Podcasts about competitive strategy

In this special edition episode, Michael LeBlanc and Steve Dennis address the unprecedented challenges facing retailers with Steve's "10 Tantalizing Tips for Tumultuous Times." Steve rates current market turbulence at a 9 out of 10, comparing it to COVID-era disruption but noting the added complexity of legal uncertainties around tariff policies.The news segment covers significant retail developments, starting with ongoing tariff turmoil. A U.S. court ruled Trump's tariff policies illegal, creating additional uncertainty for retailers already struggling with implementation. Steve explains how this legal challenge, combined with the administration's failure to secure the promised "90 deals in 90 days," has intensified market turbulence.Earnings season revealed stark contrasts in retail performance. While Abercrombie & Fitch, Costco, and Dick's Sporting Goods posted strong results, Target's struggles were particularly alarming—down nearly 4% compared to Walmart's 4-5% growth, highlighting a major and continuing performance gap between direct competitors. Department stores including Macy's, Dillards, and Kohl's continued their downward trajectory, with most posting negative comps. The episode also covers Hudson's Bay Company's final closure in Canada, with Canadian Tire acquiring the historic brand's IP for $30 million.The second segment focuses on ten essential tactics for survival and growth. The first foundational tips emphasize radical commitment to reality and transparency, urging retailers to honestly assess their situation and act accordingly. Steve advocates for embracing uncertainty and building agility into operations, followed by maintaining innovation through continuous testing despite budget pressures.Customer-focused strategies include choosing your passionate core of fans (inspired by Seth Godin's work), being human-centered while digitally enabled, and prioritizing storytelling over purely functional benefits. Steve emphasizes that people buy a brand's story before they buy the product.Strategic excellence tips include "editing to amplify"—narrowing customer and offering focus to boost signal amid market noise—and conducting comprehensive friction audits of the customer journey. The hosts stress distinguishing between table stakes (necessary but non-differentiating capabilities) and true differentiators that create competitive advantage.The final tip, "cash is king," proves particularly relevant given tariff impacts on cash flow. Throughout the discussion, the hosts acknowledge that guidance must be tailored to individual circumstances—strategies for Walmart differ significantly from those needed by smaller specialty retailers. The episode serves as both a reality check and practical roadmap for retailers navigating what Steve describes as an era of unprecedented uncertainty, volatility, and competitive pressure where strong players are aggressively pursuing market share opportunities. Here is a 10% off code for the CommerceNext Growth Show exclusive to Remarkable Retail listeners: REMARKABLE. About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Max Pennington is the Co-Founder & CEO of CLEANR, an innovative company that uses filters to prevent microplastics from entering water streams. Max graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, where he co-developed CLEANR's innovative VORTX filtration technologyb. Inspired by nature, VORTX biomimcry is capable of removing over 90% of microplastics from washing machine wastewater. Microplastics pollution is a severe and growing environmental crisis, with trillions of tiny plastic particles contaminating ecosystems worldwide, affecting marine life, human health, and the overall environmental balance. Under Max's leadership, CLEANR has garnered significant recognition, including the American Filtration and Separation Society's New Product of the Year Award for 2024, and has raised approximately $7 million in funding, positioning it at the forefront of the fight against microplastics pollutionWith washing machines identified as the #1 source of microplastic pollution, CLEANR's biomimicry filtration solutions are not only essential but increasingly requisite. The company is actively partnering with major universities and sustainability organizations, implementing their retrofit filters at campuses nationwide and is collaborating closely with leading global washing machine manufacturers to integrate VORTX directly into new appliances, aiming to make sustainability an effortless choice for consumers.I came away from this conversation inspired as Max exudes passion for solving this problem and has been incredibly impressive organize to that end. Please enjoy this awesome conversation with Max Pennington00:00:00 - The Invisible Crisis of Microplastics  00:08:51 - The ThinkBox: A Hub for Innovation  00:15:14 - Engineering Solutions: The Vortex Filter  00:22:52 - Cleaner: A Filtration Technology Company  00:29:43 - Navigating Market Strategies and Regulations  00:36:16 - Understanding the Challenge of Selling Solutions  00:38:55 - Fundraising and Vision for Cleaner  00:42:17 - Iterative Design and Prototyping Process  00:45:55 - Differentiation and Competitive Strategy  00:48:20 - Excitement for Market Launch and Consumer Impact  00:51:28 - Leadership Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Journey  00:54:45 - Overcoming Challenges in Product Development  00:58:03 - Radical Ideas for Addressing Microplastic Pollution  01:02:25 - Cleveland's Role in the Fight Against Microplastics  01:03:55 - Hidden Gem-----LINKS:https://www.cleanr.life/https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-t-pennington/-----SPONSOR:Roundstone InsuranceRoundstone Insurance is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. Founder and CEO, Michael Schroeder, has committed full-year support for the podcast, recognizing its alignment with the company's passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and community leadership.Headquartered in Rocky River, Ohio, Roundstone was founded in 2005 with a vision to deliver better healthcare outcomes at a more affordable cost. To bring that vision to life, the company pioneered the group medical captive model — a self-funded health insurance solution that provides small and mid-sized businesses with greater control and significant savings.Over the past two decades, Roundstone has grown rapidly, creating nearly 200 jobs in Northeast Ohio. The company works closely with employers and benefits advisors to navigate the complexities of commercial health insurance and build custom plans that prioritize employee well-being over shareholder returns. By focusing on aligned incentives and better health outcomes, Roundstone is helping businesses save thousands in Per Employee Per Year healthcare costs.Roundstone Insurance — Built for entrepreneurs. Backed by innovation. Committed to Cleveland.-----Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here.Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and over 200 other Cleveland Entrepreneurs.Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on X @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

Win-Loss analysis isn't just with buyers – while it is buyer intelligence at the end of the day, your sellers are a major part of the sales process that can't be dismissed. Interviewing your sellers paints the ENTIRE picture of the deal. And nobody knows this better than Dan Hamilton, VP of Corporate Strategy at Salesforce. They've built an incredible Win-Loss program and have been interviewing sellers for years... because they have so many sellers and they know how valuable it is.Register for Klue Quarterly: klue.com/klue-quarterlyTIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Dan Hamilton is on the pod!(00:00:35) Canada vs. USA Hockey(00:03:18) The Importance of Seller Interviews in Win-Loss Programs(00:05:09) Seller Win-Loss Interviews vs. Buyer Win-Loss Interviews(00:07:53) Prioritizing Deals for Win-Loss Interviews(00:10:22) Win-Loss isn't Rigid(00:15:19) Sharing Insights With Your Company and Executive Visibility(00:20:10) Combining Seller and Buyer Win-Loss Interviews(00:22:31) Advice for Starting Win-Loss ResearchCREDITS:Guest: Dan HamiltonHost: Adam McQueenProducer: Grayson OttenbreitEditor: Stephen DespinsThe Compete Network by Klue is your home for the best content, events, and resources on competing. From building your first battlecards to enabling thousands of reps to product marketing at a Fortune 500, the Compete Network brings together the biggest names in the competitive enablement and competitive intelligence community.Klue provides the full picture of your market landscape, continuously updating and connecting the dots to help you win more business. It's a new way to capture, manage, and communicate competitive intelligence and buyer and market insights from the web and across the company in platforms you already use.

