We talked to Sydney Finkelstein, co-author of “Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You” back in March. In this excerpt, Syd discusses 4 red flag conditions that could indicate faulty decisionmaking.

Minipodcast (4:59)

For more information, you can access a web site with more resources about “Think Again.” And you can find the complete 20-minute podcast here.

In this minipodcast, my friend Robert Wiesheu, who has sold in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for more than 10 years, discusses a little-known corner of the sales world: the use of local agents to break into a new country market. It’s a challenging area with lots of traps – listen to Robert’s common-sense recommendations.

Podcast file (2:21)

Related post:
Full Shop Talk Podcast with Robert Wiesheu

Roberto Verganti’s book “Design-Driven Innovation” is one of the best business books of the year. It discusses the methods certain companies use to create products with radically new meanings, offering customers something they never realized they wanted and generating long-term competitive advantage and outsized profits as well. In this podcast, Professor Verganti discusses the ideas behind the book and how it applies to companies like Apple, BMW, Artemide, and Harley-Davidson.

For more information, visit the book’s companion website.

Podcast: Roberto Verganti on Design-Driven Innovation (mp3, 39:41)

Timeline:

0:35 What is the “meaning” of a product?

6:00 The meaningfulness of the iPhone

13:50 The role of “interpreters” in Design-Driven Innovation

19:50 Relationships between companies and interpreters

23:45 What is the CEO’s role in Design-Driven Innovation?

30:00 How much of the CEO’s time is required?

33:25 More resources on Design-Driven Innovation

Related post:
Review: “Design-Driven Innovation”

[Theme music: "Up the Coast" from West Indian Girl's CD "4th and Wall"]

UPDATE 20 October 2009: There is now a video tour of the FCX Clarity:

We talked to Todd Mittleman of Honda last spring about Honda’s environmentally-focused cars, the Civic GX natural gas vehicle and the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle (which, at the time, had not yet been released).

Well, a lot has changed in a year. The FCX is now out, and that’s the least of the news since then. People have reined in spending in many ways, not least of which is their utter reluctance to purchase a car from any manufacturer.

So how do green vehicles fit into Honda’s strategy now? We brought Todd back for another discussion. Podcast file: todd-mittleman-mar-2009 (21:37).

Highlights:
0:25 Description of Civic GX and FCX Clarity
4:15 Positioning of “green” vehicles in current economic climate
8:20 Does the US government’s support of alternate energy help the GX and Clarity?
10:45 Positioning of the new hybrid Insight versus the GX
14:17 More on the FCX Clarity
15:50 First customer feedback on the Clarity

(Photo: the Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle)

I recently finished “Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You” and it is my favorite business book of the year so far. Sydney Finkelstein and his co-authors, Jo Whitehead and Andrew Campbell, systematically dissect why we sometimes make and carry through terrible business decisions–whether it’s a poor acquisition decision, an ill-fated product redesign, or even deciding to park our money with Bernie Madoff or Allen Stanford. Even better, they let us know how to create structures that identify possibly faulty decisions in order to avoid them or, at minimum, monitor their outcomes carefully so bad ones can be reversed as quickly as possible.

Syd is a clear, engaging speaker, and was a delight to have on the podcast. Listen in for a 20-minute lesson on how we decide and how we can decide better. The podcast file is here.

Summary:

0:33 – Why studying decisions gone wrong is interesting and useful

1:05 – How our brain’s evolution impacts sound decisionmaking

2:35 – Has the complexity of our businesses outpaced our brain’s ability to keep up?

3:38 – Four red-flag conditions indicating possible faulty decisionmaking

8:03 – Decision-affecting attachments to people, ideas, things

9:20 – Important decisionmaking process safeguards

For more information, you can access a web site with more resources about “Think Again.”

[Theme music: "Up the Coast" by West Indian Girl, from their album "4th & Wall."]

For this edition of the podcast, I’m delighted to spend some time with my friend Robert Wiesheu, one of the most interesting guys I know and someone who’s spent more than a decade selling to customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As such, he has a great perspective on what it takes to successfully sell even if you don’t look or sound like the people you’re selling to.

Podcast file (18.2 MB, 15min51sec)

Highlights:

1′25″ Challenges in selling into different regions
5′00″ Preparing to sell in a country for the first time
6′10″ Is there bias against a foreign salesperson?
7′25″ What to think about when preparing a product for worldwide sales
9′10″ Working with in-country agents

Theme music: “Up the Coast” from West Indian Girl’s album 4th and Wall.

Tags:
podcast, sales, culture

The latest podcast features a discussion with Scilla Andreen, co-founder and CEO of Indieflix, about the current state and future prospects of the independent film business.

Here’s Scilla’s official bio:

Scilla Andreen (Filmmaker, CEO & Co-Founder IndieFlix) producer, director and Emmy nominated costume designer Scilla has deep roots in the entertainment industry and is a popular speaker and tireless champion of independent film. Scilla along with producing partner Carlo Scandiuzzi created IndieFlix, an independent film distribution and discovery site founded on the principles of community, promotion, syndication and transparency. They also created indie-fest.com and are launching the Filmmaker First Initiative. IndieFlix believes Independent films can and will be profitable. You can find IndieFlix on the web at http://www.indieflix.com.

It was a great chat. You can download it here.

Highlights:

(00:50) About the US indie market

(02:20) Options to get indie films to their audiences

(06:20) Where does a filmmaker’s advance go?

(09:13) What Indieflix does

(12:03) The many ways people access films and videos today

(13:00) About the “Bridge to Everywhere”

(15:35) What is a “hit” film for Indieflix?

(19:08) Promoting the filmmaker and the story behind the film

(19:33) Making meaningful recommendations for films members might like

(21:06) “If your film is worth stealing, it must be worth something”

(22:39) Looking ahead: the future of filmmaking and film distribution

(Theme music: “Nova” by Nomo, from its album Ghost Rock)

Scilla mentioned the challenge that exists for filmmakers to get clearances to use the music they choose for the film. Today’s Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about this very subject: the settlement of a lawsuit between Yoko Ono and a documentary filmmaker over the use of 15 seconds of “Imagine.”

Tags:
content, distribution, filesharing, film, movies, podcast, entrepreneurism

I had a great time talking recently with Jill Konrath, author of “Selling to Big Companies.” She had a lot to say about, among other things, how some tried and true sales techniques are outmoded. Jill’s website is sellingtobigcompanies.com.

Download the podcast here (20 minutes, 27 seconds).

Segments:
0:00 Introduction
0:30 The difference between selling to big companies and to small ones
1:50 What’s changed in selling in the past decade?
7:30 On follow-up
9:10 On “always be closing”
11:25 Using web2.0 technology to help make sales
15:20 Learning from mistakes

(Theme music: “Nova” by NOMO, from their album “Ghost Rock“)
Tags:
sales, sales improvement, podcast, lead generation, web2.0

From The Mistake Bank:

As a young Xerox sales trainee, Jill Konrath learned her sales demonstration script perfectly… perhaps too perfectly.

“Mr. Prospect” – 2:56

You can learn more about Jill and her work at SellingToBigCompanies.com.

Related Post:
Jill Konrath Mistake Stories

Tags:
sales, narrative, podcast, presentation, Mistake Bank

During our earlier podcast with Harvard Business School Professor John Quelch, co-author with Katherine Jocz of “Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes For Better Democracy” (Harvard Business Press, 2008), we went took a brief aside to talk about how the profession of marketing is viewed by others, and by marketers themselves.

John’s answer was fascinating, and can be found here (4:35) (right-click to download).

You can learn more about John Quelch’s research and thinking on his blog.

Other resources:
Interview with John Quelch from Personal Branding Blog
My review of “Greater Good”

(Theme music: “Up the Coast,” from West Indian Girl’s latest album 4th and Wall.)

Tags:
marketing, esteem, podcast, ethics