The Blog
Long-form essays, field notes, and frameworks from the FIRMSconsulting team — published weekly.
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Award-winning Author Leslie Grandy on How to Achieve Creative Velocity in the Age of GenAI
Leslie Grandy, a seasoned executive with leadership roles at Apple, Amazon, Best Buy, and T-Mobile, discusses the underestimated nature of creative capability—and how leaders can systematically cultivate it. Drawing from her early career in the film industry and later product leadership across Fortune 50 companies, she presents a grounded, practical perspective on how creativity functions…
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Harvard’s Bill George on Leading Authentically in Today’s Workplace
In this wide-ranging and direct conversation, Bill George, former Medtronic CEO and Harvard Business School professor, offers a disciplined framework for leading in conditions of persistent volatility. Drawing from decades of leadership experience and research, George emphasizes that leadership today is no longer about managing processes, it is about confronting ambiguity, enabling experimentation, and sustaining…
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American Economist and Professor, Steve Hanke, on Rewriting the Rules of Our Financial System
Central banks in major economies have repeatedly misread inflation trends by relying on models that omit a fundamental economic lever: the money supply. In this episode, economist Steve Hanke offers a detailed critique of prevailing post-Keynesian frameworks and the policy missteps that have followed. Drawing on historical and current data, Hanke underscores the predictive power…
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Professor of Finance at London Business School, Alex Edmans, on Why ESG and DEI Data May Contain Lies
In this episode, finance professor and author, Alex Edmans, offers a rigorous examination of the narratives surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in corporate strategy. Drawing on his critique of widely cited studies, including those from McKinsey and BlackRock, Edmans illustrates how flawed data interpretations and confirmation bias contribute to the persistence of questionable claims.…
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McKinsey’s Tim Koller on Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies
In this episode, Tim Koller, co-author of Valuation and a leading authority on corporate finance, offers a substantive examination of capital allocation decisions under real-world constraints. The discussion moves beyond theory to explore how CEOs and CFOs should approach resource deployment in mature, capital-rich companies—where investment opportunities are limited not due to lack of ambition…
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James Turk on Becoming the Leader Others Want to Follow
In a world that often rewards taking, James Turk believes the most powerful leaders are the ones who give clarity, opportunity, second chances, and their full attention. In this episode, I speak with James Turk who is an executive coach, CEO of The Turk Group, and author of The Giving Game, about what it truly…
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Award-Winning Strategist Hernan Tagliani on What Brands Get Wrong About Multicultural Marketing
What if cultural relevance isn’t just a marketing strategy but a business imperative? In this episode, I speak with Hernan Tagliani, a multicultural marketing expert, award-winning strategist for Fortune 500 companies, and author of The Hispanic Market for Corporate America and Multicultural Mainstream that explains how brands can drive lasting growth by truly understanding and…
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Bill Canady on How a Billion-Dollar CEO Thinks and Leads
I welcomed back Bill Canady, CEO of OTC Industrial Technologies and Arrowhead Engineered Products, overseeing $2.5 billion in annual sales and 3,600+ employees. Bill shared a practical approach to driving profitable growth, centered on focusing resources where they matter most. He described how applying 80/20 analysis revealed that just 200 customers accounted for over 90%…
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Dean Carignan on Using AI to Boost Joy, Focus, and Productivity at Work
This week on the Strategy Skills podcast, I spoke with Dean Carignan, a senior leader at Microsoft with over two decades of experience across AI, Xbox, research, and product innovation. He discussed how AI is reshaping work today, not just by providing answers, but by acting as an agent to handle routine tasks, freeing people…
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Matthew Dixon’s Insights on What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently
In this episode, I speak with Matthew Dixon, founding partner of DCM Insights and bestselling author, about his latest research on business development in professional services. Drawing on a global study of 3,000 partners, Dixon outlines five distinct sales profiles and highlights the “Activator” as the only approach consistently linked to higher revenue performance. Key insights:…
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From Ditch Digger to 9-Figure CEO: Building a Business That Runs Without You
In this episode, I speak with Ken Rusk, nine-figure CEO and bestselling author of Blue Collar Cash, on building and scaling a successful business. Key insights: – True growth comes from empowering entrepreneurial employees and building autonomous teams aligned with the company’s mission and motivated to perform. – Rusk’s approach emphasizes the alignment of personal…
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Microsoft Director JoAnn Garbin on How to Empower Anyone to Innovate
What if the key to driving real innovation isn’t genius, but orchestration? Innovation is often seen as the domain of visionaries or tech geniuses. But in this episode, JoAnn Garbin, former Director of Innovation at Microsoft Cloud and co-author of The Insider’s Guide to Innovation @ Microsoft, shows that true innovation is a craft: one…