How can you use the principles of neurosurgery to maximize your leadership performance?

In this episode, Rich sits down with Dr. Theodore Schwartz, a pioneering neurosurgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine, known for developing minimally invasive techniques for brain tumor and epilepsy surgery.

Dr. Schwartz explores the mental and physical preparation required for surgery, navigating the challenge of making hundreds of cascading decisions and cultivating the personal resilience needed to persevere in such a high stakes environment.

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“I often say to the residents when we're operating, ‘Don't forget to listen to the tumor.’ And they're like, ‘What do you mean?’ I'm like, ‘You have to listen to the tumor. The tumor is telling you where it's going to hold on and where it's going to let you go. And you can't always impose your will on the tumor, but you have to listen to it and see what it's telling you, and react to that to change your plan.’ So you have to be receptive to the information coming in in order to create the most productive plan to move forward.”

“Although we erect a certain amount of emotional armor to deal when things go wrong, you then have to also be very, very sensitive and be able to let down that armor and be a human being.”

“And the question is, how do you put yourself in that mental space and in that physical space to function at a hundred percent, literally three days a week, I'm operating, you know, 48 weeks a year. Going on 25 years, right? I mean, it's just, it's relentless. It's every day. You have to show up because you have to be there for your patient.”

Practice Makes Profit: Assessing competition using the competitive landscape framework.

League of Strategic Minds [listener question]: What's the best way to communicate strategy?

Winsights: Ideas for Advantage: Sarah Blakely, self made billionaire and CEO of Spanx said, “Insights are gifts from the universe. Every time I have them, I capture them right away. The more that you write them down and pay attention to them, the stronger that the gift and the connection will become.” Where are you recording your insights and how often are you reviewing these insights to transform them into new value?

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(00:40) Deep Dive Interview with Dr. Ted Schwartz

(045:42) Practice Makes Profit

(47:22) League of Strategic Minds

(49:21) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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Links:

Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Theodore Schwartz on LinkedIn

Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify

What does it take to scale a business for sustained success?

In this episode, Rich sits down with Joel Holland, CEO of Harvest Hosts, a unique membership program for RVers offering stays at over 5,000 locations.

Joel shares his entrepreneurial journey founding and growing Storyblocks into a nine-figure business, culminating in a successful sale to a private equity firm. He dives into the real challenges of starting a company, from nailing the perfect product-market fit to scaling. Joel details his experience jumping domains from a tech startup to scaling Harvest Hosts in the hospitality travel space through leadership, listening, and learning.

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“Any action is more powerful than inaction.”

“The simplest way to run a good company is hire great people.”

“A lot of times the answers exist either with your customers or your team members. They already know the answer. You just have to find it.”

“So when you're starting from zero, you've got to create brand awareness. You've got to convince people, ‘This isn't too good to be true. Trust us, give us a shot.’ All those things go into product market fit. So it's frustrating because just having the best product for the best price doesn't necessarily get you the fit. And so you start to learn that brand is important.”

Practice Makes Profit: Using the Business Model Innovation Framework to think about how your business needs to evolve to remain relevant in your market.

League of Strategic Minds [listener question]: What's the most important skill for a leader to possess?

Winsights: Ideas for Advantage: Warren Buffett. Billionaire investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.” What have you said no to in the past month that's enabled you to work with greater focus and precision?

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(00:41) Deep Dive Interview with Joel Holland

(46:28) Practice Makes Profit

(49:44) League of Strategic Minds

(50:41) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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Links:

Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Joel Holland on LinkedIn

Harvest Hosts

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify

How can you guide the growth of your people into a competitive advantage?

In this episode, Rich sits down with Tami Wolownik, Head of People & Organization at Siemens Mobility, where she leads the HR function for 4,000 employees.

Tami discusses one of the biggest strategic resources for any company: talent. She shares practical advice on how to help people create a skills-based future, improve performance management through Growth Talks, and enhance succession planning through Talent Spotlights. She also discusses aligning functional goals with corporate goals and her approach to leadership development throughout the organization.

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“I will tend to block portions of my schedule in the morning for what I call impactful thinking. When I know there's two or three different projects that I'm working on, or that I need to get with the team on and I need to do some advanced planning, advanced thinking, I'm going to block my schedule.”

“You have to have leaders who understand that they don't have to be the smartest person in the room.”

“You should be open to constructive feedback if it's coming from someone who has your back.”

“Leaders have to truly empower employees and not only empower, leaders have to rely on employees. And if the leaders get that up front, that they do need those employees, they need their ideas, they need their input, they can't generate everything that has to come out of their department or their group on their own, as soon as they understand that and decide to tap into that, they will be an effective leader.”

Practice Makes Profit: Completing the time assessment at the end of each quarter to see if you're happy with where your time's being spent relative to your priorities.

League of Strategic Minds [listener question]: What are the key areas to cover in a strategic plan?

Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said, “We want ideas coming from all 100,000 people, not just five or three. A much smaller number of people have to decide and edit and move forward, but we want ideas coming from everywhere.” What channels have you set up to enable your people to share their insights on a regular basis?

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(00:48) Deep Dive Interview with Tami Wolownik

(49:18) Practice Makes Profit

(51:13) League of Strategic Minds

(53:18) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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Links:

Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Tami Wolownik on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify

How can you drive disruptive innovation and gain competitive advantage in a highly-regulated industry?

In this episode, Rich sits down with Dennis Devine, President and CEO of Alliant Credit Union, one of the largest and fastest-growing credit unions in the United States. Dennis explores how to design differentiated strategies that disrupt industry norms, build a member-centric culture, leverage data for innovation, and form strategic partnerships. He also shares how he thinks in three time horizons and ensures that every leader on the team is an effective risk manager.

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“Almost no organization is big enough to try to be everything to everyone, and as soon as you try to do that, and you're unwilling to make those trade-offs, you lose the opportunity to be distinctive in the areas that you can be distinctive.”

“There's no value in just looking busy and just doing the busy work. There is value in having the big idea or leading the significant effort.”

“It's important that every leader in a high-performing organization, I think, be a risk manager and think that's part of their role.”

Practice Makes Profit: Using the strategic fitness system as a way for leaders to practice the skills that are fundamental to success.

League of Strategic Minds [listener question]: Is SWOT analysis still a valuable strategic planning framework?

Winsights: Ideas for Advantage: “Michael Porter, Professor at Harvard Business School, wrote, “There is no best auto company. There is no best car. You're competing to be unique. Consider your people, their competencies, capabilities, and company offerings. What's unique and are you leveraging those areas of uniqueness into competitive advantage?”

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(00:41) Deep Dive Interview with Dennis Devine

(42:29) Practice Makes Profit

(45:30) League of Strategic Minds

(47:30) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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Links:

Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Dennis Devine on LinkedIn

Alliant Credit Union Website

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify

How do you navigate all of the challenges that come with running a business and transform them into actionable insights that drive continued success? In this episode, Rich sits down with Alex Atzberger, CEO at Optimizely, a digital experience platform that helps more than 10,000 businesses orchestrate their entire content lifecycle, monetize digital experiences and experiment across all customer touchpoints. He and Rich discuss the principles for successful M&A strategies, the qualities of high-performing leaders, and simplifying big ideas.

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“It's important on your notepad or whatever you use to keep notes not to try to write down 50 different things, but really focus on the three big ideas. You need to be able to write them on crayons on a piece of paper…And that can really transform companies because most good businesses and so on were not built on, like, long, complex books or something. They were based on simple, sharp ideas. And that's really, for me, insight that moves companies.”

“All these statistics about companies’ M&A being so poor and companies failing on this and that, it just is, in my point of view, where people might have just outsourced some of the thinking to other people rather than really owning it. “

“If you go into the building, and you see a snake in the hallway, what do you do? Now, there's two possible reactions. One reaction is that you see the snake, and you run into a conference room, and you get ten people on a call, and you say, like, hey, I need to talk to you about the snake that's in the hallway, what should I do? That's one option. The other option is you just kill the snake when you see it.”

Practice Makes Profit segment: How to use the 3A Strategic Thinking Framework to think, plan, and act strategically every day.

The League of Strategic Minds segment [listener question]: How should a business describe its purpose?

Winsight: Idea for Advantage segment: A. G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble said, “There simply is no one perfect strategy that will last for all time. There are multiple ways to win in almost any industry. That's why building up strategic thinking capability within your company is so vital.” What are you and your team doing to develop your strategic thinking capability so that you can continue to evolve your business model for long term success?

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(00:41) Deep Dive Interview with Alex Atzberger

(44:43) Practice Makes Profit: Applying the Three A Strategic Framework

(45:55) League of Strategic Minds: How should a business describe its purpose?

(47:48) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage: A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, said, “There simply is no one perfect strategy that will last for all time.There are multiple ways to win in almost any industry. That's why building up strategic thinking capability within your company is so vital.” What are you and your team doing to develop your strategic thinking capability so that you can continue to evolve your business model? For long-term success.

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Links:

Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Alex Atzberger on LinkedIn

Optimizely

The Wonderbon Chocolate Company

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify

How do you identify and seize opportunities for disruption? In this episode, Rich sits down with Jed Ayres, CEO of ControlUp, a company that helps IT resolve issues faster, prevent tickets, and reduce spending. Jed is widely recognized for the transformational impact he is making on the end user computing industry. He and Rich discuss innovation, creative thinking and the importance of storytelling in leadership.

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“I'm a firm believer that story is the root to all greatness in the world. And I think about some of the greatest tech companies, they had leaders that were great storytellers.”

“If you can visualize something in your mind's eye and you can put the right plan underneath it, nothing is impossible.”

“What I've found in my career is that the real disruptive innovation typically comes from within really creative people that are able to have the wingspan to get into a dark room and think differently. And they feel like they're in a safe place to come up with new ideas that are radical.”

“Your network is your net worth.”

Practice Makes Profit segment: How to use a threat matrix.

The League of Strategic Minds segment [listener question]: What is competitive advantage?

Winsight: Idea for Advantage segment: Winston Churchill said, “To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment, when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.” Are you continuing to develop your expertise and skills to be your best so you too can realize your finest hour?

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(00:40) Deep Dive Interview with Jed Ayres

(43:53) Practice Makes Profit

(46:06) League of Strategic Minds

(47:26) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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Links:

Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Jed Ayres on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify

How can you leverage the principles of physics to grow your business? In this episode, Rich sits down with Bob Rogers, CEO of Oii.ai and a PhD in physics who studied supermassive black holes. They discuss how Bob’s background as a scientist informs how he thinks about business, how to know when to pivot in a startup, and how cross-pollinating ideas from different domains leads to innovation for customers and patent-worthy ideas.

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“It’s literally just finding the right level of granularity and detail to tell your story effectively. And that's a physics concept, but it's also a storytelling concept, and it's a business concept for me.”

“I've seen a couple of organizations just, we're putting AI into this, this, this, and this. And it's like, ooh, it's a huge mistake. Because you really want to think of it as just another tool. It’s not like, oh, let's go hammer everything and see what happens, you wouldn't do that just because you got a new hammer, right?”

“The main thing is, every single person in your organization has patents inside them. That's the starting point. Start with that mindset. Everybody has patents inside them.”

“Here's the tricky thing about the pivot. When you're building a business, a bullseye is a two dimensional object, like X axis and Y axis. But in business, it's a multidimensional space. So you're pivoting two degrees in an unknown direction. You've got to figure out the orientation and the angle, which is why it's not simple.”

Practice Makes Profit segment: How to use a prioritization matrix.

The League of Strategic Minds segment [listener question]: What is the difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning?

Winsight: Idea for Advantage segment: Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion from 1985 to 200, said, “What separates a winner from a loser at the grandmaster level is a willingness to do the unthinkable. A brilliant strategy is certainly a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audacity is not enough. You must have the guts to explode the game, to upend your opponent's thinking, and in doing so, unnerve them.” What are you doing to explode the game in your field? What are you doing? That's innovative. That's different. And that's going to upend your opponent's thinking.

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(00:42) Deep Dive Interview with Bob Rogers

(49:54) Practice Makes Profit

(52:05) The League of Strategic Minds

(53:50) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Bob Rogers LinkedIn

Oii.ai

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify

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How do you find creative and original ideas? When you do, how do you continue to find them consistently over a long period of time? How do you transform them into strategies that create competitive advantage?

In this episode, Rich sits down with Bradley Hartmann, CEO of Bradley Hartmann & Co. Bradley has consistently put unique products into the construction industry, innovating within a more traditional industry to great success. He and Rich discuss the process of creativity, using virtual mentors, scheduling time for serendipity and testing the validity behind creative strategies.

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“How do I apply my best energy to my best thinking, to my best opportunity?”

“Good coaches can make a mockery of the 10,000 hour rule.”

“I do have a lot of ideas. I have no idea which ones are good or which ones are bad. Some are a little bit more easy to identify in that spectrum. What I try to do is say, Is there a small way we can advance this with a limited Amount of time with a limited budget to see if this resonates.”

Practice Makes Profit segment: How and why you should do a a visual assessment of your business situation.

The League of Strategic Minds segment [listener question]: What's the biggest mistake leaders make when it comes to strategy?

Winsight: Idea for Advantage segment: David Mamet, Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright, said, “It's very difficult to fix something that's been done badly. You'd better do your thinking and planning up front when you have the time. It's like working with glue. When it sets, you've used up your time.” How much time each week are you and your team dedicating to thinking and planning for your business?

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(01:04) Deep Dive Interview with Bradley Hartmann

(44:49) Practice Makes Profit

(47:34) League of Strategic Minds

(49:25) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

Bradley Hartmann LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath on YouTube

Rich Horwath on Instagram

Strategic Thinking Institute Website

Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcasts

On Spotify