2016
In the second season premiere, host Jeffrey Hayzlett interviews former boy band turned entrepreneur Kevin Jonas. You may know him from his days as part of the rock band the Jonas Brothers; however, the eldest Jonas is also an entrepreneur with a passion for technology. Jonas says he has always had a business mindset and took on that role while touring with his brothers. In his short tenure as an entrepreneur, Jonas tells Hayzlett he's learned many valuable lessons. Jonas has also launched a food app called YOOD!, a one-touch, location-based search app that gives customers the location and phone number of the highest rated restaurant closest to their location.
2016
Rich Gotham, President of the Boston Celtics, one of the most storied franchises in all of sports, talks to Jeffrey Hayzlett about the day-to-day operations of the sports industry, the transparency required to keep up with the demands of their loyal, and vocal, fan base and "Celtic pride." The Boston Celtics a brand recognizable all around the world that has one of the largest social media followings in sports. Also, the Boston fan base is one of the most passionate in all of sports, so how does the Celtics front office stay connected to their loyal season ticket holders? "Transparency," says Gotham. Every fan knows the Celtics are built to win championships - from Bill Russell to Larry Bird, to Paul Pierce and beyond - and keeping the fans abreast on how they are achieving those goals is key to the interpersonal relationship between the front office and the fans. Gotham also believes in treating customers like family, hiring the right people for the right job and keeping the "Celtic pride" alive.
2016
Chris Lindner, president of Keds, sits down with host Jeffrey Hayzlett on Executive Perspectives to discuss what it's like running an almost 100 year-old brand, whose core audience is still the same since its inception. Lindner talks about working with mega celebrity, Taylor Swift as their brand ambassador and why choosing the right brand ambassador truly makes a difference as consumers want authenticity from brands so they can connect with them. Their biggest question: How to keep current customers while going after a new audience of consumers? Lindner talks about this and when he learned that brands can change the world.
2016
Client engagement and experience is an essential part of your company's success. Andy Frawley, CEO of Epsilon, talks about the need to have a different set of capabilities to solve problems in today's digital world. Frawley firmly believes everything starts and ends with the client - a positive engagement and a positive experience equals good business results.
2016
Adam Johnson, Founder of Insight and Action Advisors sits down with host Jeffrey Hayzlett to discuss why he feels Wall Street is a "people business." How you may ask? Well, 'people' is the first "P" in his '3 P's of success' adage - People, Principle, Profits. He argues the CEO's challenge is to convey all the hard points and understand the soft points. The former Bloomberg TV anchor, Johnson recounts a time the Jet Blue CFO showed these principles on air by giving his employees $5,000 each after they were affected by Hurricane Sandy. That was an intangible that perfectly exemplified the '3 P's of success.'
2016
Matt Preschern, EVP and CMO of HCL Technologies, who is a global citizen in the truest sense of the world sits down with Jeffrey Hayzlett to discuss how being so global has helped him in his current role. Having lived all over the world, he is now the CMO of a $6 billion information technology and software services company that operates in 31 countries. As a global company, one of the challenges it faces is having a consistent company culture, which Preschern explains HCL Technologies has been able to rely on the empowerment of their own employees to achieve that cohesive unit. He is a firm believer that if companies put their employees first and empowers them to make front line decisions, it helps foster their entrepreneurial spirit within the company. Their "ideapreneurship" program - where employees can bring ideas to the C-Suite that has helped HCL generate $500M in new ideas - is something Preschern is proud of because employees feel they are part of the culture and will go that extra mile to do great things on behalf of their customers.
2016
Kevin Joyce, Chief Commercial Officer of Piksel, sits down with host Jeffrey Hayzlett to have a thorough discussion about the future of the television industry and how the medium is currently experiencing a "revolution" as many people, particularly millennials, are consuming media in multiple platforms. They discuss the business of over-the-top television (OTT), where content is king, activation is queen and context is the kingdom. Piksel, the largest independent supplier of OTT video platform in the world, provides OTT software to big media companies, such as AT&T, Microsoft, and EuroSport, among others.
2016
Every company, every individual is vulnerable to digital attacks and you may not even be the direct target. In the third season premiere, host Jeffrey Hayzlett sits down with Janet Schijns, VP and MarTech Chief for Verizon Enterprises and Bryan Sartin, Managing Director of the RISK Team at Verizon to discuss how to prevent, how to prepare for such attacks and how to react if you become the next headline. It's everyone' s job to take action so they don't affect your reputation or your bottom line.
2016
Host Jeffrey Hayzlett sits down with Nolan Bushnell to get business advise from the founder of Atari, the creator of Chuck E Cheese and the guy behind the company who hired Steve Jobs. Bushnell highlights how success in the gaming industry translates into understanding keeping costs down and really understanding customer acquisition costs. Bushnell, the father of the gaming industry discusses the importance of hiring alive people and when he realized that gaming was the future.
2016
Ron Carucci, the Owner and Managing Partner at Navalent, is a seasoned consultant with over 25 years of experience pursuing transitional changes for companies and their c-suite leaders. Carucci tells Hayzlett how hard it is for some leaders to transform and adapt to changes, as c-suite leaders aren't always receptive to change. Organizations, he argues, are "nothing but containers of tension and conflict," and if leaders haven't designed their organization to handle conflict, it could have a paralyzing effect on the entire organizational structures. Carucci stresses that just because a leader "makes it" into the c-suite doesn't mean they've achieved a pinnacle in their career and they have nothing more to learn. On the contrary, there's always room to evolve and transform the industry, whatever industry it is.
2016
Jack Myers is a Media Ecologist, and as such, he studies media agencies and how these agencies are choosing to spend their media money and whom they are choosing to spend their money on. The emergence of digital video and the Internet of things (IoT) are massive industry game-changers, as marketing data can come from a multitude of sources. The data is all about the usage, the interpretation and the application of data and this is how media agencies need to position themselves in order to evolve within the industry. Myers has noticed the changes in the bigger media landscape as well. Many networks have moved from a more traditional, impression-based model to a performance-based model, therefore continuing to capitalize on all the emerging trends.
2016
After the signing of President Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, Chuck Lovelace was appointed Vice-President of Affordable Care to help consumers understand the new legislation and what the changes in the tax laws meant for them - both as individuals and as small business owners or franchisees. This past year marked the first tax season where individuals had to report insurance as a result of the individual mandate of the ACA, so Liberty Tax Service saw a need to help millions of consumers navigate the complex path of changes in their own taxes.
2016
Tony Hunter became the Publisher and CEO of the Chicago Tribune in 2008, at the height of the recession. His challenge was taking an iconic brand out of bankruptcy and transforming the publishing giant into a new 21st century industry giant. Coming in, Hunter wanted to focus on disrupting the status quo, as he sees opportunity in disruption. He was able to get the employees to go along with the changes by showing each employee how they would fit into the company's "winning plan." Hunter is a believer that "culture eats strategy for breakfast," so he set to show all employees how they could make a difference and in contrast, show them what the company would look like if no changes took place. Employees were updated every quarter and the turnaround was achieved by providing complete transparency with the company's financials and as progress started to show, employees saw the positive changes and were more inclined to work in tandem with management.
2016
Doug Albregts, president of Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America, realizes he's in an "old, stodgy industry," yet he has found ways to make it innovative and take the B2B side of Sharp to the next level. He first joined the company in 2011 and soon realized that changes needed to be made, mainly at changing the company culture by defining their identity. He says, "If you don't have an identity, you don't have a culture." Albregts realized that in order to move the company forward, they had to become "irresistible" - which he describes as a certain "stickiness" that makes is difficult for people to move away from a brand. They would achieve that 'irresistibility' by doing the following three things: 1) change the culture, 2) improve working capital, and 3) get away from things that were not part of their core business. Albregts also stresses the importance of effective communication with your employees, as they need to buy into the entire philosophy; otherwise, your customers aren't going to buy in either.
2016
Linda Kaplan-Thaler is a true force in the advertising industry. Throughout her illustrious career, she has been the brains behind some of the most iconic ad campaigns in recent history and sat down to discuss the one characteristic she feels all successful individuals embody: G.R.I.T., which stands for Guts, Resilience, Initiative, Tenacity. She says, "98% of people don't have the 'it' factor. They have G.R.I.T." Kaplan is also a firm believer that failure is a very important part of life and that dreamers waste time dreaming, while 'plotters' excel at doing smaller things perfectly. She argues that if you can't do the small things well, you won't be able to perfect the bigger things down the road.
2016
When it comes to challenging the status quo, Keith Krach is the man to talk to. When he first joined DocuSign, one of the things that sparked his interest, in addition to the company's ability to set itself apart from the competition, was one of the company's core values: innovation. Krach is a firm believer that "change is the most powerful word in the English language" and without it, one fails to develop, prosper, and grow. He saw the need to replace most of his executive team because, "The company with the best people wins and the job of the CEO is to build a high-performance team." Krach mentions three things that need to be in place in order to create an exceptional workplace that'll tackle the status quo: 1) get everyone working together as a team while fostering a safe environment to thrive in, 2) measure the success of the company by their customers' success, and 3) set a crystal clear direction. A solid mission, vision, values, team rules, long-term goals and strategy will guide your team to success.
2016
Dan Nelson defines 'considered purchase marketing' as something that has an emotional and/or financial risk to the consumer, often both, as well as the distinction between considered purchases versus impulse buys. Nelson explains how often the B2B industry is relegated to the "kid's table" compared to their counterparts in consumer marketing - as a result of both, the health of the industry and organizations that weren't strong enough to withstand the industry changes. Another reason was the lack of compelling material to consumers, but all that is changing. Now, B2B marketing is side-by-side their consumer marketing counterparts - with deeper storytelling, customer journey mapping and more engagement that includes two-way conversations with their customers.
2016
Every business is worried about cyber security and how such breaches hinder their daily business operations. Verizon and Deloitte have formed a holistic partnership in order to help keep their customers' data safe. Verizon's Bob Vescio states that more organizations are using 'gut-checking intuition' as a strategy but that alone is not working. The bad guys keep winning, but why? He argues that everyone is doing cyber security around compliance, which by definition, is "intuition by a group of people." Vescio also stresses that over ninety percent of companies aren't taking the necessary steps (or are doing so partially) to keep their companies safe from cyber attacks. Companies tend to focus on minute things based on industry hype more than anything. Deloitte's Emily Mossburg joined Vescio on stage and discussed data recovery in the instance of an attack. What can companies do about data recovery? Mossburg says there are three things companies can do: 1) Be secure, 2) be vigilant by putting controls in place and understand what "normal" looks like regarding network patterns, user access and transactions so you can easily notice when something abnormal is happening, and 3) be resilient. This relates to preparing for, responding to and recovering from a cyber attack. Companies, Vescio states, should develop a risk model based on four landscapes: Business impact, threat, asset and control. By populating all four together, companies ought to have a clearer picture, or a heat map, of where their security risks are and that should drive the strategy to fight cyber attacks.
2016
When it comes to innovation, every industry has a hand in shaping an effective strategy. Ranjana Clark says that, to her, innovation is designed to help solve customers' pain points. Innovation needs to help solve a client's need in a unique, new and different way and add more value. She's quick to add that ideas fail because "we get too fancy." Companies need to keep it simple and keep it focused.
2016
Whatever the age of your company, you should always be wondering what's next. Even if you are a 140-year old business, you still need to know your next act and sometimes you need to go back to your roots, while still looking towards the future. A company like GE that started with a man and a light bulb, is looking to merge their industrial beginnings with the digital future. Beth Comstock, Vice Chair of GE sat down with Jeffrey Hayzlett to talk about the current state of GE and how they are embracing this digital future. Comstock states, "A great brand has to be true, there has to be an authenticity, but it's also aspirational. It's okay that you are not there, yet in some ways you are declaring to the marketplace 'hey this is where we see the future going, we want to go there, come with us, help us make it a reality.'" Comstock also feels that companies and customers should figure this out together.
2016
Joe Hart is President and CEO of Dale Carnegie Training - a leader in professional development, performance improvement, leadership training, and employee engagement. Hart talked to Hayzlett about the biggest opportunity the company has to do - tell their story by doing transformative things with their brand, messaging, and other components like their global franchising network. Throughout a series of courses that aim to build a continuing connection to customers, Hart looks to tackle the "global leadership crisis" - defined as a fundamental crisis in confidence and breakdown in trust between employees and leadership. This is a crucial aspect for everyone, especially millennials - since they are conditioned in speaking up if they don't like what they see in a company or leadership and are even willing to walk away if leadership doesn't meet their expectations. Hart states that the fundamentals of millennials are the same as everyone else; however, the human interaction is different and the delivery of that interaction is done digitally. Hart also tackles the biggest factor for employee disengagement, inauthentic leadership. When someone isn't reliable, there's a breakdown in trust and trust is the foundation for any relationship.
2016
Faith Popcorn is often referred to as the "Nostradamus of marketing" for her ability to accurately predict future trends. As the Founder and CEO of BrainReserve, she's known as a "futurist" and is constantly looking for patterns and trends that will have a big impact on all of our lives. Popcorn says that one of the hardest things for companies to do is embrace the future and see it as more than just a fad. They need to be interested in the truth and stresses how smart companies "adapt to future trends." As an industry pioneer, she predicted back in 1981 how people would spend more time at home, doing things they would normally do outside, like dining or going to the movies. As someone always on the cutting edge, Popcorn tells Hayzlett that the next trend is already here: customization. People want things that are tailored to their needs and lifestyles and more companies are looking to cash in on this. The future will also include a combination of people and robots.
2016
Jay Samit defines disruption as a change where you never go back. Widely recognized as a leading expert on disruption and innovation, he feels in business today it is "so easy to come up with a change and you can have a global market very quickly and social is a cheaper way of marketing." Samit talks to Hayzlett on "how the rate of pace of change has never been this fast, but with the tools at your disposal, you only have to be right for a nanosecond to become a billionaire." He also discusses why it's so important in order to be successful to get over the fear of failure and why SoLoMo are the three main components that should be in everything you are doing.
2016
Matt Preschern is the Executive Vice President and CMO at HCL Technologies, a company with a $7 billion, mostly organic, growth. Preschern attributes that growth to a fundamental belief of putting employees first so they will deliver superior interactions. Their creed of "trust, transparency, and flexibility" is the foundation of everything else they will accomplish as a business. With over one hundred and five thousand employees worldwide, HCL Technologies has tapped into their own employees as a revenue source. In the last year, they have generated $500 million in revenue from employee ideas alone. They put great effort into tapping, not just employee ideas, but customer ideas as well with an yearly online forum in which ideas are submitted for consideration. At the end of the 3-month period, those ideas are used to shape different programs throughout the company, creating an environment, culture, and leadership style that empowers employees to go above and beyond.
2016
Host Jeffrey Hayzlett talks to Alan Fine, Founder and President InsideOut Development about his journey from athletic coach to business coach and how both industries share a core set of principles that make success possible. As a former tennis coach, Fine turned his coaching style from outside in, to inside out - which encourages athletes and entrepreneurs alike to remove the roadblocks that are focused on an internal dialogue. Fine tells Hayzlett that tuning out the noise is "simple, but not that easy" to do. He says that people tend to choose what they listen to, which is why high performers can easily tune out the noise. Fine also lists the fundamental principles of the inside-out approach: knowledge, faith, fire, and focus and adds that focus is the most important of all the principles because, "If you want to change a belief, you need to start on something different." Everything starts with our choice of focus.
2016
Nancy Gibbs, Editor-in-Chief of TIME, talked about a number of issues surrounding the media today - among them, the importance of constantly having to evolve, producing premium content, the state of the 2016 election cycle, and the public distrust of institutions, including the media. TIME was founded in 1923 by Henry Luce, a visionary and media and digital disruptor on his own right. Since then, the magazine has gone through several transformations, including going from an American institution to a global one and from print to digital. Their steady approach to creativity and storytelling have been stalwarts in the publishing industry and this is reflected in how they reach their audience, the quality of the content they provide and their investment in the next generation of journalists. Gibbs says this is an "expensive investment, but we believe in it." She also addressed the current public distrust of the media that has risen during this highly charged political climate. Gibbs believes many journalists enter the profession with a certain level of idealism, one that makes them shine a light into dark corners and expose corruption and injustice, but the level of distrust remains. She believes part of that distrust in institutions like the media, churches, and financial entities are a direct result of people becoming disappointed when democracy doesn't work for them or fails to make their lives better. Regardless of all the changes taking place, TIME plans to continue evolving and investing in the next generation of journalists in order to remain on the cutting edge.
2016
Barbara Jones, Consul General of Ireland in New York, talked about the relationship between the United States and Ireland, the impact of Brexit on the Irish people and what the recent ruling against Apple in regards to taxation means for future business investments. According to Forbes, Ireland is one of the most business-friendly environments in Europe. That, along with access to the European market, a corporate tax rate of 12.5% that they control and a strong ROI, makes Ireland a prime target for those looking to conduct business overseas. Jones describes the U.S./Ireland transatlantic and economic relationship as "the most integrated and globalized relationship" both countries currently have being matched job for job, pound for pound, and dollar for dollar.
2016
Sudhir Kulkarni, President, Digital at Persistent Systems, believes there has been a fundamental shift in business relating to digital transformation and that software is the driver for most, if not all, things business. Kulkarni says that companies are internally changing how they take a product to market and most of that process is driven by software. It's not just about selling to companies anymore, but changing the nature of how they do business. He believes that the digital transformation of enterprises has taken root and the fundamental shift that has taken place also affects the way companies engage with their customers, but there's always risk. While c-suite executives don't want to deal with risk, Kulkani says risk and compliance are two things to think about when looking at cloud-based software and products. He adds that continuous transformation means companies are staying ahead of the game at all times; if not, they risk being ten steps behind. Kulkarni said, "Yesterday's world is not going to be tomorrow's world."
2016
Neal Campbell, Senior Vice President, Strategic Solutions and Services at CDW, talks about the importance of mobile technology and how it's key to have agnosticism in technology. At CDW, they have a large tech organization - about twenty-five thousand, from product specialists to solution architects. Campbell says the winning formula is having technology teams that are well-versed across a variety of products in regards to mobility and that, once again, software plays a big role in how companies are dealing with this shift. Campbell states, "Mobile is an extension of your enterprise," but that the ultimate goal is understanding the customer. Trying to understand the customer, both on the product solutions side and the marketing side, helps with scalability.
2016
Alan Gellman, Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer, esurance sat down with host Jeffrey Hayzlett to talk finding a company's purpose, how to embrace changes that create great possibilities, bridging the marketing gap, finding the right target audience, and the timely and relevant campaigns for election season and with MLB's All-Star Game ballots that engaged all thirty teams. He also talked to Hayzlett about the changing roles of marketers. Historically, there has been two types of marketers: big brand marketers and deep performance marketers, or those who use direct mailers and other collaterals to communicate with clients. However, good marketers need to - not only play multiple roles, but bridge the gap between big slogan/campaign marketing and deep performance marketers. Gellman says marketers have to think in 360 degrees and learn how to fully integrate the brand performance side of marketing and the metrics/ROI.