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

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 444, featuring an interview with the author of Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work, Kandi Wiens. In her book, Kandi shares her research and discoveries about burnout immunity. After extreme stress caused a life-threatening health cri­sis in her own life, Dr. Kandi Wiens dedicated herself to understand why work was leaving millions of us sick, exhausted, unmoti­vated, and feeling stuck and ineffective. In her research, she discovered something remarkable: Despite dangerous levels of work-related stress, some people seemed to be naturally “immune” to burnout.   Kandi Wiens, EdD, MSEd, MBA is a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Master’s in Medical Education Program and the Penn Health Professions Education Certificate Program, and Academic Director of the PennCLO Master’s Program. She often teaches in various graduate-level programs across the University of Pennsylvan

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 443, featuring an interview with the co-author of Persuade: The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions, Andres Lares. This book deliver a concise and insightful take on how to transform your ability to persuade others regardless of the setting. Persuade is perfect for executives, managers, entrepreneurs, and other business leaders who negotiate or influence regularly. It is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to improve their persuasion or deal-making abilities.   Andres Lares is the Managing Partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute. Lares' expertise ranges from coaching live negotiations for sports clients, including the Cleveland Browns, Brooklyn Nets, and more, to developing online content for facilitating real estate, advisory, media, banking, and pharmaceutical programs. He is a guest lecturer on negotiation and influencing at various universities, including Ohio University, and annually teaches a sports negotiation course at Johns Hopkins University. L

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 442, featuring an interview with the author of The Illusion of Innovation: Escape "Efficiency" and Unleash Radical Progress, Elliott Parker. The Illusion of Innovation tackles the problem with innovation inside big companies, having activities that feel like innovation but lead to value destruction, not progress. This book explains why meaningful innovation naturally emerges from deliberate inefficiency and how large corporations can harness the power of small teams—startups—to drive radical change through systematic experimentation.   Elliott Parker is the founder and CEO of High Alpha Innovation, a venture builder that partners with corporations, universities, and entrepreneurs to co-create startups that solve compelling problems. He built his career in strategy consulting at Innosight, the firm founded by Clayton Christensen, in corporate venturing, and as an entrepreneur bringing new ideas to market. To date, he has launched over 40 venture-backed startups. Originally fr

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss how to know what is corporate strategy.   Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   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 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.   Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss about financial strategy.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   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 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.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 437, featuring an interview with the author of Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing, Laura Mae Martin. In her book, Laura shows how to thrive no matter where you’re working, giving concrete steps that help you focus on your priorities and keep good systems, routines, and tactics in place. Uptime explains how to make technology work for you and make “feeling on top of it” your new normal. It’s a blueprint for operating at the highest levels of productivity while enhancing your own personal well-being.   Laura Mae Martin is the Executive Productivity Advisor in the Office of the CEO at Google. She coaches Google’s top executives on the best ways to manage their time and energy and sends out a weekly productivity newsletter that reaches tens of thousands of employees. During her 13-year tenure at Google, she has worked in sales, product operations, event planning, and now executive coaching. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science in business administratio

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 436, featuring an interview with Claire Milligan, a Stanford graduate turned startup founder. Claire helps businesses grow by spending smarter and reducing their cloud costs. Her target market is PE firms. In this episode, we discuss what PE firms care about, how to approach them, the biggest challenges and potential solutions they encounter, as well as the sales process and lead time.    Whether she’s helping businesses transform their cloud spending or hitting the slopes as a ski patroller, Claire Milligan thrives on distilling complex problems down to their core issues — and turning these pragmatic findings into groundbreaking solutions. Through a journey spanning marketing, UX, and leadership roles at tech companies like Tallie and SpringAhead, she’s meticulously constructed a diverse skill set built upon hands-on expertise and an unrelenting thirst for knowledge. Now, as the CEO of startup Aimably, she’s applying her unique superpowers to help businesses grow by spendin

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 435, where we feature an interview with the co-author of the inspiring new Generative AI study, Jeremy Utley. This episode highlights the common mistakes and missed opportunities many corporate teams and individuals make when using AI. Too often, individuals treat AI as a mere search engine, leading to answers that fall short of actual solutions.    Jeremy Utley is an adjunct professor specializing in creativity and entrepreneurship at Stanford University, where he has taught design thinking and creativity to nearly one million students of innovation worldwide. In 2023, he was named a top ten global innovation leader by Thinkers50 for his recent book Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample adv

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. Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo  

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 433, an interview with the coauthor of Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future, Venkat Venkatraman. In Fusion Strategy, digital strategy expert Venkat Venkatraman and world-renowned innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan offer a first-of-its-kind playbook that will help industrial companies combine what they do best—create physical products—with what digitals do best—use algorithms and AI to parse expansive, interconnected datasets—to make strategic connections that would otherwise be impossible.   Venkat Venkatraman is the David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University. He has previously taught at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the London Business School. He is considered one of the foremost authorities on how companies develop strategies to win with digital technologies. He has lectured and conducted digital strategy workshops all over the

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 432, an interview with the coauthor of Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future. In Fusion Strategy, world-renowned innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan and digital strategy expert Venkat Venkatraman offer a first-of-its-kind playbook that will help industrial companies combine what they do best—create physical products—with what digitals do best—use algorithms and AI to parse expansive, interconnected datasets—to make strategic connections that would otherwise be impossible.   Vijay “VG” Govindarajan is widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on strategy and innovation. He is the Coxe Distinguished Professor, a Dartmouth-wide chair, at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a former Marvin Bower Fellow at Harvard Business School. Govindarajan is the author of the bestselling books Reverse Innovation and Three-Box Solution.   Get Vijay’s book here: https://rb.gy/2vq6rx Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Po

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss value chain analysis.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? 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 430, an interview with the author of Think Remarkable: 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference, Guy Kawasaki. In Think Remarkable, tech titan Guy Kawasaki teams up with Madisun Nuismer, producer of the Remarkable People podcast, to share invaluable knowledge from more than 40 years of working with game-changing organizations such as Apple, Canva, Google, Mercedes Benz, and Wikipedia, and delivers insights from a collection of amazing interviews that'll kick you into high gear and get you ready to start showing the world your best, most amazing self. Together the authors show you how to lead a fulfilling life by drawing on insights from working closely with some of the world's most remarkable people.   Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva and the creator of Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People podcast. He is an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley), and adjunct professor of the University of New South Wales. He was the chief evangelis

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

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 427, an interview with Paul Stonick, the Vice President of SCADpro—Savannah College of Art and Design’s in-house design, research, and innovation studio—which is generating innovative designs and products for the world's most influential brands, including Google, Amazon, and Apple.   From sketches to on-screen visuals, SCADpro students conceptualized and created augmented reality graphics ahead of Super Bowl LVIII. Their game-changing use of Augmented Reality was an epic viewing experience like never before!   Visit the behind the scenes with CBS Sports here: https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS/status/1755382181998841907   Prior to SCAD, Paul spent 25 years in the corporate world leading world-class digital and user experience design teams primarily in e-commerce, most notably with The Home Depot. His work has been featured in multiple news outlets, research organizations like Forrester and L2 Gartner, national television spots, and multiple Apple WWDC keynotes.   Paul also coaches

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 427, an interview with the author of Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times, Dr. Rebecca Homkes. Survive, Reset, Thrive is a playbook for leaders derived from the author's first-hand experience working with executive teams across industries from software, technology, retail, fashion, and construction through to manufacturing. Drawing from over a decade of rich real-world experience, the author illustrates how to navigate the most complex strategic situations with a simple, executable approach. Rebecca Homkes explains how proactively to stabilize your business to withstand and grow through market shocks, reset your strategy to take account of new realities and thrive through uncertainty. Rebecca Homkes is a high-growth strategy specialist and CEO and executive advisor. She is a Lecturer at  The London Business School, Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Advisor and Faculty at the Boston Consulting Group focused on AI and Clim

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 426, an interview with the author of Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters, Dr. Charan Ranganath. In the book, Dr. Charan radically reframes the way we think about the everyday act of remembering. Combining accessible language with cutting-edge research, he reveals the surprising ways our brains record the past and how we use that information to understand who we are in the present, and to imagine and plan for the future. Why We Remember is a captivating read that unveils the hidden role memory plays throughout our lives. When we understand its power-- and its quirks--we can cut through the clutter and remember the things we want to remember. We can make freer choices and plan a happier future. Charan Ranganath is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis. For over 25 years, Dr. Ranganath has studied the mechanisms in the brain that allow us to remember past events

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 425, an interview with the authors of Career Forward: Strategies from Women Who've Made It, Christiana Smith Shi and Grace Puma. In this book, the authors challenge negative stereotypes about female ambition, and urge women to be bold, follow their dreams, and seize the chance to lead “big” lives. The secret is to focus on career first, job second. Instead of chasing a better job title or a salary bump, the goal should be a long-range career path that leads to success. “Career forward” means keeping a focus on the future and recognizing that being good at your job is often not enough—that you should take every opportunity to boost your connections, take on “difficult” assignments, and work actively to broaden your skills. Christiana Smith Shi is the former president of Nike’s consumer-direct division where she led the company’s global retail and ecommerce business. Before that she was a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. Christiana has been named one of the Most Influentia