Episodes

Ed and I will have the honor interviewing Robert G. Cross, an absolute legend in the pricing profession. Bob implemented yield management in Delta Airlines, which is fascinating since he’s a lawyer by education. He wrote a seminal pricing book about this experience, Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for Market Domination, and The Wall Street Journal called him “The guru of Revenue Management.” Folks, you don’t want to miss this show, as Bob is a font of pricing wisdom, being among the pionee...

One of our all-time favorite business books is The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater and Every Business a Stage, by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore, which was published in 1999. Dan Morris and Ron Baker developed a CPE course based upon this content, applying it to professional knowledge firms. The book has recently been updated, and we are honored to be able to have B. Joseph Pine on the show to discuss this work, along with his other books: The Laws of Managing and Infinite Possibility. ...

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 ...

Andy Grove, founder of Intel said, Disruptive threats come inherently not from new technology but from new business models.” What is a business model? In this show, Ed and Ron will discuss innovating your business model, a process that is never-ending in sustainable businesses

Ed and I have had the privilege of posing this question to thousands of leaders around the world: Who’s in charge of value in your organization? We're usually met with a momentary staring ovation, and then someone will inevitably shout out, “Everyone!” Really? Ron lives in California, where he's told everyone “owns” the Golden Gate Bridge. He would like to sell his portion; unfortunately he encounters what economists call the tragedy of the commons. If everyone owns something, no one does. No on...

All prices are, ultimately, determined by the subjective value perceptions of the customer. This makes having a conversation with the customer to comprehend and communicate your company's value essential. Skipping this conversation is similar to a contractor attempting to build a customer’s dream home without any architectural plans. The better your company comprehends the customer’s value drivers, the more likely you will be able to create maximum value, convince the customer they must pay for ...

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 ...

G.K.Chesterton once wrote, “Competition is a furious plagiarism.” Yet the fact of the matter is there is no such thing as a commodity.

Ed and Ron will interview Dr. Jules Goddard, author of one of the best business books we read in 2014: Uncommon Sense and Common Nonsense. Dr. Goddard has many profound insights into corporate strategy, value creation, efficiency vs. effectiveness, and much else. This promises to be an insightful and educational conversation.

Ron and Ed interview Adam Davidson, a journalist focusing on business and economics issues for National Public Radio. He is currently one of the co-hosts of the Planet Money podcast. Previously he has covered globalization issues, the Asian tsunami, and the war in Iraq, for which he won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. His work has won several major awards including the Peabody, DuPont-Columbia, and the George Polk Award. brbr Adam came to our attention when he mentioned the VeraSage Institut...

Ron and Ed will interview Dr. Thomas Sowell, world renowned economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. His appearance on TSOE coincides with the release of a new edition of his international best seller on economics, Basic Economics – 5th Edition (Basic Books, December 2014). In this soon-to-be released volume, Sowell revises and updates his popular book on common sense economics, bringing the world into clearer focus through an understanding of the fundamental economic princ...

On Friday's episode, Ron and Ed will interview Jody Thompson, the Co-Founder of CultureRx® and Co-Creator of the Results-Only Work Environment™ (ROWE™), along with Cali Ressler. CultureRx® is the sole global authority on ROWE™ and the sole executor of organizational and individual certification. Thompson provides domestic and international keynote presentations on the 21st century workplace and has been featured on the covers of BusinessWeek, Workforce Management Magazine, HR Magazine, and HR Ex...

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. brbr He is author of the book, “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. His booklet “Defining the Agency Brand,” published by the American Association of Advertising Agencies is regar...

On Black Friday, the biggest Holiday shopping day of the year, Ed and I thought it would be fun to review the book, Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays, by Joel Waldfogel, published in 2009. Waldfogel estimates that giving gifts nobody wants is a deadweight loss to the economy to the tune of approximately $12 Billion, mostly on credit cards. Money we don’t have to buy things people don’t want. As he writes, when you say to your mother-in-law, “A cribbage board. You sho...

Charging different prices to different customers is the definition of price discrimination, a term coined in 1920 by Arthur Cecil Pigou in The Economics of Welfare. Price discrimination occurs when a good or service is sold at different prices that do not reflect differences in production costs. Companies engage in this practice in order to extract the consumer surplus from various customers. It is worth noting that price discrimination does not imply discriminating against people based on race,...

Rabbi Lapin is one of America’s most eloquent speakers and his ability to extract life principles from the Bible and transmit them in an entertaining manner has brought countless numbers of Jews and Christians closer to their respective faiths. In 2007 Newsweek magazine included him in its list of America’s fifty most influential rabbis.

Ed and I discussed Peter Block’s seminal book, The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters.In my first discussion in May 2004 with Ed

We are honored to have the opportunity to interview Dr. Reed K. Holden, Founder of Holden Advisors, and a world-renowned expert in pricing. Reed had a major impact on Ron since he first read him back in October 1998. His book, co-authored with Thomas T. Nagle, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing (STP) is a seminal work, adorning the bookshelves of anyone who takes pricing seriously. Ed and I have also had the pleasure of meeting and corresponding with Reed innumerable times, exchanging ideas, di...

In today’s competitive business environment, low self-esteem is a competitive disadvantage while high self-esteem among your people confers a competitive advantage. Yet how can folks feel good about themselves, their work, their service to the customer and the greater community if they believe they are commodities, and are constantly being beat up over their price? Ed and Ron will tackle the issue of self-esteem, heeding what Lord Chesterfield wrote: A man had better overvalue than undervalue hi...

Ron and Ed interview 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 Moral Case for a Fre...

The average knowledge worker is so busy doing they do not have the time to reflect on what they have done, let alone discover major breakthroughs. The Army’s use of After Action Reviews began in 1973, not as a knowledge management tool but as a method to restore the values, integrity, and accountability that had diminished during the Vietnam War. Perhaps we ignore innovations in the military because its mission, to break things and kill people, is so divergent from that of a civilian organizatio...

Top Ten Business Myths, Part 2 (Myths 5-1). This episode is dedicated to the possibility that many myths exist about business and it would be better to rid ourselves of these ideas. Thinking about these myths is difficult because it requires us to examine some of our most deeply held beliefs and either dismiss them or at least think differently about them. If you are interested in challenging the conventional wisdom about these business myths, you are invited to listen to this episode of The Sou...

Top Ten Business Myths, Part 1 (Myths 10-6). This episode is dedicated to the possibility that many myths exist about business and it would be better to rid ourselves of these ideas. Thinking about these myths is difficult because it requires us to examine some of our most deeply held beliefs and either dismiss them or at least think differently about them. If you are interested in challenging the conventional wisdom about these business myths, you are invited to listen to this episode of The So...

Ed and Ron will explore the moral hazards of measurements. Exact measurements of the wrong things can drive out good judgments of the right things, imperiling our future. The illusion of certainty in our measurements creates, to borrow an important concept from the insurance industry, a moral hazard. If people are insured, they may just act carelessly and cause the very thing they are insured against. Fire insurance causes arson; unemployment insurance allows people to not be as diligent in find...