Strategy and Leadership podcast Anthony Taylor | SME Strategy Consulting

John Rossman is the former Amazon Director of Enterprise Services who launched the Amazon Marketplace, the author of Think Like Amazon, an advisor to multiple companies including T-Mobile, and a member of various Boards of Advisors.

With an impressive background of launching and scaling the Amazon Marketplace business and running the Enterprise Services business for Amazon, we're quite excited to welcome John as our very first live podcast guest.

In our conversation, John will share some of his most important lessons and learnings from his time as an Amazon Executive, as well as his book, Think Like Amazon.

Here are somethings to look forward to in our conversation next week:

- How to strategize like Jeff Bezos
- How to make better and faster decisions
- How to create a culture of innovation & accountability
- & much more!

For this very special 75th episode on the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, we have no guests. Instead, our Managing Partner and lead facilitator Anthony Taylor will share some of his most important lessons from his past ten years of experience, as well as a glimpse into the future for both himself and SME Strategy.

Anthony has been facilitating strategic planning sessions and helping organizations of different sizes from various industries and countries reach their One Destination for just about 10 years now. He's seen just about every problem and challenge that leadership teams experience, and he's ready to share that with you.

Here's a breakdown of the episode:

- Anthony's background
- The plan is only a small part
- On actually executing your strategy
- Getting people where they want to go
- The future of SME Strategy

"Most mediocre insight you see in business comes not from bad researchers or faulty techniques.. the question itself was destined to lead to mediocrity".

Gunny Scarfo is the co-founder of Nonfiction Research, a market research firm that is dedicated to uncovering and understanding the uncensored lives of customers, and the information they wouldn't even mention to their friends. Gunny has also held multiple Head of Strategy positions, including one at Carrot Creative, a social media agency acquired by Vice Media in 2014.

On this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Gunny hones in on how to truly understand the hidden desires our customers hold, as well as the symbolic relationships they have with our products and services.

Here are the topic covered in the episode:

- Why you need to have a 'burning question'
- An underused tactic to learn about your customers
- A skill that's necessary to understand your customers
- What you know about your customers is probably wrong

Keith Kitani is a two-time entrepreneur who built and sold his first business to Adobe. Now, he's the founder and CEO of GuideSpark, a leader in change communication that drives change and results by re-focusing the hearts of minds of employees.


Most business leaders are comfortable creating strategies, along with programs to carry out those strategies. However, it is the employees of an organization that make those strategies happen. Keith believes that communication is the way to drive change, bridge that last mile, and see your strategy implemented.

On this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Keith shares his take on driving change by taking a marketing approach to internal communication, how to track the effectiveness of communication, his biggest challenge as a leader and more.

Here's what we talked about:

- Using a marketing approach to internal communication
- How to track effective communication (and how not to)
- On fighting for attention
- His biggest challenge right now as a leader
- About his company, GuideSpark

"The worst thing to do is to go dark"

Bill Bice is the Executive Chairman of Boomtime Word of Mouth Marketing and the Co-CEO of nQ Zebraworks. Having started or invested in over 25 different businesses over the course of his career, Bill brings some valuable marketing and business-building experience to the Strategy & Leadership Podcast.

On this episode, Bill breaks down his approach to building businesses, understanding & re-connecting with customers, the impact of marketing and much more. 

Here's what to look for in this episode:

- Bill's niche approach to building businesses and marketing
- Focusing on your team vs. customers
- His secret to success
- Advice for responding to a crisis
- Two marketing mistakes most companies make

If you want to learn how to lead the strategic planning process yourself & create your own strategic plan, take our self guided course at: www.smestrategy.net/course

Matt Sweetwood is a lifetime CEO with over 30 years of experience, and is currently the CEO of LUXnow and author of Leader of the Pack. Having spent the majority of his career in the electronics distribution and retail superstore space, Matt had to re-invent his business multiple times to keep up with digital transformation, which ultimately led to a successful exit for him.

On this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, Matt joins us to share his experiences as a CEO, some helpful leadership tips for young leaders and those trying to survive a crisis, as well as the story of his very challenging past, which ultimately led to the writing of his book, Leader of the Pack.

Here's a breakdown of the topics we discussed:

-His background, career and new company
-3 most impactful lessons on leadership
-Leading during a crisis
-About his #1 best seller, Leader of the Pack