Shows
The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsTRAILER SEASON 3 - TGCT Premiers TOMORROWAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? After 16 years running a growth agency and 160+ podcast episodes, I've encountered countless questions about business growth from where to start to how to break cross-functional gridlock. Season 3 is all about answering those questions. Drop me a line in the comments section at Benno@reALIGNforResults.com with questions for this season's The Growth Climbers Toolbox. Looking forward to what this season will bring!Always growing.Benno Duenkelsbuehler CEO & Chief Sherpa of (re)ALIGN reALIGNforResults.com
2025-07-0201 min
The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsTRAILER SEASON 3 - What to ExpectAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? After 16 years running a growth agency and 160+ podcast episodes, I've encountered countless questions about business growth from where to start to how to break cross-functional gridlock. Season 3 is all about answering those questions. Drop me a line in the comments section at Benno@reALIGNforResults.com with questions for this season's The Growth Climbers Toolbox. Looking forward to what this season will bring!Always growing.Benno Duenkelsbuehler CEO & Chief Sherpa of (re)ALIGN reALIGNforResults.com
2025-07-0100 min
The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsTRAILER SEASON 3 - Framing The Growth Climber's Toolbox 🧰Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? After 16 years running a growth agency and 160+ podcast episodes, I've encountered countless questions about business growth from where to start to how to break cross-functional gridlock. Season 3 is all about answering those questions. Drop me a line in the comments section at Benno@reALIGNforResults.com with questions for this season's The Growth Climbers Toolbox. Looking forward to what this season will bring!Always growing.Benno Duenkelsbuehler CEO & Chief Sherpa of (re)ALIGN
2025-06-2705 min
The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsFeel the Fear and Launch Anyway: Two Business Owners Get RealAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Dawn Grooters and Benno Duenkelsbuehler explore the challenges and strategies of marketing your own business as two business owners who help companies grow, yet struggle with their own messaging.• Authenticity in business requires balancing personal vulnerability with professional messaging• Your message may feel repetitive to you, but most of your audience is hearing it for the first time• Focus on your "smallest viable audience" rather than trying to appeal to everyone• Taking imperfect action beats waiting for perfection - Dawn launched her podcast without knowing al...
2025-04-0333 min
The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsFuture Focused with Dev PatnaikAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? This week's episode emphasizes the critical need for future-focused leadership in evolving business landscapes. Dev Patnaik discusses the pitfalls of present-centric thinking and offers practical strategies for balancing immediate tasks with future opportunities, underscoring that successful leaders look beyond the now to innovate and adapt.• Importance of future-focused leadership • Risks of being present-centric during rapid change • Implementing a time diet to prioritize future tasks • Neuroplasticity's role in shifting leadership mindsets • Divergence and convergence in innovation processes • Learning from failures of companies like Kodak and Blockbust...
2025-01-0230 min
The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsAre you Intentional about your Superpowers?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Two entrepreneurs - Gary Levine, founder/CEO of Roaring Brook Art Licensing Company, and Benno, Chief Sherpa/CEO of (re)ALIGN Expansion Sherpas - are talking about how “superpowers” (both personal and a team’s or business’) are guiding their businesses, about the power of quiet confidence, about not selling but just showing up. 2:23 - “When I think of a person’s superpowers…what makes us fire on all eight cylinders?” 3:22 - “For me, that was (when) I showed up prepared, and I remained curious...
2022-12-2225 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsPreparing 4th Generation GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Sumeet Nath has grown his 3rd generation business into a leading group of factories with 6,000 employees. Each generation worked to keep the business relevant by updating product mix, customer mix, organization and indeed ownership. 3:52 – after Sumeet walked me through a short historic overview how the Indian region of Panipat became a trade center for textiles, and the company’s change after WW2 when in 1945 “the company had to morph, had to have a reality check, that’s how we started spinning wool and yarn.” 4:52...
2022-08-1126 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsBigCo’s Be Nimble, Mid-sized Companies Think BigAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Jason Hauer co-founded the Garage Group in Cincinnati, OH a dozen years ago – to teach executives in big companies to hustle, innovate, and grow like small start-ups. I founded (re)ALIGN to work with midsized companies to grow into new categories, new channels, or grow faster with a cross-functional go-to-market approach. That is to say, Jason and I talked about similar challenges from different perspectives. 3:26 – on the challenge with innovation in bigco’s “they’re focused on mastering the existing business model… whereas innovation, to push into new p...
2022-08-0430 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsA Rebel’s View on GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Edgar Blazona is the real deal: he grew and learned as a punk-ass kid designer and furniture rebel, went to college in corporate America, continued as a serial entrepreneur and founded several successful companies, including Benchmade Modern, the folks who make and sell Rebellious Luxury by the inch. We talked about Edgar’s journey, changes in 21st century manufacturing and branding, and the importance of finding your own way.3:31 – “I kept pushing buttons and finding my way into the room… and kept growing.”5:04 – o...
2022-07-2828 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsMarket Pulse & Looking Ahead with 4 Industry LeadersAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Four consumer executives shared their thoughts on how volatile consumer spending (from lockdowns to supply chain chaos, increased demand and now 9% inflation) that affected 2020/21 is shaping up to affect the second half of 2022 and going into 2023. Real insights from real-world leaders: Allison Barrows (VP at Ganz, a designer/distributor of gift, décor, and apparel), John Toler (CEO at Evergreen Enterprises, a distributor/manufacturer of outdoor living and home products), Joe Harris (Chief Revenue Officer at Whereoware, a digital agency) and Doug Cofiell (CEO at Ivyst...
2022-07-2136 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsEmbracing Opposites to GrowAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Atul Vir is a study in opposites: an innovator and a CPA, an entrepreneur from a military school and family, an immigrant who came to the USA and built a global business. I found Atul’s insights on innovation, product development, risk assessment, and building a business to be thought provoking. 2:27 – talking about Steve Jobs’ influence on innovation and product development “instead of developing a product, now let me see how I can sell it… he focused it the other way around: what do my customers wan...
2022-07-1427 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing with People, During High PressureAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? What if developing people and teams in high pressure situations came down to being in the trenches with them, and food? OK, also about strategy, constantly evaluating yourself more than others, investing in them so they invest in you, and about food? Adding a dose of reality to what’s been said and written about leadership, growth, people, and winning talent wars – is my guest Craig McIntosh, a hard-charging sales executive, a long-time friend and senior leader with a family-owned business that grew to around $1 billion in sales by acquir...
2022-07-0720 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsBillion Dollar B2B Growth thru E-commerceAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? I learned a great deal in this episode from Brian Beck, a leading 23-year practitioner, expert, and operator in e-commerce: we talked about the why, what, and how of growing revenue streams through B2B e-commerce. Brian also wrote the book on the subject – Billion Dollar B2B Ecommerce – and our conversation touched on breaking down the complexity of e-commerce (into consumer-facing and operations-facing, pre-sale and post-sale), the importance of cross-functional translation and alignment, and demystifying this great opportunity for manufacturers and distributors.2:42 – “There are so many parallels b...
2022-06-2328 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth thru e-Selling & Embracing SuperpowersAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Scott Rollman is a deep thinker who listens, a strategist who is passionate about getting it done. In this episode, Scott shared his insights on e-selling (the intersection of digital marketing and personal selling), how digital marketing can best support sales efforts, and we also compared notes – from different cultural perspectives of Scott’s midwestern roots and my immigrant background – on the topic of embracing our superpowers and how to help others embrace theirs. 4:02 – “There has been a dramatic shift in the way we interact with our cust...
2022-02-1724 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsHe Wrote the Book: Growing the ToplineAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? It’s fun to learn from fellow travelers on the growth journey. Cliff Farrah and I share a passion (some might even say talent) for envisioning the right growth strategy and guiding the process from concept to successful execution. Cliff founded The Beacon Group in 2001, a growth advisory for Fortune 500 companies and their organic and inorganic growth strategies, and recently authored a wonderful book. I read, enjoyed, and highly recommend Cliff’s book Growing the Topline. In this episode, he shares stories and the thinking behind...
2022-02-1026 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsLearn to learn from Everyday ExpertsAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? This episode is about how to bring the right people into the room, and how to facilitate the process to make better decisions.I learned not only about solutions to fundamental “people problems” in our democracy on this episode, I learned how Dani is approaching getting help from “everyday experts”: he took the business community’s “focus group” concept, improved on it, and applied it to public service, learning from bus riders, or hospital patients, or utility customers – by “building community at the neighborhood level and tying it to a larger missi...
2022-02-0330 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsDEI – Embracing the UncomfortableAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Understanding differences in people outside of our “tribe” – maybe outside of our comfort zone – can be, well, uncomfortable and difficult. Nicole Armstrong, founder/CEO of Queen City Certified shared her insights with me, how her team helps executives to guide them with DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) challenges, as the nation’s first data-informed employer certification program. 2:06 – “how do we create systems that make it possible for all people to succeed…to allow somebody to know if a company really embraced the values of equity…and how to get there…...
2022-01-2732 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth Inflection Points – Personal & BusinessAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Jay Messner has built several businesses and helps clients improve theirs. Here we talk about inflection points, causes of failures and reasons for getting stuck, what skills can be taught or developed, vs. having to be recruited, and how to jump through inflections points by creating “trust, clarity, and alignment.” 5:04 – “organizations need to have some sense of stable foundation (operationally, culturally, financially) on which to build, especially in rapid growth… when you hit speed bumps and those foundations are not reasonably stable, lots of bad things can ha...
2022-01-2032 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsThe Magnificent Seven – Growth Lessons in Retail & LifeAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Many of you know Warren Shoulberg the journalist, writer, editor, consultant, and singular source of home furnishings industry insights via HFN, Forbes.com, and many others. Here, Warren shares his Magnificent Seven of Retail. Important for manufacturers, vendors, and buyers to hear his thoughts the Good, the Bad, or the Ugly of retail (we talk about a couple dozen retailers, like The Good: Target, RH, Amazon, TJX, Williams-Sonoma brands, Magnolia Home in Waco, TX, good independent specialty retailers, also The Bad: Lame Department Stores, Lame Zombie Brands, and The Ug...
2022-01-1330 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrow Flexibly, from the Ground UpAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Growing 10x from the ground up, instead of by edict from the top down, requires a magic combination of strategy, flexibility, authenticity, finding rock stars (and letting them be chess players, not chess pieces), and in Doug Cofiell’s example also well-integrated acquisitions. 6:39 – “you hire for talent, not necessarily for the exact position… as you build a flexible model, it builds off itself and then it gets cultural… they can set their own tone within these guardrails we establish.” 7:28 – “Having guardrails allows creativity”
2022-01-0627 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth and Disaster in the Amazon JungleAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Amazon controls nearly 50% of online sales in the USA, with that comes being loved or hated, and often the latter. Jason Boyce has been an Amazon Seller for 17 years, a Top 200 seller (of millions), he shares successes worth emulating, and how to avoid certain failures and “speed bumps” selling on Amazon. He’s the co-author of Amazon Jungle, where he and Rick Cesari share stories of customer-driven innovation, click-through strategies, reaching page 1 on Amazon search results – with insights from product design to messaging to the nuts and bolts of actively s...
2021-12-3031 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsDigital Transformation – Do or Die?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Marvin Dejean removes a bit of mystery around the crucial topic of “digital transformation”, also personal or just “transformation”. We talk about his TIP-squared framework (technology and trends, innovation and insights, people and platforms), how to approach transformation, and avoid pitfalls. 3:36 – “learn to dominate your fear… if you don’t transform willingly… then the market, a competitor, the universe, something is going to force you to do it, or you’re going to be wiped out.” 6:34 – “people define digital transformation in different ways… the word is mi...
2021-12-2332 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsAll about pop-up storesAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Pop-up stores come in all types, and both retailers and manufacturers launch them for different reasons. Andy Bailen has deep experience and “spills the beans” with us in this episode. 2:21 – “All Things Retail (a weekly newsletter) came out of my interest in providing guidance and help and actionable content for retailers (of all sizes).” This conversation about pop-up stores – which Andy has successfully conceptualized and rolled out with big box retailers, and smaller players – serves the same purpose: it provides guidance and helps with actionable content for retail...
2021-12-1628 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsEntrepreneur’s Brand: Being the Mac Man, LI Coach, Content StrategistAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? If a bear roars in the woods and nobody hears him, did it really happen? Brian Burke the Mac Man shares his thoughts on personal branding, his entrepreneurial journey from a dorm room business to running a 20+ employee company that has purchased over $45,000,000 in used Apple equipment, and how he helps others with content strategy, creating a post with over 13,000 likes, SEO, and more. 1:12 – personal branding “helps others to help us, helps us to find clients… if you have the same title as everyone else, no one cares… yo...
2021-12-0926 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsOvercoming Transformation ChallengesAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Transportation is a fundamental building block of any economy – so dissecting the necessary ingredients for transforming transportation in the coming decades is key to creating a transportation system that works more efficiently and with less environmental impact. Evangelos Simoudis starts with Data and AI, and has written several books, one about Big Data in our Driverless Future, the other about Transportation Transformation. We talked about three phases of transformation, three constituents needed to make it happen, barriers that will slow down some and have the power to kill all tran...
2021-12-0233 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsLead from the Core: Jay’s Growth PerspectivesAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Jay Steinfeld, founder of blinds.com (which he grew from $0 to revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars before selling it to Home Depot) shares heartfelt insights from his entrepreneurial journey and personal development in my conversation with him. If you haven’t read his book Lead from the Core, you’ll want to read it. Whether or not you have, you’ll want to listen to this episode in which Jay talks about “autonomous excellence”, the 4 E’s (evolve, experiment, express yourself, and enjoy the ride), a definition of success bas...
2021-11-2530 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth for GoodAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Sharon Rowe founded Ecobags, the original reusable bag company, three decades ago, long before sustainability was as cool and certainly as urgent as it is today. She talks about the sometimes-hard choices, sometimes mutually beneficial relationship between conscious capitalism and naked profitability. Sharon authored The Magic of Tiny Business, as a story of doing good and doing well, having your cake, and eating it too. Her company is a small and stable business, some might dismiss it as a “lifestyle business”, others will find key lessons for building a sustai...
2021-11-1827 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing in a More Connected WorldAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? As co-founder of a now 20-year-old distribution company approaching the 9-figure revenue milestone, Yoram Weinreich opens up to share lessons learned, pivots made, and convictions formed during that growth journey: how it began from a direct import business to online/ecom sales, from less to more branded, no inventory to inventory, from a Canadian workforce with global suppliers to becoming a global workforce, from gut decisions to data-driven decisions – there is a lot to be learned. 3:17 – “Success is just getting up one more time” (for more context...
2021-11-1135 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth and Self-AwarenessAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? My guest Dr. L. Carol Scott spoke openly about slaying personal dragons, addressing patterns from childhood and her framework for developmental do-overs. I asked Dr. Scott to come on my podcast because I believe most of us limit ourselves, keep ourselves from growing and thriving in some way, due to some preconceived notion that requires introspection, or what she calls self-aware assessment. Dr. Scott's 7-point framework of SASS – Self-Aware Success Strategies – can help anybody looking to get to know and relate to someone better, whether that someone is you...
2021-11-0431 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsOn Staying Relevant to your CustomerAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? From ice-cream shopkeeper to executive at Pepsico, expat-CEO for LensCrafter in China, and author of several books, George Minakakis’ journey has been enriched by his curiosity and drive. He shares the reasons behind his mantra to “stay relevant, dismiss nothing, expect the unexpected and plan for the improbable”, and why he loves retail – hint: he loves ambiguity. He talks about technology as the path, and how educating himself on IoT and AI has shaped his upcoming book The New Bricks & Mortar – Future Proofing Retail. You can always reach out to George di...
2021-10-2828 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsAgility in Digital and other GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Marisa Lytle has a secret weapon: agility. As VP of Consumer Engagement and Ecom at DEMDACO, she shares not only interesting insights from the world of digital marketing but overriding lessons about the importance of agility. 3:06 – whereas there used to be a clear start and stop with business initiatives “it’s no longer about achieving a set objective at a set point in time, it’s about being agile enough to continue to adapt throughout the journey.” 4:25 – … “it’s also being comfortable taking that...
2021-10-2127 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsInnovating Inside the ModelAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Innovating and growing a legacy company that has often played inside the conventions of an industry, is different from the proverbial outside disruptor crashing the party. John Toler, who worked his way up to CEO of Evergreen Enterprises, shares his thoughts on innovating inside the model. 5:39 – on personal growth “I’m part of development group YPO… they’re a good sounding board… I’ve done a lot of continuing education, a lot of reading… those outside reference points… what others are doing… inside or outside our space are very insig...
2021-10-1432 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsUnpack to GrowAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Joe Motz started with a pickup truck and a dream, then built a 140-person company that builds sports fields for NFL teams across the country. After getting a wakeup call at age 34 that his command and control, hard-charging style was close to killing him, he changed his approach to life, people, and management. In this episode Joe openly talks about unpacking, mindfulness, vulnerability, becoming a listener, allowing coaches (notably at Vistage) to show him new models, and selling his company through an ESOP to his employees. “...
2021-10-0738 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing Ahead of the Curve – Retail 4.0Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Gary Hawkins grew up in the grocery store business in upstate NY (also on a farm, about 30 minutes from my parents’ organic venison farm) and became a trailblazer on retailing for global consumer products companies. He wrote a fascinating white paper on Retail 4.0 – and here he talks us through versions 1.0 thru 4.0, converging technologies, automation of business processes, transforming the lemonade stand into digital networks, and (after 25:34) how to prepare any business for growth through an exponential mindset, “guardrails for an uncertain path” and how certain expectations help us to embrace ch...
2021-09-3046 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsEnglish Major to Serial Tech Entrepreneur… to Toasters?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Tom Klaff shares his story of growth and learning, allowing us to learn from lessons he picked up building and exiting several businesses, and now building a new rocket ship, a relevant brand on the kitchen counter. 4:01 – “…I was struck by the level of introspection… when did you start articulating your personal building blocks?” – “… it’s like a debrief after the mission, you want to look at things you did right, things you did wrong… after every one of my ventures.” 5:01 – “I paid a lot of dumb-tax… part...
2021-09-2330 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsIngredients for Hyper-GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? When a team goes from $0 at launch to $21M revenue rate in 2½ years, and a few months later (at time of this recording) exceeds a $40M run rate, the term hyper-growth is not hyperbole. Eleanor Lynch is part of the leadership team at Kiaro, a Canadian Cannabis omni-channel business that launched shortly after legalization in 2018: her thoughts on growth, people, strategy, branding, deconstruction and reset are invaluable for anyone grappling with creating or managing growth. Always growing.Benno Duenkelsbuehler CE...
2021-09-1626 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsAccessing Creative Energy RemotelyAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Richard Degnan is a creative dynamo, building and reinventing big national and global brands. He shares his insights on several companies accessing creative energy, remotely. He distinguishes between working remotely and WFH/working from home, in isolation. 3:45 – “I could be in any number of locations… I love all that stimulus.” 13:53 – “How do we keep the efficiencies we learned (during Covid 19)… and massage it and nuance it to be able to have in-person interactions… what are the moments where it’s important to be together?”
2021-09-0928 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsSo, you Want to Design Products?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? If you’re a student of collaboration, of different expertise coming together to learn each other’s language, this episode is for you. If you’re a student of the design process, and how different approaches lead to better outcomes, this episode is for you. Gary Pettitt, CEO Seasonal Living and Laura Muller, Owner of Four Point Design Build talk about the trust, chemistry, containers for chaos that were required to make the Provenance Collection come to life. 5:31 – “Just like a photo capturing a memory, that’s what t...
2021-09-0236 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsBuilding your Company for Sellable GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? If you own a small to midsize business that you’re thinking about selling, Bill Goldberg shares a unique investment model. His firm, the W. Alexander Group makes minority investments in companies with $3M to $20M in revenues and helps them to grow to become more valuable. 4:31 – “I really enjoy smaller businesses… B2B service space… the ‘yellow zone’ business that just hadn’t reached their potential yet.” 6:26 – “up to 90% of companies never sell… 70% don’t have a next-step plan or transition (of ownership) plan...
2021-08-2629 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsFuture-proof your CompanyAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Maulik Parekh talks about three mega trends in this episode, which he described in his best-selling book “Futureproof Your Career and Company”, and how they will change your company in the near future: 1) AI, 2) a workforce of digital natives, and 3) the gig economy. 3:20 – “when I first came to the Philippines in 2001, there were only some 10,000 people working in the call center industry… today there are 1.3 million people working in call centers.” 4:12 – Maulik’s story about rising to CEO, after growing TeleTech from 6000 to 22000 p...
2021-08-1930 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing Revenues in a Seller-Free WorldAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? The internet has changed the sales process, from the seller being contacted 20-30% into the buying process, to now much closer to the end of the process. The internet changed the dynamic and continues to shift it. Zach Murphy talks about how that changed people’s and companies’ behaviors, as buyers and as sellers. 2:08 – “The internet has democratized information.” 3:07 – “creating content on the internet, (today) it’s less production, more authenticity, compared to 30 years ago… “ – “pre-internet it was a one-way conversation, the brands controlled the fu...
2021-08-1226 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing Globally Locally, Outside your Comfort ZoneAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Asha Chaudhary, president of Jaipur Living (a socially conscious luxury brand of rugs and textiles), shares the fascinating story of a door-step entrepreneur model of 48,000 artisans in almost 600 villages in India, creating a beautiful product and a seamless customer experience for 1000’s of designers and retailers in the USA. 5:37 – “It’s all about you being courageous, pushing the envelope, the boundaries – a lot of that comes from my dad… he was always a rebel… I saw him shattering so many societal norms.” 7:01 – “it became...
2021-08-0530 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth Strategies for C-Level Free AgentsAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? This episode is for C-level executives looking for a new angle on job search – Dave Marx provides a unique approach, combining his work as headhunter/recruiter with M&A support, providing job seekers an edge in resume writing, contact strategies with PE companies, and how to market yourself. 2:45 – getting a new job by finding a company for sale: “how about looking at some of the companies that are for sale that (your former employer) passed on and see if you’d like to run one of those co...
2021-07-2933 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth Lessons from PetsAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Let’s face it, sometimes pets are smarter than people. Shawna Schuh is an executive coach, TED Speaker, and self-ascribed pet wrangler. With her refreshingly open demeanor, Shawna shares important lessons she learned from her dog, her horse, and her – yes – goat. 3:21 – “This is your gift as a leader… every challenge holds with it seeds of growth.” 5:15 – “She gave me good advice: no matter what… only talk to her when she does something right… there is always somethingredeeming.” 6:17 – “we live in a ‘don’t...
2021-07-2231 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsBuilding a Culture – How, What & What NotAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Building a culture without being a cult is both important and difficult. Lance Hart, President of DEMDACO shares his real-world experience in leading a very successful, mid-sized design and distribution company. 3:45 – culture “is the customs and norms for our organization… and our mission and purpose, those phrases are the filter for everything we do.” 4:37 – “there are three things we do: we try to listen… we try to compromise… and to communicate back and forth.” 11:21 – “building trust is the first step to getting to...
2021-07-1530 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsReinvent to Grow – in Fashion, Divorce & other ChallengesAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Making a living selling to retailers, during Covid, while adjusting to a recent divorce, is not for the faint of heart. Natasha Silver, founder of Community Service Showroom, a fashion business in LA talks openly about the business and personal angles of growing in adversity. 3:05 – “Covid was… an opportunity to say ‘you know what I don’t want to do it like that anymore… and people are listening and giving room for it’.” 3:48 – “also, we’re raw… and vulnerable… and allowing things to shift and adjust.”
2021-07-0835 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsDon’t Blame the Fish – Racism and GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Calm and rational conversations about racism, and its impact ethically and economically, are hard to come by. I learned a lot from Dora Anim, COO of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, who moved to Ohio from Ghana and France and brings an important voice to the conversation. 2:07 – on Dora’s early journey “I went to college at 16 years old... excited to come to the USA, wanted to learn English… Master’s Degree at 22... my entire life I had to do that… build credibility.” 7:55 – “Groundwa...
2021-07-0135 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsBoard and Acquisition Tips that Grow ValueAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? As CEO, are you ready to start or improve your board? Prepared to sell your company and maximize value? Mark Greenberg, Co-owner of Silverstone Capital Advisors in Cincinnati since 2009, a senior executive with over 30 years of operating and transaction expertise, offers valuable advice. 7:17 – “if a company has a strong board – advisory or fiduciary – and they’re paying attention it’s usually a good sign, that there is a desire to have some checks and balance, to listen to outside advice.” 7:39 –...
2021-06-2429 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsFacing Change – Unfiltered in a Filtered WorldAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Because there is no growth without change, Tony Martignetti (Chief Inspiration Officer and host of the Virtual Campfire Podcast) and I talk about different ways to face change. 3:10 – “when you start listening to what’s your soul’s purpose, that’s something that you have to get really quiet to hear… and when you listen, it points you in directions that are really powerful.”5:02 – “it’s time I need to stop collecting a paycheck and take up space, I need to do something with life… and I decided to get up a...
2021-06-1729 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsCan Working Remotely Foster Growth?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? William Kyle moved his company from San Francisco, CA to Lexington, KY, and now runs it from Lisbon, Portugal. Along with a tour operator business in Italy. Curious about how to manage remote work teams, how distance can foster growth? Ask William, CEO of hydra Brands and Resonate Tours. 1:10-1:45 – sound of handbells… 6:45 – “It (COVID and hiring a new COO) allowed me… to see the possibilities of expanding… living away from the office, away from the manufacturing, away from the day-to-day, that we could do a lot of things...
2021-06-1030 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsAn Improv CEO’s Guide to GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? I learned, in real time during this episode, from Joe Boyd – CEO of Rebel Pilgrim and CEO of Leadercast – how growth can come from being in the moment, being present. Joe talks about the impact of improv on business growth (14:13, below), team growth (16:03, below), and personal growth (see 7:16, below). 1:21 – “…’yes, and’ – which is our mantra – it has to be both, you are prepared, but also prepared to change, to accept what comes in front of us.” 2:09 – “The first thing they teach us is to say ‘yes, and’ and...
2021-06-0328 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsFrom F500 Executive to Community BuildingAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? James Rosseau’s story started in North Philadelphia “where there is tremendous overlap and correlation between failures in school and increased prison population”, working in a neighborhood hardware store at 14 evolved into a very successful corporate career and publishing a book, to now a “head and heart mission” building a community to help others. 4:07 - … “I started to find success and people said ‘you’re special’…but wait a minute, special is not scalable… unique is scalable, we all have unique gifts and talents…” 4:43 – “…so how do we...
2021-05-2728 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsExhilaration-Sparking Operations – Come Again?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? James Biro is both an engineer and a passionate leader of people. When he talks about sparking teams, vulnerability, pushing the boundaries of diversity, and what growth means to him, it’s not a theoretical conversation, but one filled with real life corporate team examples that have informed his views. 4:47 - … “The thing that makes me tick is the ability to bring a group of people together… and get them to do something they didn’t think they could.” 6:08 – “the meaningful part is being able t...
2021-05-2028 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsUrban Blight, U.S. Skills Gap, and Stephen’s VanAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? The USA today has some 700,000 job openings not being filled due to lack of skilled candidates. Some 5 million jobs over the next decade are projected to be open (due to retirements) but not filled (due to skills gap). Stephen Tucker talks about his workforce training program, designed to reduce the skills gap, especially within advanced manufacturing, like welding, robotics, electrician, etc. Ray Attiiyah, author of “The Fearless Frontline” introduced me to Stephen, and I’m glad he did because I learned a ton. As Stephen says, businesses must take ownershi...
2021-05-1327 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsFrom Startup to 9000 Customers, Working from HomeAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? HelloWoofy is a social media marketing platform Arjun Rai founded in his 20’s, from his NYC apartment, serving over 9000 customers now. Some of them became investors, over 2000 micro investors in all. I was curious about both what they do, and how he fueled his entrepreneurial growth story. If you love the less than obvious answers about growth, you’ll enjoy learning from Arjun. 3:03 – “Our mission is to build the biggest company on the planet helping the smallest… by providing smart marketing for underdogs...
2021-05-0630 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing with Curiosity, Courage & DisciplineAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Sachin Shivaram is a delightful conversation partner and listener, whether he talks about Atlas Shrugged (the novel that inspired his “curiosity and passion for working in something tangible, that was the hook about steel” that ultimately paved the road to become CEO of Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry), or balancing an outsider and insider perspective, listening, vulnerability, also talent retention, company culture, scenario planning, performance monitoring, and union relations. Favorite quotes from this episode:12:39 – on leadership… “what I aspire to is transparent, honest, vulnerable, also humor… I go fo...
2021-04-2933 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsThe Power of Respect in BusinessAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? I asked Charles Leichtweis, who wrote a wonderful book The Power of Respect in Business, to share his thoughts on respect – what it is and isn’t, how to listen longer, why respect influences relationships and results, what he learned writing a book. 7:01 – “if you ‘listen longer’ you may find by the end it will be different than you assumed in the beginning…it’s a very powerful way to connect with people, to be present and available.” 7:35 – “…if you’re right now, you’ll be right lat...
2021-04-2230 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsDesign – an Insider’s Outside PerspectiveAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Is it better to hire a product designer or work with outside talent? Better to be a hired gun designer or hang out your own shingle? Amy Finley, co-founder of Finton Design shares her insights on all things design – how to start a project, what parts of the process can benefit from outside perspective, on working remotely, you name it, we talk about it. 2:20 – “(design) it’s a passion for creating things.” 4:40 – “We start with our client and the consumer needs… we research, do mood...
2021-04-1523 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsAll Boats Rise – a Wholesaler’s Consumer Branding LessonsAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Peter Friedmann is a thought leader on product-, brand-, and marketing challenges. His experience, coming from many years at Hallmark and DEMDACO shines a strong light in our conversation about branding, strategic planning, and how to remain open for new information after having built a robust strategy. I commend his organization’s commitment to sharing information with industry peers/competitors – “a rising tide lifts all boats.” 1:59 – “not all (consumer product) companies are wired for consumer branding… it depends on the culture of the organization.” 8:20 – “2...
2021-04-0830 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsTwo Growth Stories – Acquisition & FranchiseAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Two partners share two different growth stories – David Tramontana grew a company from 2 to almost 2000 employees (about $50M in revenues) through both organic growth and acquisition, and now he and Jim Collins lead a professional services business whose entire franchise is growing 30% per year. We start with David’s home care acquisition-focused growth model. For background, about $24M of his company’s $50M revenue (prior to his exit) came from 14 acquired businesses (with median size acquisition revenues of $800K – ranging from $200K to $8M in revenues).
2021-04-0132 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsTwo Value Creation Approaches – Real Life, Real EquityAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Here we dig into two ways to create value: growing top line (largely by overcoming supply chain challenges), and as a skin-in-the-game growth partner. David Velie is knowledgeable in both – as co-founder of Amend Consulting and as CEO of Amend Ventures. In the first half the episode, David talks about how Amend helped a manufacturer grow revenues by 60% during Covid and prepare for 30% annual revenue growth going forward by addressing org. chart, supply-chain and labor challenges. 3:52 - … “the primary challenge to grow a busi...
2021-03-2532 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsMarketing Content Ideas for Home FurnishingsAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? It takes well-conceived marketing content to be well received, leading to happy customers and revenue growth – Neil MacKenzie is a marketing veteran who shares his thoughts around branding as the starting point, touch points for multiple content audiences in the value chain, and programs that help intermediary customers (retailers) reach the end consumer. 3:45 – “We (a B2B manufacturer selling to retailers/designers) try to treat everyone like they are the (B2C) end user… and work your way back from the end user’s experience.” 4...
2021-03-1835 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsOmni-Channel – from Buzzword to Revenue GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Majda Rensberger – wholesale consumer product sales and marketing executive at national sales agency OneCoast for over 15 years – talks about the challenges of “meeting the customer where they are”, the customer journey, loyalty, retention, and the mindset that are required to embrace omni-channel selling as a way to optimize and maximize sales. Near the end, Majda shares her personal “change management” experience, growing up in Bosnia and being welcomed to the USA as a war refugee, and how that experience shaped her perspective. 3:42 – “…omni...
2021-03-1125 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth Journey – from Design School to Co-Founder of DTC OuterAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? What is Outer? How do you go from Rhode Island Design School to specialty retail to mass retail to co-founding a Series-A funded Direct-to-Consumer Brand? How is a Neighborhood Showroom a radically different new retail model? Terry Lin takes us through his career, how he and Jiake met, started, and now run Outer. Along the way he shares with us how and why their retail model works. 13:29 – “The neighborhood showroom was equal parts innovation and necessity.” 14:35 – “There were three thing...
2021-03-0437 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsCan Industry 4.0 Bring Manufacturing Back to USA?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? What is Industry 4.0 and why can it be a game changer? Fabian Schmahl has been around the block in manufacturing, in various industries, and he shares his insights on 4.0 – a concept at the intersection of manufacturing and technology, that effects business processes, talent attraction, efficiency metrics, employee engagement, market flexibility, capital allocation, and much more. Here’s a quick video highlighting 4.0, and an extensive, well written White Paper published by the World Economic Forum. In this podcast, Fabian shares his first-hand experience with Industry 4.0 and how embracing a collaborative approa...
2021-02-2531 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsThe Other Camp David – an Investment Banker’s Growth IdeasAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? When I’m in the market for thoughtful, intentional and sound advice, over the years I have turned to David Deutsch, a NYC investment banker, board member, investor, and founder of David N. Deutsch & Company. In this episode, David shares freely and openly how he approaches business, clients, relationships, and personal priorities. A few quotes provide a good appetizer: 3:53 – “Finance is merely the fuel. The business is the engine.” 4:31 – about re-engineering your business around mobility “we’ve been doing it long before the pandemi...
2021-02-1829 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsWorld’s Largest Furniture Store – Now What?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Furnitureland South is a 52-year-young company, one location the size of a dozen or so Home Depot stores (1,300,000 square feet!) that became the world’s largest of its kind with a few powerful guideposts – namely selection, quality, price and service. And relationships. Jeff Harris is one of the owners and the CEO, talking about what fueled their growth and how he envisions to keep growing. 5:32 – “in 1990 we were a $12M operation and over the next decade we grew to nearly $180M in volume” 10:33 – “...
2021-02-1137 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsTo Thrive on Shifting Ground, Be a MammalAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Before founding a software company, Brett Goldberg was an importer and distributor of a very successful line of skincare products. Brett loves to build things that people use, and to dialog with them. Here our conversation ranges from key recommendations for vendors in today’s marketplace, to the importance of relationships, and the need to balance repetition and creativity. After a minute of Brett welcoming listeners in Kurdish, Spanish, and French, he shares keen insights, for example: 4:27 – “to stay grounded, a small comp...
2021-02-0424 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsSmall Business – Big DreamsAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Darin Vilano grew up around small businesses and knows how to help them. After an early career with big corporations, he returned to his roots to create order from chaos, to help reinvent, to adjust pricing, customer acquisition and retention, and whatever else it takes to help.8:38 “…a lot of these things are simple blocking and tackling…but when you string together three, four, or seven things it becomes really powerful.”11:03 “you have to have a lot of humility.”12:20 “I always have to be willing to le...
2021-01-2835 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsEmbrace the Learning CurveAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? In this episode my guest Lynn Provenzano shares how she leans into and thrived in 4 distinctly different work environments in her career. Lynn shares what helped her to embrace the learning curve: flexibility to get out of our own way, focus on the “other”, listen to learn. 7:00 – “what helped me is being able to tap into the needs of those around me (customers or co-workers or community members)… then get out of your own world… (to) be successful.”7:31 – “we are learners or knowers”8:34 – “your accept...
2021-01-2120 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsFamily Business – Challenges & JoysAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Starting and running a business is hard. Do you have family members in your business or are you considering asking family members to join? For some of us that’s been a great experience (see Ep. #11, where my wife and I talk about working together), for others, not so great. Joseph Cilio, owner and CEO of Alfresco Home shares his lifelong experience being part of or running a family business. He stresses the importance of defining roles and building mutual trust, among other wisdoms. 3:58 – “you can’t hav...
2021-01-1423 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsOverinvest in Culture – and other growth approachesAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? If you care about culture in your business, Tim Metzner (serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Coterie and other successful start-ups) offers great insights on what it is, how you define it, and what it can bring to the table. 7:56 – “There is also culture debt. If you don’t get ahead of this, you will have a culture... you can either (be intentional about it or back into it).”16:02 – “founders breathe life into the initial set of core values (like trust, transparency, listening) …after that, every person you h...
2021-01-0734 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsWhat’s your Brand’s Job?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Interested in organizing principles to “focus the blur” of branding, marketing and strategy? This conversation with Ben Greenberg and Sebastien Hue – thinkers and doers, food truck laborer and foodies, co-founders of the BS LLC agency – offers insight on growth. They love deeper questions, hate becoming commoditized, love being the liaison between left and right brain, and strive to architect a way to do that. On the Jobs Theory:3:32: “it’s a business lens in which you can simplify questions and problems…to...
2020-12-3133 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsPlan Strategically & Remain Situational – lessons from the Art BusinessAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? How do you keep growing when both your product and your customers constantly shift? Since 2003, Gary Levine’s company has sold licensed art (with constant shifts in taste and trends) to manufacturers and to retailers (where store counts, store types, and the explosion of ecommerce have shifted the balance of power dramatically in recent years). His advice: do what you love, operate in your “sweet spot”, and (15:45): “be thoughtful of who you’re doing business with” because not every revenue dollar is a good dollar. Gary has been st...
2020-12-1720 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsCommunity Colleges –American Dream Growth EngineAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? “Community colleges have low self-esteem” – as a graduate of both a community college and an ivy-league university I can relate to that sentiment. Because community colleges serve an important role in supporting the American Dream, to aid continued upward mobility in our country, I asked Sarah Leggesse to share her insights about students and staff. How do stories about alcohol abuse on campus live alongside stories of an 85-year-old student trying to better herself? How did community colleges help students change the world, students like Steve Jobs, Tom Hanks, and one...
2020-12-1029 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsPurpose-driven Business: Fusing Clean Energy with CapitalismAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? My guest Steve Melink shares a powerful and very important story: highly knowledgeable about clean energy, he built a case why clean energy is critically important for humankind, wrote a book about it (Fusion Capitalism – Clean Energy Vision for Conservatives), has taken risks by building a purpose-driven business around a politically charged issue, and he walks the walk on clean energy with his 100+ employee company in Cincinnati, OH. They tell us we shouldn’t talk about politics or religion in business. Steve talks about both, in a way...
2020-12-0319 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestseDesign – Virtually Design Virtually EverythingAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? As our life becomes more digital, we need to grow and learn new skills to keep up. Covid has accelerated that trend – not just Zoom calls and filesharing, but remote collaboration for all kinds of problem solving. My guest Jenna Gaidusek is an online interior designer who has decorated hundreds of rooms across the country all from her home office. She perfected a process as a virtual interior designer and encourages other creatives in the interior design industry to do the same. We talk about her e...
2020-11-2622 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsThe World’s First Ever All-Digital Designer ShowhouseAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? When an entrepreneur envisions boldly… risks… invites industry stars to participate… creates a first of its kind in the history of the world event… and invites you behind the scenes of its creation….and to its unveiling…you’ll want to listen. Gary Pettitt, CEO and Editor of Seasonal Living Magazine, the creative and entrepreneurial force behind this exciting all-digital Showhouse is my guest in this episode. We talk about digital design, the creative process, and taking leaps to grow – as people, as a business, and as an industry. You can see the Di...
2020-11-1937 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsChasing Digital Growth, faster and more profitablyAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Adam Smith founded SoundPress, his digital marketing agency 20 years ago in 2000. Today his team serves Fortune 50 companies in the automotive industry and small/midsized clients. His insights into technology, branding, and how manufacturers or distributors can better market and sell consumer products online are built on a foundation of real-world successes, with a dash of the classically trained musician’s brilliance.Always growing.Benno Duenkelsbuehler CEO & Chief Sherpa of (re)ALIGN reALIGNforResults.com benno@real...
2020-11-1244 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsYou are not the Hero – Storytelling for MarketersAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Mark Haas talks about story structure and how to ‘flip the script’ – focus on the customer’s problem, not the product, not your company. The pattern in storytelling is (2:42): “hero goes on a journey, looking for a treasure…a dragon is in the way… along comes a mentor, helps to put a sword in your hand to defeat the dragon and helps you get the treasure.” – and (7:20): “you’d call them buyer personas we call them hero personas.” After walking us thru business examples where companies use the hero’s jou...
