Nicole is a strategist, speaker, and executive advisor with a track record of making big bets and delivering on them. As Founder & CEO of Catalyst Innovation, she works with senior leaders navigating high-stakes change, helping them unlock growth, lead through complexity, and build businesses that work in the real world.

Before founding Catalyst, Nicole led the global innovation consulting practice at Salesforce and partnered with global brands like OpenAI, Marriott, and Samsung to drive digital transformation at scale.

She’s spoken on the future of customer experiences, AI-powered transformation, and resilient leadership. Nicole also serves on multiple nonprofit and corporate boards and hosts Who Moved My Career™, a podcast for professionals reshaping their paths.

Nicole's Customer Obsessed Picks:

Think Again by Adam Grant

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Episode Highlights

(06:00) Why “perfect” data isn’t required to start using AI

(08:15) How one project uncovered $50M in new sales opportunities

(13:00) What a modern data architecture actually looks like in practice

(15:40) Using zero-copy connectors to simplify access for business users

(19:00) Turning a 25-page Word doc into an AI tool that cut approval queues by 70%

(22:30) Natural language as the next interface for data

(25:30) How AI shifts focus from manual “junk work” to higher-value priorities

(29:00) Why content quality matters just as much as data quality in AI projects

(37:00) Why so many AI pilots stall — and how to build use cases that scale

About Chris Needles

As Chief Development Officer of Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP), Chris Needles is responsible for leading the organization’s direct response and business development teams. This includes the development and execution of strategic and diversified plans to grow and manage significant fundraising efforts.

Prior to joining WWP, Chris served as Vice President for Development - Principal gifts and Central Development Programs, at the Rutgers University Foundation in New Brunswick, NJ. In this role, he led the Foundation’s principal gifts program focused on donors capable of making gifts of $5 million or greater. Chris also supervised and enhanced several core teams in central development with university-wide scope, including estate and gift planning, foundation relations, corporate engagement, presidential initiatives, regional development, international advancement, and athletics development.

Chris also spent more than 17 years at the University of Florida in Gainesville, serving in executive leadership positions encompassing corporate and foundation relations, major gifts, regional development, international advancement, and campaign planning. Chris’s tenure at Florida spanned all or part of three highly successful campaigns that raised a total of more than $6.5 billion.

Most noteworthy among his volunteer activities, Chris served seven years on the board of directors at Oak Hall School in Gainesville - including four years as board president, where he led comprehensive strategic plan and facilities master plan processes and co-chaired Oak Hall’s first head of school search in 25 years.

Chris is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business. He earned an MBA degree in Organizational Management from Rutgers Business School, as well as a Master of Science degree in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst.

00:00:44 - Healthcare hurdles & navigating insurance systems

00:05:05 - Meet Melanie Husk, championing patient-centric care at Baptist Health

00:07:01 - Industry shift: from doctor-driven to patient-empowered healthcare

00:09:44 - Tackling inefficiency & putting patients in control

00:14:00 - Baptist Health's mission: holistic health for all, community focus

00:16:21 - Health equity, accessibility, delivering holistic care

00:18:46 - Tech's role: collaboration & smarter systems for better care

00:21:11 - Blending empathy with tech: a human touch in the digital age

00:26:06 - Affordability & efficiency: delivering empathetic care without breaking the bank

00:28:18 - Partnering for progress: Baptist Health & Coastal Cloud join forces

00:34:29 - Career wisdom: Melanie's advice for the next generation

00:36:42 - Melanie's "Customer Obsessed Pick"

00:38:43 - Taylor Swift

00:44:35 - Vision, trust, & the future: shaping healthcare together

Customer Obsessed Pick: The Trusted Advisor

Innovative Beginnings: Dive into the origins of Coastal Cloud and the vision that propelled Sara Hale to redefine service delivery in the public sector.

Purpose-Driven Technology: Explore how Coastal Cloud's work with government agencies is creating a seismic shift in how public services are administered and delivered.

A Blueprint for Change: Learn about the unique challenges and triumphs of implementing cloud technology in the public sector, with real-world examples from Sara's pioneering work.

Empathy in Action: Hear how Coastal Cloud's commitment to community and inclusivity is bringing stay-at-home parents back into the workforce and reshaping the culture of work.

