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Commanding Business

The challenge with growth is that the habits that got you here become the limitations that prevent you from getting there. Growth not only requires us to learn new habits. It requires that we unlearn old ones. I’m Tim Hamilton, CEO of Praxent and host of the Commanding Business podcast. Each week, I interview authors, experts and real world leaders about how they grew their teams, their organizations and ultimately themselves. From leadership to management and marketing to innovation, we’ll cover a variety of topics with an aim to uncover actionable takeaways you can implement in your own organization today.
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Now displaying: September, 2016
Sep 28, 2016

New York Times bestselling author and applied neuroscience expert Christine Comaford knows what it takes to move people from the Critter State into the Smart State, where they have full access to their own creativity, innovation, higher consAciousness, and emotional engagement. When an entire culture maintains that state, it becomes what she calls a SmartTribe. Focused. Accountable. Collaborative. Imbued with the energy and passion to solve problems and do what needs doing, again and again and again. Today, Christine Comaford unpacks those ideas for us, offering practical tools for business leaders and managers.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:53] Christine Comaford shares the big idea behind the predictability of building a company.

[3:09] Leaders should assist employees in moving from the critter state to their smart state.

[6:55] Christine outlines key questions for creating an Outcome Frame:

● What would you like?

● What will having that do for you?

● How will you know when you have it?

● What of value might you risk or lose?

● What are your next steps?

[17:24] The Outcome Frame helps leaders teach others to arrive at insights and aspiration.

[19:40] Advocacy shows a lack of trust in an organization. Leadership development is much more effective in the long run.

[23:07] Christine explains how to deal with conflict via the Feedback Frame:

● What’s working is…

● What I would like to see more of is...

[30:48] Christine outlines a tool for helping teams operate in their smart state by focusing on high-value activities, as opposed to low-value activities.

[41:02] Revenue inflection revolves around people, money, and business model. Christine describes the characteristics that are present at each major level of company growth.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Smart Tribes Book

Smart Tribes Institute

Praxent

Sep 21, 2016

Tim’s guest, David Evans, is one of the world’s leading authorities on multisided platform-based businesses. Many of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers with another group of customers. Don’t let the flashy successes fool you, though. Starting a matchmaker is one of the toughest business challenges, and almost everyone who tries to build one, fails. In today's episode, David Evans explains how matchmakers work best in practice, why they do what they do, and how entrepreneurs can improve their chances for success.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:03] The 3 big ideas behind the book Matchmakers.

[3:15] David Evans describes three scenarios for overcoming the critical mass challenge that platform entrepreneurs face.

[8:01] Scenario three requires pre-commitment from one side of the match to encourage investments into the platform. David gives an example from the video game industry.

[11:37] The crux of the platform-based business is that there's reluctance on both sides of the platform, and entrepreneurs have to overcome that reluctance.

[14:09] David Evans describes how Apple used the self-supply strategy model to gain commitment and users.

[20:20] Developing the right pricing model is crucial to a successful matchmaker business. David Evans offers some pointers.

[24:37] David Evans offers a description of the history and future of the payment card industry, which all started with Diner’s Club.

[36:50] Using mobile devices and payment platforms to move money can transform economies in developing countries.

[42:38] Why haven't mobile devices and payment platforms taken off in the United States? Friction must exist and be big enough to make consumers change habits and adopt new technologies.

[47:25] How to best connect with David Evans and gain additional insights on Matchmaker businesses.

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Matchmaker Economics

Praxent

Sep 14, 2016

The smartest, most successful companies are using radically new membership models, subscription-based formats, and freemium pricing structures to grow their customer base―and explode their market valuation―in the most disruptive shift in business since the Industrial Revolution. Today's guest, Robbie Baxter, unpacks The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction and Build Recurring Revenue.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:09] The big idea behind the membership economy.

[2:47] Cost certainty is part of the appeal to subscribers of membership-based organizations.

[8:18] Robbie Baxter unpacks three components within the membership economy: suspension, community, and loyalty.

[16:02] Businesses who adopt the membership economy business concept experience major benefits, including recurring revenue.

[22:27] Incumbent businesses in classically organized industries can adapt to the membership economy by focusing on and building off of the mission of their members.

[30:42] Robbie Baxter explains how a manicure business demonstrates the difference between fixed cost and incremental cost and why this matters in the membership economy.

[36:24] How to best Contact Robbie at Peninsula Strategies and read The Membership Economy.

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Peninsula Strategies

The Membership Economy

@robbiebax on Twitter

Praxent

Sep 6, 2016

Today’s guest, Jay Harman is the CEO of PAX Scientific and author of The Shark’s Paintbrush. In The Shark's Paintbrush, Harman introduces us to pioneering engineers in a wide array of businesses who are uncovering and copying nature’s hidden marvels. He shows business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs how we can reconcile creating more powerful, lucrative technologies with maximizing sustainability. Jay Harman injects a whole new vocabulary and way of thinking into the business sphere that speaks to both small start-ups and corporate giants.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:14] Biomimicry looks to nature to determine how nature has solved a problem humans are facing.

[2:48] Jay Harman designed a boat based on the “using the least to get the most” techniques used by nature.

[7:23] Examples of breakthrough innovations that are fundamental game-changers.

[16:59] PAX Scientific projects may allow for energy savings of up to 50%, meaning we may be able to reverse the negative effects of climatic change.

[20:40] The opportunities to optimize the energy requirements of automotives are endless.

[22:57] Reverse engineering a frozen whirlpool allows for an inventory of variables to study.    

[26:16] How to best reach Jay Harman.

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Praxent

PAX Scientific

PAX Water

The Shark’s Paintbrush

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