2020-11-0522 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsSettler vs. Pioneer – lessons from a Cannabis Start-upAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Despite (relatively minor) audio challenges, this turned out to be a great episode. If you ever moved from big “settler” company to “pioneer” work in a start-up, you know the difference between the two; if you’re considering the move, listen to Leah Bailey who talks thru her experience starting a Cannabis grower and vertically integrated premium brand, from 2 to 150 employees. Leah’s war stories are fascinating; her # 1 lesson at 15:39; my favorite part was getting to sense her attitude and approach, which we talked about at 17:20 as “attitude isn’t part of the thin...
2020-10-2921 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsStorytelling – or: Bootstrapping a $100M Start-upAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Remember FiveFingers Shoes? Neither did most consumers a dozen years ago, until it became a B2B manufacturer’s amazing B2C success story. Michael Martin, who spent 20 years in consumer goods, as sales and sales operations manager then executive, shares with us how he became the Chief Storyteller for a component manufacturer and helped to build a 9-figure consumer product – by not selling the product first, but putting the story first, actually leaving product samples in the trunk of his car before buyer presentations and then, oh, by the wa...
2020-10-2232 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsNever Integrate or Grow: Pre/Post Acquisition ChallengesAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Spoiler alert: integrate or grow is a false choice, you can and should do both, walk and chew gum, integrate and grow. But too often poor integration between acquirer and acquired hurts revenue growth, certainly in the (too lengthy) short term. Steve Nunn shares his definition of integration, how to tackle integration – in stages, some successes and failures and what drove each. Because growth is challenging during integration, we share an example where my company’s Third Growth Option (faster than internal organic growth, less risky than acquisition) both pre- a...
2020-10-1531 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsCan Three Things Improve your Business, really?Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Paul Heagen has a talent for making the complex simple, and in our discussion about his latest book These Three Things we talk about Pride, Safety, and Love as a leader’s focal points to unleash passion, move people to be loyal to the business, and committed to extraordinary performance. All three are things we remember feeling (or missing) from an early age, and pivotal moments throughout our life harken back to one or all three of them. Paul takes us through each of the three focal poin...
2020-10-0924 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing your Company using Brand LicensingAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? After his first job as CPA at Arthur Anderson ended shortly after the Berlin Wall fell (fun story how that global event unleashed our guest’s entrepreneurial spirit at 1:01), Stu Seltzer became a licensing expert, first as executive at fashion house YSL, then in entertaining at Disney, and now as owner of licensing agency Seltzer Licensing Group and teaching at NYU. This episode offers a crash course in licensing (4:30-14:08), followed by insightful comments helpful to manufacturers or distributors who are asking “is licensing for me?” (answers starting at 16:51) – how does i...
2020-10-0132 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsSymphony of GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? We started with the leadership analogy of orchestra musicians as cross-functional business team members, the conductor as its leader – but my guest Daniel Wachter connected dots from business culture to sounds and language (7:08), from change management to listening, from music to the Baroque painter Rubens’ delegation and painting ‘process’ (38:09 thru 42:03). We both had aha! moments during the episode. “The marketing works with the product, works with the organization…it’s a closed system where everything works in unison, like a symphony orchestra…difficult to do…probably easier in the…start-up stage but onc...
2020-09-2549 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsPost-Pan Pivots – growing stronger thru adversityAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? “Never waste a good crisis” is an important reminder as we work through the COVID pandemic and prepare for post-pandemic life. Craig Todd shares five values that helped his company to thrive, and actions his team took to grow during COVID. Our conversation leads us to share other tools forged by other crises and how they can help our listeners – grit as a company and personal value, being vulnerable, believing in yourself and trusting others.Always growing.Benno Duenkelsbuehler CEO & Chief She...
2020-09-1733 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowing by Design – Using Empathy to Unlock GrowthAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? How does empathy unlock potential for growth? Cindy Tripp talks about seeing the world in the other’s shoes, building rapport and candor, letting go of judgment to allow curiosity to open new doors, inside teams and out in the market. Whether Cindy shares global company stories – like P&G learning from a small competitor in Peru – or her personal meditation (inhale “I don’t know” and exhale “let it go”), her message about the power of empathy is inspiring and helpful in our journey to unlock growth of any kind.Al...
2020-09-1038 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsProduct Growth thru Creativity + AnalysisAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? A life-long merchant with manufacturers and national retailers, Karin Jeske talks about the left/right brain approach to product development, “from spreadsheets to bed sheets, from color palettes to shipping pallets, from boardrooms to sample rooms.” There are plenty of product people that are either “all about the numbers” (and wrong) or “all about fashion trends and creativity” (and also wrong) – Karin built her career and her own product distribution company on both, creativity and analysis. She shares strategies about product development, trends and forecasting, customers, manufacturing processes, margin development, and...
2020-09-0326 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsWhen Life and Business Partner is the Same PersonAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Our 16- and 20-year-old daughters said to us “you guys should do a podcast about working together.” My wife Hilda Castillo Duenkelsbuehler is this episode’s star guest and we talked about our different working styles, the flexibility required to learn a new way to work, the willingness to re-frame, be open and curious, that “with different styles come different ideas” (8:53) and that “we work ideas in a more intense way because we come from two different angles” (9:19). “It’s important for couples that work together, that they grow as a couple but you...
2020-08-2726 minThe Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and GuestsGrowth Journeys – Across Continents and CulturesAre you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ? Born in Turkey, raised in beautiful Istanbul, and leading teams in Italy and the USA, Mehmet Yuksek knows a thing or two about growth journeys, cultural idiosyncrasies, and several golden rules that helped him succeed on three continents. He shares his favorite business authors, as well as simple and powerful frameworks like “Courage, Focus, Clarity”, and “Head, Heart, and Hands” that helped him rise to being CEO of a Top 5 global player. We talk about the importance of culture inside an organization, and the difference between recruiting for “cultural contribution...
2020-08-2035 min