Tech That Transforms: Gain insights into the future of public sector efficiency and accountability through Sara's lens, focusing on disaster management and resource allocation.

Lasting Impact: Understand the broader implications of cloud technology for public trust and engagement and how data-driven solutions can lead to more informed decision-making and impactful community programs.

Inspiration for Aspiring Leaders: Sara shares invaluable advice for women in technology and leadership, offering lessons from her own journey balancing entrepreneurship with family life.

About Sara Hale

Sara Hale is the President and Co-Founder of Coastal Cloud, an award-winning IT consulting firm headquartered in Palm Coast, Florida.

Prior to leading the only woman-owned and led Salesforce.com Platinum Consulting Company in the world, Sara was a leader in Accenture’s Technology Practice. After finding great success in the ‘Fortune 100’ consulting field, Sara set out to build a new type of IT consulting company focused on providing customers and employees a life in which business success and the pursuit of happiness are in harmony. The “Live at the beach. Work in the cloud.” motto uses modern cloud technology to achieve this. Sara’s innovative leadership strategy has become a model for others who wish to create a highly-skilled, diverse, and satisfied workforce.

Coastal Cloud has been recognized in Florida as a “Best Company to Work For” by Florida Trend magazine and one of the “50 Fastest Growing Companies” in Northeast Florida. She has been named a “Top Tech Leader” by Jacksonville Business Journal and was awarded “Largest Woman-Owned Technology Company” in Northeast Florida.

Sara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Duke University and lives in Palm Coast with her husband and three children.

Sara’s Customer Obsessed Picks:

Wind from the Carolinas by Robert Wilder

Turning the Tide by Peter Abrahams and Sidney D. Kirkpatrick

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

[00:00:00]: Introduction to Customer Obsessed

[00:00:27]: Eric's new role at Coastal Cloud

[00:04:08]: Introduction to Grant Riewe, CTO of Vibrant Emotional Health

[00:06:22]: Evolution and purpose of the 988 crisis lifeline

[00:10:08]: The role of technology in offering critical support

[00:12:46]: The mission-critical nature of the contact center

[00:17:31]: Partnership with Salesforce for crisis centers

[00:20:01]: Meeting the unmet need for mental health care

[00:28:26]: Coastal Cloud's involvement with Vibrant Emotional Health and the 988 crisis center network

[00:29:38]: The importance of community and connection and social media's role and limitations

[00:32:53]: Grant's favorite books: "Dune," "The Hobbit," and "The Iliad"

[00:37:01]: The value of bringing art and creativity into technology companies and projects

[00:38:17]: The importance of empathy and knowledgeable content in crisis intervention

[00:41:55]: The power of technology and people in crisis situations

About Mike

Mike founded CodeScience in 2009 with the mission to solve the most complex problems in the Salesforce ecosystem. In addition to being the president and sustainability champion, Mike focuses on cultivating a caring company culture. Outside of work, you’ll find Mike adventuring in the Sierras.

Mike's Customer Obsessed Picks:

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

1906: A Novel by James Dalessandro

Learn how to navigate workplace dynamics in our conversation with Neelu Kaur, an executive coach and author of Be Your Own Cheerleader. We delve into the art of self-promotion, managing anxiety, and the intersection of physical and mental well-being at work. We also explore the impact of AI like ChatGPT on creative tasks and discuss how to disrupt cultural biases for a more inclusive work environment. Equip yourself with practical strategies to "take up space" and champion your own growth and development in a rapidly evolving work landscape.

About Neelu

Neelu has brought her multi-dimensional approach to leadership and wellness workshops and coaching to employees at Google, IPG, Amplitude, and RBC. In the leadership space, she is a Facilitator, Experience Designer, NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) & Executive Coach. In the wellness space, she is a Yoga & Ayurveda teacher, burnout management specialist, and trained Ericksonian Hypnotherapist.

She holds a BS from NYU Stern School of Business, an MA in Social & Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and is a certified NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Coach and Master Practitioner from the NLP Center of New York.

Through 15 years specializing in Adult Learning & Leadership Development in large corporations she has worked in Financial Services, Consulting, Tech, and more. She is a certified Yoga Instructor, Ayurveda Specialist, and a trained Ericksonian Hypnotherapist focused on bringing mindfulness and stress management practices to individuals, teams, and organizations.

Over time, she has found her niche in helping teams and individuals to be more productive, peaceful, and purposeful, which in turn boosts organizational profitability and individual success.

Customer-Obsessed Picks:

Be Your Own Cheerleader 

The Four Agreements

Dive headfirst into a high-energy discussion with Paulo Kaiser, Plative's CEO, as we dissect the landscape of tech, AI, and innovation. Is the industry stalled or on the brink of the next game-changer? From Gen Z's digital habits and the imminent experimental phase of AI, to its profound impact on privacy, user experience, and industry disruption, this episode leaves no stone unturned. Ready to explore the AI-driven future and its potential to shake up the status quo? Don't miss out!

Guest: Paulo Kaiser

Paulo is an executive with over 20 years of global management experience. His expertise extends across a variety of areas, including software product management, engineering, operations, services, finance, sales, and customer support. With a proven track record in leading diverse teams and managing projects with budgets up to $20MM, Paulo has been integral to multiple software executive teams. His roles have varied from turn-around projects to growth and hyper-growth phases in companies ranging from startups to corporate organizations. In addition, Paulo has a deep technical understanding of software development and related internet technologies, further enriched by his role as an adjunct professor at a top-tier NYU graduate program.

Paulo's Customer-Obsessed Picks:

Barbarian Days, A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

Andy is a technology consultant, builder, and investor with 17 years of experience in the software industry. He has spent the last two years in the NFT ecosystem and 17 years in the Salesforce ecosystem consulting and providing solutions for a wide variety of customers ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. He is passionate about promoting amazing experiences and helping to create a more equitable world.

Andy's Customer-Obsessed Pick: We're Different, We're the Same by Bobbi Kates

NFT & Web3 Resources:

• Bankless Newsletter
• The All-In Podcast
• Zora
• Manifold
• Web3 with A16Z

About Randy Rodriguez

Randy represents Volante Tech, the leading global payments provider to the banking industry in the market, focused on North America. He brings a Saas background and focuses on bringing customer success and business model innovation to North American banks and payments providers.

An EQ mentor and leader who brings an execute-to-vision capability to both work and life. Authentic, driven, and dedicated, Randy drives success by bringing out the best in those around him, leading by example, and building success through nomadic, curious commitment. His strengths are situational leadership, the ability to aggregate talent, and a driven personal style.

Customer Obsessed Pick:

The Moth: All These Wonders

The Secret History

About Tom

Tom is a highly accomplished executive with extensive experience driving successful business outcomes across multiple industry sectors, including Financial Services and Media. With 20+ years as a CTO/CIO in News Corp and others, Tom is a recognized expert in large-scale enterprise technology transformation with deep domain experience in digital operating models and Cloud Services. He has successfully led high-profile digital transformations and driven profitable exits for Venture Capital Investors in technology start-ups.

Since early 2016, Tom has been offering his know-how, hardened by real-world experience, to help CXOs in 6 key areas: Strategy Development, Digital Transformation, Digital Operating Models, rejuvenation of existing technology functions, Delivery, and Interim Executive assistance. He is a true Gig CIO.

Customer Obsessed Picks

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein

What were her career-defining moments? What’s next for CEOs with a global mindset? How do aspiring changemakers harness the power of self-determination to make their own future? We talk about this and a whole lot more—don’t miss it!

Sylvia's Customer Obsessed Picks:

The Young Galileo Speaks by Ray Bradbury

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

During our conversation, Lou shares his origin story and unconventional path into the world of Salesforce and cloud technology. He reveals a game-changing moment in Salesforce development as well as how his approach (and priorities) in management and innovation have evolved to focus on people, storytelling, and communication first.

Lou’s Customer Obsessed Picks:

Bleeding Pinstripes: A Season with the Bleacher Creatures at Yankee Stadium

The Best American Short Stories

As we mentioned during the episode, here are resources and ways to help Ukrainians affected by the war with Russia. (Source: Global Citizen)

1. People in Need is providing humanitarian aid to over 200,000 people on the ground. For those most in need, they provide food packages, emergency shelter, safe access to drinking water, hygiene items, and coal for heating. Donate here.

