Operations isn't just about logistics or managing a warehouse—it’s about the way your business actually works every single day. It’s where vision becomes reality.

In this actionable talk, Dr. Claude Kershner IV walks you through the real-world essentials of operations strategy for entrepreneurs, small business owners, team leaders, and customer service professionals. You’ll learn how to build a business that consistently delivers—without burning out or breaking the bank.

We’ll break down:

What “Operations” Really Means

Not just delivery trucks and supply chains. It’s about the systems, people, and processes that turn ideas into customer value. Whether you’re running a salon, staffing firm, restaurant, or online store—operations is the heartbeat of your business.

Designing an Operating Model

Learn to map out your value creation step by step: input → throughput → output. Identify bottlenecks and fix them before they cost you time, money, and reputation.

Customer “Moments of Truth”

Every touchpoint—greeting, invoice, delivery, follow-up—is a chance to stand out or drop the ball. We’ll show you how to consistently win those moments and shape customer loyalty.

Front-Stage vs. Back-Stage Operations

What the customer sees matters—but what happens behind the scenes can make or break the experience. Get clarity on how to build structure on both fronts.

Capacity and Demand

What’s your magic number? Learn how to measure your revenue-driving activities (calls, jobs, transactions), calculate break-even demand, and design operations to scale.

Running Like a Franchise (Without Being One)

You don’t need to buy a franchise to act like one. We’ll show you how to create repeatable processes that bring discipline, consistency, and clarity to your operations—no matter your industry.

🔑 Whether you’re:

Struggling with daily chaos in your business…

A student trying to understand business mechanics…

Or a leader refining your customer journey...

This session is a must-watch.

📌 About the Presenter:

Dr. Claude Kershner IV is a business professor, consultant, and entrepreneur. His work focuses on helping organizations translate vision into execution through systems thinking, leadership development, and strategic operations.

In this video, Dr. Claude Kershner IV explores how strategic thinking drives success in high-tech industries — from the rise of killer applications and dominant platforms to the risks and rewards of being a first mover.

Drawing from real-world examples like Tesla, Netflix, Amazon, and WeChat, we unpack how companies create value through technical standards, network effects, and disruptive innovation. You’ll also hear timely insights on the current debate around AI and the future of jobs: is artificial intelligence creating opportunity, or displacing workers at scale?

Core topics covered include:

• What makes a killer application — and how it shapes platform dominance

• How companies win format wars and lock in standards

• First-mover advantages (and why some pioneers fail)

• Cost structures in tech: high fixed, low marginal

• The Steve Blank model of experimentation and bootcamps

• Organizational ambidexterity: how firms balance innovation and execution

• AI’s impact on jobs in the U.S. — losses, gains, and the future of work

This content is ideal for entrepreneurs, strategists, students of business and technology, or anyone looking to better understand how innovation and competitive advantage are built in today’s digital economy.

Business strategy sounds great in the boardroom—but it only works when executed on the ground.

In this talk, Dr. Claude B. Kershner IV unpacks functional-level strategy—the engine that drives day-to-day execution and long-term competitive advantage. Using real-world cases and proven frameworks, Claude breaks down the four essential pillars that functional teams must master to deliver results:

🔹 Efficiency – Achieve more with less through smart design, economies of scale, learning effects, and technologies like AI and flexible manufacturing. It’s not just cost-cutting—it’s cost-smart.

🔹 Quality – Go beyond checklists. Functional strategy embeds reliability (via tools like Six Sigma and TQM) and excellence (in design, features, service) to reduce defects and elevate brand value.

🔹 Innovation – Most ideas fail. Successful firms link R&D, marketing, and production to turn innovation into profitability. It’s not just about being first—it’s about being right, fast.

🔹 Customer Responsiveness – Give customers what they want, when they want it, at a price they’re willing to pay—without breaking your cost structure. That means listening, customizing, and moving fast with purpose.

These four functional strategies don’t work in silos—they reinforce each other to execute the company’s business-level strategy. Whether your goal is low cost, differentiation, or market leadership, this is how you operationalize it.

✅ Perfect for business students, managers, and founders alike, this session brings strategic theory to life—with tools you can use across marketing, operations, HR, R&D, and more.

🔔 Subscribe for more on business leadership, execution strategy, and building organizations that work from the inside out.

Conflict in the workplace is inevitable—but how you respond determines whether it becomes toxic or transformative.

In this dynamic workshop, Dr. Claude B. Kershner IV unpacks the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)—a powerful framework for understanding how different people approach conflict. You'll learn the five core conflict styles—Competing, Accommodating, Avoiding, Collaborating, and Compromising—and when to use each based on context, personality, and leadership goals.

This session goes beyond theory. We explore:

-Real-world examples of how conflict plays out on teams

-Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)

-Why some people avoid conflict while others dominate it

-Gottman’s Four Horsemen and how they destroy—or repair—communication

Whether you're a manager, entrepreneur, educator, or emerging leader, this session will sharpen your self-awareness and equip you with practical strategies to turn conflict into growth.

🧠 Leadership isn’t about avoiding conflict—it’s about knowing how to navigate it. Watch now and transform how your team communicates and collaborates.

What is Business-Level Strategy—and why does it matter for competitive success?

In this engaging class session, Dr. Claude Kershner explores the core principles of business-level strategy, including the strategic choices companies make to create value, gain market share, and sustain profitability. Drawing from real-world cases like Walmart, Toyota, Nordstrom, and Cirque du Soleil, this talk unpacks the four generic strategies—broad low-cost, broad differentiation, focus low-cost, and focus differentiation—and explains how companies align their operations to deliver on their chosen strategy.

Key concepts include:

The difference between low cost and differentiation

How to identify and serve a target market segment

The power of value innovation and Blue Ocean Strategy

Functional alignment and the importance of execution

Whether you're launching a startup, managing a team, or studying for your business capstone, this talk is packed with insights to help you think more strategically.

What makes a company like Toyota so consistently successful—despite global competition, technological disruption, and changing consumer demands?

In this masterclass, Dr. Claude Kershner IV explores the inner workings of strategy through the lens of internal analysis. Using the iconic Toyota case, this talk unpacks how companies identify and leverage distinctive competencies to build sustained competitive advantage. We walk through the VRIO framework, value chain analysis, and the foundational drivers of profitability—including efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness.

Whether you're a business student, aspiring strategist, or organizational leader, this lecture will help you:

-Understand the strategic importance of internal analysis

-Apply the VRIO model to real-world examples

-Examine how Toyota’s operational philosophy creates value

-Translate theory into action for your own venture or team

🎯 This is not just about Toyota—it’s about how you can think, plan, and lead with clarity inside your own business model.

Uber didn’t just compete—it rewired the ride-for-hire industry.

In this External Analysis, Dr. Claude Kershner IV breaks down Uber’s rise and its impact on the traditional taxi market through the lens of Porter’s Five Forces. We analyze how Uber used technology, data, and scale to bypass entrenched regulatory barriers, transform customer expectations, and shift where power and profit reside.

This isn’t just a case of disruption—it’s a textbook example of external analysis done right. Whether you’re a business student, strategist, or entrepreneur, this talk helps you see how competitive forces actually move in practice—and how a platform can become the new “rent-yielding factor of production.”

🔍 Key topics in this talk:

Why the old taxi industry was so hard to enter—and who benefited

How Uber shifted the power balance among customers, suppliers, and rivals

What happens when technology makes regulation obsolete

Why the app, not the car, became the asset

Strategy lessons for businesses in regulated or stagnant industries

This talk brings academic frameworks to life using one of the most relevant disruptors of our time.

What is strategy—really?

This episode is a deep dive into the fundamentals of strategic thinking—not just what the textbooks say, but how strategy plays out in fast-moving, high-stakes environments. We go beyond surface-level definitions and explore how companies analyze, adapt, and compete with clarity and purpose.

🔍 Topics we cover include:

-Why “What should we be doing—and why?” is the most strategic question

-How to analyze your environment: industry, macro, and national contexts

-The difference between internal capabilities and external opportunity

-What a good SWOT analysis actually tells you

-How companies identify, choose, and align strategies

-The myth of perfect planning—and the role of emergence, serendipity, and intuition

-Henry Mintzberg’s model of intended vs. emergent strategy

-Common cognitive traps in decision-making (confirmation bias, escalation, illusion of control)

-Techniques like devil’s advocacy, dialectic inquiry, and scenario planning that sharpen judgment

We also kick things off with a quick discussion of the Google case—a perfect lens to examine real competitive advantage and the structure of dynamic industries.

Whether you're leading a business, advising clients, or studying strategy at any level, this talk offers a clear, actionable understanding of how strategy really works.

What does it actually mean to have a strategy—and why do some companies pull ahead while others fall behind, even when they seem to have similar resources?

In this talk, we go beyond the textbook definition of strategy and explore what truly drives performance in the real world. From how companies grow profitably to what separates sustained competitive advantage from short-term wins, we walk through the foundational elements of strategic thinking.

You’ll learn why Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) matters more than just revenue growth… why profit is about more than margins… and how the most effective leaders align internal capabilities with external opportunities.

We also break down practical tools like SWOT analysis and scenario planning, while challenging common decision-making traps like confirmation bias and escalating commitment. This is strategy not as theory, but as a discipline of clarity, execution, and adaptability.

Whether you’re operating a business, leading a team, or building something from scratch, this talk will help you think more critically, act more intentionally, and better understand the landscape you’re navigating.

If you’ve ever asked: “What should we be doing—and why?” this is for you.

What if your lack of resources isn’t your greatest weakness—but your greatest opportunity?

In this inspiring and practical talk, Dr. Claude B. Kershner IV introduces The Hustle Framework—a mindset designed for anyone building a future under pressure. Whether you're a student, entrepreneur, or career starter with big dreams and a tight budget, this talk gives you the tools to move forward with grit, creativity, and confidence.

Co-developed by Dr. Michael H. Morris, Dr. Donald F. Kuratko, and Dr. Jeffrey G. Cornwall, The Hustle Framework is rooted in years of entrepreneurship research and practical application. It equips individuals to thrive in turbulent environments by embracing urgency, improvisation, guerrilla tactics, bootstrapping, and resource leveraging.

Drawn from real-world experiences—teaching inside prisons, launching businesses from scratch, and leading teams through uncertainty—Dr. Kershner brings the framework to life with personal stories, tactical insight, and a challenge to reimagine what's possible when you start with very little.

💡 In this video, you’ll learn:

How to think and act like a resourceful entrepreneur

Why guerrilla tactics can outsmart big-budget strategies

How to leverage what you don’t own and build fast

What it means to bootstrap with boldness and integrity

Why your story, your network, and your energy are power

From the wisdom of incarcerated college students to lessons from the frontline of small business, this is a powerful message of perseverance, creativity, and possibility.

💥 For students, entrepreneurs, jobseekers, and everyday hustlers

📌 If you're ready to build something out of nothing, this is for you.

👇 Share your hustle story in the comments

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