Leadership Beyond Borders

According to data gathered by SCORE, 77% of small businesses use social media to help build brand awareness, facilitate customer service, and increase revenue. For example, data from Meta shows that 83% of Instagram users say they discover new businesses and brands while using the platform. And according to Forbes, small business owners have jumped on the train, but it also appears many owners are buckling under the added social-media marketing workload. Worse yet, most do social media marketing in a vacuum since they do not track results. But the fact is, we must recognize the growth in social media among small and medium businesses. They need social media to reach customers and during the pandemic social media virtually rocketed small and medium businesses into this space, but very often without strategies or deep knowledge. This episode explores what SMBs are doing in social media, the best channels, and practices for them. We explore how professionals can help SMBs get it right.

Our work environments were evolving before the pandemic, but when the pandemic hit, everything changed. As a result, companies are obligated to completely rethink their work environments, processes, and employee relations. New ways of working have become commonplace, and new environments and processes are emerging. As a result, new working models will predominate, meaning that firms will have to speed up their change management to keep up with changing technology, customer expectations and employees' needs. In this episode, we talk about what is happening to the work environment and how companies can successfully redesign their ways of working successfully.

Career development is the short-term actions that on takes to learn a skill, fine tune a strength or development a weakness. Career growth refers to the big picture, the overall progress of someone's professional life. It is defined by the different roles and responsibilities we take on throughout our career journey, and this journey can go in several directions, but it is very rarely linear. While it's easier to manage our own career development, growth is a bit more complicated because it can be affected by our environment, available opportunities, people, and circumstances. Understanding these challenges and opportunities can help make our journey a little smoother. In this episode we speak with a career advice guru who has serval books on the market about how to maneuver your way through this complicated work world and come out on top.

According to Shopping Local Research 2022, 78% of consumers use the internet to find information about local businesses more than once a week (up from 69% in 2020). However, 21% of consumers use the internet to find information about local businesses daily (down from 34% daily). This means that businesses that do not have an excellent online presence could be missing out on reaching new customers. But Building a digital presence for a local business isn't the same as developing one for a national brand because, simply put, they do not have the capacity or the know-how. Moreover, establishing an outstanding online presence is a lot of work when focusing on what your company does best, like baking bread, fixing plumbing, or selling toys. Still, with the help of agencies and experts, local businesses in Europe are getting better. In this episode, we look at the online presence of local businesses across Europe.

Since May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has harmonized the rules on the processing of personal data, both private and public, across the Europe. Similar regulations have since popped up worldwide, with the US following suite with similar regulations like CCPA in California and regulations in most of the 50 US States. One of the unique aspects of these regulations, especially the EU's GDPR is it is not only directly applicable in all EU member states but anyone who does business in the EU. While the data protection laws give users new rights and control over their data this poses a huge challenge for businesses. All processes must be checked to ensure that they comply with the regulation because any violation can cause a serious fine of up to €20 million or 4% of the firm´s worldwide annual revenue, whichever is higher. In this episode we talk with Daniel Johanssen, CTO of Usercentrics on how data protection and consent regulations have developed since 2018, and what the new landscape looks like and how SMB's are adapting to GDPR legislation.

Our guest podcast guest says, People who discuss digital transformation often focus on new technology with a presumption that the working population will embrace it enthusiastically. But human beings are still instinctively dominated by fear, a single complicating reflex which will always be the default response. In simple words, humans are hardwired to resist change. Our brain resists change as a threat which releases reactions such as fear, fight, or flight. These are difficult responses to deal with when emerging technologies are constantly tossing us into change, and fear is one of the most prevalent responses. Fear can have enormous repercussions on an organization, including increased vulnerability to ransomware and cyberattack, increased employee turnover, loss of competitiveness, loss of market share, resistance, sabotage, discrimination, and litigation. So how do we deal with this? How do companies deal with fear in the organization as new technologies are introduced, and organization transformation takes place? This podcast explores what kind of fear is prevalent in the workforce, how people react to it and what we can do about it.

Scaling artificial intelligence (AI) across industries, enterprises, and even small and medium businesses can create an excellent competitive advantage, but it's not enough to invest in cutting-edge technologies and algorithms; you need to rewire your organization. From decision-making to data analysis to operations, if you want to extract value from AI, you need to understand it and how to best use it. Our guest today is an expert in extracting value from data and AI. He helps organizations understand how AI can benefit them. In this episode, we talk about the future of technology, AI and how it can support not only enterprise businesses but also SMBs and, ultimately, the consumer.

According to the team at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School, the most powerful cyber countries in the world are as follows: United States, China, UK, Russia, Netherlands, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Israel. Now some of these do not surprise us, but some do. Like the Netherlands, with 17 million people or little Israel, with 9 million, size and location play a role. But what is the most important thing is the human factor. People play an essential role not just when it comes to developing a security culture in countries but also when it comes to companies. Developing a security culture in a company moves beyond teaching employees about security; it is about living in every process and every department. The guest in this episode takes to us on how to develop and maintain a security culture.

The voice of the customer plays a critical role in today's competitive markets. It does not matter if it is customer feedback on a product, service or individual; when companies do not get feedback, they cannot improve customer satisfaction and may lose their competitive edge. The other key factor is that people who leave feedback expect something to happen. Again, it does not matter if it is a call, e-mail or note, but people like to know they are taken seriously. As a result, businesses are in a never-ending quest to find out what customers need and deliver it accurately hoping to meet customer expectations. Our guest in this episode has found technology to help customers give feedback more consistently and easily while giving businesses data that they can use to ensure companies meet their customer's expectations and have a positive customer experience.

Talent management is about how employers recruit and develop a workforce that is as productive as possible and likely to stay with their organization long term. When implemented correctly, this process can help improve the business's overall performance and ensure that it remains competitive. However, when not implemented correctly, it can result in high turnover and lack of innovation, and a company can lose its competitive edge. But developing a talent-centric organization is not easy. The principals and components are complex and need constant alignment. Our guest in this episode is an expert in recognizing good talent management programs and helping companies develop talent-centric organizations.