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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Robert and I have interviewed hundreds of wildly successful business leaders. In so doing, we have identified many wonderful stories and some surprising ironies. Case in point: using customer input. The truth is that every successful business leader has, during phases of rapid growth, effectively tapped into the mindset of their key customers and turned that knowledge into well-targeted, relevant and innovative products/services.

But, — and here is the irony — once companies get to a certain size, age or complexity— that customer insight, which was at the very core of the business success, isn’t actively pursued anymore. The result of being disconnected from customers isn’t too surprising: less innovation, longer sales cycles and eroding customer service. And, of course, the business consequences quickly follow including: higher customer acquisition costs, loss of ground to competitors and the loss of the most important employees.

That’s why for BusinessCast #180, we sat down with Fuse Marketing Group’s Director of Digital Strategy, Jeff Pontes. Jeff and his team help companies map out practical ways of harnessing customer input to ensure on-going product/service (and process) innovation. Jeff helps work through thorny issues such as:

• What kind of products/services lend themselves to integrating customer input
• Where in the product/service development cycle customer input should be used
• What aspect of product/service development should use customer input

Jeff also shares key insights about how to leverage social media tools to target, gather and integrate customer input.

Listen to BusinessCast #180 and you’ll get tips to help you stay connected with the true source of your on-going business success: your customers.

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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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For BusinessCast #171 Robert and I sat down with Dave Fleet,VP, Digital at Edelman (Toronto) to address a scenario that businesses around the world are increasingly having to address. And, the stakes could not be higher: your business reputation…which, of course means either the success of your business success or its downfall.

Here is the scenario (as applied to a large financial institution):

A Canadian-based financial services company has launched a campaign that renews one of its seasonal consumer-based investment products (e.g. RRSPs). They have spent their resources on traditional media (including television, radio, direct mail, in-branch literature and outbound telemarketing) as well as leveraged their permission-based email program, search engine marketing and ad-buys on some well-known consumer sites (e.g. national and local newspapers as well as investment sites).

Everything seems to be going on as expected but, then they get thrown a curve ball: Four days ago their call centre started receiving a dramatic increase in calls revealing that a message is floating across Facebook that their investment product is somehow unreliable.  At the same time, one of the SVPs has just seen that a local financial community influencer with nearly 10,000 loyal Twitter followers has just posted a message slamming the product. Finally, the spill-over is having an impact on in-branch conversations with consumers as well as in the B2B areas of the bank.

In BusinessCast #171 Dave provides insights about how to use social media to protect the business reputation by answering the following questions — questions that are applicable to all businesses facing this type of scenario:

• What are the most immediate actions that you would advise the company to take?
• What is the best way to evaluate the damage done to the reputation of the brand and its product?
• What can the company do to make sure that there is little spill-over into other areas of the its business?
• What are the measures of success that you would recommend to demonstrate success?
• What kind of timetable is required to execute the key recommendations?
• In what areas are the major hard dollar costs associated with the key recommendations?
• What are the most common knee-jerk reaction activities that the company should avoid taking?

Listen to BusinessCast #171 for Dave`s insights on how to use social media to protect and enhance the reputation of your business.

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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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Are your competitors dictating your business plans, your targets, your product offerings and your day-to-day operations? If they are, you’re in the throws of hyper-competition. So, how do you survive this intense and high-risk time in your business’ life? To get answers to this critical question, in BusinessCast #165, we sat down with John Sculley — the former President/CEO of Pepsi and Apple. John led these world-wide brands through some of their most turbulent and successful times — while thriving and optimizing hyper-competition. 

Listen to BusinessCast #165 and you will tap into the insights and critical lessons from one of the world’s most successful (and for some, contentious) business leaders.

For another BusinessCast episode that provides relevant lessons, list to Big Lessons from Big Business – with Carl Yankowski, former CEO of Reebok, Palm and Sony Electronics who shares insights, stories and tips for all business leaders and managers.

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All entrepreneurs have powerful stories to tell and are often compelling story-tellers. In fact, story-telling is so important to business success that we recently interviewed Chris Carder, Thindata 1:1′s President on how to use story-telling to close business deals, build stronger relationships and inspire your teams.

But, what typically catapults entrepreneurs to achieve and sustain success is the less glamorous part of story-telling: the ability to listen. And, that means the ability to listen to the market, listen to clients, listen to advisors and listen to colleagues/employees.

As evidence of the importance of listening for entrepreneurs, for BusinessCast #163, we interviewed Evan Thompson, Managing Director at Thompson Wiley & Associates. His company has thrived because of its ability to actively listen to key stakeholders as well as help their clients listen better.

Evan shares some of his many critical business insights. Listen to BusinesCast #163 and benefit from the wisdom found in listening.

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As your business grows, have you ever hoped, perhaps secretly, for some way to avoid those costly and time-consuming pitfalls that are a natural, but painful, part of your inevitable success? Well as it turns out, entrepreneurs just like you often confide in Robert and me a desperate need for practical ways to steer clear of common business hazards.

That’s why for BusinessCast #162, we sat down with Rick Spence to uncover today’s most common “entrepreneur bear traps” — those traps that snare even the most thoughtful, innovative, well-funded and profitable businesses.

Rick shares our passion for helping entrepreneurs achieve professional and personal success. For over 20 years, he has shared his observations and insights in many of North America’s most widely-read online and offline business publications. Together with Rick, we identify and tackle today’s “entrepreneur bear traps” in business strategy, marketing, operations, financing and human resources.

Listen to BusinessCast #162 and avoid some entrepreneur bear traps before they catch you off-guard.

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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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