The Business Trendsetter Podcast

Starbucks succeeded for years by building out a fantastic Value Delivery System supporting its Value Proposition.  This podcast explains how leadership allowed a focus on the VDS to drift the company away from its VP, and recently hire a new CEO who’s doing enormous harm to long term value by implementing short-term VDS improvements.

This podcast also overviews what SMB leaders need to know about DeepSeek and the evolution of AI. AI...

Netflix just blew out expectations for new subscribers, and the stock – one again – is at all time highs.  To understand why Netflix is so successful is to understand that the company keeps investing in entirely new markets and solutions, which drives new revenue streams.  Rather than focusing on how to do more of the same better, faster, cheaper Netflix keeps using trends to find new growth opportunities.

This podcast explains how...

The episode of the Business Trendsetter Podcast Innovators Series features Manny Teran interviewing Frank Vidal, a development manager and founder of the Tucson Thrive virtual mastermind group. Frank shares insights into his community-building efforts through Tucson Thrive, which fosters open, vulnerable discussions and authentic relationships among members. The conversation explores mentorship gaps for entrepreneurs, the impact of...

The administration is changing in 2025, and it’s sure to impact businesses. But you can plan for change. Looking backward, all the way to Kodak and Xerox and Amazon we can see that it is possible to plan your way to success, while avoiding pitfalls, decline and failure.  It’s important to plan for trends, rather than just looking at the past, realizing that big trends transcend politics offering the chance to grow regardless admini...

Molly Gravatt, the inspiring founder of Radiant Dev, shares her remarkable journey from a career in volleyball  to trailblazer in technology staffing. Her story is a testament to the power of perseverance, people, and purpose. With over a decade of experience at Allegis Group, Molly honed her expertise in building connections and understanding what drives businesses forward: their people.

A life-changing moment during her divorce, c...

Spark Partners is excited to introduce the Innovators Series, a special mini-series within the Business Trendsetter Podcast. In this new series, Manny Teran will sit down with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and bold innovators to uncover the stories behind their journeys—exploring their triumphs, challenges, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.

Meanwhile, the core Business Trendsetter Podcast will continue to bring you w...

After almost a decade, and investing $10B, GM has simply quit the Robotaxi effort.  It joins a long list of big-time investors who wrote off more billions – Uber, Lyft, Ford and even Apple. Why were they so wrong?  This podcast explains how the lack of a Value Proposition meant these efforts were unlikely to succeed, even with “all the money in the world.”  Lacking a clear reason for their existence, this was money chasing technolo...

We often think of risk and uncertainty as the same thing. We say “I don’t  know what to do,” concluding doing something (often anything) seems risky.  But that is wrong.  Just because you’re uncertain what to do doesn’t mean it’s risky.  And you can be certain about what you do while taking actions (often doing the status quo) that incur a lot of risk.  It’s important to know the difference so you can manage both uncertainty and ri...

The election results are in, and it’s assured that America – which means the globe – is going to be dealing with change.  Are you prepared?  Hoping these changes won’t affect your business is foolhardy, and luck is not a strategy!

Long-term trends are not affected by this election.  The upside-down demographic pyramid isn’t going to change, nor is climate change and awareness thereof, nor is the rapid movement to automated processe...

AI chip maker Nvidia is replacing Intel on the Dow Jones Industrial Average this week.  This may seem irrelevant to your business.  But it is, in fact, pretty meaningful.  There is an important lesson in this podcast for all leaders about maintaining relevancy, following trends and smartly investing your resources.

The DJIA members are supposed to be the 30 most secure, powerful and safe public companies in America.  But they keep ...

During the pandemic we learned how to work very effectively outside the office.  Work From Home became the trend, and it has persevered more than 5 years later.  But some leaders want to go against the trend and make employees return to the office full time.  It is never a good idea to fight trends, and this podcast explains why full time return to office is a very bad idea.

1) Employees are less productive working from an office. ...

Every business owner wants to know the secret to great success.  It’s really more simply than most think – because it’s all about growth. Years ago we researched the sources of wealth creation, and nothing was even close to being as important as revenue growth.

This podcast explains why 10%/year revenue growth is crucial to remaining relevant, and why just 2 quarters of declining revenue can be deadly.  A dive into Starbucks revenu...

Not so amazingly, we now know that people no longer stay at their jobs as long as they once did.  Few stick around 10 years, and most leave a job every 4.  Likewise, we know that warmer oceans have led to warmer gulfs, so hurricanes are more frequent and stronger – as are other bad weather events like floods and tornadoes. 

Despite knowing this is true, too few people build these facts into their future scenarios so they can make be...

23andMe came on the scene as Time magazines “Invention of the Year” in 2008.  The silicon valley DNA testing company went public with a $6B valuation in 2021. Now it’s worth $150M and sinking fast as the Board has resigned and the company appears directionless.  What went wrong?

MOL Group in Hungary thought of itself as an oil & gas developer and retailer.  But today it is doing wildly better, growing revenues and profits and is a ...

Recent headlines could have easily persuaded you that the long term trend to sustainable energy was being upended. Yes, coal generation is closing, and nuclear plants are being reopened.  Yes, the demand for electricity is expanding faster than ever due to the growth of AI. But headlines don’t try to explain trends, and the trend to sustainable energy will continue. 

This podcast explains how important it is to separate trend data ...

The “Mandela Effect” is a term describing large numbers of people believing something is true, when in fact it is not true.  The term originated from large numbers of people believing Mandela was dead almost 30 years before he died. There are lots of examples, such as most people think they can buy “Jiffy” peanut butter when the real name is Jif.  Or thinking Tupperware is non-existent when in fact it was still selling plastic ware...

A decade ago Microsoft was well on its way to irrelevancy. Forbes mag christened Ballmer was the worst CEO in America.  The Board fired him, and today his replacement has led Microsoft to pre-eminence in tech, atop the AI heap.  His lessons for how to turn around a behemoth are relevant for organizations large and small.

This podcast explains how Nadella immediately de-invested in the “core” Microsoft products of Windows and Office....

Spark Partners has been coaching clients for almost 30 years on how to achieve long-term success.  But despite the research, the books, the Forbes (and other) articles and interviews, people are still getting things wrong.  The failure cases of 30 years ago are forgotten (Multgraphics, Kodak, Xerox) while new cases – with identical patterns to the old – are happening right now in 2024 – Boeing, Intel, Walgreens, Red Lobster and Big...

Intel is looking more like Kodak, Hostess Baking, ToysRUs and GE every day.  People wonder “How can a company that is so successful, so innovative screw up its business so badly?”  There really is a pattern to what these companies did wrong, which you can avoid.  Listen to this podcast, using the Intel case study to explain how leaders fall into the bad decision-making trap.  Learn how you can be more like Microsoft, Apple and Amaz...