#104 CEO Insights with Tim Cabot, CEO Katahdin Industries

# 108 Mastering Global Manufacturing with Darrin Mitchell

🔊 LISTEN NOW: DARRIN MITCHELL - MASTERING GLOBAL MANUFACTURING ON THE AMAZING EXEC SHOW PODCAST OVERVIEW: * Host: David A. Rosen, CEO of Acrelic Group. * Guest: Darrin Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Industries. * Theme: Insights from successful business leaders in manufacturing and innovation. KEY HIGHLIGHTS: 1. Darrin Mitchell's Success Story: * Grew a manufacturing business successfully from a remote Canadian island. * Developed a global supply chain and patented intellectual property. * Achieved profits significantly higher than industry average. 1. Strategic Business Decisions: * Focus on creating innovative, complicated products to gain a competitive edge. * Successfully turned competitors into partners/customers by understanding their limitations and offering solutions. 1. Customer-Centric Approach: * Emphasis on spending considerable time with customers to understand and meet their needs effectively. * Example: Customized equipment for specific customer requirements, leading to substantial sales. 1. Leadership and Management: * Importance of a strong management team that aligns with the company's growth and vision. * Encourages leaders to be actively involved and connected with all aspects of their business. 1. Overcoming Challenges: * Strategies to manage cash flow and payroll challenges. * Innovation in product development and business model to stay relevant and profitable. 1. New Venture - Manufacturing Masters: * Post selling his business, Mitchell launched 'Manufacturing Masters', a digital platform providing quick, expert insights for manufacturing businesses. * Focuses on practical, actionable advice across various business functions. 1. Advice for Business Growth: * Encourages being customer-centric and innovative. * Stresses the importance of courage and proactive problem-solving in business. * Highlights the need for businesses to adapt and evolve constantly. 1. Utilizing Digital Technologies for Business Growth: * Darrin Mitchell emphasized the power of digital platforms for brand building and customer engagement. * His approach included using YouTube for outreach and sensors on trailers to provide real-time data to clients, enhancing customer service and business partnership. 1. Navigating Global Supply Chains: * Mitchell highlighted the importance of understanding and effectively managing global supply chains. * He shared insights on direct sourcing from countries like South Korea, China, and Taiwan to overcome markups and supply chain inefficiencies, demonstrating a proactive approach to cost management and resource allocation. 1. Leadership in Adversity: * The videocast showcased Mitchell’s ability to lead through difficult situations, including a significant warranty issue in 2008. * His decisive actions during this crisis, like forming new partnerships and managing financial challenges, underscore the importance of resilient and adaptable leadership in sustaining business growth. KEY INTERVIEW SECTIONS: * Secret: Turning Competitors Into Partners - Customers * Secret: Spending Ridiculous Amount of Time with Customers * Pounce on Opportunities - The Call from an Elon Musk Company * Secret: Being a curious leader and finding information about the end result of my supply chain * Fear Drove Their/His Need to Be Customer Centric to Grow * Darrin's Background Story - Hungry and Needed to Pay for Food! * Growth Curve HERE * Lessons Learned During Growth and Critical Pivots * Pivot 1: Stop Production on Zero Margin Products * Pivot 2: Making Sure I had the Right Management Team * Pivot 3: Manage Payroll and Cash Flow or Else... * Secret: When you don't make payroll, it comes out of our pocket! * Example: I always love partnering with my competitors * Secret: Having your Partners Think of You as the "GO-TO" * You have TWO Jobs as a Leader * Business # 2.... more successes * Built a learning Management System * What is the Vision of the Future for Darrin and Manufacturing Masters? * Why Manufacturing Industries Shrank! * Passionate About Business not just shooting to be low cost but focus on innovation, US Industries' GREATEST Competitive Strength... * David: Businesses Face the Market in 3 Ways: Customer Centric, Process Focus, and Product/Technology Oritentation, BUT One is usually dominant! * Darrin: Being Customer Centric Creates Greater Cash-Flow for Small to Medium Businesses * Darrin: Where is your Courage Threshold? CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: This videocast offers valuable insights for owners and executives of middle market companies, particularly in manufacturing. Darrin Mitchell’s journey and strategies underline the significance of innovation, customer focus, and adaptive leadership in achieving business success.

Episode 107: Elevate Your Business with Customer Obsession with Marbue Brown

ELEVATE YOUR BUSINESS WITH CUSTOMER OBSESSION! LEARN WHY AND HOW CUSTOMER OBSESSION DRIVES AMAZING BUSINESS SUCCESS. EXPLORE THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF CUSTOMER OBSESSION IN EPISODE #107 OF OUR PODCAST SERIES. JOIN US AS WE DISCUSS PRIORITIZING CUSTOMER NEEDS, NAVIGATING THE MIDDLE MARKET, HARNESSING DATA, AND STRATEGIC BOARD GOVERNANCE WITH EXPERT MARBUE BROWN. 1.   SHOW SUMMARY: In this enlightening discussion with Marbue Brown, Founder, The Customer Obsession Advantage [https://customerobsession.net] and an expert in customer obsession and business strategy, and  David Rosen, CEO of Acrelic Group [https://acrelicgroup.com/ae],  delves deep into the realm of transformative growth and customer-centricity for businesses. The conversation uncovers valuable insights and strategies that every business executive should consider for driving success. 2.   TIMELINE HIGHLIGHTS [00:04:26] Illustration of Customer Obsession Value – Customer Reviews [00:08:23] Critical tool for customer service: Andon Cord! [00:12:03] How JP Morgan, Amazon, Costco Move the Needle Applying Customer Obsession? [00:13:48] Businesses came together to apply the principles of Customer Obsession! [00:27:05] Customer Obsessed Companies Treat Customer Service as a Marketing Expense [00:38:14] B2B Must be Customer Obsessed! Not just B2C [00:45:39] How Do you get Started in Being More Customer Obsessed? [00:51:43] Product companies should ask... New Product or features? [00:58:14] Role of the Board in Customer Obsession [01:03:53] 3 Board Questions 3.   7 HIGHLIGHTS AND LEARNINGS - DAVID AND MARBUE: The discussion is filled with insights and real-world examples from best-in-class companies, highlighting the importance of making customer obsession a core principle in your business strategy.  Here are the top seven (7) highlights of this revealing program: 1. Customer Obsession as a Core Principle: Marbue stresses the significance of putting customers at the heart of your business strategy. Companies like Amazon and Zappos exemplify how customer obsession can drive long-term success. 2. Seeing Around Corners: The ability to "see around corners" and anticipate customer needs is a trait of customer-centric companies. Costco and Trader Joe's are cited as examples of businesses that excel in this area. 3. Continuous Innovation: Marbue emphasizes the importance of relentless innovation. Companies like Apple and Amazon consistently launch new products and services to meet customer demands, fostering loyalty and growth. 4. Metric Insights: Metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Effort Score (CES) offer valuable insights into customer sentiment. These metrics help companies understand their customers better, just as best-in-class companies have done. 5. Transformative Growth: Middle-market companies can achieve transformative growth by embracing customer obsession. Examples, such as Amazon Prime, illustrate the impact of innovation in meeting customer goals. 6. Board Governance and Customer Focus: Boards play a critical role in promoting customer-centric thinking. They should consider digital transformation, diversity, and data security in shaping the company's customer-focused approach. 7. Success Blueprint: Marbue outlines the importance of setting ambitious goals and fostering customer obsession within the organization. Best-in-class companies serve as a source of inspiration for this customer-centric journey. This discussion underscores that customer obsession isn't just a strategy but a way of thinking and operating that can propel businesses to new heights of success. 4.   KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. Customer Obsession as a Strategy: Marbue Brown emphasizes the significance of adopting a customer-centric approach, and David reinforces this concept as the CEO of Acrelic Group. They explore how best-in-class companies prioritize customer needs and continuously innovate to stay ahead. 2. Navigating the Middle Market: David, drawing from his extensive experience, sheds light on the unique challenges middle-market companies face. He discusses the importance of aligning business goals with customer goals to create meaningful solutions. 3. Data-Driven Decision-Making: Marbue highlights the role of data in understanding customer sentiment. David Rosen emphasizes the need for businesses to embrace digital transformation and secure data practices to thrive in today's landscape. 4. Strategic Board Governance: The conversation touches upon the role of boards in fostering customer obsession. David discusses how boards can guide companies toward customer-centricity by asking the right questions and focusing on innovative thinking. 5. The Value of Acrelic Group: Throughout the discussion, David exemplifies the expertise and guidance offered by Acrelic Group. As a leader in strategic planning and transformative growth, Acrelic Group helps businesses leverage customer-centric strategies to achieve and exceed their goals and outcomes. This conversation underscores the significance of customer-centricity in achieving transformative growth. David Rosen and Acrelic Group stand out as invaluable partners for businesses seeking to embrace customer obsession as a strategic advantage and navigate the middle market effectively.  Be sure to check out other Amazing Execs Show [https://acrelicgroup.com/ae] programs here:  https://acrelicgroup.com/ae [https://acrelicgroup.com/ae] and review more about customer centric thinking with a key discussion between David and Mike Bosworth [https://acrelicgroup.com/106-mike-bosworth-enterprise-sales-author-trainer-and-legend]. SEE MARBUE BROWN'S NEW BOOK: "BLUEPRINT FOR CUSTOMER OBSESSION [https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Customer-Obsession-Marbue-Brown/dp/1662858507?crid=LU70B33B0XVR&keywords=customer+obsession+brown&qid=1698165044&sprefix=%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=acrelicgrou0b-20&linkId=1610feda3852f05d140e79fe8f3f2b21&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il]" Learn how you can Elevate Your Business with Customer Obsession.

#106 Mike Bosworth, NY Times Best Selling Author: Solution Sales, Customer Centric Selling, and StoryTellers

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MIKE: 1. Human beings hate being told 'what they need to do.' 2. Most salespeople prematurely elaborate. 3. Discovery Resistance is preventing good salespeople from connecting with, and building trust with their prospects. 4. Peer curiosity is the first step in a buy cycle, and 5. Peer envy is the number one B2B emotional buying reason. See and Review and Read His Books: Mike Bosworth Books on Sales [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michael-T.-Bosworth/author/B001IGM0VC?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=acrelicgrou0b-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=813aa3bd92da73d6fa41f99a6e5f7e07&camp=1789&creative=9325] Mike's Books:  Book 1: Solution Selling [https://amzn.to/3Mj7sDK] Book 2: Customer Centric Selling [https://amzn.to/45bAspD] Book 3:  What Great Sales People Do: The Science of Selling Through Emotional Connection and the Power of Story [https://amzn.to/43bcjNR]  HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CONVERSATION WITH MIKE BOSWORTH AND DAVID ROSEN [00:07:16] "Most Great Salespeople are Intuitive... They Do NOT Follow a Model" [00:09:56] The One Minute Story...and they invite you in! [00:11:06] Through my Sales Approach (Stories), I Sold More in 5 Months than Anyone, in History had sold in One (1) Year! [00:13:54] Sales Secrets - Storytelling Creates Peer Envy! [00:14:44] Discovery Confirms and Scopes the Problems [00:18:40] Bosworth - Three Pieces of a Startup are Needed! [00:20:08] Microsoft Example in the "Chasm" [00:23:13] Ill bet that >50% of those new better mousetraps were a solution, looking for a problem... [00:24:34] 90% of our Customers Purchased Our Software without a Live Demo [00:26:44] 1. Solution Selling - Intelligent Discovery Approach [00:27:55] II. Customer Centric Selling - Easier to Have a Stranger Share a Goal than Pain [00:30:22] III. Story Seekers - Discovery Resistance is the #1 Problem Sales People Face... and its not their Fault! [00:34:09] Bosworth: Each Salesperson Needs Three Distinct Stories! [00:36:23] Three Stories: Hero Stories - Personal Stories - Company Stories [00:39:20] Shifting Sales Cultures and Behavior Examples [00:39:38] Best Sales People Diagnose and then Offer a Solution... [00:41:00] Sales Tip: Be Careful of Jumping to Conclusions That You Know What the Prospect Needs to Do! [00:43:50] Rosen: The Thing that Separates Success from Failure are the People Issues! [00:44:23] Accidental Team Building - Workshop Story [00:50:24] Bosworth – Key Attributes of Successful Leaders - Authenticity and Vulnerability! [00:51:17] The Hardest Thing in Selling is Connecting with Strangers! [00:53:10] Mike Bosworth Rule in Teaching People to Connect... Vulnerability and Go First! [00:54:26] Bosworth: The Number One Problem of CEOs is Not Managing Silos [00:56:01] Bosworth - Transformation Requires that People Leave their Comfort Zones and Get Out Into Their Learning Zones [00:56:40] Rosen - What do you make of a CEO that Doesn't Want to Lead Culture? [00:58:24] The Meaning and Value of Balanced Leadership [01:05:07] Mike's Book Pick #1: Naked Sales by Ashley Welch & Justin Jones [https://amzn.to/3Oktfxo] [01:05:29] Mike's Book Pick #2 - Sell Without Selling Out! by Andy Paul [https://amzn.to/45jlCgA] [01:05:59] Bosworth Final Thoughts to Business Owners and Executives [01:06:33] We Want to Empower People to Solve Problems... Not sell an "It" [01:06:51] Buying Visions are Emotional

#105 Peggy Parfenoff, CEO World Chicago Entrepreneurial Exchanges and Citizen Diplomacy

WORLD CHICAGO AND US STATE DEPARTMENT SHARES ENTREPRENEURSHIP GLOBALLY Peggy Parfenoff, the CEO of World Chicago from Chicago. Peggy has put together an amazing program in coordination with the State Department that creates cross-border relationships between owners, entrepreneurs, and executives of European companies with US based entrepreneurs, owners and executives of companies as well. She not only focuses around Europe, but brings in fellowships with hundreds of people from throughout the world into meet and interrelate with US businesses, educational institutions, nonprofits, and other GMOs. UNIQUE PROGRAM WITH BILATERAL BENEFITS * US Companies Learn about other Geography Cultures and Potential access to customers and suppliers * Cross-Border Issues resolved quickly * Best practices sharing between the US companies and their peers globally * Support energy and growth in startups, seed, growth, and scaling phases of business growth In this program specifically that we’re talking to today, you’ll hear about the highlights of the differences between European entrepreneurs and the US entrepreneurs that they interact with, and you’ll also hear that there’s also subtle differences in cultures even amongst the US entrepreneurs and the European entrepreneurs within their own continents And so it’s not a unique thing, but this is an amazing program that that sheds light on the value and benefits of US democracy, as well as the benefits and value and the good and the bad of the US entrepreneurial and capitalistic, uh, cultures that exist here that I think bring opportunities to all. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation today with Peggy, and I would love for you to subscribe down below if you’re listening to us on your favorite podcast station, or if you’re watching us on YouTube or watching us on our website. We’d love to get your feedback, have you subscribe and be the first to get upcoming episodes with some other amazing executives. Welcome Peggy. World Chicago is a nonprofit organization that hosts international exchanges, sponsored primarily by the US Department of State. So we’re bringing emerging leaders from 140 countries around the world, nearly the entire world to Chicago on exchange programs. They might be youth who come for a two week exchange and stay with host families. They might be a government official on a international visitor leadership program sponsored by the state, staying for a week in a hotel and meeting with their peers and counterparts. Or they might be an entrepreneur coming from Europe, staying for a month in a fellowship, in a higher level internship, and really engaging in the entrepreneurial community. So through all of our various styles of programs, we get about a thousand people a year in Chicago and in sending out great impressions of our city around the world. one of our biggest programs we have for entrepreneurs is called the Young Trans-Atlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative, or YTILI is what we call it for short. And that brings 60 entrepreneurs from 39 possible European countries. So this is one of the State Department programs. It’s focused on Europe. There are other department estate programs for entrepreneurs focused on the western hemisphere, focused on Southeast Asia and on Africa. But this particular program that World Chicago works on is focused on Europe. So every European country from Russia down to Malta and Ireland all the way over to Turkey.

#104 CEO Insights with Tim Cabot, CEO Katahdin Industries

TIM CABOT - PRESIDENT OF KATAHDIN INDUSTRIES, CHAIRMAN OF SOUTHWORTH INTERNATIONAL AND BOARD MEMBER OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES FOR JUSTICE (NON-PROFIT) So my two primary activities in the for-profit world are I'm the President of Katahdin Industries Inc. Tim Cabot: It's a platform company that focuses on coating and the application of coatings onto medical devices located here in Massachusetts. And it's a company that I've been involved with for the past 17 years, building it up both organically and also through a number of acquisitions. In addition to my work at Katahdin, I've also been fortunate enough to be involved in a family company called Southworth International Group. Southworth is a large. Provider of equipment for the material handling industry? It is located both here in the US and it has overseas operations as well. So it's a global company. In that role, I'm a chairman of the board and I've been involved with it for approximately the same amount of time since about 2008. David Rosen: Do you have other board roles as well, currently or in the past? Tim Cabot: The other current role I have is I'm the the chair of the finance committee of a not-for-profit located here in Boston called Community Resources for Justice. It's about a 70 million non-profit focused on the developmentally disabled as well as people leaving the prison system and reestablishing connections into the world. TIMELINE [00:01:43] Turning the Career Journey into an Acquisition Opportunity [00:06:45] Where Tim's Career Journey Began [00:09:43] How the Katahdin Business Grew from $9M to $50 Million [00:14:33] Focus on Growth and Managing Lower Priorities that Turn Into Opportunities [00:30:19] What it Takes to be a Great Leader [00:35:15] People Teams and Business Success [00:37:35] Key Considerations About Boards and Board Governance [00:39:49] Dealing with Counter Strategic Initiatives - What Can You Do? [00:44:51] Risk [00:48:15] How to Reach Tim Cabot