The Strategy Skills Podcast: Management Consulting | Strategy, Operations & Implementation | Critical Thinking

In this conversation, Mark explains that "we often build our lives on things we are certain about that simply are not true." He describes how "we don't actually see the world… we see screens of how we think the world is." He explains that these screens create "a double paradox" shaping what we think is safe, what we think is risky, and how we choose to act. Mark describes the difference between someone who sees a large employer as stability versus an entrepreneur who sees it as danger, saying "which screen is right? Well, it depends on which screen is going to give you more power in life." He talks about choosing the entrepreneurial screen because "I detested the idea of being a piece of a cog in a major machine." He explains how a "victim type screen" once took over his thinking when he was diagnosed with osteonecrosis: "I was catastrophizing… I went into a very negative spiral." He recalls seeing children receiving chemotherapy and realizing "Mark, you are really self-absorbed… You don't get to live a life

Adam McGraw is a Fortune 100 VP turned entrepreneur and co-founder of CREW, a leadership community. "We try and really curate it for folks that are in the VP and above through CEOs as well, founders, etc., so that they have this kind of safe white space atmosphere to really consistently plug in and build community." "Not just transact network-wise in things that are typically narrow and niche… we really love the idea of a melting pot for leaders." "This is kind of the new normal: constant change, constant uncertainty, constant transition." "Being in crew keeps me grounded and conscious and aware." "I want folks by the end of the day to feel like even though I dedicated and carved out time in my busy life and work week, I came out of here actually feeling juiced up and energized because I had some fun and obviously I learned some stuff and I got to be myself."   Claim your free gift: Free gift #1 McKinsey & BCG winning resume www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF Free gift #2 Breakthrough Decisions Guide with

Technology is reshaping the world at a pace few people, inside or outside the industry, expected. But every so often, you meet someone who has not only witnessed the major waves of technological change, but helped build them. In this conversation, Marcus Fontoura, Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, CTO for Azure Core, walks us through the story of AI, what leaders are getting wrong, and how to develop the one thing that will matter more than any model or algorithm: human agency. Marcus has lived through every major inflection point: early search, the rise of cloud computing, and now large-scale AI systems. One of the first things he challenges is the popular narrative that we are heading toward an AI apocalypse, or an AI utopia. Both extremes, he explains, miss the point: "My approach was more like, let me just explain what the technology is and what it does… it's basically a prediction system." Marcus offers a clear explanation of modern AI. He compares today's large models to a syst

In this episode, Dr. Julia Garcia explains why hope is a habit and why it is critical for us to remove what blocks hope. She describes what happens inside teams when leaders lose hope, including "the culture that creates, the burnout that leads to, the discouragement and defeat." Julia shows how unprocessed emotions drain leaders even when they appear high-functioning. "If we emotionally feel disconnected, we're going to start looking elsewhere or we're going to end up in a place of hopelessness where maybe we completely shut down in our career and now we're just a robot." One of the most memorable insights is the use of the word "maybe" to interrupt destructive thought cycles. She explains: "Maybe your next idea is the one that's going to change the game for you." "Maybe that failure wasn't a failure. It was a setup." "Maybe you have everything you need right now." Julia also demonstrates how holding unspoken emotions limits our capacity. "We can function by holding all these things in emotionally…

In this conversation, Anthony Vinci explains that "AI is going to be able to do more and more of what people do." He describes a future where "AI is going to get better and better at doing what people do," and highlights that leaders must understand "how do you figure out what AI is good at and then implement it to do that" and "how do you manage your workforce so that they are able to partner with that AI." He warns that leaders often "overestimate what AI can do and underestimate it at the same time," and stresses the importance of "getting that balance right." As he shared, "sometimes they can sense that, oh, AI can do anything," while others say "it will never do that," and both assumptions can mislead decision making. He offers direct guidance for staying relevant: "The number one thing I would recommend is literally to just go use AI for thirty minutes a day." He urges leaders to "push the envelope" and "see where the holes are, what it won't do." Vinci describes how workflow—not just technology—defines

When was the last time you played, really played? For Cas Holman, founder and chief designer of Heroes Will Rise and star of Netflix's Abstract: The Art of Design, play isn't childish. It's the foundation of human creativity, resilience, and connection. She worked with LEGO, Disney Imagineering, and the LEGO Foundation and on a mission to help adults rediscover what children know instinctively: that play is how we learn, adapt, and feel alive. "Play isn't what happens after work," Cas explains. "It's how we manage uncertainty. It's how we cope, experiment, and find our way through the unknown." In this conversation, Cas reframes play not as a distraction from productivity but as the engine of it. She explains why play is essential for innovation, executive presence, and emotional agility, and how suppressing it has drained creativity from our professional lives. "Playful thinking lets us reframe success," she says. "It makes us flexible enough to keep moving when things don't go according to plan." We discuss

Dr. Brennan Spiegel, Director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai and Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA, author of the book Pull, explains why illness is often a failure to manage gravity. He describes how our relationship with gravity defines strength, balance, digestion, mental stability, and emotional health.  Take the Gravotype Quiz at BrennanSpiegelMD.com to identify how your body manages gravity. Key Insights and Action Steps — Dr. Brennan Spiegel "Every single cell of your body evolved from this force of gravity. Physics came first, and biology came second." Illness arises when we fail to manage gravity. Every organ, tendon, and cell depends on that relationship. "When you stand up straight and lift your diaphragm, it pulls up this sack of potatoes that we all have in our belly. When you open up the gut, it opens up digestion." Posture determines how well the gut, diaphragm, and circulation function. Sitting compresses digestion and lowers energy. "Your balance and relationship to

Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic and Harvard Business School Executive Fellow, explains how leaders can stay grounded, principled, and effective in chaotic times. "It's a world of chaos and it requires a very different kind of leader than in more stable times." The skills that once mattered (process control, long-term plans) are now secondary to courage, self-awareness, and moral clarity. George says most executives still lead comfortably "inside the walls" but fear the external world (media, public scrutiny, and rapid change). "Today, if you're a leader, you are a public figure. You have to face that reality." Leadership now starts with knowing your True North, your values and principles. "When everything's going your way, you start to think you're better than you are. When you lose, you learn your weaknesses." He warns: "The people who will struggle are those faking it to make it. They're trying to impress the outside world but aren't grounded inside." Purpose, not position, defines identity. "A CEO onc

Raj Sisodia has spent his life asking one question: Can business make people's lives better instead of draining them? He holds a PhD in Marketing and Business Policy from Columbia University, co-founded Conscious Capitalism with John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods Market, and has advised global companies from Tata Group to AT&T. But his path started in a factory in Bombay, earning a hundred dollars a month, before he built one of the most influential ideas in modern business thinking. "I didn't like biology, so I became an engineer. I didn't like finance, so I became a marketing professor. But business turned out to be about head and wallet — nothing about heart or spirit." That realization led him to study companies that people love working for and trust buying from. The result became Conscious Capitalism — a way of running a business that joins purpose, profit, and care. "Profit is the oxygen that keeps you alive. But no human lives just to make red blood cells. In the same way, no company should li

Byron Loflin, Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq and co-author of CEO Ready, explained on the Strategy Skills Podcast why many talented executives never make it to the top. " Because you perform well isn't going to automatically get you the job." Boards are looking for more than results. They look for humility, curiosity, and authentic relationships across stakeholders. Byron shared a personal lesson from riding with Ronald Reagan before he was president: "He was genuinely interested in others. And that surprised me. I didn't get the sense that he was a pompous or aristocratic kind of person. He was genuinely interested in identifying what are you interested in? What makes you tick?" He also warned that unchecked ego is one of the biggest risks to leadership: "Ego is a powerful motivator when it's focused properly. But when it becomes dominant in one's personality and drives inappropriate types of responses to the needs of others… Ego can become a significant problem." To counter ego, he recommended buil

John Campbell, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and co-author of Fixed, joined the Strategy Skills Podcast to explain why the financial system often works against ordinary investors and how to make better personal-finance decisions. After decades studying markets and investor behavior, Campbell saw a pattern: even educated, high-income earners routinely make avoidable mistakes in housing, saving, and investing. "Once I started looking at how people actually behave, I became more and more aware of how pervasive mistakes are, people are just leaving money on the table." Those mistakes compound over time, widening inequality. "It's what economists call a cross-subsidy, from the poor to the rich. My co-author Tarun and I feel that this is really outrageous and we should be concerned about it." Five Key Insights 1. Financial Mistakes Compound Inequality Campbell's research shows that even when borrowers start on equal terms, inaction and misunderstanding drive divergence. "Black borrowers are paying m

Phil Gilbert led one of the most significant cultural transformations in corporate history, as IBM's General Manager of Design, he helped the 400,000-person company reinvent how it thinks, listens, and builds products.   In this in-depth interview, Phil shares the playbook behind "Irresistible Change", his approach to scaling design thinking, transforming culture, and helping teams adopt new ways of working that actually work.   If you've ever wondered how to lead large-scale transformation that doesn't collapse under politics or mandates, this conversation will show you the operating system behind lasting change.   About Phil Gilbert Phil is the author of Irresistible Change and is best known for leading IBM's twenty-first-century transformation as its General Manager of Design. His work has been profiled in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and numerous case studies on corporate reinvention. Get Phil's book, Irresistible Change, here: https://shorturl.at/dA4Z3   Claim your free gift: Free gift #1 McKin

Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, explains how he built a $3.6 billion company by placing human dignity at the center of leadership. He describes the moment he recognized that "our history does not give us the future that we deserve," and how this led to a disciplined focus on balance, diversifying customers, industries, and technologies to create a stable enterprise.   Bob recounts the insight that reshaped his philosophy: every team member is "somebody's precious child," and leadership is stewardship, not control. Caring, in his view, is an economic principle: "The greatest act of charity is how you treat the people you have the privilege of leading."   Key insights include: The role of business-model design in protecting people, Why pricing should reflect market value rather than internal cost, How trust and relationships outperform transactional approaches, and Why growth often emerges from navigating adversity   Chapman argues that today's crisis is not financial but a "poverty of dignity," and call

Scott Levy spent two decades as an investment banker at firms like J.P. Morgan, advising corporate boards and senior executives on risk, growth, and capital decisions. Then he pivoted, serving on a public school board, teaching at Harvard, and writing Why School Boards Matter.   In this episode, we discuss: How Levy broke into investment banking and the lessons that carried him through twenty years on Wall Street What he learned about resilience, risk-taking, and long-term thinking at the highest levels of finance Why he left a successful career to focus on public education and democracy How business principles can, and cannot, be applied productively to education What executives misunderstand about AI, and the questions they should be asking   Get Scott's book, Why School Boards Matter, here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262552721/why-school-boards-matter/   Claim your free gift: Free gift #1 McKinsey & BCG winning resume www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF   Free gift #2 Breakthrough Decisions

Lynn Smith, former national news anchor for NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline New, and now executive communication coach, reframes public speaking as an internal leadership skill, not a performance. She identifies the recurring obstacle as the "brain bully", the inner critic that turns preparation into paralysis, and shows leaders how to retrain it so that clarity, calm, and connection become repeatable outcomes.   This episode translates decades of live television experience into actionable communication tools for high-stakes settings—from boardrooms to keynotes to broadcast media.   Key takeaways: Name and neutralize the "brain bully." "It's that inner saboteur saying, 'You're not good enough' or 'What if you say the wrong thing?'" Smith explains. She traces these patterns back to early experiences and teaches clients to "control–alt–delete our prehistoric code" so fear no longer drives performance. People don't want perfection, they want resiliency. Recalling a keynote where she froze on stage, Smith

Is capitalism still working, or is it due for an upgrade?   In this must-watch episode, authors Seth Levine and Elizabeth McBride discuss insights from their book Capital Evolution, sharing what they learned from interviewing top CEOs, including Jamie Dimon, Dan Schulman (PayPal), Peter Stavros (KKR), and others who are helping to reshape the social contract of business.   They explore: Why Jamie Dimon led 200 top CEOs to declare that companies should serve more than just shareholders. "If you ask Jamie Dimon, are you a capitalist? Because we asked him that, he said, I'm a rapacious capitalist." – Seth Levine Why the old model of shareholder primacy is failing How economic mobility has collapsed: "50 years ago, if you were born in the bottom 25th percentile of wealth, you had about a 25% chance of dying in the top 25th... Today, it's about 5%." Why ownership, not just wages, is key to the next phase of capitalism: "Ownership is a key to this new future that we see." How businesses, not jus

"Most people can't remember the last time they went to bed and thought: today was fun."   In this conversation with Bree Groff, author of Today Was Fun, we recenter the conversation on joy, pleasure, and meaning at work. Bree shares why her mom always said, "I have the best days," what it taught her about how we spend our lives, and why fun is not frivolous, it's the driver of creativity, performance, and belonging.   We also dive into the future of work and AI: "If the AI is a train speeding up behind you, don't try to outrun it. Step off the tracks. Be the most human version of yourself." Why we should measure success not only in revenue and customers, but in whether our companies create good days. Why Mondays are not a renewable resource and how leaders can treat each day as a responsibility.   As Bree says: "The pain is optional, and the fun is free."

What does it really take to go from working as a gas station cashier to leading a billion-dollar company?   In this Strategy Skills Podcast episode, host Kris Safarova speaks with Shirin Behzadi, author of The Unexpected CEO and former CEO of Home Franchise Concepts, where she scaled the business to nearly $1B in sales across 12,000 cities.   This is a remarkable entrepreneurship journey and CEO story filled with powerful leadership lessons, proof that resilience in leadership is a superpower, and insights into how to do well despite adversity.   You'll learn: How to define a vision and reverse-engineer your career growth Why asking for opportunities (even when it feels risky) can change your life The "secret sauce" of scaling a company to nearly $1B How to build personal growth through adversity What the future of leadership looks like with AI in business  

Vic Malhotra, former McKinsey senior partner and coauthor of CEO Excellence and A CEO for All Seasons, examines the strategic pressures that now define the CEO role: a “30- to 40-year tech revolution,” intensifying geopolitics, shifting consumer behavior, and demographic change. As he notes, “every business at some level is a tech business,” and this multipolar, fast-changing environment places a premium on leaders who can “thread the needle” between paradoxes, short-term delivery versus long-term reinvention, legacy versus disruption, and analysis versus decisiveness. The conversation connects these macrotrends to practical leadership mechanics, how to set direction, allocate scarce resources, and design institutions that can learn, adapt, and scale without losing their core. Key strategic insights and takeaways Set an audacious, persistent north star. “The very best leaders set bold, some might say audacious, aspirations early in their tenure,” Malhotra explains. Through downturns and market noise, they “pe

Few leaders have run Fortune 500 giants on different continents. Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld has. As CEO of Siemens (Germany) and Alcoa (U.S.), he has led global transformations across industries and advised presidents and heads of state.   In this interview, Klaus shares: Why time management is a myth and energy is the real driver of performance How leaders must “AI-ize” their organizations or risk irrelevance What skills will still matter when AI automates analysts, lawyers, and even screenwriters How purpose condenses energy “like a laser beam” The universal leadership lessons from four decades across Europe, the U.S., and the Middle East His book, Leading to Thrive, combines the inner game (energy, resilience, purpose) and the outer game (leadership, strategy, boards, and competition). Listen now and learn what it takes to lead at the very top and to stay there in the age of AI.   Here are some free gifts for you:   Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsul