Curve Benders by David Nour

Relationships take time and nurturing, you need to be very intentional in building relationships and meeting curve benders. Join David Nour on this episode of Curve Benders Live and learn how to grow a relationship from a seed into a fruit bearing tree.

Your relationships shape who you are and in turn who you will grow to be. Join David Nour on this episode of Curve Benders Live and learn how to choose which relationships you should invest into and how you can become that person for others.

Now that you've found your spark, where are you going to direct your energy? Join David Nour on this episode of Curve Benders Live and learn the importance of learning, learning, and more learning!

Do you feel like something is missing in your life? Are you ready to become the best version of you? Join David Nour on this episode of Curve Benders Live and learn how to find that spark to set off your personal journey of growth.

Are you exceeding expectations? How committed are you to your professional development? Join David Nour on this episode of Curve Benders Live and learn how to double down on where you are, what you're doing, and the value you're creating.

How do you prioritize which relationships you invest in? Join David Nour on this episode of Curve Benders Live and learn why a smaller network of deeper relationships is more powerful than a huge network of shallow relationships.

Join David Nour in this episode of Curve Benders Live! Listen to David discuss Product Marketing with Michele Konetski.

Learn how to optimize your customer experience, shorten your sales cycle, and the importance of knowing your product.

What are you really worth? How are you assessing your personal market value? Join David Nour on this episode of Curve Benders Live and learn about the three foundational rings that make up your personal market value, and how you can make a proper assessment of where you stand in the war for talent.

Did you watch the Super Bowl last sunday? How about the ads? Beyond their entertainment value, which ones did you think were really smart, delivered a well-thought out strategy, and were executed well?

What if we applied some of the lessons from Super Bowl marketing into your personal growth strategy? In this session, I'll share 14 I've captured - from the Worst Overall Marketing Strategy by Amazon Alexa, to the Best Integration of a Social Good by Google, let's look at some of the highlights.

What do astronauts, Olympic champions and Nobel laureates do differently that allows them to achieve at such a high level?

Join David Nour on this episode of the Curve Benders podcast as he hosts Michael Watkins, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at IMD, and the author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, which The Economist recognized as "the on-boarding bible." 

With more than 1,000,000 copies sold in English, and translations in 24 languages, The First 90 Days has become the classic reference for leaders in transition and a standard resource of leading change. In 2011, it was named one of the best 100 business books of all time 800-CEO-Read. Amazon declared it "one of the 100 best leadership & success books to read in your lifetime."

Prior to joining IMD, Dr. Watkins was an associate professor at the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. While on the faculty of these institutions, he designed and taught world-class programs for high-potential leader development, corporate diplomacy, and strategic negotiation.

Dr. Watkins is the author or co-author of eleven books and numerous articles on leadership and negotiation. In the field of leadership, these include Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Managing Critical Career Transitions (HBS Press 2009), Shaping the Game: The New Leader's Guide to Effective Negotiating (HBS Press 2006), and Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming and How to Avoid Them (HBS Press 2004). Predictable Surprises was named one of the best business books of 2004 by Strategy + Business and won the 2006 annual Kulp-Wright Award from The American Risk and Insurance Association. He also is the author or co-author of eight Harvard Business Review articles, including "It's All About Day One" (2013), "How Managers Become Leaders" (2012), "Picking the Right Transition Strategy" (2009), "The Leadership Team: Complementary Strengths or Conflicting Agendas" (2007) and "The Successor's Dilemma" (2000).

In addition, Dr. Watkins has written extensively on business-government relations, international security, and negotiation, most recently co-authoring Case Studies in U.S. Trade Negotiation, Volumes 1 and 2 and Winning the Influence Game: What Every Business Leaders Should Know About Government. His books on negotiation - Breakthrough International Negotiation: How Great Negotiators Transformed the World's Toughest Post-Cold War Conflicts and Breakthrough Business Negotiation: A Toolbox for Managers, won the CPR Institute's prize for best books in the field of negotiation in 2001 and 2003.

Join David Nour on this episode of the Curve Benders podcast as he hosts Harry Kraemer, Jr., an executive partner with Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm based in Chicago, Illinois, and a Clinical Professor of Leadership at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where he was named the 2008 Kellogg School Professor of the Year. 

Harry is the author of three bestselling leadership books: From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership, Becoming The Best: Build a World-Class Organization Through Values-Based Leadership. and Your 168: Finding Purpose and Satisfaction in a Values-Based Life. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Baxter International Inc., a $12 billion global healthcare company. He became Baxter's chief executive officer in January 1999 and assumed the additional responsibility of chairman of Baxter's board of directors in January 2000.

Harry joined Baxter in 1982 as director of corporate development. His twenty-three-year career at Baxter included senior positions in both domestic and international operations. In 1993, he was named senior vice president and chief financial officer, responsible for financial operations, business development, global communications, and European operations. Over the next several years, he assumed additional responsibility for Baxter's Renal and Medication Delivery businesses. He was elected to Baxter's board of directors in 1995 and was named president of Baxter International Inc. in 1997.

Before joining Baxter, Mr. Kraemer worked for Bank of America in corporate banking and for Northwest Industries in planning and business development.

Mr. Kraemer is active in business, education, and civic affairs. He serves on the board of directors of Leidos Corporation, Dentsply Sirona, Option Care Health, Performance Health, and Alcami, and on the board of trustees of Northwestern University, The Conference Board, NorthShore University Healthsystem and the Archdiocese of Chicago Finance Committee and School Board.

He is a member of the Dean's Global Advisory Board of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He is a member of the Council of CEOs, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economics Club of Chicago. He is a past member of the Business Roundtable, the Business Council, and the Healthcare Leadership Council.

In the post-pandemic world, you'll need to think about your business relationships differently. Those you new pre-pandemic, mostly through your in-person interactions, you've been forced to engaged only online for the past 13 months! Conversely, there are others you've only met/connected with online whom you'll need to prioritize and engage in person. Welcome to the world of Hybrid Relationships.

I believe we're thinking about coming back to work all wrong. Beyond the tactical 'how many days in the office,' we need to rethink and reimagine our work. A strong enabler of that journey will be the relationships you choose to invest in.

He's a battle-tested CEO and a respected board member. After stepping in from the Board of Directors to become the Chief Executive Officer, he led an outside-in growth strategy and the transformation of CECO Environmental into an integrated and aligned force in the market. His efforts steered the company around debt covenant risks and delivered 29% organic orders growth over two years. He successfully transitioned his CEO role in late 2020.

He has a strong track record delivering benefits for customers that generate growth and value for shareholders. While CEO of Siemens Energy and Automation, he led the Siemens operating company to record successive years in financial performance that included $500m in organic growth while doubling profit and tripling free cash flow in a two-year period. His early career began with 10 years at GE which tripled in market value during that time, followed by leadership roles at Thomas & Betts who closed 18 acquisitions during his 6 plus years. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Trojan Battery.

He holds an MBA from Seattle University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an avid soccer player and fan and enjoys traveling with his family.

He is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Faculty Advisor for Executive Education at the London Business School. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the (American) Academy of Management.

He has a Ph.D. and MBA degrees in Business from the Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University, Canada, and a BSc (Hons) from the University of Durham, UK. He was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the Stockholm School of Economics in 2009 and Copenhagen Business School in 2018.

He is a recognized thought-leader on the impact of digital technology on the strategy and organization of established companies, for example, such topics as digital disruption, agile working, corporate entrepreneurship, business model innovation, and management innovation. He is the author of fifteen books, including Mindtools for Managers (2018), Fast/Forward (2017), Becoming a Better Boss (2013), Reinventing Management (2010), Giant Steps in Management (2007), Inventuring: Why Big Companies Must Think Small (2003), and Entrepreneurship in the Global Firm (2001), as well as over one hundred articles.

He is currently ranked as one of the Thinkers50 top thought leaders in the field of Management. He is regularly quoted in international media outlets, including CNN, BBC, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post, Bloomberg Business Week, and The Times. He is a regular keynote speaker and a consultant to many large companies, such as BP, Dell Technologies, Roche, Tata Group, BMW, Unilever, Enel, and Orsted.

He is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. 

His research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

She is the chief growth evangelist at Salesforce and the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book GROWTH IQ: Get Smarter About the Choices that Will Make or Break Your Business. She has been named to the latest Thinkers50’s list of the world’s top management thinkers and is a welcomed guest on Bloomberg, BNN, Cheddar, MSNBC, and Yahoo Finance, among others. She also contributes her thinking to publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Diginomica, Quora, Thrive, Rotman School of Management, and Duke Dialogue Review. She is a change-maker whose thought-provoking and forward-thinking insights have made her a frequent guest on a variety of industry-leading podcasts and live broadcasts.

Prior to working with Salesforce, she was a sales, marketing, and customer service executive for startups as well as Fortune 500 companies where she was recognized as being one of the first to develop a robust go to market model for cloud-based solutions, and indirect channel strategies to accommodate changes in buying behavior. She left the corporate world and joined Gartner becoming a Distinguished Analyst and Research Fellow where she won the Thought Leadership award and earned accolades from the best leaders in the technology world for her cutting-edge analysis and her skill at architecting bold new strategies for sales and growth.

He is nationally recognized for resolving our clients’ most sensitive, critical, and confidential leadership and governance challenges. He advises publicly traded companies and private equity concerns, globally. Over the past three decades, he has advised on CEO successions and has led the recruitment of CEOs for a wide range of clients as well as recruiting several hundred new board of directors and senior executive leaders. He has led numerous “sensitive matter” Board of Director examinations, recommending improvement in their governance practices.

Previously, he was a Senior Partner at Egon Zehnder, a leading global executive search and board of directors' consultancy. During his tenure, he served as the Managing Partner of its New York and Atlanta practices as well as led its Service Sector Practice Group for the Americas. Earlier, he held senior strategic management and financial positions at Cox Cable Communications (Atlanta) and Tiger International (Atlanta and Los Angeles) with previous experience in financial roles at Occidental Petroleum and as a senior consultant at EY.

He has served as a board member and as Chairman of the Compensation Committee of Focus Brands, a leading restaurant group. Mr. Koblentz also served on the board of In Q Tel, the C.I.A.’s venture capital fund, as a board member for The National Association of Corporate Directors and as President of the Association of Corporate Growth in Atlanta.

She joined Zoox as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in February 2019. Prior to Zoox, she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Intel Corporation, driving the company's transformation from a PC-centric to a data-centric company. Previously, she ran the company’s wireless efforts and oversaw a global team of 7,000 engineers. Evans is a member of the Supervisory Board of SAP and holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from The George Washington University.

One of the world’s leading business thinkers, his forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are helping leaders and teams do their best work ever.

He is the best-selling author of four books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USAToday, Fast Company, the Financial Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS This Morning. Since 2017, he has been ranked as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50. As a sought-after international speaker, his TED Talk has been viewed over 2 million times. He’s worked with leaders from organizations across all industries including Google, Stryker, Fidelity, Viacom, and even the US Naval Academy.

He is a Professor of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at the London Business School, where he passionately believes that research and engagement in strategy and policy should go hand in hand. He often looks at how firms should navigate the increasingly complex and digitized environment: where and why value migrates, how firms can best capture it, and how they should respond to the dramatic growth of business ecosystems. His main areas of interest are digital platforms and ecosystems, financial services, and turnarounds. He's the co-editor of Industrial and Corporate Change and has published in top strategy and innovation journals such as SMJ, Organization Science, AMJ, AMR, and Research Policy.

Let me ask you three questions:

1. What relationship lessons did you learn in 2020? What went great for you amid the chaos, and what could you have done differently?
2. How do you show up digitally today, and how will you elevate your digital presence/footprint in the New Year?
3. What relationships will be the most relevant and enablers of your success in 2021?

He has a consistent track record of leading and scaling high growth organizations from sub $20M to billions through complex and often ambiguous go-to-market challenges. Success has required creating and executing bold strategies to enter new markets and build predictable revenue growth. The most important foundational element has been a proven track record of servant leadership. Creating an environment where people are growing and developing as they take risks and make the mistakes necessary for ongoing success.

He most recently served as President DT Select Group at Dell Technologies, now a $10 billion business, responsible for strategic planning, business operations, go-to-market, and management of key functions for Dell's most strategic global relationships, including sales, channels, services, and field marketing.

Previously he spent five years at VMware and led business operations for the company’s Americas region, bringing more than 20 years of experience in U.S. and international markets, storage and information software, and global sales and service. Prior to VMware, he spent 19 years at EMC, where he led global channels, OEMs, and go-to-market strategy. While at EMC he also held executive and operational leadership positions for sales and services across Latin America and for the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regions.

He is an expert at digital business models, operations, and organizing programs. He has led engagements on developing innovation processes, Internet of Things strategies, marketplace and API driven platform business models. He is a sought-after speaker on creating a culture of operational excellence and innovation, having worked with clients across various industries, notably, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Nordstrom, and several of the world’s leading retail and insurance organizations.

His firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, The Federal Reserve, Toyota, and over 500 other leading organizations. 

He is an inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame® and the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence, representing the top 1% of professional speakers in the world. 

His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 60 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill) now in its 25th year and fifth edition. His newest is Threescore and More: Applying the Assets of Maturity, Wisdom, and Experience for Personal and Professional Success.

Success Magazine cited him in an editorial devoted to his work as “a worldwide expert in executive education.“ The New York Post called him “one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America.“ He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Press Institute, the first-ever for a non-journalist. 

Today, more than ever, we all want to be viewed as an indispensable go-to person. However, in our current world of work, getting things done is more complex than ever. While in many companies there is a clear organizational chart, in reality, day-to-day working relationships are much more tangled. Trying to become indispensable means thinking we need to say yes to everything and everyone. But, collaborating with an increasing number of people leads us to being overwhelmed and prone to burnout. How can we win influence, tackle overcommitment, and get the right things done? That’s the art of being indispensable at work.

For nearly three decades, my guest has followed the latest developments in the workplace through several long-term organizational studies: on generational shifts in the workplace, best practices for leading and managing others effectively, and techniques for optimizing performance.

How would you describe the year 2020? A struggle? A test of our humanity? Someone really had fun on Twitter asking others to describe songs that perfectly describe 2020. Here are a few fan favorites:

• "Alexa, play If I could turn back time by Cher"
• Don't Stand So Close to Me by the Police
• I'm Just Dancing By Myself by Billy Idol
• "It's the End of the World as We Know It" by R.E.M.

What if I said that 2020 was the definitive year of nonlinear growth? Think about it - we've had to learn how to wash our hands correctly, engage others while staying physically distant, really think about what matters most to us, and invest in fewer but more authentic relationships. We've had to learn all kinds of new digital skills, and amplify other capabilities - some new, many rusted.

Although we may not look back on 2020 with fondness, join me on this episode of the Curve Benders podcast, as we discuss nonlinear growth to accelerate your relevance.

He is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership behavior and competency. His book The Coaching Habit is the best-selling coaching book of this century, with over a million copies sold and 1,000+ five-star reviews on Amazon. His most recent book, The Advice Trap, focuses on what it takes to stay curious a little bit longer and tame your Advice Monster. In 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching, and was shortlisted for the coaching prize by Thinkers50, the “Oscars of management”. 

He is the Founder of Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that helps organizations transform from advice-driven to curiosity-led. And the host of the fabulous Cocktails and Questions virtual social gatherings.

American democratic capitalism is in danger. How can we save it?

For its first two hundred years, the American economy exhibited truly impressive performance. The combination of democratically elected governments and a capitalist system worked, with ever-increasing levels of efficiency spurred by a division of labor, international trade, and scientific management of companies. By the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976, the American economy was the envy of the world.

But since then, outcomes have changed dramatically. Growth in the economic prosperity of the average American family has slowed to a crawl, while the wealth of the richest Americans has skyrocketed. This imbalance threatens the American democratic capitalist system and our way of life.

I'm always fascinated by the conversations I have with prospective clients about their business relationships, right after I hear comments like "we have a fantastic culture," or "we have an amazing relationship with our clients!" 

My first reaction is to simply ask them "how do you know?" To which their response is often formulaic or textbook corporate-speak at best: "because they keep showing up for work," or "because they keep buying from us!" 

Most of these answers are flawed at best, dangerous at worst if you're not focused on asking the right questions. 

So, in this episode, I thought I'd share ten observations as definitive signs that your business relationships are not strategic, they're not worthy of co-creation, and won't be curve benders in your future. In short, they're weak!

Our society has become increasingly obsessed with predicting the future. We find doubt and uncertainty so uncomfortable that entire industries have been created to feed our “prediction addiction.”  But the future remains as unknowable as it always has despite our technological progress. The COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example of our forecasting failure.

He has been Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Officer of Cipla since September 2016. Previously, he was Cipla's Global Chief Financial Officer and Global Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Cipla, he led the North American business of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. After gaining degrees in engineering, marketing, and finance, he led teams at Eicher Motors and PepsiCo.

Under his leadership, Cipla has built strong momentum in its home markets, augmented its capability, strengthened its core, and shown significant improvement in its operating margin and profitability. At the helm of the Cipla Management Council, his vision is to define and execute Cipla’s strategic growth roadmap and geographical footprint, identify the next levers of growth, invest in innovation for the future, and build the right organization. Recognized as an action-oriented industry leader, he is a firm believer in the power of agile business models, disruptive technologies, data-driven analytics, and a future-ready workforce with a view to shaping the healthcare ecosystem and making a difference to the lives of patients.