The Reboot Chronicles with Dean DeBiase

A professional career from Disney to America’s top leadership company, Scott Jeffrey Miller’s journey, in a nutshell, has been an impactful story—from the front lines to the C-suite. Along the way, learning the habits of people who made it to the top, Scott elevated himself from salesperson to Executive Vice President at Franklin Covey. 

 He is a multiple best-selling author, radio and podcast host, leadership coach, columnist and a killer keynote speaker. A huge proponent of “OWN YOUR MESS”—and the fact that we learn more from our messes than our successes—Scott leverages his unfiltered style to ignite creativity with his coaching. He is the host of the popular On Leadership podcast, iHeart Radio’s Great Life Great Career show, author of Management MESS to Leadership Success and Everyone Deserves a Great Manager, and writes a column for Inc.  

Deriving essence from his profoundly thoughtful and impactful conversations on his podcast, Miller wrote “Master Mentors” and has now released “Master Mentors Vol. 2”, to help professionals strategize better and reach their pinnacle. A life-long learner like me, Scott presents practical and relatable experiences for others to implement in their lives. He’s currently globetrotting on his book/speaking tour; yet I got him to pause and join me again on The Reboot Chronicles, to reflect on personal stories and his latest work!

A popular retail brand serving American customers in home, apparel, jewelry, and beauty merchandising categories, JCPenney has had many reboots over its 120 year history. Most recently, emerging out of bankruptcy and recruiting Marc Rosen to be CEO, the company has rightsized to 650 stores and 50,000 employees who generate about $9 billion in annual revenue.

With decades of retail and e-commerce experience at world renowned brands like Levi’s and Walmart, Marc is rebooting this iconic brand into the future, with a simple, hyper-focused strategy based on what customers want now. Hype-focused indeed—from targeted private label and popular national brands to enhancing omni-channel capabilities and in-store experiences. More simply put, how to meet customers ever-evolving needs—where they are, with what they want.

To get a first hand perspective on how his team’s transformational journey is shaping up, I invited Marc to the Reboot Chronicles podcast to take us through JCPenney’s “stabilizing in an unstable world” phase.

In my recent Forbes article about living longer, I talk about how personalization is rebooting  the global health, beauty and wellness market—empowering individuals and impacting their well-being journeys.

As a science driven company targeting consumers, athletes, health professionals and organizations,  Thorne HealthTech (NASDAQ:THRN) is part of that impact, redefining what it means to live healthier for healthier longer lives. Their Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach helps deliver personalized, proactive and actionable solutions to people at most every age and stage in life. From the very early days when they were a natural supplement provider, to a direct to practitioner model, and subsequently a direct to consumer (DTC) provider, Thorne has positioned itself as an innovative leader in the personalized health and wellness space.

Their CEO and co-founder Paul Jacobson, joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles podcast. A serial CEO, his own reboot journey includes serving as co-founder and CEO of Thorne Research Inc., Health Elements, LLC and WellnessFX. Listen in as we unpack some  reboots his company has undergone over the years and how they are transforming an industry…or two.

One of America’s first tech companies, HP - Hewlett Packard Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) was started in a Palo Alto garage by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939—kicking off the lab coat era of Silicon Valley.  

The company has been through many reboots, M&A events, and market headwinds filled with leadership challenges over the decades—and was even split into two companies in 2015. Today, fresh off its $3B+ acquisition of hybrid-work leader Poly, the company employs over fifty thousand people in 170 countries, who generated over $63B in revenue last year.   

With recent investments by Warren Buffett, the acquisition of Poly and other emerging brands like Z, Omen, Hyper and Arize, the tech giant continues its rebooting journey, stepping up in the market and doubling down on gaming and peripherals, hybrid work solutions and more.  

I invited Stephanie Dismore, HP’s head of North America to join me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles to unpack their latest go-to market strategies across a portfolio of expanding products and services in the commercial, consumer and public sectors.

A rebel wih a cause, CEO of SEAT, Wayne Griffiths is on a mission to reboot the EV auto market, by taking ‘boring’ out of the equation with cool CUPRA models that will reach over 500,000 units a year.

Part of 250B EUR Mothership Volkswagen, the Barcelona based EV brand was launched in 2018 to make sporty performance cars—but they are also committing billions of dollars electrifying the car market in Spain, other parts of Europe and beyond.

Pioneering the biotech industry back in the 70’s, Silicon Valley based Genentech is one of the world’s most innovative pharmaceutical companies and a leader in breakthrough lifesaving drugs, treatments, and technologies. Now part of Roche the combined entities have tens of thousands of patents and employ over 100,000 people in 100 countries who delivered over $68 B in revenue last year.

Their transformational discoveries include the first targeted antibody for cancer, and the first medicine for primary progressive multiple sclerosis.  Early 2022 saw Genentech get FDA approval in ophthalmology, with a bispecific antibody for two leading causes of vision loss; underscoring their commitment to people living with retinal conditions - age related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic macular edema (DME).

In a world consumed by the pandemic over the past few years and the long-term ramifications ahead, a conversation with Genentech’s CEO, Alexander Hardy, on the Reboot Chronicles show was imperative, to say the least.

Over a decade ago, Gotham Greens CEO, Viraj Puri, had a bold vision that would reboot indoor agriculture with AI, data-driven hydroponic systems that would run on 100% renewable electric powered greenhouses using 90% less water and land. Started on a rooftop in Brooklyn, Viraj expanded his vision into a scalable Certified B Corporation, with a nationwide network of greenhouses that grow and distribute leafy greens, herbs, salad dressings and sauces.  With a 26% year-over-year sales increase in leafy greens (vs. 3% category growth) Gotham is just getting started and is positioned well to expands its market reach and product mix.

Fresh off his $310 M Series E round, with BMO Impact Investment Fund, Ares Management, Commonfund, RockCreek, Kimco Realty Corporation, Manna Tree Partners and The Silverman Group—and the acquisition of FreshH2O—I invited Viraj to the Reboot Chronicles podcast to unpack his growth plans and learn how Gotham is rebooting the food industry.

If you have traveled at all lately, you know that the industry needs a reboot and Jeff Katz is trying to do just that.   Having rebooted the travel space as founding chairman and CEO of Orbitz, he is looking to do it again as the  CEO of Journera, a travel technology company recognized as one of the most innovative travel companies, offering real-time, complete views of a traveler’s journey.

With a fresh round of capital from A16z, B Capital Group, BCG and PAR Capital, Journea is creating a new category in the connected tissue between travelers and travel companies.

Frequent travelers know that the sector could use more innovation like what AI powered companies Hopper and Journera are delivering, so I invited Jeff to join me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles to see what’s next.

As a CNBC disruptor fifty and one of the most innovative companies on Fast Company’s list,  Counter Brands, LLC, parent company of Beautycounter, a clean high growth certified B Corp, is redefining the beauty industry. Recently partnering with The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG), the global investment firm acquired a majority stake in the company, valuing the business around $1 billion. Taking this big leap and now looking ahead into their hyper growth phase, Beautycounter Executive chair and Founder Gregg Renfrew sat down with me on The Reboot Chronicles podcast, to talk about this burgeoning stage for her company.Gregg Renfrew - Beauty Counter

When it comes to building businesses, I’m a big platform approach guy. When I met Kim (Kimon) Angelides the Executive Chairman and CEO of FemTech Health—a data driven personalized health, beauty and wellness brand for women—I knew his organization would soon be making waves in the digital health market.

Kim brings decades of experience championing innovation in healthcare, in both public and private companies. Kim has founded many companies, including one of my favorites, Livongo in Chicago, acquired by TelaDoc just a year after its multi-billion dollar IPO.  His recent acquisitions of Birchbox, Liquid Grids and Mira Beauty form the cornerstone to Kim’s strategy and ramping up his competitive advantage—and I think he is just getting started.

As Executive Chairman of Revieve, I love ventures that take personalization of health, beauty and wellness to the next level—especially for women. I invited Kim to join me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles podcast, to talk about what led to yet another of his remarkable founding journeys … and why FemTech.