Podcasts about Clayton Christensen

Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ https://youtu.be/j0TuosYDQe4?si=7mzUwBe4PrQ-eB2E In this insightful session from the Ultimate Partner Live event in Bellevue, Washington, Vince Menzione sits down with Stephen Boyle, Corporate Vice President for Enterprise Partners at Microsoft, to pull back the curtain on the tectonic shifts redefining the tech ecosystem. Boyle details Microsoft's massive organizational pivot into enterprise and SME/channel divisions , explaining how artificial intelligence acts as the foundational thread unifying systems integrators, software vendors, and digital natives. Moving past market noise surrounding competing foundational models , he highlights Microsoft's strategy to become the ultimate “platform of platforms” by prioritizing user choice, security, and trust. Emphasizing a shift away from infrastructure technicalities and toward practical business outcomes , Boyle delivers an urgent mandate for partners to scale technical talent, eliminate traditional operational silos, and brace for the incoming consumption-driven, agent-based future of enterprise computing. Key Takeaways Microsoft has restructured its global sales divisions into distinct Enterprise and SME/Channel organizations to better target its massive total addressable markets. Artificial intelligence is fundamentally altering the partner ecosystem by dismantling traditional software and systems integrator silos to build interconnected, multi-party solutions. Rather than forcing alignment to a singular model, Microsoft aims to be the definitive platform of platforms by offering extensive choice across over 1,100 language models. The enterprise landscape is rapidly moving past experimental AI pilot phases and entering production setups completely focused on transforming core business outcomes. Tomorrow's service organizations are aggressively evolving into software-minded operations that deploy repeatable, highly specialized internal autonomous agents. Managing tokens and monitoring usage metrics represents the emerging operational baseline for balancing efficiency against the scaling expenses of large language models. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AI frontier, platform of platforms, enterprise partners, global systems integrators, digital natives, language models, token consumption, agent sprawl, citizen developers, shadow IT, business outcomes, technical enablement, marketplace growth, hyper-scalers, processing fluency, sovereign AI, industry ecosystems, data governance. Transcript [00:00:00] Stephen Boyle: This is the biggest, most transformative, iterative change in technology we’ve ever seen, where, if you wanna call it a paradigm shift or whatever word comes after paradigm shift. [00:00:12] Vince Menzione: We just came back from Ultimate Partner live in Bellevue, Washington, where we hosted incredible leaders for two amazing days. Come join us for this next session where we explore the tectonic shifts we’ve all been seeing. Uh, I am thrilled to invite our next guest up on stage. I’ve known this gentleman for several years back in my days at Microsoft, and, um, we’ve been friends, actually Microsoft, and then we both went and did different things, came he’s come back to Microsoft in a big way. [00:00:46] Vince Menzione: Uh, Steven Boyle, for those of you don’t know, is recently a named the C. We will talk about it in a second, but I, I need to announce you properly. Is the corporate vice president, which by the way in Microsoft is a big deal for enterprise partners. He and Nicole De and I would say are the two Microsoft leaders in the organization. [00:01:06] Vince Menzione: Nicole is the channel chief. Steven has a, a big remit and we’ll talk about that up on stage. But I’m just so delightful for his support and for making the time in a very busy week at Microsoft ’cause this is CEO summit this week to make some time to come with us and be on stage with me. Please welcome my good friend Steven Boyle. [00:01:29] Vince Menzione: Good to see you, sir. To see. So I’m gonna put you on this side. [00:01:33] Stephen Boyle: Okay. [00:01:35] Vince Menzione: The hot seat. So I’m gonna, I, I didn’t do a justice and I, I wanted you to explain your role. I, I think I know, but I think for the, for the people in the room, uh, talk to us what Enterprise Partners means at Microsoft and what that role remit and remit looks like. [00:01:50] Stephen Boyle: Um, CVPs may or may not be important, but one thing they don’t do is get invites to the CEO summit. So I’m super pleased to be here with you guys. No, no, it’s totally cool. It’s totally cool if that phone rings. No, I’m kidding. Doesn’t. So what does it mean? So I’d like quickly, um. January last year, uh, we split the sales organization into enterprise and small to medium enterprise and channel. [00:02:15] Stephen Boyle: You guys probably familiar with that? Nicole is the, uh, chief partner officer lives in the SMA and C world and drives the channel, um, drives our marketplace business and, and a lot of other things. Um, for that 60 billion, um, you know, total addressable market that we have. Down there in SME and C. Um, at the same time, we established enterprise partner as part of Nick Parker’s overall organization. [00:02:40] Stephen Boyle: Um, but for most of 2025 we ran it as global systems integrators and advisories, ISVs and digital natives. So three separate footprints all focused entirely on, on, on enterprise. Um, in December, January, we talked about establishing an enterprise partner leader that would. You know, aggregate all of this stuff. [00:03:00] Stephen Boyle: Um, I was fortunate to come through, um, some frankly, pretty hairy, uh, experiences, I bet with some of our senior leaders. Um, I, I’ve loved to [00:03:08] Vince Menzione: been in the room for that [00:03:09] Stephen Boyle: questions like, why Steven Boyle and things like that, right? And really have to dig deep to, uh, to justify. Anyway, uh, I’m blessed and honored, uh, to run that entire portfolio of partners, uh, for the entirety of the enterprise partner world, which now from a chief revenue officer perspective, belongs to Deb. [00:03:25] Stephen Boyle: Deb Co. So Deb is the enterprise leader for all of our sales that we do into that space. Awesome. Um, I have three regional leaders, Nina Harding here in the United States, Ehab Ra in in Europe, and Heather Gordon in Asia that mirror and replicate and flow down the things that we decide to do from a strategy perspective for the, uh, for the core. [00:03:45] Vince Menzione: And we love Nina. She’s been, she was at our last event, [00:03:47] Stephen Boyle: super, super lady. And, uh, you know, the US is still 50% of our overall business. [00:03:53] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:03:53] Stephen Boyle: Too big to fabric. Every time I talk to Nina, I’m like, Nina, you’re too big to fail. We can’t cover you anywhere else. So you know, you’ve gotta be successful here in the Americas. [00:04:01] Vince Menzione: So I think just for breaking it up, I, ’cause I do want to like, it’ll lead to the next question, right? So you have the global systems integrators, all these systems integrators. Essentially you have all of the software companies we used to call ISVs, we now call SDCs or software development corporations. [00:04:17] Vince Menzione: And then you also have the AI stack, I’ll call it. Right? So under Jason Grafe. Yeah. Many, many might know. Jason’s been a guest on the podcast and was Satya’s chief of staff at one time, eight years. Eight years. Wow. I didn’t realize there was that many. [00:04:31] Stephen Boyle: Carry carried a lot of bags for Satya over the years. [00:04:34] Vince Menzione: Unbelievable. Well, let’s, I mean, so AI is an important component, right? And you saw Jay’s, Jay talking, just talking about AI and all these things. I would love to start here, right? Because, uh, you’re, you’re, I wanna get your perspective as Microsoft, your perspective as Microsoft on the biggest shifts you’re seeing in defining this we’ll call AI Frontier. [00:04:54] Vince Menzione: We’re seeing right now, how should partners translate that into how they position and go to market externally? How, how do we need to think about this time? [00:05:02] Stephen Boyle: Yeah, that is, uh, that is a huge question and I’m not sure we’ve got enough time to go into the, into all of the detail. Um, so let me sort of up level it a little bit for you. [00:05:10] Stephen Boyle: And I think, look, the move that we meet at made a couple of months ago and pulling together those three aspects. Nicole had already done it in SME and C. Right. One partner organization across the world with a very common set of goals. We were working closely together, Sandy Gupta, on ISV, Jason on ai, and myself on on si. [00:05:29] Stephen Boyle: But we were still working closely together across silos. So the opportunity for me, 60 days into this role is AI just allows you to wire the partner ecosystem together differently. Right? And even if you look at how we’re going to market an AI today, um. You know, with, with, with chat GPT, with Claude, with Anthropic, um, I think there’s something like 1100 different, you know, language models on Microsoft today. [00:05:55] Stephen Boyle: So the way I think about AI is we are absolutely gonna be the ultimate platform of platforms. Yeah, choice is incredibly important. Um. It’s, it’s, you know, turn the clock back 12 months, everybody was chat gpt five point x, you know, and then six months ago it was Gemini and now it seems to be clawed. And honestly I don’t know what it’s gonna be next quarter. [00:06:15] Stephen Boyle: So the only thing I can do is offer you choice. [00:06:18] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:06:18] Stephen Boyle: And from a partner perspective, I think that minimizes or reduces the risk that you have betting on the Microsoft platform because you can go in a multitude of different directions. I know we’re not in Europe, but if you were in Europe and you were worried about G-G-D-P-R and Jay mentioned sovereignty, you’d probably be like lining up really closely to Misra. [00:06:37] Stephen Boyle: Yeah. And a bunch of other Europe, European partners. So wherever you are in the globe, I wanna be that platform choice. Um, and we will lead with our own first party solutions. I hope they’re not coming for me. Um. I parked safely in the hotel. It can’t be me. Um, but you weren’t vibe coding in the room. Um, but you know, wherever you are in the world, in whichever industry you are in, um, it is our intent to, to offer that platform of platforms and to give the broadest set of partners the opportunity to engage with us. [00:07:07] Vince Menzione: I think that’s really important because I, I have found, especially in the last month or two, people are, it’s almost like a knee jerk. Don’t you feel like people don’t know what to do? There’s been so much noise in the press and the media and, and the markets around open AI and anthropic especially. Where do I go? [00:07:26] Vince Menzione: Seems to be like when I, when I sit, I watch everybody in the room here. I think they’re, they’ve all been thinking that as well. So you can, [00:07:31] Stephen Boyle: there’s a, a little bit of a deer in the headlights moment. Yes. And even I like, I get that. Yeah. Um, you know, I saw, uh, Jay slides. Jay, love the presentation. Love the slides, man. [00:07:40] Stephen Boyle: I’m gonna steal several of them. Um, we’ll talk about that later. We, we [00:07:43] Vince Menzione: have the deck, [00:07:45] Stephen Boyle: but, but in all seriousness, you know, this, this is like. It’s a new paradigm. I will date myself a little bit. Some of you might heard me say this. I sold many computers in the 1980s. Mini computers. Some of you in the room are going, what’s a mini computer? [00:07:59] Stephen Boyle: Um, I sold client server for Sun Microsystems in the nineties. I sold an awful lot of Oracle databases in the Auts, I think they’re called, and I’ve done two stints with Microsoft. This is the biggest, most transformative. Iterative change in technology we’ve ever seen. What, if you wanna call it a paradigm shift or whatever word comes after paradigm shift. [00:08:18] Stephen Boyle: Um, and we are building intelligent systems at scale faster than we’ve ever seen. Scalable, mission critical solutions being implemented today inside of Microsoft and with our most important customers. So, and we can’t do it without partners, right? There is absolutely nothing we can do in this industry. I will, I will put the, you know, the elephant in the room out there. [00:08:40] Stephen Boyle: Our ISD organization has between five and 7,000 people. Our forward deployed engineering organization is about a thousand people. [00:08:47] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:08:48] Stephen Boyle: So when you look at the scale of the total addressable market that Jay just talked about. We are gonna service directly like this much [00:08:55] Vince Menzione: used to be 5%. Was it even, is it even that high? [00:08:58] Stephen Boyle: I doubt it’s, I doubt it’s even that. And the billions of dollars that we spend every year helping our customers transform to what we’re now calling frontier firms is gonna be, have to be driven with every single person in this room in some way, shape, or form. Judson is not asking Marla to significantly increase ISD. [00:09:15] Stephen Boyle: Not asking John to significantly increase FDE, although we probably will hire in that area just because of the, the newness and the, you know, bright shiny object that everybody’s like, oh, FDE, I’ve gotta have those. We’ve got a thousand already today that have been around in John’s organization for 10 plus years doing the things that we are doing today. [00:09:32] Stephen Boyle: But we are gonna build out that muscle. But the real way we’re gonna build out that muscle is with all of you in this room. That’s like categorical. That is my like, probably number one goal for the next one to three years is make sure that, that story that Jay just told about Microsoft not being involved in AstraZeneca. [00:09:48] Stephen Boyle: I probably won’t tell Judson that Jay, but I love the story. Um, like if you could all do that for me, like win, um, that is so, you know, from our worldwide learning, through our skilling enablement through our cloud solution architects that I personally own. We are pivoting aggressively towards making sure that the partners understand our platforms better than any other job, number one for me right now, if you don’t understand what I’m selling, like I’m kind of dead in the water obviously. [00:10:15] Stephen Boyle: Well, [00:10:15] Vince Menzione: I was gonna ask you why now? Why Microsoft? Why now? Right? Because there is a lot of noise. You know, Google just announced, you all announced your results on the same day, which was astounding. That was freaky, wasn’t it? It was. It was the first time. And the, the total commitment, customer commitment is over a trillion dollars now, I think 1.2 trillion is what I counted up. [00:10:33] Stephen Boyle: Yeah. [00:10:34] Vince Menzione: But it’s saying a lot about like, what do I do now, like as these partners in the room. Um, how, I think you kind of already, and you’ve talked about this, about differentiating where Microsoft is, I think J Slide does a lot of justice there. It says how, uh, Microsoft Partners came into the room, surrounded the customer. [00:10:52] Vince Menzione: It feels like Microsoft has always leaned in big time on partners. Uh, more so I would say than any other organization out there. What would [00:10:59] Stephen Boyle: you say Joe Roses, my chief of staff, business manager and so many other things was telling me last night that, you know, we used to say 500,000 partners. [00:11:05] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:11:06] Stephen Boyle: it’s a, it’s a significantly higher number than that as well. [00:11:09] Stephen Boyle: So there’s an element of, you know, back to the deer in the headlights, which partners are, are more important. One of my other phrases that I say on a regular basis, the winners and losers are yet to be decided in this next wave. Like, I want all of us to on the right side of that argument. Right? But, but it’s gonna be a challenge and, and companies are going through shifts. [00:11:28] Stephen Boyle: You know, Accenture, maybe, possibly doesn’t need 750,000 employees in the not too distant future. Maybe TCS at 600,000 doesn’t need 600,000 human employees. So we’re going through this dramatic shift of, you know, what’s the right balance going forward. What I would say about Microsoft is notwithstanding the fact that we’ve figured this out for 51 years, which is a little bit mind blowing, um, that you know, all the way back in the seventies we’ve gone through so many iterative changes. [00:11:56] Stephen Boyle: People have questioned just like they’ve questions. A lot of other technology companies, are you gonna be around for the long haul? I think we’ve proven time and time again, and I love Jay’s story. I’ve used that myself about how many companies disappear on a, on a decade to decade, you know, business. 10 years ago I had the opportunity to listen to Craig Clayton Christensen, who’s sadly no longer with us. [00:12:15] Stephen Boyle: Yeah. But you know, the books that he wrote and the story that he told to Microsoft 2014, we were nowhere in cloud. [00:12:21] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:12:22] Stephen Boyle: AWS was so far ahead of us, it was crazy. And he came in and he’s like. You know what? You guys need to be successful. You need to figure out how to cross this chasm again, and we’ve done it time and time again. [00:12:32] Stephen Boyle: You can go back. You know, Microsoft used to be known as a fast follower in ai. I don’t think we’re a fast follower. I think we’re right up there. We’re right at the front, but that race is still being run and the winners are losers are yet to be decided. [00:12:44] Vince Menzione: I was in that room with Clayton Christensen with you, by the way. [00:12:46] Vince Menzione: I remember, I remember that. That was at a Prism conference. [00:12:49] Stephen Boyle: Yeah. Yeah. [00:12:50] Vince Menzione: You men, you touched on this with the GSIs a little bit. How do you see the roles evolving? You know, we, we, we bucketed all, we’ve always been. Fantastic about bucketing ISVs or SDCs and sis and digital natives. Yeah. How does it, how does that all come together? [00:13:06] Vince Menzione: Does it come together any differently in this new AI platform era, or is it the same? [00:13:11] Stephen Boyle: I look, I, I’ve said this for a long time, like if you go into AstraZeneca, the six plus, you know, frontline partners, there’s probably a whole board of second, third tier that, that we don’t know about doing, you know, things across the AstraZeneca group. [00:13:25] Stephen Boyle: It takes several villages and sometimes a small town, especially in my world, in the enterprise world, strategic five hundreds. Yeah. Um, you know, we, we ran some reports a few years ago and it is shocking how many global systems integrators have a footprint in Shell or Exxon or, you know, bank of America or whatever else. [00:13:44] Stephen Boyle: So I’ve always believed that partner to partner is critical. Yeah. I think it became even more critical in the, in the AI world, and I’ll take my new friends at Anthropic. So I went to the first Anthropic partner Summit. Some of you might have been down there in, in San Diego, um, just a couple of months ago. [00:13:59] Stephen Boyle: Same partners, same people from the same partners. In the room, you know, talking about what they’re gonna do together with Anthropic. Um, and I’m looking out across this audience going, okay, well I know him and I know her and I know those guys, and like, I need to figure out how I’m gonna weave this together. [00:14:14] Stephen Boyle: So it’s not just an Accenture and Anthropic or an NTT data and anthropic, but it’s an NTT data plus anthropic plus Microsoft. Story going forward. And then who’s best at delivering those services capabilities? So it’s it at every juncture that I see in the, in the partner community, and this is the, the reason why I argued vehemently with Nick, that it has to be one organization I’m gonna create maybe given a little bit away. [00:14:40] Stephen Boyle: So if you’re recording, stop now. Um, I’m gonna create an enablement organization that is partner agnostic. I don’t necessarily care. I do care about the digital natives, but I don’t care about how I train them. Right. What I’m more important of is how do I train the digital natives in what the sis are doing, and how do I train the sis and what the ISVs Plus digital Natives are doing. [00:15:01] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:15:01] Stephen Boyle: That is my, that’s my game plan. If I fail there, then I think we fail to raise the bar and be differentiated in an AI world, and I’m not set up like that today. [00:15:12] Vince Menzione: I wanna, I wanna ask you, uh, uh, because I was looking at Jay’s slide and the, the managed piece is. And we have a lot of managed service providers in this room today. [00:15:20] Vince Menzione: A lot of them, by the way, come from the old school of managed services. The managed piece seems to be like, if I’m doing something today with ai, we’re gonna talk about security next, uh, up on stage here. It seems like there’s a new set of skills or a different approach to the customer, don’t you? Don’t you agree? [00:15:37] Stephen Boyle: I I [00:15:37] Vince Menzione: think you need to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all [00:15:39] Stephen Boyle: times. I think what it boils down to is you can’t do AI unless you do certain other things. [00:15:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:15:44] Stephen Boyle: Right. You could be a modern work specialist and you could make a lot of money being a modern work specialist, or you could be a, a dynamic specialist. [00:15:52] Stephen Boyle: We just held our, uh, inner A in a circle conference last last week, which I was disappointed to miss for the first time in a few years. Those, those days are, are, are fast becoming over. [00:16:03] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:16:04] Stephen Boyle: Um, why? Because everything that I’ve just said is tied together by ai. Yes. And in order to do good ai, you need good data. [00:16:12] Stephen Boyle: And in order to trust everything that you’re getting, as Judson talks about trust and intelligence, you need to wrap that in a really secure [00:16:19] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:16:19] Stephen Boyle: You know, en en environment. Now we will do our best to provide levels of security into how we deliver ai. But that’s not the end of the game, right? You have to take it all, all the way to the edge. [00:16:30] Stephen Boyle: So that’s why a siloed partner or a singular commercial solution area partner in Microsoft’s terms, has got to transform its business. ’cause if you’re gonna do ai, you’ve gotta do those other things as well. [00:16:41] Vince Menzione: Agreed. I must see the model changing, and in fact, I see like bigger organizations becoming managed service providers in many respects. [00:16:48] Stephen Boyle: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, there’s still, there’s still a role for all the old terminology you mentioned is SV to sdc. Yeah. I’m like, I’m been around long enough. Look, it’s ANB still anv, it’s still an isv. Thank you. Independent software vendor. Um, and it’s, you know, where, where AI is allowing software to be, you know, frankly developed in a number of different places. [00:17:07] Stephen Boyle: We are all citizen developers. Um, you know, I was on a call with our internal leadership yesterday, um, and you guys might have heard this story ’cause I think it came out at Ignite. When we turn the agent 365, around and on ourselves. We found 130,000 agents running across Microsoft that had been developed and deployed internally with, I mean, you could call it shadow it. [00:17:28] Stephen Boyle: I guess that would be one phrase that you would use for it, but the reality is if you, if you haven’t got something to do your job today, you have the tools. To build it really, really fast. Um, and that, you know, that’s, that’s a great opportunity for people to be able to do their work, you know, in a better and in a different way. [00:17:45] Stephen Boyle: But it’s also a huge opportunity to make sure that data governance and security and all the other things that we need to deliver are there out of, out of the gate and out of the platform that we deliver. So security’s absolutely critical. Not saying that managed services won’t grow, um, at, at some level as well, but only if they transform into this multifaceted way. [00:18:04] Stephen Boyle: Yeah. Thinking [00:18:05] Vince Menzione: about, well, that’s what I was, I was gonna lead to here with innovating. It’s happening across, I mean, we’re talking about chips, we’re talking about foundational models, LLMs, we’re talking about applications, we’re talking about agents. How should we think about where to play and how to differentiate as partners in this room? [00:18:22] Stephen Boyle: I think. [00:18:25] Stephen Boyle: So look, I mean, one, one of the ways that Judson talks about it is I think silicon’s gonna change over time. Yes. NVIDIA’s definitely the 800 pound gorilla, maybe the 8,000 pound gorilla. Yeah. Uh, but you know, if you read the press, there’s, there’s things happening in, in different places as first party silicon, which we clearly are, are developing, um, in a quantum direction for sure. [00:18:45] Stephen Boyle: Um, there’s lots of different language models that haven’t even been launched on, on, on the marketplace yet, so. You know, Judson’s trying to uplevel our conversations. You’ll hear us talking about conversations more and more as we go into FY 27, um, that obviate all of those layers. Just like even when I was selling Sun Microsystems, it was about the business outcome and the business solution that we were solving for not necessarily the fastest piece of hardware or the best client service solution on, on the market. [00:19:17] Stephen Boyle: So I think what’s gonna happen over the next 12 to 24 months is we’ll have so many different models to choose from. We’ll have more silicon to choose from, but those won’t be the real buying decisions. The real buying decisions of what? How am I trying to transform my finance organization, my HR organization, and my supply chain? [00:19:36] Stephen Boyle: Because the underlying technology, Judson says commodity I, I guess I can go with that. It will be commoditized and we’ll really start to focus back on what the important things are. We’re moving a lot from pilot to production. You guys have probably seen that. The numbers that Jay just showed about how many. [00:19:52] Stephen Boyle: Projects are failing, is getting less and less because we’re getting smarter and smarter about what it takes to actually drive the business outcome. And I need all of us to be talking that same language. Yeah. Having conversations with head of HR about how we’re gonna transform human capital management in the, in the age of agents, if you like, like the underlying platform. [00:20:14] Stephen Boyle: It’s not, don’t worry about it. You wanna be on a secure platform. Don’t get me wrong. But at the same time, I don’t think we, we spent too much time worrying about that. [00:20:21] Vince Menzione: Yeah. We’re not, what you’re saying is we’re not spending enough time on outcomes. On the business outcomes. Right. And that’s where we need to focus. [00:20:27] Vince Menzione: We’re, we’re focusing on, I, I feel like we’re, it’s a signal to, to noise ratio that we’re living through right now. There’s too much noise. [00:20:33] Stephen Boyle: Yeah. [00:20:34] Vince Menzione: And we’re not focusing on the signal. I think that’s what you’re saying. [00:20:36] Stephen Boyle: I, it’s got to be, I mean, to be honest with you, it’s always been, you know, even when I sold what I would perceive, you know, sun in the nineties was a rockman ship to the stars and, you know, kind of sad what happened to that company. [00:20:47] Stephen Boyle: Um, but we, we were, we were fixated on, we had the best client server. But, but nobody was buying, you know, a piece of Sun hardware as a room heater, which is all it did, you know, like for the longest. But if you had SAP, if you had Cybase, if you had Bond, remember Bond, I mean all of those applications that drove the business outcomes, we’ve gotta get back to that kind of mentality. [00:21:09] Stephen Boyle: Yes. And worrying a little bit less about the underlying architecture. Yeah. It needs to be, it needs to be part of the conversation. ’cause it needs to deliver trust and security and intelligence and everything else. Then you need to rapidly move to what are you trying to achieve and how can we ensure the, the, the success of, of your business outcome. [00:21:27] Stephen Boyle: And look, I mean, Palantir pri you know, sort of came out and said, well, the way we do that is through forward deployed engineering. Um, and they stole the show. And, and, you know, they’re, they’re doing very well as a result of doing that. Uh, but if you go and talk to, um, Tom Siebel’s organization at C3 ai. [00:21:43] Stephen Boyle: They’ve had FDS for quite a while. You know, I told you about John Chuchu 10 years ago. John Chu, Chuck’s job was to go and get all the applications that we needed on the Microsoft phone. Remember that? [00:21:54] Vince Menzione: Yes. Um, [00:21:55] Stephen Boyle: you know, so we’ve pivoted John o over the years to doing what he’s doing now, which is to go sometimes in partnership with, with partners into the customer and say, what is it you’re trying to achieve? [00:22:05] Stephen Boyle: Let me show you how I can build that for you in three weeks or three months. That might have taken you three years. We literally just did a hackathon with one partner last, last, last week with, uh, with our ISE organization, the, the, the forward deployed, uh, group that John runs. Um, and one of the big customers said, I’ve just done in three days what would’ve taken me three months. [00:22:26] Stephen Boyle: Now he hasn’t productized it and rolled it out and blah, blah, blah. But the reality is that is how fast things are changing. And this was not a small company. This was a very, very large oil company, and they were like blown away by how much we can achieve. We’ve gotta do that at scale. [00:22:41] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:22:42] Stephen Boyle: You know, we, we have a commitment to scale our FDE community through partnerships to touch all of the S 500 in a very personalized way. [00:22:51] Stephen Boyle: And then, you know, at a slightly, you know, lower ratios down through the, through the majors and into, into Nicole’s SME and C world as well. [00:22:59] Vince Menzione: Jay talks about the decade of the ecosystem. He coined that term back, back on a podcast way back in nine, in, uh, in 2020. Microsoft has been at the, for, we used to call partner to partner back, back in the day. [00:23:10] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. Do you remember those days? How do you think about this ecosystem evolving and what steps are you taking to help bring these organizations together? Because I, I, again, we look at the seven seats or 6.3 seats at the table. The customer has the power now that they didn’t have before. ’cause they have the commitment with like with Microsoft and they can buy off of the marketplace and pull together multiple organizations to go, go do that. [00:23:34] Vince Menzione: How do you think about helping to orchestrate that as the leader of the enterprise partner business? [00:23:39] Stephen Boyle: So I’ll start with a really big example, and I’ll try and sort of scale it down a little bit. But my friends at Accenture, with the Accenture, Microsoft Business Group, we spend an awful lot of time, you know, in, in each other’s pockets, in each other’s deals. [00:23:51] Stephen Boyle: We know everything that’s going on in the Accenture, Microsoft Business Group. And a couple of weeks, or maybe a month or so ago, I was told that the Microsoft Business Group is now larger than the SAP Business group. It probably flip flops. [00:24:03] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:24:04] Stephen Boyle: it won’t be too long before the Anthropic Business Group is bigger than both of those. [00:24:08] Stephen Boyle: So what I need my Microsoft team to do is to not spend all of their lives in the. A MBG, the Azure, the Accenture, Microsoft Business group, but to go make friends in the Anthropic Accenture Business group and frankly still to make friends in the SAP business group and maybe in the Oracle Business Group and the list goes on. [00:24:27] Stephen Boyle: So at a macro 11, in the very largest accounts where we haven multiple practices, where we haven’t spent time before, I’m gonna. Push my people into uncomfortable zones and I’m gonna push them to go into those other areas and I’m gonna load them up with technical talent and cloud solution architects and ai, you know, forward deployed engineers. [00:24:45] Stephen Boyle: And I’m gonna force different people to talk together that haven’t talked together. So I can do that in TCS. I can do that, Capgemini, I can do that. Um, you know, in Europe with Capgemini and Misra is a classic example. Um, with the, with the Indian sis, Indian based sis, they’re all big enough where I know all the practices exist. [00:25:04] Stephen Boyle: I just need to do a better job of, of talking to them. Now, when you downsize that into, you know, into a, a company that doesn’t have all of that scale, this the same truth still holds. I need to talk to people who aren’t necessarily motivated every single day to do something with Microsoft. I need to talk to people who are motivated to do something with an AI partner or even a traditional SaaS partner. [00:25:27] Stephen Boyle: I noticed yesterday, actually no, this morning I got a notification that we just passed, um, a billion dollars in revenue on the marketplace with ServiceNow. [00:25:35] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:25:36] Stephen Boyle: Um, and I think AWS announced the same thing, by the way this month as well. Um, so thank you to the ServiceNow people. Yeah. Um, you know, that is that there’s a tremendous demonstration of how far we’ve come in marketplace. [00:25:48] Stephen Boyle: ’cause that’s another one where we trailed AWS quite significantly. But with the right partnerships. And driving the right motions, we can, you know, we can definitely catch up and we will continue to pass, uh, some of, some of the other hyperscalers in, in, in that way. So really the bottom line to your question is partner to partner is still real. [00:26:08] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:26:08] Stephen Boyle: how we do it and what we use to tie things together. And I know that compensation drives behavior and we’re not gonna get into a compensation about like how we get compensated and everything else, but the reality is I’ve gotta break down those barriers and those silos and I’ve gotta deliver real meaningful enablement and practice development so that, so that the people who sit in the Anthropic business group and the people who sit in the Microsoft Business Group are spending as much time together as they are with me. [00:26:34] Stephen Boyle: That makes sense. Simply put, that’s what I, I need to achieve at scale rapidly. [00:26:40] Vince Menzione: So to, we’re getting close to time here, but as you look forward, what would define the most successful partnerships in this ecosystem? Is it, is it what you described, the opening up the aperture or for the, for the leaders in the room here today, what should they go do better and differently? [00:26:58] Stephen Boyle: Um, so obviously we’re closing out this fiscal, we’ve got Microsoft start and Microsoft start for partners coming up in July. Um, I mentioned the fact that we’re, we’re driving. Cu customer engagement through the lens of conversations and how do we achieve business outcomes? I would encourage you to, to gravitate, if you like, above the commercial solution areas where you might have understood, this is how I interact with Microsoft today. [00:27:23] Stephen Boyle: Um, and abstract it up to that AI layer. You know, think about trust, think about intelligence, think about business outcomes, and how do I potentially weave together a story? If I’m in the dynamic space, how do I get better in data? If I’m in the data space, how do I get better in. In that modern work environment, but really use AI as the overlay to, to help tie that together. [00:27:44] Stephen Boyle: That’s one thing. The second thing is if we’re not training you in the right direction, it’s stevenBoyle@microsoft.com. Let me know. Awesome. Um, we’ve got programmatic stuff, um, you know, and we’ve got high touch stuff as well. So I think this is, this is another time where Microsoft is gonna over pivot on all of the training and enablement that we need to do to make sure that you’re, you know, you’re grounded in our platform. [00:28:07] Stephen Boyle: Um, I think there’s a huge opportunity with this agenda future to become more of a software partner. You know, even the deepest services organizations are going to need agents, and the more successful ones will be the ones that can turn on those agents in a repeatable way. So. Our agents, the new SaaS. I’m not exactly saying that, but I think that the agen future is one where even the more services oriented companies will, will have teams of agents that they’re deploying. [00:28:35] Stephen Boyle: In fact, I had a very, very large systems integrator, um, in, in the EBC just about a month ago, three weeks ago. Um, and I was sat next to their head of consulting and he showed me what he called his God dashboard. Uh, and right in the middle of his God dashboard there are like 450 accounts. All of whom I recognized, ’cause they were all in the enterprise, right in the middle of his dashboard was, how many tokens am I spending? [00:29:00] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:29:01] Stephen Boyle: Like, not like what’s my daily runway? You know, not am I making a profit on that account or anything else like that is like, how many tokens have I consumed? Yeah. Because there is an awful lot of, that is the new juice, if you like. That’s, that’s driving the success. You can have the smartest people on the planet, but you’ve got to still arm them with all the best tools that are available out there. [00:29:22] Stephen Boyle: So it’s fascinating to listen to him, how he had gone through that thing of, you know, agent sprawl, how many are really working, how many are not working? How can we prove that? You can prove it through, you know, managing your tokens. There’s a new version of. Finops for tokens, for want of a better phrase, that’s gonna be critical for us all to understand. [00:29:40] Stephen Boyle: ’cause they’re not cheap, they’re not free, that’s for sure. And, and they might not be cheap if you’re not, if you’re not managing them and using them effectively. Yeah. So that’s the other thing that I would really get on top of. And, you know, we’re gonna make some announcements in the not too distant future about the consumption driven future. [00:29:56] Stephen Boyle: Um, that, that we will, that we will deliver with our first party and third party platforms going forward. So that’s another. Another critical thing [00:30:03] Vince Menzione: sounds like some exciting announcements. Pretty soon. [00:30:06] Stephen Boyle: Yeah, could look close. Quarter four, help me close. Quarter four. Yes. That’s priority number one, two, and three right now. [00:30:12] Stephen Boyle: Uh, but get ready for some, you know, for some new announcements in July. Um, look, the future is incredibly bright with Microsoft. It’s incredibly bright in the industry as a whole, right? I mean, let, let’s be honest, the, the growth targets that we will have for ne next year are astronomical, and we will not make them without the partner community that we have, without training and enabling the partner community that we need for tomorrow. [00:30:34] Stephen Boyle: So like, stay close, you know, stay engaged. Talk to your partner development managers, talk to the talk to field reps, talk to the accounts that that, that you are in, and stay as close as you possibly can to our emerging strategy. And, um, you know, look, I, I think if I had fivefold or tenfold the people I have today, I still wouldn’t be able to touch everybody that I would like to touch in the partner community. [00:30:58] Stephen Boyle: So I’ll apologize in advance. Um, but we’re gonna have some, you know, some really cool ways of learning. Um, and we’re gonna make sure that they’re available to the widest possible audience. [00:31:07] Vince Menzione: Well, we bring the practitioners and the experts in the room to help with that as well. Right? Yeah. Because you can’t always have a partner development manager tied to everybody in the room. [00:31:14] Stephen Boyle: I, I would do hackathons on AI every week with every partner and every part of the world, but I can’t. [00:31:19] Vince Menzione: Yeah, exactly. Well, so good to have you today. Thank you. So good to see you again. I don’t know what your schedule is like. I, we didn’t, we don’t have enough time for questions. [00:31:28] Stephen Boyle: That’s cool. [00:31:28] Vince Menzione: From the audience. [00:31:29] Stephen Boyle: I’m gonna stay around for a little [00:31:30] Vince Menzione: while this [00:31:30] Stephen Boyle: morning and I’m coming back [00:31:31] Vince Menzione: for cocktails. Alright, terrific. So. Stephen Boyle will be here for cocktail hour. Thank you. Four 30 and uh, I wanna thank you, sir. So good to have you. Thank you. Good to see you. Absolutely. [00:31:42] Stephen Boyle: So much. Absolutely. Hey, thanks everybody. [00:31:43] Stephen Boyle: Thanks for what you do today, and hopefully thank you for what you do tomorrow as well. [00:31:46] Vince Menzione: Thank you. An incredible leader. [00:31:49] Stephen Boyle: Don’t forget, ultimate [00:31:51] Vince Menzione: partner Alive is coming soon, June 18th at our executive breakfast in New York. I hope to see you there.Description The Future of Tech is Here. Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ I

Today, I'm joined by Scott D. Anthony, Clinical Professor of Strategy at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, whose work focuses on the adaptive challenges posed by disruptive change. Scott is the author of nine books, including his latest, Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World. The book was selected for JPMorgan's Next List, which recognises cutting-edge ideas across technology, business, financial markets, the arts and culture. Before joining Dartmouth, Scott spent more than 20 years at Innosight, the growth strategy consultancy founded by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen. His influence on the field of innovation is widely recognised. Thinkers50 named Scott the world's fifth most influential management thinker in 2025, after naming him the world's leading innovation thinker in 2017. In this conversation, we explore the innovations that have shaped modern life, what history teaches us about disruptive change, and how leaders can respond thoughtfully when the future feels uncertain. It is a privilege to welcome Scott D. Anthony to The Art of Teaching. 

Chris Boyer and Reed Smith run a forensic walk through five dated, citable moments where the future of healthcare consumerism was sitting in published research before the industry moved. The Pew health-seeker data in 2000. ePatient Dave's "Gimme My Damn Data" keynote in 2009, which took twelve years to reach the Information Blocking Rule. Mobile crossing into everyday health behavior by 2012. Apple, Amazon and Haven all declaring healthcare a priority inside twelve months in 2018 and 2019. Peer-reviewed AI matching dermatologists in 2017, three years before most people had heard of ChatGPT. The signals were never really about the technology. Each one was a permission a consumer gave themselves. Permission to research without asking. Permission to demand their data. Permission to expect everywhere and anytime. Permission to compare a hospital to Apple. Permission to skip the front door. Name the permission and you have found the signal. Five artifacts, each with a date and a source, and the same defensive industry response to all of them A six-marker test that tells you whether you are inside a signal while it is still a signal, not after Why the permission shift is the marker most teams miss, and the permission patients are taking right now The scoreboard for today: agentic AI as the new front door, the death of click-through, the restructuring of primary care, and voice The one current signal that breaks the pattern, and why ambient documentation moved fast when nothing else did The honest finding is uncomfortable. Three of today's four signals score 5 or 6 out of 6 on the same markers that flagged every past miss. The fourth, voice, scores about 3, and it shows what breaks the pattern. Ambient documentation moved quickly because it helps clinicians and patients in the same motion, so the internal politics line up instead of fighting. If you can name the permission your patients are taking right now, you have found the signal. The only question left is whether you act inside the window or wait for the deadline. Mentions from the Show: Pew Research Center, The Online Health Care Revolution, Rainie and Fox, November 2000: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2000/11/26/the-online-health-care-revolution/ Pew Research Center, Health Online 2013, Fox and Duggan, January 2013: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/01/15/health-online-2013-2/ deBronkart and Eysenbach, Gimme My Damn Data (and Let Patients Help!): The #GimmeMyDamnData Manifesto, JMIR, November 2019: https://www.jmir.org/2019/11/e17045/ Esteva et al., Dermatologist-level classification of skin cancer with deep neural networks, Nature, January 2017: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21056 Tom Ferguson and the e-Patient Scholars Working Group, e-Patients: How They Can Help Us Heal Healthcare, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2007: https://participatorymedicine.org/e-Patient_White_Paper_with_Afterword.pdf Tim Cook on CNBC's Mad Money, full transcript, January 8 2019: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/08/apple-ceo-tim-cook-interview-cnbc-jim-cramer-transcript.html Kyndryl, Healthcare Readiness Report, March 2026 (76% report more AI pilots than they can scale): https://www.kyndryl.com/in/en/about-us/news/2026/03/healthcare-readiness-report-findings Dave deBronkart, Meet e-Patient Dave, TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_debronkart_meet_e_patient_dave Eric Topol, Deep Medicine, Basic Books, 2019: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eric-topol/deep-medicine/9781541644649/ Eric Topol, The Patient Will See You Now, Basic Books, 2015 Clayton Christensen, Jerome Grossman, Jason Hwang, The Innovator's Prescription, McGraw-Hill, 2009 Dave deBronkart, Let Patients Help!, 2013 Society for Participatory Medicine: https://participatorymedicine.org/ TP483, The Market That Competition Forgot: https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp483-the-market-that-competition-forgot/ TP478, The Journey Nobody Told Operations About: https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp478-the-journey-nobody-told-operations-about/ TP457, The Patient Maze: Smarter Tools, Same Old Problems: https://touchpoint.health/podcast/tp457-the-patient-maze-smarter-tools-same-old-problems/ Reed Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reedtsmith/ Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/ Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com/ Chris Boyer on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social Reed Smith on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/reedsmith.bsky.social Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every founder gets a version of the same advice: don't pick a fight with an entrenched industry. The incumbents have the relationships, the regulatory cover, the deep pockets - you'll bleed out trying.But some of the most interesting companies of the last decade were built ignoring that advice, winning over markets that were nearly impenetrable.In this episode, Yaniv Bernstein is joined by Brandon Weber - co-founder and CEO of Nava Benefits, a Series C-funded AI-powered health benefits brokerage. Before Nava, Brandon co-founded Hightower, a commercial real estate startup that merged with VTS and went on to run over half of all office buildings in the United States. Brandon has now done this twice in two completely different industries, and has developed a repeatable playbook for breaking into entrenched markets and using AI as a structural advantage.Yaniv and Brandon dig into what actually makes a market 'broken', why the entry point needs to be far narrower than most founders think, and how to build the conviction to keep going when a thousand people tell you it won't work. In this episode, you will:Understand the 'burning platform' signal - what makes a market 'broken', but worth spending a years breaking intoLearn why your entry point needs to be far narrower than feels comfortable, and how Brandon went from targeting 'the health insurance market' to 'employers with 50-500 employees who can't afford a dedicated benefits team'Hear why 'disrupting from within' is often smarter than disrupting head-on - and how Nava built a broker-shaped entity that the industry's immune system couldn't rejectDiscover how to design a human-AI system (what Brandon calls a 'cybernetic' service model) where agents handle 80-85% of the work and licensed professionals operate at the top of their licenseTimestamps00:00 Coming Up…00:45 On Today's Show: Brandon Weber on Fixing Broken Industries01:43 How To Spot Broken Markets03:59 Why Most Healthcare Startups Fail (Distribution)05:35 Lessons From Building Hightower and VTS08:41 How Do We Think Smaller? Finding the 'Narrow Wedge'10:57 What It Means To 'Disrupt From Within'16:53 Choosing the ICP18:35 The Innovator's Dilemma and Moving Upmarket22:57 Scaling with AI: A Business in Two Phases26:29 Service as a Software34:02 Attract and Hire Industry Insiders36:44 When to Acquire39:06 Closing AdviceResources mentioned in this episodeNava Benefits (Brandon's company): https://www.navabenefits.comGary Lo's previous TSP episode: https://youtu.be/jtMgd7Nv_HYThe Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen (framework discussed at length): https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0062060244The PactHonor the Startup Podcast Pact! If you have listened to TSP and gotten value from it, please:Follow, rate, and review us in your listening appSecure your official TSP merchandise at https://shop.tsp.show/Follow us on YouTube for full-video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@startup-podcastGive us a public shout-out on LinkedIn or anywhere you have a social media followingKey linksThis episode of the Startup Podcast is sponsored by .tech domains. Forget weird prefixes and creative misspellings; the availability for .tech domains is simply way better than .com. For a clean name that highlights your tech credentials, get a .tech domain at your favorite registrar.The Startup Podcast website: https://www.tsp.show/episodes/Learn more about Chris and YanivWork 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/Producer: Justin McArthur https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mcarthurAssistant Producer: Steph Hefferan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-heff/Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang https://web-strategist.com/

Why do successful companies fail when faced with new technology? This book summary reveals the counterintuitive truth behind their downfall.

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Ward Ching and Aaron Olson of Aon about their recent session at RISKWORLD 2026 and the book they co-authored, Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk. They discuss the dizzying, disruptive transformation in today's market, where conventional risk management frameworks, tools, and solutions have become increasingly ineffective. They explore technological innovation in terms of the new powers of next-generation microprocessors and the accompanying robustness of machine learning-based analytics. Aaron explains how he built an AI analysis agent over a weekend. Aaron and Ward discuss their book and how to use it to help you and your organization navigate disruption. Listen for insight on how to use disruption without being disrupted in the risk ecosystem.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our topic is strategy and change in a world full of innovation and disruption, and we will be joined by our guests, Aaron Olson and our friend Ward Ching of Aon, but first… [:45] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep will be held on June 9th and 10th. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM will be held on June 16th and 17th. Links to registration are in this episode's notes. [1:01] Webinars. On May 28th, Zurich returns with "From Underwriting To Risk Management: What To Expect From The Growing Demand For Data Center Construction." Register for webinars at RIMS.org/Webinars or through the links in this episode's show notes. [1:17] Folks, RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [1:36] On with the Show! Our guests today are, respectively, the Executive Vice President at Aon Corporation and a Managing Director at Aon Corporation. They are Aaron Olson, making his debut on RIMSCast, and our good friend Ward Ching, also a former RIMS-CRMP Commissioner. [1:52] They presented a session at RISKWORLD 2026, titled "Strategy and Change: Understanding Disruptive Innovation Through Insight, Choice and Risk." They recently published a book, Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk. [2:11] We will talk about the risk management practices, philosophies, and frameworks that went into the book and the session, what it took for Mr. Olson to build an AI agent, and how you can assess whether this is the sort of business decision for your organization. Let's get to it! [2:32] Interview! Aaron Olson and Ward Ching, Welcome to RIMScast! [3:12] Aaron says Ward and he work together at Aon, and they work with risk managers around the world. They also do some academic work. Ward, at USC, Marshall School of Business, and Aaron, at Northwestern, just outside Chicago. [3:25] Aaron says that for 20 years, he's been working as a member of the faculty there, part-time, teaching on the topic of the intersection of strategy and leadership. [3:38] About 10 years ago, Aaron did some research and published a book focused on the intersection of strategy and leadership. He looked at different companies and examples to learn how individuals lead strategy. [3:55] Ten years later, Aaron and Ward talked about it regarding the clients they work with and the challenges risk managers working in those organizations face. In the last 10 years, the world has gotten a lot more complicated and volatile, and is facing more and more risk. [4:16] Aaron and Ward decided to do some new work. This time, it's not strategy and leadership; it's strategy and disruptive change. [4:27] They looked at what lessons they could learn from COVID, from the supply chain, and from the unpredictable rising cost of doing business. What can we do about that? [4:42] How can companies be successful? How can risk managers be successful? What is the changing, evolving role of risk in the midst of that?  [4:53] Ward says one of the interesting things is that disruption has always been part of the economic environment. It is now a hyper-important part of economic decision-making in every industry vertical. [5:12] Ward's research in the disruptive innovation space started with a paper for RIMS that he did with Paul Walker several years ago on the issue of enterprise risk management tools and capabilities. Paul and Ward did the research, looking at all the tools. [5:38] Then February 2020 rolled around, and the world went completely dark. Everybody predicted that there was exposure to a pandemic, but nobody had any thought of how it would go from ranking number 25 or 50 on risk registers to number one, overnight. [6:14] Paul and Ward asked each other what was underneath this. Why did all of our tools fail? They found an interesting literature base around disruptive innovation. Ward says a lot, if not all, of our core disruptive events throughout history started with a technological innovation. [6:38] Aaron and Ward went further, looking at all the disruption in the marketplace now: new silicon chips, our speed toward AI, agentic AI, the things we can do now with data that we couldn't do or see five years ago. That's creating a very interesting, disruptive environment. [7:10] Disruption needs to be considered as part of the decision calculus for most organizations. Similarly, disruption is a new risk issue that has not been well understood, measured, or evaluated in the past. That's what Ward and Aaron were trying to look at. [7:30] In the book and at RISKWORLD, Ward and Aaron looked at it from several perspectives: How is disruption creating advantage? How is disruption creating new opportunities? How is it changing the way we think about risk, risk management, and risk mitigation? [7:58] Aaron says one of the things we uncovered as we got into this was that going back 10 years ago, on any given day, your average executive was maybe dealing with one crisis or issue coming at them. [8:14] Aaron says that today, an executive coming into the office or dialing in on Zoom is probably dealing with two or three simultaneous challenges, and that has a compounding effect. Technology is an accelerant and also an amplifier. [8:37] The combination of speed and severity means that organizations deal with an external environment that has multiple concurrent risks. Then you have internal execution risks, and they, too, are more complicated. [8:52] Take AI, as an externality, but also inside. All kinds of new risks are surfacing as AI is changing workflows, processes, and the nature of people's jobs and work. That is a level of complexity we have not had to deal with in most of our professional lifetimes. [9:12] Ward says most of the tools that we use to mitigate those risks are now obsolete. When you look at a heat map, it is point-specific. You look at various risks along a series of axes. These point-specific numbers or locations don't answer the question, "So what do you do?" [9:59] You understand where the risk might be, on a frequency, severity, or likelihood scale, but if you were the CFO, you would be asking, "What investment do I have to make to move something that's at an extraordinarily high, or even uninsurable space, into someplace more acceptable?" [10:18] Those comparative static tools don't give you enough information to make significant decisions, especially now that a problem may have adjacencies that impact a decision, so that needs to be broader in terms of its context and execution. A lot of those tools don't work now. [10:41] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [11:02] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. Advance rates are available through June 5th. [11:16] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026, in Chicago. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [11:29] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. Registration is open, and you can also submit a session. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [11:46] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are already open. Early-bird registration will open in June. [12:01] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [12:15] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 18th and 19th in Columbus, Ohio. Details will follow on RIMS.org. [12:24] Let's Return to our Interview with Ward Ching and Aaron Olson! [12:33] Aaron built the strategy agent at Aon. Aaron shares how it was done. He was a one-man team on this project. Aaron tells about vibe coding. He took a routine that he and Ward have been doing for years, and he realized that an agent could do some of that work.  [13:36] Aaron and Ward have been working together for a couple of years. On the academic side, they wrote a book and codified some of the work they do with their clients. Aaron says they took a framework and turned it into a simple worksheet. [13:53] Aaron now uses that worksheet to prepare for clients. It's an analysis tool for what is going on in that client's industry, what key issues they need to deal with, and what insights, decisions, and risks Aaron will discuss with them. [14:09] As Aaron started to look at agents, he realized that he didn't have to do all that work himself. [14:16] Aaron uses ChatGPT. There's an ability within ChatGPT to create a Custom GPT. It asks you to follow a set of instructions. It isn't coding, just guidance. [14:36] Aaron wrote out his guidance, uploaded his worksheet, and constructed prompts. A prompt is a good question to ask. Aaron preloaded some good prompts to get an agent. [14:52] Aaron, Ward, and others use this agent, which they call the Strategy and Change Diagnostic. They input the client's name and problem, the type of conversation they want to have with the client, the situations they are focusing on, and the present disruptive changes. [15:16] Aaron asks the agent, "What are the things we should be focusing on?" It comes back with a lot of the work Aaron would have had to think through himself. It's pulling on the logic he taught it and pulling real-time, relevant financial information from the internet. [15:43] Aaron says it would have taken a team of people working for months to get the same result. We're living in a different world. [15:52] Ward says that Aaron can change the persona of the agent. The agent is looking at it from one point of view. It can look at it from a different point of view or a competing point of view. All of those will generate additional insights into what the client's issues might be. [15:14] Aaron built the Strategy and Change Diagnostic over a weekend and refined it by trying it out with some real situations. Aaron thinks this type of agent is in the future for all of us. [16:27] Ward says, Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk, and the recent RISKWORLD 2026 session, cover disruption and disruptive innovation in a clinical way, and case studies, new tools, and responsibilities that are coming out.  [16:54] Ward talks about the necessary skills. Many people in risk management are asking what skills and capabilities they need to be successful going forward. That's a big issue. What is the impact of AI? What is the impact on data analysis and on the types of things they need to do? [17:19] Risk professionals wonder if they should be coders, actuaries, or engineers. Ward says, the answer is yes. They need to be all of those, going forward. That's a big issue in question. [17:28] Justin says an editorial strategy shift at RIMS is that it's no longer just about identifying risk. It's how to leverage it to do your job better. It's what you need to know now to enable you to succeed later. It's not just about the "what." It's about the "why" and the "how." [17:52] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period is now open, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [18:14] The Course Development Grant application deadline for Interval Number 2 will be on June 15th, 2026. Award notifications will be sent out in late July. [18:27] General Grant applications are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [18:39] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [18:48] The Spencer 2026 Funding Their Future Gala will be held on Thursday, September 17th, from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. at a different venue this year. It will be at the fabulous Waldorf Astoria in New York City. [19:03] Sponsorship opportunities and benefits are available now. A link to the Funding Their Future Gala is in this episode's show notes. [19:12] Be on the lookout for some of the honorees and Spencer Board members to join RIMScast in June and July. [19:21] Let's Conclude Our Interview with Ward Ching and Aaron Olson!! [19:32] Aaron says this is the second book he has written and the first book he has written with Ward. They enjoyed the opportunity to bring together some things they had been doing in their respective professional backgrounds. [19:46] The book is an investigation into what is driving us to live in a world that's more complicated and faster-moving, where risk is different, and we need to work differently because of it. [20:01] They go into practical things with three different lenses on the issues we all face in a world of disruptive change. The lenses are insight, choice, and risk. They get to the practical aspects of what that means for us. [20:15] They address success in a world that's more complicated, is moving faster, and has a lot more volatility that's not going away. They use case examples. They look at real organizations. What happened to GE over the last decade? How did they navigate changes in their industry? [20:35] How did S&P Global evolve from a very different business a decade ago? They were McGraw-Hill, the publisher. These are real companies that have faced real challenges, and they've taken proactive approaches that have evolved the way they do business. [20:52] The book brings it down to individuals and how you lead through that kind of change. There are practical things and a few tools to use. [21:05] Ward adds that it points to some additional literature to think about. [21:09] Clayton Christensen at Harvard did a lot of interesting work associated with the innovator's dilemma, in which he was asking the question, "How do organizations that have been innovative throughout their lifespans, when they continue to be innovative, fail?" [21:28] Ward says it has to do with disruptive elements in the marketplace. It raises the question of how you, in risk management, can help the organization think slightly disruptively to help it push through the biases and barriers that might cause it to have difficulties going forward. [21:40] The issue of understanding disruptive innovation is part of the new toolkit that the next generation of risk professionals is going to have to have, sharpened up, with a strong acumen around, to help their organization succeed going forward. [22:09] Those are some of the more subtle elements of the book. It also talks about a risk ecosystem as opposed to separate distinct property and casualty, wealth, well-being, and more. [22:27] They're not in separate locations; they're in an ecosystem. The data is showing us how they interact with each other. New skills, new capabilities, and new perspectives are highlighted in the book. [22:44] Special thanks again to Aaron Olson and Ward Ching of Aon for joining us here on RIMScast! Remember to check out their book Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk. It is available worldwide right now. [22:57] If you are looking for the slides from their RISKWORLD 2026 presentation, open up the RIMS Events app and go to the Attendees Service Center. Also visit RIMS.org/ASC. Navigate over to their names, and you should find it. [23:13] Be sure to check out the links in this episode's show notes for the past appearances of our friend Ward Ching. [23:20] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [23:48] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [24:07] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [24:24] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [24:41] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [24:54] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [25:06] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | Registration Opens in June RIMScast on YouTube! Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July‒Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session! RIMS Risk Management magazine | Contribute RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RISKWORLD 2026 Presentations Available via Attendee Service Center — www.RIMS.org/Asc — and via the RIMS Events App Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep | June 9‒10 RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM | June 16‒17, 2026 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: From Underwriting To Risk Management: What To Expect From The Growing Demand For Data Center Construction | May 28 | Presented by Zurich RIMS.org/Webinars   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Live from RISKWORLD 2026!" "RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Jeff Bray" "James Lam on ERM, Strategy, and the Modern CRO" "Rethinking the Impact of Disruption on ERM Tools and Processes with Ward Ching and Dr. Paul Walker" "Disruption and the Digital Age with Ward Ching"   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" (New!) | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guests: Ward Ching, Managing Director, AON Adjunct Professor of Risk Management, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California   Aaron Olson, EVP, Enterprise Client Group, Exec Sponsor, University Partnerships, AON Lecturer, Northwestern University   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.

Whitney Johnson is one of the world's leading management thinkers, recognized by Thinkers50 and Inc. Magazine. She began her career as a secretary on Wall Street before reinventing herself into an award-winning equity analyst and later co-founding an investment fund with Clayton Christensen, the father of disruptive innovation. A Wall Street Journal bestselling author and host of the Disrupt Yourself podcast, Whitney now helps individuals and organizations navigate change, growth, and high performance. On this episode we talk about: How Whitney went from secretary to Wall Street analyst through self-education and persistence Why career “disruptions” often lead to the biggest breakthroughs and opportunities The importance of treating everyone with dignity—regardless of status or title How to navigate uncertainty using the S-curve framework for personal and professional growth Why focus and boundaries are critical in a world full of distraction and opportunity Top 3 Takeaways Career growth often comes from unexpected opportunities—what feels like a setback can become your biggest advantage. Treating people with respect at every level builds trust, reputation, and long-term success. Focus and small, consistent improvements (like 5% better) are key to sustainable growth. Notable Quotes "Sometimes you get disrupted—and that can be the best thing that happens to you." "How people treat you at the bottom is a measure of who they really are." "Focus on one thing, do it well, and then move to the next." Connect with Whitney Johnson: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyjohnson/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnsonwhitney/ Other: https://thedisruptionadvisors.com A Word from Our Sponsor: Are you ready to start your own creatorjourney and make it big? Visitwww.fanvue.com today and launch yourcareer! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kareem Rahma built Subway Takes into a hit with 2 million Instagram followers, a metro card as a microphone, and a format that runs in seconds. Now he's walking away from a CNN deal to put his next show Keep the Meter Running on YouTube — because YouTube, in his words, is where the next Bourdain and the next Lena Dunham will come from. In this episode, Joe, Dave, and Aransas dig into what Rahma's bet actually means for experience strategy. The conversation moves from short-form content design, to the death of "Gen Z YouTube" as a useful category, to why every brand needs to rethink where and how it reaches customers in the micro-moments that now define modern media consumption. 100% agree or 100% disagree — you decide. What We're Talking About This Episode Rahma's CNN walk-away. Why he turned down a legacy media deal to own his independence on YouTube, and what that signals about creator economics now. YouTube as television, not social media. YouTube's monthly share of TV watch-time hit ~12% in 2025 per Nielsen — higher than any network or streamer. Rahma's read: "this is a TV screen, but right now no one's making television for it." Subway Takes as situational design. The subway isn't a backdrop. It's the situation. The format, the duration, the point of view, the 100% agree / 100% disagree script — all of it is built around a specific consumer moment. The Lorne Michaels frame. Rahma isn't playing the virality slot machine. He's building a show. A nice change from all of the influencer content out there. Why "Gen Z YouTube" is a lazy frame. Dave pushes back on the article's generational framing. His adult kids watch YouTube over Netflix. So does Aransas. So do millions of others. The situation around the screen has changed. Why This Matters for Experience Strategy Three themes worth pulling out: 1. Content is situational, not channel-based. Dave traces this back to a 2015 Collaboratives conversation with a major media company about designing content for the 30-second, 90-second, two-minute windows that now define daily consumption. A decade later, that conversation is finally mainstream. The companies still organizing around channel rather than situation are the ones being lapped. 2. POV is the differentiator. Rahma's 100% agree / 100% disagree technique forces you to take strong point of view in every interaction. Brands that hedge — that try to be all things to all customers — are getting outpaced by creators who plant a flag. 3. The CNN ticker is the OG infinite scroll. Joe drops a sharp observation mid-episode: 24-hour news already pioneered the segment-plus-chyron structure we now call short-form. The need hasn't changed. The means of meeting it has. Which connects to a Clayton Christensen line Dave only partly agrees with — and to Stone Mantel's view that situations themselves do change, not just the jobs underneath them. Memorable Moments Joe's Transformation Economy book made Thinkers50's top 10 management books of 2026. Aransas on the invisible load of AI: ideas start faster, but humans still have to finish them — and the cognitive load is going up, not down. Dave on what Cargo has done to his wardrobe: black t-shirt to medium gray. Things have changed. The unhoused-person-falling-in-your-lap test for quintessential New York. Joe's Easter Bunny / Cargo joke. You'll know it when you hear it. Quick References The Talk Show Where Celebrities and Mamdani Share Their Hot Takes — Sam Schube, WSJ Magazine, May 12, 2026 Subway Takes — Kareem Rahma's hit short-form show The Transformation Economy by B. Joseph Pine II — recognized by Thinkers50, 2026 Join the Collaboratives Dave's working the phones — it's that time of year. The Collaboratives is the Stone Mantel + Cargo partnership exploring situational markets as a growth mechanism in a world where parity is everywhere and growth is harder than ever. Free market analyses are my gift to anyone who joins. Workshop coming May 21. Send me a note if you'd like to be invited to the May 21st Workshop.

Inductive Automation cofounders Colby Clegg and Carl Gould go deep on the origins of Ignition, the road to 8.3, and what AI means for industrial automation.Vlad and Dave host Colby Clegg, CEO, and Carl Gould, CTO, of Inductive Automation together for the first time to trace the full arc of the company. The story begins in 2003, when Sacramento systems integrator Steve Heckman brought Colby and Carl in to build the missing glue layer between OT data and modern IT tooling. What began as logging values into SQL databases became Factory PMI and eventually Ignition.A key thread is why Ignition broke through when larger automation vendors had superior distribution. Colby points to Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma. Incumbents could not match Inductive's unlimited per gateway pricing or partner with integrators because their own services groups competed with them. Carl adds the culture piece. Inductive refused to gate downloads, kept the module SDK open, made education free, and ran a public forum when competitors called it reckless, a posture they once called innovation without permission.Ignition 8.3 takes center stage, arriving after a deliberate five year gap from 8.1. Carl frames it as the completion of work that began with 8.0 in 2018. Gateway configuration is now stored in open, readable formats on disk, the gateway web interface was rewritten, and the platform supports orchestration, environmental separation, and infrastructure as code workflows Carl expects to become table stakes. The release also adds event streams, a revamped historian, and perspective drawing tools. For integrators still on 8.1, 8.3 is the version built for distributed deployments across many gateways.On AI, Carl is candid that the new MCP server module is intentionally a minimum viable product. It ships as a raw toolkit for integrators to author MCP primitives that expose Ignition data to agentic systems like Claude Code. First party MCP tools are coming, but Inductive wants to define the guardrails before shipping an API surface they will support for years. Carl frames AI as a new axis of software possibility, comparable to the shift from DOS to Windows. Colby ties it back to legacy SCADA conversion, framing the security and reliability gains as a national security issue. The episode closes with notes on the Inductive ecosystem, including a new collaboration with Tiger Data behind TimescaleDB, plus career advice on soft skills, context, and agentic coding tools.About Colby Clegg and Carl GouldColby Clegg is the CEO and cofounder of Inductive Automation, the California based company behind Ignition, the cross platform SCADA, MES, and IIoT software used by manufacturers and integrators worldwide. Carl Gould is the CTO and cofounder, leading product and engineering direction across Ignition. Both joined founder Steve Heckman in 2003 and have shaped the platform's open, integrator first philosophy ever since.Inductive Automation: https://www.inductiveautomation.comTimestamps0:00 Introduction1:00 Meet Colby Clegg and Carl Gould2:00 The origins of Inductive Automation in 20038:00 Going to market and the Innovator's Dilemma10:30 Innovation without permission as company culture18:50 Ignition 8.0 and the leap to Perspective26:00 The five year journey to 8.338:00 The MCP server module and AI in Ignition45:30 AI in the control plane and guardrails52:30 Tiger Data and the technology ecosystem1:02:30 Career advice for the next generation1:06:40 What is ripe for innovationReferencesIgnition Community Conference: https://icc.inductiveautomation.comAbout Your HostsVladimir Romanov is a cohost of The Manufacturing Hub Podcast and the founder of Joltek, an independent manufacturing and industrial automation consulting firm specializing in modernization strategy, digital transformation, and workforce development. Joltek works with manufacturers and investors to reduce the risk of modernization and build the internal capability to sustain results.Connect with Vlad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladromanov/Want to go deeper? Vlad and the team at Joltek have covered related topics here:Colby Clegg on Ignition 8.3 and Industrial Automation: https://www.joltek.com/blog/industrial-automation-colby-clegg-ignition-8-3Connecting Allen Bradley PLCs to Ignition: https://www.joltek.com/blog/connecting-allen-bradley-plc-ignitionDave Griffith is a cohost of The Manufacturing Hub Podcast and founder of Capelin Solutions, an industrial automation firm helping manufacturers adopt smart manufacturing technology. He brings 15 years of experience in industrial automation and digital transformation.Connect with Dave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegriffith23/Subscribe to Manufacturing Hub: https://www.manufacturinghub.liveLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/manufacturing-hub-networkYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ManufacturingHub

Good Money: A Framework for Human Flourishing Through Your Finances What if the way you relate to money is quietly undermining everything you're working toward? Host Justin Forman sits down with investor, author, and Harvard Business Review contributor John Coleman for a candid conversation about money, meaning, and what it actually means to flourish. Drawing on 15 years of writing on purpose and leadership — and a front-row seat to both great wealth creation and its casualties — John has written Good Money, a framework for entrepreneurs who want their finances to serve their lives, not consume them. Together they unpack the psychology of money, the danger of the hedonic treadmill, and why setting a financial finish line isn't giving up — it's the turbocharge entrepreneurs didn't know they needed. John connects rigorous mainstream research with ancient wisdom, showing that what Scripture has always said about money is now being confirmed by Harvard, Baylor, and Gallup. Key Topics: Why only 17% of Americans find meaning and purpose at work — and what entrepreneurs can do about it The six areas of money every entrepreneur must master: earning, spending, giving, investing, and saving Hedonic adaptation: the psychological trap keeping you on a financial treadmill that never ends What a financial finish line actually is — and why setting one isn't quitting, it's liberating The research-backed case for generosity: reductions in mortality, dementia, heart attack, and stroke Why wealthy societies score lower on human flourishing — and what that means for faith-driven entrepreneurs Building accountability communities around money: spouses, advisors, kids, and close friends Notable Quotes: “The Bible mentions money over 2,300 times. It never says money is evil, but it says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” — John Coleman “I believe firmly there is no success without significance.” — John Coleman “100% of the time is easier than 98% of the time.” — Clayton Christensen, as quoted by John Coleman About John Coleman: John Coleman is an investor at Sovereign's Capital, a longtime Harvard Business Review contributor, and author of Good Money. A two-time class president (high school and college), former speech team competitor, and management consultant, John has spent 15 years writing about purpose, meaning, and human flourishing in the workplace. His work bridges rigorous academic research with the ancient wisdom of Christian tradition.

Bobby Moesta is the President & CEO of The Re-Wired Group, where he helps companies understand why customers buy.He is the co-creator of Jobs to Be Done alongside Clayton Christensen, and has spent decades studying the demand side of innovation—what actually drives people to change, choose, and pay. In this episode, Bobby joins Mark Stiving to challenge some of the most common assumptions behind pricing and decision-making—starting with how buyers really think (and why it's not what most companies expect). They explore what's actually happening beneath the surface of a purchase decision—and why understanding that can completely shift how you approach pricing. If you've ever felt like your pricing "should work" but doesn't—this conversation will make you rethink what's really going on.   Why You Have to Listen: Understand why context + outcome determines willingness to pay (not features). Learn why buyers don't "choose" instead they eliminate options and build confidence. Discover why most companies underprice by targeting the average instead of high-value contexts.   "Pricing is contextual. It's based on the context they're in and the outcome they want." — Bobby Moesta   Topics Covered: 02:21 – Why buyers don't change (until something breaks). The hidden trigger that forces people out of the status quo 04:41 – What buyers actually expect when they pay. Why value isn't what you think—and where expectations really come from 06:30 – The invisible forces behind every purchase. Push, pull, anxiety, and habit—and how they quietly control decisions 12:13 – How buyers really decide (it's not what you think). Why people don't "choose"—and what they actually do instead 18:17 – Why confused buyers walk away. The simple reason deals stall (and how to fix it) 20:06 – What creates buyer confidence. How people convince themselves to finally say yes 23:20 – What "I need to think about it" really means. The hidden signals behind hesitation—and how to uncover them 27:41 – Why one price doesn't fit all. How context changes what customers are willing to pay 29:37 –Every decision is a purchase decision. Why pricing thinking applies far beyond products and sales   Key Takeaways: "We can't convince them of anything. They have to convince themselves." — Bobby Moesta "Most of the time we end up pricing at the bottom of the market… and we're giving away the high end." — Bobby Moesta   Resources Mentioned: Jobs to Be Done – Framework for understanding customer decisions The Re-Wired Group – Bobby's firm focused on demand-side insight Demand-Side Sales – Bobby's book on how customers actually buy   Connect with Bobby Moesta: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobmoesta/  Website: https://therewiredgroup.com/    Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com  

Are you building a successful career… but failing to build a meaningful life? In this episode, we break down Clayton Christensen's powerful Harvard Business Review classic, How Will You Measure Your Life? A short but profound read that challenges how high achievers think about success. Many leaders unknowingly allocate their time and energy toward career growth while drifting away from what truly matters, creating a gap between achievement and fulfillment.    In this episode you will Learn how to apply proven business frameworks to make better life decisions Understand why career success often comes at the expense of long-term happiness Discover how to intentionally allocate your time, energy, and priorities toward what truly matters   Hit play now to rethink your definition of success using the timeless insights from Clayton Christensen's How Will You Measure Your Life? and start aligning your life with what matters most.   At Bradley Hartmann & Company, we help construction teams improve sales, leadership,  and communication by reducing miscommunication, strengthening teamwork, and bridging language gaps between English and Spanish speakers. To learn more about our product offerings, visit bradleyhartmannandco.com.   The Construction Leadership Podcast dives into essential leadership topics in construction, including strategy, emotional intelligence, communication skills, confidence, innovation, and effective decision-making. You'll also gain insights into delegation, cultural intelligence, goal setting, team building, employee engagement, and how to overcome common culture problems—whether you're leading a crew or managing an entire organization.   Have topic ideas or guest recommendations? Contact us at info@bradleyhartmannandco.com.   New podcasts are dropped every Tuesday and Thursday.   This episode is brought to you by The Construction Spanish Toolbox —the most practical way for construction teams to learn jobsite-ready Spanish in just minutes a day over 6 months.      

A version of this essay has been published by firstpost.com at https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/shadow-warrior-drones-are-the-new-tanks-time-for-india-to-catch-up-13998019.htmlThe most important lesson (of many) from Gulf War 3 may have been foreshadowed by the Ukraine War and other conflicts: that a combination of a step-change in warfare (military strategy) and disruptive innovation (business strategy) could rewrite the rules. If so, we may need to rethink the value of much expensive hardware. Moreover, nations such as India may need to seriously revamp their arms procurement: to small, cheap, local maybe?The most disturbing aspect of this scenario is that it reduces the human factor, and human control, over warfare. It leads to the specter of robot warfare, of Skynet, of 2001: A Space Odyssey, where autonomous intelligences may take rational decisions that have grave consequences for humans, inflicting collateral damage on innocent bystanders in ways that nobody quite understands. We need a real-life version of Isaac Asimov's “Three Laws of Robotics”. But then humans too inflict unthinking collateral damage..Step-change in warfare, and disruptive innovationThere have been numerous instances where a settled and standardized war tactic was suddenly overturned by a new invention, rendering old military assets impotent. One or two examples will suffice: one was the eclipse of heavy cavalry after the invention of massed archers using longbow volleys to mow them down with thousands of synchronized arrows raining down, also inducing panic in their horses in mid-charge.Another example is how battle tanks overwhelmed the previous model of trench warfare. (Ironically, in turn, tanks are now being rendered sitting ducks by drones.)In both cases, long-held assumptions had to be rewritten practically overnight, and entirely new mechanisms had to be put in place. It is a good question (on which reasonable people may differ) as to whether the arrival of drone-and-missile-based warfare is rendering air power, including fighters, bombers and aircraft carriers, essentially obsolescent.Clayton Christensen articulated the theory of disruptive innovation in business, where an entrenched incumbent can be overthrown in short order by an insurgent attacking them from an unexpected direction, often based on lower-cost options. One example is that of Kodak and the film-camera business. Cheap and convenient digital photography dislocated Kodak et al practically overnight.I personally experienced this disruption in the 1990s when I had a key role in operating system strategy for Sun Microsystems, the runaway leader in engineering workstations and servers, which used the Unix operating system. Despite our best efforts, Microsoft+Intel coming in from the low end (as Windows systems became more capable) rapidly captured the key resource, which is third-party software vendors. This caused end users to desert in droves.There were other reasons, too: internecine warfare among firms using Unix, such as IBM, HP, Sun, AT&T, Toshiba, et al. While they bickered, Windows systems became more powerful. Lesson: the ecosystem has to be managed carefully, including supply chains.Putting these three together (step-change, disruptive innovation, and the ground realities of the Gulf War 3) one can speculate that future military doctrine will be vastly different. Here is Iran's military doctrine, for reference, from the substack NotesonGeopolitics (Disclaimer: I am neither endorsing it or criticizing it, just offering it as an example).The US is adjusting to this reality. There is a book titled “Project Maven”, based on 200+ interviews chronicling the US military's shift to AI-driven warfare, starting with a 2017 Pentagon project to automate drone footage analysis amid overwhelming data volumes.Project Maven evolved from error-prone early tools (such as misidentifying school buses as threats) to supporting autonomous systems like Goalkeeper drones and Whiplash naval units, now used in conflicts from Ukraine to the Caribbean by 25,000 personnel across 32 companies.Speaking of disruptive innovation, it is ironic to see the US reverse-engineering Iranian Shahed drones, and the Russians doing the same to Ukrainian drones: incumbents learning from insurgents.This is only the beginning, of course. There is a nightmare scenario: murmurating, autonomous drone swarms with a hive mind. A flock of starlings flying in perfect synchrony is a thing of beauty: they do not collide with each other, the entire swarm changes direction instantaneously, and there is emergent intelligence in the swarm, much greater than the intelligence of the individual bird. The same is true of beehives and ant colonies, too.A company called ShieldAI in fact has a product named Hivemind that does precisely this.Imagine a murmurating drone swarm of 1,000 or even 10,000: and since they cost so little make, this is not unrealistic. The enemy may shoot down 90% of them, but the 10% that gets through, especially if they are kamikaze drones fitted with explosives, can cause real damage. There is the old joke about quantity: “What do you do when you invade China? First day, you take 10,000 prisoners. Second day, you take 100,000 prisoners. Third day, you surrender!”But we don't have to go that far: just take two instances where inexpensive drones were able to penetrate the defenses of heavily secured military airports. The first was in Russia in June 2025. Using 117 low-cost drones, Ukrainians struck several airbases at once. There is video footage of FPV drones landing on Tu-95 bombers, destroying them. These are strategic long-range nuclear bombers from the Cold War era, and will be difficult to replace.And then, just last month: at Barksdale Air Force Base in the US, where B-52 nuclear bombers are deployed, there were repeated drone swarm overflights (of 12-15 drones) between March 9th and March 15th, 2026. They couldn't be jammed, and displayed “non-commercial signal characteristics”, although they did not actually attack the planes. Reconnaissance, it must be assumed. Superpower militaries are unable to contain them.Electronic warfare like jamming may be ineffective anyway as swarms self-repair. But it is true that there are air defense weapons that can shoot down the majority of drones. There are interceptors (but they are much more expensive than the drones themselves). Then new Directed Energy Weapons (including both lasers and high-powered microwaves) are in development. Rail guns, I understand, are overkill for them.Where is India in this arms race?India finds itself left behind in this transition, and remains committed to legacy platforms such as tanks, fighters, and other imported systems. It is true that there were battlefield successes in Operation Sindoor, where X-25 drones (towed on a 100 meter optical cable) emitted the radar signatures of Rafale fighter jets, thus drawing enemy missiles to themselves, without harming the planes. But these were Israeli products; also British-origin Banshee drones were used for spoofing Su-31 and Mig-29 signatures..Indigenous drone efforts lag China by 3-5 years in scale, AI integration, and mass production; reliance on Chinese components persists despite bans. It does not have to be this way: India should create Production Linked Incentives for drones and missiles, and harness Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at scale.India needs to promote this as a cottage industry, so that many individuals will get involved, as in the following post by a Ukrainian drone-maker, with a hashtag #MadebyHousewives. That country produces as many as 4.5 million cheap drones a year, often using 3d printing.While Ukraine and Iran improvise hive-mind swarms under fire, India's northeast and border regions face asymmetric threats from low-cost systems. The recent mercenary scandal in the Northeast illustrates the peril. Mercenaries, the Northeast and a new Christian enclave?The March 2026 arrests by India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) expose how this drone proliferation directly endangers the Seven Sisters. Six Ukrainians and American mercenary Matthew Aaron Van Dyke were detained across Indian airports. They had repeatedly crossed from restricted Mizoram into Myanmar since 2024, training ethnic insurgent groups in drone assembly, operation, jamming, and electronic warfare.They smuggled European drone consignments through India for insurgent networks, some linked to proscribed Indian groups operating in the northeast. This is no abstract threat: drones enable precision strikes on security forces, surveillance of remote terrain, and supply drops. These capabilities could ignite or sustain insurgencies in India's volatile borderlands.In the background is former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's explosive 2024 warning. Hasina alleged a “white man's” conspiracy to carve out a new “Christian nation” (akin to East Timor or South Sudan) from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, Myanmar's Rakhine and Chin regions, and India's Northeast. She cited foreign eyes on the Bay of Bengal and ethnic fault lines.Hasina's claim was dismissed as paranoia then; today, Ukrainian-American actors arming Myanmar's rebel groups lend credence to a broader destabilization playbook. A hive-mind-enabled drone campaign could empower separatists and create a Christian-majority enclave, exploiting Christian tribal demographics and porous borders. This is hybrid warfare at its most insidious: mercenaries as force multipliers for great-power proxies.If these insurgents can leverage drone swarms to close the Siliguri Corridor or target regional infrastructure, they can create a fait accompli on the ground for India.ConclusionThe drone-missile age demands urgent adaptation. Nations must invest in AI swarm doctrine, resilient EW, decentralized deployment, and indigenous mass production ecosystems. For India, the wake-up call is clear: clinging to legacy investments while insurgents import hive-mind precursors risks not just military irrelevance but territorial integrity. The Tu-95 pyres and B-52 overflights are warnings. The northeast drone pipeline is a direct threat. Warfare has changed; those who fail to swarm will be overrun.Here is the AI-generated audio podcast about this essay:1570 words, Apr 3, 2026 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

What would it take for your organization to become truly superintelligent in the age of AI? In this episode, Kevin sits down with Stephen Wunker to explore how leaders must move beyond simply layering AI onto existing processes and instead rethink their organizations from first principles. Steve uses the metaphor of the octopus, with its distributed intelligence and interconnected yet autonomous arms, to explain how AI enables a shift from rigid, top-down hierarchies to flexible, horizontally connected "work charts" where information gets to the right people at the right time. They discuss why electrification and the railroads offer powerful historical parallels, what most organizations are getting wrong about AI adoption, and why middle managers are not becoming obsolete but must evolve into change leaders. This conversation challenges leaders to stop bolting AI onto yesterday's structures and instead reimagine how work gets done. Stephen's Story: Stephen Wunker is the co-author with Jonathan Brill of AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm. He is the Managing Director of New Markets Advisors, a global consulting firm that helps ambitious innovators—including 29 of the Fortune 500—find their next wave of growth. He's founded four pioneering companies, developed one of the world's first smartphones, and worked with AI initiatives for over a dozen years. A longtime collaborator of Harvard Business School legend Clayton Christensen, Wunker has advised hundreds of organizations and is considered one of the world's leading authorities on innovation. He's written over 100 articles for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and others, and authored four other bestselling books. Steve holds an MBA with Honors from Harvard Business School, a Master's of Public Administration from Columbia University, and a BA cum laude from Princeton University.  https://www.newmarketsadvisors.com/books/ai-and-the-octopus-organization https://www.newmarketsadvisors.com/speaker https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwunker/ Looking to Develop Stronger Leaders? Want help developing the leaders in your organization? Reach out to explore how the Kevin Eikenberry Group can support your team at info@kevineikenberry.com.  Book Recommendations AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm by Jonathan Brill and Stephen Wunker Why New Technologies Don't Transform Incumants - an HBR article Like this? How AI Can Help You Create a SuperIntelligent Enterprise with Nada Sanders The Octopus Organization with Phil Le-Brun Join Our Community If you want to view our live podcast episodes, hear about new releases, or chat with others who enjoy this podcast join one of our communities below. Join the Facebook Group Join the LinkedIn Group   Leave a Review If you liked this conversation, we'd be thrilled if you'd let others know by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Here's a quick guide for posting a review. Review on Apple: https://remarkablepodcast.com/itunes    Podcast Better! Sign up with Libsyn and get up to 2 months free! Use promo code: RLP  

In this episode of The Good Leadership Podcast, Charles Good sits down with Karen Dillon, co-author of the New York Times bestselling book How Will You Measure Your Life?, to explore one of the most important questions any of us can ask. Most people measure their lives using the wrong metrics, titles, achievements, money, or recognition. But those measures rarely capture what truly matters. Drawing on the work of the late Clayton Christensen, Karen explains how our daily decisions about where we invest our time, energy, and attention quietly shape the kind of life we end up living.This episode challenges listeners to rethink how they define success and to start aligning their daily choices with the person they ultimately want to become.If you've ever wondered whether you're investing your time and energy in the right things, this conversation will give you a powerful framework for thinking about your career, relationships, integrity, and legacy.CHAPTERS00:00 The Importance of Allowing Children to Face Challenges01:50 Rethinking Leadership Development: McCall's Theory04:47 Creating Valuable Experiences for Growth07:16 Deliberate Family Culture: Building Values Together11:07 Reinforcing Values in Organizations and Families14:40 The Trap of Marginal Thinking21:29 Measuring a Meaningful Life24:10 Balancing Life's Investments24:50 Practical Actions for a Fulfilling Life27:23 Key Insights and Takeaways

Derek's guest this week is Whitney Johnson: Innovation and disruption theorist, keynote speaker, best-selling author, executive and performance coach.Whitney shares her unique journey and key concepts about how to motivate your employees from her book "Build an A Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve".Whitney Johnson was named one of the world's fifty most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50 in 2017.She is the author of the bestselling Build an A Team (Harvard Business Press, 2018), a Financial Times and CEO Read, Book of the Month, and the critically-acclaimed Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work (2015). Publisher's Weekly described it as "savvy...often counter-intuitive...superb" while the Boston Globe called it the "'What Color is Your Parachute?' career guide for the entrepreneurial age."Through writing, speaking, consulting and coaching, Whitney works with leaders to retain their top talent, to build an A team, and to help them earn the gold star–be a boss people love.She formerly was the co-founder of the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard's Clayton Christensen, where they invested in and led the $8 million seed round for Korea's Coupang, currently valued at $5+ billion. She was involved in fund formation, capital raising, and the development of the fund's strategy. During her tenure, the CAGR of the Fund was 11.98% v. 1.22% for the S&P 500.She is also formerly an award-winning Wall Street analyst. She was an Institutional Investor-ranked equity research analyst for eight consecutive years, and was rated by Starmine as a superior stock-picker. As an equity analyst, stocks under coverage included America Movil (NYSE: AMX), Televisa (NYSE: TV) and Telmex (NYSE: TMX), which accounted for roughly 40% of Mexico's market capitalization.Whitney is a frequent contributor for the Harvard Business Review, she has over 1.5 million followers on Linkedin, was named one of LinkedIn's Top Voices in the Influencer category for 2018, and her LinkedIn course The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has 1 million+ views.She is a member of the original cohort of Marshall Goldsmith's #100 coaches.Learn more at https://whitneyjohnson.com/Business Leadership Series Intro and Outro music provided by Just Off Turner: https://music.apple.com/za/album/the-long-walk-back/268386576

What if the future of education isn't bigger—but smaller, more personal, and radically student-driven?In this episode of Case Studies, Casey Baugh sits down with Matt Clayton, founder of Slope School, to explore how traditional schools are being disrupted by a new, human-centered model. From working at Goldman Sachs to studying under Clayton Christensen, Matt shares how autonomy, real-world learning, and community are transforming how kids learn.You'll hear why Slope School focuses on mastery over credentials, how AI is accelerating student growth, and why building identity is the most important part of education. This episode is packed with insights for parents, educators, and entrepreneurs who care about the next generation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if your career stayed exactly the same for the next 10 years, (same title, same compensation, same trajectory) but your relationships quietly eroded in the background? Would you notice? Or would you call it a "busy season"? In this episode of the Modern High Performer podcast, I'm unpacking a question that has challenged me deeply which is inspired by Clayton Christensen's book How Will You Measure Your Life? and applying business strategy thinking to something far more personal: how we measure success in our lives. As high performers, we are wired to optimize. We track what moves. We invest where we see immediate returns and work gives us clear metrics, fast feedback, and visible progress. Relationships don't. In this episode, I walk through three powerful ideas: Why money, status, and achievement can quietly masquerade as fulfillment How we unintentionally allocate our best time and energy to what pays off now — while underinvesting in what matters long-term The subtle way lifestyle expansion can make income feel "required," leading to giving our families less of us I also share a personal regret about friendships I didn't protect the way I should have — and the hard truth about how relationship drift doesn't happen loudly. It happens slowly. You'll hear journaling prompts to help you reflect on: What are you currently measuring your life by? Where is your time going and why? If nothing changed professionally, would you be proud of how you showed up personally? This episode isn't about abandoning ambition. It's about ensuring your ambition doesn't cost you the life you're building it for. If you're a senior leader navigating responsibility, growth, and the tension between success and presence, this conversation is for you. Here are the some great resources I wanted to share with you: Apply for 1:1 Coaching https://www.mollyasplin.com/subscribe molly@mollyasplin.com Follow Me on Instagram Growth Day App - 7 Day Free Trial   Are you looking to improve performance and team effectiveness across your team? Book A Team Effectiveness Consult Here   If this message resonated with you, I'd be so grateful if you'd leave a rating and review—it helps the show reach more high achievers who are ready to do life and work differently. And if you're listening today, take a screenshot of this episode & tag me on Instagram @molly.asplin so I can personally thank you and cheer you on!

Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ The Shift from Attention to Trust In this compelling episode, Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO of Transcends, joins Vince Menzione to discuss the tectonic shifts occurring in the global partner ecosystem. Ashleigh shares her firsthand experiences studying AI at Oxford, the rise of the “Trust Economy,” and the controversial Amazon vs. Perplexity lawsuit. They dive deep into the practicalities of becoming a “Frontier Firm,” the importance of building proprietary AI agents, and the ways Gen Z and AI-driven marketplaces are revolutionizing the buyer journey. Whether you are looking to win Microsoft Partner of the Year or navigate the demise of traditional SaaS, this conversation provides a strategic roadmap for leading through the AI revolution. Key Takeaways The economy is shifting from a focus on human attention to a foundation of verified trust. Future commerce will involve “selling to machines” as AI agents begin making purchasing decisions on behalf of humans. Microsoft is prioritizing “Frontier Firms” that integrate AI into every customer interaction and internal process. Gen Z buyers are prioritizing product value and “dupes” over traditional brand names, with 75% of buyers expected to be Gen Z by 2030. To win Partner of the Year, organizations must publicly celebrate “better together” stories with validated customer wins. Modern leaders should transition from a “growth mindset” to a “frontier mindset” to keep pace with rapid technological change. https://youtu.be/xJmd43NvfnI If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Trust Economy, Selling to Machines, Amazon vs Perplexity Lawsuit, Frontier Firm, AI Agents, Copilot Studio, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Partner of the Year, B2B Marketplaces, Gen Z Buyer Behavior, Digital Freedom, AI Therapy, Ray Kurzweil Singularity, Substack Growth, Co-selling Partnerships, MCI Funding, Azure Accelerate, Agentic AI, Transcending Tech, Ashleigh Vogstad. Transcript Asleigh Vogstad Audio Podcast [00:00:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: The attention economy is about selling to human beings. Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines. [00:00:19] Vince Menzione: We just finished Ultimate Partners Winter Retreat here in beautiful Boca to a sold out crowd. Today I’m joined by Ashley Waad. The CEO of transcends for this compelling discussion. Ash, welcome back to the podcasts. [00:00:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s so good to be here, Vince. Thank you. Uh, [00:00:37] Vince Menzione: so well, we’re back in Boca again and we were just here yesterday for the Ultimate Partner Executive Winter Retreat in person. [00:00:44] Vince Menzione: What a great event we had together. [00:00:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: It was phenomenal. Thank you so much for having us there and on stage and, and genuinely the community is like a family, so seeing so many familiar faces and spending some quality time was just great. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: It has really, truly become like family. It really, I’m, I’m, I’m having so much fun with this and getting to watch. [00:01:04] Vince Menzione: Not just our business grow and our community grow, but to see all of our friends and, uh, organizations like Transcends that have been with us since the beginning, since the very first ultimate partner acting even before the first ultimate partner. And, uh. We were just talking about. I’d love to catch up with what you’ve been doing. [00:01:22] Vince Menzione: Like you just came, you’ve been on a whirlwind. I mean, you’re always, every time like it’s, where’s Ash? She’s, uh, she’s on a plane again, or she’s on, she’s on the slopes. But tell us where you were just this week. [00:01:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. The week started in a snowstorm, actually transporting myself from Whistler. I didn’t know if I would make it to the airport, but then down to Silicon Valley and [00:01:45] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:01:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: Wow, that place is just inspiring and eyeopening. I mean, seeing the Nvidia campus, a MD, it’s really just other worldly and it had me reflecting on, it’s [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: not Whistler. Yeah, it’s [00:02:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: definitely not Whistler. Definitely not Whistler [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: about, [00:02:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: um, yeah, it just had me reflecting on being down there. I used to spend a lot of time in the Valley around 2017 and. [00:02:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: In this theme of AI and kind of what’s really coming, I was, I was thinking about, I had met this woman, Julia Moss Bridge, who’s a neuroscientist studying ai. She had a project called Loving Ai, and I was down there when they had borrowed Sophia, this humanoid robot from S and Robotics. [00:02:32] Vince Menzione: Oh yes. Yes. [00:02:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: Really interesting. [00:02:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Sophia’s actually a citizen of Saudi. Mm-hmm. First, first robot to actually be made citizen of a country. So they had Sophia set up and the part that was just mind boggling at the time was that Sophia was hosting in real life therapy sessions with actual human beings sitting across the table. And what really struck me as. [00:02:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Kind of just, you know, that was only eight, nine years ago. And that was esoteric. Wacky and [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: eerie. [00:03:05] Ashleigh Vogstad: Weird. [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: Eerie at the time. [00:03:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Incredibly eerie. Yeah. I mean, a, a human getting, uh, you know, therapy sessions from a robot sitting across the table. Yeah. And it just had me thinking how far we’ve come today. In 2025, Harvard Business Review said that therapy is actually the number one use case for ai. [00:03:26] Vince Menzione: I’ve heard that. That is striking. I go back to COVID. We were having this conversation last night at at the dinner for the Ultimate Partner event, and I think that COVID allowed us to transcend, [00:03:42] Ashleigh Vogstad: mm-hmm. [00:03:42] Vince Menzione: No pun intended there, but actually accelerate where we are today, that the acceptance of AI and the acceleration, or the ability to accept change so quickly. [00:03:56] Vince Menzione: Started with COVID because we were so, so we were forced on whatever it was, March 10th I think, here in the United States to shut down everything and move to this remote life. [00:04:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm-hmm. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: And I think we’ve been shocked by that. I think our systems have all been shocked by that. And then here comes chat GBT in November of 2022 and we’re like. [00:04:20] Vince Menzione: Shocked in some respects, but like really everyone has embraced it in such a strong way, and now we’re getting. It’s almost daily update. You know, we’re gonna talk, I know we’re gonna talk about Anthropic and some of the things that’s been happening just in this last month that are striking and changing that have a lot of organizations trying to navigate, which is what, you know, you, you help organizations do. [00:04:43] Vince Menzione: But it feels like this is happening so fast and will continue to happen so fast. And as I said yesterday, I don’t know what this world’s gonna look like by 2030. [00:04:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, and I think the thing is, is that nobody knows what the world is gonna look like in 2030. I’ve been reading Ray Kurz Well’s, the Singularity is nearer, so the original book, the Singularity is near and he’s known to be a very accurate predictionist on the future. [00:05:11] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. But even with someone like that, you know, there, there nobody really knows what the world is gonna look like. And when you talk about COVID. At transcends, we have a value of digital freedom. So I founded the business in 2018, which was pre COVID. I as a fully remote organization, and at the time that was, you know, more groundbreaking, but then very quickly with CI that, that became the so-called new normal. [00:05:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: But we’re always thinking about. You know, remote first doesn’t mean remote only, and I think in this tide of what you’ve talked about, technological change being more acceptable and the pace of change. One of the interesting things that we see as a go-to-market agency is that in-person events are increasing. [00:05:56] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:05:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: People want and crave the face-to-face. Just like with the ultimate partner series. [00:06:02] Vince Menzione: I felt it. So it was striking yesterday. It, it seems like it’s, again, this was event number nine for us, but to see the, um, uh, receptiveness isn’t the right term, but it was this, uh, people, the, the embracing. Of seeing each other and hugging each other and being in the same room with each other. [00:06:22] Vince Menzione: And even people that didn’t know each other, like by the, the, as the day evolved, this, uh, connection that they all seemed to have with one another during the sessions and participating, everyone actively participated in the sessions. And, um, I said this in the beginning, we’re not a Slack channel and we’re not like some post on LinkedIn. [00:06:43] Vince Menzione: Uh, we’re there, there’s no playbook that’s set today around partnerships or even go to markets and marketing that we could espouse and say, this is the playbook for the next year. Right. It’s, it’s changing so rapidly. [00:06:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: So rapidly, [00:06:57] Vince Menzione: and you’ve embraced it. And I, and what we’re gonna talk about right now, I mean, I, I, you know, you’ve embraced AI in such a strong way. [00:07:04] Vince Menzione: Um, personally and with your business, I want to, I wanna dive in here a little bit. First of all, a couple things For those of those who are listening who don’t know you, I think maybe just a moment about transcends and your role, and then I wanna dive in on how you’re thinking about ai because I know you’re doing some things personally. [00:07:22] Vince Menzione: I want you to share that with, with our listeners and viewers today. [00:07:25] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. And I just wanna comment that it was a cool moment yesterday being up on stage with yourself and Mark Monday from ServiceNow and having the audience so engaged and active and Nina Harding from Microsoft stepping up and entering the conversation. [00:07:40] Vince Menzione: So cool. [00:07:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: It just made for such a collaborative experience, which was a cool moment, but yeah. Um, so. I founded this business, transcends a go-to-market agency after being at Microsoft myself. And really our differentiation is deep strategic partnerships with hyperscalers, whether that’s AWS, Google, Microsoft, and you know, that. [00:08:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: It comes with a challenge to be on the leading edge of technology. [00:08:08] Vince Menzione: Yes, [00:08:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: it, it’s really an imperative for our business and we are an AI first firm. Microsoft talks a lot about Frontier Firm, and I’ll take a, a different kind of angle on it. You know, when I think about Frontier. I now think about it as instead of the growth mindset, I now think about a frontier mindset. [00:08:28] Vince Menzione: Frontier mindset. You have to change my principles. [00:08:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, maybe, like you said, the world is changing so rapidly. Yeah, it’s [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: changing rapidly. [00:08:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what a frontier mindset means is that as we’re approaching work for our clients, we are thinking about AI innovation in every single customer. Interaction, customer innovation. [00:08:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: So today we’re building AI agents into much of the work that we’re delivering for clients. And as a business owner and leader, I’ve been challenged to also think critically around how I’m choosing to run the company. And right now we’re going through a huge overhaul of where we have data sitting in silos and different applications. [00:09:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yep. And getting that into one place with one view so we can start layering on more insight. AI innovation. [00:09:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And data’s such an critical part, part of this, as we, we talked about yesterday. But you know, even the, what you said, which is, would, would’ve been striking a year ago to say, we’re an AI first, uh, agency isn’t as striking anymore. [00:09:32] Vince Menzione: Uh, we heard Nina when we were having this conversation on stage yesterday, say that it’s an imperative at Microsoft that the agencies that they choose to work with, the third party vendors that they work with have to be an AI first organization. I have to be a frontier firm, and so I’m a, I am sensitive to the word frontier firm. [00:09:53] Vince Menzione: I understand why Microsoft uses it and I understand the value of what we used to call, you know, customer zero or back in the day we used to say eating your own dog food, but essentially being an organization that has leaned in, in a way, and with ai. Even more so, so important to do it. So tell us, I know you’ve done some things personally as well, but tell, tell us what you’ve done with the organization. [00:10:18] Vince Menzione: Uh, you talked about data and making data available and having, having a true data state as opposed to silos of data, but then you also made some personal investments and sacrifices. I would say. [00:10:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. [00:10:30] Vince Menzione: Yeah. In terms of what you’re doing around ai, [00:10:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: so I mean, let’s start on the personal side. I’m the CEO of my organization, and you can read in books or news articles that it is critical for AI transformation to start at the C-suite and specifically in the CEO seat. [00:10:46] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:10:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: And that really. Landed for me and so I’m personally leading in About two weeks ago, I built an agent, just end-to-end on my own, got into copilot studio. Wow. Got comfortable with the interface. You know, I was clunky moving around in there at first, chose my model. You know, I went with one of the anthropic Claude models for this particular project and built up an agent that can deliver executive communications like. [00:11:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Thought leadership blogs, uh, LinkedIn posts, but in a particular human being’s voice by ingesting things like their social profiles, their SharePoint sites, where they live and work. And it has been so surprising doing an ab test between just what a chat GBT or a copilot could produce. [00:11:32] Yeah. [00:11:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: In comparison with the authenticity of the voice coming from the agent. [00:11:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it was just a really cool experience to roll up the sleeves and get in there. But also I think the, the investment that you’re referring to is, I made a big decision to return to school and uh, got accepted to go to Oxford. [00:11:52] Vince Menzione: Wow. [00:11:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I’m studying artificial intelligence there. [00:11:54] Vince Menzione: That is incredible. That is incredible. [00:11:57] Vince Menzione: Oxford, uh, we’ve heard of that school before here in the United States. [00:12:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, it’s been a really great experience. It’s in person, so I’m traveling there about every 60 to 90 days and living on campus. I mean, really, Oxford isn’t. Formally a campus, it’s sort of a, a city and a university all, all ruled into one and the experience has been really powerful. [00:12:21] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. One of the things I wanted to get outta the program was a more global perspective, and it’s been fascinating to me that about half the faculty so far, or or professors, guest lecturers that have been coming into the program have been from China or very direct experience working in the Chinese market. [00:12:38] Vince Menzione: That is fascinating. [00:12:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s been a completely different view. Or for example, you know, really digging into some of the legal cases that are driving precedence for how AI is interacting with corporations. [00:12:51] Vince Menzione: Mm. [00:12:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: One of the big ones for me has been looking at Amazon versus p perplexity. This is still a live case that’s happening right now. [00:12:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you know, I think it was Forbes magazine that the headline was the End of Commerce for this case because it’s really about. How human beings are being replaced with machines and hearing some of the world’s leading thinkers, leading AI researchers on these topics has just been really expansive. [00:13:19] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. [00:13:20] Vince Menzione: I mean, it’s, this started a couple years ago with, uh, Hollywood, in fact. Suing the industry or suing the technology companies with regards to, uh, employment, right? Mm-hmm. About the, the, uh, copyright infringement and what’s gonna happen in the entertainment industry. And I think that was just a one very small example. [00:13:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, voice people think about DeepFakes. Yeah. And they think about video, but actually voice is a big issue. And you look at the, um, you know, the what happened between Scarlett Johansson and her voice in her, and then open AI rolling out a voice that sounded identical. Sounds like her. [00:13:59] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:13:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: To Scarlett Johansen and, and where that went. [00:14:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s, it, this is a new ground for, for everybody that we’re going through right now. [00:14:07] Vince Menzione: It is. We can dive and go in so many different directions, but let’s talk about marketing and advertising since that’s kind of. Transcends core, and a lot of the people that watch and listen to us are in the partnership world. [00:14:22] Vince Menzione: They’re leading organizations, they own organizations, the the chief executives or CVPs of organizations. Let’s talk about advertising and where that’s going. [00:14:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. [00:14:33] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, uh, I love Marshall McCluen. He’s a Canadian theor, uh, media theorist, and in 1964, he very famously said, the medium is the message. [00:14:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what that really means when you peel back the layers is that every type of communication medium has these inherent biases. And I think what we’re experiencing right now is this new medium of artificial intelligence, and I’m really interested in exploring what that means for the media world. So. If I gonna take you back to 1997, there’s this really famous, the Innovator’s Dilemma. [00:15:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. Kind of a classic business 1 0 1 type book by Clayton Christensen. Yes. And he talks about this theory of disruption where new technologies, emerging technologies start at the low end of the market. They gain this momentum and they eventually displace incumbents. And you know, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere. [00:15:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And Microsoft was a good example of this at that time. [00:15:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Def, [00:15:32] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:15:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: All the big players. All the big players. I mean, Google go for search as well, right? So that’s one of the classic examples. And so. If we look at storytelling technology, you have things like chat, GBT and Sora entering the scene. And in the beginning, you know, they’re producing a shitty first draft. [00:15:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, you know, it’s things like post-apocalyptic dogs with five finger human beings. Yeah. Things like this. But, you know, and they really lacked emotional resonance. But as we all know. That’s not the case anymore. No, it’s [00:16:05] Vince Menzione: not. [00:16:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: AI is increasingly producing content that is very powerful and is starting to resonate with people. [00:16:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, I’m definitely not a neuroscientist, but if we, we look into the neuroscience, it’s your cortical sal circuit that. Kind of is responsible for pattern recognition and it compares what you’re seeing in the real world with what you expect to see. So when you take this into a space of advertising, you know, if there’s an ad that is AI generated, that is just weird and kind of. [00:16:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: Tweaking for you. [00:16:39] Vince Menzione: Like that robot we were talking about earlier, [00:16:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: like the robot we were Exactly, yeah. Like Sophia, you enter what psychologists call the uncanny valley, so it’s like what you’re looking at isn’t exactly what you’re expecting to see and the Spidey sense is, is tweaking. You know, that’s a low place of emotional resonance. [00:16:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: This world is changing really, really quickly and we’re seeing AI generated media make huge impacts in the market Now, tools like Luma Dream Machine, I mean, it’s incredible what they can achieve today. [00:17:11] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. We see it in, you know, I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. That’s sort of the world of our business community, and you can very easily detect when someone is doing a post. [00:17:22] Vince Menzione: Or they’re writing an art, whatever they’re doing. Right. Some type of draft of something. Uh, and you can tell when it’s ai, I mean, it’s so easy to tell, and even people are generating reports and claiming that their research papers or studies or whatever they call them, uh, and it’s AI generated and it’s just the authenticity isn’t there. [00:17:39] Vince Menzione: The, the sense that this is real. That it can be trusted is not there. And I think trust is what we’re talking about here too, as well. [00:17:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, let’s go to authenticity ’cause that’s super important. Yeah. And I know a lot of your listeners, you come from the hyperscaler world of partnerships. You need to have that differentiated, better together story. [00:17:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. It’s really important to have an authentic voice in market. And I think about that also in terms of platforms and channels. We’re seeing a decrease in certain major social media platforms, and yet Substack spiked 48% in monthly active users last month. [00:18:15] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:18:16] fascinating. [00:18:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: Um, you know, and I think that one of the reasons is it’s viewed as a more authentic channel where you’re getting thought leadership from people that you’re, you know, genuinely interested in hearing their, their points of view. [00:18:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I think that’s really an important piece in here. [00:18:31] Vince Menzione: Yeah, you mentioned this yesterday and you had me thinking about it as well because we have used LinkedIn for everything internally, our newsletter, which has been around for six or seven years now. But that Substack is really, and I go to Substack too, to, if I really wanna dig in on a topic. [00:18:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:18:47] Vince Menzione: And there’s a particular author that I like their point of view, I’ll follow, I’ll follow them on Substack. [00:18:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, and this comes, maybe brings us around to who is the buyer and who is the audience, and who do we need to be thinking about when we’re designing sales and marketing programs. And really we’re, we’re shifting into the place of the Gen Z buyer by 20 30, 70 5% of buyers are gonna be Gen Z. [00:19:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna control 12 trillion in. Spend [00:19:16] Vince Menzione: by 2030. ’cause we, we’ve been, we’ve been saying that the millennial is the new buyer the last three years. I think Jay said it right here at this stage. [00:19:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:19:24] Vince Menzione: Um, so now it’s Gen Z. [00:19:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: And they’re buying online. Yeah, they’re buying in marketplaces. Yeah. So a stat recently was that roughly half of them made purchases on the social platforms of YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok in the last month. [00:19:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, that buyer behavior of being inside. Social type application and directly making a purchase. And I think in the B2B world, we need to take lessons from here and start thinking more front and center than we even have been around marketplaces. I mean, part of my reason for being in Silicon Valley this week was to celebrate a $12 million transaction that happened via Marketplace and two years ago that would’ve been a huge deal. [00:20:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Huge, [00:20:07] Vince Menzione: huge. [00:20:07] Ashleigh Vogstad: And, and it still is a really big deal, but these things are becoming. More and more common experiences. Very much so. We need to be there and in that conversation. [00:20:16] Vince Menzione: So how are you thinking about it? How are you directing your clients to behave or act around it? What are you, what are you doing exactly that we could take to this community perhaps and share with them. [00:20:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’ll bring it back to the authenticity piece because you need to have a product that delivers value first and foremost. There is, there is no substitution for that. Yeah, and what I would say is. One of my professors at Oxford, Eric Zow, he has this theory that I’m really digging into and finding very fascinating, which is that for the last several decades we’ve been in the attention economy, and that’s shifting to the trust economy. [00:20:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now the attention economy is about selling to human beings. Yeah. It’s about the, the business model is essentially that you need human being eyeballs on lists of recommendation links. Yeah. Whether that’s from Google or from, you know, searching, shopping on Amazon, you get this list of recommendation links and the economic engine that drives that business model is advertising. [00:21:19] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines, or in other words, agents who are making purchases, s on behalf on your behalf. And an agent isn’t going to be razzle dazzled by some inauthentic story. [00:21:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:21:44] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna be looking for third party validation on Exactly. You know, they need to be sure that they’re making the right decision. [00:21:51] Vince Menzione: They’re gonna look at surveys, they’re gonna look at customer comments. Like if I went through my Amazon site and I was looking to see what people said about the purchase or the product and specifically Exactly. [00:22:01] Vince Menzione: The agent’s gonna do this on my behalf, is what you’re saying. [00:22:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: This is what I’m saying. Yeah. And, and. I believe that to layer on top of, you know, Eric Z’s philosophy, I’ve been thinking about this in terms of the hyperscaler world, and I think that this is the time to lean into co-selling partnerships. [00:22:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, because being third party validated by somebody like AWS Microsoft and having all that co-sell data, what are your recent wins? Yes, that’s really high integrity, trusted data source for an agent to make a purchasing decision, and marketplaces are a key part of that. [00:22:35] Vince Menzione: So we’ll move from AI will take a, a more active role in the marketplace. [00:22:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: I definitely believe so. [00:22:42] Vince Menzione: Which makes total sense. I, you know, we’ve been doing this for nine or 10 years now, and when I was at Microsoft, we started co-selling. In fact, it was, uh, Aaron Feiger was up on stage yesterday talking about it. Right? January of 2016, co-selling began. [00:22:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:22:56] Vince Menzione: And there were only a few companies doing it. [00:22:59] Vince Menzione: Right. So she worked with one of the very first ones that were doing it. Uh, the challenge we have today is there are tens of thousands of partner organizations in the marketplace that are all trying to get the attention of the Microsoft sellers. Hmm. As, or the Google sellers or the AWS sellers and tell their story. [00:23:19] Vince Menzione: And a seller only has so many minutes in a day, they have a quota that they have to hit. These quotas are tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of annual quota of cloud consumption. And I wanna sell my $50,000 widget, whatever it is. Yeah. Right. And I, I don’t understand why I’m not getting a callback. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: And this, this is the dilemma we’ve faced because of, because of this, uh, scarcity of time and this over overwhelming of tech, you know. Tech, tech buyers trying to make this all happen, so now the AI can come in and help me solve for it as a seller, right? [00:23:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: The AI is definitely acting as an interface to make recommendations to field sellers in different organizations and. [00:24:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: To, to kind of take this on a, a tangent. Dupes. So a dupe. I know people of my generation, we’d think about this like a knockoff Right. You know, a knockoff handbag. [00:24:15] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:24:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes have exploded. [00:24:16] Vince Menzione: Fake. Fake Rolexes. [00:24:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Exactly. The fake Rolex for sure. And I think it was in December, P WC rolled out a survey. 81% of Gen Z were planning to purchase a dupe this holiday season. [00:24:29] Vince Menzione: That’s wild. [00:24:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes can be, you know, we gave luxury, good examples, but Louis [00:24:34] Vince Menzione: Vuitton and yeah. So, [00:24:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: but furniture, these sorts of things. And the important takeaway here for tech is the same principle will land, is that people are looking for value out of a product, not necessarily a name brand. AI is accelerating this whole process, and agents are gonna be looking at the same thing. [00:24:56] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re looking for that authenticity in terms of the actual product value. So, you know, beware there’s lots of disruption happening in the market right now with this dupe mentality, which is actually a cultural shift talking about I appreciate value over a superficial. Brand name. In some cases, there’s also a, a small contrary trend where certain luxury goods are rising because yes, things are never that simple. [00:25:22] Vince Menzione: So you work with a lot of these tech companies, a lot of SaaS companies, is we, we call them ISVs, we also call them, uh, software development companies. Now we keep changing these acronyms around. Uh, there’s been a lot of, uh, consternation in that segment, I would say, around ai. Right, because a lot of them are getting told that they’ll be outta business in a few years. [00:25:43] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. I think Satya Nadella famously said this last year that SAS will go away. Right? He’s predicting the demise. How do you help some of these organizations to differentiate? And there’s some of these are huge value organizations. We have have them in the room with us, ServiceNow and Veeam and Adobe. [00:26:01] Vince Menzione: Um, how do you help them achieve their results? ’cause that’s what you, you know, your organization is really helping these organizations to achieve their pinnacle as a partner. What do you, what do you say to them now and how do you help them through this time? [00:26:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’m on the side of the fence that I really can’t see an organization ripping out something like Salesforce, Adobe, ServiceNow. [00:26:24] Vince Menzione: Agreed. [00:26:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean that the amount of change management and. The extent to which these, these platforms are embedded, actually running and operating organizations. I personally, if, if we’re calling those companies, SaaS companies, I don’t agree that that layer is gonna go away. I mean, we’re seeing these organizations lean into AI in a huge way to borrow Microsofts. [00:26:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: Term, you know, they’re all becoming frontier firms. [00:26:54] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:26:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: So where I would go to, to answer that question, we do work with many, you know, organizations on that caliber, on things like their marketplace strategy on how to light up the fields of different hyperscalers. It really does come down to things like having a strong drumbeat with the Microsoft field, celebrating your win stories. [00:27:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Maybe that’s where I’ll land as Please do the marketer, because it sounds so simple, and I don’t know why we kind of continue to come back to this, but we’re talking about that third party validation and really, um, in order to have that, like what the hyperscalers want is you jointly celebrating success. [00:27:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: Here’s the kicker. Publicly. [00:27:38] Vince Menzione: Publicly, [00:27:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: you know, you need a customer story on your website, a press release that contains a quote from your customer. Ideally, also a quote from an executive at one of the hyperscalers. Like, actually lean in to live the value of your better together story. And when you do that, when you, when it comes around to partner of the year time, and we talk to you about, okay, what client stories are we gonna feature? [00:28:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: We’re even gonna know because when we Google you, we can see the public press of the joint wins that you’ve been celebrating. And I can tell you that that is a huge indicator on whether or not you’re well-placed to be in the 4% of partners who actually win Partner of the Year award’s. [00:28:20] Vince Menzione: Fascinating to me. [00:28:21] Vince Menzione: ’cause to me it would feel like table stakes maybe ’cause where we sit is ultimate partner and where this room sits with all the top partners that I just assume that everybody follows that. That, that guidance. [00:28:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:28:34] Vince Menzione: And so this is really impactful and I want to get here because I know you spent a lot of time here and we’ve talked about it before, but I think the partner of the year awards, when we first met many years ago, that was a you, you’ve expanded the business, but that’s still a core mission and and value that you bring to the community and to the partner ecosystem is helping them through this process. [00:28:55] Vince Menzione: So I know that that’s gonna be coming up soon, so I thought maybe we’d spend a couple moments on that. [00:29:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: Partner of the Year awards, regardless of which partner, I mean, Salesforce has their own awards there. There’s more and more award programs coming out, and they’re a great way to celebrate the incredible work that your organization has done. [00:29:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: Jay McBain is brilliant on this. He’ll talk a lot about the increase in valuation. Yeah. The, the increase in stock valuation or the likelihood that if you’re looking to be acquired, that you’re acquired within 12 months of a partner of the year win it. It’s really impressive. There is strong business value there. [00:29:33] Vince Menzione: He like, he likes, he likes to tell the story of that when the award is handed to them and they go back into the audience, that the private equity people are all over them right then and there and making offers. I mean, that’s the visual that you get [00:29:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: and it’s very powerful. Yeah. Very powerful. It’s very powerful and it, it can make it worthwhile to invest in the process, but don’t invest in the process if you haven’t been investing in the process for the 12 months. [00:29:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: Prior, [00:29:58] Vince Menzione: exactly. [00:29:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: The Microsoft field or you we’re talking about Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. They need to know about your win that that needs to be top of mind for them. Yeah. How much Azure revenue is it driving? Was it a huge marketplace? Build sales and. You know, one of the questions I get asked a ton, everybody wants to know how do we get money out of the hyperscalers? [00:30:20] Ashleigh Vogstad: How do I get access to marketing development funds or all these different programs? Yeah. You know, at Microsoft, some of these programs are like EI and customer investment funds or Azure Accelerate, you know, and there’s millions and millions and millions of dollars in these, these buckets of funds, but. [00:30:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: An interesting point of view is that it’s actually a scorecard metric for many people at Microsoft who have partnership roles for you to be drawing down those funds. [00:30:45] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:30:45] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, your interests are actually aligned here, and so again, when it comes to Partner of the Year awards, how much money have you pulled down? [00:30:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: How much have you been an activating partner of key Microsoft programs that they’re pushing? What are you doing with marketplace rewards? How are you resing? Those into your business. These are the types of things that you really wanna be thinking about. Sitting it. You know, this time of year we probably will get the awards were likely be due in July. [00:31:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: They haven’t officially announced timelines, but you’ve got a few months to start moving these pieces into place. [00:31:18] Vince Menzione: And there are quite a few of them. And to your point, Nina, when she was up on stage here yesterday, there were at least 10 or 12 award. Uh. Funding categories that were on her, that were on her slide. [00:31:31] Vince Menzione: Her partner, her partner slide. So, [00:31:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: and what great looks like for a partner is that you understand your end-to-end funnel as it is mapped to Microsoft’s SEM model, the Microsoft customer Engagement model. Mm-hmm. The first stage there, inspire and design. That’s really the marketing space of lead generation. [00:31:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: So how are you generating leads with webinars, in-person, event activations, digital campaigns, and then at the very end, in the fifth column, you have the Microsoft outcomes that you’re driving. Yes. Whether that’s Azure consumed revenue, marketplace build sales, co-pilot, monthly active usage, these sorts of things. [00:32:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: And in each of those SEM swim lanes. There’s Microsoft funding associated to it. And that’s one of the things that Nina Harding was showing yesterday. When and where does it make sense to make requests for EA funds versus Azure accelerate the MCI funding? There’s different workshop proof of concept funding, and those all fall at specific stages in that EM model. [00:32:33] Vince Menzione: And what you’re also pointing out in this conversation is that the co the partners need to understand that mm, they need to understand MM. We talked about it years ago. I’ve had, haven’t had anybody on stage recently talk about m You could probably take us through that if we wanted to devote some time here, uh, and then understand all of those categories and how to access those funds. [00:32:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, it’s critical and. The number one place we point partners, if you want a quick overview of what that looks like is to Microsoft’s FY 26 solution playbooks. Nice. They’re available on the web for download. There’s, well, there used to be three, but they’ve added a few agen being, being one. So, so there’s a handful of, they had [00:33:11] Vince Menzione: simplified it, now they’re, now they’re expanding it back again. [00:33:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, exactly. I think there’s now a breakout for security as well. Yes. So take a look at those playbooks. It will map programs and incentives very specifically to each solution area and to each sales play that are gonna be available to you. And then we’re always happy to guide people through the details [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: as well. [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: I love that. I love that. And reach out to the. Ashley is just amazing at this process. I’ve, I’ve watched her for years now, work with some of the top, what have become the pinnacle partners of Microsoft and with the award season coming up. So we wanna make sure we have a plug there. But I also wanna talk about like, podcasts with you. [00:33:50] Vince Menzione: Um, you’ve been on this podcast multiple times, been in the studio before doing this, and I understand you have your own podcast now. So tell us about that. [00:33:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, Vince, I just wanna say. As a friend and a mentor. You’ve been so inspiring. Thank you. And I think from years ago when we met, there was this seed in my brain of, you know, I, I should really get out there. [00:34:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you talk a lot about growth mindset and fear setting is, is one of Tim Ferriss’s terms? Yes. And models. [00:34:21] Vince Menzione: I love Tim Ferris. I’ve been, been a fan of his for 10 years now. So that’s settled. We all got started with this. Sorry. Sorry, I [00:34:26] Ashleigh Vogstad: interrupt. No, no, not at all. [00:34:27] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:34:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And. I think it’s just been, it’s been back there. [00:34:31] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. That I’m really passionate around having voice is how I think about it. And as a marketing agency, we’re really amplifying the voice, um, or helping companies to find their voice, particularly in hyperscaler partnerships. And what better way to assist, you know, authentically the amazing people in our network, in our community and our clients than with our own channel where we can celebrate their stories and success? [00:35:00] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: So the podcast is called Transcending Tech. It’s about [00:35:06] Vince Menzione: very cool transcending tech. Just so you don’t [00:35:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: transcending tech. [00:35:08] Vince Menzione: It’s out there now. [00:35:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: It, we just released our first episode. Okay. I think two days ago. [00:35:13] Vince Menzione: So by the time we’re live, yes. We’ll, we’ll be able to access it. Good. [00:35:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: You will be able to access it. [00:35:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: The first episode is with Alyssa Fit. Patrick from Elastic. [00:35:21] Vince Menzione: Oh my goodness. [00:35:22] Ashleigh Vogstad: And the concept of the podcast, it’s long form and it’s really about getting to the people behind the platforms. [00:35:29] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:29] Ashleigh Vogstad: And to the stories that transcend technology. So we’re here to get to know the human beings behind. Agents. [00:35:38] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:35:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: And taking the time to, to go in deep and really explore that. [00:35:43] Vince Menzione: So I am excited to see all the developments here with the, with the podcast. And you’re gonna be joining us again. You were just here, you in Boca. But you’ll be joining us again in Bellevue. Not too far a little bit. Closer ride or travel, uh, for you to come to Bellevue. [00:35:57] Vince Menzione: We’re gonna be hosting the first ultimate partner live, which is our larger events in this beautiful facility, this new Intercontinental hotel, which is fabulous. And, uh, you’re gonna be taking a more active role. Your leadership around AI is. Palpable and we’re gonna love to have you on stage and talking through some of the changes. [00:36:17] Vince Menzione: I, I suspect by the time we get to Bellevue we’ll have a lot more to talk about. That hasn’t even happened yet. [00:36:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, I’m really excited. I’ll have been through my next cohort at at Oxford, kind of coming out hot from there back to the Pacific Northwest, and really excited to just share the learnings and Awesome. [00:36:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: Genuinely. It’s also helping me in my own research, really formulate particularly around the role of ag agentic AI in hyperscaler partnerships. [00:36:43] Vince Menzione: That’s so cool. And then what I’ll say is this, and I don’t know, we on the space perspective, and I’ll, the team will probably hang me for this because we haven’t done it yet, but if you wanna bring the podcast along with you, there might be, we’ll see if we can find an extra room for you to set up. [00:36:58] Vince Menzione: If you wanna do some interviews while you’re. In, at the event. So [00:37:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: you’re so generous, Vince. [00:37:03] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:37:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: amazing. [00:37:04] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Again, I can’t say for certainty yet, but, uh, let’s see, let’s see what happens with that. So, uh, let, let’s, uh, you know, I always, we, we have known each other for years and I just assume everybody knows this amazing Ashley sda. [00:37:19] Vince Menzione: But, um, we always, I like to ask this question because it helps us kind of dig in a little bit about you personally. And it’s my favorite question. I ask all my guests this question now, and it’s, um, you’re hosting a dinner party, Ashley, you are, pick a pace, place, you wanna have this dinner. We could talk about parts of the world. [00:37:36] Vince Menzione: You’ve traveled all extensively. Uh, and you can invite any three people, guests from the present. Or the past to this amazing dinner party you’re throwing. Whom would you invite and why? [00:37:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s a beautiful question, Vince and. Instantly I go to a place in terms of the location, since you asked that part, which was surprising. [00:38:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: I, I like that is my home. I, I love where I live up in Whistler, Canada and [00:38:08] Vince Menzione: I hear it’s beautiful. I haven’t been yet, [00:38:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: it’s so gorgeous and it’s, it’s my own sanctuary. You know, I live on a plane 75% of the time and coming back to that place is really grounding for me. Yes. So, so I would love to have it at, at my home and to invite. [00:38:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: Pippa Malrin would be one. She, Pippa [00:38:26] Vince Menzione: Malrin. [00:38:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. She’s sure. I get an advisor to the White House for many administrations. Okay. She’s an economist and she just has really interesting perspective on geopolitics. Uh, I follow her on Substack ’cause she’s a big substack. Okay, now [00:38:41] Vince Menzione: I need to look. This is awesome. [00:38:42] Vince Menzione: The [00:38:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: mal, she’s fantastic. I would say Dr. Lisa Sue, the CEO, Dr. Lisa of a md. [00:38:49] Vince Menzione: Okay. Yes, yes. I know a little bit about her. [00:38:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: So she was one of Time Mag, I think she was the only woman in Time Magazine’s, group of people of the year, which was basically this AI cohort in including, you know, the Elon Musks of the world. [00:39:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it’s just so impressive what she’s doing with leadership in a MD. I don’t think it’s as public as. Anybody else who is on the cover of that magazine, but it’s incredibly powerful. [00:39:14] Vince Menzione: Yeah, they’ve made a com uh, turnaround’s probably not the right word, but it seems like they’ve made a tremendous, uh, gains turnaround probably in the last few years. [00:39:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: I would say that many would say turnaround. And then lastly is Dr. Fefe Lee, who. For those in the AI space, particularly AI research space. I mean, she’s arguably number one. Um, she’s leading at Stanford currently. [00:39:37] Vince Menzione: Wow. This is gonna be a heady conversation, but you know, I love conversations. So if you don’t mind, maybe I’ll bring dessert and come, come in for a few moments, maybe do some podcast interviews there. [00:39:48] Vince Menzione: How’s that? [00:39:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: That sounds absolutely perfect, Vince, [00:39:50] Vince Menzione: so, so good. So good to have you here today. So great. Good to have you in the studio again, and, uh, excited for transcends and all the great work you’re doing. Um. This time with ai. I think you, uh, we talked about this a little bit last night. I think you’ve made some really wise, personal and professional decisions about how to lead and how to take this forward and not kind of rest on your laurels, which you see so many organizations do People fear change [00:40:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: Hmm. [00:40:18] Vince Menzione: And you embrace it, which is just, it’s astounding to me that you do that and, um. I look forward to working with you in the future and for years and years to come. So I will ask you one more question though, because we are still at the precipice of these tectonic shifts and we’re still early in 2026. And so for our listeners and our viewers today, what would be the one thing you would tell them that they need to go do now that possibly they haven’t done yet as they prepare for 2026 and beyond? [00:40:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: The generic phrase would be, be curious, but if we want an action, it would be go build an agent. [00:40:59] Vince Menzione: Go build an agent [00:41:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: if, if you haven’t already. Yeah. And, and I’m, yeah. Speaking hopefully to like a business audience, you know, to, to anyone. Yeah. Really, um, find something that is interesting that you’re passionate about. [00:41:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: A, a use case that it doesn’t have to be some big thing. It could be quite mundane, but just something that’s gonna help you in your role. It’s, you know, what is creativity is an interesting question, and I can tell you that sitting down and hands-on keys and actually creating something is, is a beautiful, powerful experience. [00:41:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Awesome. All right. We’re all gonna go create agents this weekend, so thank you for listening. Thank you for viewing the Ultimate Guide to partnering on our YouTube channel, ultimate Partner, and on each end of your platforms at the Ultimate Guide to partnering. Thank you for being with us and supporting us all these years. [00:41:50] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Don’t forget, ultimate Partner Live is coming soon, May 11th through the 13th in beautiful Bellevue, Washington. I hope to see you there.

Career regret is more common than most professionals admit. In Bill Gurley's survey, 7 out of 10 people said they would restart their careers if given the chance, revealing widespread dissatisfaction with their chosen paths. After decades of working alongside successful founders, Bill distilled what actually leads to meaningful, energizing work into his book  Running Down a Dream, offering a clear path to designing a career you don't want to escape from. Now on Spotify video! In this episode, Bill reveals how to build your dream job and shares what top professionals do differently to create careers that bring both success and fulfillment. In this episode, Hala and Bill will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (02:17) The Career Regret Crisis (06:57) Designing Your Own Career Path (12:53) How Curiosity Over Passion Drives Success (22:10) Bill's Journey From Engineering to Venture Capital (28:45) Mastering Career Fundamentals for Growth (41:34) The Power of Mentors and Peers in Career Development (52:10) Dot-Com Crash Lessons and the AI Wave (54:20) Unit Economics and Business Fundamentals (1:06:39) Smart ROI Decisions for Entrepreneurs (1:16:47) Making Tough Calls in Leadership (1:21:34) Traits of Extraordinary Founders Bill Gurley is a renowned Silicon Valley venture capitalist and general partner at Benchmark, known for early, pivotal investments in companies like Uber, Zillow, and Grubhub. With over 20 years at Benchmark, he is recognized as a top tech investor and the author of the influential blog Above the Crowd. In his new book, Running Down a Dream, Bill breaks down the components of balancing joy with success and identifies the key principles of career fulfillment. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at⁠ Indeed.com/profiting⁠ Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at⁠ Shopify.com/profiting⁠. Spectrum Business - Keep your business connected seamlessly. Visit ⁠https://spectrum.com/Business⁠ to learn more. Northwest Registered Agent - Build your brand and get your complete business identity at⁠ northwestregisteredagent.com/paidyap⁠ Framer - Publish beautiful and production-ready websites. Go to⁠ Framer.com/profiting⁠ and get 30% off their Framer Pro annual plan. Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to⁠ quo.com/profiting⁠ Working Genius - Discover your natural gifts and thrive at work. Go to⁠ workinggenius.com⁠ and get 20% off with code PROFITING Experian - Manage and cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reduce your bills. See ⁠experian.com⁠ for details. Huel -  Get all the daily nutrients you need with Huel. Grab Huel today and get 15% OFF with my code PROFITING at⁠ huel.com/PROFITING⁠.  Resources Mentioned: Bill's Book, Running Down A Dream: ⁠bit.ly/BGDream⁠  Bill's X (Twitter): ⁠x.com/bgurley⁠  Bill's Website: ⁠abovethecrowd.com⁠  Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett: ⁠bit.ly/BB-DYL⁠  One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch: ⁠bit.ly/PL-OUOWS⁠  Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen: ⁠bit.ly/CC-ID⁠  Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey: ⁠bit.ly/MM-GL⁠  Active Deals -⁠ youngandprofiting.com/deals⁠  Key YAP Links Reviews -⁠ ratethispodcast.com/yap⁠ YouTube -⁠ youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting⁠ Newsletter - ⁠youngandprofiting.co/newsletter⁠  LinkedIn -⁠ linkedin.com/in/htaha/⁠ Instagram -⁠ instagram.com/yapwithhala/⁠ Social + Podcast Services:⁠ yapmedia.com⁠ Transcripts -⁠ youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new⁠  Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Marketing, Negotiation, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Growth Mindset, Business Ideas, Growth Hacks, Workplace, Career Podcast

Why is iterating hardware so difficult and what would we do if it came time to start a business.In Episode #515 of 'Meanderings', Juan & I discuss: Clayton Christensen's 'The Innovator's Dilemma' book, why incumbents like IBM and Blockbuster struggled with disruptive shifts, how spin-outs can help large firms explore new markets, whether today's tech giants (NVIDIA, Amazon, Alphabet) are genuinely pivoting faster than past eras, the trap of single‑thesis bets (e.g., x402 via Coinbase/Circle), the difference between wealth and money via Paul Graham's classic essay, my slow‑ship shift toward building something around livestreaming/value-for-value/OpenClaw-style agents, Juan's practical plan to buy and streamline existing local service businesses and the enduring challenge of measuring value in a world awash with AI-generated content. No boostagrams but we do appreciate the streaming!Stan Link: https://stan.store/meremortalsTimeline:(00:00:00) Intro(00:00:36) The Innovator's Dilemma book(00:05:20) From hardware to software: DiSASSter(00:10:58) CapEx arms race: Nvidia up, Apple lagging(00:15:04) Incumbents can't buy their way out every time(00:19:13) Is AI truly disruptive? Capital, energy, and hype checks(00:24:50) Business cycles repeat: pivots, exits, and getting left behind(00:29:34) Investing today: concentration, tech dominance, and copper(00:34:05) Investing is prediction: outcomes vs decisions(00:38:02) Finding exposure: beware tiny bets inside behemoths(00:41:01) Boostagram Lounge and supporter shout-outs(00:42:04) Micropayments, value, and streaming money(00:45:19) Why Lightning may not fit continuous payments(00:49:53) Two paths: analogue community vs full-tilt AI grind(00:53:41) A niche edge: 'human-made' as a selling point(01:03:31) A creator's plan: livestreaming with OpenClaw automation(01:08:02) Work futures: lifestyle businesses and human uniqueness(01:14:58) Zero-to-one vs sustainment: knowing your role(01:20:04) Juan's near-term play: buy, streamline, and bundle SMBs(01:23:40) Wrap-up and sign-off Connect with Mere Mortals:Website: https://www.meremortalspodcasts.com/Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReUTwitter/X: https://twitter.com/meremortalspodsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcasts/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meremortalspodcastsValue 4 Value Support:Boostagram: https://www.meremortalspodcasts.com/supportPaypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/meremortalspodcast

In today's episode, I dive into why competitive alternatives—not problems or future visions—are the right place to start a positioning exercise. I explain how different teams inside a company misunderstand competition in predictable ways, and why positioning must focus only on who shows up on customer shortlists right now. I also share how my thinking on this step has evolved since the first edition of my book, Obviously Awesome, and why getting this step wrong makes every other positioning decision harder.You will learn: (03:26) How competitive alternatives are broader than direct competitors but narrower than imagined threats.(05:05) Why starting with “the problem” often leads to vague or misleading positioning inputs.(09:21) How jobs-to-be-done thinking reshaped April's positioning methodology.(12:19) What the milkshake story teaches about customer comparison frameworks.(14:46) Why sales teams are the most reliable source for identifying real competitive alternatives.(17:52) How product, marketing, and founders each skew the competitive picture in different ways.(24:49) Why AI tools like ChatGPT cannot accurately tell you who your real competitors are.—Connect with April Dunford and learn about practical positioning that accelerates marketing and sales: Work with April: https://www.aprildunford.com/contact April's newsletter: https://aprildunford.substack.com/ April's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/ April's Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/aprildunford/ April's Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/aprildunford April's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@positioningshow—Mentioned in this episode: * Obviously Awesome, Second Edition (forthcoming), by April Dunford. * Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen.* Bob Moesta, researcher at JobsToBeDone.org.—Get April Dunford's books and audiobooks: “Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It.”“Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win.”Amazon US: https://amzn.to/49l0ZRY Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/4ac9hgt Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3vosDzQApple Books: https://apple.co/3xihSzCGoogle Play: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=%22April%20Dunford%22&c=books Barnes & Noble: https://www.bn.com/s/%22April%20Dunford%22 Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/contributors/april-dunford —The Positioning with April Dunford podcast: Want to make your product stand out in a crowded market? It all starts with great positioning. Using April's battle-tested methodology, she'll teach you the nitty-gritty of positioning so that you can unlock better marketing and sales performance.Podcast website: https://www.positioning.show/ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3PFHcWx Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/02XBrnPJ7NVGPUgHC7xstU Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@positioningshow —This episode was produced by Story On Media: https://www.storyon.co/

Most organizations are built to do exactly what they do…and that's the problem. When a core business starts to decay due to disruption, automation, or shifting customer demand, the instinct is to double down on efficiency, cost cutting, and short-term fixes. But that focus often crowds out the harder, riskier work of building what comes next. Nearly a decade ago, Dual Transformation offered a clear and compelling framework for this dilemma, yet nobody seems to be actually doing it. In this episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin unpack why dual transformations are so rare, why it's even harder than it sounds, and why it matters more than ever in an AI-shaped economy. They dig into the tensions between “business A” (the core) and “business B” (the future), the funding and operating system traps that kill new growth, and practical moves leaders and internal change agents can make to actually pull of two transformations at once instead of just talking about it. -------------------------------- Ready to change your organization? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Let's talk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get our newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -------------------------------- Mentioned references: Type One vs Type Two fun Enneagram 7: AWWTR Ep. 33 with Liz Orr Ulysses (book) Dual Transformation (book) Clayton Christensen and disruptive innovation taxi and uber disruption Eisenhower matrix "Squirrel" Sam's manifesto 00:00 Intro + Check-In: What's some type two fun you've had recently? 04:29 What is Dual Transformation and why now? 13:27 Sounds simple, yet deceptively hard 21:05 The 3 crisis points of a dual transformation 27:12 Recognizing when you're in a dying business 30:57 Engineering a dual transformation from the inside out 37:24 Navigating the emotions of the dying business 39:14 Idea 1: Weekly feedback routines with customers 43:07 Idea 2: Import as little as possible from the old company 45:59 Idea 3: Write the manifesto for both businesses 47:29 Bonus Idea: Read Dual Transformation! 48:26 Wrap up Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coupe Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

In this episode of the Good Leadership Podcast, host Charles Good speaks with Karen Dillon, former editor of Harvard Business Review and co-author of 'How Will You Measure Your Life?'They explore the intersection of business theory and personal fulfillment, discussing how rigorous decision-making and understanding intrinsic motivation can lead to a more satisfying life. Dillon shares insights from her collaboration with Clayton Christensen, emphasizing the importance of applying business theories to personal decisions, the high achiever paradox, and the significance of relationships in achieving long-term happiness.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Karen Dillon's Journey02:19 The Impact of Clay Christensen's Teachings04:47 Understanding Business Theory and Life Decisions07:17 Herzberg's Two Factor Theory Explained09:29 The Importance of Intrinsic Motivators11:11 Self-Check for Long-Term Fulfillment12:04 Deliberate vs. Emergent Strategy in Business14:30 Testing Assumptions in Decision Making16:33 Financial Constraints Leading to Innovation18:53 The High Achiever Paradox22:22 Jobs to Be Done Theory in Relationships27:25 Understanding Emotional Needs in Relationships29:09 Outsourcing Responsibilities: Lessons from Dell32:06 Key Insights and Takeaways

In this episode of The Builder's Bookshelf, we unpack Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma and explore why even the best-run construction companies can get blindsided by prefab, modular, drones, and AI. You'll learn how to spot disruptive shifts early, run experiments without wrecking your core business, and become the builder that drives the change instead of getting run over by it.Enjoy Episode 4 and #BeNEXT

Scott D. Anthony is a globally recognized expert on navigating disruptive change and a passionate optimist about humanity's capacity to adapt in a constantly evolving world. He is a Clinical Professor of Strategy at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, where he teaches courses on leading disruptive change, horizon scanning, and AI-enabled decision-making.Scott's work builds on more than two decades of field research and close mentorship under Clayton Christensen, spent over 20 years at Innosight, and is the author of several influential books, including his latest, Epic Disruptions.In this second part of our conversation, we talk about:The three clear patterns of disruptionWhat Shiseido's transformation reveals about balancing heritage and reinventionModels of social generativityRelationship between change and discomfortThe invisible “ghosts” that haunt organizationsCompeting against non-consumption and why “something is better than nothing” drives disruptionThe systemic dimension of innovationThe three shadows of innovationWhat past disruptions can teach us about governing AI responsiblyWhat disruptive innovation might look like in religious and spiritual communitiesTo learn more about Scott's work, you can find him at: https://www.innosight.com/ Books and resources mentioned:Epic Disruptions (by Scott D. Anthony)The Innovator's Dilemma (by Clayton M. Christensen)The First Mile (by Scott D. Anthony)This season of the podcast is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust.Support the show

In this episode of Case Studies, Casey Baugh sits down with Dave Checketts, the youngest president in NBA history and former CEO of Madison Square Garden. From saving bankrupt franchises to leading iconic sports organizations, Dave shares the defining moments that shaped his career and his character.This conversation goes far beyond headlines and trophies. Dave opens up about faith, injustice, loss, and the unseen preparation behind opportunity. He reflects on how early rejection fueled resilience, how mentorship changed the trajectory of his life, and why building “championship culture” matters more than talent or capital alone.Now operating in private equity after decades in the global sports spotlight, Dave explains why influence without attention has become more fulfilling than power with a platform. This is a rare masterclass on leadership, readiness, and building a life of meaning long after the applause fades.⏱️ Episode Chapters00:00 | Admiration, Sports, and a Life in Leadership03:35 | Growing Up in Bountiful & Learning to Hustle Early08:34 | Rejection, Injustice, and Missing High School Basketball12:20 | Turning Setbacks into Fuel for Growth15:25 | Making the BYU Basketball Team Against the Odds20:14 | Faith, Obedience, and a Defining Spiritual Promise24:19 | Why That One Year of College Basketball Mattered28:19 | Ambition at 70 and Never Being Finished30:48 | Business School, Bain, and Early Career Acceleration35:27 | Clayton Christensen, Mentorship, and Consulting41:31 | Helping Danny Ainge and Entering Pro Sports47:26 | Walking into the NBA Office Unannounced52:58 | Sparring with David Stern—and Earning His Trust57:09 | Why the Celtics Deal Fell Apart59:17 | Being Chosen to Save the Utah Jazz at 2701:02:42 | Championship Culture vs. Winning Culture01:09:14 | Painful Partnerships and Hard Lessons01:16:21 | Tragedy, Loss, and Perspective01:20:04 | Faith, Gratitude, and the Experiences You Wouldn't Choose01:22:14 | Raising Capital to Save the Jazz01:27:00 | Legacy Beyond Sports and the Spotlight Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott D. Anthony is a globally recognized expert on navigating disruptive change and a passionate optimist about humanity's capacity to adapt in a constantly evolving world. He is a Clinical Professor of Strategy at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, where he teaches courses on leading disruptive change, horizon scanning, and AI-enabled decision-making.Scott's work builds on more than two decades of field research and close mentorship under Clayton Christensen, spent over 20 years at Innosight, and is the author of several influential books, including his latest, Epic Disruptions.In this first part of our conversation, we discuss:The meaning of innovation: something different that creates valueHow the meaning of “innovation” shifted from something dangerous to something sacredScott's first encounter with Clayton ChristensenClay Christensen's regret over how the term “disruption” has been misusedThe four big questions Scott poses about innovationWhat Gutenberg's printing press reveals about collective creativity and unintended consequencesThe predictable and unpredictable nature of innovationLessons from a failed medical tourism venture on testing real demandTo learn more about Scott's work, you can find him at: https://tuck.dartmouth.edu/faculty/faculty-directory/scott-d-anthonyhttps://www.innosight.com/ Books and resources mentioned:Epic Disruptions (by Scott D. Anthony)The Innovator's Dilemma (by Clayton M. Christensen)The First Mile (by Scott D. Anthony)This season of the podcast is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust.Support the show

I denne episode fortsætter vi vores bud på portefølje 2026 med fokus på De trendy og De vilde. Vi taler om comeback til rum-aktier, Trump og Grønland igen, tanker om Clayton Christensens Innovator's Dilemma, samt runder markedsnyheder og meget mere. Denne episode er sponsoreret af Vippresidences.com. Bliv medejer af unikke boliger rundt omkring i verdenen. Læs mere på Vippresidences.com. Denne episode er sponsoreret af Finobo. Få et gratis økonomitjek hos specialisterne i låneoptimering ved at bruge linket:finobo.dk/gratis-oekonomitjek-aktieuniverset/Prøv den nye omlægningsberegner på Finobo.dk/beregner-omlaegningsberegner/?utm_source=aktieuniverset Denne episode er sponsoreret af investeringsfonden NewDeal Invest. NewDeal Invest er blevet børsnoteret, så der nu ikke er nogen minimumsinvestering for at komme med i fonden. Find den på din danske handelsplatform under PMINDI eller NewDeal Invest (nu også på Nordnet og eToro). Hvis du er en virksomhed, kan du også investere i hovedfonden gennem virksomhedsskatteordningen (VSO).NewDeal Invest: ⁠newdealinvest.dk⁠ Tjek os ud på:FB gruppe: ⁠facebook.com/groups/1023197861808843⁠X: ⁠x.com/aktieuniverset⁠IG: ⁠instagram.com/aktieuniversetpodcast⁠  DISCLAIMER:Aktieuniverset indeholder markedsføring af investeringsforeningen Portfoliomanager NewDeal Invest, kl n (PMINDI), som Mads Christiansen er investeringsrådgiver for. Podcasten kan ligeledes referere til andre fonde.Indholdet i podcasten udtrykker alene værternes og gæsters egne holdninger, refleksioner og analyser, og skal ikke opfattes som en personlig anbefaling af bestemte værdipapirer eller strategier. Podcasten skal ikke anses som investeringsrådgivning, da den enkelte lytters finansielle situation, nuværende aktiver eller passiver, investeringskendskab og -erfaring, investeringsformål, investeringshorisont, risikoprofil eller præferencer ikke kan inddrages. Det afhænger af den enkelte investors personlige forhold og målsætning, om en bestemt investering eller investeringsstrategi er hensigtsmæssig, og vi anbefaler, at man rådfører sig med sin investeringsrådgiver, inden en eventuel beslutning om investering tages.PMINDI kan findes via Nordnet (https://www.nordnet.dk/markedet/investeringsforeninger-liste/18148998-portfolio-manager-new-deal-invest), Saxo Bank (https://www.saxoinvestor.dk/investor/page/product/Fund/38109485) eller ved at søge på ”DK0062499810” i din egen netbank.PMINDI er kun egnet for investorer med høj risikovillighed og en investeringshorisont på mindst 5 år. Alt investering medfører risiko, herunder potentielt tab af kapital. Historisk afkast er ikke en indikator for fremtidigt afkast, der kan afvige meget eller være negativt.Læs PRIIP KID for PMINDI for fulde risikoscenarier: https://fundmarket.dk/newdeal-invest-kl-n/. Overvej risici og fordele nøje før investering.Læs mere om risici her: https://newdealinvest.dk/risici/ og generelt om investeringsforeningen på www.newdealinvest.dk.Vil du have en månedlig oversigt over alle positionerne i PMINDI? Så skriv dig op til nyhedsbrevet her:https://newdealinvest.dk/nyhedsbrev/. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

BONUS: The Operating System for Software-Native Organizations - The Five Core Principles In this BONUS episode, the final installment of our Special Xmas 2025 reflection on Software-native businesses, we explore the five fundamental principles that form the operating system for software-native organizations. Building on the previous four episodes, this conversation provides the blueprint for building organizations that can adapt at the speed of modern business demands, where the average company lifespan on the S&P 500 has dropped from 33 years in the 1960s to a projected 12 years by 2027. The Challenge of Adaptation "What we're observing in Ukraine is adaptation happening at a speed that would have been unthinkable in traditional military contexts - new drone capabilities emerge, countermeasures appear within days, and those get countered within weeks." The opening draws a powerful parallel between the rapid adaptation we're witnessing in drone warfare and the existential threats facing modern businesses. While our businesses aren't facing literal warfare, they are confronting dramatic disruption. Clayton Christensen documented this in "The Innovator's Dilemma," but what he observed in the 1970s and 80s is happening exponentially faster now, with software as the accelerant. If we can improve businesses' chances of survival even by 10-15%, we're talking about thousands of companies that could thrive instead of fail, millions of jobs preserved, and enormous value created. The central question becomes: how do you build an organization that can adapt at this speed? Principle 1: Constant Experimentation with Tight Feedback Loops "Everything becomes an experiment. Not in the sense of being reckless or uncommitted, but in being clear about what we're testing and what we expect to learn. I call this: work like a scientist: learning is the goal." Software developers have practiced this for decades through Test-Driven Development, but now this TDD mindset is becoming the ruling metaphor for managing products and entire businesses. The practice involves framing every initiative with three clear elements: the goal (what are we trying to achieve?), the action (what specific thing will we do?), and the learning (what will we measure to know if it worked?). When a client says "we need to improve our retrospectives," software-native organizations don't just implement a new format. Instead, they connect it to business value - improving the NPS score for users of a specific feature by running focused retrospectives that explicitly target user pain points and tracking both the improvements implemented and the actual NPS impact. After two weeks, you know whether it worked. The experiment mindset means you're always learning, never stuck. This is TDD applied to organizational change, and it's powerful because every process change connects directly to customer outcomes. Principle 2: Clear Connection to Business Value "Software-native organizations don't measure success by tasks completed, story points delivered, or features shipped. Or even cycle time or throughput. They measure success by business outcomes achieved." While this seems obvious, most organizations still optimize for output, not outcomes. The practice uses Impact Mapping or similar outcome-focused frameworks where every initiative answers three questions: What business behavior are we trying to change? How will we measure that change? What's the minimum software needed to create that change? A financial services client wanted to "modernize their reporting system" - a 12-month initiative with dozens of features in project terms. Reframed through a business value lens, the goal became reducing time analysts spend preparing monthly reports from 80 hours to 20 hours, measured by tracking actual analyst time, starting with automating just the three most time-consuming report components. The first delivery reduced time to 50 hours - not perfect, but 30 hours saved, with clear learning about which parts of reporting actually mattered. The organization wasn't trying to fulfill requirements; they were laser focused on the business value that actually mattered. When you're connected to business value, you can adapt. When you're committed to a feature list, you're stuck. Principle 3: Software as Value Amplifier "Software isn't just 'something we do' or a support function. Software is an amplifier of your business model. If your business model generates $X of value per customer through manual processes, software should help you generate $10X or more." Before investing in software, ask whether this can amplify your business model by 10x or more - not 10% improvement, but 10x. That's the threshold where software's unique properties (zero marginal cost, infinite scale, instant distribution) actually matter, and where the cost/value curve starts to invert. Remember: software is still the slowest and most expensive way to check if a feature would deliver value, so you better have a 10x or more expectation of return. Stripe exemplifies this principle perfectly. Before Stripe, accepting payments online required a merchant account (weeks to set up), integration with payment gateways (months of development), and PCI compliance (expensive and complex). Stripe reduced that to adding seven lines of code - not 10% easier, but 100x easier. This enabled an entire generation of internet businesses that couldn't have existed otherwise: subscription services, marketplaces, on-demand platforms. That's software as amplifier. It didn't optimize the old model; it made new models possible. If your software initiatives are about 5-10% improvements, ask yourself: is software the right medium for this problem, or should you focus where software can create genuine amplification? Principle 4: Software as Strategic Advantage "Software-native organizations use software for strategic advantage and competitive differentiation, not just optimization, automation, or cost reduction. This means treating software development as part of your very strategy, not a way to implement a strategy that is separate from the software." This concept, discussed with Tom Gilb and Simon Holzapfel on the podcast as "continuous strategy," means that instead of creating a strategy every few years and deploying it like a project, strategy and execution are continuously intertwined when it comes to software delivery. The practice involves organizing around competitive capabilities that software uniquely enables by asking: How can software 10x the value we generate right now? What can we do with software that competitors can't easily replicate? Where does software create a defensible advantage? How does our software create compounding value over time? Amazon Web Services didn't start as a product strategy but emerged from Amazon building internal capabilities to run their e-commerce platform at scale. They realized they'd built infrastructure that was extremely hard to replicate and asked: "What if we offered it to others?" AWS became Amazon's most profitable business - not because they optimized their existing retail business, but because they turned an internal capability into a strategic platform. The software wasn't supporting the strategy - the software became the strategy. Compare this to companies that use software just for cost reduction or process optimization - they're playing defense. Software-native companies use software to play offense, creating capabilities that change the competitive landscape. Continuous strategy means your software capabilities and your business strategy evolve together, in real-time, not in annual planning cycles. Principle 5: Real-Time Observability and Adaptive Systems "Software-native organizations use telemetry and real-time analytics not just to understand their software, but to understand their entire business and adapt dynamically. Observability practices from DevOps are actually ways of managing software delivery itself. We're bootstrapping our own operating system for software businesses." This principle connects back to Principle 1 but takes it to the organizational level. The practice involves building systems that constantly sense what's happening and can adapt in real-time: deploy with feature flags so you can turn capabilities on/off instantly, use A/B testing not just for UI tweaks but for business model experiments, instrument everything so you know how users actually behave, and build feedback loops that let the system respond automatically. Social media companies and algorithmic trading firms already operate this way. Instagram doesn't deploy a new feed algorithm and wait six months to see if it works - they're constantly testing variations, measuring engagement in real-time, adapting the algorithm continuously. The system is sensing and responding every second. High-frequency trading firms make thousands of micro-adjustments per day based on market signals. Imagine applying this to all businesses: a retail company that adjusts pricing, inventory, and promotions in real-time based on demand signals; a healthcare system that dynamically reallocates resources based on patient flow patterns; a logistics company whose routing algorithms adapt to traffic, weather, and delivery success rates continuously. This is the future of software-native organizations - not just fast decision-making, but systems that sense and adapt at software speed, with humans setting goals and constraints but software executing continuous optimization. We're moving from "make a decision, deploy it, wait to see results" to "deploy multiple variants, measure continuously, let the system learn." This closes the loop back to Principle 1 - everything is an experiment, but now the experiments run automatically at scale with near real-time signal collection and decision making. It's Experiments All The Way Down "We established that software has become societal infrastructure. That software is different - it's not a construction project with a fixed endpoint; it's a living capability that evolves with the business." This five-episode series has built a complete picture: Episode 1 established that software is societal infrastructure and fundamentally different from traditional construction. Episode 2 diagnosed the problem - project management thinking treats software like building a bridge, creating cascade failures throughout organizations. Episode 3 showed that solutions already exist, with organizations like Spotify, Amazon, and Etsy practicing software-native development successfully. Episode 4 exposed the organizational immune system - the four barriers preventing transformation: the project mindset, funding models, business/IT separation, and risk management theater. Today's episode provides the blueprint - the five principles forming the operating system for software-native organizations. This isn't theory. This is how software-native organizations already operate. The question isn't whether this works - we know it does. The question is: how do you get started? The Next Step In Building A Software-Native Organization "This is how transformation starts - not with grand pronouncements or massive reorganizations, but with conversations and small experiments that compound over time. Software is too important to society to keep managing it wrong." Start this week by doing two things.  First, start a conversation: pick one of these five principles - whichever resonates most with your current challenges - and share it with your team or leadership. Don't present it as "here's what we should do" but as "here's an interesting idea - what would this mean for us?" That conversation will reveal where you are, what's blocking you, and what might be possible.  Second, run one small experiment: take something you're currently doing and frame it as an experiment with a clear goal, action, and learning measure. Make it small, make it fast - one week maximum, 24 hours if you can - then stop and learn. You now have the blueprint. You understand the barriers. You've seen the alternatives. The transformation is possible, and it starts with you. Recommended Further Reading Tom Gilb and Simon Holzapfel episodes on continuous strategy  The book by Christensen, Clayton: "The Innovator's Dilemma"  The book by Gojko Adzic: Impact Mapping  Ukraine drone warfare Company lifespan statistics: Innosight research on S&P 500 turnover  Stripe's impact on internet businesses Amazon AWS origin story DevOps observability practices About Vasco Duarte Vasco Duarte is a thought leader in the Agile space, co-founder of Agile Finland, and host of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, which has over 10 million downloads. Author of NoEstimates: How To Measure Project Progress Without Estimating, Vasco is a sought-after speaker and consultant helping organizations embrace Agile practices to achieve business success. You can link with Vasco Duarte on LinkedIn.

In this episode of Paradigm Shifting Books, hosts Stephen and Britain Covey explore Disrupt Yourself with the author herself, Whitney Johnson, to discuss the powerful framework for understanding personal growth, career evolution, and why progress often feels uncomfortable before it feels rewarding. Drawing on Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation, Whitney applies the same principles used to explain market shifts to individual lives, revealing how meaningful growth requires intentional disruption.Stephen reflects on why this episode is especially timely, inviting listeners to use moments of pause, like the holiday season, to reflect on where they are in their careers and lives. Through Whitney's explanation of the S-curve of learning, the conversation unpacks why starting something new feels slow and discouraging, why momentum eventually accelerates, and why mastery can quietly become a trap. Growth, they explain, is not linear, it is cyclical.The episode also dives into the seven accelerants that move people up the S-curve, including taking the right risks, embracing constraints, stepping back to grow, and reframing failure as a tool rather than a verdict. Whitney shares deeply personal stories from her time on Wall Street and her decision to disrupt her own career, offering a model for navigating change with courage and clarity.This conversation is a must-listen for anyone feeling stuck, restless, or ready for their next chapter, and for leaders seeking to better understand how growth unfolds in themselves and others.What We Discuss[00:00] Introduction[00:36] Holiday Reflection[01:33] Disrupt Yourself by Whitney Johnson[03:17] The S-Curve of Learning[08:15] Applying the S-Curve to Personal Growth[12:34] Seven Variables for Growth[16:08] Embracing Failure as a Tool for GrowthNotable Quotes[05:34] “Disruption isn't just about products, it's about people.” – Whitney Johnson[05:38] “If I'm going to accomplish what I feel I need to in life, I may need to disrupt myself.”– Whitney Johnson[09:13] “Every time I start something new, I am at the base of the S-curve, and growth is happening but it's not yet apparent.”– Whitney Johnson[10:56] “ When you know where you are, you increase your capacity to grow. You orient yourself and so that can impact you, and it can help you grow the people around you. So the S-curve is basically telling you where you are on the mountain..” – Whitney Johnson[16:46] “ Failure and mistakes are not actually the problem.It's the shame that we associate with the mistakes.” – Whitney JohnsonResourcesParadigm Shifting BooksPodcastInstagram YouTube BookDisrupt Yourself by Whitney JohnsonWhitney JohnsonWebsiteInstagramLinkedInBritain CoveyLinkedIn InstagramStephen H. CoveyLinkedIn

Deutschland ist Weltklasse in Mechanik – aber wenn's um digitale Produkte geht, wirkt vieles wie ein gut geschmierter Motor mit Windows-95-Interface. Genau darüber spricht Christoph Keese bei Moove. Als Investor im New-Space-Sektor und langjähriger Journalist (u.a. Financial Times Deutschland, Welt) erklärt er, warum echte Digitalisierung keine Prozess-Kosmetik ist, sondern radikales Neudesign. Wir reden über Disruptionen, die als „Spielzeug“ starten und als Monopol enden – DJI lässt grüßen. Keese zeigt, wie man solche Kipp-Momente erkennt, warum Kernfusion erst bei massiven Kostenvorteilen wirklich disruptiv wird und weshalb Starlink + Starship gerade die größte Umwälzung in der Telekommunikation seit Erfindung des Mobilfunks lostreten. Und natürlich der Blick auf Autos: Autonomie, KI aus der Cloud bzw. aus dem Orbit, neue Mobilitäts-Geschäftsmodelle – und warum klassische Hersteller trotzdem Chancen haben, wenn sie die Reise mitgehen, statt am Bahnsteig zu winken. Plus: Keese als Tesla-Fahrer über die Grenzen von Vision-Only und warum Lidar wahrscheinlich kein Luxus, sondern Pflicht wird. Reinhören, mitdenken, gerne kommentieren – und nicht zu früh „Spielzeug“ sagen.

Why do massive companies like Nokia or Blockbuster get crushed by newcomers, even when they seemed to be doing everything right? How does innovation sneak up and change the game before the big players even notice? This episode unpacks one of the most important business books of all time.Omar breaks down The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen and highlights the real reasons industry giants fall behind while scrappier startups take over. You'll hear why listening to today's customer isn't always the answer, how disruptive competitors often look “worse” at first, and why business model innovation, not just technology, creates category leaders. Omar also shares practical exercises to help you spot untapped opportunities in your own space, plus lessons from building his own software company.If you want to avoid getting left behind and build a business that is future-proofed, hit play now! This lesson will steer you towards building what's next in your industry.Discover all our must-read book reviews at https://100mba.net/bookreviews.Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Steve Blank: Blind to Disruption Steve Blank is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford and co-founder of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Credited with launching the Lean Startup movement and the curriculums for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps and Hacking for Defense and Diplomacy, he's changed how startups are built, how entrepreneurship is taught, how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. Steve is the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany and The Startup Owner's Manual and is the author of his recent article at steveblank.com: Blind to Disruption: The CEOs Who Missed the Future. Leaders may see the future coming, but we aren't always incentivized to act on it. In this conversation, Steve and I discuss what we can learn from the common patterns of disruption so we don't miss what's next. Key Points In the 1890s, there were approximately 4,000 carriage and wagon makers in the United States. Only one company made the transition to automobiles. In each of the three companies that survived, it was the founders, not hired CEOs, that drove the transition. Studebaker recognized that it wasn't in the business of carriages; it was in the business of mobility. Clayton Christensen taught us that disruption begins with inferior products that incumbents don't take seriously. The real problem isn't that companies can't see the future. It's that they are structurally disincentivized to act on it. Parsing innovation theatre vs. innovation means paying attention to what's actually shipping. If nothing is and you want to innovate, look elsewhere. Bubbles in the market are normal. Timing may be off, but that doesn't mean disruption isn't happening. Resources Mentioned Blind to Disruption: The CEOs Who Missed the Future by Steve Blank Related Episodes How to Start Seeing Around Corners, with Rita McGrath (episode 430) How to Build an Invincible Company, with Alex Osterwalder (episode 470) How to Pivot Quickly, with Steve Blank (episode 476) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

"Inovação não tem um corpo de conhecimento codificado. Cada profissional chega por uma porta diferente: design, marketing, tecnologia. Mas inovação é muito mais que usar a última IA da moda" No décimo quarto episódio do Hipsters.Talks, PAULO SILVEIRA, CVO do Grupo Alun, conversa com DENIS BALAGUER, diretor de inovação da EY, sobre o que realmente significa inovar em grandes corporações e por que a maioria das pessoas entende errado. Uma conversa sobre inovação corporativa, destruição criativa e por que empresas precisam se transformar radicalmente.  Prepare-se para um episódio cheio de conhecimento e inspiração!

In this episode of The Brainy Business podcast, Melina Palmer welcomes Scott Anthony, author of Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations that Shaped Our Modern World. Together, they explore the fascinating concept of disruption, diving into how seemingly ordinary innovations have radically transformed our lives and industries. Scott shares insights from his extensive experience in the field of innovation, including his work with the late Clayton Christensen. They discuss the patterns of disruptive change, the importance of understanding consumer behavior, and how historical examples can inform future strategies. Listeners will gain a deeper appreciation for the often-overlooked stories behind major innovations, from Julia Child's influence on cooking to the evolution of everyday products like diapers and fast food. As you listen, consider what familiar processes in your life or business might benefit from a fresh perspective. This episode serves as a reminder of the potential for transformation that lies in the unexpected. In this episode: Discover the true meaning of disruption and its implications for businesses today. Learn about the historical innovations that have shaped our modern world. Explore the human elements behind major breakthroughs and how they relate to consumer behavior. Understand the patterns of successful disruption and how to identify opportunities. Gain insights into reframing familiar processes for greater impact. Get important links, top recommended books and episodes, and a full transcript at thebrainybusiness.com/545. Looking to explore applications of behavioral economics further? Learn With Us on our website. Subscribe to Melina's Newsletter Brainy Bites. Let's connect: Send Us a Message Follow Melina on LinkedIn The Brainy Business on Youtube The Brainy Business on Instagram

Welcome to episode #1006 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation). Disruption isn't always loud. It's often quiet, slow and deeply human. That's one of the lessons Scott Anthony has spent his career unpacking. As a leading voice on innovation and the managing partner emeritus at Innosight (the consultancy founded by the late Clayton Christensen), Scott has helped global companies navigate the uncertainty that comes with change. He si currently a Clinical Professor of Strategy at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. His latest book, Epic Disruptions – 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World, reframes how we think about progress through stories that stretch from gunpowder to generative AI, showing that real innovation rarely arrives overnight (he's also written eight other books). It compounds through persistence, vision and luck. In this conversation, we explore what disruption really looks like inside organizations: the emotional toll of change, why mergers and acquisitions often fail, and how the next generation of intrapreneurs can learn from past innovators rather than repeat their mistakes. We also talk about the future of business education and how AI is rewriting the way we learn, teach, and measure knowledge (and why the classic case study model still has a role to play if it evolves with the times). Scott's perspective is grounded in humility and curiosity, shaped by years of studying leaders who dared to think differently and systems that resisted transformation. Whether you're navigating the next big pivot, building within a legacy organization, or simply trying to understand how the forces of innovation ripple through industries, this conversation offers a rare mix of strategy and soul. It's not about predicting the next big thing, it's about learning to see the patterns in change itself. Enjoy the conversation… Running time: 54:55. Hello from beautiful Montreal. Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts. Listen and subscribe over at Spotify. Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Thinking With Mitch Joel. Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn. Check out ThinkersOne. Here is my conversation with Scott Anthony. Disruptions – 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World. Scott's other books on innovation and strategy. Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. Follow Scott on LinkedIn. Chapters: (00:00) - Introduction to Disruptive Change. (05:03) - Navigating the Use of AI in Learning. (09:32) - The Language of Collaboration with Technology. (10:32) - Reflections on Clayton Christensen's Influence. (14:19) - The Role of Case Studies in Business Education. (18:21) - Understanding Failure in Business Contexts. (20:44) - The Complexities of Mergers and Acquisitions. (23:02) - The Challenges of Change Management. (25:21) - The Future of Work and Collaboration. (27:16) - Defining Disruption and Collaboration. (28:04) - Epic Disruptions: The Selection Process. (29:24) - The Stories Behind Disruptions. (31:01) - Lessons from Julia Child and Disruption. (34:05) - Understanding Stasis in Business. (38:37) - Why Great Companies Fail. (41:20) - The Role of Incumbents in Innovation. (43:18) - The Emergence of Intrapreneurs. (45:12) - Navigating the Great Unfreezing. (47:36) - The Long Game of Technology Adoption. (49:04) - The Four Questions of Disruption.

My guest today is Scott Anthony. Scott is a clinical professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where his research and teaching focuses on the adaptive challenges of disruptive change. He previously spent more than 20 years at Innosight, a growth strategy consultancy founded by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. The topic is his book Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Evolution and meaning of disruption in business Technology companies adapting to disruption (Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Apple) McDonald's business model and Ray Kroc's entrepreneurial mindset Impact of education, AI, and universities on future disruption Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

BONUS: Nesrine Changuel shares how to create product delight through emotional connection! In this BONUS episode we explore the book by Nesrine Changuel: 'Product Delight - How to make your product stand out with emotional connection.' In this conversation, we explore Nesrine's journey from research to product management, share lessons from her experiences at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft, and unpack the key strategies for building emotionally resonant products that connect with users beyond mere functionality. The Genesis of Product Delight "I quickly realized that there is something that is quite intense while building Skype... it's not just that communication tool, but it was iconic, with its blue, with ringtones, with emojis. So it was clear that it's not just for making calls, but also to make you feel connected, relaxed, and part of it." Nesrine's journey into product delight began during her transition from research to product management at Skype. Working on products at major companies like Skype, Spotify, and Google Meet, she discovered that successful products don't just function well—they create emotional connections. Her role as "Delight PM" at Google Meet during the pandemic crystallized her understanding that products must address both functional and emotional user needs to truly stand out in the market. Understanding Customer Delight in Practice "The delight is about creating two dimensions and combining these two dimensions altogether, it's about creating products that function well, but also that help with the emotional connection." Customer delight manifests when products exceed expectations and anticipate user needs. Nesrine explains that delight combines surprise and joy—creating positive surprises that go beyond basic functionality. She illustrates this with Microsoft Edge's coupon feature, which proactively suggests discounts during online shopping without users requesting it. This anticipation of needs creates memorable peak moments that strengthen emotional connections with products. Segmenting Users by Motivators "We can discover that users are using your product for different reasons. I mean, we tend to think that users are using the product for the same reason." Traditional user segmentation focuses on demographics (who users are) or behavior (what they do). Nesrine advocates for motivational segmentation—understanding why users engage with products. Using Spotify as an example, she demonstrates how users might seek music for specific songs, inspiration, nostalgia, or emotional regulation. This approach reveals both functional motivators (practical needs) and emotional motivators (feelings users want to experience), enabling teams to build features aligned with user desires rather than assumptions. In this segment, we refer to Spotify Wrapped.  The Distinction from Jobs To Be Done "There's no contrast. I mean to be honest, it's quite aligned, and I'm a big fan of the job to be done framework." While aligned with Clayton Christensen's Jobs To Be Done framework, Nesrine's approach extends beyond identifying triggers to practical implementation. She acknowledges that Jobs To Be Done provides the foundational theory, distinguishing between personal emotional motivators (how users want to feel) and social emotional motivators (how they want others to perceive them). However, many teams struggle to translate these insights into actual product features—a gap her Product Delight framework addresses through actionable methodologies. Navigating the Line Between Delight and Addiction "Building for delight is about creating products that are aligned with users' values. It's about aligning with what people really want themselves to feel. They want to feel themselves, to feel a better version of themselves." The critical distinction between delight and addiction lies in value alignment. Delightful products help users become better versions of themselves and align with their personal values. Nesrine contrasts this with addictive design that creates dependencies contrary to user wellbeing. Using Spotify Wrapped as an example, she explains how reflecting positive achievements (skills learned, personal growth) creates healthy engagement, while raw usage data (hours spent) might trigger negative self-reflection and potential addictive patterns. Getting Started with Product Delight "If you only focus on the functional motivators, you will create products that function, but they will not create that emotional connection. If you take into consideration the emotional motivators in addition to the functional motivators, you create perfect products that connect with users emotionally." Teams beginning their delight journey should start by identifying both functional and emotional user motivators through direct user conversations. The first step involves listing what users want to accomplish (functional) alongside how they want to feel (emotional). This dual understanding enables feature development that serves practical needs while creating positive emotional experiences, leading to products that users remember and recommend. Product Delight and Human-Centered Design "Making products feel as if it was done by a human being... how can you make your product feel as close as possible to a human version of the product." Nesrine positions product delight within the broader human-centered design movement, but focuses specifically on humanization at the product feature level rather than just visual design. She shares examples from Google Meet, where the team compared remote meetings to in-person experiences, and Dyson, which benchmarks vacuum cleaners against human cleaning services. This approach identifies missing human elements and guides feature development toward more natural, intuitive interactions. In this segment we refer to the books Emotional Design by Don Norman, and Design for Emotion by Aarron Walter..  AI's Role in Future Product Delight "AI is a tool, and as every tool we're using, it can be used in a good way, or could be used in a bad way. And it is extremely possible to use AI in a very good way to make your product feel more human and more empathetic and more emotionally engaging." AI presents opportunities to enhance emotional connections through empathetic interactions and personalized experiences. Nesrine cites ChatGPT's conversational style—including apologies and collaborative language—as creating companionship feelings during work. The key lies in using AI to identify and honor emotional motivators rather than exploit them, focusing on making users feel supported and understood rather than manipulated or dependent. Developer Experience as Product Delight "If the user of your products are human beings... whether business consumer engineers, they deserve their emotions to be honored, so I usually don't distinguish between B2B or B2C... I say like B2H, which is business to human." Developer experience exemplifies product delight in B2B contexts. Companies like GitHub have created metrics specifically measuring developer delight, recognizing that technical users also have emotional needs. Tools like Jira, Miro, and GitHub succeed by making users feel more competent and productive. Nesrine advocates for "B2H" (business to human) thinking, emphasizing that any product used by humans should consider emotional impact alongside functional requirements. About Nesrine Changuel Nesrine is a product coach, trainer, and author with experience at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft. Holding a PhD from Bell Labs and UCLA, she blends research and practice to guide teams in building emotionally resonant products. Based in Paris, she teaches and speaks globally on human-centered design. You can connect with Nesrine Changuel on LinkedIn.

In this episode, Michael Raynor — author of The Strategy Paradox and co-author with Clayton Christensen of The Innovator's Solution — joins Aidan McCullen to explore why most strategies fail and how leaders can fix them. From the RAP (Resource Allocation Process) model to the real-world case of BCE's diversification journey, Raynor unpacks how strategy is shaped by resource allocation, risk, and CEO intervention. Learn how top leaders can navigate uncertainty, overcome divisional barriers, and unlock strategic synergies.

Scott D. Anthony is a clinical professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business where he researches and teaches about disruption. Scott previously spent more than 20 years at Innosight, a consultancy founded by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, serving as Innosight's elected managing partner. Scott has lived in the UK and Singapore, held board roles at public and private companies, given keynote addresses on six continents, and worked with CEOs at numerous global organizations. Thinkers50 named Scott one of the world's most influential and innovative thinkers. And Scott recently published his 9th book, called Epic Disruptions. In this episode we discuss the following: Scott's key insight that every innovation has heroes, plural. While Julia Child is one of the most well-known chefs, her first cookbook had two additional coauthors. Even Scott's book has multiple heroes, as it was his publisher that suggested the topic. Scott's insight on the shadow of innovation. Questioning the status quo and innovating can create winners and losers. Scott's advice that if we want to get better at innovation, we need to find ways to get to intersections. Attend trade shows in different industries, read magazines from different fields, and meet with people from all over the world. 

Industrial Talk is talking to Jim Vinoski, Founder and Host of the Manufacturing Talks Web Show and Podcast about "Passion voice, powerful advocate, manufacturing success". Scott Mackenzie interviews Jim Vanoski on the Industrial Talk Podcast, discussing the importance of amplifying industrial voices and inspiring the next generation of leaders. Jim shares his extensive manufacturing background, including 16 years with General Mills, and his transition to writing for Forbes and podcasting. They discuss the challenges in the food industry, including cost-cutting and the rise of private labels, and the need for innovation and skilled labor. Jim emphasizes the importance of responsible investment in manufacturing and the role of culture and policy in shaping the industry's future. Action Items [ ] @Scott MacKenzie - Reach out to Jim to continue the conversation and explore opportunities to collaborate. [ ] Connect with Jim on LinkedIn to share information on responsible investment firms in manufacturing. Outline Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast Scott Mackenzie introduces the Industrial Talk Podcast, emphasizing its focus on industry professionals and innovations. Scott highlights the importance of amplifying industrial voices and inspiring the next generation of industrial leaders. The podcast aims to celebrate industry professionals and provide resources for listeners. Scott introduces Jim Vanoski, a manufacturing expert, and sets the stage for their conversation. Jim Vanoski's Background and Career Jim Vanoski shares his extensive career in manufacturing, starting with chemicals, paints, coatings, and food ingredients. He worked for 16 years with General Mills, progressing from engineering to plant management. Jim emphasizes his close connection with the factory floor and his writing for Forbes on manufacturing. He discusses his transition to podcasting and the launch of his own show, Manufacturing Talks. Challenges in the Food Industry Scott and Jim discuss the challenges faced by the food industry, including the rise of private labels and store brands. Jim explains how cost-cutting measures by big brands have led to a decline in quality and innovation. They discuss the impact of price pressures and the loss of value for consumers. Jim mentions a marketing guru, Peter McDonald, who highlighted the importance of creating value for consumers. The Role of Innovation and Disruption Scott and Jim discuss the concept of innovation and disruption, using Kodak as an example. Jim explains the challenges of staying innovative while maintaining profitability. They talk about the importance of continuous improvement and the role of new technologies in manufacturing. Jim shares his experience with Clayton Christensen's book, "The Innovator's Dilemma," and its relevance to modern manufacturing. Journey into Podcasting Jim shares his journey into podcasting, inspired by seeing others in the industry doing it. He describes his initial setup with a webcam and microphone from Best Buy. Scott and Jim discuss the challenges and rewards of podcasting, including overcoming self-doubt and technical hurdles. Jim emphasizes the importance of having street cred and relevant experience in manufacturing. Impact of Manufacturing on Society Scott and Jim discuss the broader impact of manufacturing on society, including job creation and economic growth. They talk about the need to...

What if your next career move wasn't about climbing the ladder—but making real progress toward a life of purpose? In this episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, host Peter Winick sits down with Michael Horn—author, speaker, and co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation —to explore how thought leadership can transform education, careers, and the way we make big life decisions. Michael has spent decades applying the "Jobs to Be Done" framework—originally developed by Clayton Christensen—to help individuals and organizations rethink their goals. He's worked alongside entrepreneurs, university presidents, and innovators who are reshaping the future of learning and work. His latest book, "Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career", takes this powerful research and makes it personal—helping people make smarter, more fulfilling choices. We dig into how ideas evolve beyond their original intent. Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation started with disk drives, yet found its way into steel mills, education, and now career design. Michael shares how “Jobs to Be Done” is following a similar path, expanding from product design into deeply human territory—helping people identify the real motivations driving their decisions. We also tackle the big shifts in higher education. From universities facing demographic cliffs to the innovators thriving in the post-COVID landscape, Michael offers an unflinching look at what it takes for institutions to adapt—or be left behind. His insights bridge the gap between theory and practice, showing how thought leadership can both diagnose challenges and drive measurable change. This conversation is a masterclass in taking a proven idea, reimagining its applications, and building influence by serving a market that's ready for transformation. Whether you're leading an organization, shaping public policy, or charting your own next move, Michael's approach offers a blueprint for progress. Three Key Takeaways: • Decades of consulting experience can be distilled into a compelling book that captures proven strategies, lessons learned, and actionable insights for a targeted audience. • Translating expertise into thought leadership requires transforming complex, insider knowledge into clear, engaging narratives that resonate beyond your immediate industry. • A well-crafted book serves as a strategic asset, building credibility, expanding reach, and opening doors to new opportunities and revenue streams. If you enjoyed hearing Michael Horn unpack how big ideas like Jobs to Be Done can move from theory into real-world impact, you'll want to keep the momentum going with Liz Wiseman's episode, Taking Thought Leadership from Page to Practice. Both conversations dive into the art of translating deep expertise into actionable strategies that resonate beyond your immediate circle. Michael explored how to adapt proven frameworks to education, careers, and personal decisions. Liz builds on that by showing how to make your thought leadership stick—turning insights into tangible change within organizations. By listening to both episodes, you'll gain a powerful one-two punch: Michael's perspective on expanding the reach of great ideas, and Liz's blueprint for ensuring those ideas drive real, measurable results. Together, they'll give you fresh tools to move your own thought leadership from inspiration to implementation.

This week, Reid and Aria discuss the much-anticipated launch of GPT-5, Figma's blockbuster IPO, Perplexity's bid to acquire Google Chrome, and the end of AOL's dial-up internet service. Plus, Reid offers his take on why some companies find explosive growth and others fade just as fast.  For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/  Select mentions:  For the Hamilton v.s. Satoshi Bitcoin Rap Battle: https://reid.medium.com/bitcoin-rap-battle-hamilton-vs-satoshi-de3058b3dff0   The innovator's dilemma by Clayton Christensen

What happens to our ability to think critically when we start outsourcing it to AI? Professor Scott Anthony is one of the world’s leading experts on innovation and disruption and he believes the way we use AI today will shape the future of our judgment, creativity, and even our careers. Scott is a professor at the Tuck School of Business, the former managing partner at Innosight (the firm co-founded by the late Clayton Christensen) and author of several books, including his latest, Epic Disruptions. In this conversation, Scott shares how AI is transforming the way he teaches, consults, and thinks - and why he draws a firm line on where he will never let AI do the work. You’ll learn exactly how to leverage AI as a teammate without letting it hollow out your critical thinking skills, and why protecting your judgment is more important than ever. If you’ve ever wondered, Am I thinking less deeply than I used to?—this episode might just change the way you work. Check out Scott’s new book Epic Disruptions. *** My new book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ Connect with me on the socials:Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits:Host: Amantha ImberEpisode Producer: Sam Blacker at the Podcast ButlerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BONUS: Elliott Parker on Breaking The Illusion of Innovation and Why Large Organizations Struggle to Innovate In this BONUS episode, we dive deep into the paradox of modern corporate innovation with Elliott Parker, CEO of Alloy Partners. Elliott shares his insights on why well-managed organizations often struggle with innovation, the critical difference between execution and learning challenges, and how venture studios can bridge the gap between corporate resources and startup agility. In this episode, we explore Elliott's book The Illusion of Innovation.  The Golden Gate Bridge Paradox "It took 7 years to add a safety net to a bridge that took 3 years to build." Elliott opens with a striking example that illustrates the central thesis of his work. Large organizations today are paradoxically less capable of handling opportunities and challenges despite being better managed than ever before. The irony lies in their very efficiency—modern corporations have become so optimized for capital efficiency and short-term profits that they've inadvertently sacrificed their capacity for future innovation. This focus on Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) creates organizations that excel at managing existing assets but struggle with the uncertainty required for breakthrough innovation. The Corporate Innovation Anti-Pattern "The more the innovation team borrows from the business, the more the innovation team starts to look like the original organization." Elliott reflects on a belief he once held and now completely disagrees with—that corporate innovation teams could successfully drive disruptive innovation from within. Having worked in corporate innovation focused on IP licensing and later in venture capital, he discovered that these internal teams, while excellent at expanding existing business models, inevitably become constrained by the very organization they're meant to transform. The solution he advocates is funding startups outside larger organizations, where there's nothing to preserve or perpetuate, allowing for true disruptive thinking. In this segment, we talk about Clayton Christensen's Disruption Theory which he explored in the now famous book: The Innovator's Dilemma. Execution vs. Learning Challenges "Moving slow is a feature of corporations, not a bug." One of Elliott's key frameworks distinguishes between execution challenges and learning challenges. Corporations are brilliantly designed for execution—when the problem and solution are known, they excel. However, learning problems, where the problem is clear but the solution unknown, require a fundamentally different approach. Elliott suggests marrying the best of both worlds: leveraging the funding and market research capabilities of large organizations with the disruptive ideas and solution-seeking agility of startups. He provocatively suggests treating communication around innovation as something to be avoided until solutions are proven, advocating for working in silos until innovation actually works. The Controlled Burn Philosophy "The only way to get data about the future is to collect data by running experiments." Elliott introduces the concept of "controlled burn" using forest fire management as a metaphor for corporate innovation. Just as western US forests have become dangerously dense from aggressive fire suppression, corporations have become fragile by avoiding all risk and experimentation. We can't predict the future, and there's no existing data about what's coming—the only way to generate future insights is through deliberate experimentation. However, managers are typically incentivized to avoid experiments and minimize risk, creating the organizational equivalent of dense forests prone to devastating fires when disruption eventually arrives. Creating Safe-to-Fail Environments "In corporates we focus on frequency of correctness. In startups we focus on magnitude of correctness." After initially believing he could change organizations from within, Elliott learned that creating truly safe-to-fail environments within established companies is nearly impossible. This realization led him to focus on creating startups as the perfect vehicle for business model experimentation. The fundamental difference in mindset is crucial: corporations optimize for being right most of the time, while startups optimize for the size of their wins when they are right, embracing a venture capital-like approach to innovation where occasional big wins compensate for frequent small failures. Shifting from Wealth to Knowledge Generation "Civilizations fail because they don't innovate fast enough." Drawing on insights from David Deutsch's work on learning and innovation, Elliott argues that long-term resilience comes from learning, not just wealth generation. He advocates for shifting corporate conversations from immediate wealth generation to knowledge and learning, positioning companies as explorers of innovation and business models. This requires different funding mechanisms—moving away from operational budgets managed through traditional Excel-based metrics toward "patient capital" that can sustain the uncertainty inherent in true innovation. Traditional management approaches lack the passion needed for breakthrough innovation. In this segment, we refer to David Deutsch's book The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform The World. About Elliott Parker Elliott Parker is CEO of Alloy Partners, where he helps corporations and universities launch startups through a venture studio model. A former Innosight consultant and entrepreneur, he's passionate about bridging big companies with startup ecosystems to unlock real innovation and long-term growth in an increasingly distributed world. You can link with Elliott Parker on LinkedIn.

¿Por qué las empresas más exitosas son las que tienen mayor probabilidad de fracasar?¿Por qué hacer todo "bien" —escuchar a tus clientes, mejorar tu producto, buscar mayores márgenes— puede ser tu sentencia de muerte empresarial?En este episodio analizamos El Dilema de los Innovadores (The Innovator's Dilemma, 1997) de Clayton Christensen, uno de los libros de negocios más influyentes de todos los tiempos, que revela por qué gigantes como Kodak, Blockbuster y Nokia cayeron precisamente por hacer lo que cualquier MBA recomendaría.A través de casos fascinantes y frameworks prácticos, exploramos:

¿Por qué las empresas más exitosas son las que tienen mayor probabilidad de fracasar?¿Por qué hacer todo "bien" —escuchar a tus clientes, mejorar tu producto, buscar mayores márgenes— puede ser tu sentencia de muerte empresarial?En este episodio analizamos El Dilema de los Innovadores (The Innovator's Dilemma, 1997) de Clayton Christensen, uno de los libros de negocios más influyentes de todos los tiempos, que revela por qué gigantes como Kodak, Blockbuster y Nokia cayeron precisamente por hacer lo que cualquier MBA recomendaría.A través de casos fascinantes y frameworks prácticos, exploramos:

Daniel Mahncke and Shawn O'Malley break down Amazon (ticker: AMZN), one of the most transformative companies of the modern era — a business that started as an online bookstore and ended up reshaping global commerce, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure. From innovating retail logistics to building the backbone of the internet through AWS, Amazon has changed the way the world shops and interacts with technology — and it's not slowing down.  In this episode, you'll learn how Amazon evolved from a retail disruptor into a multi-engine platform business, how AWS and advertising became its primary profit drivers, how the company is navigating massive AI investments and expanding into satellite internet with Project Kuiper, and whether the current valuation reflects the next leg of growth — plus plenty more along the way. Prefer to watch? Click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to watch this episode on YouTube. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN 00:00 - Intro 03:20 - How Bezos built Amazon and its Culture 13:32 - How Amazon's Flywheel works 18:46 - How Amazon built one of the largest Advertising businesses in the world 27:19 - What AWS is and what role it plays for Amazon 39:09 - The Dynamics of the e-commerce business and competition 43:44 - Whether Amazon Devices can turn into a success story after all 51:01 - What position Amazon is taking in AI 58:20 - What impact Kuiper could have on Amazon's business 1:08:46 - How Amazon performed in times of tariffs and immense capex spend 1:27:56 - Whether Amazon is attractively valued at its current levels 1:29:29 - Whether Shawn & Daniel add AMZN to The Intrinsic Value Portfolio *Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Intrinsic Value Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign Up for The Intrinsic Value Community. The Investor's Podcast on Amazon's Story. Quartr's Overview of Amazon. The Shareholder Letters of Jeff Bezos. Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Interview at the Harvard Business Review. Check out our previous Intrinsic Value breakdowns: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nintendo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Airbnb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AutoZone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alphabet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ulta⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Deere⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Madison Square Garden Sports⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Check out the books mentioned in the podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Enjoy ad-free episodes when you subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Premium Feed⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. NEW TO THE SHOW? Follow our official social media accounts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Try Shawn's favorite tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TIP Finance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Enjoy exclusive perks from our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠favorite Apps and Services⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠best business podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: • CFI Education • Airbnb Connect with Shawn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Daniel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠rating and review⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Trump's war on woke universities just escalated. With federal funding pulled from Columbia and Harvard over antisemitism and racial discrimination, the era of taxpayer-subsidized liberal indoctrination is coming to a crashing end. In this episode, I talk about the economic collapse of higher education, the cultural revolt against academia, and why Trump's crackdown could signal the beginning of the end for the Ivy League elite.--Try High Flavanol Cocoa (Stem Cells & Nitric Oxide): (40% OFF PROMO FOR 48HR) https://blackforestsupplements.com/TURLEY*The content presented by sponsors may contain affiliate links. When you click and shop the links, Turley Talks may receive a small commission.*Go Beyond the Video—Get Exclusive Show Notes Delivered Straight to Your Inbox https://turley.pub/turleyrecapHighlights:“Do you want to take a guess at the size of Columbia University's endowment? It's nearly $15 billion. Why are they laying off anyone? And for that matter, why are they getting half a billion dollars in our tax monies in the first place?”“One study found that 60% of the faculty identified as either far-left or liberal compared to just 12% being conservative or far-right.”“Harvard Business professor Clayton Christensen is predicting that upwards of 50% of all colleges and universities will close or go bankrupt in the next decade.”“Only 36% of Americans say they have confidence in our nation's universities..” Timestamps: [00:21] Columbia and Harvard defunded over antisemitism and DEI policies [02:12] Disruptive protests in universities, faculty ideological bias, and overt racial segregation on campuses [07:25] Growing student dropouts and a rise in college closures across the country[09:19] Economic unsustainability and plummeting public trust in higher education--Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and/or leave a review.FOLLOW me on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/DrTurleyTalksSign up for the 'New Conservative Age Rising' Email Alerts to get lots of articles on conservative trends: https://turleytalks.com/subscribe-to-our-newsletter**The use of any copyrighted material in this podcast is done so for educational and informational purposes only including parody, commentary, and criticism. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015). It is believed that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.