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"These are long-term decisions that have far-reaching impacts — not just for us, but for future generations." Host Laurie Barkman sits down with Jennifer Wilson, founder of Oak Bay Coaching and Consulting and former CEO of the Canada Homestay Network — a family business her mother started in 1995 from a bed and breakfast in Toronto that has since placed over 100,000 international students across Canada.  Jennifer joined the company as an accidental second-generation leader, grew into the CEO role after completing her MBA, and spent 17 years building the organization before transitioning to chair in 2022.  She built a co-CEO structure, created a board of directors from scratch, and navigated a partial management buyout — all while keeping the family intact. Here's how she did it.   Key Insights The CEO handoff is as much symbolic as it is structural. Jennifer's mother passed her a vintage recipe box — the company's original "analog database" — in front of the entire team at a company retreat. That moment publicly transferred authority and gave the whole organization clarity about who was leading. Succession isn't just paperwork — it's a signal. A co-CEO structure can work — but only under two conditions. Different skill sets and clearly separated accountabilities are non-negotiable. Jennifer hired an HR consultant who specializes in co-CEO models, created distinct strategic plan line items for each CEO, and built separate performance reviews. When both conditions are met, both leaders say they wouldn't want to do it alone. Leadership succession and ownership transition are not the same thing — and confusing them is costly. Jennifer separated the two processes deliberately. She transitioned leadership years before she transitioned ownership, and treating them as distinct conversations gave the family time to think clearly about equity, estate planning, and sibling fairness without the pressure of an operational handover happening simultaneously. Give your successors enough time. Jennifer gave her two internal candidates 18 months of lead time before officially stepping back. That window allowed for trust-building, task delegation, and honest conversations about whether each person actually wanted the role. One of them said no — and that was crucial information to have before the transition, not after. Family-to-management buyouts require a mind shift, not just a legal agreement. The reframe that unlocked Jennifer's MBO: instead of "they're paying for the business with our revenue," think "we sold it on day one and they're paying us back." That shift changes the emotional dynamic — and the 80/20 split they landed on was driven in part by Canadian tax thresholds that required each buyer to hold over 10% equity.   Chapters: 00:04 Introduction of Jennifer Wilson 02:08 Origin Story: How Canada Homestay Network Began 04:30 Jennifer's Unexpected Path Into the Family Business 07:12 Flash Forward: When Succession Conversations Started 08:40 The Recipe Box Ceremony: A Symbolic Handoff 09:36 The Trio: Running the Business as a Family Team 12:00 Deciding to Think About Her Own Succession 13:12 Building a Self-Managed Organization 16:05 Identifying and Developing Internal Successor Candidates 18:24 The Big Reveal: A Co-CEO Structure 18:53 How the Co-CEO Model Works in Practice 21:15 Governance: Building a Board and Separating Strategic vs. Operational Plans 24:28 Pitfalls and What Went Wrong: When One Candidate Said No 25:21 COVID: Laying Off 100 People in Six Months 29:01 Ownership Transition vs. Leadership Succession 29:37 Equity, Estate Planning, and Sibling Fairness 38:17 The Management Buyout: How the 80/20 Split Was Determined 40:23 Top Takeaways for Founders and Next-Gen Leaders   Is your business truly ready—and are you? Take the Succession Readiness Assessment to get a clear snapshot of where you stand and what to focus on next. https://btsherpa.com/succession P.S. Most owners don't realize where they stand until they're already in a transition. Take a few minutes now to understand your readiness—and give yourself more options later.  

"I'm not here to teach you anything new. I'm here to make you see things that you normally would not see." — Dr. W. Edwards Deming In this episode, Deming educator Balaji Reddie reveals the practices that are hiding in plain sight within most organizations. Practices that feel normal. That get celebrated. And that quietly undermine everything you're building. One example: arbitrary targets. An employee collected 2 million rupees in a single day — four times his target. He told no one and did nothing for four days. Because he knew his manager would just raise the bar. That single moment of silence cost the company a genuine breakthrough. This is what Deming called a "faulty practice." And there are many more where that came from. Host Andrew Stotz and Balaji dig into Chapter 2 of The New Economics — Deming's most overlooked chapter. They cover why ranking employees is built on a mathematical illusion. Why chasing quarterly results destroys long-term value. And why the best leaders, from Steve Jobs to Walt Disney, ignored the pressures that trap most organizations. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.4 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 I'm continuing my discussions with Balaji Reddie. He's an educator and a trainer in the teachings of Dr. Deming and quality management generally. And the topic for today is becoming aware of faulty practices. Take it away, Balaji.   0:00:26.0 Balaji Reddie: Good morning. Thank you, Andrew. So part three of our series, what we're looking at. So last time we met, we spoke about essentially Point number 14, because we outlaid his profound knowledge. And then I always said that he gave us a lot of clues as to what needed to be done. So I started out by reading some of the excerpts from the book, which we tend to ignore. And then he said, "Here's what I expect." So he expected leadership, a critical mass to be created, and then he gave attributes of a leader. So we listed 17 of those points, which we said principles of leadership. And now once you've created that critical mass and there's someone who's taken the lead and there are a bunch of leaders, maybe, so what do we do next? So when you start becoming aware that you are now in a prison, so to say, because that's what he said here, that they feel it's a fixture, and this is the way things are, this is how things always have been. So he says, "No, you need to understand that these things are wrong." Right? And you first need to become aware, and then we need to look at what needs to be done, perhaps. So he's given some suggestions, and you could always adapt and adopt this. So most of this would be taken from the book, The New Economics, chapter two, which he has titled as "The Heavy Losses." Now, remember, when he wrote this book, it was after the other book, Out of the Crisis, where he had listed his 14 Points. Yes, but he also listed diseases and obstacles. And people tend to ignore that.   0:02:18.9 Balaji Reddie: In fact, I remember having a chat with Bill Bellows on this, and I said, "Diseases and obstacles." And he said, "Obstacles?" I said, "Yes, he has listed 16 obstacles in Out of the Crisis." And he said, "Oh, wow." And he took his copy and he said, "Oh, yeah, you're right. There are 16 of them." And so sometimes you see things that you normally would not see. So when he wrote this, initially, I think many people thought that it was just an extension of those Diseases. But when you start looking deeper, you'll find that he became more elaborate in what he listed as the heavy losses. So he says here that these are things that you start observing and you say, "This is not normal." So the language that he's used is pretty, pretty clear. Present practice, so faulty practices. The present practice, and he says these are only reactive. You only need certain skills and not nearly any theory of management. Whereas when you opt to go to a better practice, you need a theory. So let's start with the very first faulty practice. And this stems from his 14 points too. He says, "Lack of constancy of purpose, short-term thinking, and emphasis on immediate results. Think in the present tense, no future tense." And then he becomes more elaborate and says, "Keep up the price of the company's stock and maintain dividends."   0:04:02.0 Balaji Reddie: Which, well, okay, it seems like you should not do that. No. He says here, you fail to optimize through time. Make this quarter look good, ship everything on hand at the end of the month or quarter, never mind its quality, mark it as shipped, show it as accounts receivable, and defer till the next quarter repairs, maintenance, and orders for material. Just a word here, in the new edition of The New Economics, there's been a spelling mistake there. So if anyone's listening, you can just correct it in the next edition that comes out. Instead of "defer till the next quarter," he's written "defer toll the next quarter." So we need to correct that in the next printing. Now he says here, a better practice...   0:04:52.1 Andrew Stotz: And before you go to there, can we just talk about this for a second?   0:04:56.1 Balaji Reddie: Sure.   0:04:57.8 Andrew Stotz: One of the things that, having been a financial analyst all my career, we get quarterly results from companies in the stock market. And in my own business, of course, I look at monthly results because we close the books every month. And it's definitely one... Donald Trump recently came up with the idea of telling companies not to report quarterly results. And I believe the Singapore Stock Exchange also came up with the idea of maybe we'll reduce the amount of reporting to maybe half-yearly, because we do have half-yearly reporting in some countries, right?   0:05:39.6 Balaji Reddie: Right.   0:05:40.9 Andrew Stotz: But having learned the teachings of Dr. Deming many years ago, long before I became a financial analyst, I always thought, I never really got this one because I thought, what an idiot you would be if you're running a company and all you could see was the market's demand for quarterly performance. And I've always admired those people, I think Jeff Bezos was one that really made it very explicit. "If you're here for quarterly performance, you're not gonna get it." And so I always have said to CEOs, having seen analysts and fund managers, I've visited, taken fund managers more than 1,000 times to meet with CEOs, and CEOs ask me, "What's your advice from seeing all that?" And I said, "Don't listen to this too much." Take it on board, what the discussions are about, but you're the CEO. Your job is to optimize the value of this business. And that means, that doesn't mean making quarterly numbers, manipulating things to make quarterly numbers. So part of what I've said to people is, "Get a backbone. Don't come and complain to me, 'Oh, yeah, but the pressure of the market's quarterly.' Come on." You know and I know that the job of a CEO is to maximize the value of the business, not the quarterly result. So anyways, that's my little pet peeve.   0:07:13.6 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And if you look at even Jobs, Steve Jobs, when he came back as Apple CEO, he had the nerve and the spine, like you said, to tell the board, "Don't judge me on this. It's gonna take time. And believe me," he said, "someday you will see results." Now, unfortunately, he was not there to see what he's created, but I think anyone in Apple can safely say that they're growing because of the foundation that he laid so long back, right? And I think that was one of the major reasons why he did not make Jonathan Ive as the CEO, because he wanted him to focus on the product and the customer rather than the quarterly results. And I don't think Apple ever played it by quarterly results.   0:08:04.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And here's a good book called Competition Demystified by Bruce Greenwald. And there's a passage in here that's interesting because he published the book back in 2005, so it was long before Steve Jobs really made the company profitable. And he had basically gone through and explained the situation at that time as a strategist looking at the company. And what he said, it says, he just said that "Jobs had managed to restore operating margins, but Apple survived, it had hardly prospered, its future does not look bright." And I use this as an example in my strategy class to help people understand that when you're building strategy, you're thinking long term. And the ecosystem that Steve Jobs created, the value of that ecosystem didn't really truly appear until many years after he was working on it. So anyways.   0:09:06.6 Balaji Reddie: Yeah, so that's a classic case here.   0:09:11.1 Andrew Stotz: Let's keep going. You're on a roll.   0:09:14.5 Andrew Stotz: Oh, that's okay. So now better practice, he says, theory of management. Now see what he writes here. He says, "Adopt and publish the constancy of purpose." Now, that's one of the things that he also changed in his 14 points in the 1990 edition, which he never really published in a book but he gave as handouts in his seminars. Earlier on, it was "Create a constancy of purpose," but he says now, "Publish it." And it should be a proper statement, right? And he also said not just for the company, but for other organization. Now, he perhaps was envisioning or he already saw what is happening in the world today, that it's not one company against another, it's a family of companies against another family of companies, if I may say so. And these companies are globally dispersed, so there has to be something that binds them together, and that's the constancy of purpose. And purpose is why we exist, right?   0:10:13.4 Andrew Stotz: And I want to ask about this.   0:10:15.3 Balaji Reddie: Right.   0:10:16.2 Andrew Stotz: Professor, can I ask you about this?   0:10:18.4 Balaji Reddie: Sure. Right.   0:10:21.0 Andrew Stotz: Because if we go to Out of the Crisis, he has his section, and this for me is on page 24, but I don't know what edition I... Maybe I have an old edition, but it's the chapter "Principles for Transformation." He's gonna talk about the 14 Points, and I want to talk about the first point. And the first point is "Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service."   0:10:45.8 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. This is the old edition, 24.   0:10:48.6 Andrew Stotz: And the question that I have is that was he saying... Because now you've said in The New Economics he says constancy of purpose. He just states constancy of purpose. He doesn't say "for improvement of product and service." So my question to you is, is he saying that the constancy of purpose should be about improvement of product and service, or is he saying your constancy of purpose could be any purpose, but you just need a long-term purpose?   0:11:22.8 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. And he says that anything that help people to live better and have a market. That's on page 25. So whatever you do, your purpose should be to make life better, right?   0:11:40.2 Andrew Stotz: Right.   0:11:40.7 Balaji Reddie: And the product is just the manifestation of that. It's the outcome, correct? For example, if you talk about Walt Disney and his statement of purpose, he made a very telling statement, right? And how he came to write that down as a very fascinating tale. But he said, "I'll do anything to make a child smile. I'll do anything to make a child smile." So all that you see was aimed at the child, right? Whether it was the merchandise, whether it was the animated films, whether it was the actual non-animated films, if I may say so. And then, of course, coming out with Disneyland and then Disney World. So whatever he did was for the child. And then after he passed away, they lost that. I think they wanted to just sustain what they had attained, but there was nothing new coming out of Disney. And slowly people started encroaching on their turf, so to say. You had someone like a Steven Spielberg who made ET, and that really pulled the rug under their feet. And before they knew it, there was Goonies and Gremlins, and they were really crumbling. And they thought, "Let's join hands with the devil," and so they hired him to make a film. And that did very badly.   0:13:01.9 Balaji Reddie: We also know that Hook, which was supposed to be on Peter Pan, et cetera. And then they were in a crisis and said, "What do we do now?" And most of the top people were just washing their hands of everything. They were the employees who were left, many of them who had worked with Disney, and they said, Sony was very keen to buy them out. And they said, "We need to keep them out, and how do we do that? The only way we can do that is to make a comeback and let's make another film. And we've not been doing anything original, so let's go back to the drawing board." But they said, "We need something to guide us." And that's when they discovered what Walt Disney had written, "I'll do anything to make a child smile." And they said, "What a shame. We forgot the child. We hired the best, but we didn't do anything for the child." And they added one more sentence there. "Anything to make a child smile, and there's a child in every adult." That's how they created Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Unique idea.   0:14:03.0 Andrew Stotz: Right.   0:14:03.9 Balaji Reddie: You can see it's a statement of purpose that brought them back.   0:14:07.6 Andrew Stotz: Okay. That helps me to understand that what he's talking about, according to what you're saying, is come up with your purpose.   0:14:14.4 Balaji Reddie: That's right.   0:14:15.3 Andrew Stotz: Okay.   0:14:15.6 Balaji Reddie: And he of course also added the word "aim" later on, which is that direction, because he says there, "Where do we wish to be? And then by what method?" So you should know whatever you do should go in the right direction. So that's the first faulty practice, and also giving us a theory of what we need to do. So go back and try to rediscover your purpose if you don't have it, or maybe just come out with something and see what really ignites you, what really drives you forward. And he's given some bullet points here. No number of successes in the short-term problems will ensure long-term. Short-term solutions have long-term effects. So that's that statement where he said cause and effect are not closely related in time and space. Of course, management must work on short-term problems as they turn up, but it's fatal to work exclusively on short-term problems. So he tells us that there has to be some place where you need to stop and start focusing on the big picture. So that's the very first faulty practice. Now the next one is a real, real bucket of water on your face. "Present practice, ranking people, salesmen, divisions. Reward at the top, punishment at the bottom. The so-called merit system." At the top and bottom. It's an artificial creation because no matter what scale of measurement you use, there will be an average measure and there will be 50% above the average and 50% below the average. That's exactly what the word average means. So making these stupid claims that this is an above-average person or a below-average person does not really mean anything.   0:16:07.8 Andrew Stotz: Because what you're really doing is rewarding or punishing common cause variation?   0:16:14.9 Balaji Reddie: Well, that's one. But when you're artificially creating something which doesn't even exist, right? You're saying top half, bottom half. In fact, that funny statement where there's a headlines in England, this happened in England, which said studies have shown, and they spent half a million pounds on carrying out the study, that 50% of the children in England are below average nutrition level. You don't need to spend half a million pounds to figure that one out. That's the law of averages. And using that to judge people is crazy on some arbitrary scale that you've invented. And he goes on to...   0:17:06.7 Andrew Stotz: So the first question I asked was, is this just a frivolous or tampering with common cause variation? Or the other question that... Or is this part of psychology and the idea of demoralizing people through this type of behavior? Where does that fall in from the System of Profound Knowledge, let's say? Is it variation, psychology, or is it both?   0:17:34.5 Balaji Reddie: It's a bit of both.   0:17:36.4 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:17:36.6 Balaji Reddie: Because if you talk about understanding psychology, what he meant, I think I used the word empathy, that we need to be empathetic. When you're talking about employees, what do you mean by empathy there? Well, we need to understand their learning processes. Each one of us has a learning process, but we have a different kind of a learning process. And then when you understand the learning process of a person and then put that person in the right job, you'll have to stop that person from working. That's joy in work. He says that when you... And that takes time. And the ranking system or the merit rating system is an excuse for not having understood or making an effort to understand your employee. You're becoming lazy. You put the onus on them when actually the onus is on you. You have to find out what makes that person tick, if I may use the word resonates. What resonates with that person, right? And then put that person in the right job. He's been saying this from the beginning. It's fascinating that he said this in Japan when he was teaching the control charting there.   0:18:42.3 Balaji Reddie: He said if you draw the control chart for performance of a worker and then it's all within limits for a long period of time, despite all the training and all the lessons that he or she has been given, then he said, "I think it's time to move that person out from that job and give them some other job." Because they've reached statistical control. Any amount of effort put in will not result in a better output. You're gonna get the same thing. And if you want something else, then you need to shift them or maybe give them some better job, whatever it is. So he always had this, that we need to use these in tandem. And in any case, it's a System of Profound Knowledge, so all the four sciences work together, right? And if you want to ask me, when a person understands their purpose, I'm extending the statement of purpose here to the person, when a person understands why they're doing something, they always do the job better. So that statement of purpose needs to come in here too. Instead of ranking them, sit down with them and have a heart-to-heart with each one of them. This is back again to the 17 principles we discussed last time, that you have to spend some time with them.   0:19:57.9 Andrew Stotz: Okay.   0:19:58.3 Balaji Reddie: And understand what makes them tick. So he says "the better practice is to abolish the merit system and manage the company as a system. The function of every component, every division under good management contributes towards optimization of the system. That is, it's not compromise, it's optimize." We don't say either-or, it's and. And he says "differences there will always be, but the question is, what do the differences mean?" So that's where you can use control charting to figure that one out. And I told you how I did this in my company and I got the HR lady to finally say, "I think we need to remove performance appraisal." Performance management, yes, of course you need to have a system in place because I need to know where I am. Even when we later on come to the 14 Points, one of his most, according to me, most misunderstood points is point number three, cease dependence on inspection. But that doesn't mean you stop inspecting.   0:21:02.8 Balaji Reddie: And we will read that when we come to that as to what he meant. So you need to know what is happening, definitely. For that reason, you do need to have some system in place, but you cannot judge a person based on that. And so he says here that "ranking is a farce. Apparent performance is actually attributable mostly to the system." And a simple equation, that's my favorite, that's what we discussed last night too, Tim Higgins, when he said x + (x * y) = 8. And you've gotta solve this equation when you don't even know both. Both are unknowns. Then how can you figure out what is x and what is y? So the other factor, the Pygmalion effect, right? I think for those who are not conversant with the Pygmalion effect, the play by George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion, which was made into the movie My Fair Lady, where he picks up a lady from the streets who was a flower seller, a flower lady, a flower girl. And he accepts the challenge of teaching her how to speak good English rather than what they call as Cockney English. And then it's like an experiment and a challenge and he starts teaching her. And then to test himself, he takes her to a party. And there she has one drink too many and she gets a little bit tipsy and then goes back to her old way of speaking, which really shocks the guests in the party.   0:22:41.5 Balaji Reddie: And he's very upset when they come back home and he said, "You'll always be a flower girl." And then she makes a statement, "Treat me like a flower girl, I'll behave like a flower girl. Treat me like a lady, I'll behave like a lady." And that's the Pygmalion effect. You start treating people that they're failures and then they have to live up to that reputation, right? So they continue being failures. You treat them well, so the Pygmalion effect comes into play. And of course, he talks about his red beads. That's an excellent experiment in bringing out many of his principles. Though he did not design it originally for this, that came much later. In fact, in Japan when he carried out the red bead experiment, it was purely for sampling. He invented that experiment for sampling. And he said that he broke down barriers and made things so simple for people. I think the lessons of management came much later at Hewlett-Packard where while he was explaining sampling and then when he went to what he was trying to teach them about management, someone jumped up, I forget the name of the person, who said, "But this is... So this is what you're trying to teach us with that sampling experiment." And then he suddenly realized he could use this. And of course, the so-called, and then raises in pay, et cetera. Yeah, whom to raise? Everybody within the system, blah, blah, blah.   0:24:13.4 Balaji Reddie: So I think last time I explained this about the roles, responsibilities and objectives, right? I borrowed this idea from another company in India where I saw this happen. When we removed the performance appraisal system, we came out with something which was quite different. We used to sit down with the people and explain to them what we intend to do as a company for the next four or five years and what their role is and what we expect them to... How do we expect them to contribute? But then came the next question. We turned around to them, "What do you expect from us as a company to help you grow in this direction or anything else?" And so they would give us certain expectations. And so we negotiated, came down and wrote things down. And then came the best part. We said we're gonna meet not once a year, but every month and as often as possible to discuss. That's why I loved it when the Deming Institute came out and were doing it, I'm sure they're doing it even now, in the two and a half day, from "me" to "we". So when we met every month, we used to ask the question, "How are we doing?" Not "What have you done?" "How are we doing?"   0:25:33.0 Balaji Reddie: And so when I heard that, I wanted to tell Bill Bellows I've been doing this since 2004. And when I heard the "me" to "we" thing, which was around 2017, '18, I think I saw that happen and I was, "Wow. All right." So thinking on the same lines. So the faulty practice, all right, when he talks about this, the second one and what needs to be done. Yeah, he gives some other advice also that if you're faced with problems, cut the dividend, cut it out. And that's, of course, when you're having hardships in the company. So he's given us a set of steps there too. And he says finally, if necessary, cut pay, but nobody loses a job. So, of course, those are extreme cases that we need to do, but he gives us advice what needs to be done. Now, the third faulty practice is incentive pay, pay based on performance. And I think that this has a lot to do with the arbitrary numerical targets that are set, right? And then, "If you do this, I'll give you that." So he says that the performance of an individual cannot be measured except maybe on a long term.   0:27:04.7 Balaji Reddie: He said reward for a good performance may be the same as reward to the weatherman for a pleasant day. He's got no control over it. And he says, "Abolish this incentive pay and pay based on performance. Give everyone a chance to take pride." I think you were talking about this last week too when we said about these arbitrary targets that lead to all of this, where somebody made a statement to me that, "The targets were a distraction to me from what my actual job was. My job is this. The target is just distracting me from my job." So very often people feel that way, right? And pay for performance, "I'm supposed to do this," right? And he gives an example. The top salesman may be a heavy loss to the company by overselling, selling to a customer a bigger copying machine than he, the customer, needs, right? And selling a bigger or fancy insurance policy than the customer can handle, promising immediate delivery, promising unauthorized discounts, et cetera, et cetera, right? It's the same thing, when one of my students was doing this, his internship project, he found that there was excessive inventories that were stocked up at an automotive company, at the authorized service stations and the sellers, and they had excessive stocks of components and that's why the sales had dipped over a period of time.   0:28:42.3 Balaji Reddie: Why were they holding so much of stock? Because the previous purchasing guy, or rather sorry, the marketing guy, forced these guys to buy extra, saying that, "I'll give you a discount," and things like that. And so they overstocked themselves to a point where they did not need anything because he had to meet a target. So he pushed it down their throat without really understanding what repercussions this would have. All right? And the problem with that pay for performance, it sounds good. Get what you pay for, pay what you get for. But the funny thing is you'll get only that much. Another case which I can tell you is how this student of mine was... His job during the internship was to collect receivables from the shops that were buying stuff. This was in the appliances, home appliances industry. And after they trained him to do that, how to call up the retail outlets and outstanding statements and then go collect the money, and his target was 500,000 rupees a day. 500,000 rupees a day collection. Now, one day he collected 2 million. My question is, do you think he reported it? Well, he did. And for the next four days he did nothing.   0:30:22.6 Balaji Reddie: Now, there's also a reason why he didn't report it. Because when you don't have Profound Knowledge, if he reported that he collected 2 million, immediately the manager would have said, "From tomorrow, your target is 2.1 million." Now, this is what happens when you don't understand variation. If you drew a control chart and you said that, "Okay, the average is so much, so I'm telling him to collect 500,000," and he's collected 2 million, he's done something special. As a manager, I'd call him and ask him, "Could you please tell me what exactly you did? Because you've not done what I taught you, otherwise you wouldn't have gone to this extent." Sometimes you don't know why you've been successful. The theory comes from the outside, right? So a manager with Profound Knowledge would sit down and have a talk and say, "Okay, you did this right. Now try doing this again." And he goes the next day and collects 2 million again, and then the next day and 2 million again. And then he comes and says, "Okay, boss, I'm ready for a new target. Raise the bar." Now what have you done? You've improved the system.   0:31:24.9 Andrew Stotz: We have new knowledge.   0:31:26.3 Balaji Reddie: We have new knowledge. And that's why, answering the same question what you asked me, it is a bit of both. So you need to understand that it's beyond... And we need to help the people understand why they've been successful. So better practice, here you go, is "abolish incentive pay, give everyone a chance to take pride." So when they start realizing, like this child, this student of mine, why he hit 2 million rupees that day, it would have been great. Instead, he just kept quiet. So see, you've lost an opportunity to really learn, to find a leverage point in a process which can take the process to another level. The next one he talks about is failure to manage the organization as a system. Instead, components are individual profit centers, everybody loses, right? And I think we have these separate business units, and he says here that they don't optimize for the aim of the whole organization. I think this is again, if you look at his Points number 9, 10, and 11, he very clearly mentions these because one thing leads to another, right? Break down the company into silos, each one focuses on what they're doing, and there's no communication, and they don't know their understanding the relationship of their work with the work of others.   0:32:54.9 Balaji Reddie: They don't even talk to each other. And he says here that "enlarge the boundaries of the system," but that comes when you understand your companies much better. And the system must include the future. Definitely, you start with theory. If this is what's happening in the world right now, this is how the world is going to change. Now he says, encourage communication. Now this part, a lot to do with Point number eight, drive out fear, where he says make physical arrangements for informal dialogue between the various components of the company regardless of level of position. That's a very telling statement. Encourage continual learning and advancement. Some companies have formed groups for comradeship in athletics, et cetera, all right, which provided facilitation for study groups. The company can well afford to underwrite the cost of social gatherings in outside locations. I can give you my personal example here. One of my college friends, and this was the time in the '90s when she came to America to do her Master's and then eventually started working in Ford, right? She did her Masters in applied electronics and she joined there as a design engineer. And that time, the world was a different place, and we Indians from India, we tend to be very, very conservative about a lot of things. We don't want to step on people's toes. So when someone says something, we, instead of opposing it, we keep our mouth shut.   0:34:32.6 Balaji Reddie: And so in meetings when they used to discuss and somebody brought up something and she said, "No, I think there's a problem," and they said, "What's the problem?" and she decided not to say anything, but eventually it turned out that she was right. And so the team members had a grouse against her that she doesn't share and she doesn't talk, she doesn't open up. Now what had happened was the HR lady in Ford, when she'd given her resume, when she asked about her hobbies and activities, one of the things she wrote there was dancing. Now she was learning a form of classical dancing here in India and obviously she could not continue pursue that in the United States at that time. So when that lady read dancing, she said, "You know, Ford sponsors ballroom dancing classes. So would you like to go for that?" So she said, "Oh wait, I learned a classical dance form in India. This has nothing to do with this." So she said, "Well, dancing is dancing. Why don't you just go? And we're paying for it, so why don't you go for it?" So she said, "I just enrolled in that class." Now, the first day when she went for the class, I don't know if you've seen the movie Shall We Dance, Andrew, but Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, and if you remember the first day, they tell you to hold your partner's hands and you're blindfolded and you follow your partner. It's about trusting the person in front, right? So she said when she went through that and she had to hold a stranger's hands, the whole barrier was broken.   0:36:08.2 Balaji Reddie: And she said, "I don't know, I had a different kind of a feeling when I came back to work." And she started trusting a lot more and it had an impact. Now, who would have dreamt that a ballroom dancing class could have changed my friend like this? That's Point number 13. You just have a theory that this will make that person a better person. You don't really do things to get a return on investment, but it works. So I think this is a beautiful paragraph by Deming where he says that there are ways and means of doing it and give it a shot. You have nothing to lose, right? Now he comes to the next one. Now this one, I think a lot has been spoken about this, MBO. But very clearly, he says "MBO as practiced." He does not blame Peter Drucker at all. In fact, he says Peter Drucker was clear that the objectives are interdependent and they're not mutually exclusive. He says, "Unfortunately, efforts of the various components do not add up. There is interdependence. Thus, the purchasing people may accomplish saving of 10% over the last year and in doing so raise the costs of manufacture and impair quality.   0:37:31.3 Balaji Reddie: They may take advantage of high-volume discount and thus build up inventory, which will hamper flexibility and responsiveness to meet unforeseen changes in the business." Peter Drucker was clear on this point. It's unfortunate that many people do not bother to read his work. In fact, let me just make a note that it was even Juran who said this, that having these kind of disjointed objectives can lead to a lot of problems. He said, of course, you can't be devoid. And that's why I think Deming has been very clear in chapter one of The New Economics where he says there are some things called as facts, right? Facts of life. So giving an arbitrary target is not a fact of life. He says here how he needs to improve that. So setting numerical goals, arbitrary numerical goals, I would say, right? Work on a method for improvement of a process. By what method? I think even Brian Joiner says that when you set this arbitrary goal. And now he goes on to explain that even further where setting a goal beyond the means of the process, they either distort the systems, distort the data, or distort both. Then management by results.   0:38:56.7 Balaji Reddie: Okay. Take immediate action on any fault, defect, complaint, action on the last data point. I think this again brings to the fore the understanding of variation where you need to look and ask questions and where you say, "Okay, I know this normally happens." So understand and improve the processes that produce that. Understand the distinction between common causes and special causes and understand the kind of action to take. So common causes, most of the time you need management to take action. There's a change in system. Yeah, there are some times when it is when a person close to the process can take that decision. Likewise, a special cause can be taken care of by the person closest to the process, but sometimes you need management action too. So that will always be the case, but it's rare, right? And so he talks about Sears, Roebuck, et cetera, and working on improvement of the process. The other one was buying materials and services at the lowest bid, right? Which he goes back to his Point number four, where he says here that it does not take brains to work with the cheapest. It takes brains to choose the best. Right?   0:40:23.4 Balaji Reddie: And estimating the total cost of materials and services, purchase price. Don't go by purchase price alone. And if I know right, Andrew, this was a point he was working on till the end of his life. You see the lady who was actually looking into the publication, the second edition of The New Economics, Elizabeth DiLorenzo. I was in touch with her because in my early days of my introduction to the Deming world, because I was quoting a lot from Out of the Crisis and The New Economics, and she was working for MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study that used to originally publish his books. And she told me a very funny tale of how she was expecting her twins and at the same time she had to release this book. So the joke at MIT was, "What's gonna come out first, the twins or the book?" And since Deming was no more, she had to release that very quickly. So March '94 is when she released the book, and she said her twins were born some weeks later. So they are as old as this book. Now, she was telling me that till the end, the one aspect of what he was working on was, if you see the notes in the appendix and purchase of supplies and service. So continuing purchase of supplies and services, World 1, World 2, World 3 and World 4. He made this so clear. I think nobody has made it clearer. Okay, World 3, sorry, there's no World 4. So he talks about this and he talks about how practical you need to be about this, right?   0:42:18.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and I underlined something in there from a long time ago that said, "Sudden jump to a single supplier is inadvisable."   0:42:28.8 Balaji Reddie: Right. He says there's a method of doing that.   0:42:32.5 Andrew Stotz: Yep.   0:42:33.2 Balaji Reddie: And I teach that method, by the way, where you start with the product, then go on to the process, and then go on to the system. And that takes time. You just can't get up one fine morning and say, "You're my sole supplier." It doesn't happen that way. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of doing, right? The next faulty practice is delegate quality to someone else or some group. And this is, I remember my interaction with Dr. Juran on this, right? I had just received my certificate for ISO 9000, I became a lead assessor, and I quite liked the new standard that had come out at that time in the year 2000 because it had a lot of Deming flavor to it. Plan-Do-Study-Act had come in and things like that. I was quite happy, the definitions and this. I said, "It's better than what it was." It's not, they had a long way to go, no doubt about it, but I said at least they've broken away from the defense mode where they copied the whole document from, right? And when he asked me the question that, "What's the status of quality in India?" and I said, "Well, earlier on it was a lot of standards-oriented and ISO 9000 played a huge role in that," and he just raised his hand as to tell me to stop and he said, "I am very disappointed with the ISO." And then he made this statement, "The ISO 9000 is a standard for mediocrity splendidly marketed by the ISO." And I just stared at him. I said, "What?" because I had just received my certificate, so obviously I was very touchy about it. And I said, "Dr. Juran, a little harsh." He said, "I've just begun."   0:44:26.4 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And the problem is, is there's a lot of money to be made from it and it's an ingrained system.   0:44:30.5 Balaji Reddie: Yeah. So I just asked him, why would you say that? They made a lot of changes. He said, "Yes, but two things are missing." And one of them, he said, is something about leadership. Go back and read it. And then I went and read the standard again, and I realized what he was trying to say here. There was a lot of work that they were delegating to a person called the management representative, and he says, "Sorry, you can't delegate this to someone else. It begins at the top." Ed Deming also said that. He said, "It begins at the top. Only they can do this."   0:45:10.5 Andrew Stotz: I have a little story on that.   0:45:13.5 Balaji Reddie: Sure, sure, sure.   0:45:14.8 Andrew Stotz: In my coffee business, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, we got a big, big customer, and overall, they were a very good customer. But they picked us over all of our competitors. And then they told us, "Okay, in a month we're gonna come and inspect your factory, and if you get below 80%, then you're not gonna be our supplier." And so we said, "Well, I study with Deming, and I know quality, and we've never had a problem with quality ever." And my business partner, Dale, is very focused on the principles of quality. So they came, we were quite proud, and then by the end of the day, they had 600 questions they went through. And by the end of the day, we were like, "Yeah, what's our score?" And they said, "65. You're fired." They said, "You have 10 weeks or five weeks to fix these top 10 things." And then at that moment, we had a revelation, which is, oh, to them, paper is quality. And what I've always said, what I learned from that, was that it wasn't a big deal. We did the paperwork that they asked for, and then we got the job. And they were a customer for 16 years and a very good customer. But what we learned, one of the things I say, is that we had the heart of quality. They asked us for the paperwork that they thought represented quality. That's not such a big deal. But could you imagine having been trained that paperwork is quality, and then you have to try to develop the heart of quality? Very difficult.   0:47:01.9 Balaji Reddie: Very difficult. And now I come to this picture that he's drawn on page 37 of The New Economics, the old edition. I think the new one, let me just see what that is. Okay, that's on page 27. So he says here that unique processes that produce figures, all these principles have been applied to just 3%. Now, I have my own version of this particular picture that he's put here. Imagine an X and a Y axis, all right? And on the X axis, you can put down measures that are known. Close to the origin, you can write "known", and then as it goes away from that, "unknown", right? And then you have on the Y axis "measurable", and as you go up, "unmeasurable". So because he said that most of the things are unknown and unknowable, and among the known, you have only some fraction of those which are measurable. So the 3% deal with those factors or those parameters which are known and measurable. There are many parameters, he says 97%, which are unknown and unmeasurable, but you still need to manage them.   0:48:26.5 Balaji Reddie: And that's where he gives us a lot of advice that comes after this. Okay, when after this diagram, beautiful paragraphs in his book. "Beware of common sense," he says. And of course, he gives the example of Gallery Furniture, salary instead of commissions. Also goals, aims, hopes, facts of life, futility of a numerical goal. And a picture may help, where he talks about the goal being beyond the capability of a system. And will the goal be achieved? And he says redefinition of terms and distortion, et cetera. Gives a lot of examples there. And then he goes on to give even more examples. Okay, if you say merit pay, et cetera. Need to manage by results, wrong. And the last bit, the note where he says America 2000 was originally put together in December 1989 at the educational summit between the President and the governors of the 50 states. These goals were published in February 1990 by the White House, later incorporated into America 2000. This job may be an example of an enlargement of a committee. We shall learn in chapter four, he says, that the enlargement of a committee is not a way to acquire profound knowledge. How could they know?   0:49:57.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and so what's happened to education since then in America?   0:50:00.6 Balaji Reddie: Oh, no comments. And we in India are almost going the same way. Of course, in some cases they've gone back to the roots saying that, no, we need to get back to our original way of educating people, right? We had this thing of exposing a child to all the different kinds of subjects, right? Like you have history, geography, languages, mathematics, science, just about everything. But the idea was to very quickly identify which child is resonating with what, because we need these different kind of people to work together. Some people are good at memorizing, some people are good at analyzing, some people are good at imagination. And so you throw all this out and then you cast the net and then you say the job of the teacher is to identify, okay, you're good at this, you're good at this. The problem is when you start saying if you're good at this, you are intelligent, and if you're not good at this, you're not. There are different kinds of intelligence. I would say the problem is more with the teachers and not with the system.   0:51:16.5 Andrew Stotz: We should wrap up at this point.   0:51:18.9 Balaji Reddie: Absolutely.   0:51:19.6 Andrew Stotz: How would you summarize what you want people to take away from this discussion?   0:51:24.0 Balaji Reddie: Sure. Go back and read chapter two in The New Economics. Dr. Deming has very clearly shown us why we need to do what we need to do. You're gonna be seeing things differently. As he used to say towards the end of his life, "I'm not here to teach you anything new. I'm here to make you see things that you normally would not see." And now he's just shown us what we thought was normal in the working of a company is actually detrimental to the running of a company over the long term. So my advice is go back, read this. You could watch some of the videos of the Deming Institute, especially on the 14 Points. We will be covering the 14 points later, but I would say that this is a real elaboration of his Diseases and he's given us what needs to be done. Not just pointing out what was wrong, but he tells us what needs to be done. That's why the heavy losses form an integral part of the preamble to actually what is the next step that you're taking your foot off the brake, so to say, trying to identify things that are pulling your company back.   0:52:37.8 Andrew Stotz: Well, Balaji, I want to thank you for this discussion. And recently I have been reading chapter two and I saw a lot of new stuff. It's funny how you just keep rereading. And then today you've just made me realize I gotta go back and read that chapter two because he does really the way he did the tables. I kind of forgot all about that. When I went back to it about three or four weeks ago, I was like, oh, this is really great. I kind of forgot about it. And now as you go through it, it's the tables was what I was focused on, but now I'm also seeing the text in between that you're highlighting that's valuable. So for everyone out there, grab your book, go to New Economics, go to chapter two. It's just gold. It's gold.   0:53:30.7 Balaji Reddie: It's gold.   0:53:31.0 Andrew Stotz: So, and for listeners out there, remember to go to deming.org and jump into DemingNEXT to continue your journey.   0:53:37.7 Balaji Reddie: Absolutely. Absolutely.   0:53:39.9 Andrew Stotz: Yep. And this is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and that is, "People are entitled to joy in work."   0:53:52.2 Balaji Reddie: Absolutely.

