Episodes

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...

Over the years, many fellows at VeraSage Institute have coined various laws, such as Baker's Law: Bad customers drive out good customers. In this episode, Ed and Ron will explore more famous, and infamous, VeraSage Laws.

In an ironic twist on Karl Marx’s idea of the proletarian revolution, in today’s capitalist society, labor trumps capital as the chief source of all wealth. According to The World Bank, 80% of the developed world’s wealth lies in human capital. Today, knowledge workers themselves own the firm’s means of production, in their heads. This is a seismic shift in our economy, the ramifications of which we are still trying to comprehend. Thinking in terms of human capital investors lends dignity and re...

In 1997, Ron attended Disney Institute’s professional development program: The Disney Approach to Customer Loyalty: Creating Service that Keeps Your Customers Coming Back. How does Disney create superior value for its guests? They have a foundation that is composed of three components: core competencies, core offering, and core customers. Here was the Walt Disney World Resort promise to its Guests in 1997: “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment to people of all ages, every...

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...

Request For Proposals have become more commonplace as competitive bidding has replaced negotiation for price buyers. It is as if dysfunctional buying practices have arisen to counter dysfunctional selling practices. It is important to judge the seriousness of potential buyers going out to bid, as a lot of the RFPs are, in reality, nothing but hammers used against incumbents to obtain price concessions. That said, many firms have to do a certain amount of RFPs. If you do, you should be well verse...

Ron and Ed interview for a second time Father Robert A. Sirico, the president and co-founder of the Acton Institute and the pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, both in Grand Rapids, MI. A regular writer and commentator on religious, political, economic, and social issues, Rev. Sirico's contributions have been carried by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Times, CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, and the BBC, among others. In his recent book Defending the Free Market: The Mo...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.