In a new age of cybercrime, online theft is far surpassing home thefts, and protecting yourself, your family, and your friends is harder than ever—and it is about to get worse—especially for kids. I invited Hari Ravichandran to The Rebook Chronicles, the founder and CEO of Aura, an intelligent, proactive platform that protects online identities, accounts and devices to remain safe, private and protected. We also unpacked his new book, Intelligent Safety: How to Protect Your Connected Family from Big Cybercrime, to learn what you can do now.

UKG is a global provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions and one of the largest private software companies in the world. Famous for its workplace culture, this award-winning company is consistently ranked as one of the best places to work by its 15,000 employees, who serve over 75,000 organizations with 120 currencies in 160 countries. Following a massive merger of two equals, UKG’s new CEO, Chris Todd, has rebooted the company into a $3B (headed to $4B) global leader, developing the next generation of HCM (Human Capital Management) cloud solutions. Chris joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles, to give us some powerful insights and lessons, from a first time CEO, on how he brought two companies together to drive this multinational company and industry forward.

AI personalization platforms—like Revieve—are transforming consumer Healthy, Beauty and Wellness journeys, by partnering with brands and retailers to help consumers reboot their discovery, purchasing and relationship complexities at scale. On the heals of a very popular episode with Ron Gee, President and CEO of Shiseido Americas, who has been leading a dynamic reboot of both that company and himself, we take a look at where the industry is going next. To best do that, I invited industry veteran and BeautyMatter CEO, Kelly Kovack to join me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles to unpack the latest industry developments, mishaps and trends. Whether you are a global brand, retailer, startup, entrepreneur, or consumer—listen in for a remarkable discussion with diverse perspectives about what’s hot now and what’s next—from global industry players, creators and influencers to Web3, AI and the consumer.

Shiseido was Japan’s first Western style pharmacy, founded 150 years ago in 1872, that has transformed itself into a global beauty giant operating in 120 countries and regions, with 39,000 employees that generated $8 billion in revenue last year. At the helm of Shiseido Americas is Ron Gee. As President and CEO of Shiseido Americas he has been leading a dynamic reboot of both the company and himself. With a Chemical Engineer degree from Columbia and MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, Ron is a uniquely qualified hybrid leader. A veteran of the beauty industry, having served in various leadership positions at L’Oréal and Coty, he clearly gets the potential of this massive global sector. With a vision to become the personal beauty and wellness company, and the world’s No.1 skin beauty company by 2030, Ron joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles to unpack how he and his team are playing to win.

The auto industry has had its share of problems over the last decade and needs yet another reboot. During that time, carparts.com Inc., (NASDAQ:PRTS) has become a force to reckon with, when it comes to parts and accessories. They’ve grown to become one of the leading e-commerce providers of auto industry after-market parts—and a one-stop shop for vehicle repair and maintenance needs. With 1500 employees and revenue over $660 million last year, up 14% year over year (YOY), the company saw a strong Q1 23—reporting net sales increase of 6% YOY to $175.5 million vs year ago, and an increase of 20% on a two year stack. David Meniane, the company’s fifth CEO, is on a mission to reboot the company, using data driven decisions to enhance customer experiences. He joined me for an episode of the Reboot Chronicles to explain why he’s placing so much emphasis on data for growth and innovation—and how they’ve channeled their efforts toward seamless factory-to-consumer online shopping experiences for everyday drivers—like you.

Raoul Pal, “looks at the real world picture and sees how it’s playing out and tries to place bets accordingly.” Co-founder of RealVision, Exponential Age Asset Management, Global Macro Investor, and Science Magic Studios, he has a different take on the state of the financial industry and how you can play in it to win. Raoul joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles, to explore investor optionality in the roaring 20’s—from crypto and Bitcoin to NFT’s, alternative assets, and more.

Like many of you, I was an early reader of Entrepreneur Magazine. First published in 1976, it has been a go-to source for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs for decades—and is now read by millions of people around the world. The groups thoughtful and talented Editor in Chief, Jason Feifer, has been rebooting Entrepreneur into a broader platform, while hosting two podcasts—Problem Solvers and Help Wanted—and writing a new book, Build For Tomorrow. Jason joined me for an episode of the Reboot Chronicles to talk about his journey and the future of thinking and entrepreneurship.

As tax season hits its peak, and Intuit’s (NASDAQ:INTU) 100 million customers scramble to meet deadlines across the globe, the company is rebooting itself to leverage technologies that will make it easier. After a Core Reboot was initiated four years ago, they began to focus on building the next-generation AI enabled capabilities—transitioning from customers doing most of the work to an AI generative platform that does work for customers. They seem to be hitting on the big three cylinders I look for in smart growth/innovation BBB Reboots: Building (R&D) their own new tech./capabilities, Buying (acquiring), Borrowing (partnering). Leading that charge is Intuit’s CEO, Sasan Goodarzi. With all the hype about leveraging generative AI, like Open AI’s ChatGPT, many companies—even Google and Facebook—are frantically scrambling to deploy it before it disrupts them. Since Sassan and his team were already on a mission to build an AI expert driven platform, they were ready for the coming data revolution. Sasan joined me for an episode of the Reboot Chronicles to take an inside look at how they have developed their growth and innovation roadmaps—and how it may position them strategically in a Crypto/Web3 world.

On the heels of the pivotal collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), I recently talked with Henrique Dubugras, the Cofounder and Co-CEO of Brex, an integrated corporate card and spend management software company that has raised $1.5B in capital.   As companies frantically exited their SVB accounts at a record pace, in one of the world’s largest bank runs, Brex moved quickly to attract and support startups by fast tracking applications, maintaining card credit limits, and more than doubling FDIC insurance levels to $2.25M through their partner bank network.   Smart moves, as Brex has since received billions of dollars of deposits from thousands of SVB clients—and is now looking to potentially raise billions more to help companies with emergency operational and payroll bridge loans.   Henrique joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles for a fascinating discussion about how they are rebooting the sector, what’s next in FinTech, and provide an exclusive look inside Brex.

America’s largest Black-owned enterprise and one of the world's largest private companies, World Wide Technology(WWT) has grown from a small product reseller into a top global technology solutions provider. Under the leadership of Co-founder and CEO Jim Kavanaugh, and Founder and Chairman, David Steward, this Missouri based company has experienced several reboots over the years.  Today WWT has over 55 locations across the globe and 9,000 people that delivered $17B in revenue last year. With Silicon Valley heavyweight partners like Cisco, HPE, Dell, NetApp, F5, Intel, VMware, Microsoft, IBM, Juniper, and dozens more–WWT has grown into a trusted solutions provider to over 70 Fortune 100 companies. Jim Kavanaugh joined me for a remarkable episode of The Reboot Chronicles to share his fascinating growth journey that is chalk full of stories and tips leaders need now.

How would you like the pope to be your mentor? Imagine applying to be in the Swiss Guard and landing a gig as Pope John Paul II's Bodyguard. That’s what happened to Andreas Widmer when he was a teenager.  Today, as the founder and director of the Art & Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship, at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business, he aims to promote a new kind of entrepreneur—one focusing on Principled Entrepreneurship. Andreas is an entrepreneur, associate professor, business coach, speaker, multiple book author, including the acclaimed “The Pope & the CEO”, chock-full of leadership lessons he learned as a Swiss guard protecting the pope. Andreas has recently authored “The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship”, a book that teaches businesses to be both virtuous and profitable. Andreas joined me for an extremely engaging and personal episode of The Reboot Chronicles to unpack his book and uncover what principled entrepreneurship means—and how you can tap into it.

When Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann retired as a U.S Army Green Beret, he did all the “right things”, until one day he took his 45 caliber pistol into his bedroom closet—with no intent of coming out alive.   Dark times for sure. In his nearly two decades of Special Forces experiences, Scott’s military journey took him to Colombia, Peru, Iraq, Ecuador, Panama and multiple tours to Afghanistan. Today Scott has completely rebooted himself into a top Storyteller, Actor, Playwright, Podcaster, Author, Speaker and Coach. Inspired by his tough journey, he founded Rooftop Leadership, to help leaders tackle the anomalies around low trust and how to  build human connections in high stakes environments.  His brutal transformation is an inspirational story for all of us—from the battlefield, to the  boardroom—and even theater with his new partner Gary Sinise.  As a warrior storyteller, he shares his remarkable rapport-building skills from combat, to help leaders navigate “now-or-never” scenarios, with a focus on relationship building techniques. A replica of how he inspired local tribes in Iraq and Afghanistan, to make game-changing decisions with low resources—“Rooftop Leadership"  is helping teams avoid conflicts by nurturing trust.    Scott joined me on an amazing episode of The Reboot Chronicles to reflect on how his decades of Special Forces deployments are changing civilians lives—they may even change yours.

When you mention GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE:GDDY), most people instinctually say, ‘that’s where I got my website URL'. As a pioneer during the early stages of the Internet, GoDaddy quickly became the go-to domain provider as the world rushed to name and claim their stake on the web.   Today—with over 9000 people who deliver $4 billion in annual revenue—this broad-based web enablement company provides the world’s entrepreneurs and SMB’s a portfolio of products and services that have everything to do their growing their businesses. GoDaddy empowers people and organizations, providing practical guidance and tools to manage their work and succeed online—from offering services to build professional websites, to attracting viewers and selling products and services to their customers.   A key new leader on senior team is CLO (Chief Legal Officer) and Corporate Secretary Michele Lau, who is rebooting the company’s approach to legal, compliance, audit, sustainability, ESG, governance, and government and industry affairs. Michele brings a refreshing take on strategy, culture and growth that is engaging stakeholder groups across the company and industry. We had an insightful discussion on this episode of The Reboot Chronicles and unpacked how she is helping to take the iconic brand to next-level of growth and innovation.

Almost 80% of Americans live within 5 miles of a Walgreens. Founder Charles R. Walgreen Sr. established the brand in 1901 as a single location pharmacy in Chicago, which grew into an integrated healthcare, pharmacy and retailer—which filled approximately 820 million prescriptions and immunizations in the US last year alone. Now part of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the largest retail, health, pharmacy and daily living destination across the U.S and Europe, the brands serve millions of walk in customers, patients and omni-channel shoppers’ every day. The combined entity was founded 170 years ago, is an index component of the Dow Jones sustainability indices (DJSI), with 13,000 locations and 325,000 people that delivered $130 billion in revenue last year. Heading the multibillion-dollar Beauty, Personal care & Seasonal category at Walgreens is Group Vice President and General Merchandise leader Heather Hughes, a trained pharmacist—a rare profile for a retail executive. Her unique background is just what the doctor ordered, as Walgreens looks to reboot the category and take health, beauty, and wellness to the next level of growth and innovation. Heather joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles, to give us a behind the scenes view of what’s new and what’s next.

Over 1.5 billion people observe and celebrate Lunar New Year—symbolic of prosperous times, warding off evil spirits, and sharing meals with loved ones. Red lanterns for Chinese New Year, lighting of firecrackers, and spreading joy with culinary abundance, are all traditions that span thousands of years throughout Asia—from China and Vietnam to Korea and Thailand.    Newly rebooted P.F.Chang’s is honoring its roots in Asian tradition by celebrating the Year of the Rabbit, offering unique experiences to guests in their kitchens featuring dishes prepared using age old wok centric cooking style. The company has seen its fair share of reboots and restructuring over the years, transitioning from a private, to public, and back to a private equity owned enterprise again. Now, with 300 or more restaurants, in 24 countries and growing, the brand employs about 20,000 people that deliver over $1billion in annual revenue.    One of America’s favorite restaurant concepts, offering sit down Asian cuisine, and well known for their iconic warrior horse outside their locations, P.F.Chang’s is growing into a more dynamic brand under the leadership of CEO Damola Adamolekun. His reboot-in-progress is creating new experiences and consumer loyalty that is accelerating growth—and he is just getting started. We unpacked his global expansion strategy on the eve of Lunar New Year—of The Rabbit—who are also known to be witty, quick-minded, and ingenious.

Social media has deteriorated—especially for women—and the media oligopolists love it. These media landlords—better known as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Google and Apple—have taken control of most everything we do, say, share, post and buy online—and they are not very excited about the future of Web3. Why? Because the promise of Web3 flips the ownership model, the money and the power back to, well, we the people. Enter media entrepreneur, Kellogg/Northwestern Alum, and one of the world’s most thoughtful rebooters, Tarun Katial. Tarun co-founded coto (come together), to create a next generation social community platform that empowers women to fight back.

An entrepreneur and global CEO, Dee Robinson is civic leader and board member of non profit organizations and corporations, including Revieve.com. Moving from the corporate world, to restaurants, to retail, Dee unpacks her entrepreneurial journey on this episode of The Reboot Chronicles, with stories on following her dream, deploying the power of AND—as well as facing down fear and naysayers that were holding her back.

Not many know CEC Entertainment, but they know Chuck E.Cheese. This globally recognized entertainment and dining brand has seen it’s fair share of reboots since its founding days in Silicon Valley back in the 1970’s.  A company that hosts half a million birthday parties and two billion game plays every year, their slogan, “Where a kid can be a kid everyday ®” has been repeated (or sung) in most every American household with kiddos. Part of a system of family destinations under the bigger umbrella of CEC Entertainment, the brand boasts over 600 restaurants around the globe.    With a new CEO joining in January 2020, David McKillips jumped headfirst into a Chuck-E Ball Pit—just as the global pandemic forced all of their locations to close. His decades of experience in family entertainment at Six Flags, DC Comics, Sea World and Sesame Place, were just what the doctor (or the board) ordered for this hands-on transformation and financial restructuring.    A nightmare of a situation for a first-time, location-based entertainment CEO to encounter on day one, David led the company from an ineludible Chapter 11 filing to quickly launching Pasqually’s Pizza—all while (more importantly) rebooting the iconic brand into a global platform. Together with Chuck E.Cheese, Peter Piper Pizza (a growing regional fresh-made pizza restaurant), and Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings(one of the first virtual kitchen delivery-only brands) the group employs 13,000 people in a market that’s projected to be over $40 billion by 2027.   To uncover and unpack some of CEC’s  reboot story, David and I had this fascinating chat on The Reboot Chronicles podcast.

A professional career from Disney to America’s top leadership company, Scott Jeffrey Miller’s journey, in a nutshell, has been an impactful story—from the front lines to the C-suite. Along the way, learning the habits of people who made it to the top, Scott elevated himself from salesperson to Executive Vice President at Franklin Covey.   He is a multiple best-selling author, radio and podcast host, leadership coach, columnist and a killer keynote speaker. A huge proponent of “OWN YOUR MESS”—and the fact that we learn more from our messes than our successes—Scott leverages his unfiltered style to ignite creativity with his coaching. He is the host of the popular On Leadership podcast, iHeart Radio’s Great Life Great Career show, author of Management MESS to Leadership Success and Everyone Deserves a Great Manager, and writes a column for Inc.   Deriving essence from his profoundly thoughtful and impactful conversations on his podcast, Miller wrote “Master Mentors” and has now released “Master Mentors Vol. 2”, to help professionals strategize better and reach their pinnacle. A life-long learner like me, Scott presents practical and relatable experiences for others to implement in their lives. He’s currently globetrotting on his book/speaking tour; yet I got him to pause and join me again on The Reboot Chronicles, to reflect on personal stories and his latest work!

A popular retail brand serving American customers in home, apparel, jewelry, and beauty merchandising categories, JCPenney has had many reboots over its 120 year history. Most recently, emerging out of bankruptcy and recruiting Marc Rosen to be CEO, the company has rightsized to 650 stores and 50,000 employees who generate about $9 billion in annual revenue. With decades of retail and e-commerce experience at world renowned brands like Levi’s and Walmart, Marc is rebooting this iconic brand into the future, with a simple, hyper-focused strategy based on what customers want now. Hype-focused indeed—from targeted private label and popular national brands to enhancing omni-channel capabilities and in-store experiences. More simply put, how to meet customers ever-evolving needs—where they are, with what they want. To get a first hand perspective on how his team’s transformational journey is shaping up, I invited Marc to the Reboot Chronicles podcast to take us through JCPenney’s “stabilizing in an unstable world” phase.

In my recent Forbes article about living longer, I talk about how personalization is rebooting  the global health, beauty and wellness market—empowering individuals and impacting their well-being journeys. As a science driven company targeting consumers, athletes, health professionals and organizations,  Thorne HealthTech (NASDAQ:THRN) is part of that impact, redefining what it means to live healthier for healthier longer lives. Their Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach helps deliver personalized, proactive and actionable solutions to people at most every age and stage in life. From the very early days when they were a natural supplement provider, to a direct to practitioner model, and subsequently a direct to consumer (DTC) provider, Thorne has positioned itself as an innovative leader in the personalized health and wellness space. Their CEO and co-founder Paul Jacobson, joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles podcast. A serial CEO, his own reboot journey includes serving as co-founder and CEO of Thorne Research Inc., Health Elements, LLC and WellnessFX. Listen in as we unpack some  reboots his company has undergone over the years and how they are transforming an industry…or two.

One of America’s first tech companies, HP - Hewlett Packard Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) was started in a Palo Alto garage by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939—kicking off the lab coat era of Silicon Valley.   The company has been through many reboots, M&A events, and market headwinds filled with leadership challenges over the decades—and was even split into two companies in 2015. Today, fresh off its $3B+ acquisition of hybrid-work leader Poly, the company employs over fifty thousand people in 170 countries, who generated over $63B in revenue last year.    With recent investments by Warren Buffett, the acquisition of Poly and other emerging brands like Z, Omen, Hyper and Arize, the tech giant continues its rebooting journey, stepping up in the market and doubling down on gaming and peripherals, hybrid work solutions and more.   I invited Stephanie Dismore, HP’s head of North America to join me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles to unpack their latest go-to market strategies across a portfolio of expanding products and services in the commercial, consumer and public sectors.

A rebel wih a cause, CEO of SEAT, Wayne Griffiths is on a mission to reboot the EV auto market, by taking ‘boring’ out of the equation with cool CUPRA models that will reach over 500,000 units a year. Part of 250B EUR Mothership Volkswagen, the Barcelona based EV brand was launched in 2018 to make sporty performance cars—but they are also committing billions of dollars electrifying the car market in Spain, other parts of Europe and beyond.

Pioneering the biotech industry back in the 70’s, Silicon Valley based Genentech is one of the world’s most innovative pharmaceutical companies and a leader in breakthrough lifesaving drugs, treatments, and technologies. Now part of Roche the combined entities have tens of thousands of patents and employ over 100,000 people in 100 countries who delivered over $68 B in revenue last year. Their transformational discoveries include the first targeted antibody for cancer, and the first medicine for primary progressive multiple sclerosis.  Early 2022 saw Genentech get FDA approval in ophthalmology, with a bispecific antibody for two leading causes of vision loss; underscoring their commitment to people living with retinal conditions - age related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic macular edema (DME). In a world consumed by the pandemic over the past few years and the long-term ramifications ahead, a conversation with Genentech’s CEO, Alexander Hardy, on the Reboot Chronicles show was imperative, to say the least.

Over a decade ago, Gotham Greens CEO, Viraj Puri, had a bold vision that would reboot indoor agriculture with AI, data-driven hydroponic systems that would run on 100% renewable electric powered greenhouses using 90% less water and land. Started on a rooftop in Brooklyn, Viraj expanded his vision into a scalable Certified B Corporation, with a nationwide network of greenhouses that grow and distribute leafy greens, herbs, salad dressings and sauces.  With a 26% year-over-year sales increase in leafy greens (vs. 3% category growth) Gotham is just getting started and is positioned well to expands its market reach and product mix. Fresh off his $310 M Series E round, with BMO Impact Investment Fund, Ares Management, Commonfund, RockCreek, Kimco Realty Corporation, Manna Tree Partners and The Silverman Group—and the acquisition of FreshH2O—I invited Viraj to the Reboot Chronicles podcast to unpack his growth plans and learn how Gotham is rebooting the food industry.

If you have traveled at all lately, you know that the industry needs a reboot and Jeff Katz is trying to do just that.   Having rebooted the travel space as founding chairman and CEO of Orbitz, he is looking to do it again as the  CEO of Journera, a travel technology company recognized as one of the most innovative travel companies, offering real-time, complete views of a traveler’s journey. With a fresh round of capital from A16z, B Capital Group, BCG and PAR Capital, Journea is creating a new category in the connected tissue between travelers and travel companies. Frequent travelers know that the sector could use more innovation like what AI powered companies Hopper and Journera are delivering, so I invited Jeff to join me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles to see what’s next.

As a CNBC disruptor fifty and one of the most innovative companies on Fast Company’s list,  Counter Brands, LLC, parent company of Beautycounter, a clean high growth certified B Corp, is redefining the beauty industry. Recently partnering with The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG), the global investment firm acquired a majority stake in the company, valuing the business around $1 billion. Taking this big leap and now looking ahead into their hyper growth phase, Beautycounter Executive chair and Founder Gregg Renfrew sat down with me on The Reboot Chronicles podcast, to talk about this burgeoning stage for her company.Gregg Renfrew - Beauty Counter

When it comes to building businesses, I’m a big platform approach guy. When I met Kim (Kimon) Angelides the Executive Chairman and CEO of FemTech Health—a data driven personalized health, beauty and wellness brand for women—I knew his organization would soon be making waves in the digital health market. Kim brings decades of experience championing innovation in healthcare, in both public and private companies. Kim has founded many companies, including one of my favorites, Livongo in Chicago, acquired by TelaDoc just a year after its multi-billion dollar IPO.  His recent acquisitions of Birchbox, Liquid Grids and Mira Beauty form the cornerstone to Kim’s strategy and ramping up his competitive advantage—and I think he is just getting started. As Executive Chairman of Revieve, I love ventures that take personalization of health, beauty and wellness to the next level—especially for women. I invited Kim to join me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles podcast, to talk about what led to yet another of his remarkable founding journeys … and why FemTech.

Elaine Boltz started her job at Crocs as their Chief Operating and Transformation Officer at a most propitious time: March 2020. No sooner had she settled into her new digs at their cool Colorado headquarters when the pandemic shut down supply chains and manufacturing—but also helped make Crocs a true zeitgeist performer. Those shoes people love to hate— but everyone from kindergarteners to your gardening grandma has a pair—became a huge success, once again. In 2021, they had 67% revenue growth and industry-leading 30% operating margin and sold 103 million pairs of footwear globally, up 49% over 2020. During the fourth quarter, the brand sold 22.6 million pairs, an increase of 19.7% over last year—adding $1 Billion of topline revenue in just a year!

As the Chairman of Revieve, I speak regularly at conferences around the world and meet with fellow speakers and CEO’s who proclaim that their company will transform categories like health, beauty, wellness and food. When I ran into Alan Hahn at a recent event, I was reminded that his company, MycoTechnology, is delivering the critical ingredients that next-generation food companies need at scale—mushrooms. The company is growing rapidly, has raised $120 million, and as Alan says: “If we grow as a world population from 7 billion to 10 billion by 2040, it's a 50 to 70% increase in protein requirement. So we really need to use this food that would go to waste and upcycle it into the food stream. It will be a huge way to achieve our exponentially growing needs.”

Andrea Harrison, VP of Beauty & Personal Care at CVS Pharmacy, is a business executive for whom the pandemic brought radical growth opportunity. She oversees beauty at 10,000 CVS locations that are within 10 miles of 80% of the US population. CVS Health has been growing rapidly over the last few years and forecasted to deliver over $300 billion of revenue in 2022. When so many retailers were shut, Andrea and her remarkable team had “the perfect sandbox” to explore how to connect with customers both #IRL and online and engage them in product trial. As Andrea sees it, we are in the midst of a whole personal exploration into the nature of “self-care” and CVS was able to meet the expanding needs of its customers whether it was a drive through rapid test, something I did a few times, administering crucial vaccines or simply testing a new type of mascara or bath salt.

Rami Rahim, CEO of Juniper Networks is someone who truly can be labeled a pioneer in the building of the Internet. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with over 9000 employees, operations in 50 countries and over $4.7 billion in revenue, Juniper Networks played a pivotal role in how we all communicate today. Along his two-plus decades of experience at Juniper (how rare in an industry so lacking in company loyalty), Rami has received many accolades including being named by The Economic Times as one of the “most loved CEOs.” Juniper is one of the behind the scenes sort of companies that doesn’t get the attention of the media the way others do and I was delighted to pick Rami’s brain about the future of networking. With telecom and infrastructure growth having slowed due to supply issues along with competition from cloud services, we discussed how the company is rebooting into more agile growth and moving from this hardware centric world into software, AI-driven cloud services, security  and 5G. As Rami says “Juniper has always been a true innovator in IP networking technology. We were builders of the infrastructure that helped the internet scale at a time when service providers were really struggling to keep up because it was at the cusp of the.dot-com boom. Imagine a little upstart company trying to convince service providers to trust their networks with a startup’s technology. The only reason I think we managed to get that kind of trust was because they really had no choice. Traffic was exploding. They needed technology that could keep up with it. We had an innovative new architecture and were developing routers with silicon technology. We offered a very scalable internet, and a great operating system to keep up with that demand.” Rami went on to discuss how Juniper has rebooted itself for the cloud-based world.. “But we have evolved our business and diversified it. Now it’s very nicely split between telecom operators, which remain extremely important to us, cloud providers, (all of the major hyperscale cloud providers in the world are our customers), and global 1000 type enterprises that are increasingly trusting their networks, on our technology.In the early days, our claim to fame, our credibility, our pedigree was scale and performance. But things have evolved beyond that into experience. Right now, if I talk to a CTO, CIO or CEO of a big fortune 500 company or a telco or a cloud provider, their biggest challenge is complexity in network operations that is slowing them down. The solution to that is software driven innovation, AI-driven innovation that will remove the complexity from running networks. And yes, it will remove the human factor from running networks altogether.”

I’m a big believer that some of the best business ideas are simple, and also driven by personal conviction. I recently sat down with Kara Goldin, author of a great book called Undaunted, Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, which details how she faced up to endless naysayers and triumph with Hint Water which she scaled  into a couple hundred million dollar company. What is Hint? Water with fruit essence. No sugar, no artificial flavors or sweeteners. It was one of the big successes of the Covid beverages-by-mail era. Like me, she was a Diet Coke addict who wanted to be healthier and looked at what was right in front of her: a big cup of water that she made more palatable by adding fruit slices, and she created a product out of it. This was not her first go round in startup land, she had worked at a dot com that was sold to AOL, but the first time she ever entered the consumer products space and wow, she did with a bang, or kiwi, strawberry or coconut.

David Dow, CEO, Sportsmap Tech Acquisition Corp, Gow Media Know what a SPAC is? If you are interested in novel ways to raise money for a company, you certainly should. I recently interviewed David Gow, CEO of Gow Media, the largest media company in Texas with properties like SportMap Radio Network, 2 ESPN local stations, a lifestyle site, an automotive and a sports site. He recently created a blank check company through a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Corp) IPO with the NASDAQ raising $100 million. SPACs have been all the rage over the last 24 months, with over 850 of them taken public.  Is this just another risky way to find funding or a sound plan going forward? First off, how exactly does a SPAC work? As David recounts, it’s the opposite of the typical money raising process which involves an operating entity, a business it grows up, and becomes large enough to then go public, or list on an exchange like the NASDAQ and raise a lot of capital through an IPO. “In the SPAC world, it's backward. We’ve created a hollow company listed with NASDAQ that can raise a lot of capital. But now we've got to go find the operating business. And that's why it's often referred to as ‘a blank check company.’ We've been given over $100 million to go identify and acquire or merge with a great operating business. Our special purpose is sports tech.” With so much private equity currently available, why would you go this route? As David sees it, the opportunity brings together capital, a board which has great expertise and that public stock. “For some businesses, having a public stock creates a great currency for additional acquisitions. So we are a time and cost efficient way for a private entity to get to the public realm.” He has a point there. The planes, trains and automobiles of the roadshow process and all the filings required for an IPO are not for the faint of heart or wallet. So what is his SPAC looking for (contact me if you want in!) are companies where technology is innovating the sports industry: eSports; health and wellness including wearable devices and businesses like Peloton which are both software and hardware; fan engagement including smart stadium technologies and fantasy and gambling. David is particularly bullish on esports because the business models are still being defined and he and Gow Media can play an active role in that. As college athletes become able to monetize their name, image and likeness, he plans to build a platform to connect athletes with brands. NFTs also hold huge promise when connected to athletes. One thing that David believes is a big part of fueling innovation in start-ups in his region is The Cannon, which provides support infrastructure and colocation of support resources. The Cannon offers “an angel network of investors, a mentor network, shared services of fractional CMOs and CFOs to help businesses who couldn't afford a full time employee community building programmes when somebody gets a big VC round.” Having participated in a similar project in Chicago, 1871, I can attest to how essential this sort of support is.

One of the most important topics I teach at the Kellogg School is corporate governance. Coming out of the pandemic and with heightened awareness of the impact of corporations on the future of the planet, I welcomed onto The Reboot Chronicles Ravi Chaudhry. His book, Quest for Exceptional Leadership: Mirage to Reality has been acclaimed as a discerning analysis of the leadership vacuum that pervades the world. He believes that leaders have to re-discover the leadership traits that lie dormant within them. He is the founder and Chairman of CeNext Consulting & Investment Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. Prior to that, he was Chairman of four companies in the Tata Group, India. He has consulted with many Fortune 1000 corporations as well as been an advisor to Governments of Switzerland, Turkey, Brazil and Norway, as well as the World Bank. In Ravi’s mind, the last two years have been a breaking point for the general public with corporations. As he says, “Business leaders are pretty good at keeping track of the company's performance indices. But somehow, they still apply the toolkit of yesterday. They tend to miss out how radically society has changed in the last two years and how the social contract, which kept the wheels of economy moving, is broken.” He sees how employees have awakened to the lack of equity, fairness, and transparency, and how an increasing proportion of customers are asking tough questions about company ethics. He typically begins his consulting with corporate leaders by asking them if they are aware that the world is changing faster than anyone could comprehend, in directions that they are not likely familiar with. The big challenge for them is to keep abreast of what is happening, distinguish between risk and opportunity and identify anomalies before they become established trends. He decries corporate boards as too often “the echo chambers of like-minded peers, with self confirming news inputs that reinforce our beliefs.” To him, there are seven non-negotiable tenets of business today. The first two are related to ESG: Decisive stakeholder primacy over shareholders, social and climate justice. The third and fourth relate to the respect for women and minorities, and support for youth activism, and regard for trade unions and employers. Fifth and sixth reflect corporate director ethical citizenship, transparency and humility. And seventh, is to create and nurture a company with sustainable profitability. In Ravi’s world of fixing the corporation, he requires a total narrative shift from “corporate governance, to governance of the corporation. Beyond compliance to corporate character. Beyond corporate lobbying, to corporate acknowledgement that society matters, and nature matters more than all the corporations put together.” It was a heady discussion filled with ideals that will inspire you to new levels of possibility in the world of corporate governance. And yes, he does have recommendations for the most controversial corporate entities today. Mark Zuckerberg, we are talking about you.

Paul Mