Small businesses face a stark reality that they need the same type of infrastructure that large businesses need, just at a smaller scale. From security, privacy, and marketing to accounting and finance, small businesses have never been as challenged as they are in this pandemic-laden time. But amongst the obstacles, there are many great opportunities to be harnessed, and thus marketplace gains to be made. Rachael Powell, CCO of Xero joins this episode to talk about risk and opportunity for today...
Nov 19, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 30
What do you think of when I say soccer and digital marketing? Is it Nike or Adidas that come immediately to mind? What if I told you that a professional soccer player, who isn’t Ronaldo nor Messi, is taking the world on with same enthusiasm and ingredients as the big brands, but with more heart and focus on the long game, to successfully recruit a legion of followers? In this episode, Quincy Amarikwa talks about his journey through the sports world and what drives him to be relevant in today’s f...
Nov 12, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 29
In a world full of artificial intelligence, machine learning, conversational chatbots, and the latest cool digital capability, it is easy to feel like email marketing is dead. After all, this channel has been around for so long, what can it possible have to contribute to the customer experience? Andrew Kordek joins me to discuss email marketing, it’s increased relevance in consumer communication, and the critical aspects for getting it right. Email marketing is still going strong today and could...
Oct 29, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Governance, risk management, and compliance are unavoidable words in today’s marketing world. But if you flip that on its head, what you end up with is opportunity to engage and thrive in the fast pace digital world, impacted by COVID, data privacy, and evolving regulations. In this episode, Gina Hortatsos, CMO of LogicGate talks about her approach to successfully engaging users, keeping the business safe, and harnessing opportunities that digital represents.
Oct 08, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 27
With the persistence of the pandemic, users are spending the majority of their time at home and avoiding physical interaction. How do leading enterprises reach customers in this new paradigm? According to Evan Kohn, Chief Business Officer (CBO) at Pypestream, it is about hyper-personalization by adopting AI and automation into the customer journey.
Sep 24, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Employees are inundated with emails, phone calls, shoulder taps, and tickets. Customer service is answering a basic customer question and having trouble scaling in order to truly personalize service for your products. Why not empower your team with instant access to centralized knowledge, so that people can be freed up to focus on strategic goals and tasks that require higher-level thinking? Justin Schmidt breaks down how to make it all happen with conversational AI.
Sep 10, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Personalization impacts nearly every industry, with IoT providing new opportunities and a competitive edge. Wearables, healthcare, pharma, nutrition, CPGs, and other verticals are being impacted by an increasing personalization trend, and that means growth (or decline, for those not focusing on personalization) of consumer focused companies. Jonathan Melnick talks about the impact of IoT on industries, how to develop a roadmap, and why personalization is more important than ever.
Aug 20, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 24
For the past five or more years, we have been hearing that IoT will revolutionize digital marketing and how we connect with consumers. The claim by most industry experts has been that the very devices that allow us to receive personalized environments such as self-learning thermostats and predictable timing coffee machines will generate hordes of new data. And based on inordinate amounts of new data, companies can market more precisely, more predictably, with greater relevance and value. In this...
Aug 06, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Last year, ransomware victims collectively paid out more than US$1.3 billion to attackers. The evolving digital security threat landscape signals the need for a more holistic plan, which, for many organizations, should include cyber insurance. In this episode, Courtney Hensley talks with Kristina Podnar about insurance as an additional layer of protection against a myriad of malicious activities that enterprises face and breaks down the real costs to an organization of a security event. Courtney...
Jul 23, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Digital security, cyber security, or just security. It doesn’t matter what your policy is called, the facts surrounding security remain the same: It’s a day-to-day struggle for businesses because of the huge increase in hacks and breached systems, including mobile and IoT devices. Only 5% of business portfolios are properly protected and 68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing. Is your security policy properly addressed? I this episode, I share what my 20+ years in ...
Jul 16, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 21
A key component to telling your brand’s story is the ability to understand your customer’s pain points, tell them how and why your product or service will solve the problem, and then present why you are the right person to solve their problem. It is about knowing what you want prospects to think, feel, and do, and then customizing the message from the user’s perspective, in a relevant and relatable way. In this episode, Patti Podnar (no relation), a content strategist and writer, explains her pr...
Jul 07, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 20
A lot of companies are focusing on producing content and campaigns that get executed, but they don’t perform. They are neither good at attracting prospects, nor maintaining a relationship with existing customers. Smart brands are leveraging unique stories that reach individuals and create long-term sentiment that drives businesses to meet their objectives. Christoph Trappe provides his insights on how to use authentic storytelling to successfully drive digital marketing results.
Jun 25, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Whether you are a seven-year-old trying to explain what you were just doing on a video game, to how you communicate in business and in life, we are all storytellers. Some brands tell their stories in more conservative ways, while other brands lean into the risk profile and experiment with what resonates with consumers. How should everyone, from individuals to big brands, tell stories, and tell them well? Fred Faulkner provides a perspective on how to balance the risks and opportunities that come...
Jun 18, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 18
For years, we've been creating more and more content, treating content as if it is king. And it could be considered as such, given that by conservative estimates, the big four - Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook - store at least 1,200 petabytes between them. That is 1.2 million terabytes (one terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes). But quantity doesn't matter if it is bad content, nor does lots of content mean good digital content marketing practices with proven results. This month I explore policie...
Jun 11, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Smart cities have long been touted as the solution to managing the explosive growth in cities, making services and infrastructure more accessible and convenient to all. But for smart cities to work, vast amounts of data are prerequisites. That automatically brings into question citizen personal data and where a city, or enterprise such as Apple, draws the line between data privacy rights and the collective wellbeing of the city. In this episode, Ashwin Krishnan breaks down for us the current dra...
May 28, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Do an internet search for “Anthony Veri” and “smart city” and you will get a diverse set of results that span pages upon pages. That’s because Anthony has been part of the smart city evolution since the very beginning, working through network analysis, audits, planning, designing, and training for what we now term smart cities and smart enterprises. In this episode, Anthony provides a simple definition for smart city and smart enterprise, gives us a view into the opportunities and risks that com...
May 13, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 15
As smart city projects pick up steam across the globe and present new opportunities for technologies capable of modernizing cities, they also present new risks that should be considered.
May 07, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 14
It is easy to get wrapped up in a great A.I. idea and hard to build it into a reliable business. It is harder yet to do a trustworthy business without A.I. ethics. Shalini Trefzer provides us with ample resources and advice to get this policy area right.
Apr 30, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Just like organic milk, digital ethics will become a global standard to which more countries, businesses, and individuals will subscribe. We are all at the beginning of this journey, and Pernille Tranberg shares what smart organizations are doing to lead the way.
Apr 16, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Digital is quickly evolving and is increasingly shaped by the idea of ethics. If you are not factoring ethics into your digital policies, you are missing out on opportunities and creating risk. I look at three specific areas (cloud, data privacy, AI) where ethics questions are particularly important.
Apr 09, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Going international in the digital age is a given, but entry into local markets can be full of perils. Kathrin Bussman discusses the best way to exploit new opportunities while limiting risks by properly planning and entering new markets. From properly strategizing new ventures to finding the right partner, this episode highlights what SMBs need to know.
Mar 25, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Globalization and internationalization are two distinct different practices, both of which pose challenges to everyone from large corporations to the small business looking to expand its markets. Bruno Herrmann explains the difference, and how to get your strategy right.
Mar 19, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 9
The coronavirus COVID-19 is causing a lot of fear at the moment, especially as it relates to China. But fear is not a strategy, fears is never a strategy. No company can afford not to be engaged in China. Lawrence Federman tell us how to get to the other side of this humanitarian crisis and make your business thrive.
Mar 12, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 8
When it comes to conquering new global markets, do you need localization, globalization, internationalization, or all three? If you are already on the global stage, do you have a digital policy to maximize your ROI while ensuring you avoid faux pas and legal risk? Tune in to get your terminology and marketing ready for the global marketplace.
Mar 04, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Privacy in the context of the life sciences is anything but simple. Faced with many different in-country regulatory systems, organizations are also struggling with a growing complexity in regional and above country marketing strategies. How do you keep up to date on all of the new regulations popping up and yet not lose your competitive edge? Hema Lakkaraju outlines the pragmatic approach to regulatory compliance, and it all starts with shifting your mindset.
Feb 25, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Digital policies are an opportunity for us to do great work, be innovative, achieve organizational goals, and minimize risk. But you can’t get all of that if you are not mindful. Former Buddhist monk, and now coach to executives and agile teams, Amaranatho Robey, talks about teams, getting maximum speed, and doing digital the right way. Which does your organization have: chaos or complexity? Agile of waterfall? You still need leadership support. Be more effective, be more creative! Attitude is k...
Feb 11, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Data privacy laws are the new norm, and proposed regulation is sprouting up in the US and around the globe. But there is so much more to data privacy than the required compliance with laws. And certainly, a lot more than the common privacy statement in the footer of your website. So, what does that look like and why think about privacy beyond the minimum required to check the box? I tee up everything that you need to know around digital data privacy policy.
Feb 04, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Accessibility is on the upswing. The press has had an effect. The message has been delivered with the number of lawsuits and people are aware that there are accessibility issues. So where do you stand? Kevin Rydberg shares his 20 years of experience in accessibility, usability, and design to help understand best practices in developing digital solutions for those with disabilities. Spoiler alert: we all have a disability, at some point, whether temporary or permanent.
Jan 23, 2020•30 min
James Baverstock gives us accessibility adoption tips, including how you can save yourself a significant headaches if you consider accessibility from the very beginning of any digital effort. In essence, accessibility is like a blueberry muffin. When you’re baking a blueberry muffin, you can't just stuff all the blueberries in at the end. Accessibility, like blueberries, needs to be there from the beginning. James also gives us some great resources for getting started on the path to accessibilit...
Jan 13, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 2
While it is important to understand the legal risks your business may be facing by not making digital content accessible, it is crucial to focus on the opportunities it may be passing up by not reaching those with a disability. In this podcast, I discuss how to develop and adapt your accessibility policy in order to minimize your online risk and maximize digital opportunity.
Jan 06, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 1
