Podcasts about Thomson Financial

Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you'll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: Mike Oleksak, Executive Director at Exit Planning Exchange, shares insights from his extensive experience helping business owners prepare for successful exits. After starting his career in finance and management consulting, Mike co-founded the first chapter of Exit Planning Exchange in 2007, creating a network that now spans 22 chapters nationwide. He discusses the importance of bringing together diverse advisors—from accountants and attorneys to consultants and financial planners—to help business owners navigate the complex exit process. Mike emphasizes starting exit planning 3-5 years in advance to properly prepare financials, address management succession, and establish realistic valuation expectations. Mike also examines current market trends, including the increased involvement of private equity firms in acquiring middle-market businesses and how market conditions like interest rates affect timing and valuation. For more details and insights from his entrepreneurial journey, listen to the latest episode of The Exit. -- Mike Oleksak's experience covers finance, consulting and sales, with Bank of Boston, Thomson Financial, Trek Consulting, and State Street. He co-founded the Exit Planning Exchange (XPX) an organization with 20 chapters across the U.S. XPX is a business association for advisors to privately held businesses on growth and exit strategy. Mike was a co-founder of and worked 10 years at Trek Consulting where, as both a management consultant and a coach, he worked with clients to grow their businesses, tell their story better to raise financing, attract investment and acquirers. Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoleksak/ Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoleksak/ Free Range Thinking Website: https://www.freerangethinking.com/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You'll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

(06:49) Brought to you by Lemon.io⁠Lemon.io⁠ is your go-to platform for hiring top-tier, pre-vetted software engineers from Europe and Latin America. You'll get matched with your developer in just 48 hours.Tech Lead Journal listeners get 15% off your first 4 weeks of work at ⁠lemon.io⁠.Want to learn the key principles and future of DevOps that can help you ship code faster and more reliably?In this episode, I sit down with Yevgeniy Brikman, co-founder of Gruntwork and author of “Terraform: Up & Running,” to discuss his upcoming book, “The Fundamentals of DevOps and Software Delivery.”We explore:- Common pitfalls and anti-patterns in DevOps implementations- The concept of “minimum effective dose” and "incrementalism" in adopting technologies- Why application developers should understand infrastructure and software delivery- The future of DevOps, including “infrastructureless” and the impact of GenAI- The importance of “secure-by-default” practices in modern software development- Recent changes in open source licensing and their impact on the tech industry- The power of continuous learning and sharing knowledge in tech careersListen out for:(00:02:15) Career Turning Points(00:08:32) Deliberate Time for Learning(00:16:27) Transitioning from App Dev to Infra (00:24:19) Understanding How to Deliver Software(00:32:05) Minimum Effective Dose(00:40:34) DevOps Antipatterns(00:44:02) Incrementalism(00:49:37) The Future of DevOps and Software Delivery(01:10:39) Recent Trend in Open Source License Changes(01:20:32) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom_____Yevgeniy Brikman's BioYevgeniy (Jim) Brikman loves programming, writing, speaking, traveling, and lifting heavy things. He does not love talking about himself in the 3rd person. He is the co-founder of Gruntwork, a company that offers products & services for setting up world-class DevOps Foundations. He's also the author of three books published by O'Reilly Media: Fundamentals of DevOps and Software Delivery, Terraform: Up & Running, and Hello, Startup. Previously, he spent more than a decade building infrastructure and products that served hundreds of millions of users while working as a software engineer at LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, Cisco Systems, and Thomson Financial.Follow Yevgeniy: LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/jbrikman X / Twitter – @brikis98 Website – ybrikman.com

Betty Encinales, is an award-winning entrepreneur and Women in Fintech Power list recruiter in the UK.Betty is the founding director of Becruit Ltd. Prior to entering the Executive Search arena, Betty has obtained over 15 years' experience working for major industry leaders such as Thomson Financial, Capital Economics and The Financial Times. Betty is currently working as a Global Talent Acquisition manager at Euromoney Institutional Investor recruiting for Executive commercial roles in The Americas, EMEA and the UK.Betty is very open about her dyslexia but in this episode she tells me how she doesn't let that stop her being confident and how, as she ages, she is move vulnerable and authentic with people.A huge thanks to Betty for joining me at short notice - Her willingness to help another person out (who she hadn't met) and her generosity with her time make her a beautiful human being. I understand why she is good at her job, because she enjoys connecting with people and in turn connecting people to new opportunities.To find out more about Betty please connect with her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettyencinales/Hello, I'm Vanessa, the host of Women In Confidence. Welcome and thanks for listening. I designed this podcast to appeal to working women who want to understand what confidence is, what you can do to build (or rebuild) your confidence and then maintain it. I interview amazing women who have genuine stories to tell about their journey through life and how they manage the ups and downs of life. My vision is for my listeners to try something that has worked for my guests and if it changes their lives then I feel that the podcast has been a positive contribution to the world.If you enjoyed this episode or any of the Women In Confidence episodes, please like, rate, review and share widely so that more fabulous women can find us. Also check out my Instagram and TikTok pages for more content and confidence boosting inspiration.I hope 2023 has going well for you - I can't believe how quickly 2023 is going. My ambition for Women In Confidence, this year, is to reach some record download numbers per episode and to find a sponsor. I am also in the early stages of setting up a podcast booking agency so if you have set yourself the goal of appearing on more podcasts this year, but don't know where to start or have the time, get in touch with me and I can work with you to make your podcasting dreams come true (boompodcast@outlook.com)Vanessa xx

Investing in the stock market can be tricky. With so many different strategies available, it can be difficult to know where to start. Considering the current rollercoaster scenario in the market, how can investors make informed decisions about buying and selling assets and maximize their returns? In this episode, Rusty and Robyn talk with David Lundgren, Founder and Chief Market Strategist at MOTR Capital Management and Research. David is a 30-year investment industry veteran focusing on technical analysis strategies, particularly momentum and trend following. He is the former Director of Technical Research at Wellington Management and held senior analyst positions at Fidelity & Thomson Financial. With a demonstrated history of working in the investment management industry, David talks about technical analysis, momentum and trend following, and his outlook for stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and commodities for 2023. Key Takeaways [04:29] - David's career history in the investment management industry. [07:54] - How David defines technical analysis. [10:48] - What it takes to be a successful technical analyst. [12:21] - The strengths and weaknesses of technical analysis. [14:45] - The different schools of thought in technical analysis. [17:11] - What to do when trend following fails. [19:42] - The best allocation of trend following and technical analysis in a portfolio. [23:41] - How a CMT differs from a CFA. [26:09] - What is the CMT Association? [27:21] - A sneak peek at this year's CMT Symposium. [28:57] - The top charts to watch in 2023. [31:38] - How David's multiframework approach works. [33:06] - Among David's favorite equity stocks for 2023. [35:48] - David's outlook for the bond market. [39:27] - What Dave thinks about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. [43:13] - David's favorite investment idea for 2023. [45:25] - How David maintains his energy to perform at a high level. [47:31] - The people David is thankful for professionally. [49:07] - David's recommendations for content. Quotes [08:18] - "Most money managers are schooled in the principles of fundamental analysis, capital asset pricing theory, dividend discount models, and other traditional fundamental analysis techniques. Unfortunately, almost 90% of active managers underperform their benchmark using the tools they learn in business school." ~ David Lundgren [09:30] - "The market is the best fundamental analyst on the planet. Listen to what the market's trying to tell. And the best way to do that is to identify trend change and stay with the trend as long as the trend changes and goes in the other direction." ~ David Lundgren [26:58] - "There's a big hole in the body of knowledge of most investors, which contributes to their difficulty in keeping pace with the benchmark. That hole can be filled with a better understanding of technical analysis." ~ David Lundgren Links  David Lundgren on LinkedIn David Lundgren on Twitter MOTR Capital Management & Research Charting My Interruption Tick Tick Boom by The Hives Fidelity Investments Wellington Management Fill The Gap Podcast CMT Association The 2023 Annual Symposium Ralph Acampora Reminiscences of a Stock Operator How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market Stocks on the Move: Beating the Market with Hedge Fund Momentum Strategies The Art of Execution: How the World's Best Investors Get It Wrong and Still Make Millions No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller Connect with our hosts Rusty Vanneman Robyn Murray Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts 0032-OPS-1/6/2023

Welcome to the third and final installment of our Edmonton Startup Week podcast series.On today's episode I sat down with the mind-expanding Andrew Goldner from GrowthX to learn about the work he and his partners are doing to help build innovation and venture capital opportunities in Alberta and beyond. (You'll learn more about the Alberta Innovates Revenue Accelerator in our interview.)GrowthX is an early-stage venture capital fund, but they do things differently. They've sequenced the path to product-market fit to help founders reduce the time it takes to get investment-ready.  By working with founders, GrowthX then generates reliable insights that earns them the opportunity to invest.A few of our many stops along the way include a discussion around what Andrew calls the signal to noise ratio and how founders need to protect their time, the importance of humility and the need to learn from our mistakes, and his mantra that everything communicates.Welcome to Shift!Bio    Andrew Goldner is a Founding Partner of GrowthX, an pre-Series A venture fund that he started in Silicon Valley with three other go-to-market experts.Andrew has been in the technology sector since 1998, based in New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore, Palo Alto and Nashville.Andrew began his career in technology as a lawyer for the early Internet pioneers in Search (Alta Vista and Yahoo), AdTech (DoubleClick), SaaS (Salesforce) and others while practicing law. He left private practice at Skadden Arps to join DoubleClick leading up to the Google acquisition and then co-founded a financial news business at Thomson Financial leading to the Reuters acquisition. He then served as Publisher of Reuters News and then Co-Founder and Managing Director of the company's legal media business in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.In Silicon Valley, Andrew was early at Guidespark, an employee communication SaaS startup, and BrightTalk, a content marketing SaaS startup. He then co-founded GoodMoney to democratize high-performance, values-based investing. During that “wonderful learning opportunity,” Andrew met his current partners and co-founded GrowthX.Andrew is a Kauffman Fellow, Regional Board Member of Venture for America, and a Mentor at Endeavor, Alchemist Accelerator and Galvanize. Andrew is a visiting lecturer at Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management where he teaches two popular multi-day seminars: Entreprenurial Sales and Venture Capital. Andrew received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and his law degree from Georgetown University.Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

Thirty year veteran of the financial markets, decorated investment manager, leader of investment teams, and communicator of investment strategies joins us this month for a chat amongst old friends.Classmates at Babson and former colleagues at both Thomson Financial and Fidelity Investments, Dave and Rusty can practically end each other's sentences, so this month's discussion and debate takes us in many directions, including:Why do investors of high-performing portfolio managers fail to achieve the same returns as the fund?Why is communication of the strategy so critically important, and how can it be done better?Does “Value” work? And, what fundamental drivers help value shares outperform in inflationary regimes?Why is this Radiohead tune Rusty's chosen walkout song? Competitive Stationary Rowing is a real thing? Rusty is a host of Orion's The Weighing Machine podcast and authored the book “Higher Calling: A Guide to Helping Investors Achieve Their Goals.” He also serves as the Chief Investment Strategist for Orion Advisor Solutions.Rusty was such a fun guest to interview because he is always candid, full of energy, and has delivered excellence in every stage of his career. Currently, Rusty delivers relevant market-and platform-related content that supports deeper, more engaging conversations with advisors and investors. He is passionate about educating investors to help deliver more favorable outcomes. And as a successful fund manager himself, Rusty excels in identifying new investment offerings to meet growing marketplace demand.To better understand the concepts covered, and current market commentary, we recommend reviewing the supplemental resources accompanying this episode using this link https://go.cmtassociation.org/ftge18. 

An accomplished fintech executive and global sales leader with extensive experience building world-class and high performing revenue organizations that achieve hyper-growth. Peter brings two decades of experience selling enterprise software into financial institutions, fintech's and global corporations and has end-to-end accountability for ThetaRay's revenue organization. Prior to joining ThetaRay as Chief Revenue Officer, Peter started his career at HSBC before holding senior sales leadership positions at Earnix, Fundtech, Reval and Thomson Financial. Peter is a regular contributor to the industry dialogue as a well-respected thought leader he holds a law degree from London Guildhall University. 

In this conversation on race, journalist Tony Chapelle joins me to talk about getting more women and people of color on corporate boards. Tony Chapelle, has recently retired after 36 years, as a business news reporter and producer. In his career, he has interviewed CEOs and corporate executives, and  moderated panel discussions with corporate board directors of Fortune 1000 companies. Tony, has been interviewed more than 60 times for his insights on African Americans in business by the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business channel. As an African American and as a journalist, Tony has been involved with efforts to bring more people of color on corporate boards which have been overwhelmingly white. “African Americans, other racial minorities, and white people of goodwill have tried almost every tactic known to man to effect racial justice in this country. In the more than 100-year evolution of the fight for equal opportunity, one of the most intractable excuses that we hear in the workplace is that a particular corporation would love to hire more Black folks, “If only we could find those who are qualified.” On its surface, this seems to be a plausible rationale for not having people of color in the corporate workforce. But highly-qualified Blacks, Latinos, and Asians are out there in great numbers including those who could sit on the boards of directors at companies where they could make the great decisions and changes that would alter corporations from the top down. “ Key topics: • How corporate boards run corporations, and influence decisions made by organizations and governments that impact our everyday lives • How companies can decide whether they're going to be good citizens, whether they're going to be profiteers, or whether they're going to just do as little as possible to be viewed as doing the right thing • The isolation of being the only Black person on national news networks and having to deal with constant racism • Why Tony Chapelle founded a newsletter for Black people on wall street • Why it's critical to this country and the world to get more people of color, women, and LGBTQ people on corporate boards • How climate change activists have gotten people on corporate boards • How and why created a directory of people of color, women, and LGBTQ people who are highly qualified to sit on corporate boards • Disproving the fallacy that there are not enough qualified POC, women, and LGBTQ to sit on boards • Which corporate leaders are bringing people POC, women, and LGBTQ to their corporate boards   Bio Tony Chapelle recently retired after 36 years as a business news reporter and producer. For the past 20 years, he has interviewed CEOs and corporate executives, and has moderated panel discussions with corporate board directors at Fortune 1,000 companies. Chapelle has been interviewed more than 60 times for his insights on African Americans in business by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business Channel, and a host of other news agencies. He worked his entire career in New York as a staffer at the Financial Times publication Agenda, CNN, Thomson Financial, and Johnson Publishing. In addition, he freelanced  and he and his wife published a newsletter called Securities Pro for blacks on Wall Street. He also was the national editor for Jesse Jackson's newsletter for his Wall Street Project, which aimed to get corporate America to collaborate with Black companies. Chapelle graduated from the Columbia University School of Journalism in 1984.

In PlanningxChange Episode 80, Jess Noonan and Peter Jewell interview Nicole Gelinas an author, columnist and podcast regular based in New York. Nicole is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a columnist at the New York Post. She writes on urban economics and finance. Gelinas is a CFA charterholder and the author of After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street—and Washington (2011). Gelinas has published analysis and opinion pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Before coming to City Journal (https://www.city-journal.org/), she was a business journalist for Thomson Financial, where she covered the international syndicated-loan and private-debt markets. Gelinas holds a B.A. in English literature from Tulane University. Nicole makes regular appearances on City Journal's podcast series, 10 Blocks (https://www.city-journal.org/10-blocks). In the PX interview Nicole discusses various cities (and different parts of cities) she has lived in and how local governance can make enormous differences in liveability and prosperity. She talks particularly on issues of crime and transportation. Referencing Jane Jacobs she makes various observations about how governance during Covid affected life in New York as well as the impacts of urban riots on business confidence, employment and citizen feelings of well being. She addresses the question, Manhattan needs people but do people need Manhattan? A thoughtful and clear speaking view of city life. PlanningxChange is a proud member of the Urban Broadcast Collective. Audio production by Jack Bavage. The episode was released on 5 July 2021.

In PlanningxChange Episode 80, Jess Noonan and Peter Jewell interview Nicole Gelinas an author, columnist and podcast regular based in New York. Nicole is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a columnist at the New York Post. She writes on urban economics and finance. Gelinas is a CFA charterholder and the author of After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street—and Washington (2011). Gelinas has published analysis and opinion pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Before coming to City Journal (https://www.city-journal.org/), she was a business journalist for Thomson Financial, where she covered the international syndicated-loan and private-debt markets. Gelinas holds a B.A. in English literature from Tulane University. Nicole makes regular appearances on City Journal's podcast series, 10 Blocks (https://www.city-journal.org/10-blocks). In the PX interview Nicole discusses various cities (and different parts of cities) she has lived in and how local governance can make enormous differences in liveability and prosperity. She talks particularly on issues of crime and transportation. Referencing Jane Jacobs she makes various observations about how governance during Covid affected life in New York as well as the impacts of urban riots on business confidence, employment and citizen feelings of well being. She addresses the question, Manhattan needs people but do people need Manhattan? A thoughtful and clear speaking view of city life. Audio production by Jack Bavage. The episode was released on 5 July 2021.

In PlanningxChange Episode 80, Jess Noonan and Peter Jewell interview Nicole Gelinas an author, columnist and podcast regular based in New York. Nicole is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a columnist at the New York Post. She writes on urban economics and finance. Gelinas is a CFA charterholder and the author of After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street—and Washington (2011). Gelinas has published analysis and opinion pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Before coming to City Journal (https://www.city-journal.org/), she was a business journalist for Thomson Financial, where she covered the international syndicated-loan and private-debt markets. Gelinas holds a B.A. in English literature from Tulane University. Nicole makes regular appearances on City Journal's podcast series, 10 Blocks (https://www.city-journal.org/10-blocks). In the PX interview Nicole discusses various cities (and different parts of cities) she has lived in and how local governance can make enormous differences in liveability and prosperity. She talks particularly on issues of crime and transportation. Referencing Jane Jacobs she makes various observations about how governance during Covid affected life in New York as well as the impacts of urban riots on business confidence, employment and citizen feelings of well being. She addresses the question, Manhattan needs people but do people need Manhattan? A thoughtful and clear speaking view of city life. Audio production by Jack Bavage. The episode was released on 5 July 2021.

Graphic design plays an integral role in any messaging strategy—but many organizations continue to get it wrong. Kim Vanni, Senior Art Director for Spencer Brenneman, joins this episode of Messaging on a Mission to talk through the best ways to ensure that graphic design supports your work in the most effective way possible.  Key Takeaways: Design is like a puzzle, made up of various pieces, like the organization's mission, its audience, and what it's trying to accomplish.  The messaging strategy doesn't just apply words, talking points, to a voice. How a brand actually looks is integral to the messaging strategy.  Less is more. Find the one piece of content that is crucial for people to take away with them. The more information there is, the less people will absorb.  There's so much visual stimulation now that design needs white space that gives your audience some room to breathe. Branding does not equal your logo.  Ask of your design, “How is it fulfilling your message? How do you think your audience is going to see it?” Episode Guest(s): Kim Vanni the Senior Art Director at Spencer Brenneman. Brilliantly both left- and right-brained and, coupled with her years of experience, she delivers visual elements in line with the strategy's end goals.    For more than a decade, Kim worked in a variety of roles within Thomson Financial and Thomson Reuters, from serving as a one-woman design powerhouse to supervising a team of creatives and marketers based in both the U.S. and U.K. Specialties include complete brand visual identity solutions, print and digital design, photography direction, and editing. In addition to working with Spencer Brenneman, Kim shares her skills and expertise with a number of non-profit organizations and local/town governments. She has a bachelor of arts from the University of Houston. Useful Links: Kim Vanni, kim@spencerbrenneman.com

Welcome back to the Refinitiv Sustainability Perspectives podcast. In this episode, Keesa chats with Charles Smith, Head of Digital Solutions at Refinitiv, covering recent reports about digitization in the wealth space, it's surprising findings, the rapid surge of interest in ESG investing today and how it is set to increase.Charles Smith spent 8 years as a Managing Director in EY's Wealth and Asset Management practice where he worked extensively with many of the top 10 US financial services institutions on key wealth management areas such as product strategy, client and advisor experience design and development, retirement, operating model development, process improvement, platform implementation and service delivery strategy. Prior to EY, Charles had senior leadership roles at Fiserv/CheckFree, Misys (now Finastra) and Thomson Financial (now Refinitiv). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

He serves as the Chief Revenue Officer for ServiceNow, a $4.5 billion SaaS provider. He is responsible for overseeing the global sales organization, including sales enablement, industry solutions, and global sales operations. Prior to his CRO role, he served as Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales (and other senior positions) from 2011–2020. Before ServiceNow, he served in leadership roles at EMC, Data Domain, Thomson Financial, and Brocade. He has been on the Board of Directors for Drift since 2018. Join Randy Seidl and David Nour on this episode of The Sales Community #TechSalesInsights podcast with Kevin Haverty. Don't forget, three quick points: Seidl and Nour are mixing things up and will host this week's guest at a live YouTube video stream interview, so check out the Nour Group or Sales Community YouTube Channels for #TechSalesInsights for updates. We turn the show notes from these podcasts into more in-depth articles, so check them out at SalesCommunity.com. Our next guest will be Ken Dougherty, Vice President of Sales - Enterprise Preferred at Dell EMC - don't miss it, wherever you subscribe to podcasts or at SalesCommunity.com/Events. Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message

Today, we’re speaking with Ian Mullane, the Founder and CEO of Keepme, a business dedicated to increasing the revenue of health and fitness operators utilizing Artificial Intelligence. He’s being working with AI for the past six years and is committed to better understanding why members leave the gym. As the fitness sector is confronted with its greatest ever challenge, clubs worldwide are pulling out all the stops to keep their members active and engaged. Ian says operators need to rely on data and hyper-personalization to move into the future. It’s adapt or die, especially for the brick and mortar gyms and clubs. Recently, he published a powerful white paper in an effort to spark conversations around the shift and disruption that’s currently happening within the fitness industry. The truth is that the industry will never be the same. It will never return to how things were pre-COVID. Are you ready to learn the six key rules for survival? For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video version – https://youtu.be/fbDsjylzYuA   Ian Mullane is the Founder and CEO of Keepme, a business dedicated to increasing the revenue of health and fitness operators utilizing integrated Artificial Intelligence. Relying on years of data, he wants to show you how to stop guessing and offer a game-changing level of personalization for gym and club members. By reimagining the customer journey, operators have the opportunity to enhance their service offerings, engagement, product customization, and more. Technology today has completely disrupted every business around the globe. The fitness industry is no exception. The industry will never return to how things were pre-COVID. If brick and mortar operators are not ready adapt and make the customer the center of all experiences when it comes to the personal wellness ecosystem, they may not survive. Keep.me uses predictive and machine learning models, operators can hyper-personalise engagements with a commercial and operational perspective and increase response levels to benefit the business. After 18 years of working with some of the biggest names in Fintech, including Thomson Financial and SS&C, Ian Mullane left corporate life as the COO of Sungard’s Asia Pacific business. Since then, he’s founded and grown a number of companies including Locowise.com, Vanda.fit and most recently, Keepme, an AI-powered membership retention tool.   Episode highlights - Brick and mortar operations face big challenges ahead You need to optimize for revenue and for retention Apps are nothing more than vehicles to create experiences 5G will change how people consume fitness content Adapt or die You probably don’t know your competition Personalization is the future of fitness How to reimagine the customer journey Effect of membership plans on retention rates Making the customer the center of the ecosystem How fitness will become like banking Power of first-mover advantage Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Ian Mullane.

One of the most important qualities a sales rep must possess is knowing how to prospect.  Many argue that due to the number of tools available to sales professionals, prospecting is as easy as ever. But sadly, many still continue to call their prospect list and ask questions that could have easily been avoided had you performed proper sales prospecting.  In this article, I will go through expert tips on how every salesperson should approach their ideal prospect and how by using personalization and storytelling, your sellers will be able to create sales engagement.  The Importance of Knowing How to Prospect  If this COVID addled 2020 has taught us anything, it's that experts' predictions of the world going completely virtual, happened way before any of us expected.  Countless organizations have had to adopt virtual selling and improve their sales prospecting skills to reap the benefits of all of the readily available information.  Old school sellers prior to the internet didn't have the luxury of locating anything from company size down to a trigger event and even competitors. On the contrary, a sales person from the pre-web era had to rely on good old' fashioned phone books to get most of their information. It surely is a wonderful time to be in sales.  With prospecting and other sales tools being introduced left and right, sales leaders have a plethora of options to ramp up their sales team. But can these tools be overwhelming? Of course.  Sales Automation Tools When it Comes to Prospecting In this episode of Modern Selling Podcast, I speak to Ed Calnan. Ed is the co-founder and CRO of Seismic, where he leads the company’s go-to-market efforts. Ed brings more than 20 years of sales leadership experience from ADP, Thomson Financial, S&P, and EMC to Seismic. In 2016, he was named a Top Boston Startup Founders Over 40 by Tech.co. This episode highlights the tools that are part of every sales team’s arsenal as well as how incorrect usage can do more harm than good.  That’s right, we receive countless emails and phone calls where it appears that proper prospecting wasn’t done. This in turn, instead of being beneficial, it leaves the sales team looking lazy by not using all of the readily available information.  Lazy Reps Yield Poor Sales Engagement Results It’s an interesting time to be in sales. Those who have been in the game for 15+ years are excited to see that new age reps have access to so much information prior to any call. Before picking up the phone, previous research is pivotal to create a real conversation with your leads.  If your sellers call a lead asking what problems they’re facing, they’re likely going to waste both parties’ time. Instead, if they leverage the information found on social platforms, even if it’s just flattery, they’ll spark the interest of  prospects.  They should use what I like to refer to as, “show me that you know me.” This is at the very minimum what prospects expect out of any call they take.  A correct prospecting plan is all about using the tools at your disposal but not relying on them entirely.  Ed says that “automated tools get reps headed in the right direction but there is a point where the system ends and people need to take over.”  In layman’s terms, tools like Xant are fantastic sales engagement platforms but it’s up to sales leaders to ensure their team is humanizing them.  The Concept of Personalization In the B2C world, some of the world’s biggest brands are already where they need to be. Brands like Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon grab what they know about you and people like you (thanks to similar interactions within their platforms), and provide their users with recommendations.  For example, Netflix knows what shows you watch and grab similar titles that other people have watched, and provide you with a list of suggestions. The same goes for Spotify with their weekly playlist for every year. And Amazon knows that you have an infant at home and tells you when you need diapers and or formula.  Sales automation will eventually get to that level of intuition but we’re not there yet, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done manually. Here’s a great example of a conversation Ed proposes.  “I understand you, I think I know what your organization is going through and I’ve helped organizations and people very similar to you. Here’s what I’ve done and here’s how their problems were resolved.” It’s not quite as intuitive as Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon but it does create real conversations that will let your prospects know you understand them. It will also ensure you’re talking to the right people because let’s face it, you don’t want to be speaking to a leader whose problem you can’t solve.  What Does it Take to Book a Sales Meeting with a Top CIO? I wanted to share an interesting anecdote about a business relationship I had once upon a time with Mckesson Corp., one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and medical supplies companies and current fortune 6 company.  My relationship was with the then CIO, Randy Sprad. I decided to open up a can of worms and ask why out of all of the calls he received on a daily basis, being prospected by just about everyone, did he decide to take my call? What did it take to have him become a potential customer? Randy succinctly answered, “everyone seems to be in a hurry to explain product specs and how they can save me money. Sure, these are things that are important, but those who go out of their way to explain to me what my competitors are doing and what they can do to give me the competitive advantage, that’s what I’m looking for.” But how is this done? Through the art of storytelling.  Storytelling: The Key to Personalization Storytelling is fundamentally important, it’s a skill that can be honed but can’t be left out of any sales process. A sales raconteur is someone who is skilled at telling stories and it is these individuals who can spark up immediate interest.  Tenured reps have a barrage of stories in their repertoire and some don’t even know it. From past experiences, stories and memories will inform your ideal customer of the experience you have in similar situations.  Buyer personas might not all be created equally, but letting qualified prospects in on what has happened in their peer group will create genuine interest.  The best reps will work with their marketing teams to leverage these stories to create compelling content. It isn’t just about sharing these stories with their prospects. It’s about creating content that will be used as resources on your company’s website to send new prospects to. It will also help your training team to teach incoming reps about what information attracts new buyers.   Here’s some great sales prospecting advice: decision-makers want to feel like they’re part of a movement. If you can show these companies (through stories and real-life examples) that you know what they’re going through, they’ll listen. Show a decision maker that other companies in their peer groups are going through a similar predicament and they’ll surely want to be part of your solution.  Using video and social media to improve your prospecting strategy The modern buyer is as knowledgeable as they ever have been. With so much information available to them as well, a personalized email or text might not even be enough.  Adopting omnichannel is fundamental to getting ahead with today’s buyer. Social media, text messages, cold outreach, calls, they need to all be interwoven with your business strategy.  The best sales reps are masters at the social game. They have also mastered the art of video prospecting. Failing to recognize the importance of these as part of your current strategy will have you looking ancient.  Sales leaders need to learn what’s available and coach their teams to use every arrow in their quiver. If you don’t and continue to think the sales world hasn’t evolved, you and your business will become obsolete. Become socially engaged, adopt omnichannel and video-centric and you’ll pave the way for your team’s success. Both your potential client and existing customers will appreciate the extra effort. How to train your team on sales engagement tools With new sales engagement tools being released periodically, the sales world is looking bright for those high-performing sales professionals.  Organizations are forced to digitally engage, which makes training for this virtual world a lot different than it was 10 years ago.  I predicted 3 years ago that in 2022, the world would go completely virtual. Unfortunately for many, the COVID era has expedited this process and many are struggling to keep the lights on.  Every sales leader has a list of their favorite tools, but these tools aren’t as important if your team isn’t using them correctly. Along with training them on how to best use these tools, as a leader you need to hone your team’s digital sales training skills. Social skills aren’t inherent to all millennials and before approaching any prospect they’ll likely have the following questions.  How do I engage well on social media? What do I say? What’s the right way to say it? Who am I looking for? If you’re going to be using cold calling, or cold emails it’s important to look for as much information about your sales prospect as possible. Make it a habit to find out 3 important things about each prospect before you call.  When using video, don’t overdo it. You have 7-15 seconds to capture the attention of your prospects, make it count.  Lastly, we’ve seen countless individuals reach out to us on LinkedIn and even via emails with abysmal spelling skills. Ask your organization to invest in Grammarly, it might not close deals but it can break deals if your spelling isn’t on point.  Wrapping up There’s an interesting idea Ed shared with me on this episode that I think is a great practice to consider.  Once a week, Ed likes to take a B2B sales call and listen to a rep's sales pitch. Not only is it good sales karma for the universe but he also stresses the importance of rewarding creative young people. Of course, this is all predicated on correct prospecting but those who have done their homework and know where they want the call to go, deserve to be heard.  Content, storytelling, and personalization require a three-headed team. This team is marketing, sales leaders/reps, and sales enablement. Without these three teams in sync, it’s impossible to be effective in today’s sales world.  Think of these teams as an NFL roster. If offense, defense, and special teams aren’t working together, they can have the best players, but they’ll lose every game.  Outline of this Episode [1:04] About Ed: From Student of the Game to Founder and CRO. [9:12] What is Prospecting? What do we consider prospecting to be? [18:33] Why aren’t more sales leaders helping reps focus on bringing content that serves me up as a buyer.  [22:32] Learning to leverage sales content for storytelling [23:53] Your prospects will react better to stories if they feel they’re part of a movement.  [32:02] What role does video play within social media for sales reps? [42:06] Early predictions of a completely virtual world.  Resources Mentioned in this Episode Connect with Ed on LinkedIn  Follow Ed and Seismic on Twitter: Ed & Seismic  Seismic’s Website  Ed’s favorite movie: Empire Strikes Back  Connect with Mario! www.vengreso.com On Facebook On Twitter On YouTube On LinkedIn Subscribe to Modern Selling on the App of Your Choice!

  I am delighted to be joined today by Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive of London First, convening business leaders to keep the UK's capital globally competitive. She is a non-executive director of WPP and Standard Chartered, a member of the Ethics Committee at Richemont and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. From 2005 to 2015, Jasmine was CEO of Save the Children UK. Her experience in the non-profit sector began in 1999 when she worked in West Africa with Oxfam. Prior to this Jasmine's career was in marketing in the technology sector, holding management positions with Rio Tinto and then in the US with Cortex (a venture-funded start-up) and Thomson Financial.  Jasmine was awarded a BA in English and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bristol and completed the Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  

Entrepreneur Yemi Rose is the founder of OfColor, a digital financial wellness platform focused on providing content and banking tools built around how people of color save, spend, and build our legacies differently. We discuss the role financial services has played and continues to play in widening the racial wealth gap.Growing up in Jamaica and the differences of “being Black” there versus here in the United States. Why we may want to rethink the expression “racial wealth gap.” Does it deserve a renaming? How his startup OfColor will provide better access to financial tools and education to an underserved community. Yemi has spent almost two decades at the intersection of financial services and communications/marketing focused on financial wellness, most recently as the Vice President of Financial Wellness Enterprise Initiatives with Prudential Financials' Global Communications Group. In this most recent role, he led the development of Prudential's Financial Wellness Census research project, as well as “The Cut,” which focused on underserved consumers. He writes and speaks extensively on the racial wealth gap, and his writings on the subject have been published in Black Enterprise, The Root, Blavity, and Money.com. After beginning his career as a Capital Markets Intelligence Associate for Thomson Financial, he served as an Investor Relations Director for several top-tier financial communications agencies, before moving to in-house roles. He has served as a senior executive at KPMG and BlackRock Inc., where he worked on helping them to maximize the value of their acquisitions and fintech ventures. He holds both a bachelor's and a Master's degree from Cornell University. Yemi was born and raised in Jamaica, and now lives with his wife and two daughters in New Jersey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The newest guest in our #BlackWealthMatters series is entrepreneur Yemi Rose. He is the founder of OfColor, a digital financial wellness platform focused on providing content and banking tools built around how people of color save, spend, and build our legacies differently. We discuss the role financial services has played and continues to play in widening the racial wealth gap. Growing up in Jamaica and the differences of “being Black” there versus here in the United States. Why we may want to rethink the expression “racial wealth gap.” Does it deserve a renaming? How his startup OfColor will provide better access to financial tools and education to an underserved community. Yemi has spent almost two decades at the intersection of financial services and communications/marketing focused on financial wellness, most recently as the Vice President of Financial Wellness Enterprise Initiatives with Prudential Financials’ Global Communications Group. In this most recent role, he led the development of Prudential’s Financial Wellness Census research project, as well as “The Cut,” which focused on underserved consumers. He writes and speaks extensively on the racial wealth gap, and his writings on the subject have been published in Black Enterprise, The Root, Blavity, and Money.com. After beginning his career as a Capital Markets Intelligence Associate for Thomson Financial, he served as an Investor Relations Director for several top-tier financial communications agencies, before moving to in-house roles. He has served as a senior executive at KPMG and BlackRock Inc., where he worked on helping them to maximize the value of their acquisitions and fintech ventures. He holds both a bachelor's and a Master's degree from Cornell University. Yemi was born and raised in Jamaica, and now lives with his wife and two daughters in New Jersey.

What is the data on coronavirus telling us? Nothing. This episode will tell you why. Ian Mullane, CEO of Keepme.ai, leads us on a comprehensive conversation around pandemic data, its reliability depending on how it's gathered, and the widespread misinformation that's a result of changing metrics around the world. Through his years of insight identifying trends and quantifying risk, Ian tells us what the effect of the coronavirus on the fitness industry is going to be, and why we all need to be prepared. For more information on the Escape Your Limits podcast visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video – https://youtu.be/h31nYHa0aBw Escape Your Limits homepage – https://escapefitness.com/podcast For two decades, Ian Mullane worked with some of the biggest names in fintech, such as Thomson Financial and SS&C Technologies. Leaving his career as COO for Sundgard's Asia Pacific business, Ian has since founded and grown a number of businesses, including Locowise.com and Vanda.fit. A revenue acceleration platform for the fitness industry, Keepme.ai is all about smarter member retention using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The platform identifies members who are close to cancelling and win them back before they even plan to leave. Through SaaS expertise, Ian and his team exist to help health and fitness businesses retain more members. Regardless of whether customers are big box or boutique, pay as you go or contractual, Keepme.ai equips them with the ability to accurately target and engage members, implement behavioural science approaches, and allows operators to truly understand the people they serve.   Episode highlights - How the pandemic is proving to be a catalyst to many factors for change in the fitness industry, and how it will expose many businesses or consolidate other areas. Why the numbers surrounding coronavirus are not reliable, and what effect the 24-hour news cycle has on our education surrounding COVID-19 and our confidence. What the likelihood is of further lockdowns around the world, and what effect this is going to have on business. What risk is likely as businesses open and communities increase contact, and what the fitness industry need to consider when social distancing measures are relaxed. How there are some products in our industry will face challenges in hygiene when the pandemic passes, with new levels of standards being implemented post-coronavirus. What rules and regulations the fitness industry is facing in areas of the world such as China that are now reopening following coronavirus closures, and how we can learn and predict how we need to act in the west. Why your cash flow forecast has to be the most diligent document that you have as a business, and why it has to be more accurate than you've ever considered before. Projections for the percentage many clubs and operators are going to lose in the way of members and cashflow, from a reasonable timeline and how it will affect your business after lockdown. How much of an impact home workouts such as Peloton will have on the future of bricks and mortar fitness, as more people create habits of exercising at home. What opportunities are going to present themselves in mergers and acquisitions following dynamic changes from coronavirus activity, and why some gyms and chains that get caught out will surprise us. How huge companies such as Google, Apple and Netflix are going to bring to the fitness industry, and how they could make a massive difference with little effect on their own balance sheets. Why this is the biggest opportunity that any business has to plan forward, once they are over any issues concerning cash flow. How you can get a bigger share of voice with your marketing efforts now, as many businesses have cut down their ad spend and even slowed post activity due to resource and budget restrictions. How machine learning and artificial intelligence can create models from the data around coronavirus activity to discover how members are likely to react around future black swan events.   Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Ian Mullane…

After 18 years of working with some of the biggest names in Fintech, including Thomson Financial and SS&C, Ian Mullane left corporate life as the COO of Sungard’s Asia Pacific business. Since then, he’s founded and grown a number of companies including Locowise.com, Vanda.fit and most recently, Keepme, an AI-powered membership retention tool.

Andrew is a Founding Partner of GrowthX. He has been in the technology sector since 1998, based in New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Palo Alto. Andrew began his career in technology as a lawyer for the early Internet pioneers in Search (Alta Vista and Yahoo), AdTech (DoubleClick), SaaS (Salesforce) and others while practicing law. He left private practice at Skadden Arps to join DoubleClick leading up to the Google acquisition. Andrew then joined Thomson Financial where he co-founded their financial news business leading to the acquisition of Reuters. At Thomson Reuters, Andrew served as Publisher of Reuters News, where he worked on innovation and design-thinking with nearly 3,000 journalists based in 200 countries worldwide. He then became Co-Founder and Managing Director of the company’s legal media business in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. After 6 years in Asia, Andrew returned to the U.S. and returned to helping early-stage companies. In Silicon Valley, Andrew was early at Guidespark, an employee communication SaaS platform, and BrightTalk, a content marketing SaaS platform and professional community. He then co-founded GoodMoney to democratize high-performance, values-based investing. During that “wonderful learning opportunity,” Andrew met his current partners and co-founded GrowthX. Andrew is a Kauffman Fellow, Trustee at the Nashville Children’s Theatre, Founding Organizer of Nashville Entrepreneur Week, Regional Board Member of Venture for America, and a proud Mentor at Alchemist Accelerator in Palo Alto, Matter in San Francisco, WeWork in Nashville, and, nationally, at Galvanize. Andrew received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and his law degree from Georgetown University. GrowthX provides seed-stage venture capital and market development expertise to a select group of startups seeking product-market fit and predictable revenue. Our focus is on helping the entrepreneur make money - not raise money - and we've got it down to a science. Products and markets are unique, but the path to product-market fit and sustainable growth is not. GrowthX Academy trains individuals and their companies in the skills needed in the innovation economy. Programming areas include Market Acceleration, Entrepreneurial Selling, Growth Marketing and UX Design. https://growthx.com https://gxacademy.com https://twitter.com/growthxvc

After 18 years working with some of the biggest names in Fintech, including Thomson Financial and SS&C, Ian left corporate life as the COO of Sungard’s Asia pacific business. Since then, he’s founded a grown a number of companies including Locowise.com, Vanda.fit and most recently,  Keepme, AI-powered technology designed specifically to address gym member retention – a perennial industry problem.    In his view, retention is a topic that consumes thousands of words in the press, has conferences dedicated to it and has even grown a cottage industry in consultants with ideas on how to tackle it and yet, there is not a scrap of evidence to suggest we are improving. You would think that any business with 40% of its customers leaving each year would be eager to do something about it.  However, he says that gyms neglect to address this issue because the number coming through the front door as new members is currently more than those leaving through the back as ex-members.   Questions  We Ask Ian!   What Is AI? What is the current state of retention in the fitness industry and how are operators responding? How can AI help solve the retention problem? Can AI replace the role of human intervention? What is the one thing that a fitness operator should consider prior to deploying AI? Ian is wanting club owners and fitness business professionals to get in touch with him and give their opinion on the industry and retention. Contact Ian and the team at  https://www.keepme.ai ian@keepme.ai      

Neil Cattermull is a global Cloud technology influencer and leading independent analyst, who consults, educates, and delivers Cloud strategies for vendors and client organizations. His specialties include: Service Delivery Management, Business Continuity Management, Technical Architecture, Management Consulting, and Cloud Computing. He’s held multiple Director level positions at international banks and financial service delivery firms, such as IBM, Olivetti, ADP Telerate, Thomson Financial, Merrill Lynch, and West LB. He has created many startup technology firms and is ranked in the Top 50 for the technology market. Contact Neil: Twitter: @NeilCattermull LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilcattermull/ Contact Avrohom: Web: https://asktheceo.biz Twitter: @avrohomg Instagram: @avrohomg INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS: 01:06 Recently, IBM was in the news regarding their merger with Red Hat. As someone who specializes in Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions, help us understand, why did IBM acquire Red Hat? 02:40 IBM Cloud PaaS is also built on open source technology. 03:32 What is Hybrid Cloud, and why are people interested in it? 04:52 For the layperson, what is the difference between Hybrid Cloud & Public Cloud? 07:21 Is IBM looking to compete with AWS with the Red Hat acquisition? 09:05 How to avoid Cloud sticker shock when migrating to IaaS / PaaS! 11:43 One of the reasons cited for IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat is their Kubernetes distribution. What is Kubernetes? What is Red Hat doing with it? And why is IBM interested in it? 14:02 Let’s talk about Mergers and Acquisitions in general. Why would a company want to acquire or merge with another company? 33:15 You need multiple lines of defense for Internet Security and Cybersecurity. 34:54 When starting a business, always start with the end in mind. QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE: 18:20 Neville Huang – CEO Neurozo Innovation, New Taipei City, Taiwan - It's said that IBM acquiring RedHat will have a significant impact on Cloud services. In your opinion, how will the prevalence of Cloud impact Cybersecurity? 20:40 Neville Gaunt - Founder MindFit Ltd, UK - What large corporate merger or acquisition has ever given 1+1 is greater than 2? 23:37 Jan Barbosa - Brand Ambassador at beBee Inc., Puerto Rico – Can you name two recent good mergers, and two really bad ones? 28:27 Paul Colmer, Digital architect, coach, and trainer with ALC Training & Consulting in Brisbane, Australia - Does the acquisition mean we'll see IBM hit the IoT consumer market....ala Alexa / Google Home? 30:55 Ken Herron - CMO UIB, Orlando, FL - For those of us who create Internet of Things Solutions for our customers, in 2019 what are the 3 top things we should be looking out for to improve the security of our solutions?

For my 5th Millennial Money Meetup (and my only event for 2018), I hosted the event in downtown Toronto selling out tickets in only a few weeks to 50 attendees. This event was sponsored by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) to celebrate Financial Literacy Month. I was joined by technical consultant and pensions expert Tim Thomson of FSCO, and we dived deep into the topics of retirement planning and pensions in Canada. This is the live recording of Tim and I’s discussion on the subject, but as we’ve mentioned throughout the event, make sure to learn more at fsco.gov.on.ca/retirement. For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/180

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Lou Eccleston, Chief Executive Officer, TMX Group With A Sesquicentennial Series Event: 165th Birthday for TMX Group Limited and the TMX Group's Outlook for the Next Few Years The Empire Club of Canada's TMX Group luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at One King West. This event is part of The Empire Club of Canada's Sesquicentennial Series, celebrating Canada's 150th Anniversary of Confederation and honouring our great country. The luncheon will feature Lou Eccleston, CEO, TMX Group Limited. The luncheon will highlight the 165th birthday for TMX Group Limited and the TMX Group's outlook for the next few years. Lou Eccleston is Chief Executive Officer of TMX Group Limited. He joined TMX Group on November 3, 2014. Mr. Eccleston is a member of the TMX Group Board of Directors; he is also a member of the Board of Directors of several TMX Group subsidiaries, including TSX Inc., TSX Venture Exchange Inc., Montreal Exchange and NGX. Mr. Eccleston has more than 30 years of extensive experience gained in senior leadership roles in the information services, financial technology and capital market services sectors. Prior to joining TMX Group, he was President, S&P Capital IQ and Chairman of the Board, S&P Dow Jones Indices, which are business lines of McGraw Hill Financial. He was with that organization for six years. While there, Mr. Eccleston was named to the Institutional Investor “Tech 50” in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Previously, Mr. Eccleston was at Thomson Financial for four years in the roles of President of Global Sales, Marketing & Services and President of the Banking and Brokerage Group. Mr. Eccleston was at Bloomberg LP for 14 years, where he held a number of roles including chief executive of Bloomberg Tradebook for 6 years. He also served as Chairman and CEO of Pivot Inc., a capital market software services company. Mr. Eccleston earned a BA in Economics from Drew University in Madison, NJ as well as a MBA from La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA. Speaker: Lou Eccleston, Chief Executive Officer, TMX Group *The content presented is free of charge but please note that the Empire Club of Canada retains copyright. Neither the speeches themselves nor any part of their content may be used for any purpose other than personal interest or research without the explicit permission of the Empire Club of Canada.* *Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speakers or panelists are those of the speakers or panelists and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official views and opinions, policy or position held by The Empire Club of Canada.*

This is the fifth and final talk of Andy Mills' five-part series on faith and work. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes, go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/gettingitright.

This is the fifth and final talk of Andy Mills' five-part series on faith and work. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes, go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/gettingitright.

This is the fourth talk of Andy Mills' five-part series on faith and work. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes, go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/theimpactofwork.

This is the fourth talk of Andy Mills' five-part series on faith and work. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes, go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/theimpactofwork.

This is the third talk in a series on faith and work given by Andy Mills in the summer of 2013 at Camp of the Woods, New York. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/howshouldwework//

This is the third talk in a series on faith and work given by Andy Mills in the summer of 2013 at Camp of the Woods, New York. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/howshouldwework//

This is the second talk in a series on faith and work given by Andy Mills in the summer of 2013 at Camp of the Woods, New York. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/godsvisionforwork.

This is the second talk in a series on faith and work given by Andy Mills in the summer of 2013 at Camp of the Woods, New York. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/godsvisionforwork.

This is the first talk in a series on faith and work given by Andy Mills in the summer of 2013 at Camp of the Woods, New York. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/the-problem-of-work-andy-mills-podcast.

This is the first talk in a series on faith and work given by Andy Mills in the summer of 2013 at Camp of the Woods, New York. Andy Mills is the former CEO of the Thomson Financial and Professional Publishing unit of The Thomson Corporation. He currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Theology of Work Project. For complete show notes go to www.theologyofwork.org/resources/the-problem-of-work-andy-mills-podcast.

The European Central Bank held its benchmark rate unchanged at 4 percent, despite surging inflation and a stronger euro. Earlier, The Bank of England cut its key rate by a quarter of a point to 5.5 percent, worried about a slowing economy.The Labor Department reported that applications for jobless benefits dipped by 15,000 last week to a total of 338,000. The decline was the largest since the level of claims had dipped by 22,000 in the first week of September.The holiday shopping season got off to an uneasy start despite a big Thanksgiving weekend as consumers took advantage of big discounts and then pulled back, leaving retailers with mixed sales results for November. According to Thomson Financial, only seven merchants beat sales estimates, while 19 missed expectations.Dell (DELL) announced that it will sell a variety of XPS and Inspiron notebooks and desktop computers through Best Buy (BBY) in the next few weeks. Chevron (CVX) said its capital spending budget for 2008 will weigh in at $22.9 billion, up 15% from $20 billion last year. Coca-Cola Co. (KO) named President and Chief Operating Officer Muhtar Kent to succeed E. Neville Isdell as chief executive officer in July. Kent has worked at Coca-Cola or its bottlers since 1978.In Forex News According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, China should let its currency rise faster to help it counter overheating in its booming economy. The OECD's latest Economic Outlook raised its forecast for China's economic growth this year to 11.4 percent, up from the earlier estimate of 10.4 percent. The economy grew 11.5 percent in the third quarter from the same period a year ago.The report by the Paris-based OECD, an international non-governmental organization that collects and studies economic statistics and social data, said China's controls on its currency were hampering efforts to slow growth and ease inflation.Beijing has pledged to loosen controls that keep the yuan trading in a narrow range, but says the country's developing markets and financial institutions require a stable currency. Meanwhile, the yuan has weakened against the euro, prompting complaints from EU trading partners about China's growing trade surpluses with that region. While the report did not directly criticize China's foreign exchange controls, it noted that efforts to tighten money supply to counter inflation were not having much impact.Scheduled Economic Reports (Friday)Non-Farm Payrolls (Nov), University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (DEC), Consumer Credit (Oct)In Earnings NewsToll Brothers (TOL) reported a net loss of $81.8 million, or 52 cents per share, for the three months ending Oct. 31, compared with a net income of $173.8 million, or $1.07 per share, a year ago.And Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. (KKD) said its net loss narrowed to $798,000, or 1 cent per share, compared to a net loss of $7.2 million, or 12 cents per share, a year earlier.Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) said it was holding onto its 2007 sales and earnings guidance and forecast 2008 earnings between $3.85 and $4 a share. Scheduled Earnings Reports (Friday)Kellwood Company, Star Gas Partners, Schick Technologies, C&D TechnologiesStocks in the NewsNovastar Financial (NFI) said Wachovia extended until Dec. 7 a waiver of a covenant requiring the company to maintain a certain adjusted tangible net worth.Conagra Foods (CAG) said earnings from continuing operations for the second quarter, ended Nov. 25, will be higher than planned.And General Dynamics (GD) plans to buy back as many as 10 million, or 2.5%, of the 402 million shares outstanding.

2006 set a record for mergers and acquisitions worldwide. Deals totaled $3.79 trillion 38% higher than in 2005 and 55 of the transactions were valued at more than $10 billion each according to data from Thomson Financial. Private equity firms were major movers in this trend responsible for 20% of global M&A activity and 27% of activity in the U.S. according to Thomson. How long will this M&A binge continue and when it does come to an end what will be the factors behind the retreat? Knowledge at Wharton asked management professor Harbir Singh an expert on corporate acquisitions and restructuring to offer his views on the M&A landscape. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.