Episodes

Paul Van Der Merwe, author and engineer is known for the quote “Money makes the world go around; however, happiness greases the axle. Without this lubricant, life will seize.” But most us only know the expression money makes the world go round which can be interpreted that that money is the most important or one of the essential things in life. We all have different attitudes toward money, and we all have different practices when it comes to earning, saving and spending money and some practices ...

Most people do not question rules because they are designed to protect the status quo and create a level playing field, but sometimes we need to bend them a little if in order to get a desired result. In the right context, this can be ok because rules are not static, they evolve and are based on the information we have at a certain time. Not to be confused with laws, which are in place to protect us, rules are very often open to interpretation, rules can be changed. Sometimes we need flexibility...

A business that is visible is also considered creditable. Visibility today means being present across all digital channels and using the right tools to make sure you stand out among the competition. With the decrease in foot traffic and increase in online traffic, if customers cannot find you, they will not know who you are, and they will give their business to someone else. As study by Riverbed found that 99% of business decision makers agree that optimizing digital performance is essential to ...

During the Corona crisis, tech has been a blessing in many ways. But the use of tracking and tracing apps in various countries have raised the question whether we are putting our privacy at stake. In this episode of Leadership Beyond Borders we speak with Juergen Weichert, CRO of Munich based ad tech company Usercentrics. We talk about the use of tracking and tracing apps in the wake of the corona crisis and why the crucial question is how the data is being stored. We discuss the concept of Cons...

As we start to come out of this crisis and things very slowly get back to normal, those companies that have shown strong leadership are the first ones to bet on. Some industries were impacted more than others, regardless of how strong the leadership is. Still, it is the companies that have shown innovation, flexible business models, excellent customer communication and strong leadership that will recover. In this episode, we explore what great leadership looks like by talking with an influential...

Luka Lucic, a Pratt Institute psychologist who studies the effects of war said “People, during times of prolonged, radical change, end up changing,” The question we will pose in this episode, how have local businesses changed and what does the new normal look like. Until the Covid-19 is subdued either by a vaccine or by a global campaign of strategically coordinated lockdowns our lives will not look like they did before. Businesses will not look they did before, and we will continue to have chal...

As the world reaches COVID-19 exhaustion and we all realize that this crisis has already changed our daily lives, very often we do not recognize what else the crisis has changed including its impact on global opinions surrounding politics, the environment and technology. Our attitudes toward potential opportunities—and risks— of using Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to combat COVID-19 are varied. There are examples of data and AI-based technologies that combat viruses and the spread of the...

For the first time in history, we are working with six generations in one workforce but whether this multi-generational workforce is collaborative and productive, or challenging and stressful, is up to how we manage. Over the past months we have experienced a crisis making it more complicated to do business-as-usual. Remote teams and lockdown policies have changed how we communicate. Different people react to these changes in different ways, but are different generations reacting to these new ch...

Local Search is about ‘near me’ searches that were incredibly popular and based on intent, proximity, location optimization and relevance, the searcher was getting what they wanted in a very local sense. Given the recent restriction of offline movement, one could ask how this has affected Local Search? It would be natural to assume that it has dramatically fallen or even evaporated. Yet that’s not the case. As footfall has declined for most local retailers and other merchants, online visits and ...

Marketing practices are adapting to the corona crisis in both the B2B and B2C sectors. E-commerce is surging among SMBs, while business models are changing. Demands are shifting in online product orders. High-demand for new products and services in a world where everyone is shopping online creates new competition and makes channels such as affiliate marketing a logical choice. In this episode we take a look at the affiliate marketing channel, how it works and why it can be a reliable marketing c...

Sales Operations have shifted. You can no longer look you customer in the eye, so what do you do? In this episode we discuss how businesses are transforming their sales operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what we can learn from how remote sales have been done to date. We discover the best practices that are going on and what type of training is needed for salespeople who may be transitioning from field sales to telesales or inside sales. We explore the challenges of how this can be done eff...

Start ups are generally known for their agility and quick response, while large organizations are rarely so flexible. Large organizations often resist disseminating plans until they are completely sure, and then they are reluctant to change for fear of creating confusion both within the organization and with customers. But now large organizations are being forced to learn from smaller and medium size organizations as we all fight to keep our heads above water in this unexpected crisis. Time-stra...

Keeping calm and thinking both strategically and operationally can be challenging when a crisis occurs, and that’s what we are in. Facing a massive number of customer requests and questions, some of them desperate and some of them just inquisitive, can be challenging even in the best of times. We as leaders and companies must consistently provide transparent and accurate communication that maintains a trusting relationship with our customers, employees and other stakeholders. What kind of messag...

The Importance of Storytelling cannot be underestimated. The world we live in today could not exist without the influence from past generations, the experiences from people across the globe and the experiences from those that surround us. As creatures of habit and tradition we instinctively hand down lessons and share knowledge. We crave communal knowledge, which very often comes from the stories we share. It is one of the most traditional and human processes. Great stories often reflect the wor...

It is difficult enough to balance career, family, children and still have time for yourself, and then we suddenly find ourselves in a world health crisis and everything changes. We find ourselves “locked down” with family under foot, trying to build a rountine so that life can somehow go on. In this episode we speak with two female executives on how they are mannaging and organizing their family in these difficult times. We speak about everything from organizational best practices to how to expl...

Many of us saw the outbreak of SARS or EBOLA, but both of these pandemics were before we had a fully embraced world economy. Today we have a full global and connected economy, one that has spirited our growth but also brings with it certain risks because we are so globally connected. Now we are now living those risks. The pandemic is hitting the entire economy, and maybe the big guys will survive, with government help, but what about the local businesses? They are being hit the most. Local busin...

A recent Forbes article published research by the Carnegie Institute of Technology which indicated only 15% of financial success actually comes from knowledge or technical skills. The remaining 85% of success comes from the ability to effectively communicate and negotiate with others, and a lot has to do with body language and habits. We sometimes have habits and act in certain ways that we do not even recognise in ourselves, and these behaviours can have either a positive or a negative effect o...

Although statistics vary, most are showing that around 61% of Generation Z entering the workforce now, say they want to be entrepreneurs, and very few want to do it because of money. Being creative, solving a problem and making life more efficient top the reasons why. But being an entrepreneur is hard. With 8 out of 10 start-ups failing it would be not very easy to be a success without much experience and some sound advice. In this episode, we look at why start-ups fail, but more importantly, we...

We all know that marketing is changing fast, we only need to blink and there is something new. The big guys like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google have redrawn the customer buying journey and redefined how companies and consumers interact. But this is only the beginning. As technologies and tools continue to advance and digital channels to begin to expand our options will become overwhelming. Therefor the question is, how do we choose which channel to use? The answer is easy, because best practice...

There is a lot of thought today that goes into what true leadership is and what its relation is to corporate sustainability. Leadership is much more than authority, it is about developing people and helping others reach their full potential. It is also about equipping others with the right tools to not only to maximize the success of the company, but also the success of those that have a relationship to the company. This could be customers, communities and much more. When people guide others in ...

There is a lot of talk in the financial industry today about transition and technology. How we think about money, spend it and save money is changing and as a result the banking sector is in transformation.

Internet retailing is riding on an upward trend is due to the technologically-savvy population and growing consumerism of the middle class. The rise of omnichannel is sure to continue in 2020, especially in retail therefor retailers need to offer consistent buying regardless of channel, and one channel is internet retail. The convenience provided by online platforms, product variety, and discounts offered to act as magnets to consumers, but it is a competitive business. Building a successful sta...

Artificial intelligence is changing everything. It is changing our personal lives and it will change the future of business. We already see it being used in internet searches, customer targeting, and even in performance evaluations. It is merging our personal lives with our business lives as devices learn more about us and location-based intelligence always knows where we are and what we are doing. But it can also frustrate us. As social media uses it to target us, cookies track our behaviour; w...

Body language is something we notice but do not think about especially when it comes to gender and cultural differences. One of the questions that very often is asked, is why do the genders exhibit different body language and how do we interpret these differences? Are these differences learned or instinctive? Do we form stereotypes when it comes to body language? What about cultural differences, how are they reflected in body language? Body language can heavily influence how anyone feels about i...