A business can look strong from the inside and still raise red flags when a buyer takes a closer look. Laurie Barkman joins Maartje van Krieken to talk about what makes a business transferable, valuable, and ready for transition. Laurie is the founder of Business Transition Sherpa, author of The Business Transition Handbook, a certified exit planner, an M&A advisor, and a former $100M CEO who led a company through a successful acquisition by a Fortune 50 company. Many owners wait until burno...
Apr 29, 2026•33 min•Season 2Ep. 93
When the pressure is real, the most dangerous move is no move at all. High stakes decision making sits at the center of this conversation and Maartje van Krieken tackles a problem many leaders know too well. Teams rarely freeze because they lack smart people or good intentions. They freeze because the stakes feel so high that delay starts to look safer than action. This episode speaks directly to decision paralysis in business and shows why waiting for certainty can cost more than a hard call ma...
Apr 22, 2026•31 min•Season 2Ep. 92
When AI takes over the busywork, emotional intelligence becomes the job. What happens when competence is no longer measured by how much you can produce on your own? In this conversation, Maartje van Krieken and Dr. Bushra Khan get to a harder truth: as AI handles more of the output, leadership gets exposed. The real test becomes how well you think under pressure, how clearly you communicate, and whether people trust you when the stakes are high. That is what gives this discussion its weight. It ...
Apr 15, 2026•33 min•Season 2Ep. 91
Pressure does its best work in disguise as it turns smart ethical people into experts at excusing the choice they will regret most. Maartje van Krieken sits down with Rashmi Airan, a former Wall Street lawyer, keynote speaker, and author, for a candid conversation about ethical drift and the hidden cost of high-pressure success. Rashmi shares how a series of justified decisions during the real estate boom led to a federal prison sentence and how that experience reshaped the way she understands l...
Apr 08, 2026•34 min•Season 2Ep. 90
What can the oil and gas industry teach the rest of us about staying sharp when pressure is high, stakes are real, and chaos is part of the job? This conversation looks past the headlines and into the habits that help businesses stay steady under real strain. Maartje van Krieken draws lessons from oil and gas that reach far beyond one sector, especially when it comes to decision-making, risk, and the discipline required when the margin for error is small. What shifts when teams pressure-test dec...
Apr 01, 2026•32 min•Season 2Ep. 89
The real crisis in tech is not building the product, it is realizing too late that you never built a way for growth to happen on purpose. Maartje van Krieken talks with Matthew Whyatt, CEO of TechTorque Systems, about the moment many software and SaaS companies hit a wall and have to face a hard question: where will repeatable growth actually come from? Their conversation looks at why a good product and early momentum can only take a business so far. Founder hustle, word of mouth, and one-off op...
Mar 25, 2026•35 min•Season 2Ep. 88
The biggest financial threat to your company may not come from competitors or the market but from the trusted people inside your business quietly draining value through fraud and unseen financial leaks. Maartje van Krieken sits down with CFO and M&A advisor Holli Moeini to unpack the hidden problem of business fraud and the “missing millions” that quietly disappear inside organizations. Many leaders track competitors and market trends. Fewer question the financial story unfolding inside thei...
Mar 18, 2026•32 min•Season 2Ep. 87
The hardest leadership test begins when the person responsible for the team is still inside the work and must shift from personal performance to shared success. Maartje van Krieken sits down with Jon Sheldon of Belleau Wood Coaching to talk about the tension many leaders face once they move from individual contributor to team leader. Jon works with professionals who still operate inside the business while leading others. Financial advisors, attorneys, sales leaders, and operators who must balanc...
Mar 11, 2026•33 min•Season 2Ep. 86
Most business emergencies begin long before the chaos hits, quietly forming inside strategic partnerships that leaders assumed were stable. Maartje van Krieken challenges leaders to look beyond contracts and dashboards and examine the real condition of their most important external relationships. Many crises trace back to partnerships that drifted out of alignment over time. The original win-win made sense. The enthusiasm was real. Then markets shifted, incentives changed, and communication thin...
Mar 04, 2026•27 min•Season 2Ep. 85
When a deepfake CEO can move $25 million before you finish your coffee, crisis leadership becomes a race against machine speed. That is the reality Maartje van Krieken and crisis communication strategist Ann Marie van den Hurk explore in this conversation about AI-era threats and what they demand from modern leaders in the age of AI-Era Crisis Management. AI has changed the tempo of crisis. Deepfakes can impersonate executives with alarming accuracy. Synthetic media attacks can distort public pe...
