Strategic risk, early signals and decision quality sit at the center of this conversation with Maartje van Krieken as she speaks to leaders who feel risk piling up while their systems stand still. Where does your business feel most exposed right now and which “surprises” keep landing on your desk even though you sensed them coming? Maartje invites you to look at those patterns with a clearer lens so you can see how uncertainty touches your strategic goals in both directions and choose your bets and concentrations with more intention.

You hear how a focused top risk list creates a shared view of what could move the business, how a light rhythm of risk conversations supports stronger choices and how AI can act as an admin partner that protects your institutional memory. Maartje stresses clear definitions of success, written assumptions and real kill criteria for big bets so sunk cost does not quietly run the show. By the end, strategic risk management feels less like box ticking and more like a core leadership habit that helps you notice early signals, act faster on real opportunities and cut down chaos before it hits.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Why Strategic Risk Management Prevents 80 Percent Of Business Chaos

02:26 Signs Your Organization Lacks Strategic Risk Management

04:49 Strategic Risk Definition And Data On Failing Risk Practices

07:18 Why Leaders Avoid Explicit Risk Management And Rely On Hope

12:01 Building A Practical Top Risk List For Better Strategic Decisions

16:49 Creating A Regular Risk Review Rhythm With Simple, Powerful Questions

19:04 Defining Success, Assumptions And Kill Criteria For Major Initiatives

21:29 Shifting Culture From Firefighting To Rewarding Early Risk Detection

23:55 Using Leading Indicators And Single Ownership To Spot Risks Early

26:08 Keeping Risk Management Simple So You Reduce Chaos And Capture Opportunity

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Intellectual property becomes a strategic power tool in this conversation as Michele Baillie reveals how companies can repurpose their inventions, spark high-value collaborations and unlock new growth when markets shift.

This episode of The Business Emergency Room shows how intellectual property can shape business value when it’s woven into your innovation strategy. Maartje van Krieken and Michele explore patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets through real examples like Fujifilm, 3M and Pfizer, pointing out how existing assets can open new markets and strengthen partnerships. 

The conversation raises questions worth pausing for. What hidden value sits inside the IP you already own? How often do you revisit your portfolio to see whether it still fits your direction? Could a single early patent shift how investors see your company? Michele offers a grounded view of IP that helps leaders use it with intention so it becomes a source of clarity, resilience and opportunity.



Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Navigating Intellectual Property in Turbulent Times

03:04 Repurposing Technology and Collaborations

05:57 Rebranding Through Intellectual Property

08:54 The Importance of IP in Business Strategy

12:06 Evaluating and Protecting Your IP Portfolio

14:53 The Evolving Nature of Intellectual Property

17:52 Investing in IP for Startups

21:00 IP as a Business Tool

Connect with Michele Baillie:

Connect with Michele on LinkedIn 

Visit Cesari and McKenna LLP

Michele Baillie is a seasoned patent prosecution attorney who helps companies protect their innovations in the U.S. and abroad. She guides clients through the full patent process and brings deep experience across software, wireless technology, climate tech and health tech, with a growing focus on the evolving patent landscape of AI. Recognized as a Super Lawyer and one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s Top Women of Law, she also mentors startups through the Cleantech Open accelerator. Michele holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law and is a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Business momentum becomes far easier to build when you understand the physics behind growth and start seeing your company through a banker’s eyes.

This episode breaks down why many entrepreneurs feel busy but stuck and how momentum depends on direction, clarity, and the strength of your internal foundation. Best-selling author, speaker, business coach and mentor Chip Higgins joins Maartje van Krieken and brings a banking perspective that helps you spot where energy gets wasted and where your business needs more mass through better people, systems, or strategy. He explains how the momentum equation of mass times velocity gives you a practical way to evaluate your choices and assess whether your effort is actually moving the business forward. The conversation also points out why rapid acceleration drains energy faster than most leaders expect and why a well-timed pause can support long-term entrepreneur growth.

By the end, listeners gain a cleaner way to understand what drives business momentum and a more grounded approach to making decisions that create real movement.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to the Momentum Framework

02:05 The Evolution of Banking and Its Impact on Entrepreneurs

06:04 Understanding Momentum in Business

10:56 Energy, Focus, and Business Direction

16:01 The Role of People and Culture in Business Momentum

20:54 Empowerment and Leadership in Business

25:49 Systems, Processes, and Business Efficiency

Connect with Chip Higgins:

Visit the Bizzics website

Learn about Bizzics on Demand: Your 24/7 Curated Business Coach

Visit Chip’s website

Connect with Chip on LinkedIn

For more than forty years, Chip Higgins has helped small business owners turn vision into reality. His background spans banking, economics, and executive leadership across several regional banks, where his strategies earned national recognition. His focus now centers on entrepreneurs through his book The Bizzics Way and his Bizzics coaching practice, where he uses the idea of momentum as a practical framework for business and leadership. Chip believes every owner deserves solid guidance and a steady advocate, and he works to give entrepreneurs the tools and clarity they need to grow with purpose.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Before you bring AI into your business, ask yourself: are you ready for it, or are you about to automate the chaos you already have?

In this episode, Maartje van Krieken breaks down AI readiness through the lens of business triage - a reality check for leaders who want to move fast without making a bigger mess. She explains why success starts with stabilizing your systems and why small, structured beginnings often create the strongest results.

Maartje also shares how opportunity framing helps teams define success and measure real impact instead of chasing hype. What does readiness look like in your business? And what would happen if you treated AI as a long-term skill to build, not a quick fix to apply?

By the end, you’ll see AI as a tool for clarity and capability, not chaos, and know exactly where to start.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 To AI-ify or Not to AI-ify?

01:57 When Not to Start an AI Project

04:09 How AI Can Multiply Business Chaos

07:04 Rule 1: Don’t Automate the Rubbish

10:06 Rule 2: Start Where Your House Is in Order

14:00 Rule 3: Ring-Fence the First AI Project

18:29 Rule 4: Build with Enthusiasts and Corporate Memory Keepers

22:00 Rule 5: Define Success Through Opportunity Framing

25:34 The Real Meaning of AI Readiness

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

What if your business could create the kind of loyalty people feel for Disney?

Maartje van Krieken talks with former Disney leader and customer experience strategist Vance Morris about what truly sets unforgettable brands apart. He shares the Disney lessons that every company, whether in service, retail, or B2B growth, can use to turn everyday interactions into memorable moments that keep clients coming back. How do you move from transactions to genuine relationships? What does it take to design a client experience that people can’t stop talking about?

Vance draws from his own story of rebuilding a career and transforming ordinary businesses into standout experiences. From the small details that shape perception to the systems that sustain consistency, this conversation invites you to think differently about how you serve, lead, and grow.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Power Of Client Experience

00:53 Disney Lessons For Client Experience

03:09 Turn A Commodity Into An Experience: Oil Change Case Study

08:00 Turn Waiting Into Experience: Disney Line Entertainment For B2B

10:54 Acquisition Cost vs Retention Profit

12:24 Disney’s 80/20 Return Customer Model

17:09 Know Your Real Business: Memories, Happiness, Mission

23:21 Consistency Through Systems: Document What Delivers

24:28 Tenacity And Trusted Advisors In Leadership

29:58 How To Learn More From Vance Morris

Connect with Vance Morris:

Visit Vance’s website

Download your FREE hot sheet of 52 Ways to WOW Your Customers

Vance Morris is a former Disney leader turned entrepreneur who now helps businesses bring the magic of Disney-level experiences into their own client journey. His unconventional path—from security guard at a birth control factory to Disney leadership, bankruptcy, carpet cleaning, and finally thriving business ownership—has given him a rare perspective on resilience, reinvention, and what truly creates loyalty.

Today, Vance teaches companies how to “Disnify” their business by adapting Disney’s customer experience and pricing strategies to any industry. Through his keynotes, workshops, and coaching, he shows teams how to create extraordinary experiences that lead to extraordinary engagement, referrals, and profits.

Vance leads The Alliance Mastermind, a community of veteran entrepreneurs supporting each other’s success. He also offers both group and private coaching programs that include weekly sessions, masterclasses, and his signature Xperience Report.

As a speaker and author of Systematic Magic: 7 Magic Keys to Disnify Your Business and Tales From the Customer Service Crypt, Vance combines humor, storytelling, and real-world tactics to inspire businesses to transform the ordinary into the unforgettable.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Many leaders rely on goals and KPIs to measure success, yet how often do those numbers reveal what’s actually working? In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with Radhika Dutt, the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter, about why so many organizations get caught chasing business growth metrics that don’t always translate into real progress. Radhika shares how “product diseases” like obsessive sales disorder, strategic swelling, and hypermetricemia quietly take root when teams lose sight of their vision and let measurement drive decisions instead of insight. She unpacks the tension between OKRs vs puzzle solving, introducing a model of actionable measurement that helps leaders replace rigid goal-setting with thoughtful reflection. How clear is your company’s vision? Do your metrics inspire smarter choices or just more activity? This conversation invites a deeper look at what it means to lead with clarity and curiosity, turning purpose into something that guides decisions instead of decorating a mission statement.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Diagnosing Product Diseases in Business

02:02 Meet Radhika Dutt and Radical Product Thinking

07:45 Why a Clear Vision Matters More Than Metrics

11:37 The Problem with OKRs and Traditional Goal Setting

17:07 Puzzle Setting: A New Approach to Business Growth

23:03 Actionable Measurement and the Three Key Questions

25:21 Turning Insight into Real Progress

Connect with Radhika Dutt:

Connect with Radhika on LinkedIn

Visit Radhika’s website

Explore Radical Product Thinking

Get the free OHLs toolkit

Radhika Dutt is the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter, a book translated into Chinese and Japanese and adopted in more than 40 countries. An entrepreneur, speaker, and product leader, she has built products across industries including media, telecom, consumer apps, robotics, and government, and has been part of five acquisitions—two from companies she founded. Radhika currently serves as Advisor on Product Thinking to the Monetary Authority of Singapore and works with organizations worldwide to help them create products that drive meaningful change. A graduate of MIT with degrees in Electrical Engineering, she speaks nine languages and is now writing her second book on why goals and targets backfire—and what actually works instead.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Most businesses don’t crumble from bad strategy but from the hard conversations their leaders never have.

Maartje van Krieken takes an honest look at why conflict avoidance shows up in leadership communication and how it quietly eats away at trust, focus, and performance. Why do so many leaders hesitate to speak up when something feels off? What happens when tension is ignored for months or even years? Through her experience guiding organizations through chaos, Maartje shares how avoiding difficult conversations can cost teams more than money - it costs them momentum and morale.

Maartje breaks down the five places where silence does the most damage: personal conflicts that never get addressed, hierarchy barriers that stop honest feedback, deals that no longer make sense, long-time employees who have outgrown their roles, and a lack of accountability at the very top. Each one offers a mirror for leaders who want to see where communication has gone quiet.

From there, Maartje offers an invitation: have the conversation now. She walks through how to create space for honesty, speak with clarity, and end every discussion with decisions that move people forward. This episode challenges leaders to rethink what courage looks like at work and to see difficult conversations as the starting point of real leadership, not the obstacle to it.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Why Businesses Fail in Silence

01:29 The Cost of Avoiding Difficult Conversations

04:04 Signs Your Team Is Avoiding Hard Conversations

07:01 The Five Conversations Leaders Avoid Most

18:34 Why We Avoid Difficult Conversations

20:31 How to Have Difficult Conversations Effectively

26:31 Courageous Communication in Leadership

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

When a business starts to stumble, the real problem usually isn’t hidden—it’s just misread.

Maartje van Krieken talks with Elisabeth Vealey, founder of Sophius LLC, about how business diagnostics reveal what’s really happening inside a struggling company. With decades of experience in accounting, CFO leadership, and turnaround strategies, Elisabeth explains how following the cash flow exposes not just financial issues but the inefficiencies, blind spots, and miscommunication that quietly drain performance.

They discuss how financial data reflects overall financial and operational health, why leaders wait too long to ask for help, and how to build a culture that values clarity over blame. Elisabeth shares insights from her Sophius Method for “chasing the cash” to find what’s blocking growth, while Maartje connects those lessons to the operational side—where process, people, and profit intersect.

This conversation offers a clear, grounded look at how to spot early warning signs, restore trust, and bring a company back to health before problems turn into full-blown emergencies.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Power of Business Diagnostics

00:38 Meet Elisabeth Vealey, Founder of Sophius LLC

05:00 The Sophius Method and Turnaround Strategies

07:50 When to Bring in Outside Help

10:30 Beyond the Numbers: People, Process, and Performance

14:20 Breaking the Blame Cycle and Rebuilding Trust

17:10 Leadership Blind Spots and Honest Feedback Loops

21:30 Board Dynamics and Shared Accountability

22:20 Restoring Team Trust and Removing Emotion from Problem-Solving

25:40 Finance and Operations: The Power of Partnership

29:20 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Elisabeth Vealey

Connect with Elisabeth Vealey:

To learn more, visit Sophius LLC to download the Sophius Method whitepaper or to schedule an exploratory call.

Elisabeth Vealey is the founder of Sophius LLC and the architect of The Sophius Method, a proven plug and play framework that takes organizations from distress to sustainable growth. Known as a trusted strategist for business turnarounds, she bridges finance, operations, technology, and leadership to help organizations stabilize under pressure, build high-performing teams, and redirect energy towards mission and lasting growth. Elisabeth holds an MBA and is a CPA with more than 20 years of experience in finance, sales, wealth management, mergers and acquisitions and executive coaching. Today, she advises CEOs, boards, and high-net-worth families with business and leadership strategy creating impact that lasts with authenticity, vision, and fire.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Remote leadership works best when people have the space to enter flow states that spark ideas and move projects forward.

In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with Academy Award winner and entrepreneur Steven Puri about what it really takes to lead distributed teams with purpose. How do you build trust when you can’t walk the halls together? What makes the difference between a team that only trades emails and a team that shows up with insights that shift the direction of a company? Steven shares lessons from his years in Hollywood and tech, showing how vision, culture, and the right conditions allow people to do their best work no matter where they are.

The conversation explores why leaders should pay attention to chronotypes, how simple practices like timeboxing and deep work hours create space for breakthroughs, and why creativity often comes from unexpected places. If distributed teams are your reality, this episode offers a thoughtful look at how remote leadership can help people thrive rather than just get by.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Remote Work and Flow States

00:44 Steven Puri’s Background in Film and Startups

03:29 How Leaders Create Flow in Distributed Teams

07:10 Conditions That Unlock Peak Performance

14:22 Chronotypes and Protecting Deep Work

20:25 Misconceptions About Remote Leadership

21:16 Timeboxing as a Strategy for Productivity

23:25 The Real Source of Creativity

29:47 AI, Communication, and the Future of Work

33:06 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Steven Puri

Connect with Steven Puri:

The Sukha Company

Email Steven

Steven Puri is the Founder and CEO of The Sukha Company, a focus app designed to help people achieve more while maintaining a healthy work life. His career began as a youth news show host in the DC/Baltimore market and later as a Thomas J. Watson Scholar at IBM before moving into film production, where he produced Academy Award–winning visual effects for Independence Day and 14 other films. At 28, he sold his first tech company, Centropolis Effects, to Das Werk and went on to hold senior roles at 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks, working on franchises like Die Hard, Wolverine, Star Trek, and Transformers. Today, he combines his experience in film and tech to build tools that support focus and productivity. Steven lives in Austin, TX.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Business valuation is more than a price tag at exit. It’s a running assessment of your company’s health, credibility, and resilience.

Maartje van Krieken shows how valuation can serve as a practical management tool for everyday decision-making. Drawing on lessons from mergers and acquisitions, she explains why external perceptions matter just as much as internal metrics and how they shape financing terms, customer trust, and even employee morale.

Using ten lenses, Maartje unpacks the questions outsiders bring to the table: Are people loyal to the business or just its leaders? Is culture sustainable beyond a founder’s presence? Do the numbers hold up under scrutiny? Would evidence convince a skeptic? This is operational due diligence turned inward, helping leaders stress-test their assumptions and identify the gaps that weaken long-term value.

Framed as risk-based prioritization, the process reveals not just what’s broken but where the biggest opportunities lie. A quarterly review through these lenses creates a roadmap for practical improvements that strengthen operations, safeguard against risk, and build value worth defending, whether or not a sale is ever on the horizon.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Business Valuation as a Daily Tool  

02:18 Why External Evaluations Matter  

06:03 Risk, Evidence, and Defensibility  

09:55 The 10 Lenses of Operational Due Diligence  

28:06 Risk-Based Prioritization for Strategy Reviews  

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

LinkedIn

Substack

YouTube

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm