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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

She discusses her unique academic and professional journey and how, in her current strategically focused role, she helps Cardinal use vertical strategies to offer both value to their customers & provide safe harbor from a highly competitive core business.

He speaks with us about how insurance markets develop and how we are currently dealing some highly correlated risks that may defy our standard mechanisms of insurance and de-risking. Strap in for an engaging conversation about how insurance markets are responding to the pandemic, climate change, and cyber security!

What we loved about this conversation was that we didn’t focus on any particular technology, industry insight, or strategy implementation, but rather how Erik considers what resources are available and what might be the best strategy that is going to maximize the success of those resources. This is called consonance. There are a number of definitions, but Aaron is partial to the musical one: a combination of notes which are in harmony with each other due to the relationship between their frequencies. 

We really lucked out in this episode, because Jennifer not only sits in a position that has a 30,000 ft view of a highly competitive industry within one of its most powerful established firms, but she also has over 15 years of experience within AT&T that ranges from front line store operations to product development. The main focus of our conversation is related to the human component of value creation, strategy development, and innovation.

We’ve talked about steel on this podcast before, so you might remember that the industry is a part of well developed supply chain and is highly competitive, which hints at the importance of maintaining relationships and the possibility of price competition. John speaks with me about how his firm creates  value for its customers without falling into the price competition trap. Surprisingly, one of those value adds is an award winning website!