Feb 25, 2026•32 min•Season 2Ep. 84
A beehive may hold the clearest blueprint for how leaders can sense disruption early, close cycles cleanly, and move an entire organization as one. In this conversation, Maartje sits down with Philip Atkinson, beekeeper, leadership coach, and author of BeeWise, to explore the concept of Beehive Leadership as a powerful model for modern organizations. Through the lens of Structure & Cycles, they examine how healthy systems operate with clarity around roles, rhythm, and responsibility. What if...
Feb 18, 2026•30 min•Season 2Ep. 83
Most businesses don’t lose value because of one bad decision. They lose it slowly, while everything still looks fine on paper. This episode delivers a clear reality check on how business valuation quietly erodes when leaders rely on outdated assumptions, familiar metrics, and past wins. It focuses on fixing misalignment early, before small gaps turn into costly consequences. In this episode of The Business Emergency Room, host Maartje van Krieken explores a moment many leaders miss. It happens w...
Feb 11, 2026•40 min•Season 2Ep. 82
The conversations leaders avoid are the fastest way to lose trust, stall performance, and weaken credibility. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken speaks with executive coach Emma Collyer to explain why leaders hesitate to say what needs to be said and how that hesitation quietly undermines teams. Avoidance often comes from care rather than neglect, yet softened feedback and delayed conversations leave people unclear about expectations. When clarity fades, trust in leadership weakens and perform...
Feb 04, 2026•33 min•Season 2Ep. 81
The real risk of AI is not the technology itself, but what happens when leaders hold on to identities built for a slower world. This episode of Business Emergency Room explores why reinvention has replaced transformation as the defining leadership challenge. Maartje van Krieken and Nikki Barua examine how accelerating change has reshaped work, decision-making, and competitive advantage, leaving many organizations stuck in inertia as AI removes the luxury of long adaptation windows. At the center...
Jan 28, 2026•31 min•Season 2Ep. 80
The most expensive failures in business rarely come from bad strategy and instead come from assumptions no one ever said out loud. Maartje van Krieken looks at how unspoken assumptions quietly undermine decision making, weaken business alignment, and slow execution long before problems show up on a dashboard. She reframes assumptions as hidden requirements for success and explains why shared language often masks very different realities. Teams leave meetings believing they agree, yet they move f...
Jan 21, 2026•29 min•Season 2Ep. 79
This conversation on The Business Emergency Room looks at why supply chain resilience often decides whether a company absorbs disruption or stays stuck in recovery mode. Maartje van Krieken and Brent Hagan unpack how dashboards can look healthy while serious operational blind spots grow underneath. What happens when KPIs stay green but systems strain as you start scaling logistics, and who usually spots the cracks first? A recurring theme is the cost of relying on people to compensate for broken...
Jan 14, 2026•29 min•Season 2Ep. 78
Most leaders believe they are making data-driven decisions, yet under pressure many are still reacting on instinct with better dashboards layered on top. What changes when leaders stop responding to problems and start choosing real options? Maartje van Krieken speaks with Nissim Titan, CEO and founder of 4Cast, about how AI decision-making can bring clarity in moments of uncertainty. Their conversation explores why more data does not automatically lead to better decisions and how decision intell...
Jan 07, 2026•29 min•Season 2Ep. 77
Disruption does not have to break trust when leaders respond with clarity, care, and honesty during uncertainty. Maartje van Krieken sits down with Kim Bohr, President and COO at SparkEffect, to explore how trust in disruption can either erode or strengthen based on leadership transparency and the choices leaders make under pressure. Kim shares insights from her research that connect trust directly to retention, reputation, and performance, while also unpacking how modern disruptors like AI and ...
Dec 31, 2025•29 min•Season 2Ep. 76
Most businesses do not break in a single moment. Pressure builds quietly, decisions get heavier, and strategic focus starts to slip long before a crisis forces attention. In this milestone 75th episode of The Business Emergency Room, Maartje van Krieken reflects on why organizations reach a breaking point and what leaders can do earlier to change the outcome. Drawing on her experience in disaster management and strategic decision making, she explores how business resilience is built by recognizi...
Dec 24, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 75
Most companies grow by accident instead of design, and this episode reveals how intentional process mapping transforms chaos into predictable value creation through true operational excellence. Maartje van Krieken and Joe Bockerstette, the managing partner of Business Enterprise Mapping, explore why even strong teams struggle when the underlying system works against them. Joe explains how process mapping uncovers the hidden structures that drive performance and why misaligned workflows, unclear ...
Dec 17, 2025•29 min•Season 2Ep. 74
If your title says leader but your voice still sounds like a stressed out project manager, this episode will feel uncomfortably honest in the best way. Maartje van Krieken talks with leadership communication expert Dr. Laura Sicola about executive influence as a long game that builds trust instead of quick compliance. They discuss what it means to speak to lead so your team can hear hard messages, understand your intent and still see you as someone worth following. Where does authenticity become...
Dec 10, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Strategic risk, early signals and decision quality sit at the center of this conversation with Maartje van Krieken as she speaks to leaders who feel risk piling up while their systems stand still. Where does your business feel most exposed right now and which “surprises” keep landing on your desk even though you sensed them coming? Maartje invites you to look at those patterns with a clearer lens so you can see how uncertainty touches your strategic goals in both directions and choose your bets ...
Dec 03, 2025•28 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Intellectual property becomes a strategic power tool in this conversation as Michele Baillie reveals how companies can repurpose their inventions, spark high-value collaborations and unlock new growth when markets shift. This episode of The Business Emergency Room shows how intellectual property can shape business value when it’s woven into your innovation strategy. Maartje van Krieken and Michele explore patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets through real examples like Fujifilm, 3M a...
Nov 26, 2025•26 min•Season 2Ep. 71
Business momentum becomes far easier to build when you understand the physics behind growth and start seeing your company through a banker’s eyes. This episode breaks down why many entrepreneurs feel busy but stuck and how momentum depends on direction, clarity, and the strength of your internal foundation. Best-selling author, speaker, business coach and mentor Chip Higgins joins Maartje van Krieken and brings a banking perspective that helps you spot where energy gets wasted and where your bus...
Nov 19, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Before you bring AI into your business, ask yourself: are you ready for it, or are you about to automate the chaos you already have? In this episode, Maartje van Krieken breaks down AI readiness through the lens of business triage - a reality check for leaders who want to move fast without making a bigger mess. She explains why success starts with stabilizing your systems and why small, structured beginnings often create the strongest results. Maartje also shares how opportunity framing helps te...
Nov 12, 2025•27 min•Season 2Ep. 69
What if your business could create the kind of loyalty people feel for Disney? Maartje van Krieken talks with former Disney leader and customer experience strategist Vance Morris about what truly sets unforgettable brands apart. He shares the Disney lessons that every company, whether in service, retail, or B2B growth, can use to turn everyday interactions into memorable moments that keep clients coming back. How do you move from transactions to genuine relationships? What does it take to design...
Nov 05, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 68
Many leaders rely on goals and KPIs to measure success, yet how often do those numbers reveal what’s actually working? In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with Radhika Dutt, the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter, about why so many organizations get caught chasing business growth metrics that don’t always translate into real progress. Radhika shares how “product diseases” like obsessive sales disorder, strategic swelling, and hypermetricemia quietly...
Oct 29, 2025•29 min•Season 2Ep. 67
Most businesses don’t crumble from bad strategy but from the hard conversations their leaders never have. Maartje van Krieken takes an honest look at why conflict avoidance shows up in leadership communication and how it quietly eats away at trust, focus, and performance. Why do so many leaders hesitate to speak up when something feels off? What happens when tension is ignored for months or even years? Through her experience guiding organizations through chaos, Maartje shares how avoiding diffic...
Oct 22, 2025•29 min•Season 2Ep. 66
When a business starts to stumble, the real problem usually isn’t hidden—it’s just misread. Maartje van Krieken talks with Elisabeth Vealey, founder of Sophius LLC, about how business diagnostics reveal what’s really happening inside a struggling company. With decades of experience in accounting, CFO leadership, and turnaround strategies, Elisabeth explains how following the cash flow exposes not just financial issues but the inefficiencies, blind spots, and miscommunication that quietly drain p...
Oct 15, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Remote leadership works best when people have the space to enter flow states that spark ideas and move projects forward. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with Academy Award winner and entrepreneur Steven Puri about what it really takes to lead distributed teams with purpose. How do you build trust when you can’t walk the halls together? What makes the difference between a team that only trades emails and a team that shows up with insights that shift the direction of a company? Steven s...
Oct 08, 2025•36 min•Season 2Ep. 64
