This is the recording of a live conversation I had with Dr. Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag to explore how the principles from the Theory of Constraints can be applied to multi-project environments (Digital transformation efforts) to deliver projects on time, on budget and on spec.

She shared insights from her latest book (now available in Worldwide) Goldratt’s Rules of Flow to help us understand how to increase the velocity and throughputs of project deliveries within our organisation.

We covered the following topics in the conversation:

• Introducing the work of Dr. Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag
• Do 70% of projects really fail to achieve their goals? Why? And how can we address it?
• The importance of triage in a multi-project environment instead of focusing on improving productivity
• Whose job is it to identify the constraints in a multi-project environment?
• Why is flow important in the Theory of Constraints? And what are the fundamental rules of flow? The importance of Full Kit.
• How do organisations make the shift from their current operating model to the ToC model?
• My learnings from the book - Goldratt's Rules of Flow
• When you want to go farther, focus.
• The psychological cost of the wrong assumptions that run multi-project environment
• What is a Full kit?
• How to deal with an external customer and run projects the ToC way.
• Does this work for projects with no clear end date?

You can watch the session delivered by Rami Goldratt @ https://youtu.be/YIc1U1LUDE0?feature=shared&t=9660

#TheoryOfConstraints #ToC #CriticalChain #ProjectManagement #ontime #onbudget #onspec #DigitalTransformation #EliyahuGoldratt #Goldratt 

You can connect with her via LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-efrat-goldratt-ashlag-44046212a/

You can find Dr Efrat's book: Goldratts Rules of Flow @ https://amzn.to/3Q6mqik

You can find Dr. Goldratt's book: The Goal @ https://amzn.to/3MBsYEL

My website: https://rmukeshgupta.com

Connect with me: https://linkedin.com/in/rmukeshgupta

My books: -

Thrive: https://amzn.to/493brhZ

Your startup Mentor: https://amzn.to/3FrBbHr

Being Happy: https://amzn.to/3QsE4xO

In this episode of the podcast, we host the inimitable and unapologetically ambitious, Sophie Krantz. We had a conversation about leadership and the need for economic growth and opportunity. We discussed the possibility of creating positive change in the world through frameworks like exponential organization (ExO) and coaching ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

In this wide ranging conversation, we discussed

- The importance of seeing the world as one and the need to overcome fears and limiting beliefs to achieve breakthrough growth.

- The value of immersive experiences and tapping into personal passions to create unapologetic ambition and confidence in tackling global problems.

- The difference between a limited and expanded worldview, with Sophie encouraging people to look for colour in the world and to tap into their potential to create something new.

- The power of generative AI and the importance of exploring the world and pushing outside of one's comfort zone.

- The importance of expanding limitations and having ambition in leadership.

- The need for role models and the importance of creating a space for people to play and experiment in order to tap into their creativity

- The importance of expanding one's perspective and mindset in order to succeed in a world surrounded by smart machines and intelligent algorithms.

- The importance of continuously learn and experiment, and to reach out to others for support and knowledge.

We had a conversation about experimentation with generative AI, the oneness of the world, and the importance of concrete stories in relating to ideas.

Books discussed in the video:

Exponential Organisations 2.0 by Salim Ismail: https://amzn.to/492yYzH

Connect with me - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmukeshgupta

Connect with Sophie - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiekrantz/

Sophie's website - https://www.sophiekrantz.com

My books:

- Thrive: https://amzn.to/493brhZ

- Your startup Mentor: https://amzn.to/3FrBbHr

- Being Happy: https://amzn.to/3QsE4xO

In this conversation with @DrAlanBarnard, we explore how the principles of the Theory of Constraints (originally created by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt) can be used to not only drive significant business results but also to help us make high stake decisions as leaders.

In this freewheeling conversation, we explore Dr Barnard's story about how he met with Dr. Goldratt and his famous motto. We explore who is a true expert

He shares how he got into an argument with Dr. Goldratt and how he then formed a life long connection with Dr. Goldratt.

He shares his most important lessons from all his interaction with Dr. Goldratt

What is a Life Goal? The definition of a Life goal is a "Dream taken seriously

- Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt

I will not sacrifice my goal for anyone and I will not sacrifice anyone for my goal

Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt

He also introduces the concept of Theory of Constraint then, shares what is a constraint and the different kinds of constraints that we might face in any given system (Market/demand (external), Capacity (internal), Supply (external), Cash (Internal), Management Attention (internal) and probably the most crucial in any business.

He also shares two ways to improve a constraint and therefore significantly improve your impact. He shares the importance of "Flow" or "Throughput" in any given system and how "Flow" is two-dimensional. He also shared the importance of understanding and increasing flow (time and velocity). He also shares different Ways to improve any given system.

He also shares the story of how Tata Steel UK went from 1 Million Pound loss per day to 1 Million pound profit per day using Theory of constraints

We constantly see good people make bad decisions. He explains why this happens and how to avoid them. He talks about what he calls as the agency equation.

We then move into the realm of individuals and he shares how to identify what constrains our belief systems? Really? The power of questions - Really or unless.

He also shares insights about how our minds work? He talks about the importance of learning prompt engineering to engage not just chatGPT but ourselves as well.

He also shares insight on how to ask good questions as a leader and the 2 steps to make a breakthrough in any field. He also shares insight on how to measure people's performance and its impact on the business.

Dr. Goldratt had started a movement called "Viable Vision". He shares more information about this viable vision and how can one go about achieving the same in their business.

We then understand his own learning process and the key people he learns from - Herbert Simon and Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

What is so obvious to him that all of us miss?

We don't usually learn from experience but from Experiments

Dr. Alan Barnard

In Summary: We need to remember the 4F's - Flow, Focus, Finish and Fast Feedback to become influential and impactful leaders.

More information about the resources we mentioned in the conversation:

1. Goldratt Research Labs: https://goldrattresearchlabs.com

2. Dr. Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag:   / dr-efrat-goldratt-ashlag-44046212a  

3. My interview with Dr. Efrat:    • Delivering Projects on time, on budge...  

Books discussed in the video:

Goldratt's Rules of Flow by Dr. Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag: https://amzn.to/3FrAa25

The Goal by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt: https://amzn.to/3Q0iXSe

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: https://amzn.to/3s0ieIK

Blackswan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: https://amzn.to/40d9ewz

Apps mentioned by Dr. Alan Barnard: https://harmonyapps.com/apps/harmony-...

Dr. Alan Barnard's podcast - https://dralanbarnard.com/category/im...

In this free wheeling conversation,

we cover

• What it takes to lead in an ever changing world 
• What are some of the key skills leaders need to cultivate to thrive
• What are some of the things that leaders need to avoid to thrive
• How AI or Artificial Intelligence will change the face of the organisation and therefore the role of a leader
• The importance of having a clear strategy or a "True North" when everything around us is changing all the time and much more.

In this interesting conversation, Speaker, Author and Advisor (and Public speaking coach)  @ColFink  shares his perspective on the importance of clear and effective communication for leaders.

He also shares insights on how to get good at communication and specifically when speaking to an audience (internal or external).

He shares how leaders can learn to communicate to inform, inspire and connect. He also talks about how good communication can provide leaders the leverage they need in order to scale both - effectiveness and efficiency.

If you are a leader and want to work on your communication, this is a conversation worth listening to.

Here are some things that we cover in this conversation:

• Most Common mistakes people make when trying to communicate

• Questions to ask ourselves before planning our speech (People, Problem, Purpose, Plan, Prescription)

• The cost of not having prepared our speech

• How is communicating different when the goal is to Inform, Inspire or Connect people

• The importance and the skill of telling stories using the concept of Pink Sheets developed by  @Matt.Church 

• How to get good presenting in front of a camera?

• How can leaders find leverage to increase their impact and influence

• How does Col learn and continue to stay current

• One piece of advice that had a profound impact on him

• What is so obvious to Col but people miss all the time and that frustrates him

You can find more information about Col at https://www.ColFink.com.

You can connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/colfink.

Books discussed in the video:

- Speakership: https://amzn.to/3Q9xo6q

- Tribes of learning: https://www.colfink.com/store/p/tribe-of-learning

- Kevin Kelly on Pushing Beyond the Obvious: http://rmukeshgupta.com/2017/06/29/pbto56-the-inevitable-technological-forces-that-will-shape-our-future-with-kevin-kelly/

In this first episode of a new series, which will be focused on leadership, we host a practicing leader - Pankaj Rusia. He currently works for SAP as the Head of Customer Success for the SAP HR Cloud business are and is based out of Singapore. As the Head of Customer Success for SAP South East Asia, he is on a mission to make customers look great in front of their leadership, employees, and managers, and to help them get the best out of their SuccessFactors solutions.

In this wide ranging conversation, he shares his insights on leadership. WE cover many things including the following:

The leadership burden, which makes us be different person at work and while at home. We discuss some challenges that typically leaders in the middle management face. He talks about the importance of listening more than talking, understanding what drives your team members and having good conversations.

He shares the importance of developing people and letting your people outgrowing us as their leaders. He also shares the importance of finding mentors and sponsors for those we lead outside of their immediate circle within our organization.

We discuss the book - One minute manager and the key insights from the book.

This the first episode of the current season of my podcast - Pushing Beyond the Obvious and I am super happy and excited to kick off the season with none other than Lisa O'Neill. She is a self described energy and human expert.

In this wide ranging conversation about energy and leadership, she shared a lot of great insights on leadership.

Here are some of my takeaways from the conversation:

She shared insights about the importance of knowing ourselves. If we do not know what kind of a leader we want to be, how would our team know.

In order for our teams to perform at their best, they need to know exactly what we expect from them. So the first thing that we need to do as a leader is to become aware of what exactly do we want, who exactly we are and how exactly should our team engage with us.

She also shared the importance of letting our team know how we roll as a leader. That way they know how to get the best out of us. High performing teams don't just need team members performing at their peak but their leaders performing at their peak as well. And this aspect of leadership is not discussed or shared enough.

She shares a 4 step model to help us get more self aware - Notice, Nourish, Navigate and Nurture. In all, she shares the importance of pondering, pondering about ourselves and what we want.

She also challenged the leaders listening with these three quests:

1. Spend a week only asking questions of your team.
2. List down all the people in your team and rate them from whom you really like to the one you least like. Answer the question - why is this so?
3. Write down three personal things you know about everyone on your team. If you can't up with them, take them off for a cup of coffee or tea and talk to them to get to know them.

In conclusion, this season could not have started at a better note than this conversation. I have lined up a lot more conversations with both thought leaders and practicing leaders for the show and am excited about how things will go from here. I hope you ride along with me on this journey.

PS: If you want to want Lisa as you listen to this conversation, you can do so below:

Resources that were mentioned in the episode:

- Thought Leaders Business School - https://thoughtleaders.com.au
- My post on the 25 Women - https://rmukeshgupta.com/celebrating-25-women-who-influenced-and-shaped-my-thinking-and-work/
- More info about Matt Church - https://www.mattchurch.com

Books mentioned by Lisa:

- 100 questions for self awareness by Lisa O'Neill - https://www.lisaoneill.co.nz/shop
- Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsh- https://amzn.to/3MiMuWd
- You can Heal your life by Louisa Hay - https://amzn.to/3S92BcI
- Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - https://amzn.to/45Hls1v
- The Net and the Butterfly by Olivia Fox Cabane - https://amzn.to/45JGRaA

You can find more information about Lisa and her work - https://www.lisaoneill.co.nz
You can connect with her on LInkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaonz/

Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmukeshgupta

My books:

- Your startup Mentor: https://amzn.to/3FrBbHr

- Thrive: https://amzn.to/493brhZ

- Being Happy: https://amzn.to/3QsE4xO

In this episode of Pushing Beyond the Obvious, we host Stacey Barr - The Performance Measure Specialist. She

Stacey is a specialist in strategic performance measurement and evidence-based leadership.

Stacey specialises in using practical performance measurement as the catalyst for creating a high-performance culture that achieves measurable success.

She is also the creator ot PuMP®. PuMP® is a performance measurement methodology that routinely transforms measurement cynics into its greatest advocates.

In this wide ranging conversation, we cover: 

1. What is the definition of a KPI? 

2. The difference between Leading measures and lagging measures. 

3. What is the true purpose of defining KPI

4. What is the difference between good KPI's and bad KPI's 

5. We also talk about the PuMP® methodology that she created. 

In this episode, we speak to Radhika Dutt, the author of the book - Radical Product Thinking. 

One of the greatest strengths of the human race is also one if its weakest link. Our ability to imagine is the source of all the innovations around us that has made our lives and our species so dominant in the also what causes us to trip in a lot of our pursuit.

We could end up living in our imaginary worlds and never see the reality. This is the reason why so many of us (individuals and organisations) are never able to realize our potential. We are unable to get out of our imaginary worlds into the real world and look at reality as it is, without colouring it with our imagination.

This is why:

• Even after being completely drunk, we still think that we are sober enough to drive home.
• Even after seeing that the reality around us has changed, we continue to execute our old plan as if nothing changed.
• There is such a gap between knowing and doing what is the right thing.
• This is the reason why most change initiatives fail (as they don’t acknowledge and incorporate the reality but are built on imagined realities).
• Most leaders fail (as they don’t acknowledge the reality of their situation and of their followers).
• We continue to smoke or drink (we imagine a future when we will quit smoking or drinking).
• We don’t learn from our mistakes (we think that the reason for that failure was not due to mistakes we made but because of some other imagined reason).
• We have so many couples go through divorces (instead of accepting our spouses for what they are, we imagine how we want them to be and when they don’t measure up to that imagined reality, we are not happy in our relationship anymore).

Even though we know this now, I am sure that we will imagine that we are much better at recognizing the reality and not make these same mistakes (which is also a form of living in an imagined reality).    

The question then is how to get grounded in the reality (some might even question the very notion of reality, but let’s leave that discussion for a later date) and not make these very mistakes.

One way that I have found to work really well is to have a buddy who can help us see the reality and shatter the imagined reality that we are living in. If we are looking for a reality check in our work life, then this person needs to be someone who doesn’t have a stake in the discussion but is still part of the same universe. Someone who sees the world very differently than how we do.

As buddies, it is our responsibilities:

• Recognize that every world view is biased & based on some figment of our imagination or experience.
• Share our world views openly and without any
• Question each other’s world views. Go deep to find out the core beliefs driving our world view. And then explore how close to the reality these beliefs are.

This can only work on the following conditions:

• There is a strong level of trust between both the buddies
• There is no conflict of interest between the buddies
• Both the buddies know and understand that biases and imagination are a real threat that needs to be addressed.
• Both the buddies believe that the process will make them better and more successful.

In Conclusion:

As they say, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”. Acknowledging the fact that we all live in some imaginary world which leads to biased thinking and decision making is the first step towards addressing this problem. There are more people who have failed due to this reason than any other reason.

As this is also the reason that allows us to build a better world, we need to be extra careful and intentional about when to allow our imaginary world to lead the way and when to come out of our imaginary world and let our work be rooted in our reality.

In this episode, we speak with Anne Sugar. She is an executive coach and speaker who has advised top leaders at companies like TripAdvisor, Sanofi Genzyme and Havas, She also serves as an executive coach for Harvard Business School Executive Education.

In this episode, we host David Burkus and talk about his latest book - Friend of a Friend. In the book he talks about the science of networks and what we can learn from them. 

He shares a lot of great insights into how to use the science of networking to build a network that will help us get what we want while helping our friends get what they want. 

Who is on the show: 

In this episode, we host Denise Lee Yohn. She is a best selling author, keynote speaker and the leading authority on building great brands and exceptional organizations.

Why is she on the show:

Her book "Fusion" comes out today in which she shares her insights on the importance of bringing organisational culture & the power of branding together to create an organisation that can become a powerhouse of a business. 

Top 3 ideas I learnt from the conversation: 

1} It is critical that we know right from the start of our business about what do we stand for. We might still take on work that is not the ideal work so as to stay in business. We still need to keep looking for the ideal business and only talk or brand ourselves as per the ideal work or look for the ideal client. 

2} Organisations that are able to take their branding or promise to our customers and use that to build a culture that drives the behaviours that can enable the delivery of this promise are the one's that become exceptionally successful. 

3} It is important as leaders to understand that we need to be consistent in three aspects (ideological, tactical & symbolic). This means that as leaders our actions determine the culture we create. 

Resources mentioned: 

1} You can find all her books (Fusion, What Great Brands Do) 

2} Take the Fusion assessment here.

How to connect with her: 

You can find her blog here. You can connect with her on twitter @deniseleeyohn. 

In this epsiode, we host best selling author Dorie Clark. She has written multiple best selling books - Reinventing You, Stand Out & her latest book Entrepreneurially You. 

She shares great insights on how to create a brand for yourself and also about the importance of being entrepreneurial, even if you are not an entrepreneur. 

I had a great time talking to her and is an insightful conversation. 

In this episode, we host Harold Jarche. He is focused on providing actionable insights for workplace transformation. He works with individuals, organizations, and public policy influencers to develop practical ways to adapt to the technological, demographic, and societal changes facing us today. 

We talk about how we can create our very own personal knowledge mastery strategy (Seek --> Sense --> Share) & how this can help us make sense of the changes that see all around us. 

In this episode, we speak to the creator of "Vycle" a vertical transportation system that she developed as a project.

She rethinks and creates a new product that can help us go up and down, one that doesnt take too much space (like stairs or escalators) nor do we have to wait for a lot of time to get into a box. 

The product is truly one of its kind and we try to deconstruct the process of creating this product with Elena. 

In this episode, we host Jeffrey Baumgartner (again) and talk about what he calls "Imaginativefulness" and its importance in the overall creative process. 

Who is on the show:

In this episode, we host Jill Konrath. As a business-to-business sales expert, Jill’s ideas and insights are ubiquitous in multiple forums, both on and offline.

Jill’s newsletters are read by 125,000+ sellers worldwide. Her popular blog has been syndicated on numerous business and sales websites.

Why is she on the show:

She was recently named one of the most influential people on sales by LinkedIn, among many other recognitions.

What did i learn in this episode:

As sales professionals, we are constantly busy and we are to find time on ever more busier executives so we can position ourselves as someone who can add value to them and their business.

We do a lot of our work online (from checking our emails to researching our clients and their social profiles to reading more about the financial results of our customers. And some of the most brilliant minds in our era are working tirelessly to keep us hooked on their products by using findings from neuroscience research.

When we add both of the above, it is extremely difficult to not get lost in the rabbit hole that is the internet.

Some things that Jill recommends:

No notification policy: Notifications are one of the most important way that we get distracted and sucked into rabitholes. So, the first thing to do to gain our time & focus back is to remove all notifications. I only have notification for when either my wife or my boss reaches out to me.

Batch our work: She recommends that it is easier to focus and we become a lot more productive when we batch our work. Fixed time for emails. Fixed time for online research and so forth.

Shut down the distractions: As sales professionals, we need to be able to think deeper and find insights. The ability to shutdown our gadgets and thinking deeply is  important to refresh our brains. We need to give our brains some rest.

Focus: Think about and decide what is the one thing that we can do today/this week that will have the biggest impact and focus on accomplish that.

Learn how to work in a digital world: As a species, we have not evolved to deal with the digital world. And this is not going to go down but only going to get worse. So, we need to consciously learn how to live and work in a digital world.

Take a break: The higher level thinking which is required in order to connect with different thoughts, identify patterns and gain insights require that we take breaks so that we can replenish & rejuvenate our brains. Work on 50 - 10 mins bursts - 50 mins work followed by 10 mins of active break (walk, drink water, stretch, etc).

Work on what matters: With the time saved by becoming more productive, we as sales professional can continue to do more high value activities and self development.

Unclogging our pipeline: So much of deals or opportunities are in our pipeline because we hope that they will happen. Just like it is important to be more intentional and focused on our time, we need to be as focused and intentional about keeping our pipeline unclogged. By unclogging our pipeline, we can find common themes among the opportunities, thereby helping us address these concerns. Another high value activity.

Best Prospects are the one's undergoing change: The best prospects who will be open to change are the one's that are already going through some kind of flux. This change makes them more open to challenging the status quo.

Overcoming Overwhelm: By becoming more focused and productive, we can use the time we save to not only do high value activities but also help our customers by giving them information that can help them overcome their overwhelm.

Best part of her job: Solving challenging, complex,  sales problems.

Biggest challenge of her job: Difficulty to decide which ideas to go after.

Whats on her bucket list: Iceland.

Recommendation: Hidden Figures, the movie

What superhero would she be:  Jill, the time master

What is so obvious to her which people miss all the time: Overwhelm is the biggest problem at the root of almost every challenge.

2 action recommendation: Minimise distractions. Find out your own ways to avoid and minimise distractions. There no hacks, only lasting change.

Where can you connect with her:

You can find all her great work on her website - www.jillkonrath.com and on LinkedIn. You can buy her latest book here.

Who is on the show:

In this episode, we host Bernadette Jiwa. She is a best selling author of multiple books and writes one of the most popular marketing and branding blogs - The Story of Telling. Smart Company named as the top business blog in Australia of 2016. Seth Godin listed it as one of the marketing blogs he reads.

Why is she on the show:

She just released her most recent book - Hunch. The book talks about how we can turn our everyday insights into the next big thing.

What do we talk about:

In this episode, we talk about how this particular book came about. She shares her insight about how entrepreneurs - small and large are getting deluded in the barrage of data and using it as a crutch to not decide and work on their hunches. She shares some very interesting stories about how Richard Turere (all of 12 years old) helped save his cows from Lions and in the process invented the "Lion Lights". She also shares the story of how one doctor (Dr. Ravenell) leveraged the popularity and the sense of community in a barber shop - Denny Moe's to change the lives of thousands of black men by converging healthcare and haircare.

She defines Hunch as below:

Hunch = Insights + Foresights

Simple yet elegant way to define something extremely complicated, I must say. She also talks about the fact that in order to get these hunches, we need to look at the intersection of three things.

Hunches are formed at the intersection of Curiosity, Imagination and Empathy.

There are opportunities all around us if only we stop and notice them. She shares her way of getting these inspiring stories from the everyday walk of life. She says that these stories are all around us, if only we can stop and look for them, if we find them, slow down and think about them.

We also discuss how important boredom is and how crucial having distraction free time for us to think about stuff that we have learnt and allow it to sink in and come up with our own perspective and a lot more. She shares how Sara Blakely founded Spanx with 5000 USD and she takes the long route to work, so that she can get some quite reflection time for herself almost everyday. 

This is a short episode but one filled with a lot of insights and learnings.

How can you connect with her:

I strongly recommend that you buy her book - Hunch. The book is packed with a lot of such stories and also has a lot of prompts that can nudge us to practice all the three things that she talks about (curiosity, imagination and empathy) that are important for coming up with our own hunches. Also,  subscribe to her blog. She blogs every single day. Her blogs are an oasis in the middle of a barrage of blogs that dont speak to you. They are short but insightful. They speak to us in a way not many blogs do. You can also follow her on twitter @bernadetteJiwa.

PS: You can watch the TED Talks by Richard & Dr. Rayenell.

Who is on the show:

In this episode, we host Dave Gray. He is the founder of XPLANE and author of multiple books including Liminal Thinking.

Why is he on the show:

He is a visual artist and uses agile, iterative techniques like Visual Thinking, Culture Mapping, and Gamestorming to get people engaged and involved in co-creating clear, unique and executable business strategies. His latest book - Liminal Thinking, talks about a core practice for connected leaders in a complex world.

What do we talk about:

In a free-wheeling conversation, we speak about

• How did he come about writing his book "Game-storming" with Sunni Brown and James Macanufo and his experience of writing the book
• Empathy Map and he shares a story about a session where he used the map and how it impacts people
• Why is it so difficult for people to empathise with others?
• How did his book "Connected Company" come about and what it was all about (Digital Transformation), which led to the question about how to make the transformation?
• How this led him to his latest book - "Liminal Thinking"
• The entire conversation around belief and how critical it is for internal transformation
• What are some of the most simple of things that if done can have significant impact on our lives?
• The ability to sit back and observe oneself as a third person is a meta ability that can help us bring about significant changes in our own lives. How could one go about developing this ability?
• Is there a connection between being in the moment and visual thinking?
• Something that was surprising and interesting while researching for the book - "Liminal thinking".
• Who does he considers the most inspiring person and why?
• What is it that you see in the world that blows his mind?
• What is the biggest limitation of humanity? Why?
• What does his creative process looks like? What are his routines that support his creativity?
• What gives him joy or how does he rejuvenate himself?
• Where does he get creative ideas from ?
• What is his learning habits? How does he continue to evolve and grow as a person?
• Book Recommendation:
  • History of Illuminated Manuscripts
  • Making Meetings work
• What he thinks is obvious but people miss all the time (The answer will definitely surprise you).
• What is one thing he wants you to do as soon as you finish listening to this conversation?

Liminal thinking talks about learning six principles and nine practices. These nine practices of liminal thinking can be summarised as three simple precepts:

1. Get in touch with your ignorance.
2. Seek understanding.
3. Do something different.

Here is a video where Dave explains the Pyramid of Beliefs from his book and you can find a summary of his book here.

How can you connect with him:

You can follow him on twitter @DaveGray and his website is http://www.xplaner.com.

Who is on the show today:

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. His new book for Viking/Penguin is called The Inevitable, which is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. He is also founding editor and co-publisher of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily since 2003. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. His books include the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy, the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control, a graphic novel about robots and angels, The Silver Cord, an oversize catalog of the best of Cool Tools, and his summary theory of technology in What Technology Wants (2010).

Why is he on the show:

In his latest book "The Inevitable", he talks about 12 trends that will shape the way our society will evolve. This is already a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

What do we talk about:

In this free-wheeling conversation, we talk about:

• His interest and curating non-fiction films. He has a curated list of some of the wonderful documentaries on his site here.
• The 12 trends that are directions that technology is going to move towards, that seem to be inevitable. He lists them as verbs (Becoming, Cognifying, Flowing, Screening, Accessing, Sharing, Filtering, Remixing, Interacting, Tracking, Questioning , Beginning)
• [bctt tweet=""Trends are inevitable, the form and function is not"" username="rmukeshgupta"]
• Technology vs Societal view points of view to look at the future..
• How Technology has its own agenda..
• Have these trends have been behaving since the time the book was written..
• How Moore's law would have served you really well if you believed in it..
• Artificial intelligence and how this is going to play out..
• How can entrepreneurs make use of these trends and place themselves at the fore-runners when these trends play out and become mainstream
• How can we stay relevant in the future where these trends are becoming mainstream?
• What do these technologies and trends mean for us as a society and culture? How do we prepare for the future that is coming?
  • Access vs ownership
  • Products vs services
  • Tangible vs intangible
• A 1000 true fans and how this coupled with the trends that we are talking about provides a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to profit from.
• What are some of the most important skills that we need to learn in order to stay relevant:
  • To learn how to learn (Meta skill or the super skill). Figure out how we learn best or our own kind of learning.
  • Learn how to ask questions.
  • Techno-literacy and critical thinking
• How he learns and stays up-to-date with what he sees happening around him?
• What he thinks is obvious but no one sees it yet (A very surprising answer)..
• Documentary he recommends - Becoming Warren Buffet. You can watch the documentary below:

How can you connect with him:

You can find his blog here. You can subscribe to his weekly newsletter here.

In this episode, we host Mark Hunter, popularly known as the Sales Hunter. He shares his insights on the art of prospecting and around selling and leading sales teams. 

In today’s episode, we bring to you Jill Konrath. Jill is an author and a sales consultant. She has written three best selling books for sales people.
                  

In this episode, she shares her thoughts sales strategies and ideas for sales executives and sales leaders to succeed. We talk about

• How can sales and marketing can function better together
• What is the role of a sales leader and what can they do to make their teams more successful
• What are some of the hiring mistakes sales leaders do
• Importance of Premortems in a sales process
• Top sales mistakes sales people do and how to avoid it
• Why sales people should also be great project managers
• The most critical skill that sales executives need to learn to be ultra successful
• The four things that sales executives need to master in order to be ultra successful.
• Why sales people should take control of their own learning to be successful.
• Why sales people should create LinkedIn profiles that are customer facing rather than employee (current & future) facing
• How you always get worse before you get better.

