Outside In with Charles Trevail

We often hear stories about the genesis of a brilliant idea. Or we celebrate we the end result of a big, creative endeavor. But what about all the stuff that happens in between? The volatile moments of a project when there’s no clear end in sight, but the moments that are nonetheless critical to success. Scott Belsky, founder of Behance and the Chief Product Officer at Adobe, talks about his new book, “The Messy Middle,” and gives advice for how to navigate the highs, lows, and uncertain moments when embarking on a big, ambitious project.

Listen to this podcast to learn:

• Why the overlap of a product team’s “last mile” and a customer’s “first mile” is so important for utilization and adoption

• How to manage the effects “organizational debt” and a team’s “immune system”

• The value of “conviction over consensus” when it comes to doing anything innovative

• The tendency of data to cause lowest common denominator thinking, and how intuition and empathy can get us out

Randall Lane has interviewed the world’s power players. Jeff Bezos, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump. Just to name a few. Now we’re interviewing him. As the chief content officer and editor of Forbes Magazine, Lane is reinventing Forbes’s editorial coverage -- and its business -- to reach its highest-ever readership. Lane talks about Forbes’ new emphasis on young entrepreneurs, “microbeats,” expanding global coverage, and how he’s building the “biggest newsroom in the world.”

Listen to this podcast to learn:

• Why Forbes focuses on the people behind capitalism -- from those who are succeeding to those who are polluting the system

• Why Lane believes entrepreneurial capitalism -- and the free exchange of ideas -- has always been the best way to distribute and create mass prosperity

• How the Forbes “30 Under 30” is a harbinger for where the world is headed and who will be leading it for the next 50 years

• What famous figures like Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Kylie Jenner all have in common

More than a decade ago, Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani’s founder and CEO, took out a loan to buy an old food factory. At the time, nobody predicted that he was about to start a Greek yogurt revolution. But he did. Greek yogurt today accounts for more than 50% of all yogurt sold in the U.S. Chobani remains one of the most successful CPG companies in the grocery aisle. It’s privately owned and growing at an unprecedented pace. Peter McGuinness, Chief Demand Officer at Chobani, explains the brand’s success and why it’s not just about yogurt, but about the purpose and authenticity.

Listen to this podcast to learn:

• The origin story of the Chobani brand

• Why taking a stand on social issues is an advantage that outweighs the risk of alienating some

• Ways his team understands the real world of customers

• How Chobani’s not-for-profit incubator helps startups and food tech make natural food more accessible for more people

Scott Galloway is an expert on the companies that rule our world: Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. He wrote a bestselling book about it, called The Four. Galloway joins the podcast to discuss themes from the book, including how these companies rose to power, why each is so successful (and, in many ways, unstoppable), and what every marketer, brand, and business can learn from them.

Listen to this podcast to learn:

• How Amazon uses capital and customer centricity as its advantage

• How Apple tapped the luxury playbook to get to a $1 trillion market cap

• Is the duopoly of Facebook and Google too powerful?

• Why physical experiences and distribution will soon replace traditional advertising

• Netflix? Disney? What company will be part of “The Five”?

TED is more than just TED Talks. It’s a global nonprofit committed to curating and spreading ideas — from science to business to global issues. Lisa Choi Owens, Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Global Partnerships at TED, joins the podcast to give a behind-the-scenes look at the TED organization, its mission, and how the nonprofit is partnering with big companies to find new perspectives that inspire change.

Listen to this podcast to learn:

• How companies like UPS, Merck, and Timmy Hilfiger are discovering brilliant and unexpected ideas from every corner of the company

• What TED looks for in a TED Talk - and what it avoids

• Why a commitment to change and curiosity is essential to tackling the universal problems and opportunities facing all companies

It’s been called Macy’s “secret weapon,” its engine for innovation and growth. Since Barry Beck and his wife Marla Beck started Bluemercury in 1999, and sold it to Macy’s in 2015, the luxury beauty retailer has been disrupting the beauty-sphere. In this episode, Barry Beck reveals the art behind the science of growing a luxury retail powerhouse and why Bluemercury’s obsessive focus on people, product and place has the beauty industry blushing with envy.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• How a retail store can be an innovation laboratory

• Why hiring “beauty junkies” was a major breakthrough

• An anthropological approach to customer engagement

• Is men’s makeup where beauty’s headed next?

Netflix. Spotify. Amazon Prime. These days, we don’t buy, we subscribe. Tien Tzuo, founder and CEO of Zuora, has a name for it: the Subscription Economy. Subscription models open up more choices and new experiences for consumers, and huge financial opportunities for companies that rethink their entire business model around the customer. On the podcast, Tzuo talks about his new book, “SUBSCRIBED: Why the Subscription Model Will be Your Company’s Future – and What to Do About It,” and explains what it will take for any company to thrive in the Subscription Economy.

Listen to this podcast to learn:

• Why the subscription model isn’t about “renting” your product, but rethinking business around customers’ needs

• How companies like Fender and Ford are transforming their business models into subscription-based

• What Tzuo learned about subscriptions as employee #11 at Salesforce

• Why governments -- and citizens -- can benefit from the subscription model

• Why the old ways of market research will die in the subscription economy

Monster is the original disruptor. But, over the years, the site that changed the way that people search for jobs itself got disrupted. Elliott Seaborn, SVP of Integrated Marketing at Monster, talks about how the company is using its strong brand and customers to regain its purpose of advancing lives.

Listen to this podcast to learn:

• How Monster is turning itself around from a “vicious circle to a virtuous cycle”

• How customer insights and ideas became the company’s “connective tissue”

• Advice for people making the switch from agency-side to client-side

It seems like everyone in the world is on Twitter. Including brands. But what works, and what doesn’t? Alex Josephson knows. As Head of Global Brand Strategy, Alex and his team are helping brands to create outsized impact and get attention on the platform. He joins the podcast to describe how Twitter, and the way brands use it, has changed over the years, and what it takes to get noticed in the Twitterverse.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• What sets Twitter apart from other social media platforms

• The “discovery mindset” of Twitter users and how to tap into it

• The promise and power of a video tweet

• How brands are using Twitter during live events like the World Cup to engage audiences and become a part of the conversation

Consumer Reports has been on the consumer’s side for more than 80 years. The non-profit organization serves more than six million paying members, accepts no ads, and buys every product it reviews -- from cars to food to smartphones. CR also has an award-winning investigative reporting team that rigorously exposes unsafe products and services, and an advocacy division that secures strong pro-consumer policies and practices in government and across industries. President and CEO Marta Tellado, Ph.D., gives an inside look into the organization and how it works with consumers and manufacturers to create greater transparency and better products.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• How emotional and functional values are both at play when a consumer makes a decision

• How data privacy concerns and the digital world are changing how we judge products

• Why marketing can be effective and educational -- until it misleads

• How Consumer Reports works directly with manufacturers to make products safer