The Strategy and Leadership Podcast with Anthony C. Taylor

Nate Bennett has spent twenty years studying the COO role. His book Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO, co-written with Stephen Miles, is now in its third edition from Stanford Business Books. In this conversation: why the right question is what makes a great CEO and COO pair, not what makes a great COO; why founders pushed by their board to hire a number two often never empower that person; the seven types of COO and the three kinds of fit to test before you hire; and why average COO tenure has dropped from five years to about two and a half. Blog post and full notes: https://www.smestrategy.net/blog/michael-dell-put-a-glass-wall-between-himself-and-his-coo.-heres-why-it-worked Connect with Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604 Work with SME Strategy: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930

Jim Weiss built Real Chemistry from one person to 2,500 employees by refusing to do marketing work that didn't move a number the client's CEO cared about. Media impressions were never the measure. Patients on therapy, revenue and stock price were. Jim is the founder and chairman of Real Chemistry (formerly W2O Group), an integrated marketing and communications firm that helps healthcare companies launch new medicines, vaccines and treatments. Over 25 years he grew the company into a global firm, and he now advises a range of companies and organizations while hosting the Get Real podcast. In this conversation, Jim and Anthony talk about what actually drove that growth: hiring people with shared values, letting clients pull the firm into new services, and building ownership into the business so people share in the wins. Jim also explains what changed when he moved from CEO to chairman and had to lead through influence instead of authority. Key takeaways: - Alignment is what keeps a growing company flying in formation. Without coordination, more people just means more noise. - Let clients pull you into new work. When a client asked "can you also do this?", Jim hired or bought the capability and grew alongside them. - Measure against your client's business objectives. If the work doesn't support something the C-suite cares about, don't do it. - As chairman or advisor, your influence works like the moon on the tides. Advice lands best when it becomes their idea. - Real ownership, or at least a sense of it, changes how people show up. Jim's advice to owners is to give people stock where they can. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: Jim Weiss and Real Chemistry 01:04 Growing up in Honesdale and what Real Chemistry does 02:33 Business lessons learned by age eight 03:46 Alignment and the flying formation 06:32 Clear roles, great hires and picking the right clients 09:28 Growing with clients: "Can you also do this?" 11:25 Values as hashtags and the "no assholes" rule 11:47 Tying the work to the client's business KPIs 17:17 From CEO to chairman: direct impact to influence 18:39 Why ownership matters 20:28 Be like water 21:33 Get Real podcast and the Music and Medicine program 24:30 Closing takeaways Want to talk about your organization's strategy? Book a conversation with Anthony: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930 Prefer to start on your own? Take the One Destination Alignment Scorecard: https://www.smestrategy.net/one-destination-scorecard Connect with Anthony C. Taylor at https://www.smestrategy.net #Leadership #Strategy #ScalingABusiness #HealthcareMarketing #StrategyAndLeadership

Eighty percent of your people using Copilot does not make you an AI company. In a lot of mid-market organizations it means AI is everywhere and strategy is nowhere. John Rudd built SolutionsIQ into North America's largest Agile consultancy, sold it to Accenture, and went on to run Accenture's global Agile practice and its North America technology M&A program. A former turnaround CFO and current private equity board member, he is co-founder of LightSight and author of The Age of the Speedboat: How Middle Market Leaders Can Win the AI Era. Anthony and John talk about why license counts are the wrong measure of AI progress, what a CEO should put in place before chasing use cases, and why the leaders who win this era will be the ones who stop pretending to have every answer. Book a conversation with Anthony: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930 Take the One Destination Alignment Scorecard: https://www.smestrategy.net/one-destination-scorecard More from SME Strategy: https://www.smestrategy.net Get John's book: https://speedboatbook.com

Keith Wyche has spent his career inside companies in the middle of a transformation. He was at AT&T before the 1984 breakup, at IBM during its shift to services, at Pitney Bowes looking for life beyond mailing, and at Walmart as it moved from brick and mortar to e-commerce. He was also President of Cub Foods and ACME Markets for SuperValu, and he now serves as an independent director on the board of Brink's. In this episode, Keith explains the 4 R's he uses to drive change: relevance, readiness, responsiveness, and robustness. He tells the story of growing a grocery chain with no grocery background by tailoring 15% of each store to its community. He also describes the Sears story he used to get long-tenured Walmart teams behind e-commerce, and he shares his equation for trust: character × competency × consistency. His new book is Uncommon Leadership. CONNECT WITH KEITH Website: keithwyche.com Instagram: @therealkeithwyche Book: Uncommon Leadership, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and wherever books are sold WORK WITH ANTHONY Anthony Taylor facilitates strategic planning and alignment sessions with leadership teams, and speaks at conferences and events as a keynote speaker, trainer, and working-session facilitator on strategy and leadership. Contact: smestrategy.net/contact LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604 #Leadership #ChangeManagement #Walmart #BoardGovernance #StrategyAndLeadership

Glenn Kaufman runs KEH Camera, North America's largest pre-owned camera and video equipment reseller, founded D Cubed Group, and previously chaired the Finance Committee on the board of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. In this conversation he explains why he treats himself as reporting to his own board even as CEO, the line he uses to build real alignment with the leaders he backs, and how he tells a company that's genuinely healthy from one that's been dressed up to sell. If you sit on a board, report to one, or want to, this is a masterclass in building trust before you need it. 🔗 Read the full write-up: https://www.smestrategy.net/blog/glenn-kaufman-keh-camera-ceo-board-accountability 🔗 Strategic planning facilitation with Anthony: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator 🔗 Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/