All of this and a lot more nuggets of wisdom in this episode.

You can find all the information about Jill at www.jillkonrath.com

Today, we host Peter Vander Auwera. HE is the founder of Innotribe and Corporate Rebels United. He shares what he has learnt from running an innovation incubator, where, failure is not an option.

We talk about

1. Different types of Innovations
2. Collaborative Innovation
3. Incremental Innovation
4. The importance of building a Portfolio of Innovation projects
5. The importance of alignment in the organisation for innovation to foster
6. Evaluating How real is your innovation
7. What are the capabilities that we need to build in our organisations to foster innovation
8. Why its important to measure the inputs to the innovation process vs outputs
9. Key Capabilities Indicators instead of Key Performance Indicators
10. Open Innovation
    1. Innovation as a funnel is an illusion
       1. Innovation is not linear
       2. Innovation is about 10% ideation & 90% execution
    2. Where do most innovation efforts fail?
       1. How do you get the ideas out of the sandbox & back into the core team
       2. The Castle and the Sandbox – Book
    3. Create high quality learning loops and at scale

IT was a lot of fun and learnt a ton.

You can reach Peter on twitter @PeterVan

This episode is brought to you by Audible. The kind folks at Audible will gift you an audiobook for free to try out their service if you go to www.audibletrial.com/PBTO.

I would recommend a book called “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith. In this amazing book, read by the author himself, he shares us the secret to adult behaviour change and does it really well.

In this podcast episode, I share my views on how sales managers should be measured vs how they are currently being measured. 

In today’s episode, we host Sarah Robinson. She is an author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur and a consultant.

In my opinion, she has great ideas about how to create fiercely loyal communities.

In today’s episode, we host Peter Shankman. He is an author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector. He is recognised worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Customer Service, Social Media, PR, marketing and advertising.

The New York Times has called him “a PR all-star who knows everything about new media and then some,”. Peter is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of pure creativity with  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a dose of adventure, and make it work to your advantage.

In my opinion, his thoughts about customer service and how businesses can use customer service to not only differentiate themselves from their competition but also to use it as a competitive advantage is as sound as it can get. If you run a business and want to understand how and what needs done to delight your customers, Peter is your go-to man.

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we host Scott Jordan, aka, the PocketMan. Scott is the CEO of the first online retailer in the clothing space. He is also the author of Pocket Man: The Unauthorized Autobiography of a Passionate, Personal Promoter.

He was a part of my list of insanely interesting people I discovered in 2014.I found him accidentally on YouTube in a video which he was using as a Press Release. The more I researched about him the more intrigued I became. He founded and runs one of its own kind apparel company – ScotteVest.

Why is he on the show

In my opinion, he is the epitome of hustling to succeed, kind of entrepreneur, a rare breed indeed. He has the presence of mind and clarity of purpose that is critical for success for any entrepreneur. His ability to create news worthy content is really phenomenal. Follow him and his company for the remarkable product that they have created and as much as the phenomenal culture that they have built within their organization.

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we host Mitch Joel. Mitch is the President of a Digital media agency – Mirium. He is the author of two books –Ctrl Alt Delete and Six Pixels of Separation.
He was a part of my list of insanely interesting people I discovered in 2014. He hosts a podcast called the Six Pixels of Seperation and blogs every single day here.

Why is he on the show

When Google wants someone to explain the latest developments in marketing to the top brands in the world, they bring Mitch Joel to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California.

Marketing Magazine dubbed him the “Rock Star of Digital Marketing” and called him, “one of North America’s leading digital visionaries.”

Back in 2006 he was named one of the most influential authorities on blog marketing in the world. Mitch Joel is President of Mirum – a global digital marketing agency operating in close to 20 countries with over 2000 employees (although he prefers the title, Media Hacker)

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we host Mike Michalowicz. Mike is an entrepreneur and author of three books – The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan & Profit First.

Why is he on the show

By his 35th birthday MIKE MICHALOWICZ (pronounced mi-‘kal-o-wits) had founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies. Confident that he had the formula to success, he became an angel investor… and proceeded to lose his entire fortune.

Mike is now running his third million dollar venture, is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; is the former MSNBC business make-over expert; is a popular keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, which BusinessWeek deemed “the entrepreneur’s cult classic.”

Not only is he a successful entrepreneur and a best selling author, he is also extremely insightful, funny and energetic. His insights might sound very common sensical but as they say, common sense is not so common after all.

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we host Dr. Howard Moskowitz and Stephen Rappaport.

Dr. Howard is a market researcher and psychophysicist. He is best known for the detailed study he made of the types of spaghetti sauce and horizontal segmentation. He is CEO of i-Novation Inc & has written/edited sixteen books, and has published more than 300 articles. 

Steve consults and writes about brand growth through consumer insight, digital strategy and measurement.  He is the author of 3 books The Online Advertising Playbook, Listen First! and his latest one being The Digital Metrics Field Guide:

Why are they on the show

In his 40-year career span, Howard has literally helped create billion dollar product line in the food industry. He has also won numerous awards for outstanding research including The Market Research Council Hall of Fame Award. Malcolm Gladwell did an entire TED Talk focusing on Howard’s work.

Both of them research and write about comprehending people using the science of mind genomics in a specialized area called cognitive economics.

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we host Anaggh Desai. Anaggh is a business veteran with over 25 years of experience across industries ranging from hospitality, logistics, travel, e-commerce and retail.

Why is he on the show

In his 25-year career span, there is little Anaggh has not seen or experienced. He describes himself as a mindcaster and a people watcher. He has a cult like following on twitter which he uses to observe trends and patterns and engage with his followers.

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we have Neil Patel. Neil is a serial entrepreneur & co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics. He helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue.

Why is he on the show

He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama.

The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 online marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we have Aaron Anderson. He is currently, Director of Strategic Organizational Initiatives at San Francisco State University, College of Business.

Why is he on the show

Aaron has been a consistent contributor to the Managament Innovation Exchange and won a MIX Prize for an experiment that he has been running in how he works. 

His entry titled: “Working in Plain View: Using a Wiki & Social Media to broadcast as you work” won the prize in the “Digital Freedom Challenge”.

He has been working in plain view of all his organization by using a wiki and other open tools that allows him to work in ways that we have not seen yet.

Lessons from his experiment:

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we have Dave Kahle. He is also known as the Growth Coach.

Why is he on the show

Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leading sales authorities. He’s the author of 12 books, including 11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople, and How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime.

He writes a weekly Ezine for salespeople; and has presented in 47 states and ten countries.

As a salesperson, he was the number one salesperson in the country for two different companies in two totally distinct industries.

For over 20 years, he’s been President of Kahle Way(r) Sales Systems, a sales training/consulting company. In that capacity, he’s trained tens of thousands of salespeople and sales managers.

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we have Karin Hurt. Her award-winning blog, Let’s Grow Leaders, has grown into a highly interactive, International community. Her book, Overcoming An Imperfect Boss is available on Amazon.

Why is she on the show

She has a diverse background of executive leadership experience in sales, customer service, call centers, human resources, merger integration, training and leadership development – the last 20 years of which have been with Verizon.

Most recently, she served as Executive Director of the Strategic Partnership Channel at Verizon Wireless where she transformed customer service outsourcing, working with companies and call centers to build strong cultures that deliver positive customer experiences.

Her high-trust, high-collaboration approach drove substantial improvement across the portfolio, with centers performing at parity or above internal centers.

Prior to that she led a Verizon Wireless sales team, leading the nation in store sales to the small and medium business space. Karin’s consulting takes a comprehensive approach to developing confident, competent, and creative front-line teams.

She has also co-authored “Parents Guide to Leadership”, which is a book about teaching children to be leaders. You can download the book here.

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we have Porus Munshi, author of the best selling book “Making Breakthrough Innovations Happen”.

Why is he on the show

I have worked with Porus on an innovation project and from experience know that he is a great coach and has the uncanny ability to guide the teams to achieve their goals without any compromises. His understanding of the breakthrough or leapfrog innovation process is very deep and I have learnt a lot in every conversation that i have had with him over the past few years. .

What are we talking about

Who is on the show today:

In today’s episode, we have Dr. Dean Shroeder & Dr. Alan G Robinson, authors of the best selling book “Ideas Driven Organization”.

Why are they on the show

Dr. Alan G. Robinson, is an award-winning author, educator, researcher and consultant. He has co-authored six books, which have been translated into more than 20 languages. His specialties include managing continuous improvement, creativity, ideas and innovation lean production. He has advised more than 200 organizations in 25 countries. He is also  Professor at the Isenberg School of Management of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Dean M Schroeder, PhD, knows management matters. It matters to people, and it matters to performance. His mission is to help organizations by leading them to experience the positive changes that happen through improving their management systems and techniques. He is also an award-winning author, consultant and scholar. He is the Herbert and Agnes Schulz Professor of Management at Valparaiso University in Indiana.

The best-selling book, Ideas Are Free, which they co-authored was voted the Reader’s Choice by Fast Company magazine and selected as one of the 30 Best Business Books of the Year by Soundview Executive Books.

What are we talking about

PS: The posts that i speak about in the conversation are:

• Building Sustainable Competitive advantage in a networked economy
• Org structures – Moving from Pyramid to concentric circles

Shashank P S, an investor with BVP India in Bangalore, joined in 2012. He focuses on investments in internet and mobile.

Most recently, Shashank was co-founder of Atticous, a platform to power the online identity of businesses, where he handled strategy and business development. Shashank has also served as a senior consultant at Zinnov Management Consulting. He worked with several technology majors looking to make a foray or expand their presence in India. 

In this episode, we talk to Shashank, an investor with Bessemer Venture Parters. He shares his journey of how he became a VC at the age of 25, his thoughts on the start-up eco-system in India.

In this episode, we host Matt Heinz. Matt is President at Heinz Marketing and brings more than 15 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of organizations, vertical industries and company sizes. His career has focused on delivering measurable results for his employers and clients in the way of greater sales, revenue growth, product success and customer loyalty.

In 2007, Matt began Heinz Marketing to help clients focus their business on market and customer opportunities, then execute a plan to scale revenue and customer growth. 

This episode in a way is very useful for sales leaders and aspiring sales leaders. We cover some very important topics like: 

1. What are some of the most common mistakes sales leaders commit
2. What can sales managers do to help their teams to become more productive?
3. How should sales managers should be measured on (Getting it done and doing it right)
4. Social Selling in a B2B context & what can sales organizations do to benefit from the social selling processes..
5. Relevance of marketing and their role in the new world & how can marketing help make the sales teams more effective
6. How should Sales & marketing teams could work together better
7. Marketing folks who understand technology or techies who understand marketing?
8. What role does the CEO play in the overall sales success?
9. How do you look for when you hire your sales reps?
10. One mistake that sales managers commit which is so obvious to others but could be difficult for themselves to realize? 

Join us and listen in for a very interesting conversation. 

In this episode, we host Paul Castain, who is the Vice President of Rock Star Development for Castain Training Systems,  where he works with organizations and individuals who want to sell more and sell better. He is also the founder of the LinkedIn group "Sales Playbook", a group with more than 40000 members and one that is totally spam free.

In this conversation, we talk about a lot of important topics for the sales executive and sales leaders:

We talk about how taking action (starting Sales Playbook group on LinkedIn) has been one of the most important decisions that he ever made in his business.

We also talk about some tips to transform yourself into a sales rockstar:

• The importance of developing different styles of selling and the ability to switch styles (some call it adapting to your customer) based on the feedback you get as you go along.
• The importance of Empathy (to your customers, to your sales leaders, to your other colleagues) in selling successfully
• 3 of the most frequent mistakes that sales executives and leaders do and how to avoid them
• The power of uninterrupted time at the start of the day to do your most important tasks
• How micro-managing managers destroy the productivity of sales reps & what can they do to get out of this habit
• The importance of having an always up-to-date CRM system
• Some of the common traits in highly successful sales leaders
• Some common mistakes that sales leaders do and how to avoid them
• Paul's thoughts on the Sales vs Marketing debate
• Social selling - what it really is and some tips for the sales reps to excel at it
• The importance of investing in training

I strongly recommend that you join the Sales Playbook community and start engaging with the great folks there. You can also reach out to Paul on twitter @PaulCastain. 

You can join the Summer Sales Camp here.

In this episide, we host Lakshman, who heads the innovation practice for the consulting division of SAP, based in India and also a visiting faculty at the Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany. 

In this conversation, we talk about the importance of defining the right problem to solve, as the first step in any innovation practice. 

Lucky also shares his views on how to build a practice capable of being able to innovate on a consistent basis.

We also talk about Design Thinking, its history, the key components of this philosophy and how we can use this to solve complex problems.

He also shares information about the lense from which one could look at ideas to develop further in the innovation cycle.

If you are in the process of solving a complex problem or part of an innovation project, I would like to invite you to join the conversation to gain a different perspective.  

Welcome to episode number 4 of “Pushing Beyond the Obvious”. In this episode, we have with us Bob Thompson, CEO & editor of www.customerThink.com, the biggest online community about customers and customer centricity.

Bob has recently released his book #HookedOnCustomers. We shall talk to him today about what does customer centricity mean and everything that goes along with it.

We talk about

• The fact that most customer centric organizations are such, because their operational fabric is such that they do listen to their customers and act upon it and this is not part of a special program or a project.
• CRM, Customer Experience Management, social businesses & big data have become buzz words and without the right culture behind the efforts, they do more harm to the business. 
• The role of Chief Customer Officers & how it is critical to have the CEO assume that role.
• Some of the mistakes that firms do in their journey towards becoming customer centric and how they can avoid them.
• What role can the sales, marketing and customer service teams play in the journey
• When is it not a good idea to listen to your customers (with a good example).
• The steps that he outlines in his book, Hooked on Customer (which by the way is a great book & you should pick it up): Listen, Think, Empower, Create & Delight.

This chat provides some very good insights if you want to or already are on your journey to becoming customer centric.

Hope you enjoy the chat.

You can connect with Bob on www.hookedoncustomers.com or www.customerthink.com.

In this episode, we host Meron Bareket, the host of  “Inspiring Innovation Podcast” and the person behind the Inspiring Innovation Podcast Incubator, where he walks through all the steps that one needs to go through to set-up and start a podcast of their own. I am bringing this podcast to you by following his instructions as well.

We had a very interesting conversation about entrepreneurship, his journey from making software to how he got a job at the local Israeli radio, his iPad only magazine –“Inspiring Innovation” and his current role as the host of "Inspiring Innovation" podcast.

He also talks about the pivots that he has had to make from being an editor for the online magazine to being a podcaster.

We also talk about entrepreneurship, the challenges of being an online entrepreneur and how he addresses them. We also talk about Mastermind groups and their significance in the life of an online entrepreneur.

He also shares his secret of getting interesting guests for the podcasts.

You can find more about Meron and connect with him @ http://www.meronbareket.com/.

The inspiring innovation podcast is at https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/inspiring-innovation-podcast/id638774259.

The inspiring innovation podcast incubator to learn podcasting @ http://inspiring-innovation.com/

Other Podcasts that were mentioned in the podcast:

• The James Altucher Show
• Unmistakable Creative by Srini Rao
• Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income: 
• John Lee Dumas's Entrepreneurs on Fire: 

Hope you enjoy the show. Please do share your love by giving us a rating or leave us a review on iTunes.  

This is episode No 2 of “Pushing Beyond the Obvious”.

Today, we host Sunder Madakshira, who heads marketing & communications at SAP in India. He was recognized as “The Marketing Thought Leader” by Stars of the Industry Awards, constituted by the ABP group in Feb 2014. 

We had a very interesting conversation about the role that marketing can and should play, both internally and externally.

He also shares a lot of interesting insights about the importance of building a personal brand; some do’s and don’ts about how you go about building your personal brand.

He also shares some insights on leadership and the role of leaders.  

You can find more about Sunder and connect with him @ http://www.madakshira.com/

This is the 1st episode of "Pushing Beyond the Obvious" podcast.

In this episode, I talk about what this podcast is about and whom is it relevant for.

This podcast is relevant to you if:

• You are an entreprenuer or a CEO
• You are a manager responsible for the sales, marketing, innovation or strategy functions in your organization.    

The podcast will be about getting insights on how to push the boundaries of the following functions:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Entreprenuership
• Strategy

The format of the show will be a combination of solo episodes where I share my experience and thoughts and interviews where I host successful practitioners and thought leaders in these fields and learn gain insights from them. 

I am extremely excited about the journey and I hope you shall join me in the ride.

I also believe that the podcast shall play a small but an important role in your success, whatever it is that you set out to do.

If you like the episodes, please share your love by rating the podcast, writing reviews and sharing this with your friends and colleagues. 

You can provide your feedback or questions by writing to me at mgr@rmukeshgupta.com