Chris Bradley, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute, discusses the ideas behind his book A Century of Plenty and the long-term drivers of economic growth.

Bradley explains that much of the public debate about the economy assumes growth is limited or zero-sum. His research argues the opposite. Over long periods, societies have repeatedly expanded prosperity through investment, technology, and knowledge.

A central theme in the conversation is the importance of investment. Bradley notes that productivity growth depends heavily on sustained investment in capital, infrastructure, and innovation. When investment slows, productivity usually slows as well.

He also discusses the institutions that support economic progress. Stable rules, strong legal systems, and functioning markets create the conditions that allow investment and innovation to take place. When these conditions exist, growth tends to follow.

The conversation also addresses the common belief that the world is running out of resources. Bradley explains that history shows a different pattern. Improvements in exploration, technology, and substitution have often increased available resources even as demand rises.

Demographic change presents another challenge. Many countries are now experiencing falling birth rates and aging populations. With fewer workers supporting more retirees, future growth will depend increasingly on productivity improvements.

Artificial intelligence may play a role here. Bradley describes AI as a general-purpose technology that could automate certain tasks while increasing productivity in many fields. As with earlier technological advances, the likely result is a change in the type of work people do rather than the disappearance of work altogether.

Key insights from the conversation:

1. Economic progress depends on investment. Productivity growth historically follows sustained investment in capital, infrastructure, and new technologies.

2. Growth is not inherently zero-sum. Economic expansion often occurs because innovation and knowledge enlarge the productive capacity of societies.

3. Resource scarcity has repeatedly been mitigated by discovery. Advances in exploration, extraction, and substitution have historically expanded the available supply of critical materials.

4. Demographic change is a major structural risk. Aging populations and declining fertility rates will increasingly challenge economic growth and fiscal systems.

5. AI is likely to augment productivity rather than eliminate work. As in previous technological shifts, automation changes the mix of tasks while enabling new forms of economic activity.

6. The discussion provides a structured view of how growth, technology, and demographics interact—and why the long-term outlook for human prosperity remains closely tied to investment, innovation, and institutional choices.

Chris Bradley is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company based in Sydney and serves as a director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), where he leads research on the economic and business issues most critical to the world's companies and policy leaders. He is an author of a new book, A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come

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Julia Dhar, Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group and founder of the firm's Behavioral Science Lab, joins us to discuss why most organizational change efforts fail and what leaders can do differently. Drawing on behavioral science and her work advising major organizations, she explains why the challenge of change is rarely about strategy alone and more often about human behavior.

Julia begins with a simple but powerful discipline used by many successful consultants: asking two questions repeatedly. First, "what is true about this situation?" and second, "what do I believe is true because of my perspective?" Confusing facts with assumptions is one of the most common causes of poor decisions, especially when leaders begin to treat their own expectations as evidence.

The conversation explores why roughly seventy percent of organizational change efforts fail to reach their stated objectives. Julia explains that many leadership teams concentrate on defining the strategy but devote far less attention to the conditions required for people to adopt new behaviors. Successful organizations focus on the "how" of change: shaping incentives, clarifying expectations, and reinforcing specific behaviors that make a strategy real in daily work.

Several practical insights emerge from the discussion:

Leaders often overestimate how comfortable employees are with change. In surveys, executives typically report feeling positive about change, while most employees feel neutral and a meaningful portion feel anxious. Recognizing this gap is the first step toward leading change effectively.

Emotions and incentives must be addressed together. People rarely adopt behaviors that conflict with their incentives, and fear or anxiety makes sustained change unlikely. Leaders who want durable change must create optimism about the future, give people agency in shaping how change unfolds, and offer clarity about expectations.

Behavior must be defined precisely. Broad goals such as "be more accountable" or "be more customer centric" are not actionable. Effective change requires specifying the exact behaviors expected and creating routines that make those behaviors repeatable.

Recognition plays a powerful role in shaping behavior. Leaders who identify and praise specific actions reinforce the habits they want to see more frequently, often at little cost and with lasting effect.

Organizations frequently underestimate the value of listening. Employees are usually willing to provide feedback, but they become disengaged when their input leads to no visible response. Closing the feedback loop—demonstrating that input leads to action—builds credibility and energy for change.

Julia also discusses the pressures executives face as organizations adopt new technologies such as artificial intelligence. Rather than framing the challenge as a threat to relevance, she argues that automation may free leaders to focus on neglected responsibilities, including understanding frontline work and strengthening human relationships across the organization.

Throughout the discussion, she returns to a broader principle: effective strategy requires an equally disciplined approach to human behavior. Leaders who combine clear strategy with attention to emotions, incentives, habits, and feedback loops dramatically increase the likelihood that change will succeed.

Julia closes with a perspective that reflects both her research and her experience advising organizations around the world. In any team or company, every individual has the ability to "bring joy and inspire hope." That ability, combined with the belief that people and organizations remain capable of change, is often the most powerful force available to leaders.

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Dr. Majid Fotuhi, neurologist, neuroscientist, and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, has spent decades studying how the brain ages and what determines whether cognitive performance declines or strengthens over time. In this discussion, he challenges one of the most widely accepted assumptions about aging: that deterioration of memory and thinking is inevitable. The evidence, he explains, points in a different direction. Cognitive health is strongly shaped by daily choices, and meaningful improvements can occur within weeks when those choices change.

Fotuhi organizes the science of cognitive resilience around five pillars: exercise, sleep, nutrition, stress management, and brain training. Each pillar affects the brain through measurable biological mechanisms. Exercise, for example, increases mitochondrial activity and stimulates the growth of new neurons in regions responsible for memory. Even modest activity matters. Walking several thousand steps daily has been associated with reduced markers of Alzheimer's disease in the brain, while higher fitness levels correlate with stronger cognitive performance.

Sleep represents the second pillar. Consistent rest of seven to eight hours supports the brain's ability to regulate stress hormones and maintain cognitive clarity. Persistent sleep disruption is often tied not to physiology but to unresolved concerns. Fotuhi notes that many professionals carry a large number of unresolved problems into the night. Creating clear plans for addressing those issues often reduces anxiety enough for normal sleep patterns to return.

Nutrition is the third pillar. Highly processed foods, particularly those containing trans fats, increase inflammation and are associated with smaller volumes in the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for memory. By contrast, a Mediterranean-style diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, and olive oil supports long-term brain health. Food, in this sense, functions as daily neurological input rather than simple fuel.

The fourth pillar is stress regulation. Chronic stress elevates cortisol, which can damage memory-related brain structures over time. Fotuhi emphasizes that much stress is generated internally through expectations and repeated negative thought patterns. Techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, meditation, and deliberate reframing help interrupt these cycles and allow the brain to operate in a more stable state.

The final pillar is brain training. Cognitive capacity strengthens when the brain is consistently challenged through activities that require learning and adaptation. Language study, music, strategic games, or complex physical skills all stimulate neural pathways. The key is sustained engagement in activities that are both demanding and enjoyable. The brain, like muscle, develops strength through repeated use.

Underlying these pillars is a broader insight about aging itself. Fotuhi argues that the second half of life can be a period of cognitive growth rather than decline if individuals adopt the habits that support brain health. The goal is not merely to avoid disease but to maintain clarity, memory, and mental energy well into later decades.

For senior professionals whose performance depends on sustained cognitive capacity, the implications are practical. The brain remains highly adaptable. With deliberate attention to exercise, sleep, diet, stress, and learning, cognitive capability can be preserved and, in many cases, strengthened over time.

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Nidhi Tewari, a highly sought after wellbeing and work culture speaker who applies her experience as a licensed therapist to the work world, has spent more than a decade advising high-performing leaders on burnout, trauma, communication, and work culture. In this conversation, she brings a clinician's precision to a topic many organizations still treat superficially: why capable professionals disengage, shut down, or burn out and what leaders can do differently.

Tewari's perspective is grounded in personal experience. After burning out multiple times and experiencing the sudden loss of her best friend, she recognized that burnout is not only psychological but physiological. Elevated stress markers, chronic exhaustion, and a dysregulated nervous system are not signs of weakness; they are signals. The first insight is simple but often ignored: professionals override subtle cues from their mind and body until the body forces a reset. Sustainable performance requires noticing those cues early.

Second, she explains how nervous system regulation shapes leadership behavior. Many high achievers operate in a chronic stress state, alternating between hyper-vigilance and shutdown. Tewari introduces a practical framework, RESET: recognize reactions, identify emotions, soothe the body, explore the root, and tell the story safely, to move from reactivity to deliberate response. Techniques such as 4-7-8 breathing are not wellness trends; they are tools to regain cognitive control before making consequential decisions.

Third, she addresses trauma directly. Workplace dysfunction, toxic leadership, and persistent undermining can create patterns that resemble clinical trauma. Drawing on her specialization in EMDR therapy, she explains how unresolved experiences shape beliefs such as "it's my fault" or "I'm not good enough," which then influence professional conduct. Processing those beliefs changes not only emotional resilience but executive presence.

Fourth, Tewari reframes burnout as a systems problem. Individual interventions, self-care seminars and boundary workshops, miss the root causes. Isolation, lack of trust, unclear expectations, and the sense that one does not matter are primary drivers. Her research on attuned leadership shows that when leaders respond with moment-to-moment relational awareness, productivity and psychological safety improve. Burnout declines when connection rises.

Fifth, she differentiates emotional intelligence from relational intelligence. The latter includes flexibility, reading cues, self-regulation, and collaboration. In an AI-enabled workplace, these human capabilities become strategic assets. AI can analyze data and refine language, but it cannot read tension in a room, detect subtle distress, or repair a damaged professional relationship. Leaders who master attunement, adjusting tone, pace, and posture to meet the moment, will distinguish themselves.

The discussion closes with a practical lens on communication styles: fixers, avoiders, connectors, and explorers. The explorer—curious, measured, and willing to ask "help me understand more"—creates psychological safety without centering themselves. That shift alone can alter team dynamics.

For senior professionals, the message is direct. Performance is inseparable from physiology. Leadership is inseparable from self-awareness. And sustainable results require disciplined attention to how people feel, not only what they produce.

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Charles Steel reflects on "more than two decades in private equity, banking," combined with "public service roles, including advising Tony Blair," and how these experiences led him to a late but powerful discovery: "the best way to really find purpose in life is to be creative, to make stuff." He explains that "the things I'm writing about now I am only able to write about because of what I spent the last two decades doing," and how this realization became a turning point.

He describes how stepping outside traditional career paths creates "periods where you have perspective," and how "follow your curiosity" eventually brought him back to the ideas that mattered in his youth. He shares that "in the last five years, I feel like I've become a student again" and that this shift awakened a deeper understanding of work, mission, and meaning.

Charles discusses the discipline behind creative work: "writing is not writing. Writing is rewriting," and how the creative act is "one of making mistakes, learning from them, getting better." He also explains the importance of reframing difficulty, saying, "if it was an easy thing to do, then everyone would do it," and why maintaining "a sense of humor" matters when navigating the inevitable "peaks and troughs."

Turning to Elon Musk, Charles argues that Musk is "far more different than most people would imagine." He explains that Musk always says, "when I talk you don't need to read between the lines, just read the lines," and that understanding him requires stepping outside our assumptions: "you have to step out of your shoes and step into his shoes."

Charles outlines Musk's worldview, guided by what Musk calls "a philosophy of curiosity." Musk believes "the universe is the answer," and that progress comes from learning to "ask better questions" so we can "increase our consciousness" as a civilization. Charles describes how Musk's companies, from Tesla to SpaceX to XAI, are designed as "civilizationally positive" efforts to "increase the scope and scale of consciousness."

He explains Musk's use of first-principles thinking: "you need every time to go back to look at your assumptions," then "make a conjecture" and "try and prove that your theory is wrong." This mindset also shapes how Musk builds organizations: through mission, product obsession, and "the rate of innovation," a culture in which people "work extremely hard" because they believe deeply in the purpose.

Charles closes by stressing the importance of alignment and risk-taking: that leaders must understand "your risk tolerance," think in "a range of different outcomes," and recognize that this discipline "really helps you to think about how much risk you're willing to take on for what return."

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Lorraine Marchand, startup CEO, advisor to Johnson & Johnson, member of the Pharmaceutical Advisory Board at Columbia Business School, and faculty at Wharton, discusses how leaders can sustain growth through disciplined experimentation in an era shaped by AI and institutional risk aversion.

Marchand's perspective is grounded in a career that spans large corporations and entrepreneurial ventures. Early in life, she learned to treat problem solving as an experiment rather than a test of personal worth. That principle later informed her approach to innovation in complex organizations.

Several practical themes emerge from the discussion:

1. Reframe failure as structured learning.

Marchand's operating principle is "try, fail, learn." The key is to set explicit learning objectives before undertaking a new initiative. When leaders define what they intend to learn, not just what they intend to achieve, they reduce fear and increase resilience. This mindset is particularly critical in startups and new ventures, where there is no playbook and early missteps are inevitable.

2. Innovation requires protected investment.

Drawing on research and executive interviews, Marchand highlights the value of disciplined portfolio allocation. A 70/20/10 model—70% core business, 20% adjacent opportunities, 10% new, exploratory ideas—creates room for experimentation without destabilizing the enterprise. The evidence she cites suggests that long-term growth frequently emerges from ideas that initially seemed peripheral.

3. Culture often suppresses experimentation.

Organizations frequently default to "playing it safe." Marchand argues that leaders must explicitly create space for candor and reflection. Her practice of "Fail Free Friday", a structured forum to discuss what is not working without defensiveness, illustrates how small rituals can normalize learning and surface risk before it compounds.

4. AI should assist thinking, not replace it.

Marchand observes both curiosity and fatigue around AI. Students and executives alike risk over-reliance, which can erode depth of analysis. Her discipline is simple: think independently first, then use AI as a research assistant to refine or challenge one's reasoning. Senior leaders remain relevant not by competing with automation, but by asking the right questions, an ability rooted in experience and judgment.

5. Integration of technology requires business judgment.

Technology cannot be bolted onto processes indiscriminately. Leaders must understand workflows deeply enough to decide where automation adds value, where human ingenuity remains essential, and where both are required. This integration demands clarity about the business, not just familiarity with the tool.

6. The "who" and the "how" matter more than the "what."

Late-career reflection led Marchand to conclude that outcomes achieved at the expense of people erode long-term value. Values alignment, integrity, and disciplined focus, often expressed through the willingness to say no, are strategic decisions, not personal preferences.

For senior professionals, the message is direct: sustained growth depends less on bold rhetoric and more on creating disciplined environments where experimentation is safe, technology is used thoughtfully, and people are encouraged to think independently. The capacity to ask better questions, protect time for reflection, and allocate resources to uncertain but promising ideas remains a defining leadership advantage.

Lorraine H. Marchand, an acclaimed author and innovator, is author of the new book NO FEAR, NO FAILURE and a leading consultant and educator on innovation with deep expertise in new product development. She has cofounded multiple start-ups, held senior roles at global companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Covance/LabCorp, and IBM, and advises top organizations while teaching at the Wharton School and Yeshiva University.

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Ashley Herd, former Head of HR North America at McKinsey, joins this episode to discuss what effective leadership looks like in practice, especially in environments defined by speed, pressure, and increasing expectations around AI.

Drawing on her experience training more than 250,000 managers, she introduces a simple but rigorous framework: pause, consider, act. In fast-moving organizations, leaders often default to speed over reflection. Herd argues that the brief pause before responding to a mistake, delivering feedback, or making a decision materially changes outcomes. It allows leaders to ask: What result am I trying to achieve? How would I want to be treated in this situation? What will the ripple effect of this action be?

Several practical insights stand out:

First, performance feedback remains one of the most persistent leadership failures. The issue is not usually saying the wrong thing, but saying nothing at all. Delayed or avoided feedback creates confusion, resentment, and surprises in annual reviews. Timely, specific recognition is equally important; a simple acknowledgment can shape engagement far beyond the moment.

