Leadership Beyond Borders

We live in a world where change and transformation are the new normal, but sometimes we make decisions and go about change as we have always done. Today have more data and information available than we have ever had in the past, but we do not always use it when making decisions or initiating change. When it comes to transformation, many companies and organizations tend to look outward rather than inward when inward is where they should be looking. An organization's digital footprint can tell us a lot about processes, employee engagement and focus. The guest in this episode is an expert on transformation and change. He helps companies look for the answers by looking into their organizations rather than outward.

When executives speak about diversity, you often hear them say, yes we are good at meeting our targets around diversity. But diversity is not about numbers; it is about fostering a culture of innovation from a mix of people with different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds where they can contribute to achieving a common goal. It's about DEI, which is more than just diversity it's about equity and inclusion. It is proven that companies that foster DEI outperform companies that do not. But unfortunately, many companies just do not understand the critical components of DEI, and simply miss the mark. In this episode, we speak with an expert that helps organizations lift their performance through fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in their organizations.

On 21 of February, started aggression that all of us thought may happen but never really believed would happen. Russia attacked Ukraine, an independent democratic country. In the week following, the world changed, and so did the lives of millions of people. In this episode, we talk with a family that fled Ukraine the first weeks after the attack. They talk about the long, trying 1800-kilometer journey to get to Europe and the challenges of re-uniting with family in the United States. . They talk about the happiness they felt reaching safe ground and the struggles on the way. Finally, they speak to us about what we can do to help families like them and we hear about the great hero that unselfishly helped them along the journey.

Today, customer experience is more important than ever, and the first person the customer meets in the customer journey is usually a salesperson. But customers today are more informed than they were in the past, which means the average salesperson can no longer fly by the seat of their pants when conducting a sales call. Today, the salesperson needs a lot of knowledge and a whole new set of skills. In this episode, we talk to a customer experience expert about how companies can manage their sales forces to ensure that they win customers on the first contact. We also talk about sales structures, channels and training, what works, does not work and what companies need to do to improve.

Cultural forces are always at play in today's Global Economy. Although effective management of cultural differences is not necessarily a guarantee of business success, understanding and deepening one's knowledge of the other culture is vital to the success of any venture. Culture influences communication, decision-making, negotiation, resolution of conflicts, the management of cross-national alliances and diverse teams. Without understanding the impact culture plays in any business transaction. Without knowledge of the other culture you are dealing with, it may be difficult to pinpoint what specific aspect of culture might be impacting your relationship. In this episode, we speak with an expert in doing business across different cultures. Dr Rajesh Kumar, helps people and companies understand how understanding cultural differences can promote business success

According to a poll by Manta, the majority of small business owners agree that online marketplaces have positively impacted their sales. Nearly 70% of small business owners stated that marketplaces like Amazon and eBay have helped them increase sales, although about 30% believe they have had a negative impact. In addition, most small businesses (81%) believe that online sales are critical to their company's success, but most rely on their websites. Only around 20% of use e-commerce solutions as a growth strategy. So, what is a small or medium business to do? How can they implement their growth strategy through implementing technology that reflects the ever-changing consumer behavior? In this episode, we speak with the CMO of Vendasta, a Canadian based company which is on the cutting edge of technology that reflects consumer behavior and supports SMBs worldwide.

When people search online for products or services, if your website is not visible on the first page of the relevant keyword searches, you might not get traffic from the search engines. Google, the most widely used search engine, and other search engines provide the most significant area of opportunity for inbound marketers. According to SearchEngineWatch.com, websites on top grab 36.4% of the traffic missed by lower-ranked websites. If you don't rank highly in search results, you probably won't attract qualified leads and traffic to your site. And when your site doesn't get any traffic, you may also be missing out on valuable foot traffic. In this episode, we speak with two executives from Boostability about how businesses can get valuable online traffic and how SMBs improve their search engine ranking.

It is the fifth anniversary of GDPR, which went into effect and 2018. Since its passage, there have been significant efforts at compliance, At the same time, unfortunately, consumers still felt nudged or bullied by big tech companies into agreeing to business under the old rules, posing the question is the spirit behind the legislation on a level playing field. Then came the pandemic, and in March 2020, the world changed. Virtually every business was forced online and reached out to their consumers digitally. However, GDPR was not at the forefront of most business activities as companies focused on customer retention and not necessarily if they were compliant. Technology has also changed- it went into warp speed in 2020, forcing legislators to keep up with new technology channels. This episode talks about what has happened and what will happen in the upcoming years as countries try to formulate new ePrivacy Regulations.

Having honesty and integrity in the workplace is one of the essential qualities of outstanding leadership in business; we all know that but do we all know what that means. Like most things, we probably all have different understandings of what it means. Some may say it is not cheating; it is telling the truth or doing the right thing just because it is correct. There will be different interpretations because honesty and integrity are a state of mind and are not situational. If one compromises in small situations with little consequence, it becomes very easy to compromise on the larger ones, and leadership trust can be compromised. But honestly, in organizations is complicated. It draws on many dimensions, and our guest in this episode is an expert on forging honesty in organizations.

Broadcasting is challenging and competitive, but it can be gratifying and fulfilling. It has also changed drastically over the last 25 years. Technology has made media more accessible and widened coverage, regardless if it is sports or news. The people have also changed. Today broadcasting is accessible to almost everyone. From podcasters to influencers to reality TV, media is not what it was years ago. In this episode, we speak with a 25-year broadcasting veteran and award-winning camera operator. He talks about what has changed and will change in the future.