Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Show Notes: Dori Yona, founder of Simple Closure, explains the process of shutting down a company. The process is painful, manual, and bureaucratic, with an average time of nine to 12 months. It can cost companies thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees. Many companies end up doing it incorrectly, leading to fines and penalties. The Multiple Moving Parts of a Business Shut Down Dori explains that the main difficulty in shutting down a company is the coordination of multiple moving parts, such as the state of incorporation, IRS, lawyers, accountants, payroll provider, vendors, service providers, investors, payroll, and state departments. The average shutdown for a venture-backed company has about 95 moving parts, and if any of them are missed or not done correctly, the process can drag on and on. First Steps in Shutting Down a Business Dori talks about three typical approaches for a shutdown of a firm, which they categorize into three main “buckets”. The first bucket is companies that reach out six to nine months before they need to shut down, as they are running out of cash and trying to raise another round or convince existing investors to invest more in their company. They want to be ready for what happens if it doesn't work out, so they reach out to the Simple Closure six months before to discover what the process involves. Dori mentions the Shut Down calculator his firm developed and put on their website to help business owners work through costs and assess the time they have left before going into the red and complicating the shut down. Bucket number two is when companies decide to shut down immediately, need quick media advice, need help presenting to the board, or with winding down the business. Bucket number three is when companies have shut down operationally six months or a year ago but never dealt with properly winding down the business. They may face penalties, fines, and liens on their personal property due to improper actions. The Financial Reality of Shutting Down a Business Dori emphasizes that it is not easy to walk away from a company, as it can come back and haunt the owner(s). He explains that while a corporate entity is there to protect board members, investors, and founders, if certain things are not done properly, it can pierce the corporate veil, making the board and founders personally liable and potentially sued. The most common issue is wages, where an employee is owed wages and has not been paid. Companies should make sure that the proper winding up process is done to avoid loose ends and potential lawsuits from stakeholders, such as vendors, investors, state departments, and payroll departments. Dori also stresses the importance of considering investors during the shutdown process. Payroll Providers and the Shut Down Process A company's shutdown process involves understanding the number of employees it has and how to properly shut down them. Dori uses a typical seed stage company as an example. This type of company usually has around 15 to 20 employees at its peak, with a few founders and one more engineer or person. To properly shut down the company, it is crucial to know who is currently on payroll, whether full-time or contractors, and how many employees the company had at its peak across different states and locations. Most startups use payroll providers, but they are not good at shutting down payroll accounts. When a company shuts down, they terminate the relationship between themselves and the payroll provider, this does not mean the payroll provider has closed down all accounts in all states. To help close out all accounts and notify all states, companies should ask for the HRIS census, which provides background and history of employees. Analyzing this data helps determine who is a past employee versus an active employee. The discussion explores the issue of 1099s for companies that are about to shut down, such as those in the US. Dori explains that...

Show Notes Jacob Bank, founder and CEO of Relay.App, talks about the rise of AI agents, a type of chatbot that can work on your behalf in the background. He explains that AI agents can perform tasks similar to junior-level employees or interns. How AI Agents Work An example of an AI agent working on your blog post is Chat GPT, which can automatically draft a blog post about a new recipe. The agent may ask for feedback and then publish it for you. This makes AI agents less of a thought prompt partner and more like an intern who takes on a mission on your behalf. There are two ways AI agents can take action on your behalf: making direct computer calls called API calls, or controlling your computer. API calls allow agents to make direct connections with tools like Salesforce, Calendly, Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, and HubSpot. The second approach involves the AI controlling your computer, i.e., constantly looking at the screen and clicking buttons on it. Relay.App focuses on business productivity applications and automated calls, so it cannot log into your bank and perform actions on your behalf. However, a tool using the computer use capability would need two factor authentication and captcha. AI Agent Interaction: Solutions and Problems AI agents can interact with any website or tool that has an API, such as email browsers, CRM systems, and business productivity tools. There are three categories of AI agents: APIs, which perform tasks on a computer screen, AI in-built capabilities, and capabilities in reasoning. One problem AI agents need to solve is how they interact with their tools, such as reading and writing data from Salesforce, and how they can do this either via an API or by controlling the browser. Additionally, AI agents have the ability to extract information from PDFs, translate language information, turn text to speech, create videos automatically, and browse the web and do research. Three Models of AI Agents There are three models of AI agents to keep in mind: one class is a tool like relay.app, where the tool comes on your cloud or services, and interacts with things, while another class is a tool owned by the customer or freelancing agents. Models to consider when building AI agents: pre-built AI agents, which are commonly used in customer support tools, custom AI agents, and freelancing agents. These models are designed for specific vertical use cases and can be hosted on a platform or servers. AI agents can interact with various tools and platforms, including email marketing tools, CRM systems, and cloud-based versions of Microsoft tools. They can also perform tasks such as transcription, summary notes, and internet research. Customer Service Agents Customer service agents can be trained on a company's knowledge base. These agents can take various actions, such as replying to emails, triggering password reset emails, or issuing refunds. There are three main types of customer support agents: pre-built agents for specific use cases, custom built agents on easy-to-use platforms like lyndee.ai, relevance.ai, and Zapier, and engineers building their own agents using developer-focused frameworks. There are two options for building agents: one that interacts with APIs, and another that almost takes over your desktop. The fully browser-based approach is less reliable and predictable, but API-based approaches provide clearer guardrails for the agents. Common Use Cases for Relay.App The most common use cases for Relay.app include email handling, calendar management, customer interaction and relationship management, and marketing content creation. Email calendar management involves extracting information from emails, summarizing PDFs, forwarding them to others, drafting or applying to emails, labeling them, and archived emails. Personal productivity use cases involve managing emails, scheduling meetings, and reminding people to RSVP. Customer interaction and relationship management involves researching...

Nikola Lazarov is the co-founder and CEO of Eilla AI, a tool that provides AI workers for private market intelligence. Nikola is an AI engineer who started his career at a London-based hedge fund, Marble Bar Asset Management, where he worked as a quant. He realized the value of AI in structuring unstructured data for private companies and decided to start a company almost three years ago. What Eilla AI Does While Nikola mentions that their target clients are investors and investment bankers, Eilla AI's tool does various tasks, such as finding competitors, analyzing their USP, target market, and financials. It also offers a solution for finding comparable transactions and conducting valuation reports. By searching for similar companies, it can determine their multiples, revenues, and valuations. The tool collects data from various data providers, including CrunchBase Zero and PitchBook, and scrapes it on its own. One of the most exciting solutions offered by Eilla AI is finding comparable transactions and doing valuation reports. This involves finding similar companies, analyzing their financials, average multiples, and what is driving these valuations. The tool automatically gathers and compares the data, providing valuable insights for startups, investors, and investment bankers. How Eilla AI Works The conversation turns to how it works. Nikola talks through using the software and explains the visuals on the screen, which includes tabs such as company, profile, competitor, research, buyer, selection, investment highlights, key questions, risks and mitigates, and a one-pager. The company profile page provides a consolidated set of information about the company, including its headquarters location, number of employees, founding status, total raised, and last transaction. The company description, industry, problem solved, key team members, funding, product, clients, business model, digital intelligence, and news are all included. The platform is similar to CrunchBase and other data aggregators, but it aggregates data from various sources, such as LinkedIn, their website, CrunchBase, and Capita. The platform also offers footnotes for each piece of data, allowing users to hover over it to see the source of the information. The platform also provides information on the website traffic, such as the source and the number of followers. Aggregating Data from Various Sources Nikola explains how the tool works using competitor research as the example to find the closest competitors to Pay Hawk. He explains that this process saves time and helps save time by aggregating data. However, what differentiates Eilla AI is what happens on top of this aggregated data. It uses a proprietary database of in-depth product information to gather information from over 7 million companies, ranking them based on funding, cat count, and other factors. AI is used to determine the number of competitors and similar companies. A Vertical View of Information Users can select a few companies to dive deeper into, and a vertical view allows for a comparison table. The table includes company name type, description, product description, headquarters location, team, year of founding, last round of funding, status, ownership status, detailed offering, unique selling proposition, and target market. The information is organized in a way that would take weeks to pull together. Users can use the vertical view to see the companies side by side. The platform also includes green dots on product descriptions to indicate high similarity and source information. This tool is unique in that it not only provides data but also replicates the workflow of competitor research. It offers insights such as a SWOT analysis on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Pay Hawk versus its competitors. Product and Services The platform also includes a Products and Services tab with bullet points around PayHawk versus its competitors. Each product has a footnote...

Jeff Sinclair, a senior global leader at McKinsey, discusses the history of operations at the firm. The firm was initially known as a strategy firm and did some organization and marketing work. However, in the 1980s, clients began to draw more attention to operations, particularly in the automotive industry in Europe and North America. Operations became a strategic function for automotive OEMs and part suppliers, as they needed to serve their customers with high quality, cost-effective, and operationally effective services. Operations Practice at McKinsey When Jeff joined the firm in 1981, there were about 500 people in the firm. Today, it is estimated that there are 40,000 people worldwide. The firm started building its operations capability in the 80s by recruiting people with specific functional expertise, particularly in manufacturing. They started hiring people from Toyota Supplier Support Center, and creating a well-defined career path within the firm, which is the specialist path or expert path. The operations practice was at the leading edge of other functional practices, such as marketing, market research, and organization. However, the firm had to create new career paths, which led to many iterations of the expert path. The firm had to continuously improve how it recognized and understood their contributions beyond the traditional generalist path. Bureaucratic Maneuvering in Creating a Career Path Jeff discusses the transition from a strong culture to multiple career paths within McKinsey. He explains that this change took about 18 years and was driven by the firm's strong culture and the willingness of senior partners in positions of power to help navigate the new path. As employees advanced in the firm, they had to develop relationships with senior executives, which led to ongoing opportunities to serve them. This made it difficult for experts to fit in and develop new service lines and ways of thinking about problem-solving. The firm struggled to recognize the contribution of subject matter expertise to their ability to serve clients and give them credit for developing new service lines and ways of helping clients execute more effectively. Experts were used on projects in a mixture of subject matter expertise, consulting director roles, and full-time execution people. The Evolution of Consultants at McKinsey The firm gave some of the personnel role responsibility to the functional practices themselves, hiring lean manufacturing or supply chain experts into the practice. They would take over the personnel development role, evaluation of performance, counseling, and coaching on how to evolve these new career paths. Over time, the firm recognized the high value added contribution of functional practices and expanded its service to clients. While there is still a tension between generalist and specialist paths within McKinsey today, it has improved significantly. Bob Sternfels, the managing director of the firm, was a functional practice leader who recognized the level of contribution of functional practices and grew the career path within the firm. McKinsey’s Expansion into other Industries The firm's operations practice evolved from a dominant career path of the generalist partner to a more diverse range of ways of delivering value for clients. The firm initially faced resistance from some office leaders who believed that the new approach would lead to professional suicide. However, over time, the firm embraced the idea of having multiple functional practices, including the operations practice. In the 90s, McKinsey expanded its service to healthcare providers, which led to the growth of the operations practice. This led to the development of Lean principles, such as the Toyota Production System, which were applied in various industries, such as healthcare, consumer goods, and banking. These principles allowed the firm to create real value in areas where people didn't expect it. One example of this...

Show Notes: Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of Tiny Experiments and founder of Ness Labs, shares her approach to understanding her own life and why she does things the way she does. Anne-Laure explains that self anthropology is a powerful tool for problem-solvers and doers to understand their own lives and prioritize their priorities. By embracing uncertainty and turning it into curiosity, individuals can overcome procrastination and achieve more in their lives. She emphasizes the importance of self-anthropology in helping people become anthropologists of their own lives by observing themselves throughout their daily lives and asking themselves why they are doing things the way they do. This allows them to understand what is happening right now before planning for the future. Overcoming Procrastination with Curiosity One example of how self-anthropology can be applied to procrastination is by focusing on the problem with curiosity rather than trying to beat it. Procrastination is often seen as a signal from the brain and body that something is not working for you right now. By approaching procrastination from a place of curiosity, individuals can learn useful things from it. By identifying the problem, learning more about it, addressing it constructively, and seeking mentorship, coaching, and the right tools, individuals can design tasks in a more fun and enjoyable way. This approach allows individuals to move forward and get unstuck from the pressure to beat the problem. Anne-Laure explains that self-anthropology is a powerful tool for problem-solvers and doers to understand their own lives and prioritize their priorities. By embracing uncertainty and turning it into curiosity, individuals can overcome procrastination and achieve more in their lives. A Framework for Overcoming Procrastination The conversation turns to the effectiveness of a framework that treats procrastination with empathy, and overcoming procrastination by asking questions and experimenting with different approaches. This approach can be applied to various challenges, such as managing anger, managing health, and examining patterns in emotions and anxiety. Journaling is a great tool for reflecting on experiences and understanding the root causes of issues. Journaling is a mindfulness practice that allows for non-judgmental observation and self-anthropology. By taking notes about thoughts, emotions, and behavioral patterns, one can ask questions about why they happen, what could be different, and what new approaches or ideas could be explored. Regular reviews of journal entries can help identify patterns and changes in one's life, which can help in dealing with challenges in the present moment and providing material for future reflection. Tiny Experiments and Atomic Habits Anne-Laure discusses the concept of making PACTs and how they can be used in conjunction with habits. PACT stands for Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable and they work well with habits. Atomic habits involve building habits by making tiny experiments with specific durations and outcomes. A tiny experiment is a type of PACT that involves choosing one action and a specific duration to collect data. The main difference between a tiny experiment and an atomic habit is that the experimenter withholds judgment until the data is collected, allowing them to decide if the habit is beneficial or not. The main difference between a tiny experiment and an atomic habit is that the experimenter withholds judgment until the data is collected. This allows them to determine if the habit is beneficial and if it is something they want to continue with in the future. Anne-Laure also discusses the importance of reflection in small experiments, as it helps individuals identify what they enjoy and what they should continue with. Anne-Laure suggests aligning the data with the measures of success at the end. She suggests tracking internal and external signals, such as mood, heart rate variability,...

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman interviews Harsh Sahai, CEO and co-founder of Bridgetown Research, a company that has built an AI tool and he talks about it in this episode. Harsh previously worked at McKinsey, where he focused on commercial due diligence. He also ran a machine learning lab at Amazon, where they researched sequential decision-making algorithms. AI Pricing Algorithms and Convex Optimization Harsh talks about his work at Amazon where main use cases were pricing products, as people tend to remember old prices and make decisions based on what they remember. For example, planning the sequence in which to launch products or introducing new shows on Prime Video could be done in a multi-step planning process. Harsh talks about his background in convex optimization, which is a mathematical model that can be used to represent various outcomes. Convex optimization is often used to model price versus volume, and it helps in making more sequential decisions for more than just pricing. Bridgetown Research Explained On founding Bridgetown Research, many of Harsh’s former colleagues joined him in the mission to build tools for the consulting industry and more. Bridgetown Research developed a platform that automates data collection and analysis, allowing them to curate these analyses and deliver value to clients. The firm developed software products that can conduct interviews at scale at a fraction of the cost, run 300 common analyses, evaluate approximately 10 decisions, and work alongside clients to build interactive documents. The firm primarily serves investors in the software industry, similar to McKinsey due diligence. Automating Consulting Groundwork They use AI agents to conduct interviews, breaking down high-level questions into sub-questions that can be answered by the AI agents. The agents then map the best sources of data for each analyze, such as Gartner or Forrester, and compile secondary research. The AI agents are integrated with a few expert networks, which they recruit on the company’s behalf. They have a fully adaptive conversation, similar to a consultant's conversation, and then parse out the analysis to answer the main questions. The cost of these interviews is lower than a normal human-to-human interview because they can do it on their own schedule. Harsh also discusses the benefits of owning a research platform for consultants. They have researched this topic extensively and have 1000 interview transcripts of both people who hired a consultant and like consultants. The platform offers voice-based conversations, text prompts, and interactive screens for additional context. Using AI Agents in Surveys The AI agent in the discussion is similar to a traditional survey, but it allows users to answer questions directly on their screen. It can also embed multiple choice or ranked sorting questions, and can follow a different chain of questioning depending on the user's response. The agent constructs a hypothesis based on secondary research and uses adaptive questions to collect enough data to either prove or disprove these hypotheses. If it disproves the hypotheses, it goes back and looks at all transcripts to come up with new hypotheses and start collecting more data. One of the reasons for the cost efficiency is that, unlike regular surveys, the AI agent doesn't ask the exact same questions, reducing the length by about 20 to 25% once statistical conviction is reached. This flexibility allows for discounts from the person taking the interview, as it's extremely convenient for them. Examples of AI Agent’s Responsiveness The agent's responsiveness works by comparing the user's responses to previous answers, such as asking about the main reasons they chose a particular software versus another. The agent then moves on to the next question based on the user's response. Harsh offers a few examples and verifies that the agents have received positive feedback from experts who are...

Show Notes: Jim Ettamarna, a renowned expert in commercial excellence, defines it as incorporating commercial efficacy and efficiency. He believes that there are two key branches to drive down in this area, and it holds tremendous potential for clients and organizations. Jim's framework for commercial excellence is value creation, which involves understanding market demand, go-to- market models, market growth, and demand trends with a focus on each specific industry. A Six Sigma Lean Framework Jim uses a lean framework, starting with Six Sigma, to standardize the right work and ensure associates and employees are conducting the right activities and behaviors. He also emphasizes the importance of systems in psychology in commercial results, as it helps design standardized systems for onboarding talent, enhancing team engagement, and engaging with customers. In sales, motivation is crucial, and the human element of having a team is essential. However, dealing with complex buying processes can be challenging, so it is essential to tune processes and approaches to the specific needs of the customers. A Go-to-market Model The go-to-market model is a linkage between strategy and execution and commercial excellence. It should be tuned for the company's strategy and the strategic context. For example, a $300 million middle market private equity-backed company serving the Durable Medical Equipment market that sold to 5,000 independent organizations and specialty retailers. The company had to strategically think through market growth, accounts to capture, and the buying cycle for customers. To drive efficiency and effectiveness, the company had a set of building blocks, including an online component, independent sales reps, an inside sales team, and specialty sales people. The strategy piece involved determining what would drive value, growth, renewals, base volumes, and pricing. The go-to-market model was designed around these building blocks, and commercial excellence was driven by optimizing these aspects. Components of Commercial Excellence Jim discusses the importance of breaking down commercial excellence into various components, including channels, sales operations, content, and management systems. He emphasizes the need for segmentation at the top level to understand what will drive value and optimize the go-to-market model for the business. Within this model, he suggests ways to optimize each element, such as sales enablement, which includes training, scripts, and engagement strategies. He also emphasizes the importance of benchmarking and understanding the nuances of sales teams. He shares an example of a furniture retailer where he worked with 2500 full-time employees and 1000 part-time employees. The performance of the company was analyzed using Pareto curves, but some outliers were more successful than averages. To replicate these outliers, he spent time in the field with the best sellers and identified their backgrounds and profiles. He also highlights the importance of identifying B+ and A minus players and setting them as standards. The A plus players are often unique individuals that can be difficult to replicate, but they can still learn from them. Segmentation is crucial in understanding customer nuances. Value Mapping and Needs-based Segmentation In the past, value mapping and needs-based segmentation were crucial for designing sales teams and engaging with customers. This was particularly important when selling software into hospital systems, where hospitals may make localized decisions or have a system or GPO that drives these decisions. The CIO or clinical or nursing professional may specify the solution, and the CIO and finance will negotiate it. Jim cites a case where a big client involved segmenting the market and designing selling approaches based on how customers operated and how they bought. This involved investing in customer success research, conducting field interviews, and conducting surveys to...

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman interviews Bart Sayer, a former senior vice president at Estee Lauder, to discuss how to analyze a cosmetics company. Bart has two quick chapters in consulting, having worked as a partner in the consumer retail practice of Booz and PWC. He then joined ELC, where he held three different roles, including SVP, General Manager of Clinique’s international business. The conversation focuses on understanding the structure of major cosmetic companies and the various types of companies encountered in the industry. The Beauty Industry Explained Bart explains that the beauty industry is divided into four main categories: skincare, makeup, hair, care, and body. The market is divided into luxury and mass segments, with luxury beauty expected to grow between six and 8% in the foreseeable future. Mass brands are more likely to be found in drugstores, such as Walgreens and CVs. Premium brands are more available in department stores or specialty multi, such as Sephora and Ulta, and a third channel being direct to consumer. At Estee Lauder they believed that distribution defines your equity, so prestige brands are careful about where they appear. Specialty channels like QVC and travel retail offer exposure to premium-priced and mass brands within the United States and other markets. Travel retail has been a growth vehicle for multiple brands, but it is more of a prestige and luxury phenomenon. Ingredients in Beauty Products The ingredients in mass and prestige products differ fundamentally. While not all ingredients are created equal, they are used in formulations that push efficacy to the furthest boundaries while maintaining safety. Prestige brands also put extra protections in place to ensure product safety for sensitive skin. The formulation philosophies vary widely across different entities. Allergy testing is also highly variable across these different entities. The difference in ingredients and formulations between mass and prestige products is significant, as is the importance of customer service and product quality. Bart discusses the importance of clinical testing in product and research development, highlighting that it is a high barrier to entry for indie brands. He also discusses the shift from paid media-led to earned media-led marketing models in the beauty industry, where companies work with contract manufacturers to access the latest ingredients and formulation philosophies. Bart emphasizes the blend model in which cosmetics companies come up with formulation philosophies, select ingredients, design tests, and select categories and subcategories. This approach is not binary, as L'Oreal has over 40 different manufacturing facilities worldwide. The marketing model has evolved from paid media-led to an earned media-led model, where companies seize organic market buzz and amplify their products on social channels. Local vs. Global Adaptation The concept of local versus global adaptation is crucial in the beauty industry. Brands must find a locally relevant articulation of their brand essence to convince Chinese consumers that their product is top-notch. Large media companies often have global ambassadors who can speak for the brand, but if a local face is not available, the brand may not get the traction needed. To succeed in the beauty industry, companies must balance being more reactive to market trends and being part of a locally relevant conversation. This involves being more reactive to market trends through an earned media-led approach on social media platforms and ensuring that they are part of a locally relevant conversation in terms of platforms, messaging, and talent. Bart highlights the importance of clinical testing, R&D conceptualization, marketing, and consumer insights in the beauty industry. By understanding these factors, companies can better navigate the competitive beauty market and achieve success in the ever-changing beauty industry. Indie and...

Rob Garmaise, VP of AI research at Info-tech Research Group, is at the forefront of Info-tech research, helping clients identify best practices across their IT operations. They conduct extensive primary and secondary research, speaking with industry experts and other clients to understand the drivers of value and proof that a given practice leads to better results. AI Vendors, Verticals, and Research Taxonomy Rob explains that the firm has a vast research taxonomy, with AI being an important part of it. They have a team in place to connect with thought-leading vendors and their leading adopter clients to gather insights on various functions, rules, verticals, and sub-segments where AI is taking root. The strength in the marketplace currently lies in the horizontal focus on functions and roles across organizations rather than the various verticals or lines of business. Most AI vendors aim to maximize their total addressable market which is difficult to do when focusing on just one vertical. The Market and Vertically-orientated Competitors Rob predicts that the mix of vertically-oriented competitors will change as the market evolves. Currently, the strength is 80% on functions and roles, 20% on verticals. This approach allows AI vendors to maximize their total addressable market and stay competitive in the market. In this discussion, Rob discusses the implementation of AI solutions in various functions and roles within companies, including IT. He highlights the strengths in CO generation, data and analytics, service management, HR, sales, and marketing. AI in HR, Sales and Marketing, and Operations In HR, AI is being used to improve employee experience by indexing content and interacting with users. Talent acquisition recruiting uses AI on both sides of the recruiting equation, with AI being used in talent assessment, helping to cut through biases and improve diverse hiring. Sales enablement and sales automation tools are the top lead and revenue-driving categories, while customer experience is the top cost-saving category. Operations are also being explored, with AI parsing information captured from video cameras for various applications such as shop floor settings, retail environments, and restaurants. Natural language conversations with equipment can lead to predictive maintenance, allowing organizations to strategize and optimize operations. Robert goes on to explain more about the improvements made using AI in HR, IT, and sales and management. AI-based Solutions in the Retail and Insurance Industry The conversation turns to the use of AI in various industries, including retail, and insurance. In the retail industry, AI-based solutions have impressed with their ability to scan store shelves with smartphones and receive critical metrics like stock availability, pricing, promotion, and competitor positioning. Smart Digital Signage solutions can also be used to adapt to demographics and reactions of customers. In the insurance industry, AI-based solutions include smart digital signage that can adapt to demographics and react to customer reactions. In the insurance industry, AI-based solutions include smart digital signage that can adapt to different demographics and respond to customer needs. Companies are exploring AI solutions to improve employee experience, sales, and marketing, while also focusing on cost-saving and predictive maintenance strategies. Robert discusses the potential benefits of AI in retail, such as real-time reactions to client information, automated stock out detection, and the potential for Google Maps to locate specific items in individual stores. AI in the Legal and Financial Sectors In the legal sector, AI is being used for various purposes, including legal research, contract review, and contract management. This is particularly important for law firms and organizations with understaffed legal teams. In manufacturing, AI is being used to offer real-time instructions to machine line...

Show Notes: Marilyn Lin, a customer service thought leader with over two decades of experience, discusses the importance of customer support in driving business success in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry. She has led global Technical Support Teams that not only resolve issues but also foster customer loyalty, drive renewals, and inform product strategies. In today's competitive SaaS landscape, customer support is not just a cost center but a linchpin of retention and growth. Customer Service in the SaaS Industry The conversation turns to the different terms for customer support, such as customer support, customer service, customer care, and customer success. Marilyn identifies the difference between terms. She equates customer success to the team focused on the health of a customer, focusing on how they are leveraging and using the product and solution, realizing value from their investments. They are more akin to the account management side of the organization, taking care to understand the customer's top priorities and helping guide them through leveraging and using the solution and products they have purchased or subscribed to. She explains that customer support and customer service are terms used interchangeably to describe the professional services provided by teams that help customers implement solutions in their environments. In B-to-C environments, customer care and customer service are more technical support teams, while customer support is more tactical. Subcategories within Customer Service There are different subcategories within customer service, such as onboarding teams, which help new B2B customers onboard with a SaaS company. Major chunks within customer service include customer training and onboarding, customer delivery teams, and customer escalation teams. The support delivery team handles cases and interacts with end users, helping them find solutions to their issues. A customer escalation team is involved when customers escalate issues or outages, ensuring timely resolution. Marylin explains that historically, customer service organizations have been seen as reactive and cost centers rather than a strategic arm. However, there is a treasure trove of insights from the interactions with end users, which can be used to drive improvements in the product and solution. This information can feed into the product development cycle, helping product and engineering teams prioritize their roadmaps and drive customer voice. Support teams can also provide insights related to training and enablement, usability, and user experience, which can be shared with the design team. The Importance of Customer Service in Business The importance of customer service in a business is discussed, including the need for analytics to understand the impact of the customer service team and test interventions in terms of retention rate. A high retention rate can lead to increased value and a better brand image. Marilyn talks about key metrics she pays attention to as V.P. of customer service, including the importance of understanding the time to resolution, common themes of issues, and the financial impact of these metrics is mentioned. In a recurring revenue environment, it is crucial to highlight top case drivers or issues tied back to the customers and provide the ARR to the executive team. The need to prioritize areas like product bug fixes or feature enhancements is stressed, and the cost to serve customers, breaking it down by segments and regions to better understand customer needs and improve efficiency. By focusing on these metrics, businesses can better serve their B2B customers and drive more value. Examples are shared. Tracking Trends and Changes in the Support Business In a V.P. of Customer Experience role, key metrics include time to resolve issues, first time to resolve, and the ability to address user issues with the first interaction. Additionally, the team and individual level is monitored to...

Show Notes: Scott Markman, founder of MonogramGroup, discusses his journey as an entrepreneur and the challenges he faces in the private equity sector. Scott kicks off the conversation with a quick introduction to his podcast, "Beer Stories for Private Equity," which focuses on issues related to the firms, companies they own, and consultants. About the Agency Scott founded the agency, MonogramGroup, in 1990. The agency has evolved from a design firm to a full-fledged agency, with a focus on brand expertise and deliverables. Services include research, insights, positioning strategy, ideation around who or what is a brand today versus tomorrow, building out content, and creating a reservoir of assets. They also address the complexity of audiences, competitors, and going to market. For example, Starbucks has a single brand but must address specific needs for consumers, employees, coffee growers, Wall Street, and social media audiences. Scott talks about the agency’s work and how they serve their market. Defining Brand Scott defines brand as two things: the DNA of an organization, which is connected to the ‘why’ of an organization, relating to Simon Sinek’s definition of a company’s mission, which should connect to all aspects of the brand. The second is that the brand is the everything and Scott explains how this ties to all aspects of the company. This approach has been successful for them serving large global brands for about 20 years, including Life Fitness, Mintel and Sensata, the world's largest maker of sensors for vehicles. A Focus on Private Equity and a New Brand The agency’s focus turned to private equity firms when Scott was introduced to the sector in 1996. They created a brand called Antares Capital, which is the largest provider of credit to PE middle market deals. The success of this brand earned recognition across the private equity sector in North America. The practice has since grown to include 90 clients, and over this period, they have interviewed investment bankers, representatives, institutional capital, pension funds, foundations, insurance companies, hired CEOs, founders, and sellers of businesses to private equity, which has given them in-depth knowledge in this field. Among agencies, there is typically a competitive conflict issue where working for two competitive companies is not allowed. The Role of Branding in Private Equity Firms The conversation turns to the role of branding in private equity firms (PE firms) and their portfolio companies. Scott explains that the business model is to get gigs with PE firms or lenders, but now it is secondary to engagements with portfolio companies. The primary goal is to create relationships with PE firms, building trust and proving themselves. He also discusses the concept of differentiating between PE firms and portfolio companies. Private equity firms are pattern recognizers, template driven, and risk-averse, making them more likely to follow similar practices unlike venture capital. Scott talks about developing distinctive messaging and differentiation for private equity firms when there is a proliferation of thousands of firms following the same patterns in branding. Private equity firms can be categorized into three levels: top, middle, and lower middle market. Scott offers examples of each level and where his agency has served clients and why they focus on serving the lower-middle market. The Diagnostic Guide to Branding Scott talks about Umbrex's diagnostic guide to branding, which is a comprehensive document on the subject matter. He talks about categories within the framework which are a great way to rate a brand on sub-topic factors such as brand strategy, communication, marketing, and customer experience. Scott suggests that this framework could be applied to look at levels A, B, C, and D of complexity and rigor, and then compress and streamline it into a degree of detail and actionability commensurate with the company's size and future...

Show Notes: Matthew Hunt talks about Demandii, a firm that helps busy B2B executives create snackable content for LinkedIn from a single monthly interview. Matthew explains that most clients struggle with time, and they don't know how to create content or want to do it. Demandii offers a structured approach where they interview executives privately, turn their one-hour interview into 40 hours of content in a variety of formats. They then work on it until they are satisfied, and syndicate it across social media, focusing on LinkedIn. Demandii Customers The types of customers for Demandii include CEOs, founders, SAS owners, consultants, and small businesses selling high-ticket items. They help them create various formats of content, such as videos, audio grams, text pieces, and graphic or image pieces. The most impactful content for clients is usually video-based, as people can consume the whole view, see, hear, and feel the content, attracting their tribe. Demandii's primary channel is LinkedIn, as most B2B executives want to be known and seen. The ACES Method for Content Creation Matthew discusses the ACES method for creating content for an audience. The ACES method consists of three core pillars: Authority, Content, Connect, and Engagement. Authority refers to the knowledge and expertise of an expert in a specific field, such as marketing, SEO, or digital PR. Content should be engaging, heartfelt, and relatable to the audience. Engagement is achieved through asking probing questions or starting conversations on social media. S stands for Show and covers showing content, which includes behind-the-scenes stories and achievements, is also important. The 100-foot View Explained The 100-foot view involves creating content that is interesting, compelling, helpful, and that the author will be proud of. The best content creators are good coaches and teachers, and to engage your audience, Matt suggests thinking about a problem the audience has and leading with that. He then states that the content should also agitate the customer by discussing the negative consequences of not solving the problem. This helps the audience recognize that the problem is not their fault and encourages them to resolve it. Matt shares the formula for the above content tactic. The formula for creating content is P, A, S. The formula stands for people plus problem, A is agitate plus absolve, and S is sell with a story or show how you solve the problem. This approach will create content that is helpful and that the author is proud of. The B2B LinkedIn Demand Generation Course In this discussion, Matthew Hunt discusses his B2B LinkedIn course and offers three options for clients: do-it-yourself, done-with-you, and done-for-you. The do-it-yourself course is free and can be completed by busy individuals or those with a team. Done-for-you involves marketing, creating lead magnets, and conducting LinkedIn events to generate inbound interest. The cost of these programs varies depending on the budget. Additional services and content in courses offered by Matthew include creating lead magnets and creating LinkedIn ads. He also offers marketing collateral that makes ideal customers instantly better or more awesome in 10 minutes or less. He talks about targeting large B2B businesses, such as CMOs at manufacturing companies with revenues of 10 million to 100 million, through LinkedIn. The goal is not to sell them, but to push them to long-form content, where they build demand and trust with people. He can create LinkedIn events that resemble interviews or webinars, aiming to position the host as a strategic advisor. The Importance of LinkedIn Events Matthew discusses the importance of LinkedIn events and their effectiveness. He recommends running at least one event every two months, with a minimum of four weeks for promotion. The length of an event depends on who you're selling to, with C suite individuals typically having a 15-minute event. For lower-level...

Show Notes: River Tompkins, a 17-year-old high school senior, started his own consulting practice in Austin, Texas, with five different clients. He provides services in the experimental education space, helping school owners implement systems and train teachers. His first clients were a group of schools in Florida, where he worked on implementing student government and learner-driven accountability. He has been at Ackman Academy for 10 years, a learner-driven off-the-beaten-path education, and now he is going to other younger schools to share his experience. Finding Clients as a New Consultant To find clients, River emailed schools in Florida to see what they were doing and potentially get a teaching job. They eventually invited him to visit for a couple of days to consult. He now seeks out clients with the primary goal of consulting. He targets schools in the Acton Academy domain, as his experience at Acton Academy is not applicable to the general masses. River discusses the unique approach to education that he has developed. He explains that the Acton Academy is a learner-driven model where teachers guide students through their learning process, allowing them to see progress and make decisions. River shares more about the Acton Academy approach and how he sets pricing and payment for his consulting services. Educational Consulting Services Explained River discusses more about the Acton Academy approach and his plans for expanding his practice and mentions giving a guaranteed parent speech to every school he visits, which is his journey, how the Acton approach works and why, followed by a Q&A session. River mentions that the Acton Academy is open to different school types, age groups, and staff levels. The Acton Academy Education in Action The conversation turns to potential education and structure models that work in the Acton Academy by breaking it down into a range of dimensions. River explains that Acton Academy has small class sizes, with elementary students ranging from 20 to 40 kids, middle school students from sixth to eighth grade, and sixth to eighth graders in the same classroom. Acton Academy runs in person classes with online courses through programs like Khan Academy Newsela, allowing students to work on core curriculars like math and reading in the same space while working at their own pace with their own computer. The first half of the day focuses on individual studies, such as math and reading, while the second half is more project-based electives, such as science engineering or real-world skills. Teachers are known as guides while students take a proactive approach to learning. The older kids are encouraged to tutor and mentor the younger ones, focusing on leadership skills. Extracurricular activities are often outside of the school, as they are often independent of the school. Developing a Diagnostic Guide Will Bachman talks about mentoring in education, which can be divided into four dimensions: student-to-student mentoring, academic progression, and open-ended research programs. He suggests that these dimensions should be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, covering all aspects of the educational process. He also mentions the importance of parent involvement and homework and suggests that schools should be assessed based on their maturity model, which includes the maturity of the program, the novice stage, and the developing stage. He mentions that a diagnostic guide could be developed to help identify problems or opportunities. He suggests offering productized offerings, such as a student government module, which can be tailored to the specific needs of the school. Timestamps: 01:07: Consulting Services and Client Engagement 02:54: Finding Clients and Initial Projects 05:07: Contract Negotiation and Pricing 06:03: Future Plans and Service Offerings 08:35: Developing Productized Services 10:24: Acton Academy School Structure and Operations 16:20: Potential for Productized...

Jenelle Sheridan, a former VP and GM at Athleta, discusses how to analyze a retail company. Jenelle has 15 years of experience in retail and e-commerce, working as a consultant and operating executive. She has experience in pre-revenue startups and larger enterprise businesses, and recently launched her consulting and advisory practice, Far View Partners, which focuses on helping consumer and retail companies unlock growth. Jenelle served on the leadership team at Athleta for almost 10 years, leading strategic growth from a $200 million business to over a billion dollars. She has also held functional roles in marketing, strategy, and business development. Metrics to Measure for Success Jenelle emphasizes the importance of metrics in understanding success and how to look at performance in retail companies. She talks about the importance of evaluating company performance and effectiveness across various stages of maturity. Jenelle emphasizes that success depends on growth metrics like brand awareness, customer acquisition, and revenue growth, while profitability is less critical at emerging retailers. For established retailers, operational efficiencies like inventory turns and return on gross margin are critical. The Big Three Metrics for Investors Jenelle states that, regardless of stage of maturity, the big three metrics for investors are same-store sales growth, sales costs, and sales comps. Same-store sales growth measures the change in revenue for stores that have been open for at least a year, helping to isolate organic growth. A strong sales comp metric indicates increasing consumer demand or successful product strategies, while a low or negative rate may signal challenges or market saturation. She explains that best in class sales comps are in the five to seven percent range, the industry average, and discusses the potential consequences of flatlining or decelerating sales comps, such as increased foot traffic, conversion, and basket sizes. Jenelle believes that delivering zero growth is not acceptable for mature brands, as it may not be enough to meet the needs of shareholders and leadership teams. However, if a brand is experiencing flatlining or decelerating sales comps, it is essential to see growth to keep pace with accelerating costs. By focusing on these metrics, retailers can better understand their performance and make informed decisions about their strategies. Underlying Sales Drivers The conversation turns to sales and the underlying drivers such as traffic, conversion rate, and transactions. Stores typically have a lower traffic number, but when traffic decreases, the conversion rate increases due to more intentional buyers. The overall basket size is typically the same, but slightly upticks in the basket size are observed. Jenelle explains that public companies typically report store sales growth on traffic and conversion rate, but some brands and retailers report lower-level metrics, such as average customer spending per year. These metrics are often tied more to the customer rather than the transaction level metric. Gross Margin Metric Gross margin is another key metric in the big three, reflecting the efficiency with which a retailer manages its costs relative to its sales. High-performing companies use pricing power or efficient supply chains to achieve top-tier margins. She offers a few examples from well-known brands. For example, luxury brands can have margins of 60% and above. Jenelle moves on to break down gross margin, average sales per square foot, and how this usually speaks to efficiency. She explains the key factors in achieving this type of sales efficiency, including turning inventory quickly and pricing correctly. A Focus on Inventory Turns Jenelle explains why retailers need to consider inventory turns, which are the frequency of selling and replacing inventory over a period of time. High turnover indicates well-aligned supply and demand management, while low turnover can...

Show Notes: Gerd Schenkel discusses his experience in creating new telco businesses and how to analyze a telecommunications company. Gerd has spent over 10 years as a consultant and 15 years as an executive in banking and telco. He aims to make a differentiation in consulting work by bringing together both worlds. Developing a Telco Company Gerd spent six years at Telstra, Australia's incumbent telco, and three years as the CEO. He talks about his experience there and moves on to his first experience at creating a business which was for National Australia Bank, where he launched a digital bank called EuBank. He later worked as the CEO of a digital team and was tasked with building a telco division. Gerd discusses the creation, development and success of a telco project. He talks about launching a project, what it requires, and what he learned through the process, including accepting and meeting a 10-week launch deadline. He talks about key learnings from his time there, managing the team, product pricing, and making the process of developing and delivering a product simple and effective. A Telstra Broadband Brand Success Telstra's internet broadband product was competing with its parent company's product, but the difference was not in speed or quality. The brand and marketing strategy was more about the connection to the local exchange, where the availability of ports was crucial for competitive dynamics. A former Telstra employee and artist was hired to help develop the brand. The team knew they would need to market locally, and in some areas, they would spend more money. However, they turned this limitation into a positive, creating a brand story called "Belong." The name "Belong" was about belonging to the local neighborhood, and the advertising would be with local shops. The brand was launched with white lists, indicating that the product was only available in certain areas. The name "Belong" was part of the "local connection" concept, and the bank "Eubank" was launched to create a national brand story. Challenges Faced by Telco Startup Gerd discusses the challenges faced by a startup telco, Telstra, in complying with specialist regulations. The telco license had provisions for executing government and police directions, which were not widely known and not widely discussed. Our team was unaware of these requirements until a dedicated Telstra person contacted us about it. The team found a solution by flying a UK-based technician to install the necessary technology in exchanges. Gerd explains that, in terms of regulation, startups can do all their work upfront, but there are always unknowns and unexpected issues that need to be addressed. Flexibility and agility are essential in finding creative solutions, as demonstrated by Telstra's experience. Customer Service, Operations, and Billing Gerd shares an example of changes made to billing, and communication at Telstra. He explains that pro rata was a major cause for complaints due to the high cost of first bills. He talks about costs involved in rolling out a new billing system and how they chose a low-cost platform and how this solution cost them nothing and was immediate, meaning no complaints or phone calls. Gerd emphasizes that the mindset should be on the customer side, focusing on providing the best possible service and experience for customers. Gerd also mentions that Telstra had to configure routers with customers' accounts, which was impossible. They found a solution that was cheaper and more efficient, saving them $3 each. This resulted in no phone calls or track roles, and customers were happy. On the Moving Home Process The conversation turns to the redesign of the moving home process for Telstra, which had a negative NPS of perhaps minus 50 and a churn rate of 85%. The process was outsourced for decades and was a nightmare for customers with multiple products and separate tech stacks. Gerd suggested that they started with a small percentage...

Show Notes: Dan Bauer, a Harvard Business School graduate and independent consultant, talks about the NSLC, or National Student Leadership Conference program, sponsored by Inc Magazine. The program offers a nine-day immersion in entrepreneurship for high school students aged 14 to 18 from around the world. The students are vetted on their GPAs, and the program takes place on six prestigious college campuses, including Yale, Columbia, Duke, Michigan, Cal-Berkeley, and UCLA. The NSLC Origins Story The origin story for the program began with Dan’s business, the MBA Exchange, which focused on career and education consulting. After selling the business in 2016, he decided to find another outlet for teen entrepreneurship education and found that there was room for a better resource with the pedigree of top colleges and a platform for engagement with real-world entrepreneurs from various industries. Dan chose to aggregate best-in-class offerings, such as curriculum, camp teachers, and sponsors, and worked with them to create a successful partnership. Unpacking the NSLC Program The National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) provides campus housing, administration, supervision, academic adjacent components, social aspects, leadership training, field trips, and dorm life for high school students. It also offers a business simulation where students make real-time decisions that impact the share price of a fictitious public company. The competition is augmented by a pitch competition where students form small teams and work together to formulate a business idea using lessons learned about business and entrepreneurship. There are four sets of partners: individual colleges providing dorm space and classroom space, the National Student Leadership Conference providing administration, adult supervision, and teachers from the National Federation of Teaching Entrepreneurship. Inc. Magazine promotes the program and participates in the curriculum and structure. Teachers also participate in the judging panel and presentations for the group going to Columbia. Dan explains what his experience brings to the table and experiences gained through recruitment and outreach to CEOs who want to pay it forward and share their experience and knowledge. The NSLC Model Dan explains the structure of the business, which is a joint venture between a group of partners, with the NSLC being the core strength. They have a solid foundation in hands-on interaction with students and parents, with full-time staff. Dan handles interaction with entrepreneurs, speakers, and judges, while NFTE handles teacher selection training and placement. Inc. provides promotional support and weighs in on content topics and speaker selection. The conversation turns to building long-term, intensive relationships with schools, which involve multiple administrators on both ends. Dan explains that the typical profile of students attending is diverse, from introverts to Alpha students who demonstrate leadership and charisma. The teams are built accordingly, balancing EQ and IQ strengths. The diversity of the group, geographically, racial, racially, gender, and interest wise, is a plus for the experience. The Curriculum and Learning Outcomes The curriculum for the program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of marketing, operations, finance, and leadership. It is an interactive program that includes topics like break even ratios, valuations, partnerships, and strategic alliances. One of the highlights was the introduction of AI in business models, which inspired students to explore new ideas and Dan shares the range of impressive innovative ideas the students developed. The program fits well with traditional business education programs like Junior Achievement, which has an academic bias and advisors. The program mixes students from various backgrounds into the same classroom, allowing them to learn from each other, teachers, mentors, and pitch judges....

Jonathan Schwartz discusses how to analyze a manufacturing company. Jonathan's background includes working in operations improvement, starting with manufacturing and then transitioning to banking and non-manufacturing roles. He has worked with private equity firms and has been a lean champion at a private equity firm. Sales and Operations Planning Process One of the first types of analysis Jonathan talks about is the sales and operations planning process (SOP), which involves integrating what is being told to the sales team with what is being produced. This alignment and match is based on the equipment and production capabilities of the company. The main idea is to align what is going to make the plant the most money with how it is incentivizing the sales team.The main idea is to align what is being sold with what is being produced, and to charge more based on the value added services provided by the company. This aligns with the company's goals and equipment to make the most money. Production Scheduling Process Jonathan explains that the production scheduling process in a company can be complex, with different tools used for larger plants and more complex situations. For example, a simple company might schedule production in batches, depending on the flexibility of their equipment and the economic batch size. This helps avoid having a large amount of inventory sitting in inventory when orders are placed for other parts. In some cases, private label products may not be suitable for production, while others may require make to stock or make to order processes. Delays in customization can affect the capacity to build up inventory. To assess the quality of a factory's production scheduling, it is important to consider the number of changes in the schedule over time and overall on-time delivery. An assessment of inventory levels can help identify bottlenecks, quality problems, equipment downtime, or matching schedules from pre-production steps to middle production steps. Visualizing the inventory levels and identifying visible metrics or schedules can help identify areas for improvement. Jonathan shares a couple of war stories as examples. New Process Implementation and Change Management The conversation turns to implementing a new process. In manufacturing, while some change management communications can be done ahead of time, training should be done right before the team starts using the new process, rather than a week or two weeks ahead of time. As soon as you implement something that makes their jobs easier, employees become a fountain of ideas and improvements, which can lead to quick changes in morale and overall productivity. Jonathan states that a clear production schedule is crucial for ensuring everyone knows what's up next for their line and is prepared for any changes. By implementing a two-bin system and addressing stockouts, organizations can improve on-time delivery numbers and predictability. He suggests that steady usage can help determine the appropriate amount of inventory to hold, while unpredictable demand can lead to overstocking. He explains how to avoid stock outs and also emphasizes the importance of supplier quality evaluation, which involves ensuring parts are qualified for new products before they are released to production. Jonathan shares an example from a Motorola plant in Atlanta. Supplier Quality Management Jonathan discusses the importance of supplier quality management in a manufacturing plant. He emphasizes the need for a sophisticated system to identify and address problems in parts and suppliers. This system involves intake department workers, who need to know whether a part goes into income inspection or goes straight to stock. Inspectors need to be trained to identify and address issues, as it is costly to inspect parts and impossible to inspect 100% of everything. When assessing a manufacturing plant's supplier quality management program, Jonathan talks about the metrics in place...

Sanjay Iyer, a consultant for 25 years, discusses the evolution of telecommunications companies, focusing on network, infrastructure, quality, and coverage analysis. He explains that coverage is the first aspect of a network, determining the reach and number of homes it can deliver service to. The structure of networks has evolved over the years, with different types of networks for broadband, such as fiber to the home, hybrid fiber coax, and fixed wireless axis. Assessing the Infrastructure Quality Sanjay explains the process of assessing the infrastructure quality of a telecommunications company, which involves evaluating speeds, latency, and other factors such as the density of homes in the neighborhood. Speeds are rated at megabits per second, but factors like the number of people using television, density of homes, and latency can affect the speed of upstream and downstream packets. Latency is another factor that covers systemic network design quality. Sanjay also mentions that there are temporary issues in a coax network, such as fluctuation noise and overhead versus underground cables. To understand the total quality of a network, it is essential to separate temporary issues from systemic problems. He suggests measuring the quality at a home level, rather than at the broad network level. Network Assessment Factors Sanjay explains the importance of assessing network outcomes such as latency and speed when buying a provider and explains why companies should focus on outcome metrics and infrastructure quality. He talks about the first and second metric, capital expenditure efficiency and network upgrades. Sanjya explains why getworks have been continuously groomed and expanded to deliver more bandwidth over the years, and understanding how they have done it historically and what it will take to achieve the gold standard of one gigabits per second downstream to every home is crucial and what it would cost. Challenges Faced when Analyzing Networks The conversation turns to the challenges companies face in analyzing their own networks, as there is no single source of truth for determining their network coverage. One challenge is the cost of bandwidth, which can be expensive and unpredictable. To get the bandwidth right, companies must calculate the capex efficiency model, which assumes an average number of households per node and exploits it to the entire country. This model is often incorrect, leading to unpredictable network costs. Another challenge is fiber optic and broadband penetration analysis. The Federal Communications Commission has created a national database that tracks every household's speed and coverage from service providers. This information is publicly available and can be used to analyze homes and serviceable locations. The FCC has also created a service coverage map at a national scale, which can be used to allocate government capital to underserved areas and subsidize network bills. Analyzing Market Share Sanjay discusses the process of analyzing market share in a given market. He uses the FCC database to measure network footprint, focusing on census block group levels to determine customer penetration. Machine learning is particularly interesting as it provides insights into customer profiles, economic or household level information, which can help predict underperformance, overperformance, and areas for improvement. Iyer is currently working on building tools to predict the ROI of broadband investments, analyzing existing footprints and adjacent locations, and predicting expansion paths. He is also involved in generative AI, which is popular but not widely adopted due to issues with LLM tech adoption. Iyer is developing a governance model that looks at all aspects of Gen AI, from use cases to production and costs, and is building products with an AI-first approach, using tools like chat and GPT to develop software products based on specific requirements. Timestamps: 04:30: Assessing...

Matt Sobieski discusses the process of helping a manufacturing plant improve its performance by understanding the problem statement and 47 different analyzes. He suggests talking to the plant manager or head of operations to understand the biggest challenges, cost buckets, operational constraints, and capacity constraints. Diving into One of 47 Analyzes Matt explains more about the 47 analyzes, one of which is the cost of goods sold, breakdown, and margin analysis, which helps in understanding the cost structure of the plant. This includes examining production, backlogs, inventory levels, and other factors. In the case of an agricultural manufacturing company during the pandemic, the focus was on streamlining their ordering process to increase productivity. Matt also discusses the importance of understanding the big cost buckets, such as labor, materials, waste, and inventory management. He shares a case where a client had issues with their cost per unit, where they could not get their arms around their cost per unit. The data provided by the client was not high-quality, and it was difficult to differentiate between different lines. Matt shares a few ways to address this issue. Dealing with an Inflationary Environment In the current inflationary environment in the US, costs have been increasing, particularly labor costs. Consultants can help plants by asking questions and providing a fresh perspective to understand why material costs and overtime costs are high. This can lead to better scheduling and equipment utilization, which can help reduce costs and improve productivity. One example of this is an agricultural manufacturing plant where the plant manager was unaware of the importance of morning production meetings. By asking open-ended questions and being curious about how things run, consultants can identify areas for improvement. Overall Equipment Effectiveness Operations professionals should always have a plan for the day and recover from deviations when necessary. Asking open-ended questions and understanding the fundamentals of operations can help identify areas for improvement. One analysis that consultants like to use is the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), which is a measure of overall equipment effectiveness. OEE is calculated by comparing the performance of different pieces of equipment and identifying areas for improvement. Matt goes on to explain how the analysis of OEE is defined and quality calculated. He stresses that it is crucial to calculate the correct OEE and quality first time, as not all units are produced correctly. It is important to ensure that the correct approach is taken when analyzing OEE data. Identifying Waste in Manufacturing Plants Matt discusses the concept of identifying waste in manufacturing plants, including the classic seven or eight types of waste. They highlight the importance of removing waste to improve efficiency and productivity. One such type is intellect, which involves people using their brain power inefficiently. To identify waste, they suggest using GEMBA (Go where the work is happening) to observe people and their actions. One example is an automotive plant that had a production cell with two operators, causing a lot of motion. To address this, they moved parts from one end of the line to the middle, reorganizing the path for forklift drivers. This resulted in faster unloading times for parts coming in and out of the area. Matt emphasizes the impact of simple things like moving parts to central locations and reducing the time spent on unloading parts and shares an example that helped eliminate waste and improve efficiency and productivity. The Importance of Fresh Perspectives when Addressing Issues in Supply Chains Matt shares an example of a company that had to print labels for products and then wait for them to be printed. To address this, they developed a Kanban system where labels were printed ahead of time for all SKUs, eliminating the need for waiting...

Show Notes: Paul Millerd, author of The Pathless Path and Good Work talks about his books. He explains the behind-the-scenes process of writing about work and the relationship to it. He explains the origin story of The Pathless Path, and how falling love with a woman and with writing led to a complete change in his professional direction. Paul, who had worked in strategy consulting for many years, left his full-time job and became a freelancer. He talks about this experience and how he felt like he was wasting his talent and needed a new story to make sense of how he felt and identify the possibilities that were emerging. The book is not a how-to book, but a friendly companion or guide for people already on similar paths. The book offers mental models, frameworks, and inspirational stories to help them venture into their own work. The conversation turns to money earned and why Paul chose to make less as a freelancer than he had in an employed position. He also talks about the impact of the money script and how societal views on taking a less-trodden path. A Discussion on Good Work Paul explains that 'good work' is defined as connecting with oneself and the work, which can be done in various forms. He believes that good work is time well spent, things one cares about, and that it will be interesting to see if people will connect with it. Paul shares his experience of writing for seven and a half years, where he has earned less than 30 grand a year due to some sales in his first book. He and his wife are aligned on the trade-offs and sacrifices they make, such as not owning a house or moving abroad for lower costs. Paul believes that good work is not for everyone, but rather for those who find it fulfilling and want to point their life in this direction. He has met hundreds of people from around the world who have material circumstances, but generally, they are not elite, educated, or high-wage workers. He doesn't recommend it for high achievers with expensive lives, as it is difficult to break out of the identity around status and continued achievement. Examples of Good Work Paul also shares examples of people doing what they consider good work, which is not necessarily creative pursuits. For example, someone taking care of a sick relative can shift work during their career, while a singer in Greece shares his music and feels good when he does so. He believes that good work is about prioritizing something of value in one's life and not just making money from it. Over the last year, Paul has been doing nothing but write and take care of his daughter, spending more than he has brought in, and seeing his income decline dramatically over the past six months. However, he believes that if he can get five to 10 experiences of writing a book or doing similar things, he will be happier with how he spends his life. Exploring the Concept of Leaving Money on the Table In the chapter Leave Money on the Table, Paul explains the importance of leaving money on the table and the challenges faced by those on unconventional or creative paths. He shares his experience of taking a pay cut to get a job at McKinsey from GE, leaving before receiving bonuses one month before. After quitting his final job, he watched his savings dwindle, but as he slowly started to make money, he found he was enjoying life more. He talks about getting paid in different ways, in experiences, time, and fun. He started to attract good people into his life and values these experiences. The conversation turns to how this concept applies to independent consultants. They should consider factors such as learning something, liking the people, having a decent lifestyle, making decent money, and potentially leading to future work. Paul believes that independent freelancers must leave money on the table to sustain their journey. He advises asking questions like how much would be paid for a project, how excited he is, and what he would do with the money he gets from each...