Growing the Top Line Podcast: Recent Episodes
Cliff Farrah
Interviews with leading business leaders that served as the inputs to ground breaking new growth strategy book by Cliff Farrah, Growing the Top Line.
David (Dave) Murashige, current Head of IP & Innovation at TTEC, is our guest this week on Growing the Top Line Podcast. Dave is a 40-year industry veteran in the technology space, specifically in wireless and telecoms. As a product, sales and operations executive with broad experience in the technology and B2B sector Dave has helped grow businesses at every turn of innovation pivoting to the changing landscape and emerging technologies. Cliff and Dave met when he was building the wireless business for Nortel and have stayed connected for the past 20 years. In this episode Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Dave talk about the link between quantitative goals and strategy and the necessity of involving all roles in strategy development (including “veto roles”).
Lynn Dugle is our guest on this week’s episode of Growing the Top Line Podcast. Ms. Dugle is an accomplished leader with more than 30 years of experience in the defense, intelligence, and high-tech industries. Ms. Dugle was most recently CEO, President and chair of board of directors at Engility where she led more than 8,000 employees around the world as they provided highly technical services in intelligence, cyber, space and defense in support of critical missions for the U.S. government. Prior to Engility, Ms. Dugle spent more than a decade in senior management positions at Raytheon and retired from the company in 2015 as Raytheon Company Vice President and as President of Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. Before joining Raytheon, Ms. Dugle was with ADC Telecommunications in several international officer-level positions. She currently serves on the boards of TE Connectivity and KBR.
Named as one of the Top 100 Women in STEM by STEMConnector in 2012, Ms. Dugle is well-recognized for championing diversity and female STEM education. She was the first CEO in her industry to sign the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge and was invited to address a crowd of female industry leaders at the 2017 Leadership Summit for Women in National Security Careers. In 2017, she was chosen by Fortune Most Powerful Women and the U.S. Department of State to participate in the Global Women's Mentoring Partnership. Ms. Dugle holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Dallas and a bachelor's degree in technical management and Spanish from Purdue University. In this episode Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Ms. Dugle discuss her background in the corporate world, her work with Zoe Empowers, her view on growth strategy frameworks and much more.
Hunter Reichert, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Mangrove Equity Partners is our latest guest on the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Hunter leads Mangrove's transaction execution team. In addition, he contributes to both Mangrove's deal sourcing efforts and to portfolio company operating initiatives. Hunter has spent his entire career investing in and supporting smaller companies. He has over 30 years of investing experience and has founded 2 successful lower middle market PE firms. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honors from Hamilton College and a Master’s in Business Administration from The Darden School at the University of Virginia, where he’s now an adjunct professor. He’s also a long-time friend and board member of The Beacon Group. In this episode Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Hunter talk about critical pathways to growth, goal metrics, sales vs. product success, and much more.
Tom Lattin, Vice President, Product Planning and Strategic Technologies at ZT Systems is our latest guest on the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Tom is a successful business executive known for growing top and bottom line results of several multi-billion dollar businesses, shaping strategy, orchestrating strategic transformations and leading operational excellence. Prior to joining ZT Systems, Tom served at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for over 26 years in a number of leadership and executive roles with his last role being VP & GM, Workload Optimized Solutions and Mass Market. In this episode Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Tom talk about what to consider when formulating strategic goals, growth philosophy, business model disruption and much more.
Michael Woodfolk, President of the Darden School Foundation joins us on the latest episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. A seasoned leader with a proven track record in education and alumni relations and more than 25 years of volunteer and board management experience, Michael started his career at Darden in 2000 as director of alumni affairs and has played a key part in expanding and strengthening the Darden network. Michael holds a bachelor of arts degree from Washington College and is a graduate of The Executive Program, the flagship offering of Darden Executive Education. In this episode Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Michael discuss how the foundation plans for growth, the importance of an alumni network, innovating through leadership, the future of education and much more.
Rami Rahim is the latest guest on the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Rami is Chief Executive Officer at Juniper Networks and a member of the company's Board of Directors. Rami began his Juniper career in early 1997, as employee No. 32, and worked as an engineer on Juniper's first breakthrough product, the M40 core router. Rami has progressed through a series of technical and leadership roles at Juniper, applying his engineering acumen to the design and development of Juniper's industry-leading product portfolio. He also holds 17 U.S. Patents in networking technologies. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Stanford University, he holds a Bachelor of Science and Masters in Electrical Engineering. In this episode, Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line, and Mr. Rahim talk about his career journey at Juniper, his first growth strategy experience, leading effective teams and building team trust, the growth strategy framework, and much more.
Kevin Watters, retired CEO of Chase Card Services at JPMorgan Chase and Adjunct Professor at Tulane University joins us on the latest episode of Growing the Top Line Podcast. Kevin was a pioneer in the branchless banking space, serving as Chief Marketing Officer of Wingspan and president of Bank One’s corporate internet group until its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase. Kevin spent 18 years at Chase where he served as CEO of Chase Card Services, and CEO of Mortgage Banking. Prior to joining Chase, he served in various director and managerial roles at Procter and Gamble, Pinnacle, Inc. and Vlasic Foods. In this episode of the podcast, Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and CEO of The Beacon Group and Kevin discuss Kevin’s transition from consumer products to banking, his career journey throughout his time at Chase, goal types and goal setting, knowing when business growth is bad growth and much more.
Bob Roda, President & CEO at HemoSonics joins us for this episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Bob has more than 25 years of global experience developing and commercializing innovative diagnostic and medical device products and services. Prior to joining HemoSonics, Bob served as President and CEO of Menarini Silicon Biosystems, Inc, a diagnostic and biotech company. Prior to that he was Vice President and General Manager at Becton Dickinson, where he led the medical and procedural solutions business in the U.S. From 1998 to 2012, Bob held positions at Johnson & Johnson with his last role being WW Vice President, Marketing in Immunohematology, Donor Screening and Clinical Laboratories. In this episode, Bob and Cliff discuss his first business growth challenge, speed to market vs. speed to profit, the process of developing a product launch plan, the importance of understanding your market, post-COVID outlook in the healthcare space and much more.
Rob Hays, CEO & President at Atom Computing joins us for this episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Rob previously served as Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Lenovo where he was responsible for global strategy development, market intelligence and M&A for Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group. Prior to Lenovo, Rob spent over 20 years at Intel serving as Vice President and General Manager of Strategic Planning for Intel Data Center Group. In this episode, Rob and Cliff discuss his career path, how businesses decide what strategies to pursue, who to ask to pursue them and how much business values matter in those decisions.
John Seebeck, Vice President and General Manager of CDW Digital joins us on this week’s episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. John is responsible for all things digital at CDW, one of the worlds leading channels to market for technology goods and services. Before joining CDW, John served as Vice President of eCommerce at Crate & Barrel where he led the deployment of their eCommerce platform and transformed the company’s business model. In this episode Cliff and John discuss John’s career journey, the importance of focusing on customers, and the absolute necessity of growing a network and support system within your own company.
John Beering, President and Board Member at United Access joins us on this week’s episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. John has been in the industrials sector for nearly 30 years and is an expert in his field having previously served as Senior Vice President at Eaton, Chief Operating Officer at Trojan Battery Company and Director, Marketing, Commercial Engines and Global Service Partners at Pratt & Whitney. In this episode John and Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line, discuss approaches to growth strategy, how to structure and select a team, John’s experience in geographic growth and more.
Don Scales, Global CEO at Investis Digital and author of The M&A Solution is our latest guest on the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Don talk about goal setting and types of goals, private equity vs corporate entity, his latest book on acquisitions, the importance of value setting in a company and more.
Note: This episode was recorded earlier this year. Don Scales recently passed away. He was a board member at Beacon and a friend and mentor. Don will be missed by all who knew him.
Nancy Callahan, Global VP Services Strategy at SAP, is our guest on this week’s episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Nancy has been a tech and strategy executive for over 30 years, working at Reuters and AIG before her time at SAP. Both she and Cliff attended the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. In this episode Cliff and Nancy compare their approaches towards growth strategy. We get to learn about Nancy’s experience in digitalizing banking, the differences between their processes, and much more.
Rick Waldron, VP Strategy & Innovation at MOBĒ, joins us for this week’s episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. After 14 years at Intel leading their New Business Initiatives team and 3 years at Nike leading innovation and strategic business growth, Rick joined MOBĒ, a small healthcare company focused on reducing healthcare costs and improving people’s quality of life. Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Rick focus on Rick’s time at MOBĒ and talk about the new, disruptive business in terms of Cliff’s four questions to achieve growth. They also discuss how MOBĒ will have to innovate to expand their customer base in coming years. The episode closes with Rick’s take on the difference between exploratory and executionary growth, and how important it is to maintain a balance between the two
General Paul G. Blackwell joins us on this week’s episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. General Blackwell joined the army right after he finished school and did two tours in Vietnam. He worked for the Pentagon and then joined Raytheon where, over the course of 11 years, he served as VP for Strategic Initiatives, VP Rapid Initiatives Group and VP Business Development. He is currently a Senior Advisor at The Beacon Group. In this episode Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and General Blackwell discuss the five paragraphs of field order as they apply to growth strategy, the criteria of an effective team, and much more!
Sue Spradley, CEO of Motion Intelligence joins us on this week’s episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast! Sue offers the perspective of an entrepreneur as Cliff Farrah, author of Growing the Top Line and Sue discuss how people from different business backgrounds approach growth, and the advantages and disadvantages of working on growth in a small or new company as opposed to an established one.
Doug Fletcher, founder of Fletcher & Co. and co-author of How Clients Buy is our guest in this latest episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Cliff Farrah, Beacon’s President and author of Growing the Top Line meets with his long-time friend and colleague, a leading expert in client development with 25 years of experience in management consultingto discuss the four quadrants of revenue, the hunting vs. farming client mindset, and how important it is to keep a renewing new-client base, even in the service industry.
Sheri Dodd, Vice President and General Manager of Medtronic Care Management Services joins Beacon’s President Cliff Farrah on this week’s episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Sheri has been working in the medical device industry for 25 years and is an incredibly successful growth strategist. During their interview, Sheri explains to Cliff that she believes the most important component to any strategy is the funding behind it. They also talk about how important the strategic team is, and how key it is to experiment and to take risks.
Our latest guest is Oliver Richards, who has worked with Cliff for the past ten years and is the SVP in Healthcare and Chief Growth Officer at The Beacon Group. In this episode, Cliff and Oliver talk about the importance of having a process, and the relationships between new and existing products and customers, all through the healthcare lens. Joins us to learn about Oliver's predictions for the future of medicine, the effect of COVID on the healthcare space and more.
Pat Burns, Chief Operating Officer at Gibraltar Industries is our latest guest on the Growing the Top Line Podcast. Author and CEO of The Beacon GroupCliff Farrah and Pat discuss goal setting, market awareness, his growth strategy process and much more. Join us to hear from one the most accomplished people in the Industrial sector!
In the second episode of the Growing the Top Line Podcast, author and CEO of The Beacon Group Cliff Farrah interviews Marty Curran, Corning’s Executive Vice President and Innovation Officer. Marty and Cliff discuss Corning’s 3-4-5 market technique, knowing your customer, and Corning’s innovation process. Join us to hear from one of the people leading innovation in the material science sector!
In this episode, we share the book interview between Qorvo IDP and Qorvo Biotechnologies President James Klein and author Cliff Farrah, Beacon Group President and CEO. James shares his process and philosophy, as well as his personal journey to becoming one of the most effective and successful growth strategists on the planet!