The Strategy and Leadership Podcast with Anthony C. Taylor

Nate Bennett has spent twenty years studying the COO role. His book Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO, co-written with Stephen Miles, is now in its third edition from Stanford Business Books.

In this conversation: why the right question is what makes a great CEO and COO pair, not what makes a great COO; why founders pushed by their board to hire a number two often never empower that person; the seven types of COO and the three kinds of fit to test before you hire; and why average COO tenure has dropped from five years to about two and a half.

Blog post and full notes: https://www.smestrategy.net/blog/michael-dell-put-a-glass-wall-between-himself-and-his-coo.-heres-why-it-worked
Connect with Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
Work with SME Strategy: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930

Jim Weiss built Real Chemistry from one person to 2,500 employees by refusing to do marketing work that didn't move a number the client's CEO cared about. Media impressions were never the measure. Patients on therapy, revenue and stock price were.
Jim is the founder and chairman of Real Chemistry (formerly W2O Group), an integrated marketing and communications firm that helps healthcare companies launch new medicines, vaccines and treatments. Over 25 years he grew the company into a global firm, and he now advises a range of companies and organizations while hosting the Get Real podcast.
In this conversation, Jim and Anthony talk about what actually drove that growth: hiring people with shared values, letting clients pull the firm into new services, and building ownership into the business so people share in the wins. Jim also explains what changed when he moved from CEO to chairman and had to lead through influence instead of authority.
Key takeaways:
- Alignment is what keeps a growing company flying in formation. Without coordination, more people just means more noise.
- Let clients pull you into new work. When a client asked "can you also do this?", Jim hired or bought the capability and grew alongside them.
- Measure against your client's business objectives. If the work doesn't support something the C-suite cares about, don't do it.
- As chairman or advisor, your influence works like the moon on the tides. Advice lands best when it becomes their idea.
- Real ownership, or at least a sense of it, changes how people show up. Jim's advice to owners is to give people stock where they can.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: Jim Weiss and Real Chemistry
01:04 Growing up in Honesdale and what Real Chemistry does
02:33 Business lessons learned by age eight
03:46 Alignment and the flying formation
06:32 Clear roles, great hires and picking the right clients
09:28 Growing with clients: "Can you also do this?"
11:25 Values as hashtags and the "no assholes" rule
11:47 Tying the work to the client's business KPIs
17:17 From CEO to chairman: direct impact to influence
18:39 Why ownership matters
20:28 Be like water
21:33 Get Real podcast and the Music and Medicine program
24:30 Closing takeaways

Want to talk about your organization's strategy? Book a conversation with Anthony: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930
Prefer to start on your own? Take the One Destination Alignment Scorecard: https://www.smestrategy.net/one-destination-scorecard
Connect with Anthony C. Taylor at https://www.smestrategy.net

#Leadership #Strategy #ScalingABusiness #HealthcareMarketing #StrategyAndLeadership

Eighty percent of your people using Copilot does not make you an AI company. In a lot of mid-market organizations it means AI is everywhere and strategy is nowhere.

John Rudd built SolutionsIQ into North America's largest Agile consultancy, sold it to Accenture, and went on to run Accenture's global Agile practice and its North America technology M&A program. A former turnaround CFO and current private equity board member, he is co-founder of LightSight and author of The Age of the Speedboat: How Middle Market Leaders Can Win the AI Era.

Anthony and John talk about why license counts are the wrong measure of AI progress, what a CEO should put in place before chasing use cases, and why the leaders who win this era will be the ones who stop pretending to have every answer.

Book a conversation with Anthony: https://meetings.hubspot.com/anthony930
Take the One Destination Alignment Scorecard: https://www.smestrategy.net/one-destination-scorecard
More from SME Strategy: https://www.smestrategy.net
Get John's book: https://speedboatbook.com

Keith Wyche has spent his career inside companies in the middle of a transformation. He was at AT&T before the 1984 breakup, at IBM during its shift to services, at Pitney Bowes looking for life beyond mailing, and at Walmart as it moved from brick and mortar to e-commerce. He was also President of Cub Foods and ACME Markets for SuperValu, and he now serves as an independent director on the board of Brink's.

In this episode, Keith explains the 4 R's he uses to drive change: relevance, readiness, responsiveness, and robustness. He tells the story of growing a grocery chain with no grocery background by tailoring 15% of each store to its community. He also describes the Sears story he used to get long-tenured Walmart teams behind e-commerce, and he shares his equation for trust: character × competency × consistency.

His new book is Uncommon Leadership.

CONNECT WITH KEITH
Website: keithwyche.com
Instagram: @therealkeithwyche
Book: Uncommon Leadership, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and wherever books are sold

WORK WITH ANTHONY
Anthony Taylor facilitates strategic planning and alignment sessions with leadership teams, and speaks at conferences and events as a keynote speaker, trainer, and working-session facilitator on strategy and leadership.
Contact: smestrategy.net/contact
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604

#Leadership #ChangeManagement #Walmart #BoardGovernance #StrategyAndLeadership

Glenn Kaufman runs KEH Camera, North America's largest pre-owned camera and video equipment reseller, founded D Cubed Group, and previously chaired the Finance Committee on the board of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. In this conversation he explains why he treats himself as reporting to his own board even as CEO, the line he uses to build real alignment with the leaders he backs, and how he tells a company that's genuinely healthy from one that's been dressed up to sell. If you sit on a board, report to one, or want to, this is a masterclass in building trust before you need it.

🔗 Read the full write-up: https://www.smestrategy.net/blog/glenn-kaufman-keh-camera-ceo-board-accountability

🔗 Strategic planning facilitation with Anthony: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

🔗 Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Alan Walsh is President of Sentient Jet, the company that invented the private jet card. Before that, he spent 20+ years at Dell and EMC, including leading the 4,500-person Global Support Center team through the EMC-Dell merger across 12 locations and six continents.
In this episode, Alan shares the leadership credo he's carried since his EMC days ("if there's no precedent, you can't be wrong"), what it actually takes to communicate change to thousands of people at once, and the operational discipline behind Sentient Jet's commitment to answering every phone call in 15 seconds or less, 24/7.

00:00 Intro: Meet Alan Walsh, President of Sentient Jet
01:12 From Cork, Ireland to the U.S. — Alan's path
02:06 The first rule of leadership: "It's never about me"
03:33 Alan's credo: "If there's no precedent, you can't be wrong"
05:15 Communicating "the why" across a 4,500-person global team
07:38 Inside the Dell-EMC merger integration
10:45 The failure that changed how Alan leads
13:17 How applied physics shaped his leadership style
15:02 A day in the life as President of Sentient Jet
18:08 Where AI fits in private aviation (and where it doesn't)
20:51 The 15-second rule: Sentient Jet's service philosophy
22:46 Close

Learn more about Sentient Jet: https://sentient.com
Want strategic clarity like this in your own organization? Work with SME Strategy on your strategic plan: https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator
Or connect with Anthony directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/


If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and subscribe wherever you listen. It helps more leaders find the show.
#Leadership #PrivateAviation #ChangeManagement #CustomerExperience #ExecutiveLeadership #BusinessPodcast

Most franchise CEOs chase the wrong number. Mike Rotondo — who's led Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Edible Arrangements, and Altitude Trampoline Parks, and now runs pet care franchise Skiptown — explains why the real measure of a healthy system isn't new franchise agreements, it's the "second signature": whether the franchisees you already have want to do it again.

Anthony and Mike dig into unit-level economics, when to innovate versus when to protect your core (and why "we'll never do that" often doesn't age well), and the three traits that separate franchisees who thrive from ones who burn out. A candid, practical conversation for anyone building a business — franchise or not — that depends on other people executing well.

ABOUT SME STRATEGY
SME Strategy helps organizations around the world create and execute their strategic plans through expert facilitation, leadership training, and organizational alignment. We work with leadership teams to make strategy implementation easier, faster, and more effective.

Learn More About Our Strategic Planning Facilitation Services:
https://www.smestrategy.net/strategic-planning-facilitator

Visit SME Strategy Consulting:
https://www.smestrategy.net

Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604/

Ron Johnson built the Apple Store from scratch. He was also CEO of JCPenney and led the design-for-all era at Target. In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, he walks Anthony Taylor through the specific counterintuitive bets that made Apple retail the most successful launch in the history of the category.

The list is longer than most people realize. He hired baristas and librarians instead of technology experts, because he could train product knowledge in a week but couldn't train warmth. He killed sales commissions, so customers would buy when they were ready and not when a rep needed a number. He invented the Genius Bar as a visible promise of service at the back of every store. He put Apple on the world's most expensive real estate. And he built the Fifth Avenue store underground, so rent landed at roughly 1% of sales while the store did $350 million in its first year.

The through-line for CEOs and senior operators: the strategies that separate you from your competitors are the ones that look counterintuitive on paper, and they come from your own lived experience, not from copying what's already been done.
If you're a CEO, president, or senior operator running a mid-market business and trying to build a strategy that actually differentiates you, this conversation is for you.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Ron Johnson: Apple Store, JCPenney, Target
01:05 Starting at the bottom, unloading trucks at Mervyn's
03:25 Why he hired baristas and librarians instead of tech experts
06:07 The real future of retail: 85% of sales are still physical
09:25 Why customers want to be approached in stores
10:42 Killing sales commissions at the Apple Store
11:47 Designing a store so the service is visible from the door
13:41 What made the Apple Store concept so counterintuitive
15:42 Personal geography: the edge nobody can copy
17:16 The Fifth Avenue store, the fifth most photographed site in NYC
19:52 $350M in year one at 1% rent: the underground bet
21:15 What courage in strategy actually looks like
22:22 Ron's new book and where to find him

ABOUT THE GUEST
Ron Johnson is the former Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Apple, where he built the Apple Store from concept to global rollout and created the Genius Bar. He was previously Executive Vice President of Merchandising at Target, where he led the design-for-all strategy that reshaped the brand, and later served as CEO of JCPenney.
His new book, Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius, is out from HarperCollins.
Learn more: https://ronjohnsonshopsdifferent.com

ABOUT THE PODCAST
The Strategy and Leadership Podcast is hosted by Anthony Taylor, Managing Partner at SME Strategy, and features conversations with CEOs and senior operators about the strategic bets, frameworks, and decisions that separate great companies from average ones.


Work with SME Strategy on your next planning session:
https://www.smestrategy.net
Subscribe for a new episode every week.

#RonJohnson #AppleStore #StrategicPlanning #RetailStrategy #BusinessStrategy

What does it take to lead 24,000 people through the largest telecom merger in US history — during COVID — and come out the other side with a stronger team?

In this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Anthony Taylor sits down with Tracy Nolan, SVP at Humana and board member at Dress for Success. Tracy has driven $31B in revenue through a $6B operating budget across a Fortune 100 career that includes leadership roles through the Sprint/T-Mobile merger, the Verizon/Alltel merger, 9/11, and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Tracy shares the six ingredients she looks for in every team she builds, why "if your name is on the invite, you've earned the right to be in the room," and the story of a goose in a parking lot that reshaped how she thinks about listening as a leader.

Whether you're leading a mid-market company through change or building your first executive team, the fundamentals in this conversation apply.

What you'll learn:
• The six success ingredients Tracy uses to evaluate any team (trust, integrity, commitment, execution, teamwork, right people)
• How to build two-way trust before you need it
• The "open bridge" method Tracy used to lead 12,000 people through a merger during COVID
• Why vulnerability at the executive level accelerates transformation
• The concept of "full circle leadership" — managing your team, peers, boss, and customers as one system
• The most overlooked element of transformation plans (and why decisiveness beats consensus)
• How Dress for Success helps women re-enter the workforce

Chapters:
00:00 – Introducing Tracy Nolan
01:11 – Heart + leadership: how Tracy defines her MO
03:09 – The six success ingredients
05:14 – Building trust during major transformation
06:11 – The Sprint/T-Mobile merger & the goose in the parking lot
10:59 – Being the first woman in the boardroom
14:39 – Driving results and full circle leadership
20:49 – What most leaders miss in transformation
22:46 – Dress for Success and giving back
25:15 – Where to connect with Tracy

Connect with Tracy Nolan:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tracy-nolan

Learn more about Dress for Success: dressforsuccess.org

About the host:
Anthony Taylor is the founder of SME Strategy Consulting and host of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast. He helps mid-market leadership teams get aligned on one destination and execute on it. Learn more at smestrategy.net.

If you got value from this conversation, leave a review and let us know your biggest takeaway.

#Leadership #StrategyAndLeadership #Transformation #ChangeManagement #ExecutiveLeadership

Dr. Justin Anderson CEO of Premier Sport Psychology and Premier Performance Advising Justin’s work has supported Hall of Famers, All-Pros, world and national champions, and organizations across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, WNBA, NWSL, Olympic sports, collegiate athletics, and executive leadership spaces.He shares insights on how elite performers achieve their success through mental frameworks, attention management, and intentional focus. Discover practical strategies to enhance your performance and leadership by understanding the mind's role in overcoming challenges.Key Topics-The importance of attention in performance-Breaking through mental barriers-The five personal attributes for success-The role of biases, fears, and insecurities-The intentional attention framework-Managing pressure and stress effectively-The concept of amnesia and forgetting the past-Renewal strategies for high performers-The impact of routines and language on mindset-Practical tips for leaders and athletes