Unleashed - How To Thrive As An Independent Professional

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, the panel discussion focuses on the pros and cons of becoming an adjunct professor. The panelists discuss the motivations behind teaching courses as an adjunct professor, how to get hired, whether to teach in traditional MBA programs or other certificate or degree programs, the amount of work involved, typical pay, relationship building opportunities, project opportunities, and ancillary benefits such as access to datasets or research services. The discussion kicks off with Adam Braff, a data analytics executive/advisor, shares his reasons for teaching, stating that the best reasons to teach are not practical instrumental reasons but more passion and love for teaching and believes it is a creative act. Mary Kate Scott follows Adam. She teaches at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business in the MBA program, and Keck School of Medicine, focusing on healthcare. She has taught the business of healthcare, innovation and health care, new business m

Show Notes: Russell Reynolds, founder of Russell Reynolds Associates and RSR Partners, shares his story of starting his own executive search firm in the 1960s. He served in the Air Force and later joined JP Morgan. After working there for six or seven years, he joined William Clark Associates. However, shortly after, he decided to start his own firm with his friend OB Clifford and a few other friends. They collected $50,000 and started Russell Reynolds Associates. He also decided to invite his friend Lee to join the firm as partner. The firm was established in 1969, and the partnership worked well. Today, Russell Reynolds Associates is one of the largest search firms in the world. As a big producer, Russell believes that success in a service business is about doing a good job and connecting with clients. He was introduced to the senior partner of Oppenheimer and company; they became great friends which eventually led to many more clients. Key Factors in Hiring Talent  Russell states that it is important to lo

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Paul Gaspar discusses his experience working with artificial intelligence at a major global insurance conglomerate in Japan. The company faced pressure to streamline operations and reduce costs within its auto business. Paul, who was in a role leading the data science function, suspected that the claims area in insurance was a target-rich environment for delivering value with advanced analytics and technology. He found that similar processes were being utilized on claims regardless of the size, leading to the opportunity to put analytical rigor behind the claims estimation process. AI Use for Processing Insurance Claims Paul and his team looked at information flows at various points in the process, specifically evaluating how information collected at the time of the accident could be used to provide insight on losses. Using this information, they built predictive models using AI techniques that would allow them to predict the ultimate value of these claims from a $1 p

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Astrid Malval-Beharry discusses an AI case study with a top 50 homeowners insurance carrier in the US. Astrid was approached by their underwriting and innovation teams to digitally transform their underwriting workflow.  Astrid shares an overview of the industry at present. The industry is facing challenges due to an increase in natural catastrophes, inflation, disruptions in the supply chains, and policyholders who prefer to have an Amazon or Uber experience with their insurance carrier. The client had three goals for the digital transformation project: increasing the level of straight-through processes, improving risk assessment, and realizing greater investment in inspection. Astrid explains what  straight-through processing is and how it works using data analytics and AI-based and technology solutions.  The second goal was to improve risk assessment by analyzing the location of the property, the condition of the property, and the policyholders themselves. The clie

Show Notes: Julie Noonan shares a case study on using AI while working with a top 15 global pharma company to get the most insight from the data and reduce time to market or time to development of their particular molecules and drugs.  In early 2022, the pharma company was using artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze clinical and research data. The organization Julie worked with was a digital and data concentration alongside data scientists and computer scientists. Julie shares where this organization placed focus and what their goal was with regards to using AI and machine learning(ML), and the role she played in developing this center of excellence.    Company Use Cases of AI and ML Most of the early use cases involved clinical data and research data. Clinical groups were conducting the first clinical trials with animal populations, and recording their data in various tools. They were studying a specific model molecule to understand its implications across projects. For example, they were s

Show Notes: Markus Starke, an advisor for cybersecurity and digital process transformation, has recently been working in cybersecurity for the AI applications that corporations are using. Marcus explains that, AI plays a significant role in work, particularly in intelligent process automation. This concept involves combining technologies like robotic process automation, process mining solutions, chatbots, Optical Character Recognition, and more advanced forms of machine learning and generative AI to build end-to-end processes. However, cybersecurity issues can affect these automation systems, especially as more users use them individually. Safety Measures with AI Automation Markus talks about several dimensions of cybersecurity with AI automation. To ensure the safety of AI-related automation situations, clients are asked to review their setup from a Target Operating Model perspective. A framework is created to guide this process, including governance, secure development processes, and creating awareness abou

Show Notes: Cheryl Lim Tan discusses her experience working with a financial wellness product powered by AI. The client was early in their journey and needed to raise awareness of their product. They needed to refine their product further and gain more users to gain feedback and make adjustments to its features. Cheryl was brought in to take care of the entire marketing function.  Cheryl's approach involved figuring out the company's brand, target audience, and value proposition. She also focused on articulating the unique value proposition of the product compared to free tools like Chat GPT. By addressing these aspects, the consultant was able to create a clear framework for the client's marketing function and reach investors. Prompting AI Tools Cheryl highlights the importance of education in the AI world, as AI tools are prompt-driven and consumers may not know how to interact with the interface and how to prompt it. To address this, they developed a suite of YouTube videos on how to prompt the tool for di

Show Notes: Barry Saunders, a digital expert at McKinsey, discusses his background in the firm and his experience in AI-related projects. He worked in the LEAP practice, which built platforms for video streaming, preventative maintenance, and optimization tools. He left McKinsey to become Chief Product Officer at an Australian fashion company and recently joined MXA, a strategic digital technology company in Australia. Barry suggests a two-by-two typology classification scheme for AI-related projects. The first quadrant focuses on understanding patterns of behavior, while the second quadrant focuses on predictive behavioral modeling, third is more about text orientated and understanding meaning. The fourth quadrant focuses on regenerative AI and content creation. Barry believes that combining these quadrants can lead to personalized content for different customers and valuable insights and can unlock interesting value.  AI Use Case Study Barry and his partner have been working on an AI toolkit to automate tim

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Phil Bellaria shares a case example of building a Chat GPT using open-source large language models. The client was a large telecommunications company with an immense amount of unstructured data, including customer feedback, feedback from employees through surveys, and transcript transcripts from millions of phone conversations and text chats. The problem statement was to derive insights and understand the state of the business, identify trends and topics as quickly as possible. The process took place through 2018-2020. Working with a data scientist, and using Google's BERT methodology for natural language processing, the team coded an algorithm that identified topics and classifiers from the unstructured data, scored each topic and phrase on sentiment (positive or negative comments) and created a short summary of customer or employee comments related to each topic. The process of building and running the model was processing intensive, and the first step was testing a

Diane Flynn, a multi-talented professional and author of  two books and two popular courses on Udemy, Growth Mindset and Communicating with Confidence, has been working with her company, Reboot Excel, for the last decade. The company aims to help women feel current with technology, connected with a professional network, and confident in their return to work. She has had thousands of people go through their programs and continues to offer resources on their website and coaching workshops. Diane talks about her experience of returning to the workplace after taking a long hiatus, and how she became aware that many women wanted to return to careers but found it difficult to do so for a variety of reasons. She observed that many women returning to work are immensely talented and capable, but they often face a confidence crisis when trying to get back into the workplace. Consequently, she was inspired to start Reboot Excel with four friends. The company was successful, and through her work, she found that many peop

Show Notes: Terry Roopnaraine, a technical consultant for international development projects, has been working in the field for about 25 years. He provides technical services to support projects funded by bilateral donors, UN agencies, and multilateral agencies like the World Bank. Over the last decade, an increasingly important area of the practice has been working with foundations. Terry's work involves providing services that are required to make these projects work and deliver the best impacts on the ground for the beneficiary populations they serve. There is a huge accountability chain because these projects are often funded through the public purse of one country or another, so there must be some kind of proper accountability and evaluation. The Role of a Technical Consultant Terry talks about the roles a technical consultant might play. He divides his work into two broad areas: project implementation and management, and learning evidence and evaluation. The implementation side of technical consulting f

Show Notes: In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman talks to Jared Simmons, business consultant, coach, and speaker, on design to value. Jared defines the term ‘design to value’, offers examples of how it can be used, and talks about the various steps involved.  Using the example of a design to value playbook, Jared talks through each essential step that should be included. Step one is defining value and creating a shared understanding of it. This involves getting everyone on the same page about the intended purpose. Understanding value involves both the company running the project and the end consumer of the product. The project's goals should be determined, such as cutting costs, making it more of a premium, or growing volume.  Step two is mapping out the value chain end to end, from materials to end use, and understanding the basic cost structures associated with each step. This ensures that the project is designed to value both the organization and the end consumer. Jared discusses the importance of ma

Show Notes: Chad Oakley, CEO at the executive search firm at Charles Harris, discusses the current state of the consulting job market. He kicks off the conversation by explaining who Charles Harris is and what they do. Chad shares his perspective on three key areas: the market for strategic services, training Chief Strategy officers, and advice for Chief Strategy officers to make themselves more valuable in a down market. The Market for Strategic Services He states that the market for consulting services is currently down significantly due to the down macro environment. Major consulting firms like Bain, BCG, McKinsey, Deloitte, ey, and Accenture have experienced a decline in revenues and project counts. However, they are hopeful that the current low watermark will lead to increased demand, but they are not seeing significant improvements just yet. The good news is that the need for strategy never goes away, and the market for consulting services is often a bellwether for how companies think about strategy the

Show Notes: The Umbrex Business Analytics Diagnostic Guide that is discussed in this episode can be downloaded at no cost here: https://umbrex.com/resources/business-analytics-diagnostic/ In this episode of Unleashed, Will Bachman and Adam Braff discuss the creation of a data analytics diagnostic guide. Adam, a former partner at McKinsey and a consultant on data analytics, discusses the importance of data analytics in solving business problems in any company or investment firm. He explains that a business analytics diagnostic is designed for organizations with multiple people, computers, and analytics processes. The goal of this diagnostic is to determine the performance and alignment of the data science or analytics function with the overall mission of the company. He explains the size and type of company that uses this and who would monitor and manage the data analytics of a company The Diagnostic Guide Format Explained The diagnostic guides follow a format with scorecards for individual pieces of an area,

Tyler Cowen, author, economist and philanthropist, talks about the inspiration for his new book and the importance of talent identification in business. He believes that talent assessment is an art rather than a science and that institutions like the Florentine Renaissance, which had a competitive process for identifying talent, have been particularly good at this. Tyler also mentions the success of identifying American business talent in the Midwest during the 20th century. China has also done a remarkable job in identifying CEO talent in a world where almost no one had an MBA, and India is currently the single hottest blossoming talent spot. He discusses the trend of companies investing in spotting talent overseas, particularly for smaller companies. With the pandemic and work from a distance, the chance of hiring talent  in Indonesia or the Philippines is much higher than it was just a few years ago. However, it is harder to evaluate talent in other countries due to cultural differences and difficulty in i

In this session, Will Bachman and Tiago Forte discuss Tiago’s new book Building a Second Brain. They discuss how the concept provides value and work through each key learning aspect, the importance of using note-taking apps, including CODE and Para. Tiago talks about the background that led to the creation of the book and how it was strongly shaped by his experience in consulting.   Tiago shares his background as a junior project analyst at a boutique consulting firm called FaberNovel, where he learned the business model of consulting. Consultants are rapid learners, learning new things about the market, landscape, competitive arena, and internal aspects of clients. They must learn the client's culture, power structure, priorities, and communication preferences quickly and use as few billable hours as possible. Tiago emphasizes that consultants must bring their best thinking to the table every day, as they are being paid to think. The results of their efforts are based on the quality of their thinking. He exp

In this episode of Unleashed, Melanie Espeland talks about the importance of using one's voice to make a powerful first impression. Melanie, an executive coach and life coach, shares her structure for building an executive presence. The structure includes two pillars: the literal (physical world) and the figurative (mental and emotional world). Voice Is The First Impression The literal pillar focuses on the speaker's voice, which includes nonverbal communication, posture, and body language. The figurative pillar includes authenticity, confidence, and vision. Authenticity is crucial as it involves being connected to oneself and having clarity about who they are and how they want to show up. Confidence is separate from executive presence as it involves believing in the effectiveness of their actions and their ability to connect with their audience. Vision is influenced by watching great leaders speak and media training work, and it involves articulating one's thoughts, needs, and future focus or thesis in a cle

In this live event hosted by Umbrex in November 2023, Ron Lumbra, a member of the CEO & Board of Directors Practice and Partner at Heidrick and Struggles, discusses how to get on a corporate board. He shares insider knowledge about the process. The event was recorded as a streaming event, with approximately 300 people signing up for the session. The discussion was facilitated and included questions from attendees. Exploring the Landscape of Board Roles The discussion focuses on the different types of board roles, such as Fortune 500 companies, other public companies, PE-owned portfolio companies, and family-owned companies.  The top of the pyramid is the public company corporate board, which is the most sought-after and difficult to join. People often serve on various types of boards, such as large-cap corporations, smaller publicly traded companies, private companies, family businesses, and nonprofits. These boards have similar structures, committee structures, and skills matrix, making them valuable gro

In this interview, author Jill Stoddard and Will Bachman discuss the concept of impostor syndrome. Jill defines the experience as a state  where individuals question their competence and legitimacy, even when there is objective evidence to support their accomplishments. The fear is that they will of be outed as a fraud. The phenomenon was officially identified in 1978 by Pauline Clance and Suzanne IMEs, who believed it only existed in high-achieving women. However, culture rebranded it as a syndrome which Jill addresses. The Background on Imposter Syndrome Jill believes that the imposter phenomenon has been around for a long time, with prevalence rates averaging between 40 and 70 percent. She suggests that it has been present in early humans, who, when part of a tribe, had a survival advantage due to social comparison and fear of being ousted from their tribe. Early humans engaged in social comparison to ensure they didn't get kicked out of their tribe, which was often a life-or-death situation. The modern wo

William Magnuson, a professor at Texas A&M Law School and former Harvard University professor, discusses his book For Profit: A History of Corporations. The book covers eight different corporations throughout history, illustrating different facets of corporations. William  chose these eight corporations because they were relevant to the modern world and their importance in shaping society. He aimed to explore the origins of corporations, focusing on foundational moments in corporate law, such as ancient Rome's tax-gathering entities, and the Medici bank. He talks about how studying corporations over 2000 years  brought to light trends and why today’s citizens are more impacted by corporations than at any other time in history.    William considered including the Soviet Union, which was one of the world's great experiments in trying to structure and economy without corporations. However, he did not include any consumer packaged goods or retail companies on the list. He also considered researching other maj