Second, leadership style often oscillates between two extremes. Herd describes "tight jeans" leadership as micromanagement that restricts autonomy, and "oversized sweatpants" leadership as excessive hands-off behavior that leaves teams without direction. The effective middle ground is structured autonomy: clear expectations combined with room to operate.

Third, leaders underestimate the degree to which they influence their teams' well-being. Research shows a manager's effect on employee health rivals that of a spouse. Everyday behaviors whether following up, acknowledging effort, or setting realistic expectations, have consequences that extend beyond the workplace.

Fourth, organizations face a growing gap between executive narratives about AI and what teams are actually doing. Leaders often declare proficiency while employees experiment quietly, sometimes without clarity on what is expected, allowed, or rewarded. Clear standards around AI usage, what good looks like, what is permitted, and how it will be evaluated, are now a management responsibility, not a technical one.

Finally, Herd emphasizes upstream problem solving. Instead of repeatedly "cleaning up" issues after they escalate, leaders should invest in conversations, manager training, and clear norms that prevent recurring failures. This requires time, but it reduces long-term friction.

For senior leaders, the message is direct: results and humanity are not opposing goals. Deliberate communication, consistent one-on-ones, and realistic workload expectations are operational disciplines, not soft considerations. For managers at any level, the framework is simple but demanding. Pause before reacting, consider the broader impact, then act with clarity.

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John McGinnis, law professor at Northwestern University and author of Why Democracy Needs the Rich, examines constitutional design, democratic stability, and the accelerating force of artificial intelligence. Drawing on the Federalist Papers, Tocqueville, and public choice theory, he argues that a realistic understanding of politics is essential to preserving both liberty and effective state capacity.

McGinnis traces his intellectual formation to a "hard-headed realism" learned early in life and later reinforced by the American founding. At the center of his thinking is a practical constitutional question: how to build sufficient state capacity while preventing its abuse. He emphasizes the importance of an entrenched constitution that is difficult to amend, arguing that stability enables long-term planning and protects society from short-term political passions.

Several themes shape the discussion:

• Public choice and political incentives. Politics does not operate in a purely public-spirited way; concentrated interests often organize more effectively than diffuse ones. Understanding this dynamic is essential for evaluating policy debates.

• Historical perspective as stabilizer. Many contemporary political phenomena appear unprecedented but are not. From Andrew Jackson to the present, democratic politics has repeatedly unsettled elites while preserving constitutional continuity.

• Technology as the dominant variable. McGinnis argues that AI will overshadow most current political disputes. As a general cognitive tool, it will be embedded across sectors, reshaping law, education, national security, and economic organization.

• Comparative advantage in an AI world. As machines assume cognitive tasks, human value will shift toward persuasion, judgment, and relational skills. Professionals must rethink where they add distinctive value.

• Education under acceleration. The coexistence of AI-enabled and AI-restricted learning may become necessary to preserve independent thinking while leveraging technological capability.

• The civic role of the wealthy. In Why Democracy Needs the Rich, McGinnis contends that wealthy individuals diversify democratic discourse, counterbalance concentrated interests, support minority rights movements, and fund public goods such as universities and museums. Their independence allows them to take risks others cannot.

The episode also addresses rising student anxiety, the erosion of historical literacy, and the long-term question of meaning in a world where work may change substantially. McGinnis maintains that constitutional stability, plural centers of influence, and technological leadership remain central to American resilience.

This conversation offers a grounded framework for thinking about democracy, incentives, and technological acceleration. It situates current debates within a longer historical arc while identifying AI as the structural force most likely to define the next decade.

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Dr. Guy Winch explains why we must treat emotional injuries with the same urgency as physical ones. "We ruminate, we beat ourselves up, we criticize ourselves, we think we're weak… and we end up compounding the emotional injury." He introduces the idea of "emotional first aid" and why we need a psychological toolbox to stop that downward spiral.

Guy breaks down the difference between how we respond to physical pain versus emotional pain. "We go to the medicine cabinet for a physical injury, but we have no cabinet for emotional injuries." He explains why we must learn emotional hygiene: "The injuries don't just go away."