Join host Andrew Stotz for a lively conversation with Cliff Norman and Dave Williams, two of the authors of "Quality as an Organizational Strategy." They share stories of Dr. Deming, insights from working with businesses over the years, and the five activities the book is based on. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, we have a fantastic opportunity to learn more about a recent book that's been published called "Quality as an Organizational Strategy". And I'd like to welcome Cliff Norman and Dave Williams on the show, two of the three authors. Welcome, guys.   0:00:27.1 Cliff Norman: Thank you. Glad to be here.   0:00:29.4 Dave Williams: Yeah, thanks for having us.   0:00:31.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, I've been looking forward to this for a while. I was on LinkedIn originally, and somebody posted it. I don't remember who, the book came out. And I immediately ordered it because I thought to myself, wait, wait, wait a minute. This plugs a gap. And I just wanna start off by going back to Dr. Deming's first Point, which was create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive and stay in business and to provide jobs. And all along, as anybody that learned the 14 Points, they knew that this was the concept of the strategy is to continue to improve the product and service in the eyes of the client and in your business. But there was a lot missing. And I felt like your book has started really to fill that gap. So maybe I'll ask Cliff, if you could just explain kind of where does this book come from and why are you bringing it out now?   0:01:34.5 Cliff Norman: That's a really good question, Andrew. The book was originally for the use of both our clients only. So it came into being, the ideas came out of the Deming four day seminar where Dr. Tom Nolan, Ron Moen and Lloyd Provost, Jerry Langley would be working with Dr. Deming. And then at the end of four days, the people who some of who are our clients would come up to us and said, he gave us the theory, but we don't have any methods. And so they took it very seriously and took Dr. Deming's idea of production viewed as a system. And from that, they developed the methods that we're going to discuss called the five activities. And all of our work with this was completely behind the wall of our clients. We didn't advertise. So the only people who became clients were people who would seek us out. So this has been behind the stage since about 1990. And the reason to bring it out now is to make it available beyond our client base. And Dave, I want you to go ahead and add to that because you're the ones that insisted that this get done. So add to that if you would.   [laughter]   0:02:53.0 Dave Williams: Well, thanks, Cliff. Actually, I often joke at Cliff. So one thing to know, Cliff and Lloyd and I all had a home base of Austin, Texas. And I met them about 15 years ago when I was in my own journey of, I had been a chief quality officer of an ambulance system and was interested in much of the work that API, Associates of Process Improvement, had been doing with folks in the healthcare sector. And I reached out to Cliff and Lloyd because they were in Austin and they were kind enough, as they have been over many years, to welcome me to have coffee and talk about what I was trying to learn and where my interests were and to learn from their work. And over the last 15 years, I've had a great benefit of learning from the experience and methods that API has been using with organizations around the world, built on the shoulders of the theories from Dr. Deming. And one of those that was in the Improvement Guide, one of the foundational texts that we use a lot in improvement project work that API wrote was, if you go into the back, there is a chapter, and Cliff, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's chapter 13 in this current edition on creating value.   0:04:34.3 Dave Williams: In there, there was some description of kind of a structure or a system of activities that would be used to pursue qualities and organizational strategy. I later learned that this was built on a guide that was used that had been sort of semi self-published to be able to use with clients. And the more that I dove into it, the more that I really valued the way in which it had been framed, but also how, as you mentioned at the start, it provided methods in a place where I felt like there was a gap in what I saw in organizations that I was working with or that I had been involved in. And so back in 2020, when things were shut down initially during the beginning of the pandemic, I approached Lloyd and Cliff and I said, I'd love to help in any way that I can to try to bring this work forward and modernize it. And I say modernize it, not necessarily in terms of changing it, but updating the material from its last update into today's context and examples and make it available for folks through traditional bookstores and other venues.   0:05:58.9 Andrew Stotz: And I have that The Improvement Guide, which is also a very impressive book that helps us to think about how are we improving. And as you said, the, that chapter that you were talking about, 13, I believe it was, yeah, making the improvement of value a business strategy and talking about that. So, Cliff, could you just go back in time for those people that don't know you in the Deming world, I'm sure most people do, but for those people that don't know, maybe you could just talk about your first interactions with Dr. Deming and the teachings of that and what sparked your interest and also what made you think, okay, I wanna keep expanding on this.   0:06:40.0 Cliff Norman: Yeah. So I was raised in Southern California and of course, like many others, I'm rather horrified by what's going on out there right now with fires. That's an area I was raised in. And so I moved to Texas in '79, went to work for Halliburton. And they had an NBC White Paper called, "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?", and our CEO, Mr. Purvis Thrash, he saw that. And I was working in the quality area at that time. And he asked me to go to one of Deming's seminars that was held in Crystal City, actually February of 1982. And I got down there early and got a place up front. And they sent along with me an RD manager to keep an eye on me, 'cause I was newly from California into Texas. And so anyway, we're both sitting there. And so I forgot something. So I ran up stairs in the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel there. And I was coming down and lo and behold, next floor down, Dr. Deming gets on and two ladies are holding him up. And they get in the elevator there and he sees this George Washington University badge and he kind of comes over, even while the elevator was going down and picks it up and looks it up real close to his face. And then he just backs up and leans, holds onto the railing and he says, Mr. Norman, what I'm getting ready to tell you today will haunt you for the rest of your life.   0:08:11.8 Cliff Norman: And that came true. And of course, I was 29 at the time and was a certified quality engineer and knew all things about the science of quality. And I couldn't imagine what he would tell me that would haunt me for the rest of my life, but it did. And then the next thing he told me, he said, as young as you are, if you're not learning from somebody that you're working for, you ought to think about getting a new boss. And that's some of the best advice I've ever gotten. I mean, the hanging around smart people is a great thing to do. And I've been gifted with that with API. And so that's how I met him. And then, of course, when I joined API, I ended up going to several seminars to support Lloyd Provost and Tom Nolan and Ron Moen and Jerry as the various seminars were given. And Ron Moen, who unfortunately passed away about three years ago, he did 88 of those four day seminars, and he was just like a walking encyclopedia for me. So anytime I had questions on Deming, I could just, he's a phone call away, and I truly miss that right now.   0:09:20.5 Cliff Norman: So when Dave has questions or where this reference come from or whatever, and I got to go do a lot of work, where Ron, he could just recall that for me. So I miss that desperately, but we were busy at that time, by the time I joined API was in '88. And right away, I was introduced to what they had drafted out in terms of the five activities, which is the foundation of the book, along with understanding the science of improvement and the chain reaction that Dr. Deming introduced us to. So the science of improvement is what Dr. Deming called the System of Profound Knowledge. So I was already introduced to all that and was applying that within Halliburton. But QBS, as we called it then, Qualities of Business Strategy was brand new. I mean, it was hot off the press. And right away, I took it and started working with my clients with it. And we were literally walking on the bridge as we were building it. And the lady I'm married to right now, Jane Norman, she was working at Conagra, which is like a $15 billion poultry company that's part of Conagra overall, which is most of the food in your grocery store, about 75% of it. And she did one of the first system linkages that we ever did.   0:10:44.5 Cliff Norman: And since then, she's worked at like four other companies as a VP or COO, and has always applied these ideas. And so a lot of this in the book examples and so forth, comes from her actual application work. And when we'd worked together, she had often introduced me, this is my husband, Cliff, he and his partners, they write books, but some of us actually have to go to work. And then eventually she wrote a book with me with Dr. Maccabee, who is also very closely associated with Dr. Deming. So now she's a co-author. So I was hoping that would stop that, but again, we depend on her for a lot of the examples and contributions and the rest of it that show up in the book. So I hope that answers your question.   0:11:28.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and for people like myself and some of our listeners who have heard Dr. Deming speak and really gotten into his teachings, it makes sense, this is going to haunt you because I always say that, what I read originally... I was 24 when I went to my first Deming seminar. And I went to two two-day seminars and it... My brain was open, I was ready, I didn't have anything really in it about, any fixed methods or anything. So, for me, it just blew my mind, some of the things that he was talking about, like thinking about things in a system I didn't think about that I thought that the way we got to do is narrow things down and get this really tight focus and many other things that I heard. And also as a young, young guy, I was in this room with, I don't know, 500 older gentlemen and ladies, and I sat in the front row and so I would see him kind of call them on the carpet and I would be looking back like, oh, wow, I never saw anybody talk to senior management like that and I was kind of surprised. But for those people that really haven't had any of that experience they're new to Deming, what is it that haunts you? What is... Can you describe what he meant when he was saying that?   0:12:42.9 Cliff Norman: I gotta just add to what you just said because it's such a profound experience. And when you're 29, if most of us, we think we're pretty good shape by that time, the brain's fully developed by age 25, judgment being the last function that develops. And so you're pretty well on your way and then to walk in and have somebody who's 81 years old, start introducing you to things you've never even thought about. The idea of the Chain Reaction that what I was taught as a certified quality engineer through ASQ is I need to do enough inspection, but I didn't need to do too much 'cause I didn't want to raise costs too much. And Dr. Deming brought me up on stage and he said, well, show me that card again. So I had a 105D card, it's up to G now or something. And he said, "well, how does this work?" And I said, "well, it tells me how many samples I got to get." And he says, "you know who invented that." And I said, "no, sir, I thought God did." He said, "no, I know the people that did it. They did it to put people like you out of business. Sit down, young man, you've got a lot to learn." And I thought, wow, and here you are in front of 500 people and this is a public flogging by any stretch.   0:13:56.1 Cliff Norman: And it just went on from there. And so a few years later, I'm up in Valley Forge and I'm working at a class with Lloyd and Tom Nolan and a guy named, I never met before named Jim Imboden. And he's just knock-down brilliant, but they're all working at General Motors at that time. And a lot of the book "Planned Experimentation" came out of their work at Ford and GM and Pontiac and the rest of it. And I mean, it's just an amazing contribution, but I go to dinner with Jim that night. And Jim looks at me across the table and he says, Cliff, how did you feel the day you found out you didn't know anything about business economics or anything else? I said, "you mean the first day of the Deming seminar?" He said, "that's what I'm talking about." And that just... That's how profound that experience is. Because all of a sudden you find out you can improve quality and lower costs at the same time. I'm sorry, most people weren't taught that. They certainly weren't taught that in business school. And so it was a whole transformation in thinking and just the idea of a system. Most of what's going on in the system is related to the system and the way it's constructed. And unfortunately, for most organizations, it's hidden.   0:15:04.2 Cliff Norman: They don't even see it. So when things happen, the first thing that happens is the blame flame. I had a VP I worked for and he'd pulled out his org chart when something went bad and he'd circle. He said, this is old Earl's bailiwick right here. So Cliff, go over and see Earl and I want you to straighten him out. Well, that's how most of it runs. And so the blame flame just takes off. And if you pull the systems map out there and if he had to circle where it showed up, he'd see there were a lot of friends around that that were contributing. And we start to understand the complexity of the issue. But without that view, and Deming insisted on, then you're back to the blame flame.   0:15:45.1 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And Dave, I see a lot of books on the back on your shelf there about quality and productivity and team and many different things. But maybe you could give us a little background on kind of how how you, besides how you got onto this project and all that. But just where did you come from originally and how did you stumble into the Deming world?   0:16:08.9 Dave Williams: Sure. Well, sadly, I didn't have the pleasure of getting to sit in on a four-day workshop. Deming died in 1993. And at that time, I was working on an ambulance as a street paramedic and going to college to study ambulance system design and how to manage ambulance systems, which was a part of public safety that had sort of grown, especially in the United States in the '60s. And by the time I was joining, it was about 30 years into becoming more of a formalized profession. And I found my way to Austin, Texas, trying to find one of the more professionalized systems to work in and was, worked here as a paramedic for a few years. And then decided I wanted to learn more and started a graduate program. And one of the courses that was taught in the graduate program, this is a graduate program on ambulance management, was on quality. And it was taught by a gentleman who had written a, a guide for ambulance leaders in the United States that was based on the principles and methods of quality that was happening at this time. And it pieced together a number of different common tools and methods like Pareto charts and cause-and-effect diagrams and things like that.   0:17:33.1 Dave Williams: And it mentioned the different leaders like Deming and Juran and Crosby and others. And so that was my first exposure to many of these ideas. And because I was studying a particular type of healthcare delivery system and I was a person who was practicing within it and I was learning about these ideas that the way that you improve a system or make improvement is by changing the system. I was really intrigued and it just worked out at the time. One of the first roles, leadership roles that emerged in my organization was to be the Chief Quality Officer for the organization. And at the time, there were 20 applicants within my organization, but I was the only one that knew anything about any of the foundations of quality improvements. Everybody else applied and showed their understanding of quality from a lived experience perspective or what their own personal definitions of quality were, which was mostly around inspection and quality assurance. I had, and this won't surprise Cliff, but I had a nerdy response that was loaded with references and came from all these different things that I had been exposed to. And they took a chance on me because I was the only one that seemed to have some sense of the background. And I started working and doing...   0:19:10.1 Dave Williams: Improvement within this ambulance system as the kind of the dedicated leader who was supposed to make these changes. And I think one of the things that I learned really quickly is that frequently how improvement efforts were brought to my attention was because there was a problem that I, had been identified, a failure or an error usually attributed to an individual as Cliff pointed out, somebody did something and they were the unfortunate person who happened to kind of raise this issue to others. And if I investigated it all, I often found that there were 20 other people that made the same error, but he was, he or she was the only one that got caught. And so therefore they were called to my office to confess. And when I started to study and look at these different issues, every time I looked at something even though I might be able to attribute the, first instance to a person, I found 20 or more instances where the system would've allowed or did allow somebody else to make a similar error.   0:20:12.6 Dave Williams: We just didn't find it. And it got... And it became somewhat fascinating to me because my colleagues were very much from a, if you work hard and just do your job and just follow the policy then good quality will occur. And nobody seemed to spend any time trying to figure out how to create systems that produce good results or figure out how to look at a system and change it and get better results. And so most of my experience was coming from these, when something bubbled up, I would then get it, and then I'd use some systems thinking and some methods and all of a sudden unpack that there was a lot of variation going on and a lot of errors that could happen, and that the system was built to get results worse than we even knew.   0:21:00.7 Dave Williams: And it was through that journey that I ended up actually becoming involved with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and learning about what was being done in the healthcare sector, which API at the time were the key advisors to Dr. Don Berwick and the leadership at IHI. And so much of the methodology was there. And actually, that's how I found my way to Cliff. I happened to be at a conference for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and there was an advertisement for a program called the Improvement Advisor Professional Development Program, which was an improvement like practitioner project level program that had been developed by API that had been adapted to IHI, and I noticed that Cliff and Lloyd were the faculty, and that they were in my hometown. And that's how I reached out to them and said, hey can we have coffee? And Cliff said, yes. And so...   0:21:53.1 Andrew Stotz: And what was that, what year was that roughly?   0:22:00.3 Dave Williams: That would've been back in 2002 or 2003, somewhere in that vicinity.   0:22:02.0 Andrew Stotz: Hmm. Okay.   0:22:06.8 Dave Williams: Maybe a little bit later.   0:22:06.9 Andrew Stotz: I just for those people that are new to the topic and listening in I always give an example. When I worked at Pepsi... I graduated in 1989 from university with a degree in finance. And I went to work at Pepsi in manufacturing and warehouse in Los Angeles at the Torrance Factory originally, and then in Buena Park. But I remember that my boss told me, he saw that I could work computers at that time, and so I was making charts and graphs just for fun to look at stuff. And he said, yeah, you should go to a one of these Deming seminars. And so he sent me to the one in... At George Washington University back in 1990, I think it was. And but what was happening is we had about a hundred trucks we wanted to get out through a particular gate that we had every single morning. And the longer it took to get those trucks out the longer they're gonna be on LA traffic and on LA roads, so if we can get 'em out at 5:00 AM, fantastic. If we get 'em out at 7:00, we're in trouble. And so they asked me to look at this and I did a lot of studying of it and I was coming for like 4:00 in the morning I'd go up to the roof of the building and I'd look down and watch what was happening. And then finally I'd interview everybody. And then finally the truck drivers just said, look, the loaders mess it up so I gotta open my truck every morning and count everything on it. And I thought, oh, okay.   0:23:23.7 Andrew Stotz: So I'll go to the loaders. And I go, why are you guys messing this up? And then the loaders was like, I didn't mess it up. We didn't have the production run because the production people changed the schedule, and so we didn't have what the guy needed. And so, and oh, yeah, there was a mistake because the production people put the product in the wrong spot, and therefore, I got confused and I put the wrong stuff on by accident. And then I went to the production people and they said, well, no, it's not us. It's the salespeople. They keep putting all this pressure on us to put this through right now, and it's messing up our whole system. And that was the first time in my life where I realized, okay, it's a system. There's interconnected parts here that are interacting, and I had to go back into the system to fix, but the end result was I was able to get a hundred trucks through this gate in about 45 minutes instead of two hours, what we had done before.   0:24:18.8 Andrew Stotz: But it required a huge amount of work of going back and looking at the whole system. So the idea of looking at the science of improvement, as you mentioned, and the System of Profound Knowledge, it's... There's a whole process. Now, I wanna ask the question for the person who gets this book and they dig into it, it's not a small book. I've written some books, but all of 'em are small because I'm just, maybe I just can't get to this point. But this book is a big book, and it's got about 300... More than 300 pages. What's the promise? What are they gonna get from digging into this book? What are they gonna take away? What are they gonna be able to bring to their life and their business that they couldn't have done without really going deeper into this material?   0:24:57.7 Cliff Norman: Dave, go ahead.   0:25:01.4 Dave Williams: Well, I was gonna joke by saying they're gonna get hard work and only half because this is just the theory in the book and many of the... And sort of examples of the method. But we're in the process of preparing a field guide which is a much deeper companion guide loaded with exercises and examples of and more of the methods. So the original guide that that API had developed was actually about an eight... Well, I don't know how many pages it was, but it was a thick three inch binder. This, what you have there is us refining the content part that explains the theory and kind of gets you going. And then we moved all of the exercises and things to the field guide for people that really wanna get serious about it.   0:26:00.3 Dave Williams: And the reason I say hard work is that the one thing that you won't get, and you should probably pass it if this book if you're on Amazon, is you're not gonna get an easy answer. This is, as a matter of fact, one of the things that emerged in our early conversations about was this project worth it? Is to say that this is hard work. It's work that a very few number of leaders who or leadership teams that really want to learn and work hard and get results are gonna embark on. But for those, and many of our clients, I think are representative of that, of those people that say, gosh, I've been working really hard, and I feel like we could do better. I feel like I could make a bigger impact, or I could serve more customers or clients.   0:26:44.0 Dave Williams: And but I am... And I'm in intrigued or inspired or gotten to a certain point with improvement science on my own, but I want to figure out how to be more systematic and more global and holistic at that approach. Then that's what QOS is about. It builds on the shoulders of the other books that you mentioned, like The Improvement Guide which we talked about as being a great book about improvement, and improvement specifically in the context of a project. And other books like The Healthcare Data Guide and the Planned Experimentation, which are also about methods, healthcare Data Guide being about Shewhart charts, and Planned Experimentation being about factorial design. This book is about taking what Cliff described earlier as that... I always say it's that that diagram that people put on a slide and never talk about from Deming of production views as a system and saying, well, how would we do this if this is the model for adopting quality as strategy, what are the methods that help us to do this?   0:28:01.3 Dave Williams: And this book breaks that down into five activities that are built on the shoulders of profound knowledge, built on the shoulders of the science of improvement and provide a structure to be able to initially develop a system, a systems view of your organization, and then build on that by using that system to continually operate and improve that organization over time. So the book describes the activities. The book describes some of the things that go into getting started, including being becoming good at doing results-driven improvement, building a learning system, focusing in on the things that matter to your organization. And then working towards building the structure that you can improve upon. The book creates that foundation. It provides examples from clients and from people that we've worked with so that you can see what the theory looks like in practice get, kind of get a flavor for that. And we hope it builds on the shoulders of other work that I mentioned in the other books that compliment it and provides a starting point for teams that are interested in taking that journey.   0:29:26.5 Andrew Stotz: And Cliff, from your perspective, if somebody had no, I mean, I think, I think the Deming community's gonna really dive in and they're gonna know a lot of this stuff, but is gonna help them take it to the next level. But for someone who never had any real experience with Deming or anything like that, and they stumble upon this interview, this discussion, they hear about this book, can they get started right away with what's in this book? Or do they have to go back to foundations?   0:29:49.6 Cliff Norman: No, I think that can definitely get started. There's a lot of learning as you know, Andrew, from going through the four-day to understand things. And I think we've done a pretty good job of integrating what Dr. Deming taught us, as well as going with the methods. And one of the things people would tell him in his four-day seminars is, Dr. Deming, you've given us the theory, but we have no method here. And he said, well, if I have to give you the method, then you'll have to send me your check too. So he expected us to be smart enough to develop the methods. And the API folks did a really good job of translating that into what we call the five activities. So those five activities are to understand the purpose of the organization.   0:30:35.6 Cliff Norman: And a lot of people when they write a purpose, they'll put something up there but it's usually we love all our people. We love our customers even more. If only they didn't spend so much, and we'll come out with something like that and there'll be some pablum that they'll throw up on the wall. Well, this actually has some structure to it to get to Deming's ideas. And the first thing is let's try to understand what business we're in and what need we're serving in society that drives customers to us. So that word is used not need coming from customers, but what is it that drives them to us so we can understand that? And then the second part of that purpose needs to define the mainstay, the core processes, the delivery systems that relate directly to customers. And just those two ideas alone, just in the first activity of purpose, most people haven't thought about those ideas.   0:31:27.8 Cliff Norman: And can somebody pick up this book and do that? Yes. And that will answer a big challenge from Dr. Deming. Most people don't even know what business they're in, haven't even thought about it. And so that we... That question gets answered here, I think, very thoroughly. In this second activity, which is viewing the organization as a system contains two components that's viewing the organization as a system. And that's difficult to do, and a lot of people really don't see the need for it. Jane Norman reminded Dave and I on a call we did last week, that when you talk about a systems map with people, just ask 'em how do they know what's going on inside other organizations, other departments within their organization? How do they know that? And most of us are so siloed.   0:32:11.2 Cliff Norman: Somebody over here is doing the best job they can in department X, and meanwhile, department Y doesn't know anything about it. And then three months later the improvement shows up and all of a sudden there's problems now in department Y. Well, somebody who's focused on the organization as a system and sees how those processes are related when somebody comes to a management meeting said, well, we've just made a change here, and this is gonna show up over here in about three months, and you need to be prepared for that. Andrew, that conversation never takes place. So the idea of having the systems map and this book can help you get started on that. The second book that Dave was just talking about, there are more replete examples in there. I mean, we've got six case studies from clients in there than the practitioners and people who actually are gonna be doing this work.   0:33:01.7 Cliff Norman: That's gonna be absolutely... They're gonna need that field guide. And I think that's where Dave was coming from. The third activity is the information activity, how are we learning from outside the organization and how do we get feedback and research into the development of new products and services and the rest of it? And so we provided a system there. In fact, Dave took a lead on that chapter, and we've got several inputs there that have to be defined. And people just thinking through that and understanding that is huge. When Dr. Deming went to Japan in 1950, he was there to do the census to see how many Japanese were left after World War II. And then he got an invitation to come and talk to the top 50 industrialists. And he started asking questions and people from the Bank of Tokyo over there and all the rest of it.   0:33:52.4 Cliff Norman: And Dr. Deming says, well, do you have any problems? And they said, what do you mean? He says, well, do customers call up and complain? And he said, yes. And he says, well, do you have any data? And he said, no. He says, but if they complain, we give them a Geisha calendar. And then Dr. Deming says, well, how many Geisha calendars have you given out? So it's like, in 1991, I'm sitting here talking to a food company and I asked him, I said, well, you get customer complaints? Oh yeah. Do you have any data on it? No, but we give 'em a cookbook. I said, well, how many cookbooks are you giving out? So I was right back to where Deming was in 1950, so having the information activity, that third activity critical so that we're being proactive with it and not just reactive.   0:34:43.7 Cliff Norman: And so I think people can read through that and say, well, what are we doing right now? Well, I guess we're not doing this and move on. Then the fourth activity is absolutely critical. This is where you know that you've arrived, because now you're going to integrate not only the plan to operate, but a plan to improve. That becomes the business plan. For most people in business plan they do a strategy, and then they have a bunch of sub strategies, and they vote on what's important, and they do some other things, and then a year later they come back and revisit it. Well, what happens here is there's some strategic objectives that are laid out, and then immediately it comes down to, okay, what's gonna be designed and redesigned in this system? Which processes, products and services are gonna be designed? 'Cause we can all see it now, Andrew.   0:35:31.6 Andrew Stotz: Mm.   0:35:31.6 Cliff Norman: We can, it's right in front of us. So it's really easy to see at this point, and now we can start to prioritize and make that happen on purpose. As an example when Jane was a vice president at Conagra, they came up with five strategic objectives. Then they made a bunch of promises to corporate about what they were gonna do and when they were going to achieve it. When she laid out the systems map for them, they were horrified that over 30% of the processes that they needed to be having precooked meat didn't even exist. They were gonna have to be designed. And so Jane and I sat there and looking at 'em and said, well, if you'd had this map before you made the promises, would you have made those promises? No, no, we're in trouble right now. I gotta go back to the CEO of the holding company and tell 'em we're not gonna make it.   0:36:22.4 Cliff Norman: But there's a whole bunch of people that sit around in goal settings. We're gonna do this by when and have no idea about what they're talking about. So that's a little bit dangerous here. And then the fifth activity, it's probably the most important. And where I want people to start, I actually want 'em to start on the fifth activity, which is managing individual improvement activities, team activities. And what I mean by that is, nothing can hold you up from starting today on making an improvement and use the model for improvement. The three basic questions, you can write that on an envelope and apply it to a project and start right away. Because learning the habit of improvement, and when you identify, and this is typical in the planning process, again, a chapter that Dave took a lead on in the planning chapter.   0:37:03.8 Cliff Norman: When you lay that out, you're gonna come up with three to five strategic objectives, but that's gonna produce anywhere between 15 and 20 improvement efforts. And when people start three improvement efforts, and they see how difficult that is to traffic through an organization, particularly if you have a systems map, makes it a lot easier. If you don't have that, then there's all sorts of things that happen to you.   0:37:21.3 Andrew Stotz: Hmm.   0:37:22.8 Cliff Norman: But the, the idea of that all coming together is critical. And where you... Where that really shows up for the reader here is in chapter one. So Lloyd Provost took a lead on chapter one. If you read chapter one, you got a pretty good idea of what's gonna happen in the rest of the book. But more importantly, in that book, in chapter one, there's a survey at the end. And every time we give this out to people, they feel real bad.   0:37:48.1 Cliff Norman: And well, Cliff, any, on a scale of one to 10, we only came up with a four. Well, what I would tell 'em is, if you can come up with a four, you're pretty good. And those fundamentals have to be in place. In other words, the management needs to trust each other. There are certain things that have to be in place before you can even think about skating backwards here. And quality as an organizational strategy is all about skating backwards. The people who don't have the fundamentals can't even start to think about that.   0:38:15.0 Cliff Norman: So that survey and the gap between where they are at a four and where they're going to be at a 10, we've integrated throughout the whole book. So as you're reading through the whole book, you're seeing that gap, and then you have a good plan forward as to what do I need to do to get to be a six, an eight, and what do I need to do to finally arrive at a 10? Dave, why don't you add to what I just said there, and I gotta turn on a light here, I think.   0:38:39.2 Dave Williams: Well, I think one of the things that, and Cliff has probably been the one that has helped me appreciate this to the biggest degree is the role in which improvement plays in quality as an organizational strategy. So, I mean, I think in general, in our world, improvement is seen as kind of like a given, but in our case, what we've found is that many times people are not working on the things right in front of them or the problems in which they have, that they are on the hook... I like to say, are on the hook to get accomplished right now. And like Cliff mentioned, many of my clients when I engage with them, I say, well, what have you promised this year? And they'll give me a list and I'll say, well, okay, what are you working on to improve? And they'll be working on projects that are not related to that list of things that they've got to affect. And so usually that's a first pivot is to say, well, let's think about what are the things that you're working on or should be working on that are either designing or redesigning your system to achieve these strategic objectives.   0:39:48.8 Dave Williams: And the reason to put the attention on that fifth activity and get people working on improvement, there's a good chance that the improvement capability within the organization currently isn't to the level that you need it, where you can get results-driven projects happening at a clip that will enable you to chip away at 20 projects versus four in a year. And that it's not well integrated into the leadership, into the support structures that you have. In addition, if you're trying to use improvement on things that you're on the hook for, and Cliff noted, especially if you've got a system map while you're on that journey, you're gonna start to pick up on where the disconnects are. Similar to your example, Andrew, where you were describing your experience working backwards in the process, you're going to start to recognize, oh, I'm working on this, but it's linked to these other things. Or in order for me to do this, I need that. Or... And so that amplifies the project to be kind of just a vehicle to appreciate other things that are interconnected, that are important in improving our work together.   0:41:05.1 Dave Williams: And so I think that that's a critical piece. I mean, I sometimes describe it as the disappointment that people have when they open QOS because they want to have a new method or a new thing to work on. I said, well, there's a lot new in here. And at the same time, we want to build on the shoulders of the fundamentals. We want to build it because it's the fundamentals that are going to be able for you to activate the things that are necessary in order for you to skate backwards, like Cliff was describing earlier.   0:41:36.2 Cliff Norman: I got to add to what Dave was saying because this actually happened to me with a... I'm not going to mention the name of the company, but it's a high-tech companies worldwide. And we got up, a good friend of mine, Bruce Bowles, and we were introducing the idea of quality as an organizational strategy. And one of the guys in the front row, he says, Cliff, this just sounds like common sense, why aren't we all doing this? I said, that's a real good question. Let me put that in the parking lot here. So I put it up on a flip chart. And so we went through the idea of... We were working on Shewhart control charts. And so we showed him one of those. And at the end of all that, he raised his hand and I said, yeah, he says, Cliff, this is hard. I said, well, let me put that up here. This is hard. Then we went through the systems map and he says, look, this is hard. By the end of the two days, it was, this is hard, this is hard, this is hard, this is hard. This goes back to what Dave was saying earlier about once you open this page, there's some work that takes off, but more importantly, there's something new to learn here.   0:42:40.3 Cliff Norman: And that's frustrating to people, especially when they've got to quit doing what they've done in the past. It's what Deming says, you got to give up on the guilt and you got to move forward and transform your own thinking. So there's something here for the management to do. And if they're not willing to do that work, then this is probably not a good thing for them. Just go back to the blame flame and circling org charts and that kind of stuff and then wonder why we're losing money.   0:43:11.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and I think that that's one of the things that we see in the Deming community is that, why are people doing it the way they are, dividing things up and doing KPIs and saying, you take care of that. And we're gonna optimize by focusing on each... We see how that all kind of falls apart.   0:43:27.9 Cliff Norman: It all falls through reductionism.   0:43:29.8 Andrew Stotz: [laughter] Yeah.   0:43:32.5 Cliff Norman: It doesn't understand the system, yeah.   0:43:32.5 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, so what I want to do now is I was just thinking about a book on my shelf called "Competitive Strategy" by Michael Porter. And there's a whole field of study in the area of strategy for businesses. Now you guys use, and you explain a little bit about the way you come up with... Why you come up with organization rather than let's say company as an example. But let's just talk about strategy for a moment. Generally we're taught in business school that there's two main strategies. One is a differentiation strategy. I like to teach my students like Starbucks. It's very differentiated from the old model. And you can have a low cost strategy, which is like McDonald's, where it's all about operational efficiency.   0:44:18.4 Andrew Stotz: And those are two different strategies that can get to the same goal, which is to build a strong and sustainable business that's making a good profit for the employees to get paid well and for shareholders. And so for somebody that understands some of the foundations of typical strategy, it's hard for them to think, wait, wait, wait, what? You're just talking about just better quality is the strategy? How should they frame this concept of quality as a strategy in relation to what we've been taught about low cost and differentiation and other types of strategy? How do we think about this book in relation to that?   0:45:03.2 Cliff Norman: When Deming wrote his book, his very first one of the four "Out of the Crisis", which was the whole idea about quality and competitive position. But he was kind of answering that. And at that time, what we had is we had three companies in the United States that were going at each other, Ford, GM, and Chrysler. And they'd call each other up, well, what are you doing this year? Oh, we're making cars that don't work. Sometimes they break down. That's why we have Mr. Goodwrench to repair them. That's an extra revenue source for us. As one of the executives that are challenged, a colleague of mine, he said, you don't realize how much money we're gonna lose here taking the repair business out because we make a lot of money out of repair. So making cars that don't work has been a good revenue stream for us. Well, all that works out great, until somebody shows up like Toyota that has a car that works and doesn't need to be repaired by Mr. Goodwrench all the time.   0:45:58.8 Cliff Norman: So the mind shift there, and what Dr. Deming was saying is that he was focused on the competition's already licked. And I don't think Porter's thought about that very much, not to be overly critical, because I'm an admirer of his, but the idea of focusing on the need and why is that customer coming to us so that we make a journey, and the Japanese call that being in the Gemba, being in the presence with the customers as they use the product or service and doing the research and the rest of it. And then coming back and then redesign that product or service so that it not only grabs the current customer, but we start thinking about customers that are not even our customers and innovate and actually come up with a design that actually brings new customers to us through products and services that we haven't thought about yet. So if I show you three products just to make a picture of it, we often show like an abacus, which was a hand calculating machine about BC. Then there's a slide rule that came out about the same year that Columbus discovered America. And that was good till about 1968.   0:47:06.0 Cliff Norman: And then the calculator, the handheld calculator came out. Well the need for all three of those products is to do handheld calculations. So we've had that need since BC. Now in 1967, K&E Calculator was making that slide rule, which I used in junior high school. If you'd have come up to me and said, Cliff, what do you need in the way of a better slide rule? I said, well can you get me a holster for it? 'Cause I don't like having to stick me in the face. I put it in my pocket and it sticks me in the face. And if you can give me a holster for that, that would be my view of that. I wasn't about to come up with the TI calculator. That wasn't gonna happen. Not from Cliff. It's gonna come from an engineer at TI. Now, K&E Calculator, if they'd been doing research in the marketplace and saying, is there something that can totally disrupt us going on here? Rather than just looking at figuring out a way to make the K&E slide rule better, they might've discovered that.   0:48:07.0 Cliff Norman: Most people don't do that. They just go back. They just lose their business. And it was interesting in '67, their annual report put out, what's the world gonna look like 100 years from now? So they had dome cities, they had cars flying, they had all sorts of things going on that were great innovations, but they didn't have the TI calculator in there, along with the HP calculator. And that wiped out their business. And so if people understand the need, and that's what Dr. Deming is getting at, he says, they really haven't thought about what business they're in. So why are the customers coming to us? He says, no customer ever asked for pneumatic tire. No customer ever asked for a microwave oven. That came from people with knowledge that were looking at how the customers are using the current products and services and say, now, is there technology innovation going on that we can actually do a better job of providing a better match in the future?   0:48:56.9 Andrew Stotz: And can you explain why you use the word need as opposed to want?   0:49:06.5 Cliff Norman: That's a good question. The idea is that there's a need that's constant in society. So that need of having to do handheld calculations or needing healthcare or to pay bills, that need is constant throughout civilization. And so if I want something that's interesting, that might be the match. That might be something to do with some features what I'm offering and so forth. I'd like to have this, I'd like to have that. But the need and the way we're using that is it doesn't come from customers. It's what drives customers to us. And it's always been there. It's always been there. Need for transportation, for example. Whether you're walking or driving a bicycle or a car or a plane.   0:49:53.6 Andrew Stotz: And Dave, how would you answer the same question when you think about a person running a business and they've had many strategy meetings in their business, they've set their corporate strategy of what we're doing, where we're going and that type of thing. And maybe they've picked, we're gonna be a low cost producer. Thailand's an interesting one because Thailand had a ability to be low cost producers in the past. And then China came along and became the ultimate low cost producer. And all of a sudden, Thai companies had a harder time getting the economies of scale and the like. And now the Chinese manufacturers are just really coming into Thailand, into the Thai market. And now it's like, for a Thai company to become a low cost leader is almost impossible given the scale that China and the skills that they have in that. And so therefore, they're looking at things like I've got to figure out how to get a better brand. I've got to figure out how to differentiate and that type of thing. How does this... How could this help a place like that and a management team that is struggling and stuck and is looking for answers?   0:51:07.0 Dave Williams: Well, I go back to what Cliff said about that many organizations don't pause to ask, why do they exist? What is the need of which they are trying to fulfill? Much of my background involved working in the service industry, initially with public safety and ambulance systems and fire systems, and then later in healthcare and in education. And in many of those environments, especially in places where in public systems where they've been built and they may have existed for a long time, when you ask them about what are they trying to accomplish as an organization or what is it that they... The need that they're trying to fulfill? Typically, they're gonna come back to you with requests or desires or wants or sort of characteristics or outcomes that people say they expect, but they don't pause to ask, like, well, what is the actual thing of which I'm trying to tackle? And Cliff mentioned like, and we actually, I should mention in the book, we have a list of different strategies, different types of strategies, all the different ones that you mentioned, like price and raw material or distribution style or platform or technology.   0:52:30.9 Dave Williams: There's different types of strategies, and the one that we are focusing in on is quality. But I think it's important for people to ask the question. Cliff mentioned transportation. There's a number of different great examples, actually, I think in transportation, where you could look at that as being an ongoing need as Cliff mentioned from the days when there was no technology and we were all on foot to our current day. Transportation has been a need that existed and many different things over time have been created from bicycles, probably one of the most efficient technologies to transport somebody, wheels and carts. And now, and you were referencing, we've made reference to the car industry. It's a fascinating experience going on of the car world and gas versus electric, high technology versus not, autonomous vehicles. There's, and all of them are trying to ask the question of, are there different ways in which I might be able to leverage technology to achieve this need of getting from point A to point B and be more useful and potentially disrupt in the marketplace? And so I think the critical thing initially is to go back and ask and learn and appreciate what is that need?   0:53:58.6 Dave Williams: And then think about your own products and services in relation to that. And I think we include four questions in the book to be able to kind of think about the need. And one of those questions is also, what are other ways in which you could fulfill that need? What are other ways that somebody could get transportation or do learning or to help sort of break you away from just thinking about your own product as well? And that's useful because it's super tied to the system question, right? Of, well, this is the need that we're trying to fulfill and these are the products and services that are matching that need. Then the system that we have is about, we need to build that and design that in order to produce, not only produce the products and services that match that need, but also continually improve that system to either improve those products and services or add or subtract products and services to keep matching the need and keep being competitive or keep being relevant. And maybe if it's not in a competitive environment where you're gonna go out of business, at least be relevant in terms of the city service or community service, government service that continues to be there to match the need of the constituents. So I think it's a really important piece.   0:55:17.0 Dave Williams: It's that North star of saying, providing a direction for everything else. And going back to your original comment or question about strategy, and many times people jump to a strategy or strategies or, and those might be more around particular objectives or outcomes that they're trying to get to. It may not actually be about the method or the approach like cost or technology that they may not even think that way. They may be more thinking about a plan. And I really encourage people to be clear about what they're trying to accomplish and then start to ask, well, how's the system built for that? And later we can bring a process that'll help us learn about our system and learn about closing that gap.   0:56:05.1 Cliff Norman: Yeah. Just what I'd add to that, Andrew, because you mentioned China, a few other countries, but I think the days are coming to an end fairly quickly where somebody can say, oh, we can go to this country. They have low wages, we'll put our plant there and all that. There's a lot of pushback on that, particularly in the United States. And if that's your strategy, that hadn't required a lot of thinking to say the least. But in 1966, over 50% of the countries in the world were, let me rephrase that, over 50% of the population of the world lived in extreme poverty. So there were a lot of targets to pick out where you want to put your manufacturing. And in 2017, and you and Dave were probably like myself, I didn't see this hit the news, but that figure had been reduced from over 50% down to 9%. And all you have to do is just, and I worked in China a lot, they're becoming very affluent. And as they become very affluent, that means wages are going up and all the things that we want to see throughout the world. And I think that's happening on a grand scale right now, but you're also getting a lot of pushback from people when they see the middle class in their own country, like here in the United States, destroyed, and say, I think we've had enough of this. And I think you're gonna see that after January. You're gonna see that take off on steroids.   0:57:31.7 Cliff Norman: And that's gonna happen, and I think throughout the world, people are demanding more, there's gonna have to be more energy, every time a baby is born, the footprints gets bigger for more energy and all the rest of it. So it's gonna be interesting, and I think we are going into an age for the planet where people as Dr. Deming promised that they'd be able to live materially better, and the whole essence of this book is to focus on the quality of the organization and the design and redesign of a system to a better job of matching the need and cause that chain reaction to go off. When Jane and I went over to work in Sweden, Sven Oloff who ran three hospitals and 62 dental clinics there and also managed the cultural activities and young shipping. He said, Cliff, I report to 81 politicians. I don't wanna have to go to them to put a bond on an election to get more money for my healthcare system, I wanna use Dr. Deming's chain reaction here to improve care to the patients in my county and also reduce our costs. A whole bunch of people that don't even believe that's possible in healthcare.   0:58:39.9 Cliff Norman: But that's what Sven Oloff said that's what you're here for. And that's what we proceeded to do, they launched about 350 projects to do just that, and one of their doctors, Dr. Motz [?], he's amazing. We taught him a systems map, I came back two months later, and he had them in his hospital on display. And I said, Motz, how did you do this? He said well Cliff, I'm an endocrinologist by education as a doctor, of course, that's a person who understands internal systems in the body. So he said the systems approach was a natural for me. But I'd like to say it was that easy for everybody else, that systems map idea and as you know, being in the Deming seminar, that's quite a challenge to move from viewing the organization as an org chart, which has been around since Moses father-in-law told him, you need to break up the work here a little bit, and the tens of tens reporting to each other, and then of course, the Romans took that to a grander scale, and so a centurion soldier had 100 other soldiers reporting to him. So we've had org charts long and our federal government took that to a whole new level.   0:59:46.1 Cliff Norman: But the idea is switching off the org chart from biblical times to actually getting it up to Burt [?] about 1935 and understanding a system that's kind of a nose bleed in terms of how much we're traveling there to get us into the 21st century here.   1:00:04.0 Andrew Stotz: And I left Ohio, I grew up outside of Cleveland, and I left Ohio in about 1985, roughly. And it was still a working class, Cleveland had a huge number of jobs and there was factories and all that, and then I went to California, and then I moved to Thailand in 1992. So when I go back to Ohio now, many years later, decades later, it's like a hollowed out place, and I think about what you're saying is... And what's going on in the world right now is that I think there's a desire in America to bring back manufacturing to bring back production and all of that, and that's a very, very hard challenge, particularly if it's gone for a while and the skill sets aren't there, maybe the education system isn't there, I talk a lot with John Dues here on the show about the what's happening in education and it's terrifying.   1:01:05.9 Andrew Stotz: So how could this be... Book be a guide for helping people that are saying, we've got to revitalize American production and manufacturing and some of these foundational businesses and not just services, which are great. How can this book be a guide?   1:01:25.8 Dave Williams: One thing I would say that I think is interesting about our times, many times when I reflect on some of the examples that you just provided, I think about how changes were made in systems without thinking about the whole system together. And there may have been changes at various times that we're pursuing particular strategies or particular approaches, so it may have been the low-cost strategy, it may have been to disrupt a marketplace. And oftentimes, they don't think about... When somebody's pursuing one particular view, they may miss other views that are important to have an holistic perspective. One of the things that I appreciate about QoS in the methods and overall as a holistic view of looking at organizations that it's asking us to really think initially about that North Star, what we're trying to do, our purpose, and what are the tenants. What are the things that are important us, the values...   1:02:38.7 Dave Williams: That are important to us in pursuing that particular purpose? And in doing that, really thinking about how does the system work as it is today, and if we make changes, how does it move in alignment with the values that we have and in the direction that we wanna go? And appreciating, I would say, part of the value of the scientific thinking that is in the Science of Improvement is that it encourages you to try to see what happens and appreciate not only what happens in relation to the direction you're trying to go, but also the... Have a balanced view of looking at the collateral effects of things that you do, and I think that systems do is really important there. So I think from that perspective, the quality as an organizational strategy brings a holistic picture into these organizations, or at least...   1:03:45.1 Dave Williams: To be paying attention to the system that you have, maybe the direction you wanna go, and what happens as you... What are your predictions and what do you see when you study the results of making changes in the direction of the vision that you have. And I think that's at a high level that is one of the ways that I think about it. Cliff, how would you add on there?   1:04:09.1 Cliff Norman: Your question made me think of something that happened about two years ago, Jane and I got a call from a lady that worked for her in one of the chicken plants, and she said, Jane, I had to call you because I need to order some of those Shewhart charts. But what happened today, you should have been here and Jane said, what... She said, Remember that 10 year thing we buried in the ground that we're gonna open up in 10 years, and she said, yeah, said, well, we opened it up today, and the new plant manager was here, and those Shewhart charts came out, and he looked at the costs on them. He said, you were operating at this level? She said, yeah, routinely. And he said what happened? He said, well, they had new management come in and they got rid of the charts, that's the first thing they did, and then gradually they try to manage things like they normally did, and then they forgot everything that we had learned. And that's kind of where we are right now.   1:05:11.0 Cliff Norman: So just think of that a decade goes by, and it just as Dr. Deming said, there's nothing worse than the mobility of management, it's like getting AIDS in the system. And they basically destroyed their ability to run a low-cost operation in an industry that runs on 1 or 2%. And when you watch that happen and understand that we still have food companies in this country, and we have to start there and start looking at the system anew and start thinking about how it can actually cause that chain reaction to take off, and that comes from focusing on quality of the system. And then as Dr. Deming says, anybody that's ever worked for a living knows why costs go down with two words less rework, but instead of people will put in extra departments to handle the rework. Next thing they start building departments to handle...   1:06:01.8 Cliff Norman: The stuff that's not working because the system they don't understand. So that was a... What do they call those things, Dave, where they put them in the ground and pull him out?   1:06:11.0 Dave Williams: Time capsule.   1:06:13.4 Andrew Stotz: Time capsule yeah.   1:06:13.5 Cliff Norman: Yeah. Time capsule. The a 10-year time capsule.   1:06:19.2 Andrew Stotz: It's a great, great story. And a great idea. We had a company in Thailand a very large company that the CEO of it came upon the idea of the teachings of Dr. Deming and over time, as he implemented it in his company, the Japanese Union of Scientists have their prize and his company won that prize and then he had about 10 subsidiary companies that also were doing it and they also won over time. And so Thailand is actually is the second largest recipient of the Japanese Deming Award outside of India. But he left and he retired and another guy took over, a very bright guy and all that, but he threw most of that out and focused on newer methods like KPIs and things like that. And just at the end of last year, maybe six months ago, they reported a pretty significant loss, and I was kind of made me think how we can spend all this time getting the Deming teachings into our business, and then one little change in management and it's done.   1:07:26.9 Andrew Stotz: And that made me think, oh, well, that's the value of the book, in the sense that it's about building the concept of quality as a core part of strategy as opposed to just a tool or a way of thinking that could go out of the company as soon as someone else comes in. Go ahead, Dave.   1:07:41.9 Dave Williams: I was gonna say, Andrew, you raise a point, I think it's really, really important and Cliff mentioned this in terms of the problem of mobility of management. One thing that I don't know that we outline probably in dark enough ink in the book is the critically important piece of leadership, building the structures and the capability. I know we talk a little bit about it, but doing it in a way that both builds up the people that you have... So Cliff emphasiz

