State Of Readiness
Video Version About the Podcast In this episode of State of Readiness, host Joseph Paris speaks with Alan Michaels, founder of the Industry Knowledge Graph, a strategic planning tool built on Michael Porter’s competitive strategy framework. The discussion traces Alan’s multi-decade journey to develop a globally comprehensive, highly granular industry taxonomy and its transformation into a usable, dynamic digital platform. Alan recalls the pivotal moment in 1986 when, while working in IT at Manufacturers Hanover Bank, he was introduced to Porter’s Competitive...
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Video Version About the Podcast Benjamin Taylor, the Managing Director of RedQuadrant, engages in a thought-provoking dialogue with Joseph Paris, delving into the nuanced intricacies of organizational evolution and improvement within the public sector landscape. Drawing from their wealth of experiences and insights, Taylor and Paris underscored the paramount importance of democratizing knowledge accessibility and fostering collaborative group dynamics as catalysts for organizational advancement. Taylor elucidated the genesis of Red Quadrant, inspired by a London cab...
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Video Version About the Podcast In the realm of strategic business discussions, Ron Crabtree, a seasoned entrepreneur, assumed the mantle of authority. With a keen understanding of the trials and tribulations inherent in business scaling and talent acquisition within dynamic environments, he underscored the necessity of fostering robust professional networks and discerning between strategic and tactical hiring approaches. In collaboration with the esteemed Joseph Paris, they delved into the pivotal role of effective facilitation in propelling organizational...
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Video Version About the Podcast I have known Michael Webb for several years. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Operational Excellence Society almost since its inception and led the Operational Excellence Society Chapter in Atlanta. We start the podcast by discussing the application of operational excellence and continuous improvement principles to sales and marketing activities. Paris made note of the challenges due to the personality-driven nature of sales and getting salespeople to document processes and how there might be a...
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Video Version About the Podcast My guest today is Scott Lushin, Senior Manager of Global Operational Excellence at Donaldson Company, Incorporated. In this episode, Scott takes us through his professional journey. Starting off in retail automotive and the restaurant business, it is obvious that has two passions; problem solving and leadership. Although his passion for problem-solving made itself readily apparent in his early life, his skills in leadership made themselves known later and over time. Scott started his journey right out of high school at an automotive...
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Video Version About the Podcast Hello and welcome to another edition of State of Readiness. I am your host, Joseph Paris. My guest today is Ben Guttmann, Author of “Simply Put; Why Clear Messages Win―and How to Design Them.” We start the conversation going back to high school where Ben was fortunate enough to have attended a high school that had a business department and offerings for those who were interested in business goings-on. It's here where Ben got hooked on marketing. We share our ideas on communicating, mostly born of experiences. Why do people...
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Video Version About the Podcast Hello and welcome to another edition of State of Readiness. I am your host, Joseph Paris. My guest today is Jesse DePriest, President of Jesse DePriest Consulting, LLC; Privately held consultancy specializing in Lean including; strategy development and deployment, leadership development, process design and analysis, process improvement, problem solving, teamwork. I have known Jesse for several years and his story is as American as Apple Pie. Jessie grew up on a dairy farm in Alaska where he was the youngest of 10...
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Video Version About the Podcast Hello and welcome to another edition of State of Readiness. I am your host Joseph Paris. My guest today is Daniel Varroney, President and CEO of Potomac Core; a consultancy specializing in helping trade organizations transform into strategic partner for industry and professions. I have known Daniel for many years; having first met him when I was a member of the New York City Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) which is an organization of professionals serving the mergers and acquisitions ecosystem and he was its...
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Video Version About the Podcast Hello and welcome to another edition of State of Readiness. I am your host Joseph Paris. My guest today is Innocent Hadebe, Director of Business Excellence for Chick-fil-A Corporate. I met Innocent like a meet a great many people and that would be through LinkedIn. Of course my initial attraction to Innocent was that we were like minded professionals pursuing Operational Excellence. But it was not until we met face to face in Orlando at an Operational Excellence conference where I was able to really understand Innocent and...
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Video version About the podcast In this edition of “State of Readiness”, I welcome Manuel Ugarte, Director and Strategic Accounts Manager of the United States Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC). The US Army’s CCDC mission is to provide the research, engineering, and analytical expertise to deliver capabilities that enable the Army to deter and, when necessary, decisively defeat any adversary now and in the future. And the CCDC’s vision is to be the scientific and technological foundation of the...
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Video Version
About the Podcast
Hello and welcome to another edition of State of Readiness. I am your host Joseph Paris.
My guest today is Daniel Varroney, President and CEO of Potomac Core; a consultancy specializing in helping trade organizations transform into strategic partner for industry and professions.
I have known Daniel for many years; having first met him when I was a member of the New York City Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) which is an organization of professionals serving the mergers and acquisitions ecosystem and he was its Global CEO.
The main topic of our conversation is the challenges that businesses face today are bigger, faster, and more frequent than in times past.

For your consideration, within just the last six years (since 2016 when President Trump was elected) we have had; tariff and trade wars (friends and adversaries alike), challenges with refugees and managing borders (not just in the States), Brexit, COVID (and everything directly and indirectly associated with it), Russia invasion of Ukraine (and the resultant food and energy disruptions), unacceptably high inflation (and the resultant interest rate hikes), political discourse, and probably several items I missed.
How is a company, industry, or profession to cope? Not to mention influence?
The obvious answer is to form advocacy organizations to act as platforms to consolidate their voice and interests.
Which leads us to his book; “Reimagining Industry Growth” offers readers a blueprint to harnessing the power of leading industry associations as strategic partners. By utilizing those partnerships, business leaders will become able to leverage the collective strength of the supply chain to overcome challenges, address uncertainty, mitigate risks, and position their industries for growth.
An interesting conversation which I am sure you will enjoy.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danvarroney/
Company: Potomac Core - Association Consulting
Title: President and CEO
Year Founded: 2012, Arlington Virginia
Company Type: Privately held strategic consultancy that applies research driven strategies to reimagine new growth pathways for Industries and Professions. Our mission is to deliver research guided processes that help Trade Associations transform into Strategic Partners for Industries and Professions. As such, we help transform organizations into the important role of real time business solution providers.
