James D. White, former CEO of Jamba Juice, current board chair, and coauthor of Culture Design, shares how culture becomes a management discipline rather than a slogan. Drawing on his eight-year turnaround of Jamba, service on more than 15 boards, and leadership toolkit, he explains how listening, rituals, and disciplined systems embed values into sustained performance.

Key takeaways:

• Start with stakeholder listening. White began his turnaround with nearly 200 “start, stop, continue” inputs across employees, suppliers, and board members. “I always start by listening,” he says, because the people inside the company “actually know what’s required to make the company run better.”
  
  

• Make culture intentional. “Companies have culture by design or default.” Define what matters, create rituals that reinforce it, and remove practices that contradict stated values.
  
  

• Reduce the say–do gap. “The really important things from a leadership perspective is what we say versus what we do, and minimizing the say–do gap.” Simple rituals—forums, recognition, measurement—align words with actions.
  
  

• Invest in people individually. “People don’t care how much you know until they understand how much you care about them personally.” One-on-ones and role design that lean into strengths unlock discretionary effort.
  
  

• Demand transparency. White is direct: “I want bad news first.” Candor allows leaders to respond before problems multiply.
  
  

• Design mechanics, not just rhetoric. From anonymous feedback channels to departmental listening sessions, operating processes must “make it easier for our stores to deliver great products in the most efficient fashion.”
  
  

• Balance preservation and change. Protect what works—“fantastic products” and passionate employees—while reallocating resources. One example was adding steel-cut oatmeal for colder markets, paired with smoothies.
  
  

• Measure what matters. “Anything that matters, you always measure it.” White combines Gallup Q12 surveys, pulse checks, and qualitative indicators like recognition letters to monitor engagement.
  
  

• Clarify board vs. CEO roles. “The CEO is responsible for running the company… the board chair is a facilitator of the collective board.” A strong chair–CEO relationship unburdens management while channeling board expertise.
  
  

• Exit with care. Not every role fits every person: “You often… get to a place where you free up people’s future to go do something else. You do it with kindness and grace and thoughtfulness.”
  
  

For executives facing turnaround, scaling challenges, or governance decisions, this episode offers a tested blueprint: start with listening, design culture deliberately, align actions with words, and lead with humanity.

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Laura Ries, globally recognized marketing strategist and author of The Strategic Enemy, outlines a category-first approach to brand building. As she explains, “while people talk in brands, they really think in categories. The category is king.” Her core message: focus, contrast, and clarity determine whether a brand leads or disappears.

The conversation emphasizes why narrowing focus creates strength, when to launch a new brand name rather than extend an old one, and how visible, repeatable signals, what Ries calls a “visual hammer”, turn a positioning into dominance. She draws on vivid examples: Kodak’s misstep in naming its first digital cameras, Toyota’s use of Lexus to enter the luxury market, Subaru’s turnaround through all-wheel-drive focus, and Target’s positioning as “cheap chic” against Walmart.

Strategic takeaways for leaders include:

• Define and own a category. “The power is in owning a singular idea, and the even more powerful thing is to dominate and own a category.”
  
  

• Choose a strategic enemy. As Ries argues, “the mind understands opposition faster than superiority.” Standing against something clarifies what you stand for.
  
  

• Use new names for new categories. Legacy names can trap perception in the old category.
  
  

• Deploy the visual hammer. A simple, memorable image or symbol cements positioning more powerfully than words alone.
  
  

• Keep the message simple and repeat it. Brands like BMW (“The Ultimate Driving Machine”) and Chick-fil-A (“Eat More Chicken”) succeeded through decades of repetition, not campaign churn.
  
  

• Invest in leadership visibility. Well-known figures, from Anna Wintour at Vogue to Elon Musk at Tesla, can embody and amplify brand positioning.
  
  

• Treat AI as a tool, not a substitute. Ries uses it for research synthesis but insists, “there’s a great human element that is still incredibly valuable.”
  
  

For executives shaping brand portfolios or launching new products, this discussion offers a disciplined playbook: narrow the focus, name carefully, define the enemy, and repeat until the position is instinctive in customers’ minds.

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Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard, founder of LANcity, author of The Accidental Network, and widely known as the “father of the cable modem”, shares the story of how broadband was built and the lessons it offers for today’s leaders navigating AI and emerging technologies.

Arriving in the U.S. with $750 in savings, Yassini-Fard envisioned carrying “voice, data and video… over one cable instead of two” at a time when few believed homes would ever need to be connected. Over nine years, with just 13 employees and seven consultants, he built a working product, proved its reliability, and persuaded the cable industry to adopt it. By 1996, his team had driven device costs from $8,000 down to under $300 and helped create DOCSIS, the global broadband standard, released royalty-free to speed adoption.

Reflecting on today’s tech landscape, he cautions: “It’s not just really money… you need more than that. It’s a proven prototype and a product that actually does the talking.” Valuations without execution, he warns, will accelerate failure.

Key lessons include:

• Prototype before scale: Capital is wasted without demonstrable performance in real environments.
  
  

• Treat infrastructure as strategy: Broadband enabled Silicon Valley, Netflix, telehealth, and remote work; leaders must model today’s energy, compute, and connectivity constraints when sizing AI opportunities.
  
  

• Open standards matter: Royalty-free interoperability can turn a niche idea into an industry platform.
  
  

• Execution trumps valuation: LANcity beat Motorola and Intel with disciplined engineering, resilient supply chains, and relentless customer trials.
  
  

• Anchor to customer economics: Early users became advocates because the modem delivered day-to-day value.
  
  

Looking forward, Yassini-Fard stresses that AI and robotics will stall without addressing power and infrastructure: “For some of these AI companies to be successful, they need gigawatts of power… it takes 10 years to build a nuclear reactor that gives you one.” He highlights quantum computing and network management as the next frontiers, and calls for workforce retraining in mathematics, physics, and the skilled trades that sustain digital systems.

For executives evaluating platform bets or emerging technologies, this conversation offers a grounded blueprint: start with the prototype, model the infrastructure honestly, choose standards deliberately, and align capital with execution discipline.

📚 Get Rouzbeh’s book, The Accidental Network, here: https://shorturl.at/rUB1T

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Former Goldman Sachs executive Erin Coupe shares how she transformed her life and career by replacing routines with rituals, practicing meditation, and stepping into self-leadership.

In this episode of the Strategy Skills Podcast, Kris Safarova and Erin dive deep into practical lessons for entrepreneurs, consultants, and online business owners who want more clarity, energy, and independence.

Based on her book, I Can Fit That In: How Rituals Transform Your Life, Erin explains how to:

• Build rituals that fuel focus, creativity, and business growth.

• Use meditation to calm your mind and access deeper ideas.

• Lead yourself first — so you can lead teams, clients, and businesses better.

• Align achievement with values to avoid burnout and emptiness.

• See AI not just as a tool for efficiency, but as a partner in self-discovery.

This conversation is perfect for online business owners, consultants, authors, and executives building a life and career on their own terms.

Learn more about Erin here: https://www.erincoupe.com/

📚 Get Erin’s book, I Can Fit That In, here: https://www.erincoupe.com/i-can-fit-that-in

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Srividya Jandhyala, professor of management at ESSEC Business School and author of The Great Disruption, offers a clear framework for how geopolitics is reshaping corporate strategy. Her central thesis is direct:

“The fundamental idea, ‘Where are you from?’—the nationality of the company—is the defining feature of the type of reactions you face from all stakeholders, not just governments, but also customers, suppliers, and clients”.

She explains why geopolitics now sits inside business decisions rather than adjacent to them. Corporate choices create externalities that trigger responses from states and nonmarket actors. For example, decisions around semiconductors illustrate how commercial moves collide with concerns about national security and dependence in key markets. The implication is that access, permissions, and standards increasingly compete with price and product as decisive variables.

Jandhyala distills four structural foundations every multinational should monitor:

• Market access — Where tariffs, export controls, or rivalries may close doors.
  
  

• Level playing field — Corporate nationality can tilt advantage or disadvantage against competitors.
  
  

• Investment security — Whether assets, workforce, and property rights will be safe and returns can be repatriated.
  
  

• Institutional alignment — The “USB vs. power plug” analogy: some systems work seamlessly, while others clash. Geopolitics is increasingly a contest of standards

• Build a repeatable discipline. Go beyond headline news by scanning developments, personalizing them to the firm’s footprint, planning responses, and pivoting as conditions change.
  
  

• Map exposure by corporate nationality. Quantify where origin shapes market permissions, customer sentiment, or partner constraints.
  
  

• Treat corporate diplomacy as a core capability. Relationship-building with governments and stakeholders now consumes significant CEO time, creating both opportunities and trade-offs.
  
  

• For CEOs: View geopolitical flux as a field for advantage, not just risk. “Be imaginative about how you can exploit your corporate nationality, your position in the value chain, and your global market presence.”
  
  

• For middle managers: Expect new roles and metrics; government engagement, redundancy planning, and cross-functional information brokering are becoming central.
  
  

• Use the right cognitive frame. Executives must decide explicitly whether and where geopolitics deserves share of mind, recognizing that equally astute observers may reach different conclusions.
  
  

Jandhyala’s counsel is rigorous but pragmatic: geopolitics is now part of the operating environment. Companies that treat it as noise will miss risks and opportunities. Those that build structural awareness and corporate diplomacy into strategy will be better positioned to compete when “permissions, politics, and standards” define the terms of play.

📚 Get Srividya’s book, The Great Disruption, here: https://shorturl.at/SWrdT

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Colin M. Fisher, associate professor at University College London’s School of Management and author of The Collective Edge, examines how teams actually work and what leaders can do to raise performance without relying on slogans or surface-level coaching.

His research shows that leaders often misdiagnose team challenges as interpersonal when the root causes are structural. As Fisher explains:

“Over 80% of people wanted to change process… only about 4% wanted to change structure. And yet it was structure that was the right answer.”

He argues for clear outcomes paired with autonomy over method:

“People are most motivated when you tell them what the outcome they’re trying to achieve is, but you give them autonomy on how to achieve it.”

• Boundaries are often unclear. In one study of top management teams, “only 7%… agreed on the number of people on the team.” Lack of clarity undermines coordination before meetings even begin.
  
  

• Small teams outperform. Evidence points to an ideal size of 4–5 members: big enough for diverse skills but small enough to minimize coordination costs.
  
  

• Compose for skills, not folklore. Fisher warns against personality typologies:
  “There’s no one recipe for using personality or strengths to compose teams.”
  Instead, focus on needed knowledge, perspectives, and—where possible—social sensitivity, which predicts collective intelligence.
  
  
  

• Design tasks for interdependence and identity. True team tasks require diverse expertise, allow members to see work from start to finish, and give visibility into the impact of their contributions.
  
  

• Set goals that are clear, challenging, and consequential. Fisher advises leaders to reiterate goals in writing at the start of each meeting to sustain alignment.
  
  

• Align teams of teams. Coordination failures often occur between frontline and top leadership. Cross-level, cross-functional teams are essential for consistency.
  
  

• Codify norms early. Groups should explicitly decide communication channels, cadence, and expectations for speaking up.
  “Psychological safety is nonnegotiable for surfacing expertise and learning from error.”
  
  
  

Fisher’s core message is disciplined and testable: structure the team and its work with intent, state the outcome, and then get out of the way. The result is greater ownership, better learning, and fewer misattributions to personalities when the real culprit is design.

📚 Get Colin’s book, The Collective Edge, here: https://shorturl.at/91Khp

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Venkat Atluri, McKinsey senior partner and coauthor of The Ecosystem Economy: How to Lead in the New Age of Sectors Without Borders, explains how value creation is shifting from stand-alone enterprises to coordinated networks of collaborators. Drawing on two decades advising leaders in technology, media, and telecom, he outlines what makes ecosystem businesses distinct from traditional conglomerates—and the governance required to make them work at scale.

Atluri emphasizes that ecosystems aren’t about diversification for its own sake, but about following a customer-led thread:

“Start with the customer and then follow the thread—what other problems does that customer have that you can solve together with partners?”

• Beyond Suppliers: Many firms mistake a supplier list or procurement process for an ecosystem. Atluri is clear:
  “A supplier list is not an ecosystem. An ecosystem is about mutual value creation and sharing in the upside.”
  
  
  

• Role Clarity Matters: Some firms will anchor the platform, continuously raising the bar for developers and users. Others will participate as contributors, protecting privacy, quality, and customer experience. Scale only comes when “responsibilities, incentives, and accountability” are explicit.
  
  

• Discipline in Operating Models: He advises executives to integrate ecosystem thinking into strategy, but then run deeper, dedicated workstreams to define roles, economics, and governance.
  
  

• Competition Is Ecosystem vs. Ecosystem: Scenario planning must account for new types of disruptors and ask, “What would an ecosystem leader do here?” Over time, Atluri expects the economy to consolidate into a few macro-ecosystems with multiple micro-ecosystems nested beneath them.
  
  

• History as a Control: Symbian and BlackBerry illustrate that large user bases are not moats.
  
  “Unless you keep raising the bar on your proposition, you lose.”
  
  

• Customer Experience Sets the Standard: Consumer expectations now apply in B2B as well:
  
  “If something doesn’t work out of the box, that tells you the company is focused on itself, not the customer.”
  
  

• Map a customer segment’s biggest problems and use that to prioritize expansion.

• Deliberately choose whether to anchor a platform or participate in one—and align capital and talent accordingly.

• Replace vendor transactions with value-sharing constructs that reward partners for enlarging the pie.

• Establish governance, metrics, and cultural norms that enable collaboration at scale.

• Continuously improve the platform to keep developers, customers, and partners engaged.
  
  

Atluri’s message is simple but powerful:

“Ecosystems win when they deliver ever-rising value to customers and fair economics to contributors.”

Companies that treat ecosystems as procurement exercises will stall. Those that treat them as strategic systems will build compounding advantages over time.

📚 Get Venkat’s book, The Ecosystem Economy, here: https://shorturl.at/XawOb

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Marcy Syms, former CEO of Syms Corporation and president of the Sy Syms Foundation, reflects on leadership, governance, and the responsibilities of stewarding a family-founded, publicly traded business. Her perspective blends the operational discipline of retail with long-term thinking shaped by philanthropy and board service.

Syms underscores that organizational resilience rests on clear governance, candid communication, and leaders willing to face hard choices directly. As she puts it,

“Leaders are not tested when things are going well—they’re tested when the pressure is on and they have to make tough decisions.”

• Governance as Stewardship
  Boards must challenge assumptions and safeguard alignment between values, accountability, and performance.
  
  “The role of an independent director is not to be a cheerleader, it’s to really be a steward.”
  
  

• Succession in Family Enterprises
  Generational expectations can create friction with shareholder responsibilities. Codifying roles, rules of engagement, and equity structures helps prevent conflict.
  
  “If you don’t write it down, you’re going to end up with misunderstandings.”
  
  

• Retail as a Proving Ground
  Syms draws lessons from decades in a competitive industry, highlighting the need to balance cost discipline with customer orientation and agility in adapting to change.
  
  

• Philanthropy with Rigor
  Through the Sy Syms Foundation, she illustrates how philanthropy can extend corporate values into society when managed with the same discipline as business strategy.
  
  “Philanthropy isn’t just giving money away, it’s about investing in ideas and people with the same rigor you bring to business.”
  
  

• Authenticity in Leadership
  For Syms, credibility is earned through constancy:
  
  “People watch what you do over time. If you stay true to your principles, that’s how you build trust.”
  
  
  

This conversation provides senior executives and board members with a grounded perspective on balancing family legacy, fiduciary responsibility, and societal contribution. It offers practical lessons in governance discipline, leadership maturity, and aligning enterprise with enduring values.

📚 Get Marcy’s book, Leading with Respect, here: https://shorturl.at/V0zJ3

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