AmCham's 'How Business Really Works' Podcast

Cory Middleton today speaks to our host Duff Watkins about your 'A Game' and the hidden forces that are shaping it.

Do you have an A Game? Can you find your A Game? Listen in to hear all about it!

Dr Cory Middleton is an internationally recognised mental toughness expert, speaker and mindset coach (Performance Psychologist) providing performance enhancement workshops and one-on-one coaching to help you Activate Your A-Game. Cory helps business and sporting teams to get unstuck - activating personal strengths, increasing mental agility and toughness, whilst building the determination, focus and confidence they need to accelerate high performance results.

Formally at the Australian Institute of Sport (Performance Psychology), Cory completed ground breaking PhD research into the identification and development MENTAL TOUGHNESS. He reviewed over 70 years of resilience research that included examples from military, emergency services, survivors of abuse and neglect, and rehabilitation from trauma and injury. Next he worked closely with 33 World Champions and Olympic Gold Medallists, identifying their pattern of high performance thinking. Cory produced a world-leading mental toughness competency framework along with a psychometrically proven questionnaire (Fortius-Mindset) that informs the design of evidence-based development solutions.

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Today our host Duff Watkins learns how a business of style stays in style with his guest Andy Lew, Managing Director Asia Pacific at Brooks Brothers.

You'll learn how America's original clothier has survived in every changing, sometime turbulent, global economic environment for 198 years. You'll also find out why 39 out of 44 US Presidents wear one particular brand of clothing!

In 1818, Henry Sands Brooks founded Brooks Brothers, the first ready-to-wear fashion emporium in America. Since then, they are proud to have upheld the same traditions and values with a steadfast commitment to American manufacturing for nearly two centuries, operating over 400 stores worldwide.

They believe it is because of their attention to fine quality, personal service, commitment to social good and exceptional value that their customers consider them to be far more than a store.

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Our host Duff Watkins speaks with the 72nd Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe on this podcast episode. Since being sworn-into office, Governor McAuliffe has aggressively focused on building a new Virginia economy.

Whether traveling to Bedford or Beijing, Governor McAuliffe has made it clear that his number one priority is economic development and he is working hard to create and maintain jobs throughout the Commonwealth.

The Governor is also working to restore trust in government. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order imposing a $100 gift ban on himself, his family, and members of his administration and their families. He established through executive order the Commission on Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government, which will focus on ethics oversight and enforcement, limits on gifts and loans, rules on conflicts of interest, disclosure requirements and post-public service restrictions.

Governor McAuliffe has proven that his administration will be smart stewards of Virginia's transportation dollars. Demonstrating his commitment to bipartisanship, he worked with Republican leadership on House Bill 2 to prioritise transportation projects based on what is best for Virginia's commuters, not politicians. He followed through on his commitment to lowering the downtown/midtown tunnel tolls to alleviate the burden on Hampton Roads residents, commuters, and businesses. He eliminated the EZ Pass maintenance fee for all Virginia commuters, and suspended work on Route 460, because he does not believe that Virginia taxpayers should be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a road when we don't have permits to ensure its completion. Governor McAuliffe also worked with the Governor of Maryland and the Mayor of the District of Columbia to invest $75 million in our regional metro system – taking cars off the roads and relieving congestion.

Governor McAuliffe understands that in order to compete for the jobs of tomorrow, it is essential that we make key investments today. The Governor signed legislation increasing the amount of Virginia qualified research and development expenses that can now be claimed as a tax credit.

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Chris Heathcote CEO of the Global Infrastructure Hub discusses why infrastructure is so important for every society with our host Duff Watkins.

Find out why everyone wants a piece of the infrastructure pie.

Chris Heathcote was appointed CEO of the Global Infrastructure Hub in June 2015.

Chris brings a wealth of knowledge in infrastructure, developed through extensive experience in both the public and private sector.

Previously, Chris was a Director of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets in the United Kingdom. His additional, recent, private sector experience includes positions held with WestLB AG and Lloyds Banking Group. During his time with these companies, Chris was involved in infrastructure projects in the United States, Europe, Turkey, China, the Ivory Coast and Australia.

Chris also served as head of project finance at Partnerships UK (a joint UK Treasury and privately-owned company, which promoted the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public Private Partnerships (PPP)), with a focus on major infrastructure projects including the Wembley National Stadium and London Underground. He has also advised the Brazilian Government on preparing and executing a PPP program, and co-authored of the UK Government White Paper "Meeting the Investment Challenge" while working in the UK Treasury. Chris also structured major road projects in Israel and South Africa.

Chris was also a founding partner of Hyder Infrastructure Investors in the mid-1990s, one of the early infrastructure equity funds. The fund was involved in financing of projects including Melbourne City Link, the Asian Infrastructure Fund and many United Kingdom public infrastructure projects funded with private capital.

Governor of Nevada, Brian Sandoval speaks to our podcast host Duff Watkins on ' The New Nevada' on our podcast today. You'll learn how the 'driest state in the U.S.' leads the Nation in water innovation, why and how Nevada is the lighthouse for Economic Development and much more.

Brian Sandoval was elected the 30th Governor of Nevada in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. In 2005 he was appointed United States District Judge for the District of Nevada and in 2002 he was elected Attorney General of Nevada. He has previously served as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and in the Nevada Legislature.

His accomplishments as Governor include work to make Nevada the most veteran and military-friendly state in the nation, transforming Nevada's approach to economic development, expanding health care coverage, implementing new innovative gaming policy and leading the effort for an unprecedented investment in and modernisation of Nevada's public education system.

During his inaugural legislative session, Governor Sandoval transformed Nevada's approach to economic development by moving the duties directly under his authority and created the Governor's Office of Economic Development.

The hallmark of the Governor's administration is his vision for transforming and modernising Nevada's education system. An unprecedented investment to reform Nevada's education system was enacted in 2015 which will provide targeted programs to boost student achievement and equip students and teachers with the tools for success as innovators, job creators, and leaders of the new Nevada economy.

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Have you ever wondered how a company chooses a charity? Did you know a company should research which company they should support in the exact same way they would research a company to go into business partnership with? Learn all about this and more in today's podcast with our host Duff Watkins Judy Tanna who is the National Major Donor Manager at The Smith Family.

The Smith Family is a national children's charity that helps disadvantaged young Australians to succeed at school, so they can create better futures for themselves.

The Smith Family steps into a disadvantaged child's life while they are still at school, to help them get the most from their time there.

By supporting a child to participate in education, The Smith Family prevents them experiencing a lifetime of poverty. Established in 1922, today their work reaches more than 124,902 disadvantaged children and families in 94 communities across Australia. By investing in a child's education, we can break a cycle of disadvantage.

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Our podcast host today Robert Hossary, General Manager NSW/ACT at The American Chamber of Commerce discusses 'Authentic Leadership' with guest Gavin Fox-Smith, Managing Director at Johnson & Johnson Medical ANZ and AmCham Governor.

Mr Fox-Smith joined Johnson & Johnson Medical Australia/NZ in 1997 as a Regional Business Director and in February 2012 was appointed Managing Director for Global Surgery and Johnson & Johnson Medical ANZ. Over the past 15 years Gavin has held leadership roles in Sales, Marketing and General Management across Ethicon, EES, DePuy and Cordis.

The ongoing problems in business leadership in the past has underscored the need for a new kind of leader in the twenty-first century: the authentic leader. You also do not have to be at the top of your organization. Anyone can learn to be an authentic leader.

The journey begins with leaders understanding their life stories. Authentic leaders frame their stories in ways that allow them to see themselves not as passive observers but as individuals who learn from their experiences. These leaders make time to examine their experiences and to reflect on them, and in doing so they grow as individuals and as leaders. Authentic leaders also work hard at developing self-awareness through persistent and often courageous self-exploration. Denial can be the greatest hurdle that leaders face in becoming self-aware, but authentic leaders ask for, and listen to, honest feedback. They also use formal and informal support networks to help them stay grounded and lead integrated lives.

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What does trust mean to you? To Keith Dugdale, Duff Watkins' guest on today's podcast, trust is what matters and without it, everything becomes suspicious.

Keith is a successful author, business coach and international speaker on client relationships and building trust in business. He is the co-author of the best-selling "Smarter Selling: How to grow sales by building trusted relationships" published by Financial Times Prentice Hall, which has now been translated into 5 languages including Chinese and Russian, and is the co-developer of the ENGAGE training program which has been delivered to more than 10,000 people worldwide, directly resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.

For more than 30 years, Keith's career focus has been on relationships between people in business, primarily in a sales environment. This has led him to a career with positions varying from head of training and development for PwC China to a business development and sales coach in Australia. Having learned the consulting ropes whilst at PwC, Keith set up his own consulting business in 2004 running sales training and coaching, and now works closely professional services and business-to-business organisations all over the world, helping them to improve the trust they have in their relationships both internally and externally.

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In this episode, Duff discusses the 'US Election Reality Show' with Matt Bai, National Political Columnist, Yahoo! News.

Matt Bai is the national political columnist for Yahoo! News, where his "Political World" column appears every Thursday. Before joining Yahoo at the end of 2013, he was the chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, where he covered three presidential campaigns, and a columnist for the Times.

In addition to being a national US political journalist, Matt is a published author, screenwriter and sometime actor – having played himself in several episodes of the second season of the Netflix series House of Cards. He also appears regularly on major national US political television shows as an expert commentator.

Matt is presently covering the US Presidential Election for Yahoo News. This is the fourth Presidential election he has covered as a major political journalist. His weekly column 'Political World' is widely read with his most recent column on Donald Trump generating in excess of 12,000 comments.

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Everyone has a story and everyone needs to know how to tell their business story. Today Duff Watkins and his guest Alan Weiss will discuss why and how you need to tell this story.

Alan Weiss is a consultant, speaker and author. His consulting firm Summit Consulting Group, Inc. attracts clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz and many more.

Alan is an inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame® and the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence, representing the top 1% of professional speakers in the world. He has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, one of only two people in history holding both those designations.

Thankyou for your continued support of this podcast series. Please continue to let us know how we can improve this service for you by sending an email to [email protected]