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PODCAST

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

52:07

616: NYU Stern's Prof on How AI Is Rewriting the...

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

2026/01/05

When most executives discuss AI, they focus on automation. Dr. Ben Zweig, NYU Stern professor and CEO of Revelio Labs, explains why the real disruption isn't machines replacing people, it's our failure to rethink how work is structured. "Labor markets are not as sophisticated as capital markets," Ben explains. "We allocate capital efficiently, but not labor. That's a huge weakness in how our economy operates." In this conversation, we explore: Why every company must learn job architecture, seeing

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52:16

615: $12B Investment Firm CEO on Saving the American...

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

2025/12/31

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

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55:51

614: Why Executive Leaders Feel Lonely

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

2025/12/29

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,

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54:03

613: Microsoft CTO on AI, Human Agency and the Future...

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

2025/12/25

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

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53:16

612: How to Have More Hope with Dr. Julia Garcia

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

2025/12/22

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

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53:00

611: Former U.S. Intelligence Officer on AI,...

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

2025/12/17

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

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55:10

610: Cas Holman on Play, Creativity, and the Future...

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

2025/12/15

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

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52:33

609: UCLA Professor and MD on How Gravity Shapes Your...

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

2025/12/10

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

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55:40

608: Harvard Professor and former CEO of Medtronic,...

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

2025/12/08

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,

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56:10

607: Raj Sisodia on Conscious Capitalism and How...

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

2025/12/03

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

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55:13

606: CEO Readiness: How Boards Decide Who Gets the...

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

2025/12/01

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

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56:10

605: Harvard Economist John Campbell on How to Stop...

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

2025/11/26

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

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58:03

604: How Design Thinking Rebuilt IBM and Reached...

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

2025/11/24

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

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01:01:21

603: A $3.6B CEO on the "Poverty of Dignity" in...

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

2025/11/19

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

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53:20

602: Harvard's Scott Levy on His Path from Investment...

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

2025/11/17

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

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53:12

601: Former CNN and NBC News Anchor Lynn Smith on...

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

2025/11/12

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

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54:10

600: Jamie Dimon & CEOs Are Rethinking Capitalism –...

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

2025/11/10

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

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46:41

599: Joy at Work in the Age of AI: The Pain Is...

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

2025/11/05

"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

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54:53

598: From Gas Station Cashier to Billion-Dollar CEO...

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

2025/11/03

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

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47:36

597: McKinsey Senior Partner, Vik Malhotra, on What...

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

2025/10/27

Vik Malhotra, 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

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189 results

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