We also discuss how emotional neglect works and the long-term consequences of unacknowledged wounds. "The mind does not heal itself. The mind broods."

Finally, Guy offers a new model for how to respond when people open up to you emotionally. "Start with compassion. You can offer logic later."

Key Insights:

Insight 1: "We ruminate, we beat ourselves up, we criticize ourselves, we think we're weak… and we end up compounding the emotional injury." This explains why emotional pain often intensifies over time without care — because we engage in harmful self-dialogue instead of healing practices.

Insight 2: "The mind does not heal itself. The mind broods." Guy challenges the myth that emotional wounds naturally heal. Without intervention, the mind tends to replay and deepen the pain.

Insight 3: "We go to the medicine cabinet for a physical injury, but we have no cabinet for emotional injuries." He contrasts our well-established responses to physical pain with the absence of tools for emotional distress — and why this gap needs to be closed.

Insight 4: "Emotional hygiene is about treating those injuries when they occur and trying to prevent them in the first place." He introduces emotional hygiene as a proactive and reactive strategy, just like physical hygiene protects against illness and injury.

Insight 5: "Start with compassion. You can offer logic later." This is a clear framework for responding to others in distress — showing why empathy should precede problem-solving.

Action Items:

• "Start with compassion. You can offer logic later." Use this sequence when someone shares emotional pain.

• "The first step is to recognize the injury for what it is." Acknowledge when you've been emotionally hurt. Label it.

• "Would I say this to a friend? If the answer is no, then don't say it to yourself." A reframe technique to interrupt self-criticism.

• "You don't take one antibiotic and stop. You have to do the course. It's the same with emotional first aid." Practice emotional tools consistently, not just once.

• "Rumination is like a psychological infection. And so what you need to do is stop the infection from spreading." Interrupt rumination cycles early.

• "You have to override your own instinct." Emotionally healthy responses often require pushing against our natural urges to withdraw or self-blame.

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Adam Job, Senior Director at the BCG Institute and leader of its strategy research, offers a clear-eyed examination of growth, uncertainty, and value creation in today's business environment. Drawing on long-term empirical research, he explains why growth remains the primary driver of value over time, while also outlining why it has become structurally harder to achieve amid geopolitical tension, demographic shifts, affordability pressures, and changing political priorities.

The discussion moves beyond slogans and focuses on decision-making under uncertainty. Job explains that politically driven risk differs from other forms of uncertainty because corporate responses can amplify consequences, both economically and reputationally. He introduces a small set of strategic postures, making a bet, defending the core, waiting while preparing contingencies, or building a portfolio of options, and explains when each is appropriate.

Key insights from the conversation include:

• Over long horizons, roughly three-quarters of total shareholder returns are driven by growth, making it essential not only for valuation but also for talent attraction, innovation, and organizational morale.

• Many executives systematically underinvest during uncertain periods, even though research shows that companies making selective big bets during uncertainty often outperform peers who pull back.

• Political risk is uniquely reactive: corporate actions can escalate or de-escalate outcomes, requiring leaders to distinguish carefully between short-term noise and durable structural shifts.

• AI can expand the range of ideas and speed of experimentation, but growth depends on disciplined selection, testing, and scaling, not idea generation alone.

• When growth is not available, some firms can still create value through asset-light models, premium positioning, vertical integration, or reducing earnings volatility, though these paths are limited and not permanent substitutes for growth.

Job also addresses the cultural and organizational conditions that enable prudent risk-taking, including leadership signaling, incentive design, preparedness through scenario planning, and mechanisms that counter herd behavior. He emphasizes that resisting the instinct to retreat during uncertainty often requires deliberate structure, not individual courage alone.

For senior leaders navigating volatility, this episode provides a grounded framework for thinking about growth, risk, and value creation without exaggeration or false certainty. It offers practical guidance on when to act, when to wait, and how to preserve strategic agency in environments where the future is unclear.

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Free gift #4 Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1 www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build

Free gift #5 The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach

Free gift #6 Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients: www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift