The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Transformation Economy

We are excited to welcome back on the show Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy in the UK. Rory has delivered several TED talks, along with many others, including our favorite, a Zeitgeist talk he delivered to Google. They are all incredibly thought-provoking, and rooted in behavioral, and Austrian, economics. In his spare time, Rory collects self-aggrandizing job titles. He was President of the Direct Jury at Cannes in 2007, and was elected President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising in 2009 for two years, where his message was that advertising agencies needed a better understanding of how humans behave, not just how advertising works. Be sure to join us for what will be an exciting and exhilarating exchange of ideas.

In the glorious tradition of afternoon naps and Taco Tuesday, we are fast approaching the last Friday of the month which can only mean one thing…Free-Rider Friday! As many know, our typical show is “topic” driven. We dive deep into one subject for the length of the show, usually with a guest or two. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up.

Confused by the title? Don't worry, we'll make Ed explain it all. Just be sure to listen to hear about data dredging and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Trust us, this will be a fun show.

Think of your firm as a Boeing 777 airplane. When United Airlines places a Boeing 777 in service, it adds a certain capacity to its fleet. However, it goes one step further, by dividing up that marginal capacity into five segments. Your firm has a theoretical maximum capacity and a theoretical optimal capacity, and it is essential to see how that capacity is being allocated to each customer segment. Your maximum capacity is the total number of customers your firm can adequately service -- not how many hours you have -- while the optimal capacity is the point where customers can be served adequately and crowding out does not affect customer behavior. Usually, for most professional firms, optimal capacity is between 60 and 80 percent of maximum capacity. The lesson from this model is that you cannot treat all customers equally. Join Ed and Ron for a discussion of this model and how pricing and project management can be used to achieve optimal capacity.

In the glorious tradition of afternoon naps and Taco Tuesday, we are fast approaching the last Friday of the month which can only mean one thing…Free-Rider Friday! As many know, our typical show is “topic” driven. We dive deep into one subject for the length of the show, usually with a guest or two. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up

Well, we tried, but we could not land Tom Peters to be a Guest on The Soul of Enterprise. Instead, we have decided to do the next best thing - a Memorable Mentors episode. Ron and Ed will recap the career and work of the person whom many claim as the father of the business book genre. His classic, In Search of Excellence, co-written with Robert Waterman, launched his career into a near-Earth orbit. His presentation style influenced both Ed and Ron with his wit and willingness to say outrageous stuff.

Ed and Ron are honored to interview fellow Professional Pricing Society colleague, Mark Stiving. Why don't you win deals at higher prices? You don't get paid enough for the value you create. Or do you build products that your customers don’t value (and don’t buy)? Mark's passion is teaching the power of pricing. He evangelizes pricing at major conferences and has conducted over 400 days of corporate training around the globe. Mark’s Price class maintains a net promoter score (NPS) of 81, higher than Apple’s. Mark also writes about pricing. His book, Impact Pricing: Your Blueprint for Driving Profits, is a highly readable and practical manual (4.9 stars on Amazon). Be sure not to miss this episode!

Originally recorded with the idea that this would be a Bonus Episode for their Patreon listeners only, Ron and Ed were so enraptured with the conversation with Justin Lake, that they decided to release it as a regular episode. This conversation encapsulates so many of the themes of our show, including innovation, regulation, the price system, entrepreneurialism, and personal freedom. These themes will resonate with our long-time audience. However, this episode is deeper than that as it is specifically for those who have diabetes or who have a family member with the disease. Please share this episode with anyone you think might benefit from hearing it.

In the glorious tradition of afternoon naps and Taco Tuesday, we are fast approaching the last Friday of the month which can only mean one thing…Free-Rider Friday! As many know, our typical show is “topic” driven. We dive deep into one subject for the length of the show, usually with a guest or two. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up.

Join Ed and Ron as they discuss the thorny issue of team member compensation. The tradeoff between creating an incentive for firm-wide profit and contributing discretionary effort, and engaging in politics to move up the ladder.