Economics & Strategy Podcast

For Episode 51, MS-EPA graduate Roxy Kozyckyj joins us. Roxy is Senior Director, State Government & Regional Affairs for the advanced medical technology association AdvaMed and has spent most of her career in healthcare policy, from advocacy, to intern, to analyst, capitol hill fellow, and finally lobbyist. This experience gives her the ability to see how policy goals that serve everyone, require working, step-by-step through the interested parties. Roxy openly admits game theory plays a role in her work and backward induction seems to fit well. Think of it this way, start with a policy goal, navigate backwards solving each preceding step, the resulting path theoretically achieves the desired outcome. Sounds strategic to me. Give it a listen.

It’s the end of winter term, and we’re talking insurance; you’ll be surprised by what you hear. Andrew Zarkowsky, MBA 2018, is Technology Industry Practice Leader for the insurance giant The Hartford and specializes in underwriting technology firms. In this episode, Andrew explains what’s unique about insurance for technology firms and shares how today’s insurance companies rely on technology, data, and research to forecast risk and prevent client losses. Andrew also has an interesting story to tell about his MBA journey and the value of pacing while pursuing your MBA. It’s a story of balancing life, school, and work, and simultaneously super charging you’re learning. It’s a great strategy for anyone who wants to make the most of your learning. Give it a listen.

For February, we host yet another successful woman from the economics department’s graduate program, Mollie Markham. After a brief learning experience pursuing politics at the front lines in DC, she discovered what she doesn’t want in a career. Fully embracing that lesson and, with some great counsel from family, she entered DePaul’s graduate program. The rest is or will be legend as Mollie is now a Program Specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Her timing could not have had better, as she entered this role at the start of one of the Feds biggest developments in 50 years; the building of a new instant payment system called FedNOW. Happy, successful, and working on really cool stuff. That’s the recipe for a good life right there.

To kick off 2024, we begin a new, and perhaps recurring version of this podcast called Check Ins. Here, we’re going to welcome back previous guests to update the topics we discussed in our original interview. For our inaugural episode, we welcome back Dave Ziegelski. Dave is Vice President of Information Technology for National Material L.P.; a partnership of over 30 business units in steel, metals, and related operations that is now one of the largest suppliers of steel in America. That is a high-profile role where there’s a lot at stake. Dave, though, has a way of boiling down the complex into simply, straightforward tasks. To me, a sign he’s not only very good at what he does, but likely a very good person to work with. Give it a listen

For December we offer part 2 with MBA alumnus, and rail industry veteran Marcin Taraszkiewicz. In this episode we talk about trains, trains, and more trains. Yes, Marcin plays with big toys on big projects, but his work really exists at the nexus of rail technology and client goals. His industry recognized expertise helps clients navigate those often-competing forces towards better project outcomes. These large projects tend to have a host of competing stakeholder interests, and things can get complicated fast. Luckily, markets respond quickly to public priorities and, consequently, there’s some cool stuff happening in rail technology. Big trains and cool technology, what more do you want!? Listen in.....

November begins a 2-part podcast with MBA alumnus Marcin Taraszkiewicz from the global design & engineering firm HDR. In this part 1, Marcin explains how he went from a design focused engineer to senior leader for large, multidisciplinary transportation projects. A transformation that took time, some failure, learning to ask questions, and how to value those answers. He gives some great examples of how being open to learning, by whatever means, he developed skills and interests that he didn’t know he had or even wanted. The lesson is that even perfectly designed plans, developed in a vacuum, are often useless without the input of all the stakeholders involved. If that isn’t strategic, I don’t know what is. Give it a listen.

October brings in MBA alumna Alla Antonov, to discuss her role as Principal Advisor, Commercial Strategy at the mining giant Rio Tinto. Alla specializes in Rio’s borates market. Rio, though, is a global, diversified firm with many products and an interesting business structure of four distinct operational entities and a single commercial team, Alla's home, serving as its primary market interface for all products. This is a great business with competitive advantage and high returns to capital. A nice place to be for any firm but the question then becomes what are you going to do next? Rio Tinto isn’t standing idle. They’re innovating for efficiencies, embracing technology to lower environmental impacts and continuing to explore the world for the resources it needs. It's a good story and you should hear it.

Let’s welcome strategy alumnus Howard Gilman to the podcast. Howard currently serves as Lead Deal Desk Strategist for LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions group. LinkedIn, as a firm, is many things though; software company, social media platform, hiring & recruiting services, and more. So, what’s the product, and who’s the customer? Well, it depends. For Howard’s group, it's firm’s looking for market intelligence to grow their business but what about the others? Such is the nature of a multi-sided platform. A business model that seeks to create value for distinct groups interacting across a core technology platform. LinkedIn has built a very elegant and focused version of this model. What to know more? Keep Listening!

For August, MS-EPA alumnus Jason Knoespel joins us to discuss his work as Managing Director, Client Analytics at Evolent; a provider of technology, reporting, and intelligence services designed to increase efficiency & patient outcomes for its healthcare partners. Jason talks about his current work, new developments in value-based care, information sharing and big data, and the potential of non-traditional health determinants. Evolving markets do make strategy challenging, but Evolent recently showed its strategic guile by refocusing into value-based, specialty care. Indicating this market could be engaging in value addition; a concept where firms focus on separate & distinct segments and increase value for everyone. A rare economic win/win? Listen in.

In our July episode MBA alumna Amy Wilson joins us to discuss her work at the market leading cloud services provider Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amy sells AWS offerings to state and local governments that operate in Windows environments. In this increasingly competitive industry, there are reasons why this segment would seem difficult to crack; even for AWS. So how do they overcome these difficulties? Using the strategic principle of looking ahead and reasoning back. AWS looked ahead to each stage of client interactions, anticipated obstacles (perceived or real), and designed optimal responses to reinforce their market leading strengths. Leading with your strengths, I like that! You should give it a listen.

This episode welcome’s strategy alumnus Dain Rideau. As a Product Manager for autonomous vehicle developer Torc Robotics, he works on connecting vehicles to information. Torc, a subsidiary of industry leading OEM Daimler Truck, focuses on self-driving trucks and while this space is filled with strategic uncertainty, this OEM partnership is a strategic marvel. Why? During uncertainty, a leading firm’s priority is to protect its position. This partnership allows Daimler to participate in the advancement of autonomous technologies in its own vehicles. Simultaneously protecting its position and embracing the change, whatever that looks like. Smart! Listen in.

This month we meet Liam Bruno, a Double Demon currently serving as Senior Manager for Procurement at Walgreens. Liam’s focus is on integrating ESG into day-to-day operations. ESG is, of course, well established and proven to create value when executed well, but there are many obstacles. Still, forward thinking firms like Walgreens are widening their definition of stakeholder to include social and environmental interests; seeing the potential payoff of cooperation between this wider interest group. In essence, Liam’s role is seeking, what economic theory calls, a Pareto optimal solution, where all these interest groups are served while taking away from none. How does he do that? Listen in.

In this episode we meet entrepreneur Philip Costa Hibberd. Philip designs and builds robotic process automation, or RPA, for clients in the finance industry. He solves a productivity problem by automating rote computer tasks often done by highly paid analysts. This is a great example of firm-level microeconomics where investments change production functions and the allocation of resources towards more efficient use. Seems intuitive but nice to see theory meet reality. Efficiency is always a strategic imperative and not just in perfectly competitive markets. Philip helps his clients get there. He’s also got a terrific outlook on life and business that’s worth hearing too. You should listen!

In this Part 2 with Aaron Pagel, we learn more about his practice of wandering, and how ultimately that inspired him to ask an interesting question; what is hype? Turns out, isolating hype as a function itself, apart from its context, is relatively uncharted territory with little precedent or literature to lean on. So, he decided to enter a PhD program and find out for himself. The open-ended, scholarly research process is the perfect sandbox to create and test these ideas. Is this a final destination? Maybe, maybe not, but that inspiration resulted from the curiosity before it, and whatever is next will result from the same. And so, it goes. Want to be inspired? Listen in…

This month, I’m delighted to welcome my friend and creator & original host of this podcast Aaron Pagel. Aaron is currently pursuing a PHD at University of Oregon in Management Strategy with emphasis on Hype. However, his path getting there was anything but a straight line. He joins us for part one of a two-part interview to discuss his unorthodox career path, lessons learned along the way, and where he’s going now. His story is a reminder that opportunity comes in unexpected ways, and at seemingly random times. However, good decisions at those moments are made easier with varied experience, openness to change, and even a little creativity. Life’s short, enjoy the ride and make sure you listen in!

To start the year, I spoke with DePaul MBA Alumna Paulina Costa, Sales Director – Americas at Kalsec. Paulina has always been a natural in sales but completing her MBA positioned her to become sales lead for Kalsec’s entire Latin American territory. Kalsec is a global provider of taste and sensory solutions. Which means, they research, test, and produce the all-natural ingredients used by CPG companies to ensure their products are safe and delicous. This critical input market has seen some consolidation of late. Fortunately, Kalsec enjoys some competitive advantages, that allow them to defend existing markets while expanding into new ones. Want to hear how? Settle in and give it a listen!

For December’s episode, I was honored to speak with US Military Veteran, Double-Demon, and MBA Strategy Alumna Rachel Burke. Rachel’s impressive combination of career experiences landed her at the seemingly perfect spot as Director of implementation at the Industrial AI firm Uptake. Here we discuss that combination, Uptake’s fascinating work, and why her role is a great example of the strategic concept of specific investments. These types of investments, whether human or physical, signal a commitment to clients and also lower the relative cost of outsourcing vs internalizing things that may be beyond the efficient boundary of a client’s organization.

This month DePaul MBA alumnus Dan Jungels and I discussed how to successfully enter new markets. A topic Dan knows well as he was fortunate enough to go straight from the Business Strategy & Decision Making classrooms into the exact challenge he’d been training for. In his current role as Manager of Renewable Energy Strategy and Business Development at the manufacturer Panduit, he has helped plan, executed, and continually adapt to just such an expansion. In this episode we learn Panduit's process and how they leveraged firm specific and usage flexible resources to find the best target for expansion. This is an interesting one, you should listen in.

In this episode I hosted DePaul MBA alumnus Dave Ziegelski, Vice President of Information Technology at National Material LP, to discuss his career in IT and the increasingly important role it plays in strategic planning. It IS a digital world and IT touches everything in it, connecting resources & people through process & data. Through Dave’s career he’s accumulated both deep knowledge and some healthy perspective on the subject. While his knowledge has earned him a seat in the strategic planning process, his perspective reminds him that for all of ITs big potential, it always best to start by listening to people and solving their problems first. An important lesson for sure, you should listen in.

To welcome a new academic year, I was joined by MBA alumna Alison Tinnon, Senior Campaign Manager at StudioNorth. As an agency-based marketing professional Alison helps other firms navigate their own strategic goals. This puts her right at the nexus of markets and firms and economists love that! It also requires a clear understanding of both a firm’s current positioning in the eyes of customers & competitors and, tactically, how to get them where they want to go. In this episode, Alison describes why the tools of Economics are uniquely applicable in her role and how they help her see things more clearly. It’s a really great example of the power of economics in business strategy – you should listen!