The Blog
Long-form essays, field notes, and frameworks from the FIRMSconsulting team — published weekly.
All posts
Published weekly-
Byron Loflin on CEO Readiness: How Boards Decide Who Gets the Top Job
Byron Loflin, Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq and co-author of CEO Ready, explained on the Strategy Skills Podcast why many talented executives never make it to the top. “ Because you perform well isn’t going to automatically get you the job.” Boards are looking for more than results. They look for humility, curiosity,…
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Phil Gilbert on How Design Thinking Rebuilt IBM and Reached 400,000 Employees
Phil Gilbert led one of the most significant cultural transformations in corporate history, as IBM’s General Manager of Design, he helped the 400,000-person company reinvent how it thinks, listens, and builds products. In this in-depth interview, Phil shares the playbook behind “Irresistible Change”, his approach to scaling design thinking, transforming culture, and helping teams adopt…
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Speak Without Limits membership
Note: This is the most accessible way to begin transforming how you speak. And for many people, this is the missing piece that holds them back far more than they realize. The level of your expertise is only as visible as the level of your communication skills. You can be operating at 80% expertise, but if…
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Harvard Economist John Campbell on How to Stop Losing Money to a Broken Financial System
John Campbell, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and co-author of Fixed, joined the Strategy Skills Podcast to explain why the financial system often works against ordinary investors and how to make better personal-finance decisions. After decades studying markets and investor behavior, Campbell saw a pattern: even educated, high-income earners routinely make avoidable mistakes in…
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$3.6B CEO Bob Chapman on the “Poverty of Dignity” in Corporate America
Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, explains how he built a $3.6 billion company by placing human dignity at the center of leadership. He describes the moment he recognized that “our history does not give us the future that we deserve,” and how this led to a disciplined focus on balance, diversifying customers, industries, and technologies…
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Harvard’s Scott Levy on His Path from Investment Banking to Leading in Uncertain Times
Scott Levy spent two decades as an investment banker at firms like J.P. Morgan, advising corporate boards and senior executives on risk, growth, and capital decisions. Then he pivoted, serving on a public school board, teaching at Harvard, and writing Why School Boards Matter. In this episode, we discuss: How Levy broke into investment banking…
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Former CNN and NBC News Anchor Lynn Smith on How Leaders Build Authentic Presence and Excellent Communication
Lynn Smith, former national news anchor for NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline New, and now executive communication coach, reframes public speaking as an internal leadership skill, not a performance. She identifies the recurring obstacle as the “brain bully”, the inner critic that turns preparation into paralysis, and shows leaders how to retrain it so…
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Jamie Dimon & CEOs Are Rethinking Capitalism – Here’s What That Means for You
In this must-watch episode, authors Seth Levine and Elizabeth McBride discuss insights from their book Capital Evolution, sharing what they learned from interviewing top CEOs including Jamie Dimon, Dan Schulman (PayPal), Peter Stavros (KKR), and others who are helping to reshape the social contract of business. They explore: Why Jamie Dimon led 200 top CEOs…
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Joy at Work in the Age of AI: The Pain Is Optional (with Bree Groff)
“Most people can’t remember the last time they went to bed and thought: today was fun.” In this conversation with Bree Groff, author of Today Was Fun, we recenter the conversation on joy, pleasure, and meaning at work. Bree shares why her mom always said, “I have the best days,” what it taught her about…
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From Gas Station Cashier to Billion-Dollar CEO with Shirin Behzadi
What does it really take to go from working as a gas station cashier to leading a billion-dollar company? In this Strategy Skills Podcast episode, host Kris Safarova speaks with Shirin Behzadi, author of The Unexpected CEO and former CEO of Home Franchise Concepts, where she scaled the business to nearly $1B in sales across…
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What AI Can’t Replace with Ben Swire
In this week’s Strategy Skills episode, we spoke with Ben Swire, author of Safe Danger and former leader at IDEO. His thesis is trust and psychological safety aren’t byproducts. They’re designable conditions. And when designed correctly, they create room for calculated risk, creativity, and deeper collaboration. Below are a few insights that stood out: Experiential…
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Klaus Kleinfeld on AI, Energy & Leading at the Highest Level
Few leaders have run Fortune 500 giants on different continents. Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld has. As CEO of Siemens (Germany) and Alcoa (U.S.), he has led global transformations across industries and advised presidents and heads of state. In this interview, Klaus shares: Why time management is a myth and energy is the real driver of performance…