If you’re like most business leaders, the topic of succession stirs up mixed emotions. On the one hand, succession provides great new opportunities. On the other hand, the thoughts that run through your mind about succession processes are anything but positive.

Because making successful succession transitions has an impact on so many North American businesses and so many stakeholders within a business, Robert and I have interviewed several key experts — getting the answers to the most important, most frequently asked and most painful succession questions.

Recently, for BusinessCast #198, we sat down with Sean Graham who shares key legal insights to help you avoid succession train wrecks. We’ve also gathered critical lessons from succession thought-leaders that span all industries and disciplines, including:

• Thomas Deans, best-selling author of “Every Family’s Business” (BusinessCast 117)
  
• David Simpson, Executive Director of the Business Families Centre (Ivey School of Business) (BusinessCast 191)
  
• John Geddes, one of Canada’s recognized succession gurus (BusinessCast 110)
  

Together, these four BusinessCast episodes help you better plan for, go through and successfully emerge from business successions regardless of your role in the process.

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If you’re like most entrepreneurs, your focus on achieving growth probably is on acquiring new customers/clients. And, while that is certainly an essential path to success, there is one path that is often overlooked: establishing strong strategic alliances. Using this method wisely can yield exponential growth as well as a host of other benefits including: product/service innovation, increased profile and expanded networks.

That’s why for BusinessCast #178 Robert and I sat down with Hadley Archer, the “architect” behind establishing, sustaining and growing strategic alliances for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Canada) — an organization that has systematically leveraged these kinds of special relationships with outstanding success.

In BusinessCast #178, Hadley succinctly addresses the following questions:

• How do you know if/when establishing strategic alliances is a good strategy?
• Where do you start in establishing the right strategic alliances?
• What are the key measures of success for strategic alliances?
• Who in a company should establish and sustain strategic alliances?

If you are looking for new ways to achieve growth, make sure you listen to Hadley’s insights found in BusinessCast #178.

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Whether you’re new to managing a business or are an old hand at using management tools, practices and literature, there is no doubt that you’ve been touched one way or another by the writings and insights of management/leadership guru, Dr. Henry Mintzberg. For over 40 years, Mintzberg has been the Canadian business thought-leader.

With 15 internationally acclaimed inventive and practical business books to his credit, Dr. Mintzberg has added a new title to his repertoire — and, it just may make him a household name on the scale of Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point), Jim Collins (Good to Great) and Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence). The new book, entitled,  “Management? It’s Not What You Think!” is written for today’s busy manager/leader — in that its structure, content and language reads more like a series of provocative and insightful blog articles than a lengthy academic tome.

For BusinessCast #170, Robert and I sat down with Henry Mintzberg to talk about his new co-authored book, some of his previous best selling books, and to get his insights into today’s most critical management/leadership issues. We were surprised with his take on some of the challenges central to the success of all managers/leaders…and we suspect you will be too.

Listen to BusinessCast #170 and find out what the Nation’s business thought-leader has up his sleeve.

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North America’s economy is a reflection of how entrepreneurs tackle challenges and embrace growth opportunities. That’s why it’s so important to review, analyze and understand the entrepreneurial mindset. And, that’s why for BusinessCast #161, Robert and I sat down with Eric Nielsen, the VP & General Manager, Small Business Services, Amex Bank of Canada.

Throughout the year, Amex conducts a rigorous National study that provides insights into entrepreneurial visions and expectations. The result: a good understanding of how entrepreneurs will be approaching business over the next several months. Listen to BusinessCast #161 as Eric shares some of the study’s key findings.

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When we chat with North America’s business leaders, we’re always focused on identifying guiding principles and practical tactics that you, as an entrepreneur, can apply to enhance your own business success. But, our guests always have unique definitions of current success and predictions for future success.

That’s why for BusinessCast #158, we launch the first in a new series: “The BusinessCast Top 10 in 10“. In each BusinessCast Top 10 in 10, two of our guests answer 10 critical business questions in the span of just 10 minutes! For the first in this new series, we turn to two recent guests: Carl Yankowski — former CEO of Sony Electronics, Reebok and Palm as well as Steve Smith, former CEO & President of WestJet and Zip Air.

**Recommended Event for business leaders/managers: Online Marketing Summit (in Chicago on June 30).**

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Entrepreneurs are insatiable — always striving to grow, learn and innovate. So, it’s no surprise to any BusinessCast listener that entrepreneurs find themselves leading some of the world’s most successful companies. In BusinessCast #153, we tap into one such entrepreneur: Carl Yankowski who has been CEO at Palm, Reebok and Sony Electronics — as well as holding senior positions at Polaroid, Cadbury Schweppes, Pepsi and Memorex.

As a lifelong entrepreneur himself, Carl shares his insights, great business stories and valuable lessons for entrepreneurs who want to bring exciting products to market and always be exceptional.

**UPCOMING EVENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS**: MarketingSherpa and MarketingExperiments are hosting a series of one-day seminars across North America. Check out the Online Marketing ROI conference (coming to Toronto in June) where you can also win an iPad.

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You’re being courted by a handful of companies that want to purchase your business. Wow! That’s an exciting scenario that many entrepreneurs strive for and consider essential validation that they’ve been successful.

But, the truth is that rather than being an easy destination in itself, this is a critical cross-roads that takes a great deal of determination, patience and focus. The countless number of issues that you need to address include:

• How do you choose between potential buyers?
• Is this the right time to sell?
• What’s your role going to be once the purchase is complete?
• What are your key measures of a success?
• When should you walk away from the deal?
• Who should you involve in the selling process?
• What are the likely surprises that you’ll face?

To get the answers to these questions in BusinessCast #142, we interview Chris Carder, President of Thindata 1:1 — one of North America’s leaders in multi-channel and database-driven marketing solutions.

In March of 2008, Transcontinental purchased the company that Chris and his partners built. So, in BusinessCast #142 Chris provides practical hands-on insights and candidly shares his pre-purchase concerns and post-purchase lessons. This is essential listening for any entrepreneur who ever thinks about selling their company.

*A reminder of upcoming (Toronto) events critical for all business leaders:

• The Art of Marketing (March, 2010)
  
• Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit (April, 2010)

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“FINANCIAL NUMBERS“. Even the mention of the phrase can frustrate the most intrepid entrepreneur. The sheer abundance and sources of critical financially-relevant data in (and around a) business is often difficult to identify, never mind interpret. But, entrepreneurs need to acquire some dexterity in financial numbers to be successful. So where do you begin? After all, you’re running your business, looking for growth opportunities, putting out fires, establishing strategic partnerships and constantly updating your business strategies.

That’s where our special guest comes in for BusinessCast episode #139. Intuit’s senior marketer Barb Anderson  provides insight on the first step of successfully working with financial data: managing the numbers. Barb taps into a wide community of growth-focused companies of all shapes, sizes, ages and industries. She shares very practical tips on how to get a handle on your financial data so that you can make better and faster decisions.

Complimenting Barb’s insights on how to manage the numbers, check out BusinessCast episode #98 — Financial Intelligence — where we interview the author of the book for quickly getting comfortable with interpreting financial data. Together, these two episodes give you insights and resources that will increase your financial skills and confidence.

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Over the last few weeks Robert and I have been collecting and consolidating the hundreds of questions that get sent to us each week via email, phone, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.

But, rather than answer all the questions ourselves, for BusinessCast episode #134, we brought in two of the leading trainers of Canada’s growth companies — Andrew Patricio and Roger Pierce — the founders of BizLaunch. Together, the four of us answer questions spanning Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, Finance, Operations and Technology.

Listen to BusinessCast episode #134 and chances are we’ll be answering questions that you frequently face. Also, listen to our recent episode Q&A — Part 1 where we posed a host of other commonly asked questions to our very special guest, Peter Thomas, the founder of Century 21 Realtors.

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