2. The Ukrainian Red Cross does loads of humanitarian work, from aiding refugees to training doctors. Donate here.

3. The International Medical Corps is on the front lines and prepared to help citizens with emergency health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support. The agency is also keeping the pandemic top of mind throughout the crisis by prioritizing COVID-19 awareness and prevention services, to help keep displaced citizens safe from the pandemic. Donate here.

4. CARE is responding to the crisis by providing Ukrainians in need with food, hygiene kits, psychosocial support services, access to water, and access to cash. Donate here. 

5. Nova Ukraine is a nonprofit that delivers aid packages to Ukraine with everything from baby food and hygiene products, to clothes and household supplies. Donate here.

6. UNICEF is repairing schools damaged by the bombings and providing an emergency response to children affected by the conflict. Donate here.

7. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has stepped up its operations and is working with governments in neighboring countries "calling on them to keep borders open to those seeking safety and protection.” You can help support the UNHCR's work supporting refugees by donating here and take action here to send a tweet urging governments and businesses to support the United Nations' urgent appeal for $1.7 billion to deliver life-saving humanitarian support.

8. OutRight Action International is helping to support LGBTQ+ groups and organizations on the ground, setting up shelters, and providing safety for citizens. All donations made to OutRight will go directly to the cause. You can donate here. 

9. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is deploying emergency operations in Ukraine and surrounding countries to provide food assistance to those fleeing the conflict. Donate here.

10. Save the Children is working with partners to respond to meet the urgent needs of affected children and their families. It's ready to provide life-saving assistance, such as food, water, cash transfers, and safe places for children as people flee amid freezing temperatures and brutal conditions, and to scale up options to ensure children impacted by the crisis have the support they need. Find out more and donate here. 

11. SOS Children’s Villages has worked in Ukraine since 2003 and is coordinating an emergency response to support families who are living in the conflict areas and those who have been internally displaced. Find out more and donate here. 

12. Mercy Corps is mobilizing a team to the region to assess where help is most needed and is anticipating providing emergency cash assistance, as well as supporting local organizations that know their community needs best. Between 2015 and 2017, Mercy Corps provided humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine, reaching more than 200,000 people with emergency cash, food, water, and sanitation supplies, small business development grants, restoring war-damaged homes, and more. Find out more and donate here.

13. Medical Teams International is fundraising to send medical supplies to the region, with all proceeds going towards sending medicines and/or medical supplies. Learn more and donate here. 

14. The World Health Organization Foundation is raising funds for WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal for Ukraine. An estimated $57.5 million must be raised to deliver urgent physical and mental health care to the 18 million people in Ukraine needing urgent humanitarian assistance, and more than 4 million refugees who’ll need protection and assistance in the coming months. You can donate here, and share the WHO Foundation's call for donations on your own social media, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. 

15. Alight is a humanitarian nonprofit that has sent teams of emergency response workers to Poland to assist with the burgeoning refugee population by helping to meet all of their material and psychosocial needs. You can donate here. 

16. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is on the front lines of the world’s conflicts, natural disasters, and other crises, helping people recover from extreme hardship and put their lives back together. The IRC currently has a team dispatched to Poland that’s helping to provide food, medical care, and emergency support services to families who fled Ukraine amid the violence. You can donate here.

17. Team Rubicon mobilizes their highly skilled volunteers to help people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises. As a World Health Organization Emergency Medical Team mobile unit, Team Rubicon has sent a small team to Poland, including physicians with expertise in pediatrics and maternal and reproductive health care. Donate here to help Team Rubicon rapidly respond to meet humanitarian needs. 

18. Direct Relief is working directly with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and other on-the-ground partners to provide urgently needed medical aid, including emergency response packs intended for first responders, oxygen concentrators, critical care medicines, and much more. Donate here. 

19. GlobalGiving has its Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, with all donations to the fund going to support humanitarian assistance in impacted communities in Ukraine and surrounding regions. GlobalGiving’s network of over 30 grassroots NGOs are bringing relief to terrified and displaced communities, and they need resources to continue their life-saving work. Donate here. 

About Beena Ammanath

Beena is Executive Director of the Global Deloitte AI Institute and leads Trustworthy AI & Ethical Tech at Deloitte. She is the author of the upcoming book releasing in spring 2022 – “Trustworthy AI” – which helps businesses navigate trust and ethics in AI.

An award-winning senior executive with extensive global experience in AI and digital transformation, spanning across e-commerce, finance, marketing, telecom, retail, software products, services, and industrial domains with companies such as GE, HPE, Thomson Reuters, British Telecom, Bank of America, e*trade and a number of Silicon Valley startups, Beena is also the Founder of non-profit, Humans For AI, an organization dedicated to increasing diversity in AI.

Beena also serves on the Board of AnitaB.org and the Advisory Board at Cal Poly College of Engineering. She has been a Board Member and Advisor to several technology startups. Beena thrives on envisioning and architecting how data, artificial intelligence, and technology in general, can make our world a better, easier place to live for all humans.

Customer Obsessed Pick: Trustworthy AI: A Business Guide for Navigating Trust and Ethics in AI by Beena Ammanath

Gianna's Customer Obsessed Pick: Circe by Madeline Miller

About Gianna

As the GM and Head of North America at Aircall, Gianna empowers employees and oversees every department spanning the customer journey spectrum — from lead-gen to partnership and integrations.

Gianna has a deep background in sales operations and management. Her past titles include COO at Mondo and VP of Sales Operations at Bluewolf. She serves as an advisor and mentor to leaders throughout the startup community.

She also advises several startups and sits on the board of a Brooklyn-based non-profit, Read718.

Key Takeaways

• Some educational institutions still function like old-school big businesses, with a top-down 1950’s leadership style that is outdated. It may do better to yield to a collaborative approach in which students & stakeholders have equity. 
• Voices and choices matter, in school and in business.
• When deciding whether to make a change (career, life, etc.) there is no predicting the future, and no perfect solution. Sometimes a leap of faith is the only answer.
• Education matters to business because schools are fostering future leaders and a creative workforce. We need institutions which value students as creative individuals who can think and speak critically, are resilient, and have space to learn and grow.

Evan's Customer Obsessed Pick

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

About Evan Meyers

Evan Meyers is an experienced and passionate educator and school leader committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity within the public education sphere. He is the founder and Executive Director of School in the Square Public Charter School located in Washington Heights, NYC. Under his leadership, School in the Square has expanded from a charter school initially approved to serve middle school grades 6 through 8 to include an elementary school that educates children in an immersive Spanish-English dual-language environment. 

Evan has worked tirelessly to ensure that School in the Square provides its families and the larger community with the economic, health and social welfare supports they need to provide children with the stability and security they need to thrive. As Evan’s vision of the role of public schools in underserved communities has become reality through School in the Square, the school has become an anchor institution in Washington Heights. 

Evan is a New York State-certified School Building Leader. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Evan received his Master’s degree from Columbia University Teachers College. He began his teaching career as a founding History Teacher at the High School for Language and Diplomacy after a 20-year career in the financial sector.

About Erin Horvath

As AmerisourceBergen’s Chief Transformation Officer, Erin Horvath partners with businesses across the enterprise to find new inflection points of growth, greater levels of scalability, and new go-to-market strategies. In alignment with the organization’s five-year strategy, she drives the execution of strategic and innovative initiatives and investments.

Mike's Customer Obsessed Pick: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

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Find Amy's book The Change Maker's Playbook and learn more about her innovation strategies at amyradin.com.

Amy's Customer Obsessed Pick: The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

About Amy Radin

Amy is a highly experienced, down-to-earth, visionary, and pragmatic innovation expert. She was Citi’s first Global Chief Innovation Officer, and also held executive marketing positions at American Express and AXA. She now works with leaders faced with the imperative to innovate, helping them pursue new sources of growth and value while reducing the inevitable risks.

Amy has had the unique opportunity to lead or advise on digital, marketing, and innovation transformations at Fortune companies, privately-held middle-market businesses, early-stage startups and not-for-profits. She has produced results with a customer-focused, collaborative mindset and a willingness to question and depart from the status quo when what worked in the past constrains creating the future.

Through her diverse experiences, Amy has created and pressure-tested the Seek, Seed, and Scale framework.

What sets Amy apart is her understanding of the reality of organizational culture and complexity, and her realistic approach to what innovation success requires. She uniquely lays the path between market need and the internal mechanisms to deliver.

The Change Maker’s Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation in Any Company is newly available in paperback, as well as hardcover, e-book and audio formats. In both the Playbook and as a keynote speaker, Amy shares her tremendous expertise and perspective, with her characteristically authentic voice, on what it takes to identify and create new sources of value and growth for any organization’s stakeholders.

Amy is a graduate of The Wharton School and Wesleyan University. She lives in the New York City metro area.

Hosted by: Erin Acevedo & Eric Berridge

Produced by: Erin Acevedo

About Mark Makepeace

Mark Makepeace is Chief Executive Officer of Wilshire. Prior to joining Wilshire, Mark was Group Director of Information Services of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Chief Executive of FTSE Russell, the global index provider.

Mark started his career in financial services in 1985, when he joined the London Stock Exchange to coordinate “Big Bang” (the deregulation of securities trading in the City of London).

In 1995 he founded FTSE International (a joint venture between the Financial Times and LSEG) and grew the index business from a small UK start-up with nine staff to become one of the largest and most successful global index providers today. Mark has over 20 years’ experience in developing successful joint ventures. He has successfully forged alliances with stock exchanges, academics, and leading industry groups establishing substantial businesses around the world. He was a founding member of the Index Industry Association and its first chairman.

Mark has been a long-time supporter of the children’s charity UNICEF and currently serves as an honorary Vice President of UNICEF UK. Mark is a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Centre for Financial Markets and Policy, Georgetown University, Washington DC, and also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) and the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX). He is the author of FTSE: The Inside Story.

Customer Obsessed Pick: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray

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About Jolene

Jolene is the Chief Impact Officer at Traction on Demand. She brings 15 years of global management experience in professional services, recruiting, talent management, sales, and customer support to the role. She is a passionate entrepreneur with a keen focus on strategic execution, helping to grow organizations from $3M - $200M+. She is the co-founder of the Women Innovators Network and throughout the course of her career has mentored over 200 consultants, technologists, and innovators who are continuing to drive positive change in their industries and throughout the Salesforce ecosystem.

Jolene's Customer Obsessed Pick

Play Bigger: How Rebels and Innovators Create New Categories and Dominate Markets

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About Susie

Susie Zachman, MS, RDN, is the founder of Better Beginnings. Susie was a global business leader with 16 years of experience in legal, finance, and HR functions and operational management. Traveling for work, she became increasingly disturbed by the growing number of young children she saw with weight problems and decided to try and do something about it. Susie returned to school and as a part of her master’s degree, she researched and designed a nutrition education program for parents of young children. This program was the foundation for Better Beginnings. Susie has a Master of Science with a concentration in Nutrition Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She completed her dietetic internship through Columbia and became a registered dietitian nutritionist. She also has a BA in Economics / Business from the University of California, Los Angeles, a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed the Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School.

Susie’s Customer Obsessed Pick

The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett

About Vaibhav

Vaibhav (“V”) Nalwaya is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Wavecrest Growth Partners. Prior to launching Wavecrest, Vaibhav’s experience included both private equity and growth investing as well as operating roles in two high-growth, founder-led B2B technology companies.

Vaibhav served as CFO of Bluewolf, the leading independent Salesforce.com consulting and advisory firm where he played an instrumental role in the company’s highly successful acquisition by IBM in early 2016. Prior to Bluewolf, Vaibhav served as CFO of Bullhorn, a cloud CRM software company that was backed by Vista Equity Partners and was ultimately acquired by Insight Partners. Both firms were led by their respective founders while being institutionally backed by private equity firms.

Prior to taking on these operating roles, Vaibhav was an investor at Vista Equity Partners’ Foundation Fund I and previously was a Principal at Key Venture Partners, a B2B tech-focused expansion stage capital firm backed by KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY).  He started his career at Deloitte, where he advised multinational clients on software/ERP strategies.

Vaibhav graduated with a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He has lived in multiple cities and countries across the globe, and continues to travel to many more with his wife and two young daughters. He enjoys golfing and skiing, is passionate about global cuisine, and is constantly on the hunt to prove to skeptics that Boston is indeed a foodie’s paradise.

V's Customer-Obsessed Pick: Siddartha by Hermann Hesse

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About Kim Morrow

Kim Morrow is an executive coach, consultant, facilitator and public speaker, as well as the co-founder of Forté Consulting and Inside Journey podcast.

For 15 years, Kim has coached and consulted with leaders at Fortune 500 organizations in a variety of roles, from C-suite executives to sales teams, financial analysts to creative directors, engineers to Olympic athletes, and many others. She helps clients prepare for high-stakes events such as pitches and presentations, conferences, strategic planning meetings, and media interviews. She also partners with leaders to address critical internal issues related to employee engagement, professional development, and performance management. Additionally, Kim delivers keynote presentations at conferences and off-sites across the United States on topics related to communication and mindset.

Fueled by an inimitable optimism and love of people, Kim partners with her clients to understand their business needs and then delivers tailored solutions focused on developing their most valued asset – their people. By focusing on the critical skills, strategies, and beliefs, Kim sets a roadmap for organizations to achieve and then maintain extraordinary performance.

Before founding Forté Consulting, Kim was a principal consultant at rogenSi, a global sales and leadership consultancy, where she built and managed the company’s west coast operations. 

Kim's Customer Obsessed Pick: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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About Kate 

As the Founder and CEO of Five to Flow, Kate focuses on fostering executive and organizational alignment on business strategies, streamlining processes, and designing solutions to help businesses achieve and sustain peak performance. Prior to founding Five to Flow, Kate was a Partner in Technology Consulting at PwC New Zealand, an enterprise Managing Director at Acumen Solutions, and Senior Director at Bluewolf—all Global Strategic Salesforce partners. For the last decade, Kate has overseen Salesforce and executive and business strategy practices as well as creating organizational change management practices and developing sales strategy & effectiveness solutions as part of Global Services teams. 

During her tenure in the Salesforce ecosystem, she also developed effective business advisory, executive alignment and visioning workshops, specific solutions for financial services and other vertical areas of expertise, and has expanded strategic offerings across all verticals and geographies due to her focus on customer outcomes and end-customer satisfaction. In addition to delivering on business strategy and Salesforce ROI, she has consulted at an enterprise and individual coaching level on change management, organizational wellness, communications, training, process optimization, and sales effectiveness best practices for hundreds of prospects and customers around the world.

Kate's Customer Obsessed Pick: On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Take the Five to Flow Wellness Wave

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SLAP Whitepaper: Tough Times, Tougher Teams

Stan's Customer Obsessed Picks: 

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

The Roaches Have No King by Daniel Evan Weiss

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John Maeda is the CXO of Publicis Sapient, a six-time author, and TED speaker. In our wide-ranging interview, we discuss the power and purpose of asynchronous work; data, AI, and privacy; his latest book “How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us”; and how different generations think about work and finding purpose.

About John Maeda

John Maeda is an American technologist, designer, engineer, artist, investor, author, and teacher. He is Chief Experience Officer at Publicis Sapient, the technology consulting and delivery arm of communications and marketing conglomerate Publicis. Prior to Publicis Sapient, he spent three years working all-remote at the largest all-distributed tech company in the world — in preparation for what is now the new norm. Maeda serves on the Board of Sonos and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. He has held positions with Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com; the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins; served as president of the Rhode Island School of Design; and began his early career at the MIT Media Lab at the intersection of computer science and visual art. Named as one of the “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century” by Esquire, Maeda draws on his diverse background as an MIT-trained engineer, award-winning designer, and MBA-community translator to bring people and ideas together at scale. He is the author of several celebrated books, including How To Speak Machine, The Laws of Simplicity, and Redesigning Leadership. He has appeared as a speaker all over the world, from Davos to Beijing to São Paulo to New York, and his talks for TED have received millions of views.

John's book: How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us

John's Customer Obsessed Pick: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

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Get Tiffani's book Growth IQ or read her Customer-Obsessed pick on storytelling, Illuminate.

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Read Jen's Customer Obsessed Pick, I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

In the first half of the episode, Glen and Eric discuss the ins and outs of strategy and share the five main parts of a strategic statement. In the second half, Glen and Erin use Erin's company, Afternoon Tea & Copy, as a  model during the on-air workshop so you can hear how all of the parts fit together. We encourage you to take notes and think about how you can apply these exercises to your business to get more clarity regarding your goals, offerings, and customers.

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In this episode, we talk about how Natalya broke into the beer world, what it's like for her as a woman in the industry (and how she's using her platform to shine a light on female beer professionals), and what she's learned about how to build a brand from the ground up.

Read her book Beer: Taste the Evolution in 50 Styles

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