Today’s guest is Andrew Walsh of Applicate Commerce.

As the president and CEO of Applicate, Andrew is at the helm of one of the biggest shifts in the company’s sixty-year history. The company—previously known as Paint Sundries Solutions—had stayed in their lane for decades as a distributor of applied architectural products.
But the rise of ecommerce was disrupting their linear supply chain, threatening the market share of brands and local retailers, and training consumers to demand more, better, faster, and cheaper.
So they turned to The Storied Future to help them define a strategic narrative that would draw their organization, partners, and customers toward an irresistible future defined by value creation, growth, and transformation.
In this episode, Chris and Andrew cover:

• The history of Applicate Commerce, and the challenges they faced with the rise of ecommerce
• Andrew’s experience as a janitor on the shop floor of Applicate that showed him the power of a cohesive narrative
• How Applicate worked with The Storied Future to create a strategic narrative to guide them and their stakeholders as the business evolved
• The crucial importance of getting CEO buy-in on a new strategic narrative
• Why operating from their values is a catalyst, not a constraint, for Applicate 

And much more!

Drop us a line at [email protected] to get a copy of The Anatomy of a Strategic Narrative, The Storied Future's ebook about how we built a great strategic narrative with Applicate Commerce.

Our guest on the fifth episode of the Storied Future Podcast is Ebbie Parsons, III.
Ebbie is the founder and managing partner of Yardstick Management, a renowned Black-owned management consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia that helps clients transform their organizations to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. They count among their clients some of the top companies in the world, including Netflix, Prudential, EY, Whirlpool, Amazon, Medtronic, and LinkedIn.
Ebbie embodies a relentless pursuit of a future defined by true equity and inclusion, from the boardroom to the front lines of a company.
In this conversation, Chris and Ebbie talk about: 

• His dream of becoming an astronaut as a five-year old in Detroit, and the belief his parents instilled in him that he could achieve anything he set his mind to. 
• His jarring transition from Detroit to what he calls the “real world,” where he saw how the evil of racism wreaked havoc on people’s beliefs about the future and their access to opportunity. 
• A meeting at Olive Garden in 2003 where he and his friends cast a vision for the future that eventually led to the creation of Yardstick Management. 
• The future he envisions, and how C-suite leaders can move beyond performative DEI initiatives to bring about true and lasting change. 

And much more.

Content warning: This episode includes discussion of an experience of Ebbie’s that involved a threat of racialized police violence.

Our guest today is Julie Brown, the extraordinary leader architecting and executing on a massive transformation strategy for a nearly $7 billion HVAC, Fire, and Security division of Johnson Controls.

Julie helps lead a team of folks who are keeping critical systems running smoothly at schools and hospitals across the country. Behind the scenes, though, they’re navigating the uncomfortable upheaval of a digital transformation journey. 

Julie cares a lot about her work. But she cares even more about her customers and her team, and she is relentlessly committed to leading with empathy. 

In this episode, Chris and Julie cover:

• The joy Julie got from going on HVAC calls with her dad as a kid
• The lessons she learned during her time at Alcoa in the days in the midst of the sub-prime housing market crash, and how this helped her avoid the typical blind spots of planning for the future
• The horrific loss that changed Julie forever and redefined her as a leader
• Transforming care for patients and education for students
• Why empathy is critical in helping employees create a better future

And much more!

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In the third episode of the Storied Future Podcast, Chris talks to Bracken Darrell, the CEO of Logitech, about how a design narrative can help any company reinvent itself.

In 2013, Logitech was a computer peripheral maker facing a bleak outlook due to due to a plateau in worldwide PC sales.

So Bracken hired Nokia design guru Alastair Curtis, moved R&D budget out of mice and keyboards and into sectors with growth potential, and reorganized the company around a set of design principles inspired by Dieter Rams. 

In the process, they turned transformed Logitech from an engineering-led company into a design-led company and kickstarted an era of growth.

In this conversation, Chris and Bracken cover:

• How Bracken’s relationship with Dieter Rams made him a true believer in design thinking
• Bracken’s 2007 speech about the coming design revolution and how he brought that narrative to life
• Why he believed a faltering company was the ideal candidate to prove the power of design
• The childhood loss that drove Bracken’s relentless pursuit of a better future
• Why he fired and rehired himself—and why he makes his leadership team do the same
• Logitech’s commitment to a sustainable, carbon-negative, more inclusive future

And much more!

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In the second episode of the Storied Future Podcast, Chris talks to Jamie Cleghorn and Rishi Dave of Bain  & Company about how to create alignment across the B2B organization, from the buyer to the boardroom.

Jamie is a Senior Partner focused mainly on growth strategy, go-to-market effectiveness, and organizational alignment. Rishi is an Expert Partner in the firm's commercial excellence practice with deep expertise in B2B marketing and digital marketing.

This conversation covers a ton of ground, and centers around a few core principles—perhaps the biggest of which is the importance of talking to people and getting buy-in across the enterprise.

You’re going to get a lot out of this episode, especially if you’re trying to build a strategic narrative that’s integrous from the top of the organization down to the frontlines.

In this conversation, Chris, Jamie, and Rishi talk about:

• How they use the B2B elements of value— a framework designed to help B2B brands measure and deliver what customers want—to drive growth
• What it takes to create strategic narratives that authentically align everyone from the boardroom to the frontline
• How Bain’s Sales Play System helps close the gaps between marketing and sales
• Why CMOs can't afford to not invest in brand and demand
• How a blank piece of paper can be a powerful tool for realigning your thinking

And much more!

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Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Storied Future Podcast! We’re glad you’re here. 

In this show, host Chris Hare talks to C-Suite leaders, experts, and innovators who are transforming themselves and their companies through the power of strategic narratives.

Our very first guest is the incredible Mary Shea, currently VP, Global Innovation Evangelist at Outreach and a former principal analyst at Forrester. Chris talks to Mary about her unlikely path to becoming a relentless visionary. Along the way, they touch on:

• Her path from world-class musician to car salesperson to futurist
• Why data is crucial to the successful adoption of a narrative
• Recent tectonic shifts in the sales dynamic, and how technology can help sellers navigate them
• The spoken and unspoken narratives that create inequitable workplaces, and how the data points to a better way
• RISE, Outreach’s pilot program for empowering women in sales and leadership
• Why it hurts to be a futurist, and navigating the lag time between vision and execution

And much more!

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If you want to change the future, you need to align everyone—from the buyer to the boardroom—around a shared vision of that future.

On the Storied Future Podcast, host Chris Hare talks to C-Suite leaders, experts, and innovators who are transforming themselves and their companies through the power of strategic narratives. We’ll show you how to change minds, change culture, and change what happens next.

Subscribe today, and learn more at TSFpod.com.