Send us Fan Mail Getting on shelf is hard. Staying there is harder, and it is the bit nobody talks about. Stu McDonald started ManiLife after meeting the Argentinian family who have grown his peanuts since day one. A decade on it is one of the most respected brands in its category, made in its own facility because it genuinely cannot be made in a normal peanut butter factory. Stu is also unusually straight about the fact that ManiLife was stuck for the first eight years. In this conversatio...

AI is a challenge that business leaders are going to have to deal with, and finding a balance between pushing innovation and managing cybersecurity risk is essential. Today on Leadership Blueprints, we are joined by former DHS Deputy Director, veteran, author, keynote speaker, and federal cybersecurity operations expert, Dr. Derek Smith, to discuss how AI makes us more efficient! Tuning in, you’ll hear all about the biggest concerns when it comes to AI and cybersecurity risk, how leaders

What if being professional is sometimes the very thing that gets in the way of good facilitation? In this conversation, Myriam and Rob Evans explore what happens when we take off the professional armour and bring more of ourselves into the room. Rob shares how humour, warmth and genuine curiosity helped him win over a room of Lufthansa engineers — not because he had performed professionalism perfectly, but because he was the only consultant who seemed to be having any fun. From there, the con...

Payments used to be the big unlock for vertical SaaS. Now it is the baseline, and the real question is what you build on top of it. I sit down with Sunil Sachdev, SVP and Head of Embedded Finance and Digital Assets at Fiserv, to get specific about how software platforms can expand from embedded payments into embedded banking, lending, and cash flow tools without losing focus or taking on unnecessary operational risk. We talk through how to define embedded finance in a way that makes sense to ...

Recent research highlights how a household member's active job search creates spillover effects that negatively impact an employed professional's focus and productivity. When family career transitions occur independently without coordination, they trigger family-work conflict and drain valuable personal resources. Conversely, high levels of planning and communication can transform these household career pursuits into shared, supportive projects. To mitigate these hidden workplace stresses,

Recent research highlights how a household member's active job search creates spillover effects that negatively impact an employed professional's focus and productivity. When family career transitions occur independently without coordination, they trigger family-work conflict and drain valuable personal resources. Conversely, high levels of planning and communication can transform these household career pursuits into shared, supportive projects. To mitigate these hidden workplace stresses,

David Fubini spent 35 years as a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, where he co-founded the firm's global merger integration practice. He has advised on dozens of major transactions, including the deal that brought IBM's PC business to Lenovo. He started his career at Johnson & Johnson, where he was part of the team that launched Tylenol as a consumer brand. He now teaches at Harvard Business School and is the author of four books, including his latest, Post-Merger Integration, released

You've nailed the demo and the POV, and then procurement asks why they'd bet on you instead of CrowdStrike, Palo Alto or Zscaler. Robbie Tyrie has been the buyer on the other side of that question at some very large organisations, and he said yes to the startup more than once. He walks through the math he ran, what he wanted back from the vendor in return, and the trial structure he says a buyer can't argue with. Now a fractional CISO for 50 to 200 person companies, he also explains why buyer...

In part 1 of 2 about Dan's new book, "From CEO to Exit: The Ultimate Payday for Pest and Lawn Care Operators," he and Donnie discuss key exit planning concepts, including three gaps to consider: the wealth gap (difference between needed income and current assets), the value gap (improving multiples), and the price gap (potential versus current sale value). They also talk about misconceptions around multiples and understanding adjusted EBITDA. Hosts: Dan Gordon, PCO Bookkeepers & M&A

Your product roadmap can look perfect on paper while your engineering team quietly grinds to a halt. When that happens, the issue is rarely “lazy developers” or “bad attitudes” it’s usually overload, unclear priorities, and a business engineering communication gap that makes every request feel like an emergency. We sit down with Thanos Diacakis, a software leader with nearly 30 years of experience across startups and tech giants, to unpack what actually helps teams ship high-quality software...

David Turetsky interviews Gabriella Garcia, COO and Chief People Officer at Warp, about how AI is reshaping the build versus buy decision in HR and people operations. They dig into why this question is changing now, what guardrails matter for sensitive data, and why people leaders need to take a more strategic role in technology decisions.Gabby shares how her engineering background informs her view of modern people tech, while David adds real-world context from years of hacking together internal

Join us for another insightful episode with returning guest Dr. Lianne Lefsrud, a seasoned risk management expert and Risk, Innovation & Sustainability Chair (RISC) in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta. Following her previous episode on “Safety Through Design,” Dr. Lefsrud dives deeper into a systems approach to risk management, highlighting the importance of building safety into the system and recognizing how effective risk management can create capacity, strengthen

This is the audio-only version of our weekly supply chain talk show, SupplyChainTalk. Join us for free by visiting www.business-reporter.co.uk/supplychaintalk The panel discussion is titled: SupplyChainTalk: Maximising Uptime - How AI & asset visibility are transforming operations Using real-time operational data to identify issues earlier, reduce unplanned downtime and keep critical assets and equipment productiveUncovering underutilised equipment, reduce inefficiencies and make b...

Wanda J. Herndon shares how her commitment to telling the truth guided her through corporate PR, and how she navigated being stifled by “sure things” in old-guard companies before helping build Starbucks into a global brand. Her memoir, *Working Class to Breaking Glass*, connects leadership, belonging, and resilience.👤 About the GuestWanda J. Herndon is an award-winning communications executive, author, and trailblazer. Best known as Starbucks’ first SVP of global communications, she rose through

AI is making it faster and cheaper than ever to turn ideas into prototypes, products, and businesses—but that abundance creates new challenges for leaders. In episode 3 of a special four-part series on how AI is changing leadership, we look at the ways industry leaders are using AI to truly gain a competitive edge and innovate for the future. Cisco Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel explains how AI is changing the pace and nature of innovation, why human judgment and taste become more important when

In this episode of the Think Factory Podcast, Pratik Bhadra, CEO of North America at Netcore Cloud and Unboxed, discusses his journey from software engineering to leading businesses across public, private equity-backed, venture-backed, and bootstrapped companies. Pratik shares how taking strategic leaps of faith and applying first-principles thinking helped him navigate different industries, scale businesses, and adapt his leadership approach to changing stages of growth. He also discusses the

What does it take to build a handyman business that can grow beyond just you? In Episode #77 of the Handyman Success Podcast, I sit down with Dustin Fritschel of DIFY Handyman Services to talk about his journey in the handyman industry, building his business, the lessons he’s learned along the way, and what he’s doing to create a business that supports the life he wants to live. We get into the real side of running a handyman business—the wins, challenges, mindset shifts, systems, and decis...

A country of under three million people, 186,774 public contract awards and 21.89 billion euros over two years. Then the figure that decides whether it is worth bidding at all: three quarters of those contracts are under 25,000 euros, and together they carry seven per cent of the money. In this episode: 186,774 new contract awards worth 21.89 billion euros across 2024 and 2025, won by 17,195 distinct suppliers from 3,319 contracting authorities. Contracts between 5,000 and 25,000 euros ...

WFC Classic:  So You Are A CAMELS 3 - Now What?

What does a pork chop sent back to the kitchen three times have to do with hiring your next CEO? In this episode of the Balancing Act podcast, Andy speaks with Rodney Morris, Executive Vice President at The Elliot Group and a former president of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers, who has spent his whole career in the people business — twenty-five years on the human capital side of hospitality and twelve leading retained executive search. Rodney sees what companies say they want in a