Author: Rich Mullen

Episode 033: David Ziegelski, National Material LP

Rich Mullen Podcast

In this episode I hosted DePaul MBA alumnus Dave Ziegelski, Vice President of Information Technology at National Material LP, to discuss his career in IT and the increasingly important role it plays in strategic planning.

It IS a digital world and IT touches everything in it, connecting resources & people through process & data. Through Dave’s career he’s accumulated both deep knowledge and some healthy perspective on the subject. While his knowledge has earned him a seat in the strategic planning process, his perspective always reminds him that for all of ITs big potential, it always best to start by listening to people and solving their problems first. An important lesson for sure, you should listen in.

Episode 032: Alison Tinnon, StudioNorth

Rich Mullen Podcast

To welcome a new academic year, I was joined by MBA alumna Alison Tinnon, Senior Campaign Manager at StudioNorth. As an agency-based marketing professional Alison helps other firms navigate their own strategic goals. This puts her right at the nexus of markets and firms, and, of course, economists love that!

It also requires a clear understanding of both a firm’s current positioning in the eyes of customers & competitors and, tactically, how to get them where they want to go. In this episode, Alison describes why the tools of Economics are uniquely applicable in her role and how they help her see things more clearly. It’s a really great example of the power of economics in business strategy – you should listen!

Economics & Strategy Talk Series featuring Amy Bucher, Behavioral Scientist & Author

Rich Mullen Event

Our next guest in the Economics and Strategy Talk series is behavioral scientist Amy Bucher. Amy is Chief Behavioral Officer at Lirio and author of “Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change”. Her presentation is entitled “Designing for Behavior Change: Using Behavioral Science to Create Engaging and Effective Experiences”. This online event will be held on October 20th from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm CT.

Digital apps and experiences can support people in making all kinds of positive behavior changes, but in order to do that, they have to be both engaging and effective. That means designers need to focus on creating something compelling that addresses the reasons why people struggle to achieve their goals. Behavior science offers several frameworks that can layer onto a design process to create products that are not just engaging to use, but actually help people perform the behaviors that lead to better outcomes for health, wealth, and happiness. Learn about best practices from COM-B, the self-determination theory of motivation, and behavioral economics to help you design for lasting behavior change.

Amy’s book is Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change 

Behavior change design creates entrancing—and effective—products and experiences. Whether you’ve studied psychology or are new to the field, you can incorporate behavior change principles into your designs to help people achieve meaningful goals, learn and grow, and connect with one another. Engaged offers practical tips for design professionals to apply the psychology of engagement to their work.

A 20% discount is available using code: DEPAUL1020

Tickets for this free event are available through the registration & RSVP link below.

RSVP

Presenter Biography

Amy Bucher, Ph.D., is Chief Behavioral Officer at Lirio, where she leads a team of behavioral scientists and health experts focused on designing AI-powered behavior change journeys to drive better personal and population health. She brings over 15 years of experience in digital health product design and research coupled with deep behavioral science training.

Amy is a recognized expert on applying the psychology of motivation to design, and authored Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change published by Rosenfeld Media and named one of Kirkus’ favorite indie books of 2020. Prior to joining Lirio, Amy was Vice President of Behavior Change Design at Mad*Pow, a strategic design consultancy. Amy also served as Senior Manager of Specialty Pharmacy Strategy for the CVS Health Digital Innovation Lab, and as Associate Director of Behavior Science for the Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions Group. Amy earned her PhD and MA in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and her AB magna cum laude in Psychology from Harvard University

Episode 031: Carsten Raaum, CBRE

Rich Mullen Podcast

In this late summer edition, DePaul MSEPA Alumni Carsten Raaum and I discuss his research work at the real estate giant CBRE. In his role as Associate Research Director, Global Research he studies macroeconomic issues, and analyzes their potential impact on global markets and industry sectors; a super interesting role to be sure.

For strategy development, this kind of information is vision and, in the right hands, can serve as a divining rod to opportunity. While few will ever find a strategic panacea, well-informed business leader can make better decisions one at a time and even see new connections that help solidify their strategic plans.

Episode 030: Brittany Strebel, Ford Motor Company

Rich Mullen Podcast

This month, I caught up with DePaul MBA Alumna Brittany Strebel; Lincoln Operations Manager at Ford Motor Company. I was lucky to attend graduate school with Brittany and learned quite a bit from this smart, composed and savvy woman.

In this episode, Brittany takes us through her 10+ year career at Ford and describes the current transformation taking place at the legendary automaker. A transformation dictated by changing market preferences and full of opportunity for growth and innovation. By embracing such change, Ford illuminates its lineage as an industry disruptor and signals management’s awareness that good strategy means if you’re standing still, you’re falling behind!

Episode 029: Bryan Davis, Ryan Specialty

Rich Mullen Podcast

To “cap off” the academic year, I talked with DePaul MBA Alumnus Bryan Davis, Senior Treasury Manager at Ryan Specialty. Bryan is a natural leader, engaging and intelligent and has had a long career in the strategically vital business function of Treasury Management.

In this episode, we are reminded that even the best strategic plan is only as good as the people executing it. Like the links in a chain, if each area of the business isn’t aware of, and prepared for the what, when, and how of their firm’s strategic plans, those plans are likely to fail. In this conversation we discuss the critical role of Treasury in that model of success and use Bryan experience to highlight the idea that strategic success really does take a village.

Episode 028: Anthony Palcheck, Zebra Technologies

Rich Mullen Podcast

In this May edition, I talked with DePaul MBA Alumnus Anthony Palcheck; Strategic Business Development Advisor at Zebra Ventures, the venture capital arm of Zebra Technologies. A position that certainly befits a graduate of DePaul’s Business Strategy & Decision Making program.

Zebra has been on a roll of late and, as you’ll hear, that success results from a series of good decisions made by leadership with a clear vision and good communication skills. Their success in pivoting from primarily a hardware manufacturer to a vertically integrated solutions provider is a masterclass in business transformation and working your way up the value chain.

Economics & Strategy Talk Series featuring John List. May 6th, 2022

Rich Mullen Event

Our latest guest in the Economics and Strategy Talk series was John A. List, the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. This well attended online event was held May 6th, 2022, and included a fascinating presentation adapted from Dr. List’s new book The Voltage Effect followed by a lively Q&A session.   

Keep watching for announcements on our next speaker in this series.

Episode 027: Doug Edgar, White Harvest Energy

Rich Mullen Podcast

This month I was delighted to discuss alternative energy with DePaul MBA Alumnus Doug Edgar, VP of Operations at White Harvest Energy.

In this engaging discussion we explored Doug’s background, the market obstacles he faces prophesizing alternative energy solutions, and discovered how value creation, value capture, and coopetition coexist to benefit all of White Harvest Energy’s stakeholders.

Economics & Strategy Talk Series: John List presents The Voltage Effect and the Scalability of Business Experiments

Rich Mullen Event

The next guest in our Economics and Strategy Talk series is John A. List, the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. His presentation is entitled The Voltage Effect and the Scalability of Business Experiments. This online event will be held on May 6th from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm CT.

“Scale” is probably a term you’ve heard before—a buzzword amongst Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and tech start-up circles. But at its core, “to scale” simply means to achieve a desired outcome when you move from a small group—of customers, students, or citizens—to a much larger one. And it’s not just for start-ups. Scaling ideas underpins all social and technological progress, since, as List says, “the innovations that change the world are those that reach the largest number of people.”

In his recent book The Voltage Effect, List reveals why some ideas take off (or scale) and why others fall flat using a mix of original research and real-world anecdotes from working with companies like Uber, Lyft, and Tinder. His ideas are brought to life in this engaging presentation with actionable, science-backed take-aways for leaders, teams, and organizations in all sectors looking to take their ideas to the next level.

Tickets for this free event are available through the registration & RSVP link below.

RSVP

Presenter Biography

John A. List is the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. He received his B.S. in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wyoming. List joined the UChicago faculty in 2005, and served as Chairman of the Department of Economics from 2012-2018. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, he was a professor at the University of Central Florida, University of Arizona, and University of Maryland.

List was elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2015. He is currently the Visiting Robert F. Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. He received the Arrow Prize for Senior Economists in 2008, the Kenneth Galbraith Award in 2010, the Yrjo Jahnsson Lecture Prize in 2012, the Klein Lecture Prize in 2016, and the Hartsook Growing Philanthropy Award in 2017. He received an honorary doctorate from Tilburg University in 2014 and from the University of Ottawa in 2017. John was also named a Top 50 Innovator in the Non-Profit Times for 2015 and 2016 for his work on charitable giving. He served in the White House on the Council of Economic Advisers from 2002-2003 and is a Research Associate at the NBER, a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), a University Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF), and a University Fellow at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

His research focuses on questions in microeconomics, with a particular emphasis on using field experiments to address both positive and normative issues. For decades his field experimental research has focused on issues related to the inner-workings of markets, the effects of various incentives schemes on market equilibria and allocations, how behavioral economics can augment the standard economic model, on early childhood education and interventions, and most recently on the gender earnings gap in the gig economy (using evidence from rideshare drivers).

His research includes over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and several published books, including the 2013 international best-seller, The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life (with Uri Gneezy).