In June 2022, the first ever LIV Golf event teed off outside of London. Offering players larger prizes and more flexibility, LIV Golf aimed to disrupt the sport. In response, the PGA Tour suspended all players who participated in the LIV Golf event, escalating tensions between the two entities. This conflict culminated in LIV Golf filing an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Then, in a surprising turn of events, the two tours announced their merger in June 2023. University of Virginia associate professor Alexander MacKay discusses the competitive and regulatory issues at stake and whether or not the PGA Tour took the right actions in response to LIV Golf's entry in his case, “LIV Golf.” In this episode, He explores how a dominant organization like the PGA Tour can respond to challenges from innovative competitors. He also shares lessons from the PGA Tour's response to LIV Golf's market entrance and explains when it makes more sense to treat a competitor as a partner rather than an adversary.Key episode topics include: strategy, business management, antitrust laws, disruptive innovation, professional sports industry, media, entertainment, and professional sports, golf, merger. HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world's top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week. · Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: The PGA Tour and LIV Golf Merger: Competition Vs. Cooperation (2023)· Find more episodes of Cold Call· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org]]>

Rich Horwath, CEO of Strategic Thinking Institute and best-selling author, shares strategies that help CIOs to elevate their strategic thinking—providing a roadmap for transitioning from technical leaders to visionary business executives. Drawing from his advisory work with top-tier technology leaders, Horwoth breaks down the critical skills needed to move beyond operational management and position themselves as strong CEO candidates.About the Guest: Rich Horwath is the founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute where he facilitates strategy workshops to help executive leadership teams think, plan, and act strategically to set direction, create advantage, and maximize their leadership performance. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books on strategic thinking, including his new book: STRATEGIC: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence. He's published two articles in the Harvard Business Review this past year and has helped more than one million leaders develop their strategic thinking and planning skills over the past two decades in pursuit of his vision to teach the world to be strategic.Timestamps:*(01:35) - The CIO to CEO Journey*(07:25) - Innovation and Competitive Strategy*(28:45) - Future State Thinking for CIOs*(44:05) - Transitioning from CIO to CEOGuest Highlights:“The great CIOs understand that it's not about copying. It's about creating and innovating by understanding the competition.”"If you're really being strategic, you're going to tick a lot of people off internally and externally."“What are we trying to achieve? And how are we going to do it? So planning can be too complex sometimes, but it boils down to those two questions.”Get Connected:Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwathIan Faison on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonResources:Learn more about the Strategic Thinking Institute: www.strategyskills.comHungry for more tech talk? Check out these past episodes:Ep 56 - Best Proactive Cybersecurity Strategies for CIOsEp 55 - Engineering Leadership for Scale, Agility, and MomentumEp 54 - AI Business Strategy for CIOsLearn more about Caspian Studios: www.caspianstudios.comCan't get enough AI? Check out The New Automation Mindset Podcast for more in-depth conversations about strategies leadership in AI, automation, and orchestration. Brought to you by the automation experts at Workato. Start Listening: www.workato.com/podcast

We have a full slate of upcoming events: AI Engineer London, AWS Re:Invent in Las Vegas, and now Latent Space LIVE! at NeurIPS in Vancouver and online. Sign up to join and speak!We are still taking questions for our next big recap episode! Submit questions and messages on Speakpipe here for a chance to appear on the show!We try to stay close to the inference providers as part of our coverage, as our podcasts with Together AI and Replicate will attest: However one of the most notable pull quotes from our very well received Braintrust episode was his opinion that open source model adoption has NOT gone very well and is actually declining in relative market share terms (it is of course increasing in absolute terms):Today's guest, Lin Qiao, would wholly disagree. Her team of Pytorch/GPU experts are wholly dedicated toward helping you serve and finetune the full stack of open source models from Meta and others, across all modalities (Text, Audio, Image, Embedding, Vision-understanding), helping customers like Cursor and Hubspot scale up open source model inference both rapidly and affordably.Fireworks has emerged after its successive funding rounds with top tier VCs as one of the leaders of the Compound AI movement, a term first coined by the Databricks/Mosaic gang at Berkeley AI and adapted as “Composite AI” by Gartner:Replicating o1We are the first podcast to discuss Fireworks' f1, their proprietary replication of OpenAI's o1. This has become a surprisingly hot area of competition in the past week as both Nous Forge and Deepseek r1 have launched competitive models.Full Video PodcastLike and subscribe!Timestamps* 00:00:00 Introductions* 00:02:08 Pre-history of Fireworks and PyTorch at Meta* 00:09:49 Product Strategy: From Framework to Model Library* 00:13:01 Compound AI Concept and Industry Dynamics* 00:20:07 Fireworks' Distributed Inference Engine* 00:22:58 OSS Model Support and Competitive Strategy* 00:29:46 Declarative System Approach in AI* 00:31:00 Can OSS replicate o1?* 00:36:51 Fireworks f1* 00:41:03 Collaboration with Cursor and Speculative Decoding* 00:46:44 Fireworks quantization (and drama around it)* 00:49:38 Pricing Strategy* 00:51:51 Underrated Features of Fireworks Platform* 00:55:17 HiringTranscriptAlessio [00:00:00]: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space Podcast. This is Alessio, partner at CTO at Danceable Partners, and I'm joined by my co-host, Swyx founder, Osmalayar.Swyx [00:00:11]: Hey, and today we're in a very special studio inside the Fireworks office with Lin Qiang, CEO of Fireworks. Welcome. Yeah.Lin [00:00:20]: Oh, you should welcome us.Swyx [00:00:21]: Yeah, welcome. Yeah, thanks for having us. It's unusual to be in the home of a startup, but it's also, I think our relationship is a bit unusual compared to all our normal guests. Definitely.Lin [00:00:34]: Yeah. I'm super excited to talk about very interesting topics in that space with both of you.Swyx [00:00:41]: You just celebrated your two-year anniversary yesterday.Lin [00:00:43]: Yeah, it's quite a crazy journey. We circle around and share all the crazy stories across these two years, and it has been super fun. All the way from we experienced Silicon Valley bank run to we delete some data that shouldn't be deleted operationally. We went through a massive scale where we actually are busy getting capacity to, yeah, we learned to kind of work with it as a team with a lot of brilliant people across different places to join a company. It has really been a fun journey.Alessio [00:01:24]: When you started, did you think the technical stuff will be harder or the bank run and then the people side? I think there's a lot of amazing researchers that want to do companies and it's like the hardest thing is going to be building the product and then you have all these different other things. So, were you surprised by what has been your experience the most?Lin [00:01:42]: Yeah, to be honest with you, my focus has always been on the product side and then after the product goes to market. And I didn't realize the rest has been so complicated, operating a company and so on. But because I don't think about it, I just kind of manage it. So it's done. I think I just somehow don't think about it too much and solve whatever problem coming our way and it worked.Swyx [00:02:08]: So let's, I guess, let's start at the pre-history, the initial history of Fireworks. You ran the PyTorch team at Meta for a number of years and we previously had Sumit Chintal on and I think we were just all very interested in the history of GenEI. Maybe not that many people know how deeply involved Faire and Meta were prior to the current GenEI revolution.Lin [00:02:35]: My background is deep in distributed system, database management system. And I joined Meta from the data side and I saw this tremendous amount of data growth, which cost a lot of money and we're analyzing what's going on. And it's clear that AI is driving all this data generation. So it's a very interesting time because when I joined Meta, Meta is going through ramping down mobile-first, finishing the mobile-first transition and then starting AI-first. And there's a fundamental reason about that sequence because mobile-first gave a full range of user engagement that has never existed before. And all this user engagement generated a lot of data and this data power AI. So then the whole entire industry is also going through, falling through this same transition. When I see, oh, okay, this AI is powering all this data generation and look at where's our AI stack. There's no software, there's no hardware, there's no people, there's no team. I want to dive up there and help this movement. So when I started, it's very interesting industry landscape. There are a lot of AI frameworks. It's a kind of proliferation of AI frameworks happening in the industry. But all the AI frameworks focus on production and they use a very certain way of defining the graph of neural network and then use that to drive the model iteration and productionization. And PyTorch is completely different. So they could also assume that he was the user of his product. And he basically says, researchers face so much pain using existing AI frameworks, this is really hard to use and I'm going to do something different for myself. And that's the origin story of PyTorch. PyTorch actually started as the framework for researchers. They don't care about production at all. And as they grow in terms of adoption, so the interesting part of AI is research is the top of our normal production. There are so many researchers across academic, across industry, they innovate and they put their results out there in open source and that power the downstream productionization. So it's brilliant for MATA to establish PyTorch as a strategy to drive massive adoption in open source because MATA internally is a PyTorch shop. So it creates a flying wheel effect. So that's kind of a strategy behind PyTorch. But when I took on PyTorch, it's kind of at Caspo, MATA established PyTorch as the framework for both research and production. So no one has done that before. And we have to kind of rethink how to architect PyTorch so we can really sustain production workload, the stability, reliability, low latency, all this production concern was never a concern before. Now it's a concern. And we actually have to adjust its design and make it work for both sides. And that took us five years because MATA has so many AI use cases, all the way from ranking recommendation as powering the business top line or as ranking newsfeed, video ranking to site integrity detect bad content automatically using AI to all kinds of effects, translation, image classification, object detection, all this. And also across AI running on the server side, on mobile phones, on AI VR devices, the wide spectrum. So by the time we actually basically managed to support AI across ubiquitous everywhere across MATA. But interestingly, through open source engagement, we work with a lot of companies. It is clear to us like this industry is starting to take on AI first transition. And of course, MATA's hyperscale always go ahead of industry. And it feels like when we start this AI journey at MATA, there's no software, no hardware, no team. For many companies we engage with through PyTorch, we feel the pain. That's the genesis why we feel like, hey, if we create fireworks and support industry going through this transition, it will be a huge amount of impact. Of course, the problem that the industry is facing will not be the same as MATA. MATA is so big, right? So it's kind of skewed towards extreme scale and extreme optimization in the industry will be different. But we feel like we have the technical chop and we've seen a lot. We'll look to kind of drive that. So yeah, so that's how we started.Swyx [00:06:58]: When you and I chatted about the origins of fireworks, it was originally envisioned more as a PyTorch platform, and then later became much more focused on generative AI. Is that fair to say? What was the customer discovery here?Lin [00:07:13]: Right. So I would say our initial blueprint is we should build a PyTorch cloud because a PyTorch library and there's no SaaS platform to enable AI workloads.Swyx [00:07:26]: Even in 2022, it's interesting.Lin [00:07:28]: I would not say absolutely no, but cloud providers have some of those, but it's not first class citizen, right? At 2022, there's still like TensorFlow is massively in production. And this is all pre-gen AI, and PyTorch is kind of getting more and more adoption. But there's no PyTorch-first SaaS platform existing. At the same time, we are also a very pragmatic set of people. We really want to make sure from the get-go, we get really, really close to customers. We understand their use case, we understand their pain points, we understand the value we deliver to them. So we want to take a different approach instead of building a horizontal PyTorch cloud. We want to build a verticalized platform first. And then we talk with many customers. And interestingly, we started the company in September 2022, and in October, November, the OpenAI announced ChatGPT. And then boom, when we talked with many customers, they were like, can you help us work on the JNS aspect? So of course, there are some open source models. It's not as good at that time, but people are already putting a lot of attention there. Then we decided that if we're going to pick a vertical, we're going to pick JNI. The other reason is all JNI models are PyTorch models. So that's another reason. We believe that because of the nature of JNI, it's going to generate a lot of human consumable content. It will drive a lot of consumer, customer-developer-facing application and product innovation. Guaranteed. We're just at the beginning of this. Our prediction is for those kind of applications, the inference is much more important than training because inference scale is proportional to the up-limit award population. And training scale is proportional to the number of researchers. Of course, each training round could be very expensive. Although PyTorch supports both inference and training, we decided to laser focus on inference. So yeah, so that's how we got started. And we launched our public platform August last year. When we launched, it was a single product. It's a distributed inference engine with a simple API, open AI compatible API with many models. We started with LM and then we added a lot of models. Fast forward to now, we are a full platform with multiple product lines. So we love to kind of dive deep into what we offer. But that's a very fun journey in the past two years.Alessio [00:09:49]: What was the transition from you start to focus on PyTorch and people want to understand the framework, get it live. And now say maybe most people that use you don't even really know much about PyTorch at all. You know, they're just trying to consume a model. From a product perspective, like what were some of the decisions early on? Like right in October, November, you were just like, hey, most people just care about the model, not about the framework. We're going to make it super easy or was it more a gradual transition to the model librarySwyx [00:10:16]: you have today?Lin [00:10:17]: Yeah. So our product decision is all based on who is our ICP. And one thing I want to acknowledge here is the generic technology is disruptive. It's very different from AI before GNI. So it's a clear leap forward. Because before GNI, the companies that want to invest in AI, they have to train from scratch. There's no other way. There's no foundation model. It doesn't exist. So that means then to start a team, first hire a team who is capable of crunch data. There's a lot of data to crunch, right? Because training from scratch, you have to prepare a lot of data. And then they need to have GPUs to train, and then you start to manage GPUs. So then it becomes a very complex project. It takes a long time and not many companies can afford it, actually. And the GNI is a very different game right now, because it is a foundation model. So you don't have to train anymore. That makes AI much more accessible as a technology. As an app developer or product manager, even, not a developer, they can interact with GNI models directly. So our goal is to make AI accessible to all app developers and product engineers. That's our goal. So then getting them into the building model doesn't make any sense anymore with this new technology. And then building easy, accessible APIs is the most important. Early on, when we got started, we decided we're going to be open AI compatible. It's just kind of very easy for developers to adopt this new technology, and we will manage the underlying complexity of serving all these models.Swyx [00:11:56]: Yeah, open AI has become the standard. Even as we're recording today, Gemini announced that they have open AI compatible APIs. Interesting. So we just need to drop it all in line, and then we have everyone popping in line.Lin [00:12:09]: That's interesting, because we are working very closely with Meta as one of the partners. Meta, of course, is kind of very generous to donate many very, very strong open source models, expecting more to come. But also they have announced LamaStack, which is basically standardized, the upper level stack built on top of Lama models. So they don't just want to give out models and you figure out what the upper stack is. They instead want to build a community around the stack and build a new standard. I think there's an interesting dynamics in play in the industry right now, when it's more standardized across open AI, because they are kind of creating the top of the funnel, or standardized across Lama, because this is the most used open source model. So I think it's a lot of fun working at this time.Swyx [00:13:01]: I've been a little bit more doubtful on LamaStack, I think you've been more positive. Basically it's just like the meta version of whatever Hugging Face offers, you know, or TensorRT, or BLM, or whatever the open source opportunity is. But to me, it's not clear that just because Meta open sources Lama, that the rest of LamaStack will be adopted. And it's not clear why I should adopt it. So I don't know if you agree.Lin [00:13:27]: It's very early right now. That's why I kind of work very closely with them and give them feedback. The feedback to the meta team is very important. So then they can use that to continue to improve the model and also improve the higher level I think the success of LamaStack heavily depends on the community adoption. And there's no way around it. And I know the meta team would like to kind of work with a broader set of community. But it's very early.Swyx [00:13:52]: One thing that after your Series B, so you raced for Benchmark, and then Sequoia. I remember being close to you for at least your Series B announcements, you started betting heavily on this term of Compound AI. It's not a term that we've covered very much in the podcast, but I think it's definitely getting a lot of adoption from Databricks and Berkeley people and all that. What's your take on Compound AI? Why is it resonating with people?Lin [00:14:16]: Right. So let me give a little bit of context why we even consider that space.Swyx [00:14:22]: Because like pre-Series B, there was no message, and now it's like on your landing page.Lin [00:14:27]: So it's kind of very organic evolution from when we first launched our public platform, we are a single product. We are a distributed inference engine, where we do a lot of innovation, customized KUDA kernels, raw kernel kernels, running on different kinds of hardware, and build distributed disaggregated execution, inference execution, build all kinds of caching. So that is one. So that's kind of one product line, is the fast, most cost-efficient inference platform. Because we wrote PyTorch code, we know we basically have a special PyTorch build for that, together with a custom kernel we wrote. And then we worked with many more customers, we realized, oh, the distributed inference engine, our design is one size fits all. We want to have this inference endpoint, then everyone come in, and no matter what kind of form and shape or workload they have, it will just work for them. So that's great. But the reality is, we realized all customers have different kinds of use cases. The use cases come in all different forms and shapes. And the end result is the data distribution in their inference workload doesn't align with the data distribution in the training data for the model. It's a given, actually. If you think about it, because researchers have to guesstimate what is important, what's not important in preparing data for training. So because of that misalignment, then we leave a lot of quality, latency, cost improvement on the table. So then we're saying, OK, we want to heavily invest in a customization engine. And we actually announced it called FHIR Optimizer. So FHIR Optimizer basically helps users navigate a three-dimensional optimization space across quality, latency, and cost. So it's a three-dimensional curve. And even for one company, for different use cases, they want to land in different spots. So we automate that process for our customers. It's very simple. You have your inference workload. You inject into the optimizer along with the objective function. And then we spit out inference deployment config and the model setup. So it's your customized setup. So that is a completely different product. So that product thinking is one size fits all. And now on top of that, we provide a huge variety of state-of-the-art models, hundreds of them, varying from text to large state-of-the-art English models. That's where we started. And as we talk with many customers, we realize, oh, audio and text are very, very close. Many of our customers start to build assistants, all kinds of assistants using text. And they immediately want to add audio, audio in, audio out. So we support transcription, translation, speech synthesis, text, audio alignment, all different kinds of audio features. It's a big announcement. You should have heard by the time this is out. And the other areas of vision and text are very close with each other. Because a lot of information doesn't live in plain text. A lot of information lives in multimedia format, images, PDFs, screenshots, and many other different formats. So oftentimes to solve a problem, we need to put the vision model first to extract information and then use language model to process and then send out results. So vision is important. We also support vision model, various different kinds of vision models specialized in processing different kinds of source and extraction. And we're also going to have another announcement of a new API endpoint we'll support for people to upload various different kinds of multimedia content and then get the extract very accurate information out and feed that into LM. And of course, we support embedding because embedding is very important for semantic search, for RAG, and all this. And in addition to that, we also support text-to-image, image generation models, text-to-image, image-to-image, and we're adding text-to-video as well in our portfolio. So it's a very comprehensive set of model catalog that built on top of File Optimizer and Distributed Inference Engine. But then we talk with more customers, they solve business use case, and then we realize one model is not sufficient to solve their problem. And it's very clear because one is the model hallucinates. Many customers, when they onboard this JNI journey, they thought this is magical. JNI is going to solve all my problems magically. But then they realize, oh, this model hallucinates. It hallucinates because it's not deterministic, it's probabilistic. So it's designed to always give you an answer, but based on probabilities, so it hallucinates. And that's actually sometimes a feature for creative writing, for example. Sometimes it's a bug because, hey, you don't want to give misinformation. And different models also have different specialties. To solve a problem, you want to ask different special models to kind of decompose your task into multiple small tasks, narrow tasks, and then have an expert model solve that task really well. And of course, the model doesn't have all the information. It has limited knowledge because the training data is finite, not infinite. So the model oftentimes doesn't have real-time information. It doesn't know any proprietary information within the enterprise. It's clear that in order to really build a compiling application on top of JNI, we need a compound AI system. Compound AI system basically is going to have multiple models across modalities, along with APIs, whether it's public APIs, internal proprietary APIs, storage systems, database systems, knowledge to work together to deliver the best answer.Swyx [00:20:07]: Are you going to offer a vector database?Lin [00:20:09]: We actually heavily partner with several big vector database providers. Which is your favorite? They are all great in different ways. But it's public information, like MongoDB is our investor. And we have been working closely with them for a while.Alessio [00:20:26]: When you say distributed inference engine, what do you mean exactly? Because when I hear your explanation, it's almost like you're centralizing a lot of the decisions through the Fireworks platform on the quality and whatnot. What do you mean distributed? It's like you have GPUs in a lot of different clusters, so you're sharding the inference across the same model.Lin [00:20:45]: So first of all, we run across multiple GPUs. But the way we distribute across multiple GPUs is unique. We don't distribute the whole model monolithically across multiple GPUs. We chop them into pieces and scale them completely differently based on what's the bottleneck. We also are distributed across regions. We have been running in North America, EMEA, and Asia. We have regional affinity to applications because latency is extremely important. We are also doing global load balancing because a lot of applications there, they quickly scale to global population. And then at that scale, different content wakes up at a different time. And you want to kind of load balancing across. So all the way, and we also have, we manage various different kinds of hardware skew from different hardware vendors. And different hardware design is best for different types of workload, whether it's long context, short context, long generation. So all these different types of workload is best fitted for different kinds of hardware skew. And then we can even distribute across different hardware for a workload. So the distribution actually is all around in the full stack.Swyx [00:22:02]: At some point, we'll show on the YouTube, the image that Ray, I think, has been working on with all the different modalities that you offer. To me, it's basically you offer the open source version of everything that OpenAI typically offers. I don't think there is. Actually, if you do text to video, you will be a superset of what OpenAI offers because they don't have Sora. Is that Mochi, by the way? Mochi. Mochi, right?Lin [00:22:27]: Mochi. And there are a few others. I will say, the interesting thing is, I think we're betting on the open source community is going to proliferate. This is literally what we're seeing. And there's amazing video generation companies. There is amazing audio companies. Like cross-border, the innovation is off the chart, and we are building on top of that. I think that's the advantage we have compared with a closed source company.Swyx [00:22:58]: I think I want to restate the value proposition of Fireworks for people who are comparing you versus a raw GPU provider like a RunPod or Lambda or anything like those, which is like you create the developer experience layer and you also make it easily scalable or serverless or as an endpoint. And then, I think for some models, you have custom kernels, but not all models.Lin [00:23:25]: Almost for all models. For all large language models, all your models, and the VRMs. Almost for all models we serve.Swyx [00:23:35]: And so that is called Fire Attention. I don't remember the speed numbers, but apparently much better than VLM, especially on a concurrency basis.Lin [00:23:44]: So Fire Attention is specific mostly for language models, but for other modalities, we'll also have a customized kernel.Swyx [00:23:51]: And I think the typical challenge for people is understanding that has value, and then there are other people who are also offering open-source models. Your mode is your ability to offer a good experience for all these customers. But if your existence is entirely reliant on people releasing nice open-source models, other people can also do the same thing.Lin [00:24:14]: So I would say we build on top of open-source model foundation. So that's the kind of foundation we build on top of. But we look at the value prop from the lens of application developers and product engineers. So they want to create new UX. So what's happening in the industry right now is people are thinking about a completely new way of designing products. And I'm talking to so many founders, it's just mind-blowing. They help me understand existing way of doing PowerPoint, existing way of coding, existing way of managing customer service. It's actually putting a box in our head. For example, PowerPoint. So PowerPoint generation is we always need to think about how to fit into my storytelling into this format of slide one after another. And I'm going to juggle through design together with what story to tell. But the most important thing is what's our storytelling lines, right? And why don't we create a space that is not limited to any format? And those kind of new product UX design combined with automated content generation through Gen AI is the new thing that many founders are doing. What are the challenges they're facing? Let's go from there. One is, again, because a lot of products built on top of Gen AI, they are consumer-personal developer facing, and they require interactive experience. It's just a kind of product experience we all get used to. And our desire is to actually get faster and faster interaction. Otherwise, nobody wants to spend time, right? And then that requires low latency. And the other thing is the nature of consumer-personal developer facing is your audience is very big. You want to scale up to product market fit quickly. But if you lose money at a small scale, you're going to bankrupt quickly. So it's actually a big contrast. I actually have product market fit, but when I scale, I scale out of my business. So that's kind of a very funny way to think about it. So then having low latency and low cost is essential for those new applications and products to survive and really become a generation company. So that's the design point for our distributed inference engine and the file optimizer. File optimizer, you can think about that as a feedback loop. The more you feed your inference workload to our inference engine, the more we help you improve quality, lower latency further, lower your cost. It basically becomes better. And we automate that because we don't want you as an app developer or product engineer to think about how to figure out all these low-level details. It's impossible because you're not trained to do that at all. You should kind of keep your focus on the product innovation. And then the compound AI, we actually feel a lot of pain as the app developers, engineers, there are so many models. Every week, there's at least a new model coming out.Swyx [00:27:09]: Tencent had a giant model this week. Yeah, yeah.Lin [00:27:13]: I saw that. I saw that.Swyx [00:27:15]: It's like $500 billion.Lin [00:27:18]: So they're like, should I keep chasing this or should I forget about it? And which model should I pick to solve what kind of sub-problem? How do I even decompose my problem into those smaller problems and fit the model into it? I have no idea. And then there are two ways to think about this design. I think I talked about that in the past. One is imperative, as in you figure out how to do it. You give developer tools to dictate how to do it. Or you build a declarative system where a developer tells what they want to do, not how. So these are completely two different designs. So the analogy I want to draw is, in the data world, the database management system is a declarative system because people use database, use SQL. SQL is a way you say, what do you want to extract out of a database? What kind of result do you want? But you don't figure out which node is going to, how many nodes you're going to run on top of, how you redefine your disk, which index you use, which project. You don't need to worry about any of those. And database management system will figure out, generate a new best plan, and execute on that. So database is declarative. And it makes it super easy. You just learn SQL, which is learn a semantic meaning of SQL, and you can use it. Imperative side is there are a lot of ETL pipelines. And people design this DAG system with triggers, with actions, and you dictate exactly what to do. And if it fails, then how to recover. So that's an imperative system. We have seen a range of systems in the ecosystem go different ways. I think there's value of both. There's value of both. I don't think one is going to subsume the other. But we are leaning more into the philosophy of the declarative system. Because from the lens of app developer and product engineer, that would be easiest for them to integrate.Swyx [00:29:07]: I understand that's also why PyTorch won as well, right? This is one of the reasons. Ease of use.Lin [00:29:14]: Focus on ease of use, and then let the system take on the hard challenges and complexities. So we follow, we extend that thinking into current system design. So another announcement is we will also announce our next declarative system is going to appear as a model that has extremely high quality. And this model is inspired by Owen's announcement for OpenAI. You should see that by the time we announce this or soon.Alessio [00:29:46]: Trained by you.Lin [00:29:47]: Yes.Alessio [00:29:48]: Is this the first model that you trained? It's not the first.Lin [00:29:52]: We actually have trained a model called FireFunction. It's a function calling model. It's our first step into compound AI system. Because function calling model can dispatch a request into multiple APIs. We have pre-baked set of APIs the model learned. You can also add additional APIs through the configuration to let model dispatch accordingly. So we have a very high quality function calling model that's already released. We have actually three versions. The latest version is very high quality. But now we take a further step that you don't even need to use function calling model. You use our new model we're going to release. It will solve a lot of problems approaching very high OpenAI quality. So I'm very excited about that.Swyx [00:30:41]: Do you have any benchmarks yet?Lin [00:30:43]: We have a benchmark. We're going to release it hopefully next week. We just put our model to LMSYS and people are guessing. Is this the next Gemini model or a MADIS model? People are guessing. That's very interesting. We're watching the Reddit discussion right now.Swyx [00:31:00]: I have to ask more questions about this. When OpenAI released o1, a lot of people asked about whether or not it's a single model or whether it's a chain of models. Noam and basically everyone on the Strawberry team was very insistent that what they did for reinforcement learning, chain of thought, cannot be replicated by a whole bunch of open source model calls. Do you think that that is wrong? Have you done the same amount of work on RL as they have or was it a different direction?Lin [00:31:29]: I think they take a very specific approach where the caliber of team is very high. So I do think they are the domain expert in doing the things they are doing. I don't think there's only one way to achieve the same goal. We're on the same direction in the sense that the quality scaling law is shifting from training to inference. For that, I fully agree with them. But we're taking a completely different approach to the problem. All of that is because, of course, we didn't train the model from scratch. All of that is because we built on the show of giants. The current model available we have access to is getting better and better. The future trend is the gap between the open source model and the co-source model. It's just going to shrink to the point there's not much difference. And then we're on the same level field. That's why I think our early investment in inference and all the work we do around balancing across quality, latency, and cost pay off because we have accumulated a lot of experience and that empowers us to release this new model that is approaching open-ended quality.Alessio [00:32:39]: I guess the question is, what do you think the gap to catch up will be? Because I think everybody agrees with open source models eventually will catch up. And I think with 4, then with Lama 3.2, 3.1, 4.5b, we close the gap. And then 0.1 just reopened the gap so much and it's unclear. Obviously, you're saying your model will have...Swyx [00:32:57]: We're closing that gap.Alessio [00:32:58]: But you think in the future, it's going to be months?Lin [00:33:02]: So here's the thing that's happened. There's public benchmark. It is what it is. But in reality, open source models in certain dimensions are already on par or beat closed source models. So for example, in the coding space, open source models are really, really good. And in function calling, file function is also really, really good. So it's all a matter of whether you build one model to solve all the problems and you want to be the best of solving all the problems, or in the open source domain, it's going to specialize. All these different model builders specialize in certain narrow area. And it's logical that they can be really, really good in that very narrow area. And that's our prediction is with specialization, there will be a lot of expert models really, really good and even better than one-size-fits-all closed source models.Swyx [00:33:55]: I think this is the core debate that I am still not 100% either way on in terms of compound AI versus normal AI. Because you're basically fighting the bitter lesson.Lin [00:34:09]: Look at the human society, right? We specialize. And you feel really good about someone specializing doing something really well, right? And that's how our way evolved from ancient times. We're all journalists. We do everything. Now we heavily specialize in different domains. So my prediction is in the AI model space, it will happen also. Except for the bitter lesson.Swyx [00:34:30]: You get short-term gains by having specialists, domain specialists, and then someone just needs to train like a 10x bigger model on 10x more inference, 10x more data, 10x more model perhaps, whatever the current scaling law is. And then it supersedes all the individual models because of some generalized intelligence slash world knowledge. I think that is the core insight of the GPTs, the GPT-123 networks. Right.Lin [00:34:56]: But the training scaling law is because you have an increasing amount of data to train from. And you can do a lot of compute. So I think on the data side, we're approaching the limit. And the only data to increase that is synthetic generated data. And then there's like what is the secret sauce there, right? Because if you have a very good large model, you can generate very good synthetic data and then continue to improve quality. So that's why I think in OpenAI, they are shifting from the training scaling law intoSwyx [00:35:25]: inference scaling law.Lin [00:35:25]: And it's the test time and all this. So I definitely believe that's the future direction. And that's where we are really good at, doing inference.Swyx [00:35:34]: A couple of questions on that. Are you planning to share your reasoning choices?Lin [00:35:39]: That's a very good question. We are still debating.Swyx [00:35:43]: Yeah.Lin [00:35:45]: We're still debating.Swyx [00:35:46]: I would say, for example, it's interesting that, for example, SweetBench. If you want to be considered for ranking, you have to submit your reasoning choices. And that has actually disqualified some of our past guests. Cosign was doing well on SweetBench, but they didn't want to leak those results. So that's why you don't see O1 preview on SweetBench, because they don't submit their reasoning choices. And obviously, it's IP. But also, if you're going to be more open, then that's one way to be more open. So your model is not going to be open source, right? It's going to be an endpoint that you provide. Okay, cool. And then pricing, also the same as OpenAI, just kind of based on...Lin [00:36:25]: Yeah, this is... I don't have, actually, information. Everything is going so fast, we haven't even thought about that yet. Yeah, I should be more prepared.Swyx [00:36:33]: I mean, this is live. You know, it's nice to just talk about it as it goes live. Any other things that you want feedback on or you're thinking through? It's kind of nice to just talk about something when it's not decided yet. About this new model. It's going to be exciting. It's going to generate a lot of buzz. Right.Lin [00:36:51]: I'm very excited to see how people are going to use this model. So there's already a Reddit discussion about it. And people are asking very deep, mathematical questions. And since the model got it right, surprising. And internally, we're also asking the model to generate what is AGI. And it generates a very complicated DAG thinking process. So we're having a lot of fun testing this internally. But I'm more curious, how will people use it? What kind of application they're going to try and test on it? And that's where we really like to hear feedback from the community. And also feedback to us. What works out well? What doesn't work out well? What works out well, but surprising them? And what kind of thing they think we should improve on? And those kind of feedback will be tremendously helpful.Swyx [00:37:44]: Yeah. So I've been a production user of Preview and Mini since launch. I would say they're very, very obvious jobs in quality. So much so that they made clods on it. And they made the previous state-of-the-art look bad. It's really that stark, that difference. The number one thing, just feedback or feature requests, is people want control on the budget. Because right now, in 0.1, it kind of decides its own thinking budget. But sometimes you know how hard the problem is. And you want to actually tell the model, spend two minutes on this. Or spend some dollar amount. Maybe it's time you miss dollars. I don't know what the budget is. That makes a lot of sense.Lin [00:38:27]: So we actually thought about that requirement. And it should be, at some point, we need to support that. Not initially. But that makes a lot of sense.Swyx [00:38:38]: Okay. So that was a fascinating overview of just the things that you're working on. First of all, I realized that... I don't know if I've ever given you this feedback. But I think you guys are one of the reasons I agreed to advise you. Because I think when you first met me, I was kind of dubious. I was like... Who are you? There's Replicate. There's Together. There's Laptop. There's a whole bunch of other players. You're in very, very competitive fields. Like, why will you win? And the reason I actually changed my mind was I saw you guys shipping. I think your surface area is very big. The team is not that big. No. We're only 40 people. Yeah. And now here you are trying to compete with OpenAI and everyone else. What is the secret?Lin [00:39:21]: I think the team. The team is the secret.Swyx [00:39:23]: Oh boy. So there's no thing I can just copy. You just... No.Lin [00:39:30]: I think we all come from a very aligned culture. Because most of our team came from meta.Swyx [00:39:38]: Yeah.Lin [00:39:38]: And many startups. So we really believe in results. One is result. And second is customer. We're very customer obsessed. And we don't want to drive adoption for the sake of adoption. We really want to make sure we understand we are delivering a lot of business values to the customer. And we really value their feedback. So we would wake up midnight and deploy some model for them. Shuffle some capacity for them. And yeah, over the weekend, no brainer.Swyx [00:40:15]: So yeah.Lin [00:40:15]: So that's just how we work as a team. And the caliber of the team is really, really high as well. So as plug-in, we're hiring. We're expanding very, very fast. So if we are passionate about working on the most cutting-edge technology in the general space, come talk with us. Yeah.Swyx [00:40:38]: Let's talk a little bit about that customer journey. I think one of your more famous customers is Cursor. We were the first podcast to have Cursor on. And then obviously since then, they have blown up. Cause and effect are not related. But you guys especially worked on a fast supply model where you were one of the first people to work on speculative decoding in a production setting. Maybe just talk about what was the behind the scenes of working with Cursor?Lin [00:41:03]: I will say Cursor is a very, very unique team. I think the unique part is the team has very high technical caliber. There's no question about it. But they have decided, although many companies building coding co-pilot, they will say, I'm going to build a whole entire stack because I can. And they are unique in the sense they seek partnership. Not because they cannot. They're fully capable, but they know where to focus. That to me is amazing. And of course, they want to find a bypass partner. So we spent some time working together. They are pushing us very aggressively because for them to deliver high caliber product experience, they need the latency. They need the interactive, but also high quality at the same time. So actually, we expanded our product feature quite a lot as we support Cursor. And they are growing so fast. And we massively scaled quickly across multiple regions. And we developed a pretty high intense inference stack, almost like similar to what we do for Meta. I think that's a very, very interesting engagement. And through that, there's a lot of trust being built. They realize, hey, this is a team they can really partner with. And they can go big with. That comes back to, hey, we're really customer obsessed. And all the engineers working with them, there's just enormous amount of time syncing together with them and discussing. And we're not big on meetings, but we are like stack channel always on. Yeah, so you almost feel like working as one team. So I think that's really highlighted.Swyx [00:42:38]: Yeah. For those who don't know, so basically Cursor is a VS Code fork. But most of the time, people will be using closed models. Like I actually use a lot of SONET. So you're not involved there, right? It's not like you host SONET or you have any partnership with it. You're involved where Cursor is small, or like their house brand models are concerned, right?Lin [00:42:58]: I don't know what I can say, but the things they haven't said.Swyx [00:43:04]: Very obviously, the drop down is 4.0, but in Cursor, right? So I assume that the Cursor side is the Fireworks side. And then the other side, they're calling out the other. Just kind of curious. And then, do you see any more opportunity on the... You know, I think you made a big splash with 1,000 tokens per second. That was because of speculative decoding. Is there more to push there?Lin [00:43:25]: We push a lot. Actually, when I mentioned Fire Optimizer, right? So as in, we have a unique automation stack that is one size fits one. We actually deployed to Cursor earlier on. Basically optimized for their specific workload. And that's a lot of juice to extract out of there. And we see success in that product. It actually can be widely adopted. So that's why we started a separate product line called Fire Optimizer. So speculative decoding is just one approach. And speculative decoding here is not static. We actually wrote a blog post about it. There's so many different ways to do speculative decoding. You can pair a small model with a large model in the same model family. Or you can have equal pads and so on. There are different trade-offs which approach you take. It really depends on your workload. And then with your workload, we can align the Eagle heads or Medusa heads or a small big model pair much better to extract the best latency reduction. So all of that is part of the Fire Optimizer offering.Alessio [00:44:23]: I know you mentioned some of the other inference providers. I think the other question that people always have is around benchmarks. So you get different performance on different platforms. How should people think about... People are like, hey, Lama 3.2 is X on MMLU. But maybe using speculative decoding, you go down a different path. Maybe some providers run a quantized model. How should people think about how much they should care about how you're actually running the model? What's the delta between all the magic that you do and what a raw model...Lin [00:44:57]: Okay, so there are two big development cycles. One is experimentation, where they need fast iteration. They don't want to think about quality, and they just want to experiment with product experience and so on. So that's one. And then it looks good, and they want to post-product market with scaling. And the quality is really important. And latency and all the other things are becoming important. During the experimentation phase, it's just pick a good model. Don't worry about anything else. Make sure you even generate the right solution to your product. And that's the focus. And then post-product market fit, then that's kind of the three-dimensional optimization curve start to kick in across quality, latency, cost, where you should land. And to me, it's purely a product decision. To many products, if you choose a lower quality, but better speed and lower cost, but it doesn't make a difference to the product experience, then you should do it. So that's why I think inference is part of the validation. The validation doesn't stop at offline eval. The validation will go through A-B testing, through inference. And that's where we offer various different configurations for you to test which is the best setting. So this is the traditional product evaluation. So product evaluation should also include your new model versions and different model setup into the consideration.Swyx [00:46:22]: I want to specifically talk about what happens a few months ago with some of your major competitors. I mean, all of this is public. What is your take on what happens? And maybe you want to set the record straight on how Fireworks does quantization because I think a lot of people may have outdated perceptions or they didn't read the clarification post on your approach to quantization.Lin [00:46:44]: First of all, it's always a surprise to us that without any notice, we got called out.Swyx [00:46:51]: Specifically by name, which is normally not what...Lin [00:46:54]: Yeah, in a public post. And have certain interpretation of our quality. So I was really surprised. And it's not a good way to compete, right? We want to compete fairly. And oftentimes when one vendor gives out results, the interpretation of another vendor is always extremely biased. So we actually refrain ourselves to do any of those. And we happily partner with third parties to do the most fair evaluation. So we're very surprised. And we don't think that's a good way to figure out the competition landscape. So then we react. I think when it comes to quantization, the interpretation, we wrote actually a very thorough blog post. Because again, no one says it's all. We have various different quantization schemes. We can quantize very different parts of the model from ways to activation to cross-TPU communication. They can use different quantization schemes or consistent across the board. And again, it's a trade-off. It's a trade-off across this three-dimensional quality, latency, and cost. And for our customer, we actually let them find the best optimized point. And we have a very thorough evaluation process to pick that point. But for self-serve, there's only one point to pick. There's no customization available. So of course, it depends on what we talk with many customers. We have to pick one point. And I think the end result, like AA published, later on AA published a quality measure. And we actually looked really good. So that's why what I mean is, I will leave the evaluation of quality or performance to third party and work with them to find the most fair benchmark. And I think that's a good approach, a methodology. But I'm not a part of an approach of calling out specific namesSwyx [00:48:55]: and critique other competitors in a very biased way. Databases happens as well. I think you're the more politically correct one. And then Dima is the more... Something like this. It's you on Twitter.Lin [00:49:11]: It's like the Russian... We partner. We play different roles.Swyx [00:49:20]: Another one that I wanted to... I'm just the last one on the competition side. There's a perception of price wars in hosting open source models. And we talked about the competitiveness in the market. Do you aim to make margin on open source models? Oh, absolutely, yes.Lin [00:49:38]: So, but I think it really... When we think about pricing, it's really need to coordinate with the value we're delivering. If the value is limited, or there are a lot of people delivering the same value, there's no differentiation. There's only one way to go. It's going down. So through competition. If I take a big step back, there is pricing from... We're more compared with close model providers, APIs, right? The close model provider, their cost structure is even more interesting because we don't bear any training costs. And we focus on inference optimization, and that's kind of where we continue to add a lot of product value. So that's how we think about product. But for the close source API provider, model provider, they bear a lot of training costs. And they need to amortize the training costs into the inference. So that created very interesting dynamics of, yeah, if we match pricing there, and I think how they are going to make money is very, very interesting.Swyx [00:50:37]: So for listeners, opening eyes 2024, $4 billion in revenue, $3 billion in compute training, $2 billion in compute inference, $1 billion in research compute amortization, and $700 million in salaries. So that is like...Swyx [00:50:59]: I mean, a lot of R&D.Lin [00:51:01]: Yeah, so I think matter is basically like, make it zero. So that's a very, very interesting dynamics we're operating within. But coming back to inference, so we are, again, as I mentioned, our product is, we are a platform. We're not just a single model as a service provider as many other inference providers, like they're providing a single model. We have our optimizer to highly customize towards your inference workload. We have a compound AI system where significantly simplify your interaction to high quality and low latency, low cost. So those are all very different from other providers.Alessio [00:51:38]: What do people not know about the work that you do? I guess like people are like, okay, Fireworks, you run model very quickly. You have the function model. Is there any kind of like underrated part of Fireworks that more people should try?Lin [00:51:51]: Yeah, actually, one user post on x.com, he mentioned, oh, actually, Fireworks can allow me to upload the LoRa adapter to the service model at the same cost and use it at same cost. Nobody has provided that. That's because we have a very special, like we rolled out multi-LoRa last year, actually. And we actually have this function for a long time. And many people has been using it, but it's not well known that, oh, if you find your model, you don't need to use on demand. If you find your model is LoRa, you can upload your LoRa adapter and we deploy it as if it's a new model. And then you use, you get your endpoint and you can use that directly, but at the same cost as the base model. So I'm happy that user is marketing it for us. He discovered that feature, but we have that for last year. So I think to feedback to me is, we have a lot of very, very good features, as Sean just mentioned. I'm the advisor to the company,Swyx [00:52:57]: and I didn't know that you had speculative decoding released.Lin [00:53:02]: We have prompt catching way back last year also. We have many, yeah. So I think that is one of the underrated feature. And if they're developers, you are using our self-serve platform, please try it out.Swyx [00:53:16]: The LoRa thing is interesting because I think you also, the reason people add additional costs to it, it's not because they feel like charging people. Normally in normal LoRa serving setups, there is a cost to dedicating, loading those weights and dedicating a machine to that inference. How come you can't avoid it?Lin [00:53:36]: Yeah, so this is kind of our technique called multi-LoRa. So we basically have many LoRa adapters share the same base model. And basically we significantly reduce the memory footprint of serving. And the one base model can sustain a hundred to a thousand LoRa adapters. And then basically all these different LoRa adapters can share the same, like direct the same traffic to the same base model where base model is dominating the cost. So that's how we advertise that way. And that's how we can manage the tokens per dollar, million token pricing, the same as base model.Swyx [00:54:13]: Awesome. Is there anything that you think you want to request from the community or you're looking for model-wise or tooling-wise that you think like someone should be working on in this?Lin [00:54:23]: Yeah, so we really want to get a lot of feedback from the application developers who are starting to build on JNN or on the already adopted or starting about thinking about new use cases and so on to try out Fireworks first. And let us know what works out really well for you and what is your wishlist and what sucks, right? So what is not working out for you and we would like to continue to improve. And for our new product launches, typically we want to launch to a small group of people. Usually we launch on our Discord first to have a set of people use that first. So please join our Discord channel. We have a lot of communication going on there. Again, you can also give us feedback. We'll have a starting office hour for you to directly talk with our DevRel and engineers to exchange more long notes.Alessio [00:55:17]: And you're hiring across the board?Lin [00:55:18]: We're hiring across the board. We're hiring front-end engineers, infrastructure cloud, infrastructure engineers, back-end system optimization engineers, applied researchers, like researchers who have done post-training, who have done a lot of fine-tuning and so on.Swyx [00:55:34]: That's it. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Get full access to Latent Space at www.latent.space/subscribe

My guest this week is Eric Seufert. In the words of Ben Thompson from Stratecherry, Eric is arguably the best writer and commentator on digital advertising, and today, he gives us a masterclass on the subject. We start by talking about Apple's ATT framework, Meta's recovery, and what the current ecosystem looks like. We also talk about X, advertising on the open web, and clearing many common misconceptions about targetted advertising. Please enjoy this conversation with Eric Seufert. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page HERE. ----- Making Markets is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Markets, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @makingmkts | @ericgoldenx Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes (00:00:00) Welcome to Making Markets (00:00:32) Historical Paradigms in Digital Advertising (00:01:01) Impact of Apple's ATT Policy (00:02:01) The Hub and Spoke Model (00:04:35) Post-ATT Advertising Landscape (00:07:35) Apple's Competitive Strategy (00:12:48) Meta's Adaptation and Recovery (00:19:17) Rise of Retail Media Networks (00:23:56) Twitter's Advertising Challenges (00:26:47) Customer Base and Engagement Models (00:27:44) Meta's Resilience to Advertiser Boycotts (00:28:18) Understanding Cookies and Their Role in Advertising (00:31:23) Apple's Impact on Third-Party Cookies (00:33:44) Google's Approach to Cookie Deprecation (00:38:06) The Future of Digital Advertising (00:49:28) The Role of AI in Ad Creative Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast episode, Ryan Moss, CEO of Little Giant Ladders, shares his journey from an entry-level role sweeping floors to leading the company. Ryan recounts how he initially joined Little Giant after working in construction and, over the years, has been deeply involved in nearly every part of the business. He reflects on the challenges and triumphs of building Little Giant's brand, including a pivotal moment when the company invested in an infomercial to counteract a competitor's knockoff product. This high-stakes move turned into a critical branding success, illustrating both the resilience and innovation that have been central to Little Giant's growth and partnership strategies.      

In this episode of Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur, Tom Hunt interviews Max van den Ingh, Founder & CEO of Unmuted, a B2B SaaS marketing agency based in Amsterdam. They delve into Max's journey of building his company, exploring key areas like sales, finance, marketing, and operations. Max shares insights on their unique approach to brand building, niching down, and delivering high-value services. The episode also features a discussion on the importance of transparency, continuous learning, and staying ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving marketing landscape.

In this episode, Randy Hauser, President of Chicago Metal Fabricators, discusses the turnaround and growth of this metal fabricator company with roots dating back to 1908. Randy shares his journey from joining the company as a turnaround specialist to leading it through transformative changes in sales, marketing, and operations. Discover how Chicago Metal Fabricators differentiated itself in a competitive market by investing in large-scale equipment and building a culture of professionalism. Randy also emphasizes the importance of adaptability and fostering a team-oriented environment that encourages continuous improvement. This episode is packed with insights on leadership, manufacturing challenges, and the critical role of maintaining a strong customer focus. Randy's favorite book: Competitive Strategy, Michael Porter Randy Hauser, Chicago Metal Fabricators Website: https://chicagometal.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicagometalfabricators LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chicagometal Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChicagoMetalFab YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChi9gc6xrBRotQtb3dOU9sw Randy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-hauser-27143016/ Ari Santiago, CEO, CompassMSP Company Website: https://compassmsp.com/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/compass-msp/ Podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadeinAmericaPodcast Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/made-in-america-podcast-with-ari Podcast YouTube:  https://youtube.com/c/MadeinAmericaPodcastwithAri Ari's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asantiago104/ Podcast produced by Miceli Productions: https://miceliproductions.com/ Podcast executive production by Gael Communications: https://www.gaelcommunications.com/ Randy and Ari talk about culture, continuous improvement, sales, capital investments

Blake and David leap into the latest updates from Xerocon, including new features like traditional bank reconciliations, embedded bill pay with BILL and AI capabilities through JAX (Just Ask Xero). They look at Xero's strategy to double and how it compares to Intuit's mid-market growth focus. They also touch on the potential impact of QuickBooks' pricing strategy.SponsorsLendflow - http://accountingpodcast.promo/lendflowThe Small Business Research Institute - http://accountingpodcast.promo/ceanowKeeper - http://accountingpodcast.promo/keeperChapters(01:01) - Xerocon Highlights and New Features (01:18) - Deep Dive into Xero's Bank Reconciliation (06:13) - Xero's Strategic Focus: The Three by Three Initiative (10:18) - Xero's Market Share and Competitive Strategy (17:52) - Listener Questions and Advice for Aspiring Accountants (21:37) - Xero's Upcoming Features and Integrations (40:46) - Alternative Career Paths in Accounting (41:16) - Xero's New AI Features and Bill Payments Experience (45:53) - Exploring Xero's JAX AI and Its Functionalities (54:04) - Xero's Market Strategy and Competition with QuickBooks (01:01:51) - Xerocon Highlights and Nashville Adventures (01:07:44) - The Mysterious Case of Mike Lynch (01:14:27) - Closing Remarks and Upcoming Events  Show NotesNew features announced at Xerocon Nashvillehttps://blog.xero.com/product-updates/new-features-xerocon-nashville/Intuit cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley, citing reliance on pricing leverhttps://seekingalpha.com/news/4139926-intuit-cut-to-equal-weight-at-morgan-stanley-citing-reliance-on-pricing-leverBritish entrepreneur Mike Lynch among missing after luxury yacht sinks off Sicilyhttps://www.reuters.com/world/europe/seven-missing-15-rescued-after-sailboat-sinks-off-sicily-2024-08-19/Need CPE?Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark: https://earmarkcpe.comSubscribe to the Earmark Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook and Instagram. If you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Call us and leave a voicemail; maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040.SponsorshipsAre you interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus.Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website - accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribeApple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcastsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAccountingPodcastSpotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/SpotifyPodchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaserStitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/StitcherOvercast: http://cloudacctpod.link/OvercastClassifiedsClient Hub - https://clienthub.app/ Forwardly - https://www.forwardly.com/Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Let the listeners of The Accounting Podcast know by running a classified ad. Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAdTranscriptsThe full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

Uncover the art of expanding your business internationally, captivating customers through tailored experiences, and transforming distribution challenges into successes with Stef van Boekel, the visionary Director of Business Development at Operator One. Dive into the intricacies of mastering European markets and innovating your approach to customer feedback.

The recent FTC ruling on Non-Compete Agreements has everyone up in arms - and justifiably so. No one knows where the final outcome will land, or when, but our world will be different. So, I share some guidance around what you need to be doing now to prepare for what's to come. And THANKS to everyone for all of the feedback on last week's "Imposter Syndrome" episode. If you want to learn more about the Ascendant Executive program and how our Q3 subject matter will prepare you for the FTC Ruling outcome, then register here and join us in July: https://polarishealthcarepartners.com/ascendant-executive/

Is sustainability the secret sauce to outperforming your rivals in business, or are we trapped by our narrow definition of what it really means? This week I'm talking with Ricky Marton, Founder of Koru, to clearly define what sustainability means and debunk the myths that often leave people seeing it as a nice-to-have. And, we don't just talk; we reimagine the whole spectrum of sustainability. As you'd expect, we talk about the role tech plays in sustainability and how it has the potential push your business not just towards a better future but also into a realm of innovation and efficiency like never before. However, getting it right means more than seeing tech as an easy button to a complex problem. While there are no shortage of hurdles, we explore how looking beyond the conventional boundaries and challenges of sustainability can be the competitive edge you never knew you needed. Ready to turn what you thought you knew about sustainability on its head? Let's go! Show Notes: 00:00 - Introduction to Sustainability and Technology 11:35 - Demystifying Sustainability 22:50 - The Intersection of Technology and Sustainable Business Practices 34:20 - Overcoming Misconceptions and Practical Steps Forward 45:40 - Technology as a Force for Sustainable Innovation 57:10 - Looking Ahead: The Future of Business and Sustainability 1:02:30 - Closing Reflections and Call to Action

1-Competitive Strategy 2-Developing Strategic Business Models 3-Succession Planning 4-Strategic Hiring 5-Managing Top Talent 6-Sustainability 7-Sales and Operations Planning 8-Corporate Social Responsibility 9-Evaluation of Market Opportunities. Do you have any ideas/questions? Share some feedback go to www.savvypodcast.com

Part Two is here! Over the last 4 to 6 months, I've spoken with a growing number of people who are building group practices and are NOT interested in selling them. Why is this happening? It's centers around competitive strategy. Tune in to hear the answers! And be sure to join us in sunny Puerto Rico for our Accelerate 2024 conference. Details here: https://polarishealthcarepartners.com/accelerate/

Crexendo Breaks Records with Outstanding 36% User Surge in 2023, Podcast, First Part “The premise of our vision has been to enable as many independent providers as we can, says Anand Buch, Chief Strategy Officer, Crexendo. “And so, for them to be able to differentiate, it really boils down to flexibility and what they can do with the platform.” Crexendo announced that it has won Frost & Sullivan's 2024 Competitive Strategy Leadership Award for outstanding achievement in cloud communications. The company also reported a growth rate that is at twice the pace of the entire industry. In this first of two podcasts, we look at how Crexendo views the flexibility of its offerings, along with a focus on helping partners gain traction in the market and build brand equity for themselves. Anand Buch is joined by Jon Brinton, Chief Revenue Officer, in a 360 degree look at how Crexendo has differentiated itself in a very competitive market.  “We've have positioned ourselves as champions of the independent service provider community for a long time and we are totally about as on an its set, enabling our partners to take our solutions and really build and deliver something that fits the needs of the end customers that they're targeting,” says Brinton. We learn that the award places Crexendo in a field otherwise occupied by technology giants, and even household brands. By sticking to a play that helps partners sell to business of many sizes, an offering that allows people to buy what they need and careful attention to customer needs, Crexendo has leveraged the personal service a small firm can offer along with a platform that can tackle virtually any use case. “The biggest key element of the partner community is that our success is driven by their success. And they're the ones that have the best feel of the marketplace when it comes to the actual end user,” adds Buch. Visit www.crexendo.com

Join host Steve Coughran on the Business Strategy Podcast as he tackles "The Dangers of Straddling" in the world of modern business. Dive into the detrimental effects of pursuing multiple strategies simultaneously, a trap many ambitious companies fall into. Explore why a less-is-more approach, focusing on a single, well-executed strategy, leads to sustained success, growth and differentiation in the market. Understand how a singular strategy aligns with a company's overall objectives, promotes effective resource allocation, and leads to financial improvements. Learn why straddling can cause confusion, hinder adaptability, and ultimately, compromise a company's standing in today's ever-evolving marketplace. Tune in to uncover the power of strategic focus in business success.Links:Do you have ideas or feedback to share? Email me at contact@coltivar.comTo learn more about us, visit:  https://www.coltivar.com/Disclaimer:The views expressed here are those of the individual Coltivar Group, LLC (“Coltivar”) personnel quoted and are not the views of Coltivar or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Coltivar has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendations. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. Please see https://www.coltivar.com/privacy-policy-and-terms-of-use for additional important information.Support the show

#BESTOF2022: /4:  #PRC: Breaking through the Bamboo Curtain.  Henry D. Sokolski @HenrySokolski, Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC).  Henry #Sokolski  @NuclearPolicy LA https://pax-pacifica-aukus.org/chinas-it-bamboo-curtain-how-and-why-we-should-break-it/ Thoughts on a Competitive Strategy with China LCDR Robert “Jake” Bebber USN Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not represent those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or the U.S. government. • A winning competitive strategy will slow China's economic growth, or even cause it to begin to contract. A slowing/contracting China will be forced to shift resources toward internal controls and away from power projection, make China less attractive for foreign direct investment, inhibit Chinese civil-military fusion/innovation, and create doubt in the information control regime the CCP has instituted to remain in power.... 1949 MOSCOW: MAO AND DZHUGASHVILI (AKA STALIN)

#BESTOF2022: 3/4:  #PRC: Breaking through the Bamboo Curtain.  Henry D. Sokolski @HenrySokolski, Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC).  Henry #Sokolski  @NuclearPolicy LA https://pax-pacifica-aukus.org/chinas-it-bamboo-curtain-how-and-why-we-should-break-it/ Thoughts on a Competitive Strategy with China LCDR Robert “Jake” Bebber USN Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not represent those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or the U.S. government. • A winning competitive strategy will slow China's economic growth, or even cause it to begin to contract. A slowing/contracting China will be forced to shift resources toward internal controls and away from power projection, make China less attractive for foreign direct investment, inhibit Chinese civil-military fusion/innovation, and create doubt in the information control regime the CCP has instituted to remain in power.... 1968

#BESTOF2022: 4/4:  #PRC: Breaking through the Bamboo Curtain.  Henry D. Sokolski @HenrySokolski, Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC).  Henry #Sokolski  @NuclearPolicy LA https://pax-pacifica-aukus.org/chinas-it-bamboo-curtain-how-and-why-we-should-break-it/ Thoughts on a Competitive Strategy with China LCDR Robert “Jake” Bebber USN Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not represent those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or the U.S. government. • A winning competitive strategy will slow China's economic growth, or even cause it to begin to contract. A slowing/contracting China will be forced to shift resources toward internal controls and away from power projection, make China less attractive for foreign direct investment, inhibit Chinese civil-military fusion/innovation, and create doubt in the information control regime the CCP has instituted to remain in power.... 1968

#BESTOF2022: 2/4:  #PRC: Breaking through the Bamboo Curtain.  Henry D. Sokolski @HenrySokolski, Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC).  Henry #Sokolski  @NuclearPolicy LA https://pax-pacifica-aukus.org/chinas-it-bamboo-curtain-how-and-why-we-should-break-it/ Thoughts on a Competitive Strategy with China LCDR Robert “Jake” Bebber USN Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not represent those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or the U.S. government. • A winning competitive strategy will slow China's economic growth, or even cause it to begin to contract. A slowing/contracting China will be forced to shift resources toward internal controls and away from power projection, make China less attractive for foreign direct investment, inhibit Chinese civil-military fusion/innovation, and create doubt in the information control regime the CCP has instituted to remain in power.... 1966 MAO

Uncover the art of expanding your business internationally, captivating customers through tailored experiences, and transforming distribution challenges into successes with Stef van Boekel, the visionary Director of Business Development at Operator One. Dive into the intricacies of mastering European markets and innovating your approach to customer feedback.

Xi Jinping has put politics before business in China, making it more difficult for Chinese and expat managers to run businesses in the Middle Kingdom. How will the two leaders, Biden and Xi Jinping face off at the APEC 2023 conference in San Francisco ? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/james-herlihy/message

Dear listeners, this week we celebrate our 100th episode. We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and listenership, as we treat you to a compilation of some of our favorite insights over the past years. Below you'll find a highlights reel broken down into clips in four categories:CLASSIC STRATEGY: Featuring Rita, McGrath, Richard Rumelt, John Hagel, and Mike Tushman who each share with us timeless ideas around strategy.LEADERSHIP, CULTURE & WORKFORCE: Featuring Adam Bryant, Ajay Banga, Sally Susman, Johnny C. Taylor, Tiffani Bova, and Elizabeth Altman, who each share critical insights into leadership, our employees, and the quickly changing landscape of the workforce.VALUE CREATION: Featuring Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Thales Teixeira, Pete Fader, and Mohan Subramaniam, who each share alternative and modern views around value creation.INNOVATION, TECH & THE FUTURE: Featuring Alex Osterwalder, Rob Wolcott, Vivek Wadhwa, and Faith Popcorn who each share with us insightful ideas around innovation, upcoming trends in tech and society, and the future of business._________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:34—Special Introduction to 100th Episode from KaihanCLASSIC STRATEGY2:57—Highlight from Rita McGrath: Strategic Planning Amidst Uncertainty5:24—Highlight from Richard Rumelt: Finding the Crux of Your Strategy7:01—Highlight from John Hagel: Why You Should "Zoom Out, Zoom In," and Scale From the Edge9:01—Highlight from Mike Tushman: Why Ambidextrous Organizations Outperform OthersLEADERSHIP/CULTURE/WORKFORCE10:52—Highlight from Adam Bryant: Good vs. GREAT CEOs—500 Interviews Reveal What Makes the Difference12:58—Highlight from Ajay Banga: Insights from a Former CEO with Ajay Banga of MasterCard15:11—Highlight from Sally Susman: Insights from Pfizer's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer in Crafting Public Discourse17:27—Highlight from Johnny C. Taylor: Trends You Need to Know About the Workforce19:27—Highlight from Tiffani Bova: Elevating Your EX to Improve Your CX21:01—Highlight from Elizabeth Altman: Rethinking the Definition of a Workforce in the Modern EraVALUE CREATION23:24—Highlight from Felix Oberholzer-Gee: Applying a Value-Based Strategy to Drive Your Business26:11—Highlight from Thales Teixeira: Decoupling the Customer Value Chain for Competitive Advantage28:36—Highlight from Pete Fader: Becoming a Customer-Centric Business30:49—Highlight from Mohan Subramaniam: The Future of Competitive Strategy and the Evolving Role of Data, Customers and Digital EcosystemsINNOVATION, TECH & THE FUTURE33:46—Highlight from Alexander Osterwalder: How Investing in Culture Ecosystems Leads to Innovation35:57—Highlight from Rob Wolcott: The Power of Proximity in your Strategy38:31—Highlight from Vivek Wadhwa: Harnessing Tech for an Innovative Future40:24—Highlight from Faith Popcorn: Predictions to Know From a Leading Futurist42:34—Closing and Thank you

Dear listeners, this week we celebrate our 100th episode. We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and listenership, as we treat you to a compilation of some of our favorite insights over the past years. Below you'll find a highlights reel broken down into clips in four categories:CLASSIC STRATEGY: Featuring Rita, McGrath, Richard Rumelt, John Hagel, and Mike Tushman who each share with us timeless ideas around strategy.LEADERSHIP, CULTURE & WORKFORCE: Featuring Adam Bryant, Ajay Banga, Sally Susman, Johnny C. Taylor, Tiffani Bova, and Elizabeth Altman, who each share critical insights into leadership, our employees, and the quickly changing landscape of the workforce.VALUE CREATION: Featuring Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Thales Teixeira, Pete Fader, and Mohan Subramaniam, who each share alternative and modern views around value creation.INNOVATION, TECH & THE FUTURE: Featuring Alex Osterwalder, Rob Wolcott, Vivek Wadhwa, and Faith Popcorn who each share with us insightful ideas around innovation, upcoming trends in tech and society, and the future of business._________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:34—Special Introduction to 100th Episode from KaihanCLASSIC STRATEGY2:57—Highlight from Rita McGrath: Strategic Planning Amidst Uncertainty5:24—Highlight from Richard Rumelt: Finding the Crux of Your Strategy7:01—Highlight from John Hagel: Why You Should "Zoom Out, Zoom In," and Scale From the Edge9:01—Highlight from Mike Tushman: Why Ambidextrous Organizations Outperform OthersLEADERSHIP/CULTURE/WORKFORCE10:52—Highlight from Adam Bryant: Good vs. GREAT CEOs—500 Interviews Reveal What Makes the Difference12:58—Highlight from Ajay Banga: Insights from a Former CEO with Ajay Banga of MasterCard15:11—Highlight from Sally Susman: Insights from Pfizer's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer in Crafting Public Discourse17:27—Highlight from Johnny C. Taylor: Trends You Need to Know About the Workforce19:27—Highlight from Tiffani Bova: Elevating Your EX to Improve Your CX21:01—Highlight from Elizabeth Altman: Rethinking the Definition of a Workforce in the Modern EraVALUE CREATION23:24—Highlight from Felix Oberholzer-Gee: Applying a Value-Based Strategy to Drive Your Business26:11—Highlight from Thales Teixeira: Decoupling the Customer Value Chain for Competitive Advantage28:36—Highlight from Pete Fader: Becoming a Customer-Centric Business30:49—Highlight from Mohan Subramaniam: The Future of Competitive Strategy and the Evolving Role of Data, Customers and Digital EcosystemsINNOVATION, TECH & THE FUTURE33:46—Highlight from Alexander Osterwalder: How Investing in Culture Ecosystems Leads to Innovation35:57—Highlight from Rob Wolcott: The Power of Proximity in your Strategy38:31—Highlight from Vivek Wadhwa: Harnessing Tech for an Innovative Future40:24—Highlight from Faith Popcorn: Predictions to Know From a Leading Futurist42:34—Closing and Thank you

Product development is an interesting part of the ecommerce vendor landscape, and SaaS world is a constant stream of feature updates. This week we're focused on one of our favourite vendors, BigCommerce, and we're joined by leading voices in the strategy and product development team. In the first of two episodes, we talk to Aaron Sheehan, Director of Competitive Strategy about: General product strategy and focus Key capabilities like multi storefront and B2B BigCommerce's evolution into generative AI

Adam is joined by Palo Alto's Senior Competitive Strategy Analyst Ben Schultz for the final episode in our Scottsdale sit-downs series during SCIP IntelliCon 2023. Ben joined the show for a good time not a long time to chat about his path from the defense industry to competitive strategy, coming out of your shell as an introvert and the one biggest disagreement he has with his boss Alysse Nockels. As much as you'll love listening to this interview, you should really check it out on Klue's YouTube Channel, shot on location in Scottsdale. We post (almost) every episode there, so check it out!Key Moments(00:00) Introduction(00:32) Ben's career path from defense contracting to competitive intelligence(01:52) What to do when reps don't use your recommendations(04:28) Coming out of your shell as an introvert(07:04) Overcoming imposter syndrome(08:39) Ben's biggest disagreement with his bossProduction Team:Host: Adam McQueenProducer: Ben RonaldPost Production: Grayson OttenbreitAudio Editor: Michael PanesMusic CreditsIntro Music: The Podcast Intro by Music UnlimtedRapid-Fire Music: Los Angeles by Muzaproduction

Robert Edwards specializes in delivering consulting and training for company executives to understand how to optimally price their products and services, monetize their products, maximize value generation and extraction from their product portfolio, and develop their promotions and competitive strategy to increase profit. He holds a PhD in Pricing and Competitive Strategy. In this episode, Robert shares how to simplify your pricing and effectively communicate its benefits and what value it generates.   What you will learn from this episode: Understand how to use price to generate value for your product or services Learn to use pricing to attract the customers you want Find out about the connection between behavioral economics and pricing   "Creating value for your pricing could be an extra dimension to what we talk about regularly when we're thinking about designing our products and pricing those products."  - Robert Edwards   Topics Covered: 01:25 - How he found his route into pricing 03:15 - Discussing the idea about complicated and simple pricing 04:55 - How Ryanair creates a perception of simple pricing 05:55 - Why make your pricing simple 07:04 - Robert's important thoughts on creating value for your pricing 08:48 - How to add value through pricing 10:42 - LinkedIn as an example in the way of creating value and not just extracting value 14:34 - Thinking in terms of the buyer composition and not just the number of units bought 16:35 - Examples that uses price to attract the customers you want 19:50 - An example that uses pricing as an attention grabber to make all else reasonable 21:09 - A case of sellers focusing on different dimensions in attracting customers and not just pricing 22:57 - How pricing and behavioral economics tie into each other 25:36 - Considering behavioral economics at the beginning rather than at the end of the pricing process 26:18 - Understanding the pricing strategy around rebates 27:01 - Using value-based pricing and having the clarity of message why you're pricing in such a way   Key Takeaways: "I would definitely recommend in a lot of cases simplifying your prices adds value to the products and service that you're offering because consumers have a really strong preference for this as well." - Robert Edwards "Behavioral economics is increasingly at the heart of real pricing strategies because you can design a pricing strategy with rational consumers in mind, and it completely does not work the way you intended because consumers have these biases and they're susceptible to framing effects." - Robert Edwards "A lot of the companies that I speak to, there's an opportunity to add value to their product by using a different pricing metric. And the only reason that pricing metric is really valuable is because of the behavioral biases of the consumers." - Robert Edwards   People / Resources Mentioned: Ryanair: https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/ Subway:https://www.subway.com/en-us   Connect with Robert Edwards: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardsra/   Connect with Mark Stiving: Email: mark@impactpricing.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/  

In this episode, Edem and Jabu are joined by Anthony Ebow Spio, a Senior Lecturer at Ashesi University who has 40+ years of experience following Wimbledon and other Tennis Grand Slams as well as an extensive background in Brand Management, Competitive Strategy and Marketing. They preview #Wimbledon2023 by discussing favourite Wimbledon moments and memories; the power of partnerships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club; the importance of partnerships in sports for furthering development; and how the tennis landscape in Africa can improve using both existing and new synergies to enable more African youth to become professionals.  ------------------- ⭐ The best way to support the podcast is to subscribe, share and leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Mohan Subramaniam is a Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He focuses on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms and new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. He is a recognized thought leader in digital strategy, and have helped senior executives in several companies find new sources of value and growth for their companies when competing with data within emerging digital ecosystems. He outlines his thinking in his 2022 book The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, where he introduces a new paradigm for competitive strategy anchored in data and digital ecosystems and the game-changing role of digital technologies in the modern economy. Legacy firms have for decades anchored their competitive strategy in products and industry characteristics, but these approaches are now becoming outdated. His book therefore explains how legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to leverage the new and explosive power of data by thoughtfully applying and emulating the best practices of digital titans such as Amazon and Google.His articles regularly appear in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. I have also published articles in several leading academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of International Business Studies, and my research has been recognized by awards from Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the Decision Sciences Institute. In this episode, Mohan shares:Why some of the long-prevailing concepts of competitive strategy, like Michael Porter's industry value chain, industry attractiveness (or five forces), and even the central paradigm of these approaches may have served us well for decades, but are increasingly becoming ineffectiveHow traditional legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to be even more effective at the digital game than digital native giants like Amazon and Google Why the first step for such incumbent organizations should be to evolve your traditional customers to digital customers Why we should not just be thinking about ecosystems broadly, but about two specific—and different—ecosystems we need to create, and what they areWhy the idea that so many companies have of capturing and owning lots of data misses the point of what it means to win with data, in a world where the shelf-life value of the data you collect is getting shorter and shorter _________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Highlight from today's episode01:02—Introducing Mohan + The topic of today's episode2:58—If you really know me, you know that...3:25—What is your definition of strategy?3:36—Could you talk to us about your thesis involving your ideas around Michael Porter's idea of competitive advantage?7:51—Why is competitive advantage less relevant today than it was 40 years ago when it was created?10:50—Can you explain how data has impacted our idea of customers, and how companies should make the transition from traditional customers to digital customers?13:06—Can you give an example of a physical product that is able to create continuous data and not episodic?15:11—Could you explain the differences between two different types of the two types of ecosystems you detail in your book?18:23—Could you explain how value chains have expanded to include complements outside of the traditional service and product offering?21:03—If we were to put production and consumption capabilities into a diagram (like an x and y-axis), how would you explain how the two interact and interplay?24:20—Could you illustrate your point of how products can deliver value outside of what its obvious value with the light bulb story?27:13—How should companies be thinking about the role of data given everything we've talked about today? It has a very short shelf life, so it is about controlling data necessarily?29:25—Closing__________________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources: Personal Page: http://www.professormohan.com/IMD Faculty Page: https://www.imd.org/faculty/professors/mohan-subramaniam/Newest Book: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david-shrier/basic-metaverse/9781472148131/Linkedin: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/mohan-subramaniam-961986bTwitter: https://twitter.com/Profmohans

Mohan Subramaniam is a Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He focuses on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms and new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. He is a recognized thought leader in digital strategy, and have helped senior executives in several companies find new sources of value and growth for their companies when competing with data within emerging digital ecosystems. He outlines his thinking in his 2022 book The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, where he introduces a new paradigm for competitive strategy anchored in data and digital ecosystems and the game-changing role of digital technologies in the modern economy. Legacy firms have for decades anchored their competitive strategy in products and industry characteristics, but these approaches are now becoming outdated. His book therefore explains how legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to leverage the new and explosive power of data by thoughtfully applying and emulating the best practices of digital titans such as Amazon and Google.His articles regularly appear in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. I have also published articles in several leading academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of International Business Studies, and my research has been recognized by awards from Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the Decision Sciences Institute. In this episode, Mohan shares:Why some of the long-prevailing concepts of competitive strategy, like Michael Porter's industry value chain, industry attractiveness (or five forces), and even the central paradigm of these approaches may have served us well for decades, but are increasingly becoming ineffectiveHow traditional legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to be even more effective at the digital game than digital native giants like Amazon and Google Why the first step for such incumbent organizations should be to evolve your traditional customers to digital customers Why we should not just be thinking about ecosystems broadly, but about two specific—and different—ecosystems we need to create, and what they areWhy the idea that so many companies have of capturing and owning lots of data misses the point of what it means to win with data, in a world where the shelf-life value of the data you collect is getting shorter and shorter _________________________________________________________________________________________"The big shift in thinking is that we always thought of data as something that supports our product. What I'm saying is that think of products as something that can support your data."_________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Highlight from today's episode01:02—Introducing Mohan + The topic of today's episode2:58—If you really know me, you know that...3:25—What is your definition of strategy?3:36—Could you talk to us about your thesis involving your ideas around Michael Porter's idea of competitive advantage?7:51—Why is competitive advantage less relevant today than it was 40 years ago when it was created?10:50—Can you explain how data has impacted our idea of customers, and how companies should make the transition from traditional customers to digital customers?13:06—Can you give an example of a physical product that is able to create continuous data and not episodic?15:11—Could you explain the differences between two different types of the two types of ecosystems you detail in your book?18:23—Could you explain how value chains have expanded to include complements outside of the traditional service and product offering?21:03—If we were to put production and consumption capabilities into a diagram (like an x and y-axis), how would you explain how the two interact and interplay?24:20—Could you illustrate your point of how products can deliver value outside of what its obvious value with the light bulb story?27:13—How should companies be thinking about the role of data given everything we've talked about today? It has a very short shelf life, so it is about controlling data necessarily?29:25—Closing__________________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources: Personal Page: http://www.professormohan.com/IMD Faculty Page: https://www.imd.org/faculty/professors/mohan-subramaniam/Newest Book: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david-shrier/basic-metaverse/9781472148131/Linkedin: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/mohan-subramaniam-961986bTwitter: https://twitter.com/Profmohans

Advice and information on: Success Mindset; Personal Magnetism; Relationships and Family life; Meditation and Calm; Financial Growth; Wealth Creation; Business Management and Competitive Strategy; Leadership; Self-Leadership; Health and wellbeing; Spiritual Awareness; Inspiration and Vision Setting: Future Seeing; Stress management; Holistic Human Awarenes --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chris-walker70/message

Aaron Sheehan and I go way back. We first met when Aaron used to work for an agency that OMG supported.Now, Aaron is the Director of Competitive Strategy at BigCommerce. He brings a fresh perspective on the eCommerce industry, and a unique point of view on eComm platforms and the future of eComm technology.Coincidentally, his office is only a quarter of a mile from mine. In hindsight, we probably should have recorded this show in person.Here's a look at what we cover:What is Headless, and how does it compare to Composable? Are these just buzzwords or trends that are here to stay?Aaron's and my take on the state of eCommerce and why we see a prevailing “cautious optimism.” The eCommerce trends Aaron is most excited about and what omnichannel means today (vs. what it meant 10 years ago).When should you consider upgrading your tech stack, and where does the BigCommerce offering fit in the marketplace?

In this episode: Why non-compete clauses are important in health care setting. How proposed rule from Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banning employers from using non-compete clauses on employees could impact patients' access to care. The additional burden new non-compete rule could have on tax-paying systems. Effect of FTC's increased scrutiny on health systems integration. Repercussions of slowing integration on access to hospital care in rural areas. Guest:Dr. Subbu Ramanarayanan chairs NERA's Health care Antitrust practice and is an adjunct Associate Professor of Competitive Strategy at UCLA Anderson School of management. Dr. Ramanarayanan has extensive experience advising clients on antitrust reviews of proposed mergers and acquisitions before the Federal (FTC and DOJ) and state antitrust agencies across a variety of settings in health care including hospital services, health insurance, physician services, medical devices, and Healthcare IT services.    The Federal Trade Commission's recent activity to end noncompete clauses has potential to cause severe ramifications for health care systems. At the same time, the FTC is taking a dim view of important hospital system integration.Each of these things can have an immediate and powerful impact on the health care landscape. The latest controversial proposed rule – which would ban employers from imposing noncompete clauses on their employees - would make it more difficult for health care systems to staff up while also increasing already high workforce costs --- all potentially effecting access to patient care and available services. 

What does success now look like for business leaders as economic shifts keep us all guessing? Thomas Cozzolino, Senior Director of Competitive Strategy at Salesforce, joins us to help discover the answers to this question as a special co-host in the Success Now Mini Series. Solutions for cost reduction, increased efficiency, rapid ROI, and lightning-fast time to value are top of mind for many of today's business leaders. Setting a prime example, Amazon is ever-innovating; and today we get to hear more about what this looks like for Mark Chien, General Manager of AWS Sales, Marketing, and Global Services. Tune in to learn:What is the Success Now Miniseries all about (03:45)Importance of data quality at AWS (7:10)Culture of Build vs Buy at AWS (9:10)Amazon's continuing journey of reducing costs and time to value while increasing efficiency and ROI (18:00)Best practices for using and implementing Salesforce (33:55)Lightning Round (40:40)IT Visionaries is brought to you by Salesforce. With Salesforce's low-code app dev tools, you can be more efficient, more productive and save money by reducing development time by up to 90%. Get Salesforce's Low-Code Playbook and increase time to value for your team and your customers. Download the free playbook today.Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Who's going to be in your boat helping you row towards competitive success? In episode four of your Compete Week Replay series, Imperva's Pat Wall breaks down his best practices for presenting a competitive strategy to your leadership team.Watch the full presentation on YouTube.Listener Survey: https://forms.gle/zJPZ8dsc6uVAPt4p7Check out more great compete content like this on the Compete Network.And don't forget to sign up for our weekly Coffee & Compete Newsletter for your weekly dose of the best competitive content in the business.To subscribe, visit https://klue.com/newsletterHost: Adam McQueenProducer/Audio Editing: Ben RonaldAbout Klue:Klue provides a lens into your competitor's world, continuously updating and connecting dots to help you win more business. It's a new way to capture, manage, and communicate market insights from the web and across the company, in platforms you already use. to 

Dr. Allen Morrison is a Professor of Global Management and the former CEO and Director General of the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University (ASU). Before joining ASU, he was the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Chair for Responsible Leadership and director of the Global CEO Center at IMD in Switzerland. His latest book is titled Enterprise China: Adopting a Competitive Strategy for Business Success.

Recently retired Major General Mick Ryan sits down with Beatrice and Paul for the Series 2 finale of Talking Strategy. Mick is an experienced strategist, having worked at high levels in this capacity in the Australian and US militaries. During his career, he commanded at platoon, squadron, regiment, task force and brigade levels in the Australian Army. His last position was that of Commander of the Australian Defence College in Canberra. A graduate of the Australian Defence Force School of Languages (language speciality: Bahasa Indonesia), Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, the USMC Command and Staff College and School of Advanced Warfighting, he is also a passionate advocate of professional education and lifelong learning.

Professor Allen Morrison has been studying China for over three decades and he's an expert on the Enterprise China model, the close relationship between business and state in China. Chinese companies take the lead from Beijing to help meet state objectives, including reduced dependency on the west. In return they get competitive advantages over western businesses trying to break into China. In this episode, Prof. Morrison, from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, talks to show host Gene Tunny about his new book with INSEAD's Prof. Stewart Black on Enterprise China. Please get in touch with any questions, comments and suggestions by emailing us at contact@economicsexplored.com or sending a voice message via https://www.speakpipe.com/economicsexplored. What we discuss with Prof. MorrisonHow the business model in China differs from the model in the west [01:50]How the Chinese Communist Party oversees businesses in China [10:20]What western businesses need to know when doing business in China [12:40]Does China have an imperial ambition? [17:28] Companies which have done well and those which have done badly in China [22:29]Challenges to the Enterprise China model and the CCP [27:48]Gene's takeaways from the episode [39:30]About this episode's guest: Allen MorrisonAllen J. Morrison is professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Morrison previously served as CEO and director-general, senior advisor for global management education and executive education initiatives at Arizona State University. Before joining ASU in 2014, Morrison was professor of global management and the holder of the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Chair for Responsible Leadership in the Maritime Industry at IMD. Professor Morrison was also director of the IMD Global CEO Center, which focuses on the challenges CEOs face while leading their companies in the global economy.For further information about Prof. Morrison, check out his ASU page:https://search.asu.edu/profile/2551923Links relevant to the conversationGet a copy of Enterprise China: Adopting a Competitive Strategy for Business Success:https://amzn.to/3YMb1aIProf. Morrison's article “Competing with “Enterprise China” vs. Chinese Enterprises” on the Thunderbird School of Global Management website:https://thunderbird.asu.edu/thought-leadership/insights/competing-enterprise-china-vs-chinese-enterprisesWilliam Kirby's HBR article “The real reason Uber is giving up in China”:https://hbr.org/2016/08/the-real-reason-uber-is-giving-up-in-chinaCreditsThanks to Obsidian Productions for mixing the episode and to the show's sponsor, Gene's consultancy business www.adepteconomics.com.au. Economics Explored is available via  Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, and other podcasting platforms.

In this episode... Sofeast's CEO Renaud welcomes two guests, Dr. Allen J. Morrison & Dr. J. Stewart Black, to the podcast. These American leadership, strategy, business and manufacturing experts have recently written a new book "Enterprise China: Adopting a Competitive Strategy for Business Success" which was released on December 1st 2022. Renaud read an advance copy of the book before this interview and discusses China's strategies for economic success and also asks some questions about risk analysis and risk mitigation for companies buying products from China.   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings & introduction of today's guests. 02:02 - What is 'Enterprise China' about? 03:27 - China's 3-pillar strategy to succeed economically. There are 3 strategic pillars to China's strategy for success. Reducing (or eliminating) their external dependency on importing key technology (03:39)  Dominate domestically (06:00) Winning globally (17:23) 20:55 - Why Western companies seeking growth by looking to the emerging markets may be too late in some cases. 23:44 - How should companies who buy from China do their risk analysis when considering diversifying supply chains to include other sources other than just China? 31:21 - How about a Zero-China strategy? 34:53 - Talking about the book 'Enterprise China,' when it's on sale, and where it can be purchased from. 36:00 - Wrapping up.   Related content... Can We Remove China From Our Supply Chains? [Podcast] Globalism 2.0: North American Importers To Move Supply Chains Out Of China Soon? [Podcast] Nearshoring To Mexico. An Alternative To China? [Podcast] How Sourcing From India Has Changed In 2022 (Part 1: Trends & Manufacturing Landscape) Interested in having a conversation about sourcing from other Asian countries? We can help you.   Get in touch with us Connect with us on LinkedIn Send us a tweet @sofeast Prefer Facebook? Check us out on FB Contact us via Sofeast's contact page Subscribe to our YouTube channel   Subscribe to the podcast  There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Google Podcasts TuneIn Amazon Podcasts Deezer iHeartRADIO PlayerFM Listen Notes Podcast Addict Podchaser

Mr. Yinka Ogunleye (Yinka) is an adept and passionate leader in Strategy and Planning with over two (2) decades of experience; dedicated to driving innovation and results across multi-company structured organizations in the Energy, Oil and Gas industry. He has proven ability with broad exposures to manage strategy and planning processes, nurture the growth of business through development of company objectives, targets and performance aspirations. He has exposures covering Oil Exploration, Oil Production and Gas Businesses in the upstream and midstream sectors.   He started his career as a Database Administrator, Financial Systems with Pan Ocean Oil Corporation Nigeria Limited. His career had since traversed Information Technology, Business Development, Technical and Commercial functions. He had the coordinating role of Strategy Development across six (6) business arms of a Group, spanning upstream Oil and Gas, Energy development, Pipeline, Gas Processing and Monetization. He joined Amazon Energy Group in 2020 as Vice President New Ventures, and Group Head Strategy and Planning. In these roles he was among several functions coordinating the Strategy and Planning programs and initiatives for incubating projects through creative commercial arrangements; developing new business opportunities and partnerships; and superintending over the Group's corporate strategy, planning and performance program. Yinka holds a Bachelor's degree in Zoology and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from the Lagos State University, Ojo. He obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Information Technology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure. He also obtained an MBA from the Lagos Business School, and was on exchange program to the IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain where he earned a certificate in Entrepreneurship and Competitive Strategy. He is a certified Project Management Practitioner, Balance Scorecard Professional and Performance Management Practitioner. He has been doing his Doctoral studies where he is currently researching on Innovation and Responsible Leadership at the Gordon's Institute of Business Science, South Africa. He holds a Certificate Business Analytics at the Harvard Business School. Yinka is an entrepreneur. He is the founder of a start-up called Riba-x(www.riba-x.com), a Search, Connect and Communities platform for small businesses and communities of shared interests. He also runs AtriumData Solutions and Services Limited, a Strategy and Project Consulting company Yinka is also currently into Agri-business, where he is developing a Palm Oil plantation and Pig Farm. Key Takeaways   1. You can still reach your end-goal even if you're traveling a different path - Yinka was always passionate about IT growing up. He had a computer scientist father and learned coding languages like C++ and worked with databases. He wanted to pursue a degree in Computer Science but unfortunately, didn't make the cut. Yinka instead pursued a degree in Zoology yet he still managed to land a IT role post-graduation. 2. Don't be afraid to branch out - After learning Zoology, specializing in genetics and working various roles in the IT field, Yinka went to pursue an MBA in Business and tackled his entrepreneur side. Exploring your interests and diversifying your knowledge is a great way to live a fulfilling life.  3. Mentor and mentee relationships can have different forms - For Yinka, the mentor-mentee dynamic involved his mentor asking questions and probing his (the mentee's) thoughts rather than providing advice directly. This pushed Yinka to either mull over his mentor's prompts or provide an answer to his mentor's questions, causing him to engage in deep thinking. Today, Yinka and his mentor are as close as brothers.  4. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey - Entrepreneurship can be extremely gratifying but it also comes with its ups and downs. Yinka founded “Dago” with his good friend, now turned business partner. Unfortunately, the company hit a brick wall and the business relationship between Yinka and his friend fell apart. Today, Yinka repackaged the idea of Dago and turned it into a new project called “Riba-x.”   5. Ensure you derive pleasure from what you do - Whether it's through your job, hobbies or relationships, make sure that what you are investing in brings you joy. If you pursue things that you derive pleasure from, you're more likely to feel content with it despite any drawbacks. Applying this to a career, if you are doing something you love every single day, eventually money comes second to your happiness. SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE: APPLE PODCASTS GOOGLE PODCASTS SPOTIFY LIBSYN YOUTUBE   OKIKI RESOURCES: Need Video Content or Personal Brand Photos? Book Here Join the Okiki Video Content Bootcamp Today! https://www.okikiconsulting.com/okiki-video-bootcamp   ABOUT FIYIN: Fiyin Obayan is the founder of Okiki Consulting, where she helps business owners communicate their personal brand or company brand stories through video content, in order to communicate to their target audience. Contact Fiyin: Website: www.okikiconsulting.com Email: info@okikiconsulting.com Phone: (306)716-0324 Instagram: @Okikiconsulting and @Okikiconsultingmedia Facebook: @Okikiconsulting LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiyinfoluwaobayan/ Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/okiki

Dr. Mohan Subramaniam is a Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School. His research is focused on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms, specifically, new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. In his latest book, The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, Mohan discusses how companies must adapt their competitive strategies to capture the value from data, suggesting that the context of competitive strategy has shifted from industries to digital ecosystems. In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Mohan explains the concept of digital myopia, referring to the inability of modern-day firms to envision the full scope of value that digital technologies can offer. Together, they evaluate the success factors of famous tech giants and how legacy companies can effectively compete with them. *** About the BCG Henderson Institute The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Competitive Intelligence teams must align their services to the different levels of their specific business. Everyone has heard of tactical and strategic CI, but this type of dichotomy is missing a major facet of CI. Tactical CI supports sales and its functionality, while strategic CI provides support product marketers in their Go-To-Market strategies by allowing product management teams to prioritize key features for their specific product or service.In this episode of SCIP IntelliCast, we talk with Datto's Dustin Ray, Director of Competitive Intelligence about the CI team structure. Dustin shares:The business areas/stakeholders the team supports and how the Datto's team is structuredHow to prioritize, segment, and manage CI work to give it focus?How the  impact of technology having how time is spent and how has it changed the value that is delivered to stakeholders.How to manage "fire drill" requests for CI help while still supporting stakeholders without getting bogged down.

Welcome to an episode with a well-recognized professor, Ben M. Bensaou. Get Ben's book here: https://amzn.to/3xpI9Zb Many people think that you need a genius leader or need to become a start-up to innovate. But we all have the potential to innovate. In this episode, Ben speaks about everyone's role in innovation and how it can be performed like a habit in our everyday lives. He also discussed the need to develop a deeper understanding of customers and create a culture of collaborating with customers to offer the ideal combination of performance, attributes, price, and other characteristics that customers need and want, or produce a product and service with a powerful market appeal. Ben M. Bensaou is a Professor of Technology Management and Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. He served as Dean of Executive Education in 2018–2020. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard Business School in 1998-1999, a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of Management in 2007-2008, and a Visiting Scholar at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley in 2013-2015. He received his PhD in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, US, and his MA in Management Science from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan; his Diplôme d'Ingénieur (MSc) in Civil Engineering and DEA in Mechanical Engineering from respectively the Ecole Nationale des TPE, Lyon and the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, two Grandes Ecoles in France. His research and teaching activities focus on: (1) how to create innovating capabilities and competencies as a way to build an innovating organization and culture; (2) Blue Ocean Strategy and value innovation implementation, and roll out processes across the whole organization; (3) how to build social capital within firms; (4) new forms of organizations, in particular networked corporations, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and value-adding partnerships; and (5) the impact of information technology on innovation. Professor Bensaou addresses these issues from an international comparative perspective, with a special focus on Japanese organizations. Professor Bensaou's research on buyer-supplier relations in the US and Japanese auto industries won him the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award in the field of information systems and a finalist nomination for the Free Press Award for outstanding dissertation research in the field of business policy and strategy. His case studies on innovation won the 2006, 2008 and 2009 ECCH Best Case Awards (with Kim & Mauborgne). His publications include papers in Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly and MISQ Executive. He has been listed in the Who's Who in the World since 1998. He has been consulting for Asian, European and US corporations since 1993. At INSEAD, Professor Bensaou developed two new MBA courses: 'Managing Networked Organisations' and 'Understanding Japanese Business.' He also teaches courses on Competitive Strategy, Innovation, Blue Ocean Strategy and Value Innovation, Information Technology and Comparative Management (in English and French). He was a Visiting Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, where he taught his 'Information Technology and Corporate Transformation' course. He has also been teaching (in Japanese) in Executive Education programs at Keio Business School, Tokyo, Japan. Get Ben's book here: Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA. Ben M. Bensaou: https://amzn.to/3xpI9Zb Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Episode 236 features Dan Pontefract, Founder, and CEO of Pontefract Group, a firm that improves the state of leadership and organizational culture. Find Dan Online:Website: www.danpontefract.comLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danpontefract/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dan.pontefractTwitter: https://twitter.com/dpontefractYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwmKOY8GHbOC3cRvNg8O0UQAbout Dan:Dan is the founder and CEO of Pontefract Group, a firm that improves the state of leadership and organizational culture.He is the best-selling author of four books: LEAD. CARE. WIN - How to Become a Leader Who Matters, OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT, and FLAT ARMY. A renowned speaker, Dan has presented at four different TED events and also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Dan is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business, and has garnered more than 20 industry awards over his career.Dan is honored to be on the Thinkers50 Radar list. HR Weekly listed him as one of its 100 Most Influential People in HR. PeopleHum listed Dan on the Top 200 Thought Leaders to Follow and Inc. Magazine listed him as one of the top 100 leadership speakers.His third book, OPEN TO THINK won the 2019 getAbstract International Book of the Year. LEAD. CARE. WIN. was a finalist for the same award in 2021.Previously as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company with revenues of over $14 billion and 50,000 global employees—he launched the Transformation Office, the TELUS MBA, and the TELUS Leadership Philosophy, all award-winning initiatives that dramatically helped to increase the company's employee engagement to record levels of nearly 90%. Prior to TELUS, he held senior roles developing leaders, team members, and customers at SAP, Business Objects, and BCIT.Dan and his wife, Denise, have three children (aka goats) and live in Victoria, Canada.........Thank you for listening! If you wanted to learn more about the host, Brian Ondrako, check out his “Now” Page - https://www.brianondrako.com/now or Sign up for his Weekly Newsletter or 3x a Week Blog - https://brianondrako.com/subscribe/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 227, an episode with a well-recognized professor, Ben M. Bensaou. Many people think that you need a genius leader or need to become a start-up to innovate. But we all have the potential to innovate. In this episode, Ben speaks about everyone's role in innovation and how it can be performed like a habit in our everyday lives. He also discussed the need to develop a deeper understanding of customers and create a culture of collaborating with customers to offer the ideal combination of performance, attributes, price, and other characteristics that customers need and want, or produce a product and service with a powerful market appeal. Ben M. Bensaou is a Professor of Technology Management and Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. He served as Dean of Executive Education in 2018–2020. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard Business School in 1998-1999, a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of Management in 2007-2008, and a Visiting Scholar at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley in 2013-2015. He received his PhD in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, US, and his MA in Management Science from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan; his Diplôme d'Ingénieur (MSc) in Civil Engineering and DEA in Mechanical Engineering from respectively the Ecole Nationale des TPE, Lyon and the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, two Grandes Ecoles in France. His research and teaching activities focus on: (1) how to create innovating capabilities and competencies as a way to build an innovating organization and culture; (2) Blue Ocean Strategy and value innovation implementation, and roll out processes across the whole organization; (3) how to build social capital within firms; (4) new forms of organizations, in particular networked corporations, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and value-adding partnerships; and (5) the impact of information technology on innovation. Professor Bensaou addresses these issues from an international comparative perspective, with a special focus on Japanese organizations. Professor Bensaou's research on buyer-supplier relations in the US and Japanese auto industries won him the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award in the field of information systems and a finalist nomination for the Free Press Award for outstanding dissertation research in the field of business policy and strategy. His case studies on innovation won the 2006, 2008 and 2009 ECCH Best Case Awards (with Kim & Mauborgne). His publications include papers in Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly and MISQ Executive. He has been listed in the Who's Who in the World since 1998. He has been consulting for Asian, European and US corporations since 1993. At INSEAD, Professor Bensaou developed two new MBA courses: 'Managing Networked Organisations' and 'Understanding Japanese Business.' He also teaches courses on Competitive Strategy, Innovation, Blue Ocean Strategy and Value Innovation, Information Technology and Comparative Management (in English and French). He was a Visiting Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, where he taught his 'Information Technology and Corporate Transformation' course. He has also been teaching (in Japanese) in Executive Education programs at Keio Business School, Tokyo, Japan. Get Ben's book here: Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA. Ben M. Bensaou  Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo