The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Transformation Economy by THRESHOLD

Ed and I are big Disney fans, so we are thrilled to be able to interview Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World® Resort. One of Lee's major and lasting legacies was the creation of Disney Great Leader Strategies which was used to train and develop the 7000 leaders at Walt Disney World. Lee has held various executive positions in the hospitality and entertainment business with Hilton Hotels for 8 years and the Marriott Corporation for 17 years before joining Disney in 1990 to open the Disneyland Paris project.

We are thrilled to have as or guest, Kevin Mitchell, president of the Professional Pricing Society. Kevin is also the Publisher of The Pricing Advisor monthly newsletter and the quarterly Journal of Professional Pricing. Kevin is a frequent speaker at pricing conferences and events in North America and Europe where he often discusses trends and demographic changes within the pricing discipline. Before joining PPS in 2007, he worked for 11 years in various Financial Management fields with Colgate-Palmolive and General Electric. He has BA degrees in Economics and English from Duke University and an MBA in Marketing from The William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester. Kevin lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and his hobbies include music, cooking, and sports.

They say you can't turn back the clock and go back to the good old days. Yet this is precisely what is happening with the total quality service movement, the customer loyalty movement, CRM, and other philosophies that put the customer at the center of the business organization. Millions of dollars are being spent on consultants to relearn what was once common sense, practiced by the great entrepreneurs from the turn of the century to the mid-1950s. This show, the second in our Entrepreneur Heaven Series, will explore the wisdom of Thomas Watson, Charles Revson, Mary Kay Ash, and Steve Jobs. Wisdom is timeless, and occasionally turning back the clock is the wisest course of action. Sometimes history is our best teacher.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do "Free-Rider Friday." Most of our shows are "topic" driven, where we dive deep into one subject. 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. In addition, this week we will have a special guest free rider. You can also participate on Twitter at #ASKTSOE

Ed and Ron will interview Brad Smith, Global EVP of Customer Experience at Sage. Brad is the executive vice president of customer experience, responsible for developing all aspects of the Sage customer experience, from product design to the invoice experience and all points in between. He has nearly 20 years of leadership in web consumer, enterprise software, and communication service provider industries. Brad is on the board of the Consortium for Service Innovation and loves talking about customer experience.

Winston Churchill said, Democracy is the worse form of government...except for all the others. In this episode, Ron and Ed will examine Public Choice Theory, which describes the extension of analysis to the political alternatives to markets. Many commentators talk about market failure, but far fewer ever even mention government failure. Public choice theory sheds light on how government employees face incentives as much as employees in the private markets, and how these incentives can create bad policies, costly regulations, and other negative consequences.

Are we rational or irrational? Are we more like Mr. Spock or Homer Simpson? There are compelling arguments on each side of this issue. On this show, Ron and Ed will interview one of the country's leading behavioral economists: Dan Ariely from Duke University. Dan is the New York Times best-selling author of Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and his latest book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. Folks, you won't want to miss this show!

Thousands of business books are published each year. Some are worthless, others have merit, fewer still have lasting value, but a handful possess the ability to transform your business (and possibly, your life). Yet with today's busy and demanding schedules, do you feel you don't devote enough time to reading and absorbing new ideas? Then this show is for you. Ed and Ron will explore the best business books ever written, selecting their favorite all-time business books. If you want to share your favorite business books, call the show at: 866-472-5790, or tweet us at #ASKTSOE.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do "Free-Rider Friday." Most of our shows are "topic" driven, where we dive deep into one subject. 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. If you'd like to call-in during the live show, the listener line is: 866-472-5790. You can also participate on Twitter at #ASKTSOE.

Consulting and sales are not different disciplines, but one and the same. They are the art of enabling the best possible decisions for customers. Recognizing this reality is not easy because it requires us to rethink the paradigms and prejudices of the past. We can increase the effectiveness in working with our customers if we adopt some concepts of consulting theory. The assumptions and goals of consulting will be discussed by Ed and Ron.