Inflect

Michael Daehne is joined by Amy Mills, fellow animal lover and CEO of Emancipet, a veterinary care non-profit.

Amy reflects on her tenure at Emancipet, sharing about her journey transitioning from youth service to veterinary care and into leadership at a rapidly growing non-profit. Amy explains Emancipet’s mission to address the access-to-care gap that 60 million pets are challenged by in America. Amy also shares about Emancipet’s large cultural shift when expanding beyond only spay/ neuter services to provide more holistic veterinary care for pets in need. 

There’s no doubt that Amy has had an immeasurable impact on Emancipet and hundreds of thousands of pets and families across the country.

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

Michael Daehne is joined William Wu, fellow Longhorn, public accountant, and expense optimization aficionado. 

William describes his path from public accounting to management consulting focused on ERP implementations and then to expense optimization consulting, sharing lessons learned from across his expertise. He then takes us behind the scenes at his firm, Expense Reduction Analysts, and talks through the process of assessing, baselining, and optimizing spend.

William’s passion for coaching his son’s baseball team shines through near the end of the episode, which is particularly delightful.

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

In this episode, Michael Daehne talks with Ben Rogers, Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, where he teaches and conducts research around management and organizational behavior. 

They discuss Ben’s research around the meaning of work and narratives in the workplace, and specifically how the hero’s journey is a way for us all to find meaning in our work. He shares how using the seven hero’s journey elements that he and fellow researchers identified – protagonist, shift, quest, allies, challenge, transformation, and legacy – can apply from large-scale business transformations to our everyday lives.

In the lightning round, he shares some wise advice from a show Michael and Ben both love, Parks and Recreation, as well as pointing us to a podcast about comedians working at theme parks. 

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

Kim Ehrman takes the mic from Michael Daehne to share what barbecue and business transformation have in common – and what we can learn from their similarities. 

Since at FlexPoint, we care deeply about both barbecue and business transformation, and excelling in them can be tricky, we compiled five lessons that apply to both. They include:

1. Make a plan before you light the fire. 
2. Keep it simple, stupid. 
3. Measure, monitor, and adjust. 
4. Pack your patience and survive the stall. 
5. Don't over-index on the sauce. 

We hope this playful comparison will equip you for success in one or both of these arenas. 

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

In this episode, Michael Daehne talks with Dan McDermott, Chief Information Officer at Tank Holding Corp., about lessons learned from mergers and acquisitions and Dan’s unique philosophy on managing and developing talent.

Dan shares his four principles of performance management, which guide him in selecting, managing, and developing talent:

1. Do you make good commitments and do you keep them? 
2. Do you improve the process, the way we do things, or the practice area?
3. How do you improve yourself? How do you take care of your own development (and that of your team)?
4. How do you show up? 

The lightning round includes Dan’s favorite activities outside of work, book recommendations, and what he’d be doing if he weren’t a technology leader.

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

In this episode, Michael Daehne, Founder and CEO of FlexPoint Consulting, talks with Shikhar Singh, Enterprise Solutions Lead at Copy.ai. 

Shikhar describes how the team at Copy.ai has built and personally used generative AI tools not just to boost productivity but to solve new business challenges. 

He invites us all to ask: if capacity weren't a constraint, what would your 2024 business plan look like? What initiatives would you put on the list? And how would you go about tackling these initiatives with the benefit of generative AI? 

Mentioned

Copy.ai: https://www.copy.ai/ 

Moveworks: https://www.moveworks.com/ 

ChatGPT: https://openai.com/chatgpt 

Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ 

WordPress: https://wordpress.com/ 

Adobe Experience Manager: https://business.adobe.com/products/experience-manager/adobe-experience-manager.html 

Terry Black’s: https://www.terryblacksbbq.com/ 

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

To celebrate the second anniversary of FlexPoint Consulting, the FlexPoint team turns the microphone on Michael Daehne, Founder and CEO, for an ask-me-anything episode.

Michael fields questions about his entrepreneurial journey and the first two years of running FlexPoint. The group also discusses working through common challenges in business transformation. Then we close with a lightning round of more casual questions.

MENTIONED

--- Books & Podcasts ---
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek: https://simonsinek.com/books/the-infinite-game/
HBR IdeaCast: https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-ideacast
How I Built This with Guy Raz: https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/
Wisdom from the Top with Guy Raz: https://luminarypodcasts.com/listen/built-it-productions/wisdom-from-the-top-luminary-premium/7fdd7724-18e3-4506-8e3f-fd26b3c9407a?country=US

--- TV Shows ---
FUBAR: https://www.netflix.com/title/81397077
Jury Duty: https://www.amazon.com/Jury-Duty-Season-1/dp/B0B8JM2BBS
Suits: https://www.netflix.com/title/70195800
Bachelor in Paradise: https://abc.com/shows/bachelor-in-paradise

--- Bakeries & Restaurants ---
Tiny Boxwoods: https://tinyboxwoods.com/
Spread & Co: https://www.spreadandco.com/
Crumbl: https://crumblcookies.com/ 

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

In a special mini episode of Inflect, Kim Ehrman, Director of Business Transformation, makes a special announcement from the FlexPoint Consulting team.

The new FlexPoint Community Investment program includes three unique ways for non-profit and community organizations to receive strategic consulting, totally free of charge:

1. Schedule up to two hours per month of pro bono strategic advisory sessions with a FlexPoint leader
2. Apply for one of our four free strategic planning workshops per year, a great enabler for a board planning session
3. Request a pro bono project within any of our core service offerings, on a flexible timeframe

See our Community Investment page at https://flexpointconsulting.com/community-investment to take next steps.

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

In our fifth episode of Inflect, FlexPoint Consulting Founder & CEO Michael Daehne talks with Gloria Chan Packer, Principal and Founder of Recalibrate, about her big inflection point of shifting from management consulting to founding a workplace mental wellness firm. 

Gloria describes several symptoms of unhealthy stress, to help us be more aware of when stress and anxiety ramp up too much, and she shares three tips for navigating transformative change well.

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.   

FlexPoint Consulting Founder & CEO Michael Daehne is joined by Rachel Lockett, Chief Information Officer at Pohlad Companies, to discuss the innovations and business applications of generative AI and unpack the explosive growth of tools like ChatGPT.

Inflect is previously known as FlexPoint Fireside Chats.

Find transcripts and more episodes of Inflect at https://flexpointconsulting.com/podcast, and engage with the FlexPoint team on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/flexpoint-consulting.