The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and Guests
168 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 days ago -Welcome to The Third Growth Option, where we're not just talking about growth—we're making it our mission.
At TGO, we understand that success isn't a fixed destination; it's an ongoing journey with twists, turns, and unexpected detours that take us to new places. Those moments are our Third Growth Options, where we throw away binary choices to create our own path.
Hosted by Benno Duenkelsbuehler, O.G #GrowthNerd, we're on a mission to redefine success inside and outside of business, one episode at a time. From humble beginnings to Fortune 500 companies, our stories are not just about business—it's about the relentless pursuit of greatness in every aspect of life.
With each episode, we don’t just want to share insights—we want to empower business owners across all frontiers to carve their own path to success, their way.
Want to learn more?
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Episodes
Sustainabili-TEA with JUST ICE TEA
June 27, 2024 09:00 - 35 minutes - 24.3 MBSend us a Text Message. How can a passion for sustainability fuel successful entrepreneurship? Seth Goldman and Spike Mendelsohn join us this week to share their inspiring journey with Eat the Change. From Spike's culinary heritage and his family's charitable background to Seth's transition from nonprofit activism, their stories are a masterclass in aligning your work with a greater mission. Seth and Spike reveal the intricacies of re-entering a competitive market and the joy of reconnecti...
Manhattan Project for Tide with David VanHimbergen
June 20, 2024 09:00 - 34 minutes - 23.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Ever wondered what happens when a mathematician turns his talents to the world of laundry and sustainable paper products? You get a riveting conversation with David Van Himbergen, the former Tide innovator and current CEO of Reel Paper, who sits down with me to recount a journey that's as much about crunching numbers as it is about cleaning clothes and saving trees. David's story is one of transformation, from his math-major days to shaking up Procter & Gamble with h...
#TikTokViral with Helen Morrison
June 13, 2024 09:00 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MBSend us a Text Message. When it comes to enduring brands in the beauty industry, few can boast the legacy and resilience of Frownies. The podcast episode with Helen Morrison offers an intimate glimpse into how a family's dedication to a simple wrinkle solution evolved into a viral sensation in the age of social media. The story begins with the inception of Frownies by Morrison's great-great-grandmother, Margaret Kroesen, in 1889. Designed originally for personal use, the patches gained popu...
Wear Sunscreen with Melissa Allen
June 06, 2024 09:00 - 32 minutes - 22.3 MBSend us a Text Message. When Melissa Allen's husband faced the harrowing ordeal of skin cancer, little did they know their dog would be the one to unearth the life-changing diagnosis. This spark ignited Melissa's mission to craft a sunscreen brand designed with both heart and health in mind. On the Third Growth Option podcast, I have the pleasure of speaking with Melissa, the resilient mind behind Kover, as she shares her shift from a service-oriented business to creating a product that saf...
How Do You Know When It's Time to Jump? With David Gebhart
May 30, 2024 09:00 - 32 minutes - 22.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Ever wondered what it takes to leave the security of a full-time job for the rollercoaster world of entrepreneurship? David Gebhart, co-founder and president of Global Views, joins us to unfold the story of his transition from employee to entrepreneur and the inception of a business that has weathered nearly three decades of economic climates. With candor, he shares the challenges of starting from zero, the thrill of creating something enduring, and the balance requi...
Startup Pains & Successes
May 23, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Michelle discusses scaling a product-based business through personal investment and navigating venture capital for a tech venture. She emphasizes adaptability in the competitive tech startup landscape and explores ShopDot, a drop-shipping platform empowering, brick-and-mortar stores. Discover valuable lessons on entrepreneurship, nurturing a business. Always growing. Benno Duenkelsbuehler CEO & Chief Sherpa of (re)ALIGN [email protected]
From Garage Start-up to Industry Giant with Scott Hamberger
May 16, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MBSend us a Text Message. When it comes to the entrepreneurial journey, the tale of Fortessa Tableware Solutions stands out as a testament to resilience, innovation, and the power of culture in crafting a successful business. Scott Hamberger, founder of Fortessa, sat down to recount the story of the company's evolution from a modest garage start-up to a dominant player in the tableware industry. His insights, shared on the "Third Growth Option Podcast," offer a blueprint for aspiring entrepre...
4 Growth Accelerants (P.C.C.C)
May 09, 2024 09:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MBSend us a Text Message. Jamie Gallagher, CEO of 4 the Win Partners, shares his evolution from corporate climbing to visionary leadership. Drawing from experiences at European giants like Lego and mentorship from Count Anton Wolfgang Faber-Castell, Jamie navigates the complexities of leadership and innovation in today's volatile business landscape. Find out what the 4 growth accelerants are and how they serve as tangible accelerants for progress. By integrating these principles strategicall...
How to Find Great Clients without Selling
May 02, 2024 09:00 - 27 minutes - 18.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Kai Bitter shows us the steps of training lawyers in the nuances of sales—or as we call it, Sales 101 for Lawyers. From overcoming the 2008 economic storm, embracing rejection, and finding that sweet spot where personal and professional interests align for success, Kai shares how authenticity and passion are the true catalysts for forging long-lasting client relationships and a flourishing professional practice. Always growing. Benno Duenkelsbuehler CEO & Chi...
Legal Counsel for Company Growth- Is there a new Model?
April 25, 2024 10:00 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MBSend us a Text Message. As an outside general counsel, Todd Wilkowski talks about how legal expertise can act as a catalyst for growth and innovation. Rather than being a mere gatekeeper, Todd serves as a facilitator, ensuring that legal considerations seamlessly integrate with expansion goals, thus becoming an indispensable asset in corporate leadership. We delve into practical methodologies like 'Traction,' alongside advisory boards and coaching, to translate ambitious visions into tangi...
Bridge Building in Life and Product Design - with Steve Berry
April 18, 2024 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBSend us a Text Message. When Steve Berry swapped the familiarity of Boston for Miami's melting pot, his world turned upside down, and so did his approach to business and life. Steve's transformation from being rooted in uniformity to thriving amidst diversity led to a personal leap across cultural lines, led to love, and also to the creation of multi-million dollar ventures that blend unique ideas with varied people, showing us that embracing change can be the cornerstone of success. Ret...
Mutual Growth - The Power of Peers, with Mike Thorne
April 11, 2024 10:00 - 28 minutes - 19.6 MBSend us a Text Message. How do you build personal trust communities, to catapult your growth in life and career? Mike Thorne, the brain behind and CEO of Trust Inside, shares his journey and how these communities have become his rock. Mike's mantra of 'belong, build, believe', acts as a compass guiding him through life's different stages, as a valuable workbook underscoring these concepts and their pivotal role in personal and professional development. Self-awareness plays a key role in ac...
Redefining Innovation in Manufacturing with Bob Robinson Jr
April 04, 2024 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MBSend us a Text Message. We speak to KAIVAC's leader, Bob Robinson Jr., about how to view progress and creativity in business. Bob's seasoned perspective emphasizes how innovation transcends mere product development, shaping the very essence of corporate systems. Drawing parallels between KAIVAC's innovation ethos and the miracle of new life, Bob illustrates a corporate culture where evolution is as natural as breathing. Listen to why failure should not just be accepted, but embraced as ...
Grow and Build-to-Sale: an Investment Banker's View, with Brent Rippe
March 28, 2024 10:00 - 32 minutes - 22.4 MBSend us a Text Message. You've spent years building your business, pouring every ounce of your energy into fostering its growth. But, it's time to move on. The decision to sell your business is a significant one, and it's crucial to understand the journey you're about to embark on. In this candid conversation with Brent Rippe, partner at RKCA, an investment banking firm in Cincinnati, OH, we delve into the intricate M&A process. From pre-planning to navigating the market, Brent guides us th...
Growth Between Comfort- and Panic Zones, with John Baines
March 21, 2024 10:00 - 40 minutes - 28.1 MBSend us a Text Message. John Baines, a remarkable leader who ascended from engineer to president by the age of 29, shares his compelling journey to growth by embracing the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable, and even the panic-inducing aspects of leadership. John offers invaluable insights into leadership evolution. In our reflective dialogue, we delve into the iceberg metaphor of personal development and leadership, emphasizing the hidden depths where our true selves reside. Navigating beyond...
Blueprint for Growth: Go as Yourself - with Jeffrey Sackenheim
March 14, 2024 10:00 - 27 minutes - 18.6 MBSend us a Text Message. The blueprint-to-finished-building analogies are unavoidable when speaking both personal and corporate growth, with Jeffrey Sackenheim, the visionary CEO of SHP. Jeff is an architect's architect, and he's turning a 123-year-old design and architecture firm into a national trailblazer in educational design in both a humble and talented way. Jeff's journey from hands-on architect to leading a firm with adaptability and innovation, punctuated by resilience and strateg...
Changing Lanes - Career Growth Perspectives with David Garascia
February 29, 2024 11:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MBSend us a Text Message. Listen to David Garascia, a seasoned consumer products commercial leader with a $3.5B sales record, share his secrets of successful sales strategies, growth perspectives and the importance of occasionally changing lanes. He'll walk us through the fundamentals of sales, from the importance of consistency and follow-up to influencing actions through words. Garascia understands the art of persuasion, importance of staying curious, and the necessity of distilling knowled...
A CEO's Growth Mindset, Discomfort, Other Leadership Tools with Gavin Marks
February 15, 2024 11:00 - 24 minutes - 16.8 MBSend us a Text Message. Gavin Marks is the forward-thinking CEO and Lightbulb Moment Igniter of DM Merchandising. Gavin shares how he became a growth mindset evangelist for his team and customers, and how embracing discomfort can be a leader's most potent tool. This episode is filled with real world insights, from his evolution in the family business to igniting those light bulb moments with his team, to the unexpected ways in which cold plunges into Lake Michigan in January clear the mind...
Market Pulse - Looking Ahead to 2024 with 4 Industry Leaders
February 01, 2024 11:00 - 38 minutes - 26.8 MBSend us a Text Message. We asked three consumer executives who had just returned from two important January 2024 tradeshows, to share their observations (on product trends, consumer behaviors, sourcing-, buyer-, and marketing shifts) and their outlook for 2024. Laurie Gilner (President/CEO of Transpac Brands and exhibitor at Atlanta Market among others), Rick Haase (Founder/CEO of Patina Stores and its chief buyer), and Bob Watson (SVP of Link Companies representing dozens of brands that ...
An Officer & an Entrepreneur - Growth Lessons for Each, with Andy Bjork
January 18, 2024 10:00 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBSend us a Text Message. We talk about the role of leadership and training within organizations of all sizes. From the deck of a Navy ship to the corridors of Ivystone (an entrepreneurial multiline sales agency), Andy Bjork, a Navy-Captain-turned-Chief-Sales-Officer, shares methodologies and real life examples that nurture effective growth. Learn how the Navy's allowance for mistakes in high-stakes situations shapes leaders, and how this hands-on experience contrasts with the innovative stri...
Writing and Living our "Book" on Life and Work, with Kristina Stevens
January 04, 2024 11:00 - 23 minutes - 16 MBSend us a Text Message. Kristina Stevens loves to challenge norms, so clearly not your average Operations and Supply Chain leader. Kristina's big vision for life, unconventional perspective, and unwavering ambition for improvement shape the core of our discussion. Our conversation reveals a compelling narrative of Kristina's life - conquering a demanding career, raising young children, and training for a marathon - a living testament to the power of self-belief and the audacity to demand w...
Storytelling and Entrepreneurial Growth - Harry Cunningham's GoodMRKT Journey
December 21, 2023 10:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBSend us a Text Message. Ever wondered how one transitions from a corporate job to being a purpose-driven entrepreneur? Or how iconic brands like Saks Fifth Avenue create unforgettable shopping experiences? I sat down with Harry Cunningham, the brain behind Saks' stunning Christmas windows and co-founder of GoodMRKT. Harry unveils the mysteries of visual merchandising and its role in shaping consumer emotions. He also shares the story of GoodMRKT, a retail brand that’s using its platform to ...
Biz Lessons from the E.R.: Jeff Sands on Turnarounds
December 07, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MBSend us a Text Message. Ever wondered what it's like to be an ER doctor, but in the business world? Witness the high-stakes, high-pressure arena of corporate turnarounds in our latest episode with Jeff Sands, the founding partner of Dorset Partners. Jeff illuminates the unique challenges faced and the speed and creativity required to execute successful turnarounds. He draws a compelling comparison between turnaround specialists and ER doctors - both dealing with urgent, existential situatio...
Building a Digital Community for Local Retailers
November 23, 2023 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Imagine being a small business, fighting against the tide of big retail giants in the digital space. What if there was a platform designed to level the playing field, geared towards a community-focused digital solution for local retailers? This episode is a heart-to-heart chat with Kate Giovambattista, visionary founder of Beyond Main, who has been championing the cause of small retailers with her innovative platform. As a former Vera Bradley executive, she brings he...
Scaling Everest and Corporate Growth: Transformation Lessons
November 09, 2023 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.2 MBSend us a Text Message. Imagine scaling Everest Base Camp, not just for the thrill of it, but to draw deep life and leadership lessons. Our guest, Ketul Patel, is a seasoned supply chain and operations executive, and a climber who dared to reach the Everest Base Camp despite naysayers pointing out his age. The challenges he faced, the motivations that propelled him, and the importance of a strong 'why' in his journey, all parallel the rigors of a transformative corporate journey. Patel's ...
B2B Customer Journey - Transforming Analog to Digital
October 26, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MBSend us a Text Message. How did a traditional factory navigate the journey to digital touchpoint transformation? Meet Nuno Malheiro, Head of Global Sales at Tintex and founder of Expegy, who offers the frontline perspective on transforming a textile factory's sales process from analog to digital. This isn't just about tech - it's about how Nuno transplanted a customer-centric B2C mindset from his retail background into the B2B factory environment, and the significant enhancements in effici...
Nelson Warley: A Visionary's Leap from Corporate America to Startups
October 12, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MBSend us a Text Message. Ready to discover what drives a man to pursue the startup life, learn inside corporate America for over a decade, then lean back into the startup world? Join us as we engage in an enthralling conversation with Nelson Warley, co-founder of True Places. Learn how this visionary is redesigning the consumer goods space by pioneering an asset-light model. Nelson shares the inside scoop on the highs and lows of his intriguing journey - breaking free from the corporate shac...
Making Process a Nutrient for Growth, with Brittany Toler
July 13, 2023 10:00 - 27 minutes - 18.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Process, growth, and creativity - starting your career at 18 and scaling the corporate ladder to become a successful business executive and CEO - that's Brittany Toler's inspiring journey. She cut her teeth at Cape Craftsman, earned her stripes at Evergreen, and eventually led a direct-to-consumer company as CEO, running on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). Together, we examine the tension between creativity and structure in entrepreneurial firms, and the c...
Expanding Horizons: Navigating Personalities and Effective Communication
June 29, 2023 10:00 - 27 minutes - 18.8 MBEver felt like your horizons were too wide or narrow, leading to both exhaustion and excitement? Join us as I chat with Diogo Teixeira, a financial crime fighter by day, and a pilot and polyglot with a passion for engineering, cultural differences, and exploring new horizons. Learn how Diogo's career has taken him across five countries and three continents, embracing chaos and bringing newfound peace to his life. Together, we dive into the Insights Model, a simple and powerful tool for unde...
Heartland Mfg. Innovation to Digital Transformation
June 15, 2023 08:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBSend us a Text Message. In this episode, we are chatting with Trent Guyer, VP of Marketing and Digital Strategy at Grasshopper Mowers in Moundridge, KS—a small town in the heart of the United States. Theirs is a third-generation family business that has embarked on an exciting journey from old-school manufacturing to cutting-edge product and market innovation. Trent takes us on a fascinating tour of the company's history, which began with his grandfather Elbert Guyer as a custom harvest...
Grow Your Own Business – or Career?
June 01, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutes - 19.5 MBSend us a Text Message. Welcome back, podcast aficionados! In this episode with Cheri Lantz, we're diving deep into the world of recruitment and talent acquisition, with a dash of entrepreneurial growth mindset. We understand that many of our listeners are eager to bridge the talent gap and become true magnets for exceptional individuals. In this riveting episode, before we talk about Cheri’s growth mindset in her entrepreneurial journey, we explore the evolving dynamics of the labor market...
The Creative Process – Starts and Re-Starts
May 18, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutes - 17.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Curious about the creative process? How does it apply to innovation and teamwork in general? Enter Nick DeSario, a deeply experienced and talented furniture designer, whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest and Elle Decor. Nick and I talk about the creative process, collaboration, how to blend and pair ideas and influences to bring fresh solutions to sometimes tricky and complex problems. 1:57 - “The creative process… is filled with constant starts ...
Reigniting a Classic Brand with a Start-up Mindset
May 04, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Reigniting the spark of a 48-year-old legacy company, whose founder had passed away some years ago, is a difficult balancing act. Chuck Fraelich, president of tag - a legendary tabletop and seasonal decor brand founded by David Glassberg - in this episode is walking me through both the brand relaunch, and the 4 stages in his career that prepared him for the task at hand: Engineering mindset - connecting problems with opportunities, adaptive thinking and nurturing cu...
Growth & Grit, from Co-Founding to (Partial) Exit
April 13, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 22.8 MBSend us a Text Message. Todd and Jannetta Litzman built, evolved, merged or sold and have been running a software business for the last 25+ years. In this episode, Todd shares their growth journey from cashier to CEO, from technology before laptops and handheld devices to giant handheld calculator-looking things and Palm Pilots to iPads, and most interestingly (to me at least) how grit and asking questions paved their way to success. 15:40 - on why Todd joined Vistage: “A big advocate o...
Mature Company Growth – through Constant Reinvention.
March 30, 2023 09:00 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MBSend us a Text Message. It’s one thing to develop a hugely successful product and build a company around it - Willow Tree is that product and industry leader DEMDACO is that company - it’s another to constantly reinvent yourself, going on three decades now. Demi Lloyd, CEO of (and the DEM in) DEMDACO, talks about the less than glorious early days, how a small group of people came together - and how they’re keeping it going and growing all these years later. 9:00 - “If we’d known…six mon...
Aha! Moments Building a Subscription Model
March 16, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutes - 19.5 MBSend us a Text Message. Post-acquisition integration is where most M&A acquisitions succeed or fail. Steve Nunn is CEO of Intista, a company that helps to integrate acquired small-to-midsize companies (“air traffic control for integrations”). As a follow up to Ep #18 with Steve, in this episode we’re having a chat about his journey of bottling his secret sauce - by building a subscription online training model that “turns employees into integration managers” and a Mastermind Group for gradu...
Nurturing Growth – Idea to Reality
March 02, 2023 10:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MBSend us a Text Message. Preet Brar, global brand leader in consumer goods and guest on this episode, understands markets and teams. I asked her about changes in the external markets, and how to lead teams internally to bring ideas to reality. External - new ideas in the market: 3:52 - “There was a lot of cross-category buying… people that were in one category historically, started to experiment with other categories.” 4:50 - “People who were just using brick and mortar retail (now ...
Trees & Forests: Balancing Growth Initiatives in Midsized Companies
February 16, 2023 10:00 - 31 minutes - 21.9 MBSend us a Text Message. My guest is John Lanman, a consumer products CEO/General Manager who cut his teeth in Marketing roles with well-known names like Thermos, Blyth Candle/Fragrances, and progressed to GM or CEO of Oriental Trading Co and Precious Moments. John and I both served as Board Members, and here John shares his thoughts on the importance of balancing growth initiatives within the context of resource constraints. 3:03 – The “forest versus the trees. As a CEO of a midsized bu...
Chasing Leaders to Grow
February 02, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MBSend us a Text Message. This episode evolved from a conversation I had with Tara Dikos, EVP at Transpac, in which she used the phrase “chasing leaders” - here, we talk about what that means, how to spot talent, learn from talent, and also to recruit and develop talent, especially in the world of consumer businesses that develop and sell products from factories to retailers. 6:48 - “I find retail fascinating…it’s so complex… because you have to understand product, you have to understand...
Building Community – by Nurturing Your Customers
January 19, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 19.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Growth does not happen in a vacuum, we grow with others and do so in a thousand different ways. In this episode, Patrick Keiser, Executive Director of Heart on Main Street - a non-profit organization and community of retailers, for retailers to learn and grow their business - shares how he spearheaded building this particular community. The ‘why’ behind this community is something he feels particularly passionate about, and in the spirit of Ben Franklin there is even...
Intentional Community Building
January 05, 2023 11:00 - 24 minutes - 16.9 MBSend us a Text Message. My guest on this episode is Tom Ungrodt, a Gift & Home Industry Community Builder and sometime (re)ALIGN Sherpa. If you’re interested in growing by joining or intentionally building industry groups, this episode is for you. Tom shares his experience as a former Vistage Chair and current Community Builder of the Mission Possible group, what it takes, why industry executives want to get together 3-5 times a year to share best practices and to move the industry forward....
Are you Intentional about your Superpowers?
December 22, 2022 11:00 - 25 minutes - 17.4 MBSend us a Text Message. Two entrepreneurs - Gary Levine, founder/CEO of Roaring Brook Art Licensing Company, and Benno, Chief Sherpa/CEO of (re)ALIGN Expansion Sherpas - are talking about how “superpowers” (both personal and a team’s or business’) are guiding their businesses, about the power of quiet confidence, about not selling but just showing up. 2:23 - “When I think of a person’s superpowers…what makes us fire on all eight cylinders?” 3:22 - “For me, that was (when) I showed u...
Building 8-figure Growth from Across the Pond
December 08, 2022 11:00 - 37 minutes - 25.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Michael Nieves shares an international expansion story: taking a UK company from a tiny six-figure USA footprint to the $25M to $30M range of US revenues within eight years, from a one-man-band to a 12-person team, required a certain mindset, a willingness to take the long view, and also the humility to accept failures along the way. 4:40 - “What can happen, especially overseas is there can be a perception we should be in Walmart, Target…get a meeting and we jus...
Growing with the Millennial Samurai
December 01, 2022 11:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBSend us a Text Message. This episode is a tour de force with George Chanos, author of Millennial Samurai, a current futurist and former Attorney General of Nevada. George talks about his “secular bible for the 21st century”, values and talents needed to thrive in the current and coming decade, about AI, singularity, and what the potential of 10x-ing of global GDP means for you and me. 4:11 - “Now you have a high price lawyer, a professional researcher going on a reconnaissance mission in...
Synthesize to Grow
November 17, 2022 11:00 - 31 minutes - 21.9 MBSend us a Text Message. Vic Clesceri is a uniquely well-rounded business leader, and we talk about helping people and companies to grow, by aligning corporate strategy and workforce strategy, by synthesizing both while translating confusing terminology into simple concepts people can rally around. 3:15 - “Strategy is a set of choices about winning.” - quoting A.G. Laffley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble 5:03 - “Do we need to upskill…reskill… or hire for skill?” 5:15 - quoting a ...
Nurturing Growth thru Nests
November 03, 2022 10:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBSend us a Text Message. In this episode two brand owners/founders and their sales agency partner share notes how they help each other to grow - by taking an informal yet intentional approach to grow, listen, and learn from each other to become better and stronger. Lindsay DeMyer is president of Darrah & Co, a large manufacturers’ rep agency across the Southeast USA who takes an informal approach to building a “nest” - not a formalized incubator but an intentional nest that nurtures up ...
Growing and Innovating to Become Digital First
October 20, 2022 10:00 - 35 minutes - 24.2 MBSend us a Text Message. Curious how a mid-sized B2B wholesale business - established decades before the internet - embraced digitalization and added a B2C channel? Sushil Arora, CEO of Danica and Now Designs, shares Danica’s growth story of going Digital First, in both customer-facing and operations-facing ways, with curiosity, step-by-sometimes-uncertain-step, but always going forward. 2:59 - “Some of the most difficult decisions I had to make professionally… was at that time (March 2...
DEI, Change Management – Growing Despite Buzzwords
August 25, 2022 10:00 - 30 minutes - 20.6 MBSend us a Text Message. Priya Klocek moved to Cincinnati from India as a 20-year-old, so she is no stranger to managing change. Now she works with leaders of businesses and organizations to help with change management and DEI issues – diversity, equity, and inclusion. She brings a refreshingly “real world” perspective to how we view and are viewed differently, and how to navigate the challenges that come with that on both a personal and organizational level. 2:21 – on DEI and what busin...
Start with End in Mind – a Start-up Story
August 18, 2022 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.1 MBSend us a Text Message. How do you compete with commodity product in Big Box retail and direct to consumer? Sure, the glib answer is about vision and marketing and connecting the dots. But really, how do you get to 8- and 9-figure revenues, within years, not decades? Dean van Zyl moved to Virginia, USA from Swaziland, Africa and founded National Adhesive, selling caulk and sealants to retailers across North America. 3:37 – “I had been to Home Depot, and walking down the caulk and se...
Preparing 4th Generation Growth
August 11, 2022 10:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBSend us a Text Message. Sumeet Nath has grown his 3rd generation business into a leading group of factories with 6,000 employees. Each generation worked to keep the business relevant by updating product mix, customer mix, organization and indeed ownership. 3:52 – after Sumeet walked me through a short historic overview how the Indian region of Panipat became a trade center for textiles, and the company’s change after WW2 when in 1945 “the company had to morph, had to have a reality che...