Episodes

March 10, 2017

Interview with Strategy Expert Tim Williams

Back by popular demand, on Friday's show Ron and Ed will interview Tim Williams, a noted author, international speaker, and presenter for major advertising associations, agency networks, universities, and business conferences worldwide. Tim is author of the books, “Take a Stand for Your Brand: Building a Great Agency Brand from the Inside Out,” ranked by Amazon as one of the top ten books on brand building; “Defining the Agency Brand,” published by the American Association of Advertising Agencie...
March 3, 2017

The Deleterious Effects of Hourly Billing

Hourly billing is deeply entrenched and has been widely used for decades, which proves is has some advantages. The case against the billable hour is not that it is not a profitable pricing policy. Rather, it’s that hourly billing is suboptimal (if profitability and value creation is your goal), and its disadvantages outweigh its advantages. It has become, to borrow a term from the medical profession, an iatrogenic illness, that is, a disease caused by the doctor. Time is indeed precious; it's wh...
Feb. 24, 2017

Free-Rider Friday, February 2017

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...
Feb. 17, 2017

Personality Profiling: Helpful or Hokum?

Companies use personality tests for a variety of purposes, such as employment screening, assessing leadership potential, fostering corroboration and teamwork, etc. The most widely used is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), created by Pennsylvania housewife Isabel Myers. This particular test is utilized by 89% of the Fortune 100, given to 2.5 million people each year to identify strengths and enhance teamwork. The Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory (MMPI) was developed in 1946 to sor...
Feb. 10, 2017

Memorable Mentors: Ludwig von Mises

This Friday, Ron and Ed will profile Ludwig von Mises, an economist, author, and one of the founders of the “neo-Austrian school” of economics. Mises told his future wife: “If you want a rich man, don’t marry me. I am not interested in earning money. I am writing about money, but will never have much of my own.” The focus of our conversation will be around the works published in the free eBook entitled, The Essential Ludwig von Mises, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, along wit...
Feb. 3, 2017

The Three - and only three - Pricing Strategies

There are only three pricing strategies: Skim, penetration and neutral. Price can be an effective way to compete for some companies. Think of Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, Costco, Dell Computers, or Timex watches, all use a penetration pricing strategy. All of these companies have used price as an effective competitive differentiation and have relentlessly driven out needless costs from their operations, passing the savings on to its customers. On the opposite side of the spectrum there is Apple...
Jan. 27, 2017

Free-Rider Friday, January 2017

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...
Jan. 20, 2017

Reappraising the Annual Performance Appraisal

Do you know anyone who was motivated going into, or coming out of, their annual performance appraisal? Most organizations and employees are dissatisfied with the performance appraisal process, so it remains a curiosity why this methodology continues to exist. Performance appraisals don’t improve performance and they don’t drive careers; they are an incidental effect of other dynamic systems. In essence, appraisals are the paper-shuffling ritual that sanctifies decisions already made. Ed and Ron ...
Jan. 6, 2017

Interview with Gary and Jim Boomer

Ron and Ed are thrilled to be interviewing Gary and Jim Boomer, the father/son team at the head of Boomer Consulting. Both are recognized as among the most influential people in the accounting profession. L. Gary Boomer is the Visionary & Strategist of Boomer Consulting, Inc., an organization that provides consulting services and peer communities to leading accounting firms. BCI's vision is to make you more successful and future ready. The areas of focus are: Planning, People and Processes with ...
Dec. 30, 2016

2016: Year in Review

Ed and I will discuss some of our favorite guests and memorable show topics from 2016, along with our selection of best books that we read during the year. We'll also comment on the notable people who we lost in 2016 as well as some other topics.
Dec. 23, 2016

Free-Rider Friday-December 2016

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...
Dec. 16, 2016

Interview with Kirk Bowman, host of The Art of Value

Ron and Ed are honored to have Kirk Bowman as a Guest this week. Kirk began his journey to value pricing as a naysayer, but like many converts, he has now become a leading voice in the value pricing movement. Kirk founded and is the Visionary of Value for both MightyData and Art of Value. The latter is one of the top rated podcasts on value and pricing. More information on both Kirk and his podcast is available at http://artofvalue.com.
Dec. 9, 2016

Strategic Planning: Efficient, effective, neither?

This episode will be dedicated to the possibility that all organizations can create and execute meaningful strategic plans. Creating a well defined strategy is hard work and not for everyone, as it requires us to begin to say no to stuff we usually say yes to. Rona and Ed will have a dialogue about the MOASQ - mother of all strategy questions. They will explore the difference between budgeting and strategy and perhaps take a crack at developing a few questions to get you started on your plan for...
Dec. 2, 2016

Interview with Accounting Thought Leader Joe Woodard

Ed and Ron will interview Accounting Profession Thought Leader Joe Woodard. Joe and his company has adopted a powerful vision: “To transform small business through small business advisors.” Its purpose is an extension of its vision – a single statement that shapes every task Woodard performs to achieve its vision: “We empower small business advisors.” We will discuss the current and future state of the accounting profession, innovation Joe sees taking place, Value Pricing diffusion, why the time...
Nov. 18, 2016

Free-Rider Friday-- November 2016

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we (or you) find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...
Nov. 11, 2016

Interview with David Friedman, Anarchist, Anachronist, Economist

Ron and Ed are thrilled to have as a Guest this week, the self described anarchist-anachronist-economist David Friedman. David is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and libertarian theorist. He is known for his writings in market anarchist theory, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom. Join us as we talk to him about that work and much more including the results of the US election.
Nov. 4, 2016

Interview with Pricing Expert Tim Smith

We interview pricing expert Tim Smith, a fellow Professional Pricing Society faculty member and author of two fantastic pricing books, Pricing Done Right: Pricing Framework Proven Successful by the World s Most Profitable Companies, which was identified by chief executives as “Essential reading…While many books cover the concepts of pricing, Pricing Done Right goes the additional step of applying the concepts in the real world;” and Smith’s textbook, Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Manag...
Oct. 28, 2016

Free-rider Friday - October 2016

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do “Free-Rider Friday.” Most of our shows are “topic” driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be “event” driven, whatever issues are in the news that we -or you- find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no...
Oct. 21, 2016

Reflections on The Post Professional Society

On Monday and Tuesday, Ed and Ron facilitated a workshop in Niagara Falls on The Post-Professional Society. Might there be entirely new ways of organizing professional work that's more accessible, affordable, and better quality than the traditional approach? Does it follow that all the work that our professionals currently do can only be undertaken by licensed experts? To what extent do we actually trust professionals to admit that their services could be delivered differently, or passed along t...
Oct. 14, 2016

Interview with Dr. Timothy Chou on the Internet of Things

Timothy Chou has been lucky enough to have a career spanning academia, successful -and not so successful- startups and large corporations. He was one of only a few people to hold the President title at Oracle. As President of Oracle On Demand he grew the cloud business from it’s very beginning. Today that business is over 2 Billion. He wrote about the move of applications to the cloud in 2004 in his first book, “The End of Software”. Today he serves on the board of Blackbaud, a nearly 700 Millio...
Oct. 7, 2016

Lies, Damned Lies, and Cost Accounting: Interview with Dr. Reginald Lee

We are pleased to have the chance to interview Dr. Reginald Lee, author of 'Lies, Damned Lies, and Cost Accounting: How Capacity Management Enables Improved Cost and Cash Flow Management,' and the founder of the Cash Flow Innovation Lab. Companies need cash flow to sustain themselves and to grow. Cost accounting was created to help determine the cost of products, services, and activities. For optimal cash performance, cost accounting is not the answer. Allocations and accruals create a gap betwe...
Oct. 1, 2016

Ron Baker and Ed Kless Interview Louie Prosperi for Closing Statements at the 2016 IPBC Ignite Confrence

Live Broadcast at the The IPBC IGNITE Conference.IPBC IGNITE is the Business Advisor education event of the year! You will have access to experts and thought leaders in key areas of professional business practices that will ignite your business, your employees, and your life! Our conference is a unique opportunity to collaborate, network and educate yourself in the most critical aspects of your professional practice. You will learn crucial insights in tax, software, technology and best business ...
Oct. 1, 2016

Ron Baker and Ed Kless Interview Lowry Olafson at the 2016 IPBC Ignite Confrence

Live Broadcast at the The IPBC IGNITE Conference.IPBC IGNITE is the Business Advisor education event of the year! You will have access to experts and thought leaders in key areas of professional business practices that will ignite your business, your employees, and your life! Our conference is a unique opportunity to collaborate, network and educate yourself in the most critical aspects of your professional practice. You will learn crucial insights in tax, software, technology and best business ...