't work long hours. Yet, don't make it sound like you are competitive and that is why you are working long hours. Cause and effect matters. If you work hard to be competitive, people see you as someone who is working hard only because you want to get promoted and only because you want to stand out from everyone else. These consultants tend to be so obsessed with telling people how committed they are that they are moving away from the objective of getting the right work done. No one likes someone who is competitive for the sake of being competitive. Because this is just wasted energy. If you are being competitive for the sake of being competitive, versus focusing on the client and working hard to solve a problem resulting in the by-product of you being competitive, you are basically just wasting valuable time that you could use much more productively. If people just think you are competing with them they don't want to help you, they don't want to work with you. Yet, if they see you as someone who is like them but for whatever reason needs to work harder because the client needs it they tend to like you more. They tend to relate to you better. And that dynamic becomes good for your career. In this podcast, we discuss in detail how to go about being competitive on consulting projects while projecting the proper image and maintaining the right mindset to deliver the best value for the client and the firm. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we will talk about general professional values or etiquette that consultants should apply during an engagement. We specifically discuss things that consultants sometimes do on studies that may alienate the client. And rather than talking about every single thing you need to avoid, we will talk about some principles. And these principles apply across every issue. We also discuss how to address a situation where a consultant's behavior is incompatible with the firm's professional values. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo