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The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

FirmsConsulting.com & StrategyTraining.com

CEOs and business leaders, management consulting senior partners, ground-breaking professors, thought-provoking writers and journalists, record-setting athletes and coaches, and award-winning actors and celebrities discuss the key issues facing the business world and broader society. Get free access to our newsletter, Monday Morning at 8 am, along with sample episodes from our training programs on www.strategytraining.com. Go to https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo.

business careers

All Episodes

46:34

687: US Open Medalist on Principles to Succeed at Any...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/09/30

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic featuring an interview with the author of Ping Pong Leadership: 18 Principles to Succeed at Any Table in Business, Sports, and Life, Justin Bookey. In this book, Justin distills lessons from a beloved global sport into 18 actionable and unforgettable "Pong Principles." Justin has spent decades as a competitive table tennis player, trained with national and world champions, and won medals at the US Open. He is an Emmy-nominated content creator

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50:48

686: How VC Shapes Startups with Benjamin...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/09/28

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic featuring an interview with the author of Behind the Startup: How Venture Capital Shapes Work, Innovation, and Inequality, Benjamin Shestakofsky. This book draws on nineteen months of participant-observation research inside a successful Silicon Valley startup, and examines how the company was organized to meet the needs of the venture capital investors who funded it. Investors push startups to scale as quickly as possible to inflate the value

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52:59

685: Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/09/16

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic featuring an interview with the authors of Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy, Naomi Cahn, June Carbone, and Nancy Levit. This book explains that the system that governs our economy—a winner-take-all economy—is the root cause of these myriad problems. The WTA economy self-selects for aggressive, cutthroat business tactics, which creates a feedback loop that sidelines women. The authors, three legal scholars, call this

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48:23

684: Founder and CEO of Triggers, Leslie Zane. The...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/09/09

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic interview with an award-winning marketer, TEDx speaker and authority in harnessing the instinctive mind to accelerate brand and business growth, founder and CEO of Triggers, Leslie Zane. Leslie is the author of The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion in Business and Life. In her book, Leslie shows that to grow a brand, business, or even a social movement, traditional persuasion tactics fall short. Instead, you must connect to the

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50:35

683:Professor of Finance at Copenhagen Business...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/09/07

Jesper Rangvid, professor of finance at Copenhagen Business School, explores what leaders should understand about interest rates, inflation, the cost of capital, prioritization, and AI. Rangvid explains why the roughly 40-year decline in interest rates was "a completely unique historical period" and why executives should not assume borrowing will continue to get cheaper. Falling inflation and demographic changes helped drive rates lower, while low rates also contributed to rising house prices and

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48:59

682: Founder and CEO of High Alpha Innovation,...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/09/02

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic interview with the author of The Illusion of Innovation: Escape "Efficiency" and Unleash Radical Progress, Elliott Parker. The Illusion of Innovation tackles the problem with innovation inside big companies, having activities that feel like innovation but lead to value destruction, not progress. This book explains why meaningful innovation naturally emerges from deliberate inefficiency and how large corporations can harness the power of small

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40:51

681: Harvard's Cornelia Choe on How Great Leaders See...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/31

Cornelia Choe explains why being right is no longer enough for leaders operating in environments of constant change. She calls the problem "perspective blindness": we may be correct about what we see while still seeing only part of the picture. Drawing on experiences across private equity, government, nonprofits, and leadership advisory, Cornelia argues that information has become increasingly commoditized while context and judgment have become more valuable. AI can broaden our understanding and

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45:05

680: Psychotherapist, Glenn Hutchinson, on Why Good...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/26

Glenn Hutchinson, a psychotherapist who developed the personality science behind the assessments used by Match.com, explores one of the most misunderstood aspects of infidelity: why people sometimes violate their own values without fully understanding how they arrived there. The conversation begins with a broader look at human behavior. Glenn explains that much of what drives our decisions happens outside conscious awareness. Using the familiar experience of driving on "autopilot," he argues that

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58:08

679: Director of the K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/24

Amos Winter, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research Center at MIT, explains how innovators can create high-performance, affordable products for resource-constrained communities and adapt them for global markets. Drawing on Global by Design, co-authored with Vijay Govindarajan, he brings together product design, engineering science, market knowledge, and business strategy. Amos traces this work to a study of wheelchair use in Tanzania

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43:00

678: Social Organizational Psychologist, Jeremy...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/19

Jeremy Pollack, PhD, argues that most workplace conflicts cannot be resolved by negotiating solutions alone. Before people can solve a problem together, they must first feel understood, respected, and heard. As he explains, conflict resolution has "two parts": "There's care, and then there's solution." When organizations skip the first, they often leave the underlying conflict untouched. Much of the conversation focuses on the psychological needs that drive conflict beneath the surface. Promotions,

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44:04

677: Global by Design: Vijay Govindarajan on Building...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/17

Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and co-author of Global by Design, explains how innovations developed for emerging markets can also serve wealthier countries. Building on his earlier work on reverse innovation, he argues that successful innovation requires business strategy and engineering science to be considered together. Vijay places this work within his Three Box Solution, a framework for improving the efficiency of the core business while

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18:40

676: The key strategy question most boards do not...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/12

Porsche just announced workforce cuts because of dropping sales in China. Every board reads that as an operations problem. It isn't. It's a risk problem — and it's the wrong risk almost every board is looking at. Here's what nobody asks in the boardroom: once a strategy is successfully implemented, what new risk did it just add to the business? Not the risk of getting there. The risk of what you've built once you have. That's the question 99% of boards never answer, because most don't have a way to

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26:10

675: Porsche to Cut 5000 More Jobs After Sales...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/10

Michael has said, all other things being equal, there's only a 10% chance of this working. Porsche just announced 5,000 more job cuts ,on top of 3,900 already gone. That's 8,900 positions, 21% of the workforce. The headline story is China's collapsing sales. Topics: Porsche layoffs, Porsche crisis, Porsche hybrid, Porsche strategy, business case study, brand positioning, pricing strategy, Porsche China, automotive business, corporate strategy, management consulting, AI strategy analysis, strategic

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52:51

674: Social Psychologist, Owen Fitzpatrick on Why the...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/05

Owen Fitzpatrick has spent years studying propaganda, belief systems, and decision-making in places such as North Korea, Rwanda, Afghanistan, and Iran. In this conversation, he explains why the same psychological mechanisms that shape societies also shape the decisions of executives, leaders, and entrepreneurs. The central insight is that the greatest influence often comes from within. As Owen explains, "What really convinces us is the way in which we convince ourselves." He adds, "Our ability to

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27:58

673: Why Immigrants Outperform. 3 Traits You Can...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/08/03

Learn the immigrant success mindset and how to build resilience. See how specific challenges foster growth for anyone. Many assume the immigrant experience is only defined by hardship, but these challenges often build a unique toolkit for success. In this video, I break down the specific traits that allow people to thrive after moving to a new country. Whether you are an immigrant yourself or looking to develop stronger grit, you can apply these principles to your own life. I have immigrated

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09:14

672: How Relying on ChatGPT or Claude Destroys Your...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/07/29

I had a coaching call this month where my client could not put his thinking together. He said to me that he wished he had ChatGPT right now. He could do this before. I have watched him do it. My view is that people are losing the ability, because they have outsourced the work of getting to the core of what they are trying to say. Michael's view is that the ability is still there and the enthusiasm to use it has gone. In this clip we work through what it actually costs. Michael defines productivity,

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12:39

671: What World Cup Football Reveals About Strategy....

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/07/27

Most teams don't lose because of poor strategy. They lose because they abandoned the fundamentals. The World Cup proves it — and so does your business or career. In this walking masterclass, we break down why foundational skills are the actual differentiator in football and in business strategy. The three-pronged framework that separates sustainable winners from one-season outliers: economics, strategy, and fundamentals. And we address the most dangerous trap in the AI era — using productivity tools

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55:18

670: Harvard MBA Manisha Thakor on Hungry Ghost...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/07/20

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic interview with the author of MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your "Enough", Manisha Thakor. In this book, Manisha shares her candid journey out of the Cult of Never Enough—a painful mindset that tells you the money you earn, accomplishments you achieve, and praise you receive are always insufficient. Manisha Thakor has worked in financial services for more than thirty years, with an emphasis on women's economic empowerment and financial

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57:13

669: Stop Making Stupid Investments (with Founder of...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/07/15

David Leiter learned one of investing's hardest lessons while sitting on a trading desk during the dot-com boom. After watching seemingly everyone around him get rich, he finally gave in to the crowd, bought into the hype, and took a painful loss. The experience shaped a principle that has guided his investing ever since: "avoid big losses." In this conversation, David explains why most investment mistakes are not caused by fraud alone. Many begin with emotion, social proof, fear of missing out, and

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01:01:38

668: Private Equity Firm CEO, Rick Walker, on Power,...

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership |... ·

2026/07/13

For this episode, let's revisit a strategy skills classic interview with an experienced founder, leader, and thinker across a variety of domains, Rick Walker. In this episode, Rick walks us through his leadership journey, how he built his first company in his 20's, the lessons he learned across multiple domains, and how he was able to do multiple things successfully, simultaneously. He also shared his views about fear, pride, faith, religion, and ethics in relation to leadership and business. Rick

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261 results

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