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

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