Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 442, featuring an interview with the author of The Illusion of Innovation: Escape "Efficiency" and Unleash Radical Progress, Elliott Parker. The Illusion of Innovation tackles the problem with innovation inside big companies, having activities that feel like innovation but lead to value destruction, not progress. This book explains why meaningful innovation naturally emerges from deliberate inefficiency and how large corporations can harness the power of small teams—startups—to drive radical change through systematic experimentation.   Elliott Parker is ..read more

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss how to know what is corporate strategy.   Subscribe to FIRMSconsulting's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/Firmsconsultingsubscribe   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo ..read more

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss what big picture thinking is.   At least once in your life, you would have received feedback to be a more big picture thinker. The problem is that everyone will have a different definition of big picture thinking and many of the definitions are vague, counter-intuitive, or wrong.   Based on advising some of the consultants on the study, this podcast provides a very simple, intuitive, practical, and correct definition of the big picture concept. It also explains why it is so important and how to use it.   ..read more

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss scenario planning's common problems.   Scenario planning / Scenario Analysis is a powerful tool in consulting. This is how to move from being a consultant to thinking and presenting like a partner.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training ep ..read more

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 437, featuring an interview with the author of Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing, Laura Mae Martin. In her book, Laura shows how to thrive no matter where you’re working, giving concrete steps that help you focus on your priorities and keep good systems, routines, and tactics in place. Uptime explains how to make technology work for you and make “feeling on top of it” your new normal. It’s a blueprint for operating at the highest levels of productivity while enhancing your own personal well-being.   Laura Mae Martin is the ..read more

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 436, featuring an interview with Claire Milligan, a Stanford graduate turned startup founder. Claire helps businesses grow by spending smarter and reducing their cloud costs. Her target market is PE firms. In this episode, we discuss what PE firms care about, how to approach them, the biggest challenges and potential solutions they encounter, as well as the sales process and lead time.    Whether she’s helping businesses transform their cloud spending or hitting the slopes as a ski patroller, Claire Milligan thrives on distilling complex problems do ..read more

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 435, where we feature an interview with the co-author of the inspiring new Generative AI study, Jeremy Utley. This episode highlights the common mistakes and missed opportunities many corporate teams and individuals make when using AI. Too often, individuals treat AI as a mere search engine, leading to answers that fall short of actual solutions.    Jeremy Utley is an adjunct professor specializing in creativity and entrepreneurship at Stanford University, where he has taught design thinking and creativity to nearly one million students of innovatio ..read more

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic from the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. This podcast is for those who have mastered all the basics on slide design and formatting. In this podcast, we discuss how to determine if your PowerPoint slides are influential on a study. Influential PowerPoint slides may not be the most beautiful pieces of work or even the ones with the most effort, though it is usually at least the latter. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study ..read more

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 433, an interview with the coauthor of Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future, Venkat Venkatraman. In Fusion Strategy, digital strategy expert Venkat Venkatraman and world-renowned innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan offer a first-of-its-kind playbook that will help industrial companies combine what they do best—create physical products—with what digitals do best—use algorithms and AI to parse expansive, interconnected datasets—to make strategic connections that would otherwise be impossible.   Venkat Venkatraman is th ..read more

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 432, an interview with the coauthor of Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future. In Fusion Strategy, world-renowned innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan and digital strategy expert Venkat Venkatraman offer a first-of-its-kind playbook that will help industrial companies combine what they do best—create physical products—with what digitals do best—use algorithms and AI to parse expansive, interconnected datasets—to make strategic connections that would otherwise be impossible.   Vijay “VG” Govindarajan is widely regarded a ..read more