Taking Stock

In this week's Taking Stock, I am pleased to welcome Paul Garrison. Paul is the President of Clarkston Consulting, where he helps guide and execute the firm’s strategy, overseeing the core consulting business unit, and is charged with leading over 300 stewards of the firm; from first-year consultants to thirty-year industry veterans. Paul's perspectives on leadership are vast, allowing us to touch upon a variety of topics that are applicable to leaders across all organizations.  

In this episode I am please to welcome back our first ever guest on Taking Stock, Brandon Miller. Brandon, who leads Clarkston's Diversity Council, sits down with me to discuss some of the fundamental issues that our society is facing and how we all need to impact change; as leaders in our organizations and as leaders in our communities.

In this episode I sit down with Anna Ivashko from Clarkston Consulting to explore the topic of Organizational Effectiveness, and discuss why its a foundational competency for all organizations.  

For Life Sciences organizations, there has never been a debate around quality and regulatory compliance.  However, for Consumer Products companies, it is often a greater challenge to gain alignment around the strategic imperative of quality. In this episode, we discuss what is 'good enough' for CP companies and strategies they should deploy to ensure quality is maintained without sacrificing competitive advantage.

Steve sits down with Clarkston's Nicole Borse to discuss Trade Promotion Management (TPM). Today, companies spend anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of gross sales on trade, however, many CPG companies continue to struggle with effective management of their trade spend. Nicole shares her perspectives on how companies can better manage these allocated funds and steps to take to improve their TPM processes and systems. 

In this episode of Taking Stock, Steve sits down with Supply Chain experts Bruce Twery and Sebastian Valencia, both Partners at Clarkston Consulting to discuss specific ways in which supply chain leaders can manage the challenges of today and perhaps more importantly, set their organization up to be able to manage the future challenges that lie ahead.

Are we headed for recession 2.0? Many CPG companies are asking this question during this global pandemic. As business leaders, we are all attempting to manage through today's challenges, knowing that there is no script for us to follow, and no guidelines to adhere to. In this episode, Steve sits down with Aaron Chio from Clarkston Consulting, and shares his perspectives on the lessons we can learn from the 2008 recession, and apply them towards the current challenges of today. 

When a small group of consultants came together to start Clarkston Consulting almost 30 years years ago, they had a vision of creating a different kind of consulting company. In this episode, Steve sits down with two of Clarkson's Founders, Tom Finegan and Neil Nelson to discuss how they sought to create a professional services company that focused on the success of their clients while, just as importantly, encouraged the personal growth of their stewards.

Having the consumer at the center of everything you do has become a strategic imperative for many successful brands and organizations. In this episode, we sit down with Idoia Hidalgo from Clarkston Consulting to discuss what consumer engagement really means, and how it intersects with things such as data, digital marketing, consumer advocacy, and consumer personas. 

In this episode, Steve sits down with Clarkston's David Patterson, who leads Clarkston's Quality and Regulatory Community. David summarizes several of the chronological events and factors that led to the Boeing 737 groundings, and shares his unique perspectives on what Boeing's mistakes can teach us about our tolerance and management of risk.