EP031: Disarmingly Honest Conversations with John Oberg
Release Date: 03/01/2016
Commanding Business
Band-aid strategies for pleasing customers isn’t enough to differentiate your business—it needs to be designed for service from the ground up. In today's interview with Patricia O’Connell we discover the importance of service design in businesses that compete today. Patricia shares her journey of discovery in the field of service design and the inspiration behind Woo, Wow, and Win, a guide to service design, strategy, and the art of customer delight. Patricia currently serves as the President of Aerten Consulting, in New York City. Key Takeaways: [1:03] As a journalist...
info_outlineCommanding Business
Woo, Wow, and Win reveals the importance of designing your company around service, and offers clear, practical strategies based on the idea that the design of services is markedly different than manufacturing. Most companies, both digital and brick-and-mortar, B2B or B2C; are not designed for service—to provide an experience that matches a customer’s expectations with every interaction and serves the company’s needs. When customers have more choices than ever before, study after study reveals that it’s the experience that makes the difference. To provide great experiences that keep...
info_outlineCommanding Business
Service design thinking is the designing and marketing of services that improve the customer experience, and the interactions between the service providers and the customers. We interview Marc Stickdorn, consultant, speaker and author of This Is Service Design Thinking. Key Takeaways: [1:03] The big idea behind This Is Service Design Thinking. [3:47] How the linear approach can waste two years of your life. [8:01] Silos make an organization easy to manage, but this creates friction. [11:10] The classic trap of change management. [12:43] Adapt the process to the existing culture in...
info_outlineCommanding Business
In The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors like Dell, Gates, and the Zieglers. John Mullins is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School and a worldwide speaker and educator. He is a regularly published author at Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Key Takeaways: [1:05] The big idea behind The Customer-Funded Business book. [3:30] Raising...
info_outlineCommanding Business
Keith Casey is co-author of A Practical Approach to API design: From Principles to Practice. Former Developer Evangelist at Twilio, his current work with Okta focuses on identity and authentication APIs. Keith is a software engineer focusing on creating open architecture, specifically APIs. His goal is to get good technology into the hands of good people to do great things. Key Takeaways: [2:43] Keith Casey describes APIs from a business perspective. [5:04] Why would a business adopt an API strategy? [7:01] Twilio eliminates the need for a carrier contract and provides...
info_outlineCommanding Business
Journalist, author, and speaker, Karen Dillon is a former editor of Harvard Business Review Magazine, and the former Deputy Editor of Inc. Magazine. She recently co-authored Competing Against Luck with Clay Christensen. Using the Jobs to Be Done framework, Karen Dillon and her co-authors help businesses understand what causes customers to "hire" a product or service. With that understanding, a business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers really want. Jobs theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and...
info_outlineCommanding Business
David Hubbard is a Revenue Growth Expert and CEO of Marketing Outfield. He works with private and public companies to strategically align sales, marketing, and product development efforts and grow annual revenues by 25-50%. He creates growth machines by integrating a company’s core values into the customer decision-making process. Key Takeaways: [1:14] Many companies struggle to find alignment between the three revenue-producing functions of product management, product marketing, and sales. [3:31] When companies struggle with alignment, the customer experiences mixed messages in the...
info_outlineCommanding Business
Jim Kalbach is a noted author, speaker, and instructor in user experience design, information architecture, and strategy. He is currently the Head of Consulting and Education with MURAL, a leading online whiteboard for digital collaboration. Previously, Jim has worked with large companies, such as Audi, SONY, Elsevier Science, Lexis Nexis, Citrix, and eBay, among others. Jim Kalbach authored #1 Amazon Business Development Bestseller, Mapping Experiences: A Guide to Creating Value Through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams. Key Takeaways: [1:05] Jim Kalbach never worried about what...
info_outlineCommanding Business
Author of the NYT and WSJ bestseller, Flash Foresight, Daniel Burrus is a leading futurist in global trends and innovation. A leading consultant to Google, Proctor & Gamble, IBM, and many other Fortune 500 firms, Daniel Burrus provides strategic advice for predicting forthcoming market innovators and anticipating disruptions before they disrupt. His Anticipatory Organization Model uses the key components of hard and soft trends to identify transformative, pre-active solutions. Key Takeaways: [1:33] To see the invisible and do the impossible, you must start with certainty. [7:02] How a...
info_outlineCommanding Business
Author of six books, with a seventh in the works, Bill Halal is a Professor Emeritus of Management, Technology and Innovation at George Washington University. As the President of TechCast, Bill Halal and his team study the impact of artificial intelligence, the age of knowledge as compared to the age of consciousness, and future forecasting with a goal of simplifying change at the meso-economic level. Key Takeaways: [1:09] TechCast is a collective intelligence system that collects background data on emerging technologies, social trends, and wildcards. [2:56] TechCast has...
info_outlineNew managers often find themselves tangled in a web of different processes. If they are joining an existing organization, the processes that might have worked for their predecessors, often don’t fit current business needs. If they are entrepreneurs starting from scratch, they are tasked with finding the right framework to assist them in leading the company forward. Having disarmingly honest conversations with employees will help to align the interests of clients, employees and the business as a whole. Once leaders have a functioning framework in place, their task then become executing their strategies with clarity and purpose.
Key Takeaways:
[1:09] About John’s impressive background
[3:25] A disarmingly honest conversation leads us to aligning interests
[5:59] Pushing people until they quit gave me a chance to grow as a leader
[12:25] Connecting with people, systems & processes, and the job of the leader
[14:15] Clarity – Execution – Sustainability
[15:37] Defining core values and creating purpose
[20:30] Leaders need to have a strong system of execution
[23:28] The proper framework will reduce stress and keep you balanced
[27:01] Getting help
[29:29] Levels of Sustainability
[32:20] John’s contact information: John@ms-tx.com, (512) 922-6225
Mentions: