Ever been called terse in a professional setting? I sure have, and it sparked quite the contemplation about corporate communication and emotional baggage. That's why we kick off our latest episode by dissecting the term and its implications in the workplace. But it's not all seriousness; we veer into a hilariously peculiar airport encounter that'll make you reconsider the definition of personal space. Through these tales, we examine generational divides and the often comical reality of human behavior in public spheres.
Climbing the corporate ladder can seem like a game of strategic chess, so we delve into the qualifications and pathways to those elusive C-suite roles. With CES 2024 insights and AI innovations up our sleeves, we contrast the vibrant startup culture with the calculated moves within corporate giants. Listen in for a dose of reality on MBAs, industry expertise, and the paradox that is the CEO position, served with a side of debate on whether internal promotion trumps external hiring for top executives.
Wrapping up, our episode takes an unexpected turn towards the lighter side of authority – caped corporate overlords and mentorship memes, anyone? We celebrate the growth of our Discord family and the vibrant discussions unfolding within. Join us, CEO Clark and Bruce, for a heartfelt thanks to you, our listeners, and a reminder to keep life's juggling act manageable. You won't want to miss the fun, insights, and occasional oddities in this wild ride of an episode.
Everything Corporate Strategy:
All the links!
Elevator Music by Julian Avila
Promoted by MrSnooze
Don't forget ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ it helps!
Ever been called terse in a professional setting? I sure have, and it sparked quite the contemplation about corporate communication and emotional baggage. That's why we kick off our latest episode by dissecting the term and its implications in the workplace. But it's not all seriousness; we veer into a hilariously peculiar airport encounter that'll make you reconsider the definition of personal space. Through these tales, we examine generational divides and the often comical reality of human behavior in public spheres.
Climbing the corporate ladder can seem like a game of strategic chess, so we delve into the qualifications and pathways to those elusive C-suite roles. With CES 2024 insights and AI innovations up our sleeves, we contrast the vibrant startup culture with the calculated moves within corporate giants. Listen in for a dose of reality on MBAs, industry expertise, and the paradox that is the CEO position, served with a side of debate on whether internal promotion trumps external hiring for top executives.
Wrapping up, our episode takes an unexpected turn towards the lighter side of authority – caped corporate overlords and mentorship memes, anyone? We celebrate the growth of our Discord family and the vibrant discussions unfolding within. Join us, CEO Clark and Bruce, for a heartfelt thanks to you, our listeners, and a reminder to keep life's juggling act manageable. You won't want to miss the fun, insights, and occasional oddities in this wild ride of an episode.
Everything Corporate Strategy:
All the links!
Elevator Music by Julian Avila
Promoted by MrSnooze
Don't forget ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ it helps!
Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast. That could have been an email on Bruce. Hey, I'm Clark, hey Clark, hey, bruce, how's it going? Oh, it's shaking it was life for you.
Speaker 2:I'm feeling a punchy mood today. I don't know what it is, but you probably heard it as we were gearing up. Oh, I did, it's a little fired up.
Speaker 1:I like the terceness we got going here today. Super, super tight, super terse. It's good you can tell for a particular number on us this week.
Speaker 2:Don't call me terse, okay. Yes, this is very inconsiderate.
Speaker 1:If I ain't calling you terse, I'm ordering you a hearse, that's right, that's a death threat.
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to try to work terse into a meeting coming up. I think I have to now I feel like I got to figure out how to get terse in there.
Speaker 1:Terse is a great word. I feel terse so much Sometimes. I want to be terse but I can't.
Speaker 2:It's a real crime.
Speaker 1:Is it an?
Speaker 2:emotion for you. Is it a physical state? Is it an emotional state? How do you feel as a psychological?
Speaker 1:This is an emotional component to terceness. I think some people are just terse. That's how they are, right, I'm sure to the point. People might think it's me being snooty or coming off a little harsh, but that's just who you be. I think sometimes emotions and situations can make people terse. I'm done with this. You're getting two answers out of me. Good.
Speaker 2:What's the difference between terse and tense? Is there a difference?
Speaker 1:I think they're kind of similar, not just in phrasing, but a tense person might be terse. Yes, I agree, henshin, adding to the terceness, which is not a word.
Speaker 2:It might be in physics.
Speaker 1:Not 100% sure. Oh man, let's find out.
Speaker 2:We got a watcher.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, but first we got to pull out the Webster. Any time you spend too long saying a word, this is all meaning we have to then go back to the source.
Speaker 2:This is like what's the game Cards against humanity. If you pull a card that you don't know what it is, you got to go to Urban Dictionary or whatever and read it out loud for everybody.
Speaker 1:That is a way to play that game. Maybe that's the best way. Terse, which I think the dictionary definition is actually quite appropriate. Tercer, tercist, I didn't know you could use that one Definition, number one, using few words.
Speaker 2:Okay, pretty good definition, great definition. I like it Using few words.
Speaker 1:Also short, brusque Definition. Number two smoothly elegant. I've never used terse in that way.
Speaker 2:Smoothly. I didn't think it could be a positive thing.
Speaker 1:I didn't either. I've always thought of terse as number one or short or brusque.
Speaker 2:Okay, this might be a continual segment for the future. By the way, I'm kind of liking how this is going, where we just pick a random word we've heard somewhere in the corporate world and we explore what the true meaning is.
Speaker 1:I've been called terse before, but it's because I was acting terse.
Speaker 2:I've never been called terse, but I think I am a terse communicator. I wouldn't say so.
Speaker 2:In email I'm so short because I have so many emails to go through that I'm just going to answer as fast as I can. Sometimes you don't even get a thank you comma, clerk, are you serious? Sometimes it's just one line, that's it. You just thank you, clark, no, no, no. Sometimes I said without the thank you Clark, without you don't, oh, no. Sometimes it's just one line, it's a team's message, because I'm like you. Literally just needed three words for me to be like yes, looked good, okay, that's it.
Speaker 1:No, okay, I thought you were doing that thing. We talked about that one time. That's fine, that's totally fine. Gotcha, I'm following. Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm wrong. I don't think terse is something that you really get in text. I I it's always something it's like over the, over the the the verbal communication protocols.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like you're feeling, you're acting or sounding very terse today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I can see that I've always saw it as like not a negative, but sort of a critique.
Speaker 2:Smoothie yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's wild Right, like your communication is terse.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh. You probably shouldn't say in a, in a review you're a terseist.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's how that that word is used Fair enough.
Speaker 2:I kind of like this as a potential, you know, ongoing segment, where we either pick a word and we just go into what it is that we think we know what it is we don't actually know what it is. Or we've done this before with like soup to nuts. We've picked like a saying and we actually looked up like the definition of it. That could be fun, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Dictionary dumb days, Mondays time Dumb dictionary days Dictionary no, this is my brain, my brain's a little.
Speaker 1:I think both of us are just.
Speaker 2:I think both of us are just brain fried. Speaking of being brain fried, yeah, how are you?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm brain fried, thanks how are you? Vibre check.
Speaker 2:Vibre check at all. Do you want a vibe check? Do you want me to start? Because you have a much more exciting vibe check than I than I do. Yeah, what are you vibing? Oh, my vibing. I'm here and I don't know where this week went. This was really busy. All sorts of crap. Went to the office a few times, saw some people. I did something fun that I think people enjoyed at work.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:It's like unheard of. I had fun at work. I said I had I started scheduling. This is a getting things done methodology that you need to remember. Bruce, this is your year of getting things done. I've been doing it. People haven't read David Allen's book. He talks about grouping like tasks together to basically save on your cognitive energy, and something that I do is on Wednesdays. Those are like my one-on-one days. I've got one-on-ones with all of my direct reports and occasionally I'll get like a bi-monthly. You know my direct reports, reports, meetings coming up, just so I can check in with them. So it's going. And so this Wednesday it was pretty nice weather and everybody who came to my office they like brought their laptop, they brought notes and I'm like let's switch this up, let's go for a walk. And I took every single one of them for a revolving walk about an hour and a half I tackled how many one-ones did I have? I had five one-on-ones and an hour and a half just walking around the building. It was awesome.
Speaker 1:Do you call it one-on-one Wednesdays?
Speaker 2:I mean, it absolutely should be called that. That just killed me. I don't know why I thought that was so funny.
Speaker 1:That got me good. Please change the calendar. Invite to that Henceforth.
Speaker 2:And spell it the way that I pronounced it Wednesdays but it was really good.
Speaker 1:I actually think it brought a good vibe, I think people.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like an art of the deal thing too. It's like you put yourself in that power move when you switch up the environment. You know what I mean. So I didn't intentionally mean for that, I just wanted to get out of the office.
Speaker 1:I hate that. You know that. It just disgusts me a little bit that you would have that knowledge, that forbidden knowledge, in your mind. I know right.
Speaker 2:But it was good. I think they all appreciated it too. They were like, oh, this is different and I think they enjoyed it, rather than just sitting down in another office talking to somebody about work stuff. Now, we talked about work stuff, but I felt like it was more like laid back and, you know, you get some fresh air along the way, a good little mental health meeting.
Speaker 1:Do you think any of them were secretly plotting, like as you were doing your walk around the premises, like ways that they could murder you, because now you're out in the open it's like, oh, I could push him in that hole and he would just be gone forever? There's no security here. Yeah, yeah, like we're out of the office environment. Finally, time to you know into my boss, there's no cameras.
Speaker 2:I could just shove them into the road right now and that would be the end. I mean, I hope not, but yet again could I blame them? I mean if an accident happens, it actually happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the battle for supremacy, and they're thinking maybe I could take his spot. All he needs is to fall down that manhole.
Speaker 2:Sometimes there's no moving up until someone moves out, and sometimes people will go to great lengths for that. Just saying yeah.
Speaker 1:I bet you, one of them, was thinking like this is one on one Wednesday. If we do this walk again, I know the perfect place, the perfect place they're getting messages about hey, I want to take a different route on our walk.
Speaker 2:That. I know they're planning something.
Speaker 1:That's a great spot. A lot of heavy machinery nearby, but don't worry, I know a perfect route through.
Speaker 2:I think they're doing construction in this area. They may or may not, you know, meet me in this corner. Just walk through this forbidden alley.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're pouring concrete. Let's go write our names in it. This one on one.
Speaker 2:Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Let's put it in the. Let's put it in the earth.
Speaker 2:Yikes, yikes, I wasn't thinking about it. Now I'm kind of thinking about it. Who on my team would be most likely to murder me?
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm just I'm. I'm looking out for my number one podcast, hostie. Okay, you know like I can't lose you, because one on one Wednesday is get out of control.
Speaker 2:That's true, fair enough, fair enough. How about you? I mean you had a week.
Speaker 1:I did have a week. I traveled to Columbus, ohio, this week for a meeting and you know it's just it's cold there. It was a productive. It was productive travel, which is rare. Maybe I find travel to be just an absolute waste of everyone's time and money, but this was actually fruitful from an outcomes perspective, which is good. Nice, it's cold there, bitter cold it's so, and I do have a horrific travel story that I'd like to share with you Clark, oh man.
Speaker 2:Horrific. I thought it was just like a weird from your text. I was like, okay, just a weird vibe, but horrific.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's well, you could. Okay, I'll tell it to you. You could tell me if you think it's horrific or not. Okay, Okay, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. I'm coffeeed, I'm caffeinated. I got to head to the airport. I got a nine am flight back to where I live in the hole in the earth and I get to the airport early because, you know, I'm like I'm not going to just hang at the hotel. It's seven. I've, you know whatever. I'm just going to Uber over there. Right now it's 15 minute Uber. I'm just going to hang at the airport, find a nice spot to sit, maybe have a little starby plug in and just sit and play my steam deck and just enjoy myself until the takeoff time. So I do just that. Find my spot, put my luggage in the chair next to me. No one else is around, it's all good, I sit. I'm playing Yakuza on my steam deck. Good for you. That's one of your goals for this year. Yeah, I'm already executing on all cylinders of my goals. All right, you know, I'm living up to 110% of my potential. So proud of you.
Speaker 1:So, about an hour and a half into my just you know absolute enjoyment of the morning, just hanging out playing my games, this old couple oldish I mean, I okay, they're actually not that old, let's say maybe sixties come and sit next to my luggage and the husband of the couple is adjacent to my luggage space and I've got my headphones on and I'm in transparency mode just so I can hear in case they need to announce like, oh, you're gate changed or whatever. Sure, but you know it's the typical 60 plus chatter. Oh, you know, you didn't used to have to get here so early. I used to buy two tickets so I could double book airlines and pick the one I wanted to go on and pre 911. And you know, just, you know it's typical typical 60 plus chatter, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to bring up those things like back in my day, right, right.
Speaker 1:Things used to be better, cheaper, I used to have more privilege, and then my generation ruined everything, type.
Speaker 2:Exactly, people used to work hard. Now they do anything, they just cry yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, firstly, there's seats everywhere that you have to sit next to me. But I'm like you know what? They're just talking, they're just doing what they do. No judgment until that changed. So the man of the wife stopped talking and the man whoops out his phone and he just starts looking at it. Then he proceeds to put his arm around my luggage, the way that you know you might put your arm around someone you care about deeply, and I'm like this is kind of strange. Like his hand is very close to me, it's like adjacent to my luggage. This is weird.
Speaker 1:Then he proceeds to grab the handle of my luggage and start playing with it. No, uh huh, just like playing with it, just like flicking it back and forth, touching it, grabbing it, and I'm like this is truly bizarre. Like what is he doing? So I look over at him, I break my concentration from my gaming session, which I was enjoying quite nicely. I look at him and kind of like what's going on? And he does not make any kind of eye contact with me but does remove his hand from the playful nature it was having with the handle on my luggage. I'm like, okay, maybe he's just, he's just absent minded, he's old.
Speaker 1:Then he sneezes into his hand, then places it on top of my luggage and just starts rubbing it Uh huh, uh huh, proceeds to say I think I might have a cold to his wife while his hand is on my luggage. And at this point I'm now disconnecting, I'm unplugging, I'm wrapping up cables as quickly as I can, I'm trying to put my stuff away so I can just get out of this, this area, this location, and away from this boomer.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't, I didn't mean to label him but you know, this is immediately dead, didn't you? Yeah?
Speaker 1:I did. It's earned, it's earned. At that point, I had parked myself in this location. This is my spot, this was my hangout zone until takeoff and now it's 30 minutes before the flight and I'm like, great, there's no place else I can go. You know, all the seats are now unavailable, so I'm just like I'm just going to maybe go to the bathroom, maybe I'll hit up Starbucks again. I just I got to get out of here because I'm so wigged in this moment, because people are so freaking weird. Like I'm weird, but I would never do this to a fellow human being, but there's like weird in your own right.
Speaker 2:And then there's weird like around people Right, like right, human, exactly Like interaction. That level of weird is something else.
Speaker 1:It is, it truly is. And while I'd like to say it got better as soon as I got up, I go use the restroom. I come back just to stand near the gate because you know whatever, I'm just going to stand, maybe listen to a podcast on my phone for a few minutes before the flight. They get up and they leave. This wasn't even their location, it wasn't even their gate. What they weren't even on my flight.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, this sounds like targeted. This is so weird.
Speaker 1:So I wasn't doing anything, I wasn't bothering anyone, I was in my own little happy zone and they had to come and ruin everything. Oh, this is so strange. What's?
Speaker 2:so strange.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's honestly one of the weirdest engagements I've ever had in an airport, Like legit Did not mind at all that he was just messing with someone other human beings, luggage and then sneezing on it and then being a gross, disgusting human being.
Speaker 2:That is insane. I can't believe that. Yeah, no, I still can't either. Human interaction weird is just something else. It's like if you're a guy, when you go to the bathroom and there's urinals and you only have one person there and there's five urinals, you don't just go stand next to the other dude Like you go and hop one over, like this guy will get into some room.
Speaker 1:While you're standing there, he'd probably grab your ear and play with it.
Speaker 2:Yes, six his finger in there a few times. Yeah, oh, my goodness, how would you buy? That so weird out. I mean he just sounds like a guy that doesn't wash his hands. One the fact that he just sneezed into it and then touches your stuff, Like you purposely put your luggage on the chair that no one would sit next to you to create that yes.
Speaker 2:Like that is insane. I thought you were going to tell me like you tried to like walk off with your luggage, because who just starts playing with the handle of someone's?
Speaker 1:luggage. That's so strange, and that's the thing is like I couldn't escalate the situation appropriately, because had he grabbed it, then it's go time.
Speaker 1:Like then it's all the hours and I guess now days of Krav Maga training that I've gone through for the last year and a half come out and I'm getting my luggage back because you know we're both going to walk away scarred and bruised but I'm keeping my luggage. But that's not. That wasn't the appropriate level of escalation. This is like he's just playing with it, inappropriate. It's so weird. What do you do? I can't even say like in the back of my mind and this is, this is terrible. But it's like I can't even say can you stop touching my luggage? Because that feels like such a and I don't want to know how to label the name Karen. It feels like a caring thing to do, you know, like it does, it's you know it's so weird.
Speaker 2:I love, I love pets, and I'll tell you where I'm going with this. I love pets. Who does it? I think there's something to a that affects humans in disciplining them or raising your voice in the same way, like knowing that they're not going to understand what the message you're trying to get across. So you just say one thing, right, you look over at them and you just stare and you just go hey, you don't say a word, you just stare at them and then you stare back doing what you're doing. I think they would have gotten the message Like they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Right, I don't want to get, I mean, but that's the thing is like it's airport right, like I'm literally adjacent to the security exit at my gate, like I don't want to cause a ruckus, I don't want to cause a scene, it's just weird, like what do you do?
Speaker 2:I think that's how I handle it. I got to handle it. If this ever happens to me, I'm totally doing that. Hey, that's it.
Speaker 1:I hope this happens to no one. I hope no one has to go through this. Just absolute strangeness for the rest of your days. But please, if you're in the discord, then if you're not, you'll find out how to get there in the end of the episode. Go to the corporate strategy channel and please tell me what you would have done. Please, cause I'm at a loss.
Speaker 2:I'm at an absolute loss. I mean, I think any sane human being would do exactly what you did. Is like get your stuff, just get out and leave.
Speaker 2:Like just separate yourself from the situation rather than escalating it, Cause yeah, who knows? I mean, people like that are. Don't do what I said. I was just joking about that, but I'm dying at the thought of you actually doing that, cause that would be incredible. But I think the I think the appropriate thing to do is just leave, Like don't mess with psychopaths I think that's something you got to remember is like you don't know what this person's capable of. They could just be doing this on purpose to get some sort of reaction. Don't feed into it.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean I did, I took an ocular path down to the situation.
Speaker 2:I could have taken that guy.
Speaker 1:Like I mean I could have taken him and his and his wife, no problem Like that's the thing you don't know.
Speaker 2:They're old, it's not an issue Like he was like a black duck. You know, you don't know.
Speaker 1:Nah, even when the adrenaline kicks in, I'm confrontation ready for that specific scenario. What if he was a tercerist?
Speaker 2:Are you ready for a tercerist?
Speaker 1:No, I wasn't ready for the tertiary of the situation.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't smoothly elegant. No, it's definitely not smoothly elegant. I mean he did reach his hand over there and just slowly start playing with the handle. I mean that's kind of smooth.
Speaker 1:I just don't understand it. I'm thinking about it right now and I still don't understand it. So weird.
Speaker 2:That is incredible. All right, tell me this. I got a question for you. Yeah. Are you a person that believes like you got to teach someone a lesson, otherwise they're going to do it to everyone else? Are you a person that believes you should just like walk away from a situation?
Speaker 1:You know, I think that's actually like a really interesting question that will tie into our topic today when we get there, yeah. But so I think it depends. It really depends because, like this guy firstly man, I'm just going to sound so agist this episode.
Speaker 1:I hope this doesn't take a long term, but I know it slipped, I'm sorry. And the thing. Well, the thing is, this guy, he comes from a time to quote them, he comes from a different time, and I just think that there's a lot of man, the targeted language, there's a lot of privilege, right, like there's a lot of privilege which becomes certain individuals, and I think they just think that rules don't apply and they can do what they want and you know some, okay. Okay, let's boil it down to the actual thing.
Speaker 1:Some people exist as part of a collective and some people think they are the center of the universe, and that's clearly what this individual thought. Like he thinks he is the main character in his video game and I am just nothing but a humble NPC and he can play with my backpack all he wants. Can I teach him a lesson? No, no, there's no teaching him a lesson, because his entire philosophy on life is completely broken. He's not part of a group. If, however, you know he was younger, maybe you know a little more malleable mentally, I'd be like, hey, you might not touch my backpack, just it's kind of a personal thing to me and then maybe they would learn something. But, like this person, I could just tell. I tell the path he's walked. He would get upset with me.
Speaker 2:It would be like I want you to put yourself in his shoes. I don't want those shoes. I want you to think back to his time. He had to walk to school and work through three feet of snow backwards with no shoes.
Speaker 1:I know, and it really sucks. Yeah, I feel really bad for him because at his time, when he was probably working full time in his job on a single income salary, he was able to pay for his house, his children's education and his wife didn't have to work. Because, let's be real, it was a different time and things were just harder back then.
Speaker 2:It was so much harder.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, he just shut up and he did his job for 20 years, he didn't complain, he just took it Just 20 years and now he's living off the residuals of those 20 years of incredibly hard work.
Speaker 1:You know just incredibly difficult, grueling, backbreaking work that only he had to do. Came home to cook to me a little every day. You know like different time difficult.
Speaker 2:I mean honestly, I'm starting to think more and more. You're in the wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're probably right. In fact, it was a good thing that I didn't say anything because, truly truthfully, it was my fault anyway that I put my luggage there. I think you should have given it to me.
Speaker 2:I think you should have bashed it under my legs and consumed as little space as possible. I would have ripped the handle off and just gave it to him. I said you like this, you can have it. You've earned it. Oh my.
Speaker 1:God, oh my God, you want it Just like everything else in your life, I'm crying.
Speaker 2:Take it.
Speaker 1:Just take it.
Speaker 2:I'm crying. I got tears rolling down my face. I'm sorry You've made it for this. It's so good.
Speaker 1:You've lived your entire life knowing telling you no stop. Now I might have been the first person to say that I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I might have been the first person in his 60 plus years of existence who ever told him to stop.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, that is a story. That is a story. Oh man, yeah, that happened, it's something about you. I just don't have interactions with humans like you do.
Speaker 1:I would trade anything in the world you know, normally human behavior.
Speaker 2:I would just walk up to you and talk to you. I don't know if everyone feels that way.
Speaker 1:You know what the worst thing about me is. If you've, if you've been in the discord and you've seen my picture before. I'm incredibly approachable from a gosh no, not again from a young white male perspective. So people just assume that I like fit in their checkbox because I'm so generic looking and it's been a problem in the past because it's like, oh, what do you think about this thing that you clearly don't like? But I'm going to pretend like you do because I'm checkboxing you and I'm just like, oh my gosh, how do I get out of this conversation? How do I get out of this situation? Like, oh, there was one time, there was one time I was at a Titanic sinking dinner experience and the guy sitting next to me was like man. People just really hate the police these days and I know you agree with me that the police just do an outstanding job and there's nothing wrong with them at all and I'm like dude, this is so. No, I can't have this conversation right now.
Speaker 2:That's another example of like a psychopath, like that is a human interaction. Awkward thing to say, right, just don't say that you don't put people in awkward and like, assume their view to everybody around you and stir that up.
Speaker 1:Oh, why are we starting there? Like, why does the conversation? Why must it start there? And then he proceeded to play with my backpack after saying that, which is just super weird.
Speaker 2:That is so strange, so strange. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Thanks, and I hope when you get home you burned your suitcase. It's brand new. I wasn't going to do that. At least sanitize it, rip the handle off something. You've got to protect yourself from whatever that guy was carrying.
Speaker 1:What's funny is my wife actually just found these backpacks. They're great. It's the perfect size to bypass frontier and spirits bag check. So it's technically luggage but it looks like a bag check and they've literally tailored the thing to fit in their little measurement device and it'll never be bigger than that. So it's like the perfect. Screw you to that, those two companies, and they're very comfy, very effective travel luggage and if y'all are interested I could put a link in the chat.
Speaker 1:But yeah great for travel, especially when you're flying with a less reputable airline, but, yeah, not so great when people are manhandling it without your permission.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, don't let people twiddle with your handles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just don't.
Speaker 2:It's definitely something weird. Don't do that. Don't touch people's stuff, just respect the space.
Speaker 1:I'm going to throw out another ask to our listeners. If you've ever felt compelled to do this, please explain. I just need to know.
Speaker 2:I just need to know I mean to be honest. We might kick you out of the Discord if you say you felt you might just boot you right there.
Speaker 1:Are you a backpack handle fonder? Do you dream of fondling backpack handles?
Speaker 2:If you have ever felt this way, please comment. Then you immediately don't deserve to be in this place.
Speaker 1:Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been at the airport and thought, hm, that handle looks quite fundlable. I think I might grab it.
Speaker 2:I mean, like something for me is I've learned by doing it and I like to like touch things. I wouldn't do that to someone else's stuff, never, you know, never. That's just a weird thing to do.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:Truly. But if I'm just trying to like, you know, if you go to a museum, it's one of those interactive museums. I want to touch stuff, I want to learn, I want to get hands on I mean, that's what the word is there for but not to other people's stuff.
Speaker 1:That's a weird move. I will brush against someone's luggage getting on the plane, you know, like turning around or whatever. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bump your stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just. I wouldn't even like if it's up in the head area, the head space or packed space, whatever the overhead bins Wow, can't talk Overhead bins. If it's up there and it's like falling sideways, I won't even move it.
Speaker 1:Like it's not my stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:Unless, like a flight attend to be like, hey, can we make more space up here? And I'll let them do it, because I don't want to touch someone else's stuff.
Speaker 1:Correct. I mean that's just, you know, common courtesy. It's decent human behavior, but that clearly doesn't exist around here, clearly, so yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean also, where you were.
Speaker 1:Yeah, columbus, I don't Ohio.
Speaker 2:I don't put it past them. Yeah, I don't put it past them.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's a uniquely Ohio experience. All of our listeners in Ohio just unsubscribed. I should have. I wonder if I don't. Wonder if you have that stat Like how many downloads we get from that location.
Speaker 2:It's going to be our most listened location. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:No, don't say it.
Speaker 1:No, our largest listener pool comes from Chicago.
Speaker 2:Ok, you know just a nearby, not really, it's not from.
Speaker 1:Ohio yeah. We have four. We got four listeners in Ohio.
Speaker 2:OK, well, hopefully they're not backpack handle fondlers.
Speaker 1:If they are, get out of here, I would I think it was your- father Sure going there, but I didn't wear it coming back and maybe that was part of the problem was, you know, they were a listener and they were like is this Bruce Right? Maybe he's trying to get my attention.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I basically knew he's like I know this will make it on the pod we got to, I got to do it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 2:You were targeted. I mean, why else would he be there? He knew.
Speaker 1:He's probably having the time of his life listening to right now. He's like I got him, I got a little Bruce. I know his triggers.
Speaker 2:Oh, we count. Well, I think that's the episode. Right, that's all I needed, that's all I needed out of this.
Speaker 1:Just don't do that. That's the advice for the week. Don't touch other people's stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh, we count Well, thank you. I know it was pain for you, but I did enjoy your misfortune, so thank you for that. It was good I haven't had to laugh that hard in a while.
Speaker 1:Good Glad I hope our listeners did too. Hey, Clark, you got any news for the week?
Speaker 2:I got news it's a new year and what else I missed it yeah, 2024. Sorry about that. I mean, I thought I said in the episode I'll see you next year. Yeah, you did say that, you did Slip my mind. But in the new year comes many things. There's a whole bunch of recruiters reaching out. By the way another plug to our Discord I had a bunch of recruiters reach out. So if you're in product management and you're looking for work, I'm happy to point them in your direction.
Speaker 2:Heck yeah, hit me up. And also, yeah, help each other out. If you're getting inquiries and you think so many in the Discord could benefit, throw it in there. You never know what could help. So, yeah, new jobs are coming. Now, apparently, there's some layoffs happening too. Surprisingly, instagram was doing some layoffs, which is interesting because they're kind of refocusing everything and man, ai booming, 2024, year of AI. Everybody is doing AI, and that was prevalent in the CES conference that happened this past week, and that's really the news I wanted to share. It's just some of this stuff. Ces is always interesting because you got real stuff and you have stuff that's like feature stuff, but it's all faked, it's not actually real and some of it's just stupid, and so I thought it'd be fun to walk through a few of these things and let you know what's coming this year.
Speaker 1:Just for those that don't know, CES is the Consumer Electronic Show. It's one of the longest running tech shows in the industry. It's got a lot of history of having major technological leaps shown at it and it's a cool thing to Google and watch streams that if you've never seen it before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you actually, I think some of them I don't even know what exact companies, but some of the biggest companies were founded there and a lot of people go to this conference and that's some really cool stuff you can play with, and then all the content creators now create content around it. So, like you said, there's a lot of good stuff out there.
Speaker 2:But yeah everything is about AI, Like literally. I don't know if I've scrolled through any of this stuff. That's not AI, but there's some pretty cool stuff in there. Some of them are just stupid. Like somebody I can't even. I don't know what a couple of this says. They created a mirror-based thing you can put on your laptop that maintains eye contact no matter where you're looking at your screen. So you look through this thing and it basically corrects your eyes to make it look like you're making eye contact. But it's not like small, it's not like this tiny thing and it's not like they couldn't just do this with hardware. They stick this or software. They stick this giant piece of hardware that's like a see-through, transparent mirror in front of your screen and then it kind of tracks your eyes and corrects them. It's stupid. Nvidia did this in software. Yeah, so did Google. Google has their special meeting conference room thing that does all that with software. Who is this technology for? I have no idea. I don't know what the use case is, but it's there.
Speaker 1:That's great, I'm glad. I'm glad people someone thought I'm going to invest money in this even though it already exists in a better way. Good, exactly, and they're throwing AI in everything.
Speaker 2:They're saying AI powered cars. Don't even know what that means, so they're putting like chat, gpt and chatbots and cars. They're putting AI inside of earbuds and wearable jewelry to be able to facilitate, I guess, voiceless communication. I have no idea. Some of this stuff is just dumb.
Speaker 1:I can't even get. I'm not going to say her name because it's going to trigger it, because it's going to say do the wrong thing. I can't even get Cyril to set a reminder on my calendar. Why are we going to put that on an ad phone? Why, exactly?
Speaker 2:And it's funny, like this article that I'm reading. It's on TechCrunch off this year. It literally talks about Siri being the worst thing ever. Like everyone is just taking status here. You're like why is this so bad? If you've used any sort of voice recognition, even Google's voice assistant, or you've used chatJBT, it's so good. It's unbelievable how bad Siri is.
Speaker 1:She is equal with the automatic phone line you get when you call your insurance to ask them a question about a claim or something, and it's representative, and she's like you would like to represent your car, like no representative. That's the level Siri has at.
Speaker 2:It's great, it is that bad. And then you just end up going back to numbers. You end up kind of like saying, ok, zero, put me to an operator, because this thing is awful, it doesn't actually provide any value.
Speaker 1:Right, but yeah they're feeling good Is shown at CES.
Speaker 2:I haven't been paying attention. I think the weirdest one to me and this was the main one I wanted to bring up is have you ever felt like Bruce, that you wanted to look through your TV and see what's behind it?
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:So have you seen this?
Speaker 1:No, but I believe it. Actually, one of the most memorable experiences of my entire life was a nine-inch nails concert where they built three screens that were all transparent and you could see through the screens. The band was located behind the first and then there was a second and a third and it just created this amazing level of depth and parallaxing in the old Sega Genesis games, like. It was astoundingly beautiful and it's hung with me forever and I'm like as soon as the transparent screen comes out, I can see the use case, because you put a couple of those things together and the imagery you could create will just be second and none.
Speaker 2:I think that brings the 3D into it a little bit, Like it makes it more dimensional Much better. That makes sense. So I agree it's really cool.
Speaker 2:But this thing the LG just put out a transparent TV. Ok, so you can see the wall behind it. The TV yeah, you can see the wall. Who wants to look behind their TV? The whole point of having a TV there is you never look behind your TV. So I don't know what the use of this would be, especially if you have it in between two different colors of walls or something like that, like you're going to always see some weird interaction between them. I don't know. This one makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1:I think that's not. So. This is the big problem with CES. The title is Consumer Electronics Show, but it has gotten so far from being consumer oriented. Like that would be great at a restaurant between a fish tank and the kitchen, right. Like if you had a screen. It's like, oh, I can see into the kitchen and there's like fire on the screen. Like you could do some really cool effects that elevate the area with that. But in your house you've got to get creative and that thing's just going to be sucking juice on your electrical bill and you don't want to do that anyway, and it's probably $10,000 at the minimum. So, yeah, it's not a consumer gadget, but I think that has great marketing and aesthetic purposes. Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 2:But honestly I don't know. I mean all this stuff like it's flashy, it's cool, for a minute I didn't really see anything that stood out to your point from like a consumer electronics perspective that is practical and useful and interesting, like all of them just aren't. You know what I mean? I don't know. I just don't really see the value of CES anymore other than just like shiny new gadgets. I mean it'd be fun to go. Yeah, I just don't see a lot of value from a consumer perspective.
Speaker 1:I think we have to treat CES as the consumer of 10 years from now. Electronic show Right, because all that technology will eventually be in our hand. Like I'm sure, we'll have a transparent phone 10 years from now and that's how that technology will evolve, but it's certainly not for today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100% agree. So, anyways, that happened. It's interesting and there's going to be a lot of tech this year. I think Apple's coming out with their Vision Pro headset, so that'll be interesting. I mean, the price point is crazy, so it's kind of out of the realm of a lot of just the normal consumers. I think there's a lot more of the foldable devices coming out, so like iPads and stuff maybe not iPads, but tablets are coming out to be foldable, which will be interesting. So we'll kind of see probably more kickups of that. But, exactly to your point, I don't see anything too practical here. So, anyways, that's the news. If you want to see what could be happening this year, or just things that will never come to life, check out this article.
Speaker 1:Right now. Post it in the corporate strat channel. Well, throw it in there. Yeah, throw it in there. Our topic today which it'll make sense why that question you asked earlier comes from constant contributor. We're just going to give him the title Topic Contributor Squid Boy, because at this point Squid Boy is no longer a fresher. Squid Boy is probably our most topic submitter person and just thanks. Thanks for always giving us good things to talk about. This is what I wanted to do a while back, but we had so many other things and pods in the queue that we didn't get to it. Came in December. Squid Boy says sorry for another pod topic. Don't be sorry. Don't be sorry. Keep in cross. We love it.
Speaker 1:I actually don't know how people get into the C-suite level positions and why they always seem like the people there know the least out of anyone. I just do their weekly golf outings and happy hours. Would love your guys take on it and how people even get there. And I actually have a bit of insight into this now that I report to nothing. But let's say, are you a C sweet guy? No, absolutely not. Um, so I'm curious to see what you think, clark, but I want to give.
Speaker 1:Usually we start in the negative and I actually want to start in the positive, and I know some people don't dig this guy. Uh, but Simon Sinek, who is a pretty prolific marf marketer and he's written quite a few books on marketing, did a really great explanation on the CEO, the, the, the, the seist of the C sweets, the chief executive officer. C just stands for chief. He said the chief executive officer's entire point of being is to take responsibility when the decisions underneath him or her go wrong and to give all glory to the people that made the decisions when things go right. So they're highly paid and their entire point of being is to be the fall person for the company when stuff goes bad and to give all credit to the individuals when things go well. That's his take on the role. I don't think I've ever seen that in practical real life, but I like that definition is C levels are really there to shoulder the blame and to give credit and praise when, when good things happen.
Speaker 2:Right, what? What do you think? I think it's well said, and the more I think about it, I think it makes a lot of sense because, exactly to everything you just said, they're the face of the company. They're usually the one who's like out in the public if something goes wrong or if it goes right. And they're yeah, they're responsible, you know to if you're a public company the board or the shareholders and so they have to make sure that their company is heading in the right direction. You know, business wise and expectations wise of the consumer, and even though they're not directly doing the work, they're still responsible and accountable to the results, because who's the first person to get rid of the company's taking? You know where it gets acquired or something like that. Like, typically, that person is pushed out, that's exactly it.
Speaker 1:And before we move on, I think it's important I want to give our listeners, just in case they don't know, some C suites, c level. Yeah, I'll just throw a few out there. Ceo, do you know what? Clark? What is it? Yep, we talked about that one.
Speaker 2:Chief executive officer, ceo, chief operating officer, cfo, chief financial officer Heck yeah, cmo Chief marketing officer. Keep them coming. I've been in corporate for a long time CTO Chief technology officer. Cio Chief information officer. Cto Chief digital officer. No chief diversity officer.
Speaker 1:Good guess, that's good, I've seen that um as a person, um, as a different title.
Speaker 2:Well, I know it's like the whole. Yeah, to your point, though CTO could be that Cause. Now, though, with the whole DEI movement, I think that's kind of changed. Like you know, the head person of the DEI initiative in the company. I don't know if I've seen like CTO, though I guess it makes sense.
Speaker 1:I was just uh, I was just looking through a list of all the C's and that was on there, like I had not heard that one either, but apparently it's one. Oh, there's another CIO. Do you have a second CIO In your bed? Information, uh-huh.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:I don't know, chief Innovation officer, ah yeah, cso, chief security officer, or CSO.
Speaker 2:Or CSO. Yeah, there's two Is there? Yeah, there is. I feel like I'm missing a way. You went security which?
Speaker 1:I think is the lesser. It's probably there's less positions for chief security than this one Chief strategy officer.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, strategists the worst people on the planet. Am I right? I know right. Yeah, corporate strategist Jeez, Um yeah, so there's, there is a lot. Oh, hold on, I got one more.
Speaker 2:I got one? Which one? Which one? Well, I want to hear your last one. Maybe it's a.
Speaker 1:CDTO.
Speaker 2:I have no idea. Dt.
Speaker 1:Chief Digital transformation officer.
Speaker 2:Ah, that's becoming a new thing. I've been here, rolled them eyes, yep. Oh, which one did I miss? Uh, cpo Chief product officer, there you go, yeah, most important.
Speaker 1:All of these roles exist to be where the buck stops when it comes to strategic level decision making for that unit of the company. That's how it should be. Your chief marketing officer is the one who says yes or no to the all of the ideas and tactics and strategies brought up to them. Mm, hmm. And they will shoulder the blame when the outcomes come through. Like that's how it should be, in my personal opinion. I truly believe, unless the person is problematic, like you know, committing HR violations, if a team fails because of whatever reason and their C level approved the thing that caused the failure, the C level should be fired first. Get all honesty.
Speaker 2:They're paid a lot more.
Speaker 1:They approved that decision. They are the chief officer is responsible for that. They should shoulder the blame, just like Simon Sinek says. We know that is not the case. We know that they are the pretty much the chief fire. They're the the final person who decides whether or not you could kick out of the company for the bad decision that they approved. But yeah, that's a quick walkthrough on what they're supposed to be and who they are. Now what do they actually do, clark, in your experience, what do C levels do?
Speaker 2:Well, I think something, um, something that, something that you know we said they're the face of the company, but I also think they have to have some charisma about them. You know they have to lead. If you're the CEO, anyways you have to lead the company. Or if you're the chief digital officer, chief security officer, whatever you've got to lead your area and help paint the vision of where you're heading. I think that is a big part of it. It's like rally everybody towards a common mission, right or wrong, but then you should be accountable to the results, to your point Now. Do you think that's a norm or an expectation? I think it's an expectation, not necessarily a norm. No, sometimes they're just so disconnected from the company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have no idea what's going on.
Speaker 1:I wholeheartedly agree with that. I, for whatever reason, in my experience a lot of C levels in general don't have the level of charisma I would expect them to have to be in their position Right and unfortunately I think a lot of them are resting on the laurels of nepotism and their MBAs.
Speaker 1:They get there because they know someone who helped them get into that role and because they have the MBA. That's the door opener for a C level position. Usually they start at the VP or SVP senior vice president level and then work their way into the C level without generally having them know how or have taken the time to get into the time to be an individual contributor as part of that vertical slice Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's probably a couple different paths to your point and it does depend on your company, I think if you're a startup, then that one's pretty obvious. It's you're one of the early stage people. If you're the main finance person, it's natural for you to become the chief financial officer as the company scales. Now, do you have the skill set to do that well, as a company scales? Not always, and that's sometimes when, if someone is funding your company or someone acquires your company, sometimes they look at making changes because the people who built the company aren't necessarily the ones to scale the company.
Speaker 2:But if you're like a large private company or you're a public company, it's likely very similar to what you said, bruce. It's. You are a. Maybe you cut your teeth a little bit in the beginning of your career. You learn some general skill sets.
Speaker 2:You were part of some companies that had good assets and you led some sort of division and then you networked, you met people, you got your name out there and then, most likely, you were able to work your way into a board for a company or whatever as one of their candidates to be in that position in that industry it's typically industry based.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would say, like getting that experience in the industry and then polling, it's a lot easier to say, oh, this person led marketing efforts for this gaming company. So since we're a large gaming company and they had a successful job over there as a senior vice president, let's bring them on as the CEO of our gaming company because they did such a good job over there. So it's generally due to the industry experience and it typically revolves around tenure, I'd say like long tenure, but it has to be like successful long tenure and you have to have a name for yourself. I think if you don't have a name for yourself, transitioning into one of those C levels is really hard because no one knows who you are.
Speaker 1:You know it's interesting. You made the analogy of like hey, we know you have the ability, so we're going to put you in that role. That feels distinctly non American to me. In my experience Now, I will say, you know, having worked in both deep corporate and now startup, startup C levels have to actually know what they're talking about because they might be the only person in their department to start with.
Speaker 1:So I do think there is a separation of the wheat from the chaff when it comes to startup. But in big corporate, a C level can know absolutely nothing about their space and get there simply by virtue of nepotism and you know education and good luck. But that's very American, because I was thinking about when you were talking, specifically Japanese gaming companies and how many of their executives like thinking about the big ones. Satoru Iowata Rest in Peace, who was like one of the greatest execs in Nintendo's history, was a developer and actually stopped taking a salary during Nintendo's downtime and continued to code on Pokemon games during his executive tenure. So I do think that America and maybe I'm curious if our audience has experience with C levels outside of the Americas just pulls some of the crappiest C level people.
Speaker 2:Right, I agree with your point. A lot of it is just if you have a name for yourself, if you go to these conference, if you know you speak on these things regardless of you actually doing the work, it's just a big name, yeah, and I think that's that's what sometimes gets you in the door. There is something to be said, though, about a different path, because that's like coming in fresh to a new company. But you said something interesting, which is like growing into that role, which is much harder, I'd say, to be able to grow into a role where you're then put in as the main person and you likely don't get put in as that person unless the person ahead of you, the chief person, retires or gets fired for some reason or transitions to another company.
Speaker 2:So until they leave, you typically don't move up into those roles, but sometimes they will look internal. A company will look internal to say we have a really high performing SVP, let's promote them to be at the C level, and that's kind of their entryway. And if you have a C level person that did that, I would wager to say I'm curious. What do you say, bruce? They are far better than someone coming in external, and the reason is is they grew into that role. They had to cut their teeth and do the work. They know the business and now they're leading it.
Speaker 1:I would completely agree and I think the truth of it is, especially in the office of chief executive officer, ceo, that role you have every other person aggregating information to you. You can't be the best at sales, development, marketing, hr, security. As the CEO, you might only have one path of vertical underneath you, if even that. So I do get in that role, specifically not having the expertise. But I would also say, depending on what vertical you're serving, you should have a strong working experience of your customer base to be a CEO there, and I don't think a lot do.
Speaker 1:I think what ends up happening is right time, right place. People have CEOs that, hey, I was the CEO of Home Depot and now I'm the CEO, and this is just total hypothetical. I don't actually know the CEO of Home Depot, their CEO of Home Depot and other CEO of Techland, because they have the one and now they're moving into the other, even though they have no experience in that place. But that's just how that works, right? I've seen CEOs come from really weird places and land and completely different and fail, as many do, because they don't have the working knowledge of the vertical they're serving, and I think that's just. It's symptomatic of if you have the MBA and you have the connection, you can get in the door right.
Speaker 2:It's just. It's sometimes based on experience, though. Yes, like in terms of not your actual working experience, but situational experience, if that makes sense. For example, if you have somebody like, let's say, you're at a company that just went bankrupt and your shareholders want to turn it around, so they fire the C-suite and they're looking for someone that may have gone through that experience before of taking a comeback from a company who was bankrupt into a successful company. And so, even though they might bring in someone that doesn't have the industry experience situationally, you know, based just on how corporations work, if you found someone that knows how to do that, they'd likely be able to do it contextually again, you know, because they know the situation and they know how to get out of it.
Speaker 2:And I think this goes actually, you know, if you get a lot more tactical with it. I actually think this is relevant when you're hiring people as well is looking at not just like where they worked and the industry and everything like that, but the situations of what they worked in. Right, Did they work at a startup that failed? Did they, you know, work long term at a corporate? Like, let's say, you're at a startup and you have a person who applies to his 20 years at a corporation, which they might have been really successful. That doesn't mean they can jump into a startup and be successful, right, because it's a totally different environment. You have to work different and climb your way up a corporate ladder, and so I think that's also what the board looks for is saying, how do we find somebody that can situationally help us get to where we want to go or get us out of the experience we're in now?
Speaker 1:Really agree and I think that can work and I think that could also fail tremendously, especially when you don't know the industry. Because, yeah, clawing your way out of a consumer, you know bankruptcy is very different than clawing your way out of the technology security firm on the verge of bankruptcy. Right, Like it's just two totally different slices, B2B versus B2C.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, very true and to your point. I think. One more thing to call out is, also contextually, you might hire a CEO or have a CEO join a company for a specific task. If I remember right, I think in Silicon Valley maybe not Silicon Valley the show they like bringing a CEO who then fires like half the company. So you might be a CEO and that's your history. You come into companies, you slash and burn and you make them profitable again at any cost and that's, contextually, what you're good at. So companies will hire you just to do that and then you might move on after that. That's unfortunate to say, but unfortunately, yeah, it's common and I think there are CEOs that are known to have that, you know reputation.
Speaker 1:Okay, I just Googled slash and burn CEO.
Speaker 2:No, that does a list.
Speaker 1:It's a first list First thing that came up and I'll need to read the article. I just the title. The title holy crap, remembering chainsaw Al Dunlap, ruthless corporate cost cutter and big time FSU donor.
Speaker 2:Is this a horror story or is this an actual corporate article?
Speaker 1:The former CEO of Scott paper in Florida, based Sunbeam, died Friday and accounting scandal ended his tenure as one of the nation's best known executives. Wow, that's crazy. Swagger, arrogance, ego chainsaw Al Dunlap had them all Good.
Speaker 2:Lord, he had the name, he had the reputation, he had the situational experience, and so he was brought into a lot of companies and probably did well at what they wanted him to do.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna have to post this in the in the discard after this episode. I can't post it before. It makes no sense. But holy crap. The article in the Tampa Bay Times is gold. Like the first four paragraphs are just like holy crap, chainsaw Great Because he's slash and burned. Yeah yeah, that's a really good point to bring up Clark. That role exists for that purpose as well. They're decision makers.
Speaker 2:They are the ultimate strategist for the company and the board can look at that and say, did they do it well or did they not do it, and then choose to move on.
Speaker 1:And they all get paid stupid amounts of money when they get fired. Yeah, just stupid.
Speaker 2:They usually have contracts of like a period of time and so and they also have like protection contracts or things like that of certain situations that happen. So, yeah, usually if they leave, they get paid out a good amount for those clauses.
Speaker 1:Yep. And to Squid Boy's point he mentions that they see the weekly golf outings and happy hours. The CEO might not be coding your product or setting your HR policy Like. At the end of the day, they're receiving the aggregate of all the information. They're making the big, big decisions for direction of company, which might mean they work less, it might mean they work a lot less, but the kind of work they take on and I'll give them this, I'll give them one thing it can be incredibly stress inducing if you don't have the stomach for it. Which leads me to my final question. For you, clark, it's actually a two-part. Ooh, could you be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and would you? Could you do the job and would you take it? Could I do it?
Speaker 2:Could you do it? It's hard to say because obviously I don't know what it takes you know, you know, do I think I could do it.
Speaker 1:We just talked about what it takes.
Speaker 2:Could you do it? You've never felt that it's one thing to talk about. It's another to actually feel it. I think I could probably adapt to do it. Would I do it? Well, I don't know Would you take it.
Speaker 2:Would I want to do it at a Fortune 500 company? No, I don't think I'd want to. But I think the third part of that and maybe you can answer this third part for yourself as well, because I want to hear you take all these so would you do it? And then I think the last one would be if you had the opportunity, would you do it? And I think those are different because, like, well, maybe they're the same, but you get what I'm trying to say. It's like it's one thing to say yeah, yeah, I would do it, but another is like okay, if I could do it tomorrow, would I do it? Okay?
Speaker 1:Could I do it?
Speaker 2:Would I do it from an opportunity perspective? If it was right there and I had the opportunity, I think I'd do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'd jump, would I want to.
Speaker 2:No, not necessarily, but you would do it. But I would do it because turning that down from like a career perspective, would be hard.
Speaker 1:This is why the English language is fun. You would do it, because you couldn't say no, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, Because I don't think I would want to, but if the opportunity was there I'd probably do it.
Speaker 1:You know, the Clark inside of you compels you. The power of Clark compels you to take that job.
Speaker 2:Right, am I gonna seek that out, though? No, no, it's not like the path I want to take, if that's, I think, the differentiation.
Speaker 1:Yes, someone says Clark, Would you be CEO of fortune 500 Techland? We need you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like if my company was come to me and say we're hiring a new CEO, we want you to be that person. I Don't think I could say no.
Speaker 1:I mean, I see you.
Speaker 2:Exactly? Would I seek it out? Probably not. You know, I think it's just too hard of a path To figure out. I don't think it's worth what it would take to do it. What about you? I want to hear your answers, could I?
Speaker 1:absolutely I. I could spend a lot of time with CEO in my current role. I see the work. It's not that it's difficult, it's that it's work I wouldn't want to do and I could do it. So I I know 100% I could be a CEO. That's not a job that I would not. If given to me, I could achieve the goals set out in front of me.
Speaker 1:Would, I Absolutely no. No, I never in a million years. I would not. I think the only way I could and in this case I'd probably just give it to you is if we had our own company and I'd say Clark, please be CEO, so I don't have to. I would not.
Speaker 2:Never the fortune 500. They came to you and I, bruce, we got. No, I'm good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm going to want you to take this on Lead our company into the future. We believe. We believe in Bruce. Here's a thing.
Speaker 1:I Would because? And they'd say well, why, how dare you, bruce, why would you do that? I'm gonna say you're gonna hire me as CEO and I'm gonna make so many decisions You're gonna hate that. You're gonna have me killed. You're probably gonna send out like corporate hitmen to murder me in my sleep because you are not going to want the kind of Executive decisions that I will make for your company, because all of your workers will love working there, right?
Speaker 1:And I don't know, and then it didn't. Then it didn't just be like why did I ever do this? It'll be a smear on me, so I know I would not.
Speaker 2:Your options are either take it on and hate yourself, or Take it on, or don't take it on, or maybe take it on and then die. You know?
Speaker 1:yeah. Yeah, that's an either of those are compelling to me.
Speaker 2:No, no, I say see what you're saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I would not be a good CEO by board level standards.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, you've got to be willing to look out for the company, not what's right for the people, which is terrible, to say, most companies. I Also think Another point to call out is that it's not always linear, like we said, like you don't had a C level, you typically don't apply To jobs. It happens through conversation, like you said, bruce, of like someone approaching you as a board member or whatever, or head-hunting you you know from other companies, since you're a promising person. So sometimes they just seek you out or you make connections that they then ask you to do something, and A lot of the time there is also like it's almost like a celebrity. You're like, you know, a sports athlete. They have an agent and you know they they try to. That agent basically goes to executive recruiters and tries to find positions for you. So it's a very different route. You don't usually see on Like LinkedIn hiring for a CEO. You almost never see that in the case of a fortune 500 company right, it's, it's a different path.
Speaker 1:You, you might find other C levels, but yeah, the CEO's a that's a special one for special people. Yeah, hope that helps. Hope that covers the topic. I think we answered the questions. At least now you understand why these rules exist, why they should exist, whether that that remains to be true to the positions is Variable to every company you're ever gonna work for and you get to be the judge. So it's good boy, it's our company. If you feel like the C levels are just hanging out drinking martini's, playing golf all week, maybe they are, yep.
Speaker 2:Just remember there is a lot of responsibility of everything we said and you got to be willing to stomach that and it's easy to look like they're doing nothing but also to be have that much accountability to your board. You know, for example, they don't just they don't make all decisions of silo and they don't make all decisions themselves. They're responsible and accountable to the board, so they do answer to someone, even if you're the boss.
Speaker 1:They single-handedly speak to the board and Shoulder all of the feedback, yep. And then when they get fired, you know it's really sad. This is the worst park park, I think, is it's very sad because they get millions of dollars for getting fired. Yeah, and I feel just terribly for them. It's really unfortunate to get fired. As a CEO, I Can think of no worse punishment really than doing a bad job and getting millions of dollars Given to you to leave a place and not have to work there anymore. So just it's tragic really. You almost want to take, Just do nothing. Okay, I changed my answer.
Speaker 2:After thinking through this, you know what never mind, I will be tomorrow, I will be the worst CEO you've ever had. On this handshake deal. I promise I will be the worst CEO and you better pay me lots to make how many millions Do I get when you fired me?
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, cool, cool Cool.
Speaker 2:Cool, weird that that's the first thing you ask, but we trust you take the position.
Speaker 1:Our technology is no longer about securing your data center. It's about giving all of your IT admins crocs because we think they sound great on the floor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it decision number one Corporate strategy uniform for a future company, crocs speaking shoes.
Speaker 1:It's an everyday to send in. Needs quiet feet on the floor.
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:Love it. I think we did it. I think we did. We always do. Now we managed to get through. Hey Clark, you know what it's time for. I have a guess.
Speaker 2:Well, what is it? I think it's time for a game show, it is it's time for our weekly game show. Do I want to look at it, or do I want to just hear you say it In, visualize it and then look at it to see how close it is? Do you know how many I have this week? So it's time for those of you first-time listeners.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? The game show where you go on our discord, you post memes and then we describe them with words because it's an audio only podcast. It's my time. It's my time to shine. I mean, every time you do it, you crush it.
Speaker 2:So I'm excited, I'm not gonna look, I'm gonna look after Okay, and then we're gonna see how good was it you.
Speaker 1:So we got four wrist reppo capitalist correspondent has gone out of his way to give me for fun Memories. So here we go. First one picture, if you will. You are inside of a tunnel of light and the light is stretched Into a focal point into the distance and two gentlemen wearing red shiny suits Are dancing maybe they're rapping and they say mohawk, moh problems. Picture you will a rabbit, cute, okay, long years, anime eyes, sweet, probably hangs out with the blue hedgehog, hmm. And she says do you challenge autonomy culture? Rule everything around me, kack, get the money. Dollar dollar bill y'all. Now. That's a good idea. Rule everything around me, kack, get the money dollar dollar bill y'all. Now.
Speaker 2:This rabbit or is it a?
Speaker 1:rabbit. Well, if you don't know, you don't know clark, but this rabbit's name is cream. Now number three. Imagine, if you will, a caped crusader, a dark knight, someone who is an authority of busting crime. With his strong, manly bat hand slaps a young lad in a yellow cape. The young lad says cackity, cat. Cape crusader says don't talk back. And he's actually not a Batman, but a corporate overlord. Lastly, imagine, if you will, clark you're not kidding, you're.
Speaker 2:You have a golly going, go ahead.
Speaker 1:You want to give me challenge, here we go. Lastly, imagine, if you will, a hail storm of arrows falling from the sky, relentless, piercing armor, piercing armor, but protecting you, you, the little cack that you are, with your tiny little short sword. Protecting you from this hail storm of arrows Is a gentle sir In great blue armor, towering over you, his name compensation. Protecting little cack. And he says hey, you're gonna be okay, buddy, because compensation is the new off offset for cack. And that's, that's the memes of the week.
Speaker 2:I love it. My eyes were closed the whole thing. Did you picture them all? You go look at them. Now I gotta go look at them. More cack, more bra, that's a good one. That is a good one. I like that a lot. It's all about them.
Speaker 1:Benjamins.
Speaker 2:Crinn rabbit.
Speaker 1:You know, you know it's not the hedgehog Clark. You know who that?
Speaker 2:is yeah, yeah. Well, I just hate how realistic they look sometimes, you know.
Speaker 1:The hedgehog's not bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know, like the first version of the movie that they came out with and then scratch.
Speaker 1:Oh, we did you think, thank goodness that was close.
Speaker 2:Yeah, also poor Robin, I guess. Sometimes you got to put him in his place, sometimes you gotta put him in his place.
Speaker 1:He's cackety cackin.
Speaker 2:Fair enough, you can't cackety cack, so go back. Oh man, that looks incredible job. I think my favorite is the last one, the compensation protecting the little low cack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's actually. I think that is an award worthy. What do you mean? Mean, because it perfectly describes the situation we were talking about in the previous episode. So well done.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna give it a drink about any awards.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna give it a trophy.
Speaker 2:I threw a little trophy emoji on there. We got to say I feel like we need to somehow surprise Mr Restrepo. Maybe we'll get him a little merch.
Speaker 1:We'll see. Yeah, he doesn't listen to the pot or anything. So you know it's gonna be a real surprise when. Who?
Speaker 2:knows if he makes it this far. I mean granted us. Every single time he responds I can tell he does, but we'll see. Maybe this is the one time he doesn't.
Speaker 1:Coffee mug in the future. He'll never see it coming. Uh, if you want to get in on this, it's super easy. How do you do it, clark?
Speaker 2:You can Go to our website or the show notes. Right, yeah, join the disc Best way. There's a link. Yeah, show notes. It's literally right there in front of your face. Scroll down. I'm now. I'm talking to you. Look at your phone right now. I mean, if you're driving, don't do it, make sure you're the safe spot.
Speaker 2:I work on another police, that's true. I mean, your car could be driving itself. Live your life. Scroll down, expand the description and click the link. I'll take you to a little website. If you have discord already, I think we'll direct link you in there and you can immediately join the community. So do it, it's easy.
Speaker 1:We got so many people joining recently. I just want to give you shout outs.
Speaker 1:Right we've had, let's see, since since our last pod. This is something we're gonna do from now on. We're gonna shout out new members, so welcome to the discord. We've got postmaster. We got Charry spill I'm sorry if I ruin these names. Yeah, now I regret the decision. We've also got Pavlov's drool welcome. And orange cat and all of you, all of you, most of you there's. There's some of you that did not, but most of you went into the who is who channel and gave us awesome introductions and all of your stories are so great. I'm so glad to have you're welcome.
Speaker 2:It's an awesome, awesome community, awesome additions, to feel free to hop in there, and I'm actually starting to interact a little more. It's a little delayed, but it's starting to happen. You're starting. Yeah, how's that feel? I know it actually feels pretty good. I gave some great orange cat and I get some good rapport. Uh, squid boy and I are talking. Squid boy is always talking, so I'm talking to him. He's having some really good dialogue. It's good stuff, I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that. When you said you're having some good dialogue, your discord literally took a dump and it made you sound like a robot. It's great, perfect timing. Oh nice, there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, we record everything in this discord, so join us. It's a great place to be. Also sad news discords laying off 17 other staff. So who knows where we'll be a year from now, but we'll figure it out when that, when that happens. Uh, hey, you want to keep up with all things? Corporate strategy? Make sure to sign up for our newsletter. Clark put together this awesome newsletter. It'll be in your inbox as soon as a new episode comes out. Great way to great way to keep up on the pod itself. And we're also on linkedin, instagram, youtube, twitter not saying the real name and, uh, we don't really do much there, but it's still good to follow you never know what you might find there very true very true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, follow us on all, on all of our socials, if you uh yeah, want to share us. That's the best way for us to grow. Share, share the podcast with your friends, your other corporate strategists, and Ask them and join the community. I think they really find a lot of value there, based on everything we're doing here. So absolutely easy to join, easy to share you just hit the little share button.
Speaker 1:Shared up. Uh, there may be an advertisement on this episode of corporate strategy. It might be about dentistry. Uh, as Clark and I were finding out earlier. You know what? All you dentists out there? Check out that ad. You might learn something from it. And if you don't want to hear ads on the pod, simply go to Our bias of coffee page. It's also in the show notes, just like everything else you've talked about. Go there and help support us.
Speaker 1:We're literally just looking to get to the $22 a month mark where we don't have to pay out of our pockets to host the show anymore, which would be great for us, and we appreciate if you do. And, uh, if you can't do that, all we ask is to give us a good review and share us with your friends, because Listenership is the entire reason why we do this. So we appreciate you. No matter what you do, we do. Thank you, thank you, uh, and that's it for this week's episode. We have gone incredibly long and this is why we end up spending more on our podcast hosting. So To shorten it up and end this thing now, remember, don't put too many balls in the air. I'm Bruce.
Speaker 2:And I'm CEO Clark, the single throat to choke.
Speaker 1:And you're on mute. We'll see you next week.