Surviving crisis - from a Beirut hostage ordeal to losing every client overnight. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.  Dave Mason has survived two crises most people never face: being held hostage for 45 minutes in Beirut and every client cancelling in a single afternoon. Now he helps companies survive theirs.  ⚠️ Note: this episode contains a first-hand account of violence and trauma (a hostage situation and PTSD).  Listener discretion advised. In 2006, Dave Mason was reporting on displaced families in Beirut when his car was surrounded by a mob. For 45 minutes, he and his colleague held on in the back of that car, fighting for their lives, punched, robbed, and threatened- before, of all groups, Hezbollah ended up getting them to safety, and he was taken to meet the Prime Minister of Lebanon.  This is not the only crisis Dave has survived. From a media-obsessed teenager -  fired up by a single teacher's offhand comment - Dave built a 30-year career spanning local radio (he founded the much-loved Orchard FM), GMTV breakfast TV and NATO media training. Then he backed himself, financing a management buyout against his own pension to buy the agency he worked for. Three months later, COVID hit and every single client cancelled in one afternoon. This is how he rebuilt in 48 hours, turned crisis into a four-day-week business, and spun out Splutter -  a real-time social media crisis simulator now used in one of the world's largest financial-sector crisis exercises (1,000+ participants, Hong Kong).  Along the way: honest financial advice for freelancers, why local media still matters, what AI really means for PR, and why your health is worth more than the money. If you're a founder weighing up a risky bet, a management buyout, or how to survive when the market disappears overnight, this one's for you.  KEY TAKEAWAYS  1. Resilience is adaptability. Dave didn't survive COVID by waiting it out,  he rebuilt in 48 hours and pivoted his media training into a digital-first product. When the market vanishes, the move is to reshape what you offer, fast.  2. Use AI to amplify people, not replace them 3. Your health is the real wealth. Dave's line "if you've got your health, you are a millionaire" lands hard. Money is the trade-off freelancers make; protecting your wellbeing is what makes the success sustainable.  WHAT WE COVER - Beirut, 2006: 45 minutes that became a near-death experience - and the PTSD treatment that followed - The teacher's comment that lit the fire, and breaking into media with cold letters as a 15-year-old (75 rejection letters kept to this day) - Founding Orchard FM - why local radio mattered, and what we lost when the corporates took over - The freelance reality: "no show, no dough", saving for sickness, and the holiday that costs double - Financing a management buyout against your pension - and what the regulators put him through - The COVID afternoon every client vanished - and the 48-hour pivot that saved the business - Building Splutter: simulating thousands of hostile avatars to stress-test real organisations - What AI really means for PR, focus vs adaptability, and why careers only make sense looking backwards 

In dieser Folge nehme ich dich mit in einen echten Praxisfall eines Unternehmenskaufs mit wenig Eigenkapital. Du erfährst, wie ein dreißigjähriger Handwerksmeister trotz fehlender Geschäftsführungserfahrung und großer Zweifel Schritt für Schritt zum Unternehmer wurde – und welche mentalen sowie finanziellen Hürden wir gemeinsam gemeistert haben. Ich zeige auf, warum Vorbereitung und professionelle Begleitung beim Unternehmenskauf entscheidend sind und wie du typische Fehler vermeiden kannst. Erfahre, wie die richtige Finanzierungsstruktur, mentale Stärke und ein klarer Plan zum Durchbruch führen – ganz ohne Schönmalerei. Wenn du selbst darüber nachdenkst, ein Unternehmen zu kaufen, ist diese Folge dein ehrlicher Einblick in Chancen, Risiken und Erfolgsfaktoren.

On the latest Exit advisory team we welcome the team from Breeze corporate finance. Breeze are an award-winning M&A boutique, based in Nottingham.Guests:        Guy Harris & Nigel Winkett, Breeze Corporate Finance       Hosts: Neale Lewis & Debra Martin, Exit Advisory TeamWho Are Breeze Corporate Finance?Founded in 2018 to provide world‑class corporate finance support to SMEs and family‑owned businesses planning an exit, event, or buyout.Track record: 70+ transactions, over £1bn in total deal valueDeal size focus: typically £5m–£50m, average c. £17mHow Breeze Help Owners Prepare for a Successful ExitBreeze Readiness PropositionAimed at owners who: Want to go to market now but are not truly exit‑ready, or Are thinking of exit in 3–5 years with no clear plan. Breeze: Assesses current position vs. desired outcome Builds a plan to increase value, reduce risk and stress, and smooth the transaction. The Three Ps: Breeze's Value‑Creation Framework1. Professionalise Move from owner‑dependent, informal operations to professional, process‑driven structures. Build a stronger leadership and management team, so the business doesn't rely solely on the founder. 2. Plan Corporate and personal tax planning to maximise net proceeds. Review and structure shareholdings, including incentivising key team members. Many measures need 12–18 months to be fully effective. 3. Performance Drive EBITDA growth via efficiency and top‑line growth (new markets, services, geographies). Create a credible growth story that excites investors. It's about “selling the future to the next owner,” not collapsing at the finish line The Situation ReportA structured diagnostic that answers: “Where are we now, what could we be worth, and what's the gap?” Starts by clarifying the owner's “magic number” and timeframe – the north star. Explains deal types and exit routes (MBO, private equity, strategic buyers, etc.), cutting through myths and anecdotes. Uses financials, diagnostics, and market data to: Estimate current value, and Map a realistic future value in ~2 years if key improvements are made. Identifies specific levers (e.g. recurring revenue, customer concentration, senior team strength) that move strategic value. Exit Advisory Team Successful exits need a joined‑up advisory team:Lawyers, bankers, accountants, tax and wealth advisers, and strategic/scale‑up support. For more information on how Breeze could help you achieve a successful  Exit on your terms: https://www.breezecf.co.uk/

Et si la solution au "tsunami d'argent" des transmissions de PME se trouvait dans les mains de ceux qui les font vivre ?

The big news this week is CCP Games' MBO, rebranded as Fenris Creations and backed by Google DeepMind. [00:32] Fenris Creations (ex-CCP Games) has gained independence from Pearl Abyss for $120 million.[02:26] Pearl Abyss originally bought the company for $225 million in 2018. [03:26] Why CCP and Pearl Abyss were an awkward fit, culturally and corporately. [04:35] Pearl Abyss now has very successful games such as Crimson Desert so doesn't need CCP. [05:28] Fenris still owes Pearl Abyss $50 million for a loan. [06:52] CCP/Fenris has been loss-making for many years. [07:07] $60 million of EVE Frontier tokens have now been sold to investors. [07:47] The original unanswered questions around the deal - debt, operational capital etc. [10:28] Google DeepMind now has a minority stake in Fenris Creations. [11:30] Why DeepMind is interested in EVE Online as a learning environment for AI models and agents.[12:50] Long-term memory for agents is of particular interest. [13:50] Why DeepMind is a major credibility boost for the newly independent company. [14:48] DeepMind potentially reframes EVE Frontier's significance as a blockchain game. [17:00] FIFA Rivals has launched its World Cup Legacy mode.[20:10] The Legacy mode allows people to play through the past 4 world cups and collect players. [23:30] Legacy players allows Mythical to better control the supply of rare NFTs. [24:35] Animoca Minds has launched a $10 million developer program.[30:49] Animoca has extended the exclusivity period for its reverse Nasdaq listing process.

Te gast zijn Karim Amghar, Sabine Wassenberg en Kamel Essabane en we spreken over burgerschap, filosoferen en levensvragen naar aanleiding van de twee filosoferen-met-kinderen boeken De Zoon van de Gazelle en De vlucht van de vogels, twee kinderboeken die gebaseerd zijn op middeleeuwse islamitische verhalen. Kamel en Sabine hertaalden en bewerkten de twee bronverhalen tot eigentijdse verhalen, die aanzetten tot filosofische gesprekken met leerlingen over levensvragen. Van De zoon van de Gazelle is ook een toneelbewerking gemaakt, waarbij Karim een van de acteurs is. Het theaterstuk is geschikt voor leerlingen EN voor onderwijsteams.In het gesprek geven de drie gasten aan dat filosoferen over levensvragen een essentieel element is in de burgerschapsvorming van leerlingen in PO, VO en MBO. Burgerschap gaat in hun ogen niet over kennis over de democratie en eenzijdige kennisoverdracht, maar over het stellen van kritische vragen en zelfdenkzaamheid. Verhalen zoals De Zoon van de Gazelle en De vlucht van de vogels nodigen daarbij uit tot het stellen van belangrijke levensvragen, waarop geen eenduidig antwoord is, maar waarop iedereen zelf en in dialoog met elkaar een antwoord mag geven. Leraren en schoolleiders zijn in deze opvatting over burgerschapsvorming van groot belang. Zij moeten de moed hebben om vanuit liefde en rechtvaardigheid de dialoog aan te gaan met leerlingen EN hen te zien als medebouwers van de samenleving.Deze podcast is mede mogelijk gemaakt door schoolleidersopleiding ATTC, de Internationale School Voor Wijsbegeerte en rustplek De vallei van het goede leven.

Die letzten Wochen waren bei hy vor allem eines: Management Buyout (MBO). Zwölf Monate Verhandlung, unzählige Fragen von Kunden, Partnern und dem Netzwerk, und jetzt, wo der Staub sich legt, nehmen sich Sebastian Herzog und Dr. Sebastian Voigt endlich die Zeit, den ganzen Prozess einmal offen zu erzählen. Diese Folge erscheint als Sonderfolge bei Pricing Friends und gleichzeitig bei unseren Kolleginnen von Return on Innovation. Und weil Sebastian Voigt bei Pricing Friends normalerweise selbst moderiert, dreht sich heute der Spieß um: Er sitzt gemeinsam mit Sebastian Herzog auf der anderen Seite des Mikros, bei Heike Löffler von Return on Innovation. Im Gespräch nehmen die beiden Geschäftsführer die Hörerinnen und Hörer mit durch zwölf Monate Verhandlung, erklären wie die Loslösung vom bisherigen Mehrheitseigentümer Axel Springer strategisch und operativ ablief, welche Rolle ein professioneller M&A-Partner dabei spielte und wo es wirklich heikel wurde. An konkreten Beispielen wie neuen Joint-Venture-Modellen und erfolgsbasierter Vergütung wird deutlich, was "Skin in the Game" für hy in der Praxis bedeutet. Und sie machen klar, warum dieser MBO für sie kein Exit ist, sondern ein Entry in eine neue Wachstumsphase, in der Internationalisierung, Verdopplung der Unternehmensgröße und der Erhalt der Firmenkultur gleichzeitig auf dem Spiel stehen. Über die Gäste Sebastian Herzog und Dr. Sebastian Voigt sind Geschäftsführer der Unternehmensberatung hy Consulting Group GmbH. Sebastian Herzog verantwortet, unter anderem mit Erfahrung aus der Lufthansa-Transformation, das Feld Strategie und Innovation, während der ehemalige Springer-Manager Sebastian Voigt den Bereich Pricing und Commercial Excellence leitet. Als partnergeführte Unternehmensberatung mit Sitz in Berlin arbeitet hy mit einem über 60-köpfigen Team an Wachstum, Skalierung und der Monetarisierung datengetriebener Geschäftsmodelle.

Beroepen verdwijnen, nieuwe functies ontstaan en loopbanen worden steeds minder voorspelbaar. In deze aflevering van BNR at Work duiken we in de future of work en de vraag wat dat concreet betekent voor werknemers én werkgevers. Te gast zijn econoom en journalist Mathijs Bouman, die de grote trends op de arbeidsmarkt duidt, en Marnix de Groot, verantwoordelijk voor de toekomst van werk bij netbeheerder Alliander. Zij praten over hoe organisaties zich voorbereiden op structurele tekorten, veranderende skills en nieuwe manieren van werken. MBO traineeship Bouwbedrijf BAM lanceert een nieuw mbo‑traineeship om het tekort aan jonge vakmensen aan te pakken. Mbo‑4 starters werken twee jaar lang vanaf dag één mee aan echte projecten en verkennen verschillende rollen binnen het bedrijf. Karlijn Ausema, programmamanager HR bij BAM, licht toe waarom investeren in mbo'ers cruciaal is voor de toekomst van de bouw en techniek. BNR at Work Elke week hoor je in BNR at Work het belangrijkste nieuws over de arbeidsmarkt, werkgevers die het net even anders doen, verhalen over bedrijfscultuur en hoe je de beste magneet voor talent kunt worden. Maar ook over opleidingen, ontwikkelingen op de arbeidsmarkt en kansen voor een nieuwe carrièrestap. Over de makers Nigaio Wijnen is arbeidsmarktcommunicatiestrateeg en eigenaar van creative content agency UHU, adviseert nationale en internationale organisaties over recruitment en employer branding en heeft een achtergrond bij onder meer Monsterboard, de Persgroep en RTL-Z.   Arjan Elbers spreekt en schrijft over arbeidsmarktontwikkelingen, recruitment en (guerrilla) recruitment marketing en zet zich in voor het verkleinen van de kloof tussen mbo-onderwijs en arbeidsmarkt, met een uitgesproken kritische blik op vastgeroeste ideeën over werk en talent.  Redactie: Robin Vinck Reageren Wil je reageren op een uitzending of wil je onderwerpen aandragen? Stuur een berichtje via de LinkedIn van BNR at Work. BNR at Work is een onafhankelijk journalistiek programma en wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Nmbrs.

In deze nieuwe editie van DNW Politiek bespreken we de diepe kloven die momenteel door de Nederlandse samenleving lopen. Samen met Maurice de Hond, Jasper van Dijk en Ad Verbrugge fileren we de politieke week.Van de asielwet-thriller in de Eerste Kamer tot de schrikbarende cijfers over het MBO: waarom lijkt de politieke elite de grip op de praktijk volledig kwijt te zijn? Maurice de Hond deelt zijn nieuwste inzichten over het maatschappelijk sentiment en waarschuwt voor een naderende economische en politieke "perfect storm".Koop nu je kaartjes voor de Theater Tour! ⭐7 mei: Op Hodenpijl, Schipluiden met Kees de Kort: https://ophodenpijl.nl/evenement/nieuwe-wereld-kees-de-kort/?occurrence=2026-05-0719 mei: Grote Kerk Alkmaar met Maurice de Hond: https://grotekerkalkmaar.nl/tickets/seizoen-25-26/de-nieuwe-wereld-ondergang-van-het-avondland/?showId=3878151937-177159177816 juni: De Maagd, Bergen op Zoom: Willem Middelkoop: vanaf woensdag in de verkoop! ------------------------------------------Steun DNWMaak het geluid van de Nieuwe Wereld mogelijk. Zonder uw steun geen DNW! Word lid of doneer:

David Bloxham first appeared on The RAG Podcast in March 2020. That episode was recorded the week before the world went into lockdown. He had 130 staff, a fresh MBO behind him, and a business that was growing.Six years later, he is back. Same seat. Very different business.In the years since, David has navigated a pandemic, a post-COVID hiring boom, a brutal tech slump, and the rise of AI. Each time, his response was the same: strip the model apart and rebuild it stronger.GCS is now 100 people across 10 global offices, generating over 12 million in revenue with 95% coming from contract. 50% of the team now operates from offshore delivery centres in Cape Town, Mumbai, and Delhi. The permanent division that drove record numbers in 2022 has been deliberately wound down."Year on year, since 2019, our contract number has grown year on year. The perm has gone up and down, but the contracts kept rising."But perhaps the most striking part of this conversation is what comes next. David is building an AI-enabled recruitment tool designed to sit alongside his traditional business, one that could eventually generate the same revenue as his human team. He is not waiting for disruption. He is building it himself.WE COVER:How GCS went from 60/40 perm-contract split to 95% contract in under three yearsThe board-level conversation with nGAGE CEO Tim Cook that changed everythingWhy David cut his highest-performing permanent teams at their peakHow 50% of the workforce moved offshore and what the 120-120-120 delivery model looks like in practiceThe pivot from software development (47% of vacancies) to AI, cyber, and cloud (after coding roles dropped to 13%)Why fill rate matters more than job volume and the metrics David tracks at CEO levelThe GCS Leaders Series podcast and how 100+ episodes became a business development machineDavid's plan to build an AI recruitment tool that could cannibalise his own businessIf you have ever wondered whether resilience is a strategy or just a word people put on their LinkedIn profile, this episode has the answer. David Bloxham has been at the same company for nearly 30 years. He has rebuilt it three times. And he is about to do it again.__________________________________________Episode Sponsor: Remote RecruitmentHiring shouldn't be slow, stressful, or expensive. That's why there's Remote Recruitment — the smart hiring partner for modern businesses. They don't just help you find great people. They help you access elite South African talent that's ready to deliver. No PAYE. No NI. No bloated overheads. Just trained, remote professionals who integrate seamlessly into your team. Their process handles everything: sourcing, shortlisting, onboarding, and retention. Fully managed. Fully supported. Fully remote. And now, Remote Recruitments has entered a new chapter. From ops to admin, sales to strategy, we're helping businesses scale smarter with people they trust, at a cost they can afford. Clients have seen: * Up to **60% productivity boosts** * **300% ROI** on BD roles * **30% faster completion** of operational tasks No overhead burden. No talent shortage panic. Just growth-focused hiring that makes business sense. Remote Recruitment is your flexible hiring solution for the modern era. **RAG Listeners:** Get 5% off your first hire + a free strategy session at www.remoterecruitment.co.uk/rag __________________________________________Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn.Spending thousands on Recruiter licences.Building connections. Posting content. Growing networks.But here's the question almost no one can answer:How much revenue is LinkedIn actually bringing into your business?Most founders have thousands of connections but no clear process to turn that attention into cash.That's the problem we solve.At Hoxo, we help recruitment founders build predictable revenue systems on LinkedIn, not just noise or vanity metrics.Our clients are turning LinkedIn into £100K–£300K in new billings within months, using their existing networks and a simple repeatable process.To show you how it works, we've created a short training video exclusively for RAG listeners.In less than 10 minutes, you'll learn:- Why most recruiters are getting zero measurable ROI from LinkedIn- How small, niche teams are generating consistent inbound demand- The 3X Revenue System we use to turn LinkedIn into a predictable cash-generating channelSo fill in the form today to see how this system could transform LinkedIn into your agency's most profitable channel: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0

Podcast: progressiegerichte praktijkvoorbeelden. In deze aflevering van de podcast vertellen Coert Visser en ik (Gwenda Schlundt Bodien) over mooie progressiegerichte voorbeelden uit de praktijk. Hoe passen deelnemers aan onze trainingen progressiegericht leidinggeven en progressiegericht coachen en adviseren de aanpak toe in hun leven, zowel op het werk als privé? De volgende voorbeelden passeren de revue: een leidinggevende past de cirkeltechniek toe in zijn nieuwe team een schoonmaker reageert effectief op aanvallende feedback van een collega een aannemer die structureel zijn afspraken niet nakomt gaat dat wel doen nadat de leidinggevende van een woningbouwvereniging een effectief stuurgesprek heeft gevoerd een docente op een MBO-school voert een kleine verandering door, en bereikt een grote verbetering door anders om te gaan met huiswerk een onvrijwillige coachee ervaart via de kantelinterventie toch nut van het gesprek met de progressiegerichte coach een leidinggevende die ook vader is gaat thuis bij zijn kinderen van 3 en 5 jaar jong progressiegericht sturen en daarmee verbetert de sfeer thuis enorm een MT van een consultancy bureau lost een conflict op met behulp van een progressiegerichte teambegeleider een schooldirecteur en alleenstaande moeder van vijf kinderen brengt een focus op progressie aan tijdens het avondeten een docent helpt en stuurt een leerling die telkens haar wiskundeboek niet bij zich heeft in de les een trajectbegeleider bij het UAF benut de CPW-zeven stappen aanpak en haar cliënt hervindt zijn optimisme   Trainingen Progressiegericht Werken  

Takaisin yrittäjäksi kiinteistöalan softaa mullistamaan | Juha Raitanen, SofitumKiinteistöala on yhteiskunnan raskainta varallisuusmassaa – Suomessakin 73 prosenttia kansallisvarallisuudesta on sitoutuneena seiniin ja maapohjaan. Silti ala on pyörinyt pitkään ohjelmistoratkaisuilla, jotka ovat edellisen sukupolven tuotoksia: Excel pyörii toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän rinnalla, prosessit ovat manuaalisia ja data hajallaan eri järjestelmissä. Vertikaali SaaS etenee nyt kiinteistöalalle samaan tapaan kuin muissakin toimialakohtaisissa markkinoissa – ei generalistijärjestelmien kilpailijana, vaan niitä seuraavana sukupolvena, johon on rakennettu tekoälyvalmius jo arkkitehtuurin tasolla.Jaksossa vieraana on Sofitumin perustaja ja toimitusjohtaja Juha Raitanen, jonka ura on kulkenut koodarista MBO-yrittäjäksi, Visma Tampurin toimitusjohtajaksi ja lopulta PropTech-startupiin. Keskustelu avaa kiinteistöalan softaekosysteemin rakennetta, korvaavan ERP-tuotteen myynnin logiikkaa ja sitä, miten uusi kiinteistöhallintajärjestelmä Aulaan on rakennettu tekoäly huomioiden alusta asti.Jaksossa pureudumme kiinteistöalan softamarkkinan rakenne: isännöinti, vuokraus, toimitilat, kiinteistösijoitus ja lyhytaikainen vuokraus miksi korvaavan ERP-tuotteen myynti on eri asia kuin myyminen tyhjälle markkinalle kansainvälistymisvalmiuden rakentaminen arkkitehtuuriin ennen ensimmäistäkään ulkomaista asiakasta polku koodarista MBO-yrittäjäksi, Visma-konsernijohtoon ja takaisin yrittäjyyteen mitä osakassopimuksen bad leaver -käytäntö tarkoittaa käytännössä omistajavetoinen rahoitusmalli ja julkiset rahoitusinstrumentit – miksi ei heti pääomasijoittajia tekoälyn rajoitteet kiinteistöalalla: mitä voidaan automatisoida, mitä lainsäädäntö estää softan sukupolvet terminaalista SaaSiin ja tekoälyaikakauteen – mitä historia kertoo tulevastaSisällysluettelo [00:00] Johdanto: vertikaali SaaS kiinteistöalan kontekstissa [01:40] Kiinteistöalan laajuus: segmentit, kokonaisvarallisuus ja softamarkkina [05:25] Softan sukupolvet ja se hetki, kun vanha tuote muuttuu "klassikoksi" [10:30] Kiinteistöhallintaohjelmistomarkkina: globaali koko, kasvu ja kilpailutilanne [15:30] Paikalliset käytännöt vs. kansainvälistyminen – arkkitehtuuriratkaisu [20:00] Miksi lähteä tekemään softaa, jossa kilpailijoita on jo olemassa [23:20] Korvaavan järjestelmän myynti: avosydänleikkaus asiakkaalle [28:12] Kehitysaika puolitoista vuotta, sitten markkinaan – ensimmäiset asiakkaat [30:00] Juha Raitasen ura: koodarista MBO-perustajaan [38:02] Exit Festumista ja mitä bad leaver -käytäntö opetti [41:30] Liiketoimintajohtajasta Visma Tampurin toimitusjohtajaksi [48:40] Päätös: hallitustyöstä takaisin operatiiviseen yrittäjyyteen [50:02] Sofitumin perustaminen: tiimi, rahoitus ja ensimmäiset asiakkuudet [55:51] Softan sukupolvet terminaalista SaaSiin – mitä historia opettaa [01:08:25] Tekoäly kiinteistöalalla: mahdollisuudet, rajoitteet ja Aulaan-alustan lähestymistapa [01:22:40] Kolme versiota yhtä aikaa: nykyinen, seuraava ja se tulevaisuuden tuoteMenestystä Etsimässä on podcast suomalaisesta ohjelmisto- ja SaaS-liiketoiminnasta. Keskustelut käsittelevät kasvua, kansainvälistymistä, liiketoimintamalleja ja päätöksiä, joita harvoin avataan julkisesti. Jakso on katsottavissa YouTubessa ja kuunneltavissa kaikissa podcast-palveluissa.----------Tutustu myös Juha Raitanen (LinkedIn) Sofitum / Aulaan (website) Antti Pietilä (LinkedIn) Kasvuvalmennus SaaS-yrityksille Loyalistic Loyalistic Studio SaaS FinlandPodcast tehdään yhteistyössä Loyalisticin ja SaaS Finlandin kanssa.

Dubai is often sold as a tax-free paradise for recruitment founders, but the reality is a high-stakes market where 450 new agencies opened in just the last 12 months.If you're planning a move, you need to look past the beach clubs and understand the $100k "buy-in" required to survive the first year.This week I am joined by Justin McGuire is an 18-year veteran of the Middle East recruitment scene and the founder of MCG Talent, who recently completed a successful MBO and now advises founders on navigating the region's unique commercial landscape.Connect with Justin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jumcguire/-------------------------Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uhswi_oewsA-------------------------Sponsors - Claim your exclusive savings from our partners with the links below:Sourcewhale - Check Out Sourcewhale & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here.Atlas - Check Out Atlas & Claim Your Exclusive Offer HereRaise - Check Out Raise & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here.-------------------------Extra Stuff:Learn more about our online skills development platform Hector here: https://bit.ly/47hsaxeJoin 6,000+ other recruiters levelling up their skills with our Limitless Learning Newsletter here: https://limitless-learning.thisishector.com/subscribe-------------------------Get in touch:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/-------------------------

In dit indringende gesprek vertelt Quin Blokzijl hoe hij na rollen bij het Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en het Europees Parlement bewust koos voor een baan als vuilnisman. Hij legt bloot hoe Nederland en Europa diep verdeeld zijn geraakt langs de onzichtbare meetlat van opleidingsniveaus. Blokzijl schetst een wereld in de "Haagse en Brusselse bubbel" waar diversiteit vaak stopt bij culturele achtergrond, maar waar mensen met een praktische opleiding sociaal en intellectueel worden uitgesloten. Hij deelt pijnlijke en komische anekdotes over hoe hij zichzelf met een "nep-inschrijving" bij een hogeschool naar binnen moest loodsen en hoe hij in Brussel werd aangezien voor cateringmedewerker zodra zijn MBO-achtergrond ter sprake kwam.In het tweede deel van het gesprek contrasteert hij deze wereld met de nuchtere realiteit van de vuilniswagen. Terwijl de politiek zich verliest in technocratische "lanceercodes" over klimaatdoelen en de spreidingswet, ziet Blokil op straat de werkelijke zorgen over stijgende prijzen en sociale uitsluiting. Hij deelt hoe zijn huidige collega's vaak over een hogere emotionele intelligentie beschikken dan de diplomaten die hij eerder diende. Het gesprek is daarmee niet alleen een krachtige reflectie op de diplomademocratie, maar ook een vurig pleidooi voor een samenleving waarin de "doeners" weer een volwaardige stem krijgen aan de tafels van de macht.Steun DNWMaak het geluid van de Nieuwe Wereld mogelijk. Zonder uw steun geen DNW! Word lid of doneer:

We moeten het hebben over het MBO. Het is de grootste kloof binnen onze samenleving, ziet programmamaker, schrijver en docent Karim Amghar. Salarissen die ruim onder modaal liggen, datingplatforms en verzekeringen alleen voor ‘hogeropgeleiden’ en introductieweken waar alles draait om zuipen. Dat moet anders. Met Kluun en Yvanka praat Karim over het belang van het MBO. Yvanka ziet de kappersopleiding wel zitten. Of autotechniek. En samen concluderen ze dat meer waardering begint aan de eettafel. Krijg een exclusieve korting van 15% op alle Saily databundels! Gebruik de code [puber] bij het afrekenen. Download de Saily-app of ga naar https://saily.com/puber ⛵See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In deze aflevering van Het Nieuws van de Week bespreken Ad Verbrugge, Kees de Kort & Jasper van Dijk de harde realiteit van 2026. Terwijl Donald Trump met agressieve machtspolitiek de wereldorde opschudt — van de dreiging in Iran tot de bizarre strijd om Groenland — dreigt de rekening bij de jongste generatie te belanden. Ad, Kees en Jasper fileren de huidige koers: waarom gaan er moeiteloos miljarden naar defensie en Oekraïne, terwijl onze eigen sociale structuren verbrokkelen? En waarom houden we een systeem in stand dat mensen liever afhankelijk houdt dan ze perspectief biedt? Een scherpe analyse over geopolitiek gokwerk, de illusie van 'regime change' en de sluipende afbraak van de toekomst.--------------------eindejaarsactie ---------------------Maak het geluid van de Nieuwe Wereld volgend jaar ook mogelijk. Zonder uw steun geen DNW! Word lid of doneer:

What does leadership really look like when growth, pressure, and personal risk collide?In this episode, Joe O'Mahoney speaks with Richard Goold about scaling consulting firms, leading under strain, and building long-term value without losing culture.Richard Goold supports founders, CEOs, and boards through the hardest stages of growth—scaling sustainably, protecting culture, and preparing for long-term value creation. He has led and exited consulting businesses, including a £35m sale following an MBO, and now advises fast-growth firms across the UK and US. Earlier in his career, Richard also served as a frontline Met Police officer, an experience that deeply shaped his views on leadership, trust, and decision-making under pressure.Richard shares his journey from big consulting firms to leading Moorehouse through an MBO, growing the business from £3m to £35m, and ultimately selling it. He reflects on the realities of leadership during high-stakes moments, including remortgaging personal assets, navigating near-deal failures, and carrying responsibility for people as the firm scaled.The conversation explores what truly drives firm value beyond revenue—succession planning, client concentration, codifying knowledge, and leadership depth—as well as why these factors must be addressed years before an exit process begins. Joe and Richard close by discussing today's consulting landscape, including the cultural challenges of remote work, the risks and opportunities of AI, and what leaders must do now to stay relevant and protect enterprise value.In this episode you will learn:What leadership under strain really looks like in growing consulting firmsHow Morehouse scaled from an MBO to a £35m exitWhy people, succession, and culture drive long-term firm valueThe risks of waiting too long to prepare for an exitHow to codify delivery IP and reduce founder dependencyWhy everyone—not just partners—must contribute to growthHow AI and remote work are reshaping consulting firm valueThis episode offers a grounded look at leadership when the stakes are real—from scaling and exits to culture, people, and personal risk. Richard's experience provides practical insights for consultancy leaders navigating growth, strain, and long-term value creation.Connect with Richard:Website: RichardGoold.com LinekdIn: Richard GooldSend us a textProf. Joe O'Mahoney helps boutique consultancies scale and exit. Joe's research, writing, speaking and insights can be found at https://equitysherpa.com.

In this episode of The Sunday Roast, Phil Carroll and Kevin Hornsby kick off 2026 by breaking down the latest global political tensions, shifting power dynamics, and what they could mean for markets.They're joined by Siam Kidd and Mark Creaser from Astrid Intelligence to discuss decentralized AI, BitTensor, and how digital infrastructure could reshape the future of investing.The episode also covers standout movers in the small-cap space, resource stocks gaining momentum, developments across commodities like gold, silver and copper, plus the usual market insights, opinions, and end-of-week reflections you've come to expect from The Roast.00:00 - 00:09:47 Weekly News Roundup 00:09:47 #ASTR Interview00:52:47 #MBO 00:54:37 #GAL00:56:20 #BZT 00:56:40 #XTR 00:58:26 #GGP #AMRQ 00:58:48 #GRX 00:59:40 #ALBA 00:59:46 #BUCE 00:59:59 #EDEN 01:00:46 #SVNS 01:01:47 #IMM 01:01:52 #INC 01:02:56 #ALRT 01:03:02 #AFP 01:03:07 #AFC #ZEN 01:03:13 #AEG 01:03:48 #ASTR Disclaimer & Declaration of InterestThis podcast may contain paid promotions, including but not limited to sponsorships, endorsements, or affiliate partnerships. The information, investment views, and recommendations provided are for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any financial products related to the companies discussed. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentators; however, no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion. Listeners are encouraged to perform their own research and consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions based on the content of this podcast. 

De nieuwe subsidieregeling financiële educatie maakt het voor PO-, VO- en MBO-scholen mogelijk om drie jaar lang te investeren in financiële educatie, ondersteuning van ouders en leerlingen met geldzorgen, en het opzetten van financiële steunpunten. In de podcast leg ik uit wat de regeling wél en niet toestaat en hoe je een aanvraag goed voorbereidt. Ook ga ik in op de vraag of scholen dit thema als hun verantwoordelijkheid zien, en waarom dat gesprek waardevol is om te voeren.

Guillaume de Kergariou est le fondateur de NeedHelp et Octorenov. Ancien banquier en M&A devenu entrepreneur, il a créé NeedHelp, l'a vendue à un grand groupe coté… avant de la racheter quatre ans plus tard en MBO pour retrouver sa liberté, tout en construisant parallèlement une vie d'investisseur très active.Dans cet épisode, Guillaume revient sur son parcours, ses arbitrages et sa vision à long terme dans l'entrepreneuriat comme dans l'investissement :Ce qui l'a poussé à quitter le M&A pour se lancer dans une marketplace de services à domicile.Les défis invisibles derrière la construction d'une marketplace rentable et scalable.Les enjeux humains et stratégiques d'une cession à un industriel lorsqu'on a bâti son entreprise de zéro. Et comment il a procédé pour racheter sa propre société.Sa stratégie d'investissement et la manière dont il a dû repenser ses convictions face aux réalités du non-coté.Bonne écoute !Pour aller plus loin sur les sujets abordés : Business Angel : guide complet pour investir dans une start-up https://sapians.com/blog/business-angel Le cash-out : définition, fonctionnement et investissement https://sapians.com/blog/cash-out-definition-fonctionnement-avantagesLes étapes de la cession d'entreprise : bonnes pratiques et pièges à éviter https://sapians.com/blog/cession-entreprise Qu'est ce que l'apport-cession en immobilier ? (150-0 B ter CGI) https://sapians.com/blog/apport-cession-reinvestissement-immobilierGestion Passive vs Gestion Active : comment mettre en place sa stratégie d'investissement ? https://sapians.com/blog/gestion-passive-vs-gestion-active-----------------------Attention : Les performances passées ne préjugent pas des performances futures et investir comporte des risques de perte partielle ou totale en capital. Ce contenu est informatif et ne constitue pas un conseil en investissement. Toute décision doit être adaptée à votre situation. Si vous souhaitez bénéficier de conseils personnalisés, veuillez créer votre compte ou prendre rendez-vous avec un conseiller Sapians.SAPIANS - RCS n°919 330 969 - ORIAS n°23003561 en qualité de CIF et COA. Activité de démarchage bancaire et financier.

Sintonía: "Prime" - Makaya McCraven (del álbum "Techno Logic)1.- "General" - The Cavemen (del álbum "Cavy in the City")2.- "Mr. Mahmoud" - Chettini & The Turkish Trio (del álbum "Oriental Soul")3.- "Yay Yay Yay" - Joe Alterman ("Keep The Line Open")4.- "Bloco da Harmonia" - Carlos Dafé & Adrian Younge ("Jazz is Dead")5.- "Sexegenarian Vape" - Public Enemy ("Black Sky Over The Projects Apartment")6.- "Smack My Bitch Up" (1960 Motown Soul Version by Toli Soprano) - The Prodigy7.- 3 canciones mezcladas por Josele en un solo bloque sin solución de continuidad: 1- "Fijar del Soul" (Basement Freaks remix) - The Ticklejunk All Stars 2- "The Bottle" (Maw Harlem Dub) - Brian Jackson 3- "Exodus" (Afrobeat remix) - Bob Marley & The Wailers8.- "Stick Together" - MBOTodas las músicas seleccionadas, mezcladas y presentadas por Josele Calabuig desde RNE en Alicante. Muchísimas gracias a Trini por su buen hacer y eterna disponibilidadPuedes seguir descubriendo música que no sabías que te gustaba en la página web de Josele Calabuig www.surcopop.esEscuchar audio

Tri Bourne is an American professional beach volleyball player. From shining at USC, to the professional domestic scene, to international ball, all the way to the Olympic games, he has done it all. With multiple championships at every level, the discussion of being a first-ballot Hall of Famer should be a given. 02:08 - The things that led to his decision to retire 11:28 - Volleyball, where and how he started, reflecting back to a small school in Hawaii, the interesting thing about Taylor/Hyden vs Chase/Trevor 31:49 - What is a role model and how are they a role model, the magic of Casey Patterson, juniors and how to identify the combination of skill set and personality, the evolution of Hagen Smith 51:51 - Goals/aspirations vs expectations, USC finals story, the evolution of the serving game 1:07:01 - The time with John Hyden, jump setting before it was a thing 1:17:25 - Auto-immune disease, the impact, how it hit him and how he got through it, introduced to commentary, the great comeback 1:34:00 - The advantage that the Brazilian coaches have, medicine, and power to the patient 1:48:44 - Styles making matches, the failed path to the Olympics, to the Olympics, the MBO swan song 2:06:21 - Before we go...we love you, Tri

Bruce Pringle of Bookmap shows how to see confirmed stop runs and iceberg orders, revealing who's actually in control of the move and why futures' centralized order book gives retail a transparency edge. He introduces a hands-on Pilot Program that focuses on one setup using Replay + the Bookmap Journal to prove an edge with stats before scaling. The MBO bundle surfaces factual stop/iceberg transactions; filters (including standard-deviation thresholds) and cumulative sub-charts help separate signal from noise and spot regime shifts. They walk through a cascading stop-run example, the common “vacuum” rebound after sellers are washed out, and how icebergs often absorb flow on the other side.Sponsor: Top One FuturesLink: https://www.asfx.biz/tof Code: ASFX for 50% off Sponsor: TradezellaLink: https://tradezella.com?fpr=asfx Code ASFX for 20% off

In this episode of Witnesses, Amb. Elisha sits down with leadership coach and transformational expert Mbo'a Pascal to explore how to unlock your potential, scale results without burnout, and turn your natural wiring into a growth engine.   Mbo'a shares his journey from Africa to Europe, the Middle East, and Canada, revealing how knowledge, self-awareness, and strategic application transformed his life. He explains:   • How to know yourself and use your natural wiring for maximum growth   • The four stability triggers to optimize your performance   • Secrets for leaders to scale results without burnout   • Why having a clear vision is critical for personal and professional success     Whether you're a leader, entrepreneur, or knowledge-seeker, this conversation is packed with actionable insights to transform your mindset and elevate your life.  

Aan tafel deze week: partijleider D66 Rob Jetten, partijleider NSC Eddy van Hijum, Juliette Verhoeven beleidsadviseur Save the Children, Karel Hendriks directeur Artsen zonder Grenzen, docent Karim Amghar, journalist Coen van de Ven Presentatie: Joost Vullings Wil je meer weten over de gasten in Buitenhof? Op onze website vind je meer informatie. Daar kan je deze aflevering ook terugkijken en je vindt er natuurlijk nog veel meer gesprekken:   https://bit.ly/buitenhof-7-sept-2025 Zaterdag liep in Den Haag een anti-immigratieprotest op het Malieveld uit de hand. Politieagenten werden belaagd, de A12 werd geblokkeerd en bij het D66-partijkantoor werden ruiten ingegooid. Aan tafel D66-partijleider Rob Jetten en NSC-voorman Eddy van Hijum. Met hen bespreken we ook de Algemene Politieke Beschouwingen. De Tweede Kamer stemde deze week voor de vierde keer tegen de komst van ernstige zieke kinderen uit Gaza. Nederlandse ziekenhuizen, gemeenten en humanitaire organisaties geven aan dat er plek is in de ziekenhuizen. Maar vooralsnog ziet politiek Den Haag meer in opvang in de regio. In de uitzending: Karel Hendriks, directeur van Artsen zonder Grenzen, en Juliette Verhoeven van Save the Children.  Wat hebben influencer Andrew Tate, Gaza, de Maccabi-rellen, de dood van de jonge Lisa en Rivaldo en onze politici met elkaar gemeen? Ze zorgen voor heftige emoties en botsingen in het klaslokaal. Karim Amghar is docent Burgerschap op een MBO en columnist voor Trouw. Hoe heeft hij de polarisatie in het klaslokaal zien toenemen en welke middelen heb je als docent om je leerlingen bij te sturen? Groene Amsterdammer journalist Coen van de Ven volgde vier jaar lang van heel dichtbij de fusie tussen GroenLinks en PvdA. Hij volgde Frans Timmermans in vele zaaltjes door het land, zat met Jesse Klaver en Lilianne Ploumen in haar tuinhuisje en sprak vele prominenten, ook als ze even niet met elkaar wilden praten. Hij schreef het allemaal op in zijn boek Een links verhaal. Van de Ven bij Buitenhof over de linkse samenwerking. Hoe is deze ontstaan? Maar ook: hoe gaat het nu? 

Hoe versterken we het verdienvermogen van ons land de komende decennia en wat kunnen we leren van wat nu al succesvol is? Jaap Jansen en PG Kroeger gingen met die vraag naar Brainport Eindhoven, waar wereldleiders in hightech, kennis en innovatie samen optrekken, de wereld tegemoet. En met gefronste blik naar Den Haag. "Keuzes maken en die volhouden in plaats van oneliners en onbetrouwbaar beleid”, adviseren de mensen daar aan de politici die na 29 oktober een kabinet gaan formeren. *** Deze aflevering is mede mogelijk gemaakt door Platform Talent voor Technologie en Brainport Eindhoven. En natuurlijk met donaties van luisteraars die we hiervoor hartelijk danken. Word ook vriend van de show! Heb je belangstelling om in onze podcast te adverteren of ons te sponsoren? Zend een mailtje naar adverteren@dagennacht.nl en wij zoeken contact. *** Amal Tourabi, 'head of government affairs' van ASML, schetst hoe de vraag naar halfgeleiders permanent verdubbelt. Als meest geavanceerde machinebouwer voor die chips moet en wil het bedrijf daarin voorop blijven lopen. Dat doet een bedrijf als ASML samen met zo'n 5000 hightech toeleveranciers, waarvan er 1600 in de Brainport-regio actief zijn. En het lukt alleen als ze met de kennisorganisaties, opleidingen en overheden de handen ineenslaan. "Dat is hier een ecosysteem zoals je nergens anders ziet." Samen een lange termijn focus hebben, realiseren en volhouden, is het devies. Wispelturigheid? Nee, bedankt! "We zijn nu in één jaar aan de derde bewindspersoon voor Buitenlandse Handel toe. Dat helpt niet erg, nee." CEO Joop Essing van VHE Industrial Automation is zo'n toeleverancier. Hij heeft veel concrete voorbeelden van de gevolgen van zulke instabiliteit. Bij VHE werken ze met MBO-talenten uit heel de wereld; vluchtelingen ook. Tourabi en Essing pleiten vurig voor een beleid met een lange tijdshorizon waarmee duidelijkheid en stabiliteit verzekerd zijn. Zo kunnen opleidingen en bedrijven structureel vervlochten verder groeien. En maak eindelijk eens werk van de beloofde maar nooit waargemaakte 3 procent van het bbp aan investeringen (publiek en privaat) voor R&D en innovatie. Die bloei van dit ecosysteem kwam niet vanzelf. De Eindhovense wethouder Stijn Steenbakkers (CDA) en burgemeester Greet Buter van Deurne (PvdA) vertellen hoe de regio Eindhoven in de jaren ‘90 door een diepe crisis ging. "Er waren dagen dat in duizenden brievenbussen ontslagbrieven binnenkwamen." Ze sloegen de handen ineen en met steun vanuit Europa groeide een samenwerkingsmodel waarin niemand domineert en ieder bereid is zijn rol te spelen. Een kleine, groene gemeente als Deurne durft het aan woningen te bouwen – van 14.000 nu naar 22.500 straks - maar wel op zo'n manier dat de eigen identiteit en leefbaarheid overeind blijven. Het effect is dat Brainport een magneet wordt. De regio’s om Brainport Eindhoven heen willen ook meedoen, zodat ruimte ontstaat voor meer capaciteit en diversiteit van wonen, leven en werken. Het door het kabinet Rutte IV gestarte project-Beethoven (een groot investeringsprogramma waarin Rijk en regio samen zo’n 2,5 miljard euro investeren) helpt hierbij. Als bestuurders willen zij van 'Den Haag' vooral geen 'beleid vol details'. Na de bestuurlijke stagnatie onder het kabinet-Schoof verlangen ze helder beleid met een lange horizon, ruimte voor maatwerk en de eigen cultuur van samenwerking. De verdubbeling bij ASML en zijn duizenden hightech partners is bovenal voor de opleidingen een uitdaging. Leiden zij voldoende jonge talenten op? Annemarie Moons van het grote Summa College (mbo) en Joep Houterman van de omvangrijke Fontys Hogeschool weten wat hen te doen staat. Summa maakt er veel werk van, elke student op de juiste plek krijgen en de uitval in het mbo stevig te reduceren. Fontys merkte dat in allerlei sectoren hbo-talenten hun plek wel vonden - van de zorg tot de techniek - maar velen van hen al snel weer vertrokken. Beide trends verspillen natuurlijk kostbaar talent en kansen. Mbo en hbo moeten niet afhankelijk blijven van potjes en projectjes waar bedrijven een paar jaar aan mee doen. Alleen blijvend, samen de samenwerking uitdiepen - ook hier als ecosysteem dus - kan helpen dat de talenten allemaal hun plek vinden en blijven doorgroeien. Platform Talent voor Technologie speelt hier met ‘Katapult’ een onmisbare rol in. Heel eigen belemmeringen remmen die bloei hardnekkig. Ouderwetse taaleisen voor mbo-diploma’s onthouden jong talent kansen en de bedrijven goed gekwalificeerd personeel. “Havo-niveau is hier niet nodig”, zegt Moons. En verouderd denken over R&D waarin concrete, praktijkgestuurde innovatie vanuit hogescholen een muurbloempje blijft. Er is nog veel werk aan de winkel. Zo beseft iedereen dat in een hightech regio iedereen voortdurend blijft leren en vorsen. Dat een hogeschool voor die maatschappelijke opdracht maar moet zien hoe, of en wanneer dat kan en boekhoudkundig eigenlijk zou mogen, maakt Joep Houterman witheet. "Geef ons bij wet de opdracht dat te doen, zodat we het écht kunnen waarmaken.” Het gaat heel goed met Brainport Eindhoven. Maar het kan nog beter en daar moet de politiek nu een aantal grote stappen zetten, klinkt het in deze aflevering van Betrouwbare Bronnen. *** Verder luisteren 371 - Banen op zoek naar mensen. Hoe in Europa bedrijven en beroepsonderwijs intensief samenwerken 324 - Nederland loopt vast door tekort aan jongeren met technische opleiding, hoe lossen we dit op? 216 - Crisis op komst: Nederlandse economie loopt vast door tekort aan technisch geschoolde arbeidskrachten 201 - Het geheim van het hbo-succes 183 - Samen slimmer worden: het Leidse kennisecosysteem als aanjager van duurzame groei 78 - Roberto Viola: Shaping Europe's Digital Future 126 - De kracht van hoger onderwijs 497 – De krankzinnige tarievenoorlog van Donald Trump 446 - Doe wat Draghi zegt of Europa wacht een langzame doodsstrijd 431 - Handelsland Nederland staat op het spel *** Tijdlijn 00:00:00 – Deel 1 00:32:01 – Deel 2 00:54:32 – Deel 3 01:20:39 – EindeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Veel verantwoordelijkheden, weinig begeleiding en een schamele vergoeding. Stages van MBO-studenten verlopen niet altijd zonder problemen. Wat een uniek kijkje in een nieuwe werkplek moet zijn, eindigt regelmatig in een onprettige ervaring. Dit zorgt ervoor dat stagiaires zich vaak overbelast en ondergewaardeerd voelen.Tijdens dit programma delen MBO-studenten hun ervaring met stages, en gaan zij in gesprek met verantwoordelijken. Hoe kunnen we het stage-traject voor deze studenten verbeteren? Over Jongeren aan zet: De jongeren van De Verrijking voelen zich te weinig gehoord in het publieke debat. Politici en beleidsmakers maken beslissingen voor hen, maar zij zien hun belangen (en die van leeftijdgenoten) amper vertegenwoordigd. In Jongeren aan zet werken de jongeren van De Verrijking samen met programmamakers van De Balie aan deze serie.Deze serie is mede mogelijk gemaakt door VSBfonds en Fonds21.Programmamaker: Sylvia VegterZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aaron Wexler is an American beach volleyball coach, former indoor and beach standout, and the author of "The Inspired Athlete." He is a former player and assistant women's volleyball coach at UCLA (2001 champs). He was an active player on the AVP scene and is currently the program director of West Coast Volleyball. 02:35 - Lambourne and Patterson, and the magic they put together, appreciating the appreciation 07:05 - The Huntington Heritage series, 3 things we liked and 3 things we would like to see, my "down period" and how I came back from it, plus, spouses save all, and players who came to flat out ball 18:11 - the authenticity of Evan Cory and the fans who take their journey with him, communications between the AVP and the fans and the variables many do not see, understanding technology from an enthusiast perspective 30:47 - Revenue-sharing, passion vs opportunism and how two things can be true at the same time, persistency is victory, praise to the photographers, having a pulse on regional support 41:48 - The value of having a league, the upward movement of revenue sharing, if the male elite players keep their promises, then we will keep ours, players have done well promoting themselves, Kiraly tears down the net video 57:45 - The power of the antagonist, and how it plays its part in sports, drama sells, historically, fans know if a personality comes from an authentic place 1:11:02 - Jason Olive insisted I talk to him, so we called him, also, taking comments from the live chat, the fans caring about the characters 1:32:31 - Dana White's journey with the UFC, the red to the black, do not manufacture villains, let it happen on its own, loving the AVP taking big chances, great sponsor opportunities 1:51:01 - For me to care, I have a short list, the Crabbs and the journey they allow us to take with them, Taylor Crabb's MBO journey to the finals and "the moment" 2:11:52 - Franchising the league teams, should there be a draft 2:25:10 - Top 5 domestic female players, male domestic players

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show where we bring on guests from tech, business, politics, and culture to talk about all things Japan.In this episode, economist and long-time Japan optimist Jesper Koll breaks down how Japan is faring amid rising global protectionism, demographic shifts, and geopolitical uncertainty. A resident of Japan since 1986, Jesper has spent decades at the forefront of Japan analysis and investment, having served as chief strategist and head of research for JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch. He currently advises Monex Group, sits on the Japan Catalyst Fund's investment committee, and serves on multiple high-level advisory boards, including Governor Yuriko Koike's.Jesper warns that a Trump 2.0 presidency could trigger a double whammy for Japan: a weaker dollar slashing Japanese corporate profits and an aggressive U.S. tariff regime pushing China to dump exports into Southeast Asia—hurting Japan's industrial giants in the process. But he's still bullish on Japan.Why? Jesper sees Japan as “capitalism that works”—a system quietly modernizing under the radar. From record M&A and MBO activity to a younger generation of CEOs open to change, Japan is entering a new phase of productivity and openness. He highlights the ongoing shift to performance-based pay, increased immigration, and growing startup dynamism as key signs of this transformation. Why a weaker dollar is Japan's silent earnings risk: With two-thirds of Japanese listed company profits coming from overseas, a 10-yen appreciation can slash earnings by 8%. If Trump 2.0 weakens the dollar, Japan takes a hit—fast. Japan isn't insular—it's hyper-globalized: Despite its reputation, Japan generates a higher percentage of corporate profits overseas than the U.S. or Germany. From Daichi Life to Toyota, Japan's biggest firms are already global players. The real threat of Trump's China policy is deflation via the Global South: U.S. tariffs could force China to dump excess goods into Southeast Asia, undercutting Japanese firms not just on price, but now on quality too. Made in Japan = 30~40% price premium: Companies like Shiseido are relocating production to Japan not for politics, but for branding. “Brand-shoring” is about value, not alliances. Why energy—not labor—is Japan's factory hurdle: Labor can be automated. The real constraint on manufacturing in Japan may be uncertainty around energy costs and nuclear policy. Japan's brain gain is real—and measurable: While the population shrinks, immigration is quietly surging. Every day, 1,200 people get 3-year work permits. Companies are adapting with performance-based pay, not seniority resulting in higher talent liquidity.Record M&A and MBOs aren't a coincidence: As Japan's CEOs get younger and legacy-heavy firms face succession issues, a wave of corporate transformation is underway. “Metabolism,” Jesper says, is up.What Japan needs most is inheritance tax reform: MacArthur's anti-zaibatsu policies made sense post-WWII. But now, without reform, Japan risks losing its $4.5T+ generational wealth transfer to debt paydown instead of innovation.Japan ‘s “capitalism that works”: A system that's democratic, fair, globally integrated, and quietly undergoing a transformation from within.-----For founders building Japan's next legendary companies, reach out to us here: https://coralcap.co/contact-startups/If you're interested in joining a Coral startup, join our talent network here: https://coralcap.co/coral-careers/

A Butterfly wants to kill the World?Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Although Love is both fire and shadow, we often forget to take comfort from the coolness of the memories when the burning flames are absentThere were precisely two things, okay, four things, keeping me alive. The fourth thing would come to her later when her 'furious was replaced by her 'curious' ~ as in how I knew her inhuman lingo ~ which would lead to my legacy with Grandpa.The top three reasons -She had poked my chest. It was a challenge, calling for one of my guardians to come out and play. The avatar knew I was the chosen heir of the Goddess Ishara and my goddess had devoted a good deal of time and effort to my survival and continued service in her cause. If Ishara made an 'appearance', it would be enough reason to not eviscerate me for my foul treatment of her august personage.Nope. It seemed Ishara was busy at the moment.Still, she most likely knew SzelAnya had shown a keen interest in me in Romania, though I'd never told Selena, or any other member of the 9 Clans, the Dragon's Daughter had killed Ajax for me. Figuring out SzelAnya, a storm deity, had helped me and Aya escape from our kidnapping in the midst of a cyclone in the Pacific Ocean wasn't much of a reach.But no bolt of lightning coalesced from my chest to singe her finger. No clap of thunder. Not even a cloud with a hint of disfavor appeared above us.Her obsidian fingernail began penetrating my shirt, touched my skin, then drew my blood, and something 'twitched'.That would be Contestant Goddess #3. She wasn't actually hanging around me. She didn't have to. She'd left me a memento of our last shindig before we parted ways. That was the nightmare-inducing episode where she, the chthonic goddess Sarrat Irkalli, had compressed one man's body into a dagger and then proceeded to suck another's soul into it to use as a power source for an Airbus 350 (a commercial airliner, if you didn't know).I still had that snaggletooth-looking thing at my back. Well who the Hell was I going to leave it with? Honestly, the only people I felt could keep it safe I loved too much to curse with it. Anyway, the second her divine claw touched my blood, the long dormant weapon whispered to me in a somewhat bored, lofty feminine voice from beyond the grave,Do you want me to discorporate this pathetic has-been for you?Quick check. Only the avatar and I, and her priestess-savant heard that. Of course, in downtown, New York City, noon Sunday, how weird would such a declaration be? The avatar's eyebrow arched. Her big bat-ears (still looking human to the normal viewing public) flicked this way and that, figuring out precisely where the threat originated from. Slowly, her once poking hand began to slide across my chest, along my ribs and around my back.She touched the dagger. Nothing.Gingerly, she drew it forth. I'd had a makeshift sheath made. As the blade made its journey around me, she took a half-step back to better observe it."Please don't kill him!" Theddy squealed. "We haven't had sex yet!"Being 'who' and 'what' she was, the avatar did what came natural. Fortunately for Theddy, I'd become accustomed to working with psychopaths.She stabbed the dagger at Theddy. I clamped my hand down on her wrist. The claws of her left hand came down on my constraining wrist. My free hand came down on that hand, trying to pry it free. It was a hopeless struggle, except.Yes, my old friend 'except'. Except the avatar was holding the dagger. As powerful as Ītzpāpālōtl was, she wasn't pushing against me. She was pushing against Sarrat Irkalli.Ītzpāpālōtl was a living, breathing terror machine who killed and received sacrifices on a regular basis.Sarrat Irkalli hadn't been actively worshipped in 3,000 years.Uneven contest? Oh yeah.See, Ītzpāpālōtl had spent the past 500 years continuously fighting against the Weave to keep her fingers on this side of reality.Meanwhile, for the most part, Sarrat Irkalli had sat upon her throne in the Sumerian Underworld with hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of souls toiling under her watchful gaze for eternity. Sure, her version of Hell wasn't getting any fresh deposits, but she knew how to milk the system well.Even the bad karma for the dagger's creation wasn't hers. She'd stolen it from the foolish Gong Tau sorcerers who had meant to enslave my soul, aka one-third of the Baraqu-Alal-Cáel deal she'd worked out millennia ago. It was the Weave giving her a 'freebie' for playing by the rules, if you considered the Weave sentient.And now Ītzpāpālōtl was touching it. Whoops. It wasn't as if Ītzpāpālōtl was stupid. It isn't like there are tons of magic weapons running around, much less soul-munchers like the one I had. Rationally, who would give a novice like me, a weapon like this? I say again, 'whoops'.Once I'd figured this out, I couldn't stop being me."Theddy, do you like girls?""What?" she squeaked. Here was this psycho trying to drive a Smilodon incisor into her bosom and I was giving her a sex quiz.Ītzpāpālōtl was really starting to struggle now."I, ah, are you okay?" she continued."Oh, I'm dandy. I'm serious. You think this chick is hot? I mean, would you do her in a three-way?" I proposed casually."Timothy?" Sovann."Bro?" Timothy to me."It's all good. Sovann, you want to know what my life is like? This lady who came to discuss business with me today is an immortal mass murderer. You give the word, I'll let go and this knife is going to cut her up like a Ginsu blade on market day because just cutting her heart out isn't going to be enough. Worse. Eventually she'll get back up.""Timothy?" Sovann repeated, this time with more concern. He thought I was nuts. I released my left hand. The blade flipped up, twisting in the avatar's grasp. That was the point her minions figured out something was wrong."El Amado?" the priestess-savant called out softly. The three goons began reaching for 'things'."Call them off, or I open my other hand," I cautioned the avatar. She spared me a swift, hostile look. My fingers tingled."Esten quietos!" she snapped. They stopped."Cáel, bad day, or not. This isn't you. Stop it. The girl's in danger," Timothy spoke up. He didn't mean Theddy. He meant the avatar."I'm being a real asshole, aren't I?" I sighed."Pretty much. You never let the bitches get to you before. Girl pops an attitude, you smile and move on. Life is too short," he reminded me. Too true."I'm going to put my hand over the blade," I told Ītzpāpālōtl. "When I do, you can let go."She didn't say anything for several seconds, even after my left hand covered the semi-serrated edge."Why should I trust you?" she sizzled."Because 'me' letting anything bad happen to you would make me a total, judgmental jerk. I don't know you. Whatever you did before you showed up today shouldn't matter to me. I acted stupidly. I should have stopped you. I didn't. I didn't even warn you and I could have. I was angry, and not even at you. Just angry and I apologize. Now, let go.""Why?""Hi. I'm Cáel Nyilas. Can I have my knife back? Please?"Blink. She released it. For a millisecond, it wanted to do something else because bitches are bitches. It didn't, so my palm wasn't sliced open. My right hand took the hilt. I carefully put the blade away."Yes," Theddy gulped."Huh?" Sovann shook his head at the sudden evaporation of the life and death tension. Welcome to my life. Theddy meant 'yes' to the 'girl-girl-guy' thing I had proposed earlier. It pays to keep things prioritized."What is this movie you were talking about?" Ītzpāpālōtl asked. Had she forgiven me for anything which had transpired? Bwahahaha, no way. She was taking the initiative and going with Option 1 from my earlier insane diatribe."Wait!" Sovann nearly shouted. "You nearly, I don't know, threatened Cáel's life and tried to stab Theddy and now you think you can go with us to a movie?""I told you," Timothy put an arm around his shoulder, "life with Cáel is rarely dull.""I thought you meant he was fun to party with, or something like that," Sovann looked up at his lover. "I thought his uncle showing up, and trying to kill him and then being blown the fuck away by those women and federal agents, and that other girl who pointed a gun at us, is this the new normal?""I love you, Sovann," Timothy grew compassionate. "Cáel is my best friend. He'd never deliberately hurt either of us and normal friends are something he has in short supply. Today being a great case in point."Ten seconds passed."The title is 'As Above, So Below'," Sovann addressed the avatar, "and what do we call you?"Since 'if you are not a worshiper and addressing me, I normally am about to kill you' would sound really cool in Olmec-ic, but I might be asked to translate,"How about we go with 'Obsidian', please?" I pleaded with her.She knew I was currying favor now ~ and behaving like a weather vane caught in the wall of a tornado ~ she gave a gracious bow of her head."Obsidian will do for now. Is the Legend of the dagger 'business'?" Translation: it had better not be."No," I smiled. "It's pillow talk." Rancor, 'how presumptuous', followed by 'but that dagger ups the count to three Goddess interested in him', and next to recalling all the trivial babble about me being a sexual dynamo (I prayed my PR was that good) having some relevance. Her chimera emotions allowed me to get a few more crucial words out, because even women who aren't sleeping with me are jealous."Esta mujer fue la primera en ofrecer bienes funerarios tras la muerte dee mi padre," I reinserted Theddy back into my close company. For some reason, Obsidian considered me unreliable thus had to verify what I'd just said."Did you make funerary offering upon his father's passing?" she asked Theddy. Let's think about this. The wacko chick questioning Theddy had tried to stab a huge freaking blade into her not a minute ago. Fleeing in terror while screaming for the cops? Nope."Yes. I baked him some walnut and caramel chip cookies," she nodded. "It is a family recipe." Sovann looked over the three of us, then back to Timothy."I told you 'that's impressive cocking like I've never seen before'," he explained."She may remain," Obsidian 'permitted'. Theddy wrapped up my right arm with her left and gave it a squeeze. She wanted attention/explanation."Obsidian is a Master Vampire, Theddy," I leaned in and whispered. "Before she was turned, she was captured in a raid by the fey, mentally, spiritually and physically raped and made into their sex-slave. Part of her spirit never healed properly. While this imperfection allows her to walk around in daylight, her heart can never hold on to any emotion for long, so she is forced to forever seek passion, no matter how dangerous, from the world around her."Revealing secrets? Ha. I had noticed Theddy had every work done by Laurel K. Hamilton in her place, including the comic book series."You are not supposed to know, so act like I didn't tell you anything, okay?"'Okay,' she mouthed back at me. I could see it in her eyes. My chaotic life suddenly 'made sense' to her because a best-selling fiction author said so.Obsidian thought the movie was; hilarious. She couldn't stop snickering, giggling and poking at me as horrible shit happened to the various actors. She thought the plot was 'insightful' and wouldn't stop whispering to me throughout the entire thing. During the closing credits, I told her I'd get her the DVD for Christmas ~ she knew the concept behind digital technology, but didn't own any ~ she kissed me.The first kiss was fierce and joyous with the added benefit of her tongue doing things no normal tongue could do, it stretched. Not sure how I felt about that. The second kiss was more sultry, longer and came with some accompanying body action which, I'm no virgin. Not even close. She was on my left side, so when she twisted in her seat, her left leg insinuated itself between mine. Her left hand cupped my jaw and held my head in place as her lips played along mine.A dance of the scorpion perhaps? Tender at first, then suddenly stabbing, dominant and brutal. My lips and tongue battled back, using my superior Kiss-fu to nullify her natural strength and agility. She liked it. By her moaning, she liked it a lot. As the kiss progressed, more and more of her flowed from her seat into my seat, body facing me. Her body rose over mine, forcing my neck back to maintain contact."So, Dot Ishara is hovering around somewhere close, isn't she?" I murmured as our lips separated barely a centimeter apart. One chick kissing you to make another one jealous. It's happened to me plenty of times. Obsidian didn't give a damn about Theddy, or any other mortal woman in close proximity so,"Yes," she purred. "Do you mate with her?""A man does not brag of such things, but no, unless heavy petting counts?""What will she do to you when I steal your seed?"'When'? Why was I not surprised? Why was I not surprised another concussion was in my immediate future either? Was it possible I was, learning?"Chastise me for not fighting harder," I breathed across her lips, "and, in case you forgot, I'm on a date with the girl beside me.""Who I care nothing for," she sent a cruelly playful look Theddy's way. Wisely, the girl shivered."Who I am indebted to and how I honor my debts might matter to you," I hazarded. My words hurt Theddy's feelings. That was on purpose. Obsidian took pleasure in me hurting Theddy because she was basically a vicious monster."Yes?" I pressed her gently."Yes," Obsidian allowed, easing up slightly both romantically and physically."And Theddy, if you believe I'm with you solely because of some sense of obligation, you clearly haven't been listening to your recordings," I shot the human girl a wink."Oh.""Am I, or am I not, a sex-obsessed little monkey?" I teased her. Theddy giggled. I paid for my diversion with four obsidian claws to my ribs outside of Theddy's view. After all, it wasn't like Theddy could possibly compete with her for my attention. Considering Obsidian's legendary ability to rip open her opponent's ribcages and feast upon their hearts, I slipped my left hand, the one next to her between her legs and stroked her cotton-slacks covered cunt.Theddy hugged my right arm and put her head against my shoulder. Not to be outdone," Qu  un centenar dee hombres se quemaron vivos como el sonido?" Obsidian inquired with sexually sadistic hunger. Ah, memories of burning 7P Commandos.Whoops. Theddy knew Spanish."No lo s . Ten an respiradores en," I replied casually. "Si lo desea, puedo describir lo que se siente al tirar de una flecha de guerra lanzar mi propio muslo.""Eep," slipped out of Theddy's lips."Why did you do that?" Obsidian looked over us both."Well, I was showing a little girl I believed in her,""And she shot you?" Theddy gulped."No. She hit the target I was standing next to. A co-worker mistook me for a cardboard cutout of a Jehovah's Witness and let fly. Seems she had issues with organized religion as well as a reaction to the oscillation effect of florescent lighting and ceiling fans.""But why did you pull the arrow out?" Theddy asked. "Couldn't you wait until you got to the hospital?""Mosquito," Obsidian menaced, insinuating Theddy was a pest."I wasn't thinking rationally at the moment, I work in an asylum, I had a hot date in a few hours, any of those three will do," I smiled at Theddy."Copil such as Cáel don't bother with petty human conventions," Obsidian turned my gaze back her way with her hand on my jaw. 'Copil's were 'god-touched' in her lingo."More than one girl?" Theddy mused."Four.""Okay," she sighed happily."Theddy, three under-age girls and the police office he was dating acting as their chaperone," Timothy intervened. "He hurried home so he could keep a promise to the children, not for sex." Bastard. He really was my best friend. He didn't mention my post-injury, pre-festivity sex with Odette giving me a few extra, urgently needed Brownie Points to suggest I might be a decent human being."You are a wonderful guy," Theddy ran a fingernail over my free hand. Clearly I was 'wonderful' enough to risk Obsidian's anger over. The screen went blank as the last credits scrolled away and the room was plunged into darkness. Five seconds later, the lights snapped on.Pain!"Fuck," I hissed. It wasn't any extra physical trauma causing me discomfort. No, a metaphysical dam had burst within and my stream of conscious thought had been turned into a white-water rapids. The competing cyclones of thoughts in my mind had stopped cooperating and my hypothalamus was letting me know I was in danger."Cáel", "Cáel", "Bro", and "Ishara" all came in rapid succession. I needed some space both tangible and social."I need to step outside," I eased Obsidian off me and stood up. My sense of my personal danger was ratcheting up. While I had been studying Obsidian, so I could screw her, I had discovered more and more Alal-badness.The light display had ignited a series of pressing implanted memories which had been clamoring for my attention. Things like not all 'divinities' were stewards of the Weave. Some even wanted its destruction, preferring risking all on a chaotic restructuring of reality over what existed now ~ things like Obsidian. They weren't attempting to do so because they thought they had no chance.But there was. A real serious chance to unravel reality existed; and it was staring her in the face. It wasn't 'me' as in 'I was the Anti-Christ'. But with the torrent of memories pouring forth, I knew where the peril lay and I was completely responsible for it. Hell, I was a prime ally of Armageddon and hadn't even known it.'Holy Shit!'I blinked. Timothy was shaking me. We were out in the lobby."Oh my God, Timothy," I nearly wept. "What am I going to do?""I have no idea what you are talking about. Is there someone you can talk to about this?" he suggested. Normal folks were around us. Obsidian was at my side. Sovann was behind Timothy with an arm around Theddy's shoulder."Theddy," I looked at her. "Can I catch up with you later? I just realized I've screwed up something fierce." I put my best 'really don't want to go but I gotta' face on. Her worried look brightened, she slipped around Timothy and gave me a tingling French kiss."I'll hold you to that, Cáel," she murmured when we parted."Timothy, go home, I got shit to deal with," I hoped my grin didn't become as feeble as I felt it to be."I," he started to say something. "Time not to ask questions?""Yeah.""Okay.""Wait." I pulled us to the side and went on to my toes, leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Tell Pamela 'he' sent Ajax to kill the Professor, his family and the sisters. They were the targets all along. It wasn't me, or the other women. Just in case,""Okay," Timothy patted my arm. It was cryptic. It was the best I could do. See, I wanted to cry so badly.{2:09 pm Sunday, September 7th ~ Last day}Where to begin:Every mythology across the globe has some creature, or creatures, which threatens Existence. Usually a God, or a Hero-God, slays the creature and everything is right with the world, except such a being, being older than Existence itself, can't really die, so they are carved up, buried ~ what have you.Illuyankamunus was one such manifestation of this underlying cancerous desire to destroy reality. He'd had a far more real child, SzelAnya, and she's never quite given up on her dad. Of far greater critical importance, she was 'part' of Illuyankamunus, somewhat in the way I was part of Alal and Baraqu. And yes, that meant all the offspring of Bolu, the guy I'd praised a few hours earlier, held the seeds of that malignant deity as well.And Alal knew it. He hadn't been killing off the descendants. He'd left that task up to a group far more capable of the task, the Egyptian Rite, who knew a fucking threat to existence when they saw it. Lest I forget, No secret society are the 'good guys'. Also lest I forget, I alone decided to go after the Arinniti sons to fulfill Vranus' quest. I had no divine mandate I was aware of nor any real world orders.Inadvertently, I had rounded up the last five mortal remains of Illuyankamunus in one place for convenient disposal in a remote Transylvanian town. The only problem was: if someone didn't get to them quickly, I was also about to whisk them into the loving (and heavy-armed) protective embrace of the Amazon Host, where the completion of centuries of culling would have suddenly become a cast-iron bitch instead of a simple disposal.Enter Ajax. Yeah, I bet the Egyptians were trying to figure out how I stopped him as well as Alal. I thought I was being clever by not telling most of the world. In fact, they most likely suspected; and the reality of SzelAnya watching over me was much more terrifying. Ishara had put a serious curse on the Amazons, yet her curse only affected her followers, the Amazons, who were fair game.SzelAnya had killed someone for me, and I hadn't been one of her followers. Thus I had committed a blasphemous act only a magician of some significant ability could have managed. I wasn't a sorcerer, but I had a cornucopia of mystic knowledge rolling around in my noggin. Trying to figure all this out was one of my major headaches.The others?I even suspected I knew who betrayed me ~ kinda. They didn't do it on purpose. At least I hope they didn't, because my odds-on favorite was my Mother by way of Captain Delilah Faircloth. Realistically, there was only one secret society who might help her against Grandpa and that was the Egyptian Rite, and they did send three people to Dad's funeral including two 'somebodies'. I'm an idiot.I'd chatted away in fluent New Kingdom Egyptian and it never occurred to me how odd it was for two of them to also be so fluent in it. Know it, sure, but as fluent as Kimberly had taught me to be? That should have been a Red Flag.The Earth & Sky had sent Iskender, who should have been the benchmark I judged the other delegations by, damn it.Three Condos? They'd killed my Dad and their guys had been flunkies.The 7 Pillars had been nobodies, which they'd proven by their inaction.Now I had to question why I had 3 actual  9-Clans  assassins at my dad's funeral too. Holy Ishara, I wasn't nearly paranoid enough.Anyway, why would the Amazons be aiding and abetting the End of All Life on Earth? Normally, they wouldn't be, but 3000 years ago, the majority of Human life did a colossal dump on the Amazons. And when they needed help, they got it in the form of SzelAnya and her dual-sex followers. I seriously doubt they told the Amazons their purpose was to resurrect SzelAnya's daddy. I imagine the Amazons didn't pry too much either.It turned out almost to be okay. During the 2nd Betrayal, the Amazons betrayed SzelAnya and almost short-circuited her plans by exterminating her lineage.Except for the Arinniti elders and Bolu. Good old 'except'.I can imagine when the Egyptians heard about the 2nd Betrayal, they figured they were 'okay'. Those wacky Amazons had inadvertently done the world a favor. Except an act of maternal love kept a slender hope of Illuyankamunus' return alive. By the time the Egyptians realized they'd been prematurely hopeful, Bolu's descendants were all over the Balkans and hunting them down had proven difficult.But, it gets worse. Much worse.When those Gods shattered Illuyankamunus, they scattered him in the relative certainty no one would ever gather the parts back together.His flesh was scattered across the land, modern day Turkey, but encompassing everything from Pakistan to Italy and Egypt to Poland. The flesh became soil, then plants, the things that eat plants, then food for humans. Get the picture.Whoops. SzelAnya had been doing just that for centuries upon centuries every time she mated with a mortal of Illuyankamunus' line and had offspring, they accumulated his energy, which made hunting down the few remaining ones easier to find, since they were 'beacons of badness', except...There were two key pieces missing which SzelAnya could never get. After all, you would think burying them on the far side of the world would matter, right?The 'breath of Illuyankamunus' ~ his cosmic fire ~ they buried in a volcano in a distant land far across the Great Sea. His spirit 'body' they imprisoned in a great river, again, across the Great Sea.But wait, it gets worse.The being standing next to me knew precisely where the 'breath of Illuyankamunus' was. Seems Mesoamerica is laced with volcanos. They'd discovered 'the breath' long ago and used it as a weapon called Xiuhcoatl. Better yet, Alal suspected she and her buddies were more than happy to reunite it with the rest if they thought the Weave itself wouldn't annihilate them for daring to do so.In their current, weakened state they were vulnerable to such a karmic backlash. In theory, a reborn Illuyankamunus would have access to power beyond the bounds of the Weave, older and more terrifying. Still, without the mortal remains to anchor the energy, giving it to the spirit would be pointless.Alal knew where the spirit body was (in general), but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was where it was,Of all the places the Arinniti sons could have fled to, they had to choose Brazil, the burial place of the restive spirit body of Illuyankamunus. Mother-fucker.And Ildiko 'Alkonyka' aka Dusk Lovasz had sworn she'd travel to Brazil to fulfill Bolu's side of the quest in the same way I was holding up Vranus' end. If I tried to stop her, SzelAnya would know something was up. Fuck.I was processing all of this when Obsidian violently yanked me out of the way. A cabby had swerved to avoid a flurry of trash and nearly run over us. It was the third near-concussive experience in the past five minutes she'd help me avoid while she had walked by my side. I'd been mumbling like a madman."That would be my Goddess wanting to talk with me," I looked her way."I know," she gave me a clever smile."She's really not going to like that," I shook my head."I know that too," she kept smiling. "Where is your mind?""Five lives away from making the world a safer place," I sighed."Safer for who?" she purred. Where were all the bimbos? Not only was it an insightful question, it cut straight to the heart of my dilemma.What decision could I make? If I elected to help my fellow Amazons, I risked screwing with the world. In truth, I was risking everything even if I did nothing. Well Dad was always clear that things didn't change by themselves. You needed to do something that would have an effect. So, 'What are you going to do?'More to the point, I wasn't Grandad. Killing the last five of the line of Illuyankamunus wasn't 'me', so it wasn't going to be something I'd worry about.SzelAnya wanted to bring back her Dad, I could understand that. I'd have to figure out a way for her to believe this world sticking around was more important. How? Well, I had a goddess-like creature right in front of me to probe for ideas."You are an immortal," Obsidian commented. She'd been weighing her opinion for some time. I could tell by the wonderment with which she gifted each word."What? No. I can die.""No. I don't think so. Your wounds. Normally the wounds I inflict flow freely for some time. Yours have already scabbed over," her eyes flickered to the various minor scars she'd imparted to me in the few hours we'd been together.Of course, her idea was insane, Oh God No! I was in Grandad's body. Well Duh! His body was supposed to be immortal."Are you sure?" I looked deep into her eyes."You are a young immortal, the youngest I've ever met, but you are an immortal," she seemed to be convincing herself as much as me.Stupid Assumption (on my part)! I wasn't in Alal's body. I was in Cáel's. Because the Cáel soul shard was young, Alal hadn't been able to find it because it had moved through Time, to me, sonofabitch! 'I' hadn't been around for him to find. No! I was making yet another damn assumption.What did I know? When Pamela found Baraqu, it had been in an object, not a person, though she had been short on details. When the Alal-shard went to the Land of the Endless Black Sands to bring Saku back, the Cáel-shard had been in reality, so it had been allowed to create a body, 'me'. Still, the curse Sarrat Irkalli placed on Baraqu was on Alal and myself as well, which meant I might just be immortal.My Alal-mind agreed with Obsidian's assessment. In his first years, his healing had been slow, still taking days for what took mortal people weeks. I'd stupidly attributed my swift recovery to Amazon medicines, ugh. Because I got wounded more than most Security Detail trainees while concurrently entertaining two and three sex partners."Can you talk with Dot Ishara?" I asked her."Yes, but why would I?""Sex?""We are going to have sex anyway," she smiled. I'd tricked her. Set her up with the right so I could now drop her with the left."I can bring the mbo  tat  back to life," I pledged. That was not what she was expecting at all. "If you bring the Xiuhcoatl, I can bring the flesh and we can unite the three." Mbo  tat  was the Tupi name for the legendary 'fiery serpent' of the Amazon Basin. In Portuguese, it had become Boi-tat , a will-o-wisp with a confused, Christianized mythology ~ a serpent dwelling in darkness, devouring the eyes of corpses, glowing in the forests at night."Where is the flesh?" she whispered."In his mortal children," I replied."Who?""You are a monster, Ītzpāpālōtl. I'm not going to tell you and you don't have the time to drag the information out of my mind before my allies drop on you like a nuclear detonation," I drew my body tightly to her."Why would the Amazons do this?""They are not. This is a deal between you and me," I kissed her lips. I pulled back. A few seconds later she kissed me back."Why?""My grandfather had my father murdered and I would avenge him. In the end, despite my father's Amazon heritage, my 'Sisters' will let his death go unavenged for the greater good of the Host. He was a man and they will never look beyond that ~ they will never value his life as they would that of a woman.""Your mother's father?""Yes. Cáel O'Shea of the Illuminati.""We are not at war with the Illuminati," she murmured. It was a casual observation, not a protest."You are at war with Cáel O'Shea.""He was slain.""He didn't stay dead.""You know much more than you are saying," she was finally catching on."Absolutely.""I need much more than a few names to convince my kin to help," she purred, a cocktail of sexual immersion and flesh-flaying pain."I don't work for you. You are agreeing to work for me," I was hard as iron in more than one way. Why? Boundaries. She lived in a world where only the fundamentals of reality constrained her. Having a human, no matter how polished my pedigree, or how much I might appear to be 'special', tell her 'you are not the boss' in a reasonable fashion was new and very unwelcome."What would make you think that?""My mentor taught me knowledge is a curse. It is our inability to forget, and I can see into your soul, Ītzpāpālōtl. You care not one wit for the life of an assassin. But the thought of the other 'Factors' of the 9 Clans treating you as an equal galls you almost as much as the crushing reality that you need them."You have lived 500 years in chains and I'm offering you a desperate grab at freedom," I added."Your brief glimpse of immortality gives you no insight into my existence," she bristled."Oh, how many have given up? How many have decided the fight was no longer worth it and faded from the Sunlight to make their final trip into the Underworld, never to return? Do you even visit them?" I spoke with a voice tinged with compassion and loss. I pulled upon the pitiless, blank memories of a childless Alal all those centuries and imprinted on them my own fears of fatherhood and failure."How do you know so much?" she let her fa ade crack, then blow away, in the hollowness of her own sorrow. How could I pity such a monster? I could because I was me and I wouldn't surrender that to the barbaric past and most likely horrific future. I pulled her close, resting my chin on the top of her head."You are not the first, wonderful, very bright woman who has stepped into my life, Obsidian," I whispered. "You are not even the first divinity. For all the millions of differences enforced by power and time, I think love, hate and the conflict between the two wear upon us all. If anything, you face an endless parade of hope and misery. Even if you chose to ignore it, you have seen it and perhaps it leaves its marks ~ water scarring the rocks of a riverbed."We paused. I was able to peripherally scan about and realize we'd made it to Central Park ~ the Ramble and off the beaten path."Your Goddess is a fool for not keeping you closer," she murmured."She does keep me close. You have been actively keeping me from her," I reminded my guest. "She also plays by the rules, so is of limited help in my plans for vengeance."Translation: I could enlist Ītzpāpālōtl's aid while still remaining loyal to my matron Goddess. Ishara could not provide what I needed and my Amazons wouldn't agree with my scheme, so I needed her. Three hours ago, she wouldn't have considered me a worthy supplicant, much less an allied equal, yet here she was conspiring with me to shake the foundations of Creation.Personally, I was thanking Mamitu, Destiny. Had I not been having my worst Sunday ever when we first crossed paths and then acted like a total cockhead, pissed her off and led her to holding Sarrat Irkalli's dagger, thus putting her life in my hands, and not had Timothy as a best friend, I wouldn't have taken her to the movie, and my mind wouldn't have wandered down those dark corridors of Alal's memories to piece things together.Whatever itinerary Obsidian had approached me with, my abrasive behavior had forced her to it cast aside. Dagger, movie, revelations, I was now so much more in her eyes than she had envisioned."Share my need and share with me an ounce of your sorrow," I murmured to her as I gently curled my fingers in her hair and directed her head up until she faced me."The dagger," she rumbled. While she was stroking my hard-on, I knew she was using it as a double meaning."I was pinned to an onyx sacrificial table," I began my tale. We worked off pants to mid-thigh then 'got busy'. Penetration was only going to be possible by turning her around. Ground-breaking was her ready acceptance of my instruction. I leaned against a tree, then pulled her onto my lap. She guided my phallus home.One locomotion and I sunk in deep. It was warm molasses until I hit and pressed against her cervix. For a second Obsidian trembled, then her muscles clamped down tightly, gripping my manhood firmly in a vise, keeping me still."Ah," I groaned. Obsidian had her neck twisted, so we were kissing with eye contact as I described my adventures with the Gong tau sorcerers. She shot me a quick twinkle of delight, a connection. She'd relayed physical pleasure in the way I was giving her cerebral gratification, aka hope.I rolled up her shirt, and gave both nipples a brutal tweak in response. She gasped. I was applying a little 'rough' with my tender intercourse. She rolled her tush against my groin, an invitation to double-down on my nipple-play. I kept my left hand working over each tit while working my fingernails down her abdomen. As I described the terror in old Tsu's face as he shouted out 'M iyǒu! (Mandarin for 'No!') as he recognized too late the curse he was invoking. She relished the visual of the Han necromancer's terror.'Me' smacking two fingers down on her clit earned me a squeal and a small gush of fluids on my nut-sack. Her look of astonishment was something I'd always cherish. Before me, sex was something she demanded from her followers/victims and definitely orchestrated. Her partners being fearful/worshipful must have limited their initiative."A-a-a-ah, we are being observed," she groaned, her lips less than an inch from mine. It took me a second."Which direction?" I kept pumping her, strumming her clit and treating her tit like taffy on a hot Coney Island summer afternoon. Her hooded eyes flickered to our right. I gave it ten seconds. I had to get Obsidian refocused on what I was going to do to her next, in case this was innocent voyeurism. Nope. It was Chaz.Why Chaz? See, I'm an idiot. My cryptic warning to Timothy for Pamela had been good for all of one minute. He'd called her and she'd gathered what she could and come looking for me.Why was she concerned? I was babbling to Timothy then wandering off with a 'beyond-freaky' chick I had just met named 'Obsidian' who came my way courtesy of another chick with the name of Estere.Let me see, Estere was Hashashin and for Timothy to describe someone in my life as 'beyond freaky' was bad news. Timothy was seriously worried about me and Timothy was an emotional rock ~ he didn't panic. Lest we forget, I was in a federal taskforce. A quick peek into New York traffic cameras revealed me and Obsidian wandering into Central Park from the south, so in the rescue party went, splitting up and Chaz 'lucked-out'.I still had two, no, three problems. I was really enjoying my sexual excursion with Obsidian and she was seeming to truly enjoy her experience with me. Oh, and Central Park is big, Pamela had been pressed for people, so she had pressed some unlikely participants into my rescue party."He's," smooch, "my brother, by adoption," I headed off the whole idea she'd been briefed on me already."Visual, Peacekeeper Six, OS2, L-11," Chaz muttered into his headset before taking up a casual stance on the path overlooking our trysting spot. Sex with an audience didn't bother her, so, we worked out as much action from twist, turns and two inches of in-and-out motions (she liked to keep our bodies tight) as we could. Obsidian was humming along in no time. Her vaginal walls were undulating, wearing away at my self-control.Panting, not from us,"Is he o, are they, who is she?" huffed and puffed a trio of voices from Chaz's locale. Oh. Pamela had recruited my 'Hounds'.I accidently (from a timing perspective) took that moment to grind my nails into her left nipple, pinched her clit and hammered her as hard as I could. Obsidian howled. Her vocalization exited the human realm in a cataclysmic manner.The noise scared avians a mile away into terrorized flight. Cats hissed, then raced for cover. Dogs tucked tail and ran. Streetlights a hundred yards away shattered in sprays of glass. Better yet, for the entertainment of my viewing public, she lashed out with her right hand at the closest Black Cherry sapling, exploding it into a mist of sap and pulverizing the bark and wood fiber into pulp.On the downside, her cervix gave my balls an ultimatum ~ release my seed at once, or she was going to twist off my head. My cock and balls have a long history of making decisions without me. I began lavishing her. Before I finally got the feeling I was out of the danger zone. She was back to rubbing against me and purring in blissful satisfaction."Onun g zleri," whispered Belgin, one of the Turks. 'Her eyes'?"Cáel, are you aware of the alternative nature of your liaison?" Chaz coolly cautioned me. Translation: 'mate, do you know you have your cock in a demon?'"Yeah," I coughed. I had a face full of her hair. I was working on some post-coital nuzzling along with slowly helping her get her pants back up."Ininzqueoccehpa," she hummed to me, ignoring our gathering. That was 'let's do this again'."Tehuatlcochitlehua," I replied with some fondness. She studied me for a second before deciding my term was one of endearment, thus 'you are what dreams are made of', not 'nightmares'.Obsidian had another issue to deal with. Timothy would call it a righteous cocking. Whatever it was, her hold on her human mein had slipped and her inhumanity was slipping through, mainly in her glass-like, black, multi-facetted eyes and her fingers which now ended in molten obsidian talons. On the subconscious level, her predatory nature was setting everyone close-by on edge. I could also make out the high pitched, ultrasonic pipping of her chiropteran cries ~ purpose unknown.Obsidian made her way off farther into the underbrush leaving me a few precious seconds to appreciate her retreating posterior while holstering my equipment. More people were arriving. I had one more thing to take care of before, oh look, Nikita had brought her Mom along, the NYPD Sergeant."Chaz, I need to have a quick chat with Dot before I can explain things. She's been waiting and that's unwise," I looked to the Brit. He nodded."Cáel? Mr. Nyilas? Prince?" all came my way. I relaxed as best I could. Chaz went to a body blow to stagger me, then an epic upper cut to send me to Lullaby Land.Dot & the DragonessDot and SzelAnya, in dragon form, were waiting as I tumbled forward. By the state of my haziness, I knew my unconsciousness wouldn't last long."You gave her your seed," came the accusation."Yes," I staggered, "and now you should be able to track her," I pointed out the bonus part of the arrangement. No comment."I've got to make this quick, SzelAnya, I've found your father, geographically speaking," I dropped the bomb."Don't," Dot Ishara commanded. After all, she and her divine cohorts had done the killing and corpse-dividing eons ago. Undoubtedly, they'd executed their own oaths to one another to 'never reveal what they had done' as well."Too late," I shook my head. SzelAnya's attention was magnetized. "I owe you and I'm paying my debts. I'm not blind to the dangers, believe me.""You have no idea what power you are invoking," Dot's undercurrent of displeasure was the worst I'd experienced."Wrong. I've got thousands of years of Alal boiling around in my head, Plus the rest of you betrayed her 2600 years ago. It doesn't mean I have to. And now, given the chance, I'm not. Even if you kill me, she's got enough toBack in the Ramble"Really expect me to believe," Nikita's mom was growling."Man down," I waved a weak arm skyward."Mr. Nyilas, what is going on here?" the Sergeant addressed me. I was reclining in a circle of my 'Hounds'; most were kneeling. Chaz was in a tiny bit of trouble for having clocked me."Umm, thanks for coming out and looking for me. I assure you, Mr. Tomorrow did what he did as a matter of his professional duties ~ intelligence gathering." As I struggled to stand, my ladies helped me. I saw Pamela with three Hounds coming up fast from one direction and Virginia with three more coming from the other. The gang was all here.The mutterings in non-English tongues suggested a bit of explaining was already going on."You've been bleeding," Nikita pointed out with an unspoken 'again'."This?" I pulled my shirt out and looked at the first bloodstain of my encounter. "This is the just the start of the bad news." I shed my windbreaker and then t-shirt.The professionals shouldered aside the others to take a closer look."All of these are from noon and less than an hour ago," I identified the damage. Sarge was skeptical. Chaz, Nikita and Virginia less so."They look older," the senior lawman noted."I've been curious about that," Chaz frowned."I've inherited my Grandfather's curse. My soul fragment was in the 'Here and Now' twenty-three years ago while his was, 'over there', so I was allowed to come into creation. According to my recently departed guest,""You are immortal," Virginia mumbled to finish the thought. Had the speaker not been a member of the FBI, who knows how the thought would have been received."From the memories I've been gifted with," I tapped the tiny divot on my forehead, "his healing abilities started out rather slowly too. I certainly don't want to test this theory, so no worries there," I scanned the group."How do you explain seeing your Grandfather in Hungary and again in Rome?" Virginia wondered."Again, that woman who just left," I got out."Was no woman," Nuray, another one of my Turkish Hounds interrupted. "Her eyes..." she tried to explain, "and look what she did to that tree," she pointed to the greatest piece of evidence of supernatural wrongdoing. The other two witnesses nodded."We all saw the same thing. Her eyes were, bottomless, definitely not human," Belgin affirmed. The veteran players looked to Chaz."She had a collapsed nose-bridge, lacked a blink response, her dental work was carnivorous and her tongue was extremely clipped and showed prehensile qualities," he reported calmly. Pause. Chaz was a freaking intelligence operative, after all."If her hands were a type of glove weaponry, I've never seen it s like before. While I know it is possible for a human to exert the force-pounds necessary to snap a two inch diameter tree trunk in one blow, it is a rare skill and requires intense discipline. This appeared to be done spontaneously, without preparation of any kind and as a reaction to other stimuli," he added."It was also your assessment he needed to be knocked unconscious?" Nikita's mom countered."Mr. Nyilas' psychological constructs are something the whole team has to work around. At times, he seeks 'insight' from his mind in a deliberately unconscious/non-sleep state," he replied."He claims to be talking with spirit powers. I know when he returns to consciousness, he delivers useful intelligence. I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychic. I don't know why his mind functions that way. I do know results. And I know I work with people who would achieve those results by other means if it were at all possible. Since we haven't found another method, we accept that from tim

What if your next training session became the highlight of your recruiters' week rather than just another calendar obligation? We explore how innovative recruitment leaders transform traditional onboarding into engaging experiences that drive performance and retention. In this episode, a tenured recruiter and recruitment business owner shares his experience in training hundreds of recruiters in this career. For David, “training and developing people is fun!” David Bloxham is the CEO of GCS Recruitment. With over 30 years of experience, David is passionate about connecting innovative technology companies with the expert talent they need to drive their businesses forward.  In 2017, he led a successful management buyout (MBO) with nGAGE Talent, further solidifying his leadership in the industry. Under his guidance, GCS Recruitment has expanded globally with a team of 100 consultants and 7 offices including London, Reading, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, Orlando and Philadelphia.   Episode Outline and Highlights [02:12] How did David get started in recruiting? [04:30] Has productivity in recruitment remaining relatively constant over time? [13:08] Effective and efficient team structure to increase productivity. [20:23] Hiring and developing hundreds of people over the years, what key training elements David wishes to share? [36:05] David and his team use tools and technology for reports and gamifying objectives. [40:27] Core focus of recruiters despite technological advances: telephone first and networking. [49:31] Discussion on David's Management Buyout (MBO) experience and learnings. [56:53] Should your recruitment firm get an investment from a Private Equity?   Training and Developing People is Fun!   David started in the recruiting industry in 1996, and both of us agree that training back then was almost as simple as “here is a phonebook, and a phone, start calling.” We both understand the value of effective training as a key ingredient to successful recruiting results.    Having hired and developed hundreds of recruiters over the years, what is David's approach to training, especially in this age where technology can overwhelm the human factor of a new recruiter? For David, it is about going back to basics and focusing on what a recruiter really does. Phone first, and building a network. He utilizes existing technology and tech stack, especially when monitoring and gamifying performance as part of training and development. Most importantly, his mindset says a lot about his success, “Training and developing people is fun!”   Below are some of the takeaways he shared on this topic:   Passion for Teaching – He genuinely enjoys training people, seeing them "get it," and watching their progress. His enthusiasm makes training engaging and impactful. Gamification and Fun—He introduces friendly competitions, small challenges (like mentioning random topics in calls), and a team environment that keeps training lively and engaging. Hands-On Learning – He believes in learning by doing, allowing trainees to make calls early, experience rejection, and develop resilience. Focus on Fundamentals – Despite industry changes, he emphasizes that the core of recruitment remains the same: connecting clients and candidates. Creating a Supportive Environment – He fosters a collaborative setting where trainees can share wins, struggles, and experiences. Emphasizing Resilience – He prepares recruiters for the challenges of the job, especially handling rejection and navigating modern recruitment complexities. Adapting Training to Modern Challenges – He acknowledges changes in recruitment (e.g., difficulty reaching candidates, compliance hurdles) and tailors training to address these new realities.   What Does a Recruiter Do? Despite technological advances in AI, David strongly believes that focusing on the human factor by understanding what a recruiter does is still the key success factor in this field. He believes that two things are essential: Telephone First Building a Network   Regardless of what AI or other tools can do to improve your recruitment process, it is still a recruiter's human factor of connecting with candidates and clients that drives the decision of whether you will win the business or not. As he puts it,  “And, and that's really where I kind of come to with, with what does a recruiter do? What a recruiter does is it has the human interaction, the human touch, right? And if we can really get that into the heads of recruiters, this is where your value is. This is what you do, right? You meet people, you talk to people, you network, you find out things.”   Indeed, recruiters who rely too much on automation risk becoming replaceable. But those who master the human side of the business—building relationships, influencing decisions, and adding personal value—will always be in demand.   Learnings from an MBO (Management Buyout) As one of the first employees at GCS, David was deeply invested in the company's growth. When it reached an eight-figure valuation, the decision was made to exit certain owners and transition leadership. Since David didn't have the capital to buy out the founder, they sought backing from nGAGE, an investment company that specializes in recruitment businesses. The process involved intense due diligence, financial scrutiny, and planning to make GCS an attractive investment.   David's learnings also apply to recruitment business owners who plan to exit and sell their business through acquisition. You may be interested in the following topics that David elaborated on:   Know Your Numbers Focus on Profitability & Efficiency Investors Want Focus & Justification Culture & Brand Matter The Shift from Employee to Shareholder   David Bloxham Bio and Contact Info   David Bloxham is a seasoned recruitment professional and the CEO of GCS Recruitment. With over 30 years of experience, David has a passion for connecting innovative technology companies with the expert talent they need to drive their businesses forward. In 2017, he led a successful management buyout (MBO) with nGAGE Talent, further solidifying his leadership in the industry. Under his guidance, GCS Recruitment has grown significantly on a global scale, helping clients to "Employ the Future to Create it." David's expertise in the recruitment industry and his dedication to fostering strong client relationships have made him a respected figure in the field.   David on LinkedIn GCS Tech Talent website link GCS Connect Leaders podcast nGAGE talent website link   People and Resources Mentioned   LinkedIn Recruiter Lusha Crunchbase Daxtra PowerBI   Connect with Mark Whitby Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call Mark on LinkedIn Mark on Twitter: @MarkWhitby Mark on Facebook Mark on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach   Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter   If you've been enjoying the podcast, please take two minutes to leave a review. Your review is greatly appreciated because it helps us attract a bigger audience and help more recruiters.  

Episode Summary  In this episode of Building Better Cultures, Scott McInnes sits down with Jonathan Reed, CEO of Paddy and Scott's Coffee, to discuss the company's incredible transformation over the past three years. Jonathan shares his journey from employee to owner through a management buyout (MBO) and the challenges he faced in reshaping the organisation's leadership and culture.  With a strong focus on communication, trust, and a people-first approach, Jonathan highlights how visibility, vulnerability, and fun play crucial roles in creating an engaged and motivated workforce. He also delves into the company's commitment to social impact, ensuring that business success translates into meaningful contributions to coffee-growing communities.  This episode is packed with insights on leadership, resilience, and the power of responsible commerce to create real change.    Key Takeaways  Transitioning from employee to owner is a profound leadership shift.  The MBO process is challenging but ultimately rewarding.  Clear communication and trust-building are crucial for a successful transition.  Leaders must be visible, present, and engaged with their teams.  A great workplace culture includes fun as a key performance indicator.  People—not just coffee—are at the heart of Paddy and Scott's business.  Strategic planning should involve and empower employees.  Vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness, in leadership.  Businesses have a responsibility to make a positive social impact.  The future of Paddy and Scott's is built on responsible commerce and community support.    Chapters   00:00 Introduction and Background   08:54 Impact of MBO on Leadership and Culture   19:45 Emphasizing People Over Profit   34:52 Future Vision and Social Impact  

In this episode, I sit down with Laura Clark to unpack her journey from recruiter to CEO through a successful management buyout (MBO).We dive into the challenges, lessons, and realities of taking over a recruitment business plus what to look out for if you're being promised an MBO.Connect with Laura here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraclarkoa/-------------------------Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xCYyP-mEejY-------------------------Sponsors - Claim your exclusive savings from our partners with the links below:Sourcewhale - Check Out Sourcewhale & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here.Raise - Check Out Raise & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here.-------------------------Extra Stuff:Learn more about our online skills development platform Hector here: https://bit.ly/47hsaxeJoin 4,000+ other recruiters levelling up their skills with our Limitless Learning Newsletter here: https://limitless-learning.thisishector.com/subscribe-------------------------Get in touch:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/-------------------------

Everyone is in favor of improving quality, but what does that mean? In this episode Bill Bellows and Andrew Stotz discuss stories of meeting requirements, missing the mark, and what Dr. Deming said about how to do better. 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, I'm continuing my discussions with Bill Bellows, who has spent 31 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunities. And I guess now that we're into 2025, it's gonna be 32 years pretty soon. The episode for today is episode 10, are you in favor of quality? Bill, take it away.   0:00:33.5 Bill Bellows: Thank you, Andrew, and Happy New Year.   0:00:35.1 Andrew Stotz: Happy New Year.   0:00:36.4 Bill Bellows: Happy New Year to our listeners. And yeah, so here we are episode 10 of Misunderstanding Quality. We got up to 22 episodes in our first series and then we'll have a follow-on series. One is I would like to thank those who took the invite to reach out to me on LinkedIn. And I've just started connecting with a few new people who are doing some interesting things involved in types of work that I'm not familiar with, it's just fascinating to listen to the types of issues they deal with. And they each come to me with an interest in Dr. Deming's work. So they're following the podcast series, this one, the others that you're doing, and they listen to all of them. And I'm not sure if they've contacted the others, but they've reached out to me. So I wanna once again say for those of you that are enjoying this conversation, my conversation with you, Andrew, then please reach out to me.   0:01:50.0 Bill Bellows: If you'd like to know more, that's one thing. The last episode was called Worse Than a Thief. And one thing I wanna mention, there's a bunch of meanings relative to being worse than a thief. One distinctly from Dr. Taguchi was... And I don't... He gave examples of manufacturers that made plastic sheeting for crops to protect the crops and his complaint was that they made it to the minimum side of the requirement. So there was a requirement on the thickness, so again, even if you have a 1mil thick here, we have in the States, there's you can buy plastic 1mil, which is 0.001 inch or something heavier. And so, and obviously, in the world of manufacturing, you're not gonna get exactly 0.001, it's gonna be a little low, a little high. So what Dr. Taguchi was referencing is companies in Japan that were making plastic sheeting that would be used for a number of things. But in particular, he talked about it, what if it's being used to protect crops?   0:03:19.8 Bill Bellows: And what if the manufacturers, to save money because they're buying the plastic by the pound, selling it by the yard, so they're gonna make it as thin as possible. And his concern was, so how much are you saving to make it as thin as possible? And what is the impact of being on the thin side when a crop is lost? And that was his reference to being worse than a thief, that you're saving a few pennies but costing the farmer the... Right? And so that could be... So that's a situation where there's a requirement, the requirement is met minimally. You and I reference that as leaving the bowling ball in the doorway, delivering to the absolute minimum, or I mean delivering to the minimum, the maximum of the requirement, whatever best suits me. So if I'm delivering to you a term paper and you as the professor say, "It must be between five and 10 pages," and I say, "Well, I'm gonna make it five pages."   0:04:23.9 Bill Bellows: If in another situation, [chuckle] an example, I guess is if when our daughter was in high school and we said, "Allison, make sure you're home between 10:00 and midnight," then she may move that to the high side of the tolerance and come home at 10:00 or 11:59. But in either case, what Taguchi is referencing is in the world of acceptability, the requirements have been met. But the worse than a thief aspect is, is what is the personal gain versus the impact to others in the system. So that could be picking up the nail in the parking lot or deciding not to do it. So I just wanna point out that I see that as a very broad statement, not just in terms of meeting requirements, but within your organization are you... To what degree are you focusing on your department at the detriment of the organization? That's another way of being worse than a thief.   0:05:28.7 Bill Bellows: It could be you're spending all of your budget just before the end of the year. 'Cause you know what happens, Andrew, if you don't spend all of your budget.   0:05:38.0 Andrew Stotz: Gonna get taken away.   0:05:38.9 Bill Bellows: So if you're 10 percent under, the next year you're gonna get 10% less. So I used to kid people is, so what will I spend... Again, so you learn the hard way, if you don't spend the entire budget then your boss the next year says, "Well, Andrew, you only spent 80% of the budget, so we're only gonna give you 80% of last year." So what's the... What message does Andrew learn? I tell people is you go a little bit over the 100%, right? You go a little bit over. And so even that I would say is worse than a thief 'cause what are you doing? You're withholding your resources that others may find. So I just wanna say that that statement is not as narrow as looking at a set of requirements, it is looking at things from what's good for me versus good for the system. All right, have fun to that one.   0:06:30.0 Andrew Stotz: Right.   0:06:31.0 Bill Bellows: So relative to the title you mentioned. Are you in favor of quality? What inspired that? There's another thing I've been looking at recently, whether on LinkedIn or elsewhere on the internet. I'm a member of ASQ, the American Society for Quality, so I get regular notes from them. And I go off and look, and I'm just reminded of how most organizations think about quality, which is meeting requirements, and it could be much more than that. But anyway, in The New Economics, Dr. Deming's book, first edition, came out in 1993. In there in the first chapter, he says, let me pull it up, and I wanna read it exactly from the good doctor.   Near the end of chapter one of the New Economics, Dr. Deming, in bold text, our listeners will find a statement, “a look at some of the usual suggestions for improvement of quality.” And Dr. Deming says, "There's widespread interest in quality. Suppose that we were to conduct next Tuesday a national referendum with the question, are you in favor of improvement of quality? Yes or no? The results." predicted Dr. Deming "would show, I believe," and again, I'm quoting Deming, "an avalanche in favor of quality. Moreover, unfortunately, almost everybody has the answer on how to achieve it. Just read the letters to the editor, speeches, books. It seems so simple. Here are some of the answers offered, all insufficient, some even negative in results."   0:09:17.9 Bill Bellows: "Automation, new machinery, more computers, gadgets, hard work, best efforts, merit system, annual appraisal, make everybody accountable, MBO, management by objective as practiced, MBR, management by results." And I'll just pause. Dr. Deming, when he would read this list in a seminar, would also make reference to MBIR, management by imposition of results. All right, back to Dr. Deming. "Rank people, rank teams, rank divisions, rank salesmen, reward them at the top, punish them at the bottom. More SQC, statistical quality control, more inspection, establish an office of quality, appoint someone as VP in charge of quality, incentive pay, work standards," in parentheses, "quotas," comma, "time standards," end quote. "Zero defects, meet specifications, motivate people." And then in bold print, Dr. Deming adds, "What is wrong with these suggestions?" He says, "the fallacy of the suggestions listed above will be obvious from subsequent pages of the text," meaning The New Economics.   0:10:36.1 Bill Bellows: "Every one of them ducks the responsibility of management," Andrew. "A company that advertised that the future belongs to him that invest in it, and thereupon proceeded to invest heavily," 40 million, no, 40 billion, I'm sorry, that's ten to the ninth. "40 billion in new machinery and automation, results, trouble, overcapacity, high cost, low quality. It must be said in defense of the management that they obviously had faith in the future." And I asked some people that knew Dr. Deming far better than me. Once upon a time, I said, "So who was Dr. Deming talking about, the company that invested $40 billion?" He said, "Oh, that was General Motors." And I used to think when I was at Rocketdyne that you could not ask for a better competitor than one that would invest $40 billion to lose market share, right? Talk about self-inflicted gunshot wounds that they're gonna go off, invest heavily in technology gadgets. That's what Dr. Deming's calling 'em, gadgets.   0:11:55.2 Andrew Stotz: Gadgets.   0:11:55.8 Bill Bellows: Did you ever hear what Dr. Deming said about, he says, there's a couple of things he said. This is one of the things I heard him say live. He said, "Where's the data in the computer? Gone forever." And then he'd say, "the hardest thing in all the world to find..." You know what he said, Andrew, was the hardest thing in all the world to find?   0:12:24.0 Andrew Stotz: No, what was that?   0:12:27.3 Bill Bellows: "A piece of paper and a pencil." 'Cause his mindset was just put the data that you wanna plot on a piece of paper, as opposed to in the computer, gone forever. Now, I worked with a company as a consultant for three years. And one of the first things they had me work on, of course, was trying to learn about a problem that happened a few years earlier. A problem, meaning something that did not conform to requirements. And in the middle of working on that for about three months and working on that, and the issue was, let's learn about what happened a couple of years ago so it doesn't happen again. And what happened a few years ago was a very stringent set of requirements for this aerospace hardware, missed the requirement by 10%. It was close. It was close, but the customer would not buy it. And it was a multimillion dollar asset that they held onto 'cause they were hoping they can convince the customer to buy it. And the customer just said, "You keep it, you keep it." So the issue was, "Come over and help us understand what happened. We don't do that again."   0:13:54.1 Bill Bellows: Well, in the midst of that, the same product being produced a few months later, instead of missing the requirement by about 10%, missed the requirement by about 70%.   0:14:12.9 Andrew Stotz: Oh.   0:14:13.2 Bill Bellows: Oh, oh. It was a nightmare. And the company spent a whole lot of money chasing that. In the long run, it may have been a bad test. We never found exactly what it was. And when I caught up with them years later, they eventually went back into production. But the reason I bring that up is, after the incident, I was called over. It was a very intense time to go figure out what's going on, only to find out that the data was in a computer. So, the data was not being plotted real time. So after the incident, one of the things that happened within a few days of the incident was to go back and plot the data. So when I was in a meeting and they showed the data and I knew what they were saying was they had pulled it out of the computer. I thought, "Dr. Deming's not kidding. Where's the data, in the computer? Gone forever." So I wanted to...   0:15:23.8 Andrew Stotz: I had something I wanted to add to that, and that is I have a couple of great classic pictures in our family that were made 100 years, 120 years ago.   0:15:36.8 Bill Bellows: Oh wow. Lucky you.   0:15:39.9 Andrew Stotz: Great grandma, those old, really old pictures. And I was just showing them to my, to some of the ladies that take care of my mom and they just can't. And I said, "Now think about all the improvements that have been done in photography. What is the chance that one out of your 10,000 pictures on your iPhone that you've taken is going to survive 120 years like this picture?" And the answer is zero. There's zero chance.   0:16:14.4 Bill Bellows: That's right. Because even if you have kids, they don't want 4000 photos then... 4000...   0:16:25.0 Andrew Stotz: Nobody can deal with that.   0:16:26.4 Bill Bellows: No one could... You're absolutely right. They will not. Unless that photo is printed and turned into a keepsake. Gone forever.   0:16:38.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:16:39.0 Bill Bellows: Yeah. No, that's a good point. That's a very... And the fact that these photos lasted that long is pretty damn amazing.   0:16:47.2 Andrew Stotz: Well, there's a great book. I forgot the name of it, but I'll remember it. There's a great book about how slow this... The pace. It's called "Future Hype" is the name of it. It's all about the slow pace of innovation. And this is a great example. Going from no photo to a great photo 120 years ago was true innovation.   0:17:12.0 Bill Bellows: Oh, yeah. Yes.   0:17:13.8 Andrew Stotz: Just coming up with ways to do thousands of photos. And the author just basically crushes everything that you think is innovation. That there's millions of patents now that are coming out. We're much more innovative than we were in the past. And then his whole point is, "Yeah, and go and look at them, and what you see is that they've changed the color a little bit, they've changed this, they've changed that, and they're just doing modifications." So, every single area that you think there is innovation. And I think that's part of what Dr. Deming's talking about, about it's in the computer that doesn't. Tools and gadgets don't solve the problem.   0:17:56.1 Bill Bellows: No, it's... Well, they are tools. And as we've talked about in this series, in the first series, there are tools and techniques. Cell phones, computers, automobiles. These are tools. Techniques are how to use them. And tools, to borrow from Ackoff, are about efficiency, doing things well. But not to be confused with effectiveness, also from Ackoff, which is doing the right thing. And what I admire... I think what we both admire about Dr. Deming's work is the ability of the System of Profound Knowledge to provoke the question of whether or not something is... Doing something is worthwhile to do. And that has to do with not doing things faster, but stepping back and asking, "Why am I doing this in the first place?" Dr. Deming talked about. I think he used to say... He phrased it as, be, Dr. Deming saying, "Andrew, do you know how companies make toast?" And Andrew says, "No, Dr. Deming, how do companies make toast?" You ever hear that?   0:19:16.0 Andrew Stotz: No.   0:19:17.1 Bill Bellows: He says, "First, they burn it, then they scrape it." [laughter] And so what I see in organizations is the people who make the toast pass it off to the next person who does the inspection, and then upon the inspection, is sent to the toast scraper, then the toast scraper scrapes the toast and then sends it to somebody else, which could be a second toasting. [laughter] And then on to the next. And the person who makes the toast in the first place is none the wiser that X percent of the toast, they're just passing it on and so the technology is used to speed that up. And what's not happening is some type of feedback on adjusting the controls. It's just, it's... And this is what I saw when I worked in Connecticut, was immense toast scraping. Oh, it was just phenomenal. We had a machine making these plates for a heat exchanger for the Army's current main engine battle tank. A 1500 horsepower gas turbine engine. And half the volume, Andrew, of the tank is a heat exchanger to capture the exhaust heat to preheat the compressed air to improve the fuel economy.   0:20:52.4 Bill Bellows: Even when half the volume of the tank engine is a heat exchanger to capture every ounce of excess energy and convert it back to the efficiency of the engine. Even with that, the fuel economy of the Army's today main battle tank is measured in gallons per mile 'cause it drinks gasoline. Now, it's phenomenal performance. But they can't move too fast to outrun the tankers. So, these heat exchanger plates have, in the original design, I'm not sure what design is nowadays, had roughly 2 miles of welding in the heat exchanger. And the welding was what's known as resistance welding. And these very, very thin plates were welded together with a little dot of current to melt the metal to create a little bead, and then another one on, and they were overlapping melts, and that created a seam. And after these plates were welded together, you know, two together, each of them was put on to this under a bright light, a literally a Lazy Susan.   0:22:11.0 Bill Bellows: This thing had a 27 inch outer diameter and there'd be a bead around the outside and a bead around the inside. Two different diameters. And on a given plate one inspector would look under a magnifying glass to see, are there any gaps in the beads? And then flip it over and look at the other side, and then hand off to the next person to look at the same plate again.   0:22:37.1 Bill Bellows: So, every plate was 200% inspected. There were 10 machines making these plates. There was no traceability from the inspector. All the problems might have been coming from machine number one. There was no such awareness. And so, after the inspector, "I found a quarter of an inch where you... " "Okay. Then we send it to Andrew for a re-weld." There's no feedback and is that system any better today? I'm aware of systems today that are very similar to that. So, anyway, that's what Deming's talking about relative to the... Yeah. How do companies make toast? Well, the other thing I want to jump to, relative to this "Are you in favor of quality?" Which got it on my one is, I thought, is something really neat to include in this series that we're doing Misunderstanding Quality. But as I'm getting these prompts from ASQ on a regular basis, I was reminded of a few things that are near and dear within the world of the American Society of Quality. And one is what's known as Quality 4.0. Not, 1.0, Andrew, 4.0. 4.0.   0:24:00.1 Andrew Stotz: So, we're out of the crisis.   0:24:01.1 Bill Bellows: Oh, and so the phrase, Quality 4.0, this is today, right? And actually, the incentive, "Quality 4.0," this is actually five years old. So maybe they're on to Quality 5.0, Andrew. The phrase, "Quality 4.0," derived from the German industrialization program called Industry 4.0, is an evaluation of the role of quality in the increasing digital and automated world. One question surrounding Quality 4.0 is where increasing automation will leave quality professionals in the future. Technology, Andrew, has changed quality work and now offers useful statistical software that allows the Six Sigma quality movement to grow. Tons of data that allow quality professionals to act on quality issues in almost real time and new statistical methods. So, what I find is, "Quality 4.0" is artificial intelligence. It's the Internet of Things. It is technology. So if Deming was writing the, you know, the chapter on that we just mentioned earlier, the list of all the things on that list would be pretty much everything I see in "Quality 4.0." Right.   0:25:23.9 Bill Bellows: So, how far have we come in the professional world of quality? At least I am... I find there's a lot missing relative to what Dr. Deming was talking about 30 some years ago. So, that's what I wanted to put on the table is, you know, we're again not... None of us have said we're against tools and techniques. Whether it's chat GPT, artificial intelligence, those are fantastic. But if they're not guided with a System of Profound Knowledge, then you're going to improve uniformity in isolation.   0:26:09.8 Bill Bellows: And we've talked about that in this series and that is the difference between precision and not accuracy. It is making things uniform. Then you have to ask, again when I... What I challenge for those that are in the Six Sigma world is everything I've seen and I've been reading a lot about Six Sigma for the last 30 years. Everything I see about it when it comes to reducing variability, it is about reducing variability to shrink the distribution such that, what, Andrew? Such that we end up with acceptability 100% all. No red beads, all white beads. And then we get into... I went in preparation for a call today to the ASQ website to learn, just a reminder, refresher on Quality 4.0 and again, nothing wrong with advanced digital technologies, but what if we coupled that with a strong foundation that we're trying to offer people in the Deming ??? who are interested in what Dr. Deming's ideas bring to improve, to guide that technology. So anyway, that's, you know, Quality 4.0. Also, I'm on the ASQ website and their glossary section if anyone wants to go look there. If you're a member, you get free access to this. "Quality, a subjective term for which each person or sector has its own definition."   0:27:42.7 Bill Bellows: Okay. "In technical usage, quality can have two meanings. One, the characteristic of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Two, a product or service free of deficiencies." Excuse me. "According to Joseph Juran, quality means fitness for use. According to Philip Crosby, it means conformance to requirements." And I don't see in here a reference to Dr. Deming and how he defined quality, Andrew. Huh? Interesting. What I enjoyed about being a member of the... In fact I'm still a member of the American Society for Quality. The reason I joined is I was excited by quality. Everything I was learning about Dr. Taguchi's work and then Dr. Deming's work and then began to wonder if the American Society for Quality was advancing and doc... So if anyone listening has access to the American Society for Quality and people that make decisions there, you might want to include Dr. Deming's definition of quality.   0:29:00.2 Bill Bellows: Where Dr. Deming would say a product or service possesses quality if it helps someone and enjoys a sustainable market. And what I find is unique about that is my interpretation, as Dr. Deming is saying a lecture I deliver, a podcast we present, that we are not the judge of the quality that our listeners, students are. The people downstream are the judge of that. So, it's not me handing off a part that meets requirements saying this is good. Even when Juran says fitness for use, what I would ask is fitness absolute or is fitness relative? And so that's... So anyway, I just thought it'd be fascinating to remind our listeners of the simplicity of Dr. Deming's message from The New Economics. You know, is everyone and anyone in favor of quality? Yes. And again, nothing wrong with tools and techniques, but what a Deming organization, a Blue Pen Company, a "We" organization. What they could do, guided by the Deming philosophy, with computers, where computers make sense, with AI, where AI makes sense, would seriously outpace what other companies are doing. It's interesting, but it's just not enough to compete with companies who will do that.   0:30:32.3 Bill Bellows: So, if nobody is following the Deming philosophy, then you can get by with Quality 4.0, doing AI and doing those things. But if you've got competitors and what Dr. Deming would say, Andrew, is be thankful for a good competitor, one who raises your game, right. And so, if you and I are playing tennis and you know, we're out there to become better tennis players, and as soon as I find out that you're out there so you can go brag to your mom about how you beat me last night, then I say, "Andrew, find somebody else to beat." But if you're interest and my interest is, you know, getting a lot of exercise and improving our game. That's a different story. So, that's what I just wanted to share with our ongoing listeners, is there's a lot to be gained by continuing to study the Deming philosophy. Add it to your repertoire, build a foundation guided by what The Deming Institute is doing and sponsoring podcasts like this, as well as DemingNEXT is, there's just a lot of opportunities for what Dr. Deming is offering. And I'm reminded of that on a regular basis that people are saying, "Boy, why didn't I learn about this a long time ago, what this can bring organizations?" So that's what I wanted to bring to the table today.   0:31:50.1 Andrew Stotz: That's wonderful. Well, Bill, on behalf of everyone at The Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for this discussion and for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. You'll see DemingNEXT there and the like. If you want to keep in touch with Bill, just find him on LinkedIn and reach out to him because he is responsive. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming. I just never stop talking about this quote 'cause I love it. "People are entitled to joy in work."  

歷時六年的醞釀，眾所期待的《張忠謀自傳：下冊》終於問世，距離上冊出版已經相隔26年。這本自傳記錄了張忠謀33歲回到德儀工作到2018年從台積電退休為止，長達50多年的歲月。 有趣的是，張忠謀在自傳中對於台積電近十多年來的風光其實談得不多，反而是德儀後期的痛苦掙扎，以及工研院、台積電草創時期的奮鬥過程，寫得很仔細。 在台積電草創前後，張忠謀的角色定位以及當時的政治和經濟環境有哪些變化？他如何思考股權結構和控制權等等問題？而面對高盛集團的管理層收購提議（Management Buyout, MBO），他又如何做出最後決定？ 主持人：天下雜誌總主筆 陳良榕 來賓：中研院人文社會科學研究所兼任研究員 瞿宛文 製作團隊：李洛梅、劉駿逸 ＊訂閱阿榕伯科技電子報：https://bit.ly/42A6BWj ＊意見信箱：bill@cw.com.tw -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

What happens when a recruitment entrepreneur turns 30 years of hard work into a £17 million exit? And what comes next?This week on The RAG Podcast, I'm joined by Gary Redman, former CEO of Now Education and now its Chairman. Just 18 months ago, Gary shared his vision to grow the business and exit. Now, with the dust settled on his incredible MBO success, we revisit his journey.Here's what you'll learn:

What does it take to grow a global recruitment company, secure private equity investment, and aim for a £100M valuation – all by the age of 31?On this week's The RAG Podcast, I'm sitting down with Joe Jani, founder and CEO of Metric Search, one of the world's fastest-growing recruitment firms.Here's what we uncover:

When I think of HP, three things quickly emerge in my mind: Deskjet and laser printers, the 12C calculator, and David Packard's The HP Way.The HP Way is one of my top 25 books written by CEOs. In this conversation, we're rolling with a book club format with a special guest who writes book summaries on his blog. Dan Lebrero is a software engineer based in Spain, and he'll help us unpack concepts such as MBO, management by walking around, profit-sharing plans, corporate offsites, growth frameworks, and philosophies on debt management. 

This week on The RAG Podcast, I'm sitting down with Jim Sloan, CEO and founder of Navartis a specialist recruitment agency in the infrastructure sector. Jim's journey is an incredible story of growth to a team of 110+ across multiple countries and significant profits of £2M EBITDAHere's what we discuss:

The Anti-Woke Job Board Revolution: How Red Balloon Recruiter is Fighting Back– The Sharkpreneur podcast with Seth Greene Episode 1097 Andrew CrapuchettesAndrew Crapuchettes is a pioneer in the labor market data and analytics industry, and he is the visionary behind RedBalloon.Mr. Crapuchettes began his career as a young Silicon Valley entrepreneur, building business process automation and selling 3D modeling software.In 2001, Mr. Crapuchettes became a founding member and later CEO of Emsi (now Lightcast), which he transformed from a little-known consulting company of three employees to an international economic data firm with over 250 employees worldwide.Mr. Crapuchettes not only pioneered the operational tenets that rocketed Emsi to success, but led the company through four successful transitions to two private equity firms, a strategic buyer, and a national non-profit, with each transition producing significant returns for the investors.Mr. Crapuchettes has also contributed his talents to numerous other companies, some of which have led to additional strategic and MBO exits. He has taught graduate-level classes on 3D modeling and software architecture, and has served on the board of multiple non-profit organizations. He and his wife live in Idaho with their five children.Listen to this informative Sharkpreneur episode with Andrew Crapuchettes about how RedBalloon Recruiter is leading the anti-woke job board revolution.Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week's show:- How RedBalloon was created in response to cancel culture and corporate environments that penalize personal beliefs- How RedBalloon helps create workplaces where employees can align their work with their values without fear of retribution-Why the recruitment process includes an extensive onboarding call to understand their values and the culture they seek- How using these insights ensures job postings and candidate outreach align with the client's mission and culture- How the business model and success of RedBalloon challenge the prevailing norms in the recruitment industry by offering a values-driven approachConnect with Andrew:Guest Contact InfoX: @RedBalloonWorkInstagram: @redballoonworkFacebook: Facebook.com/RedBalloonWorkLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/redballoonworkLinks Mentioned: https://www.redballoon.work/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Anti-Woke Job Board Revolution: How Red Balloon Recruiter is Fighting Back – The Sharkpreneur podcast with Seth Greene Episode 1097 Andrew Crapuchettes Andrew Crapuchettes is a pioneer in the labor market data and analytics industry, and he is the visionary behind RedBalloon. Mr. Crapuchettes began his career as a young Silicon Valley entrepreneur, building business process automation and selling 3D modeling software. In 2001, Mr. Crapuchettes became a founding member and later CEO of Emsi (now Lightcast), which he transformed from a little-known consulting company of three employees to an international economic data firm with over 250 employees worldwide. Mr. Crapuchettes not only pioneered the operational tenets that rocketed Emsi to success, but led the company through four successful transitions to two private equity firms, a strategic buyer, and a national non-profit, with each transition producing significant returns for the investors. Mr. Crapuchettes has also contributed his talents to numerous other companies, some of which have led to additional strategic and MBO exits. He has taught graduate-level classes on 3D modeling and software architecture, and has served on the board of multiple non-profit organizations. He and his wife live in Idaho with their five children. Listen to this informative Sharkpreneur episode with Andrew Crapuchettes about how RedBalloon Recruiter is leading the anti-woke job board revolution. Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week's show: - How RedBalloon was created in response to cancel culture and corporate environments that penalize personal beliefs - How RedBalloon helps create workplaces where employees can align their work with their values without fear of retribution -Why the recruitment process includes an extensive onboarding call to understand their values and the culture they seek - How using these insights ensures job postings and candidate outreach align with the client's mission and culture - How the business model and success of RedBalloon challenge the prevailing norms in the recruitment industry by offering a values-driven approach Connect with Andrew: Guest Contact Info X: @RedBalloonWork Instagram: @redballoonwork Facebook: Facebook.com/RedBalloonWork LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/redballoonwork Links Mentioned: https://www.redballoon.work/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Crapuchettes is a pioneer in the labor market data and analytics industry, and he is the visionary behind RedBalloon. Mr. Crapuchettes began his career as a young Silicon Valley entrepreneur, building business process automation and selling 3D modeling software. In 2001, Mr. Crapuchettes became a founding member and later CEO of Emsi (now Lightcast), which he transformed from a little-known consulting company of three employees to an international economic data firm with over 250 employees worldwide. Mr. Crapuchettes not only pioneered the operational tenets that rocketed Emsi to success, but led the company through four successful transitions to two private equity firms, a strategic buyer, and a national non-profit, with each transition producing significant returns for the investors. Mr. Crapuchettes has also contributed his talents to numerous other companies, some of which have led to additional strategic and MBO exits. He has taught graduate-level classes on 3D modeling and software architecture, and has served on the board of multiple non-profit organizations. He and his wife live in Idaho with their five children. Listen to this insightful RIA episode with Andrew Crapuchettes about how RedBalloon Recruiter is leading the anti-woke job board revolution. Here is what to expect on this week's show: - How RedBalloon was created in response to cancel culture and corporate environments that penalize personal beliefs. - How RedBalloon helps create workplaces where employees can align their work with their values without fear of retribution. -Why the recruitment process includes an extensive onboarding call to understand their values and the culture they seek. - How using these insights ensures job postings and candidate outreach align with the client's mission and culture. - How the business model and success of RedBalloon challenge the prevailing norms in the recruitment industry by offering a values-driven approach. Connect with Andrew: Links Mentioned: https://www.redballoon.work/ X: @BedBalloonWork Instagram: @redballoonwork Facebook: Facebook.com/RedBalloonWork LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/redballoonwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drop 1: Samsung adds Blockchain to secure AI powered appliances https://news.samsung.com/my/samsungs-ai-powered-home-appliances-are-becoming-more-secure-with-knox-matrix Drop 2: Bitcoin OS launches bridge to Cardano https://www.bitcoinos.build/blog/cardano-comes-home-to-bitcoin-in-groundbreaking-bos-grail-bridge-integration Drop 3: AgroToken will use Polygon CDK to drive agricultural RWA tokenisation in Brazil https://br.cointelegraph.com/news/polygon-forms-partnership-to-boost-agricultural-rwa-tokens-in-brazil More: Stripe acquires Bridge for 1.1B USD https://news.bitcoin.com/stripe-acquires-stablecoin-platform-bridge-in-record-1-1-billion-crypto-deal/ https://x.com/Stablecoin/status/1848390039975469094 Imersão gratuita para desenvolvedor Solidity em PTBR: Ethereum developer pack, aos sábados, de 16/Nov a 21/Dez https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7254571306271068162-oq-9 Kraken announces new L2, ink https://blog.kraken.com/news/announcing-ink R3, the builders of Corda DLT, is looking for a buyer https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/intel-backed-blockchain-startup-r3-considers-options-including-a-sale Zuvia to use Nuclea Chain for tokenized receivables https://www.blocknews.com.br/financas-corporativo/zuvia-fecha-acordo-para-usar-nuclea-chain-em-tokenizacao-de-duplicatas/ Stand with Crypto UK adds 9 universities to its members list https://www.linkedin.com/posts/standwithcryptouk_standwithcryptouk-activity-7254829842276204546-fjrP Emurgo is working with Axelar to bridge Cardano do 70 other Blockchains https://x.com/emurgo_io/status/1849073508531544344 Intersect, Cardano's MBO, finalizes first global member elections https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/celebrating-the-completion-of-intersects-first-ever-full-scale-elections Nova Labs, makers of Helium, reduces team to focus on its crypto-native offerings https://www.cryptopolitan.com/nova-labs-cuts-36-workforce/ ONE Championship, one of the most popular martial arts leagues on the planet have partnered with blockchain Sui https://newsletter.sportingcrypto.com/p/one-championship-tap-sui-in-blockchain-partnership The EEA Enterprise Ethereum Alliance is hiring an exec director. Are you that person? https://x.com/EntEthAlliance/status/1843640534327537719 . Redes sociais / comms.. Instagram.com/blockdropspodcast.. Twitter.com/blockdropspod.. Blockdrops.lens .. https://warpcast.com/mauriciomagaldi.. youtube.com/@BlockDropsPodcast.. Meu conteúdo em inglês twitter.com/0xmauricio.. Newsletter do linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7056680685142454272.. blockdropspodcast@gmail.com

Drop 1: Samsung adds Blockchain to secure AI powered appliances https://news.samsung.com/my/samsungs-ai-powered-home-appliances-are-becoming-more-secure-with-knox-matrix Drop 2: Bitcoin OS launches bridge to Cardano https://www.bitcoinos.build/blog/cardano-comes-home-to-bitcoin-in-groundbreaking-bos-grail-bridge-integration Drop 3: AgroToken will use Polygon CDK to drive agricultural RWA tokenisation in Brazil https://br.cointelegraph.com/news/polygon-forms-partnership-to-boost-agricultural-rwa-tokens-in-brazil More Stripe acquires Bridge for 1.1B USD https://news.bitcoin.com/stripe-acquires-stablecoin-platform-bridge-in-record-1-1-billion-crypto-deal/ https://x.com/Stablecoin/status/1848390039975469094 Imersão gratuita para desenvolvedor Solidity em PTBR: Ethereum developer pack, aos sábados, de 16/Nov a 21/Dez https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7254571306271068162-oq-9 Kraken announces new L2, ink https://blog.kraken.com/news/announcing-ink R3, the builders of Corda DLT, is looking for a buyer https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/intel-backed-blockchain-startup-r3-considers-options-including-a-sale Zuvia to use Nuclea Chain for tokenized receivables https://www.blocknews.com.br/financas-corporativo/zuvia-fecha-acordo-para-usar-nuclea-chain-em-tokenizacao-de-duplicatas/ Stand with Crypto UK adds 9 universities to its members list https://www.linkedin.com/posts/standwithcryptouk_standwithcryptouk-activity-7254829842276204546-fjrP Emurgo is working with Axelar to bridge Cardano do 70 other Blockchains https://x.com/emurgo_io/status/1849073508531544344 Intersect, Cardano's MBO, finalizes first global member elections https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/celebrating-the-completion-of-intersects-first-ever-full-scale-elections Nova Labs, makers of Helium, reduces team to focus on its crypto-native offerings https://www.cryptopolitan.com/nova-labs-cuts-36-workforce/ ONE Championship, one of the most popular martial arts leagues on the planet have partnered with blockchain Sui https://newsletter.sportingcrypto.com/p/one-championship-tap-sui-in-blockchain-partnership The EEA Enterprise Ethereum Alliance is hiring an exec director. Are you that person? https://x.com/EntEthAlliance/status/1843640534327537719 . Redes sociais / comms .. Instagram.com/blockdropspodcast .. Twitter.com/blockdropspod .. Blockdrops.lens .. https://warpcast.com/mauriciomagaldi .. youtube.com/@BlockDropsPodcast .. Meu conteúdo em inglês twitter.com/0xmauricio .. Newsletter do linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7056680685142454272 .. blockdropspodcast@gmail.com

Joanna Yellowlees-Bound joins Iain for this special episode as we cover her 40-year career in the ski industry, graduating from resort rep to managing director of Erna Low - one of the oldest ski companies in the UK.   Joanna is one of the most experienced professionals in the UK ski industry, with a career that spans the first halcyon days of the ski business in the 80s to our post-Brexit world today, including a key role in the development of Arc 1950. We also discuss her new role working with her husband, Mensun Bound, the marine archaeologist who discovered the wreck of Shackleton's ‘Endurance' under the Antarctic ice. Intersport Ski Hire Discount Code Save money on your ski hire by using the code ‘SKIPODCAST' at intersportrent.com, or simply take this link for your discount to be automatically applied at the checkout.    SHOW NOTES  Currency restrictions applied on foreign holidays (2:30) Club Med beads are back! (3:00) Joanna started working for Erna Low in 1982 (7:00) It was the days of the Telex (12:45) Erna Low's original advert appeared in The Times in 1932 (15:00) Erna Low represented La Plagne in the UK market in the 1980s (21:00) Joanna became MD of the company in 1996 (23:30) The ERM collapse led to large currency losses (24:30) Joanna took over ownership of Erna Low in 2002 (27:00) In 2003, Joanna founded Erna Low Property (27:30) The Arc 1950 project was developed by Intrawest (29:45) In 2023, Joanna sold Erna Low Property to Francois Marchand in a MBO (31:00) 2012 was the 80th anniversary of Erna Low (31:30) Listen to our special podcast episode on Erna Low with Mark Frary (31:45) Take a look at some of Erna Low's vintage film footage (34:30) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5B02thqhkQ In 2019, Joanna sold Erna Low Travel to NUCO Travel (35:30) Mensun is a marine archaeologist who found the ‘Endurance' in March 2022 (37:30) Look out for ‘Endurance' coming out on Disney+ later this year (39:15) Mensun's book is called ‘The Ship Beneath The Ice' (39:45) Feedback (41:30) I enjoy all feedback about the show, I like to know what you think, especially about our features so please contact on social @theskipodcast or by email theskipodcast@gmail.com  robsmith0179 (IG): “Listened to Episode 217 this morning...I'm now adding St Martin to my visit list!” mattmglx: “I finally got round to clicking 5 stars on Spotify! Thanks for keeping me sane on my commute to work” Pat from Ireland (BMAC): “I really enjoy the podcasts. I mix current episodes with those from your back catalogue. As someone who found skiing in middle age I am completely hooked. Keep up the brilliant work and here's to winter.” If you like the podcast, there are three things you can do to help:    1) Review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify  2) Subscribe  3) Book your ski hire with Intersport Rent using the code ‘SKIPODCAST' or take this link There are now 230 episodes of The Ski Podcast. There is so much to listen to in our back catalog: just go to theskipodcast.com and search the tags and categories. Our equipment specials are being published on the Skipedia YouTube channel. You can follow me @skipedia and the podcast @theskipodcast

On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey welcome Jonathan Shaffner to the podcast. Jon is a retired U.S. Army colonel with 25 years of service who currently works as the director of federal business development at MBO Partners. MBO specializes in delivering solutions that make it safer and easier for enterprise organizations and top independent professionals to work together. Jon kicks off the show by discussing NATO's increased presence in Europe, through the lens of his own military experience. He posits that modern wars are more ideology-based than previous ones. This leads to Jon talking about his years in Afghanistan and Iraq. After, he shares what MBO does and how it helps companies (especially in defense and health care) build better workforces. (1:00) Next, Jon puts government spending into an investing context. He notes that through all the inefficiency and bloat, there are definite winners and losers of government contracts. He also breaks down his and MBO's involvement in helping to create value for the companies that have been awarded these contracts. Jon cites data usage as the biggest need he's seeing right now. Companies have massive amounts of data but don't know what to do with it or how to implement it. (23:05) Finally, Jon talks about how MBO finds contractors, the possibility of it going public someday, and its research on the gig economy. He then explores what could happen with the two major ongoing wars affecting the U.S. today: Russia versus Ukraine and Israel versus Hamas. Jon predicts that the war in Ukraine will be over within 18 months, but he says the war in the Middle East is much more complicated thanks to the Houthis. (42:41)

Interrogations partagées au Forum international Science4action organisé par l'IRD (l'Institut de recherche pour le développement) à Marseille. L'occasion de croiser les regards, les parcours et les approches de chercheuses engagées sur tout le continent africain... Émission enregistrée dans le cadre du Forum international Science4Action pour les 80 ans de l'IRD à Marseille Ravis de vous retrouver à Marseille depuis le palais du Pharo qui surplombe le Vieux Port avec une vue imprenable sur la Méditerranée, pour une émission spéciale recherche au Sud et pour les Suds, enregistrée au Forum International Science4Action, la science au service de l'action, organisé par L'IRD, l'Institut de recherche pour le développement, pour célébrer ses 80 ans, en partenariat avec RFI. Comment mettre la science la plus innovante au service d'un développement durable et partagé par tous ? Comment croiser tous les savoirs pour répondre aux défis majeurs environnementaux, économiques et sanitaires de notre humanité ?Avec- Valérie Verdier, présidente-directrice générale de l'Institut de recherche pour le développement- Valérie Masson-Delmotte, paléoclimatologue, directrice de recherche au CEA- Adèle Ouédraogo, chercheuse à l'Institut de recherche en sciences appliquées et technologies du Burkina Faso (IRSAT), fondatrice de l'association Faso Compost et lauréate 2023 des Trophées de l'Innovation de l'IRD- Michèle Mbo'o-Tchouawou, directrice adjointe du Réseau des femmes africaines pour la recherche en agriculture. Ainsi que Valérie Verdier, présidente-directrice générale de l'Institut de recherche pour le développement depuis le 12 février 2020.

Interrogations partagées au Forum international Science4action organisé par l'IRD (l'Institut de recherche pour le développement) à Marseille. L'occasion de croiser les regards, les parcours et les approches de chercheuses engagées sur tout le continent africain... Émission enregistrée dans le cadre du Forum international Science4Action pour les 80 ans de l'IRD à Marseille Ravis de vous retrouver à Marseille depuis le palais du Pharo qui surplombe le Vieux Port avec une vue imprenable sur la Méditerranée, pour une émission spéciale recherche au Sud et pour les Suds, enregistrée au Forum International Science4Action, la science au service de l'action, organisé par L'IRD, l'Institut de recherche pour le développement, pour célébrer ses 80 ans, en partenariat avec RFI. Comment mettre la science la plus innovante au service d'un développement durable et partagé par tous ? Comment croiser tous les savoirs pour répondre aux défis majeurs environnementaux, économiques et sanitaires de notre humanité ?Avec- Valérie Verdier, présidente-directrice générale de l'Institut de recherche pour le développement- Valérie Masson-Delmotte, paléoclimatologue, directrice de recherche au CEA- Adèle Ouédraogo, chercheuse à l'Institut de recherche en sciences appliquées et technologies du Burkina Faso (IRSAT), fondatrice de l'association Faso Compost et lauréate 2023 des Trophées de l'Innovation de l'IRD- Michèle Mbo'o-Tchouawou, directrice adjointe du Réseau des femmes africaines pour la recherche en agriculture. Ainsi que Valérie Verdier, présidente-directrice générale de l'Institut de recherche pour le développement depuis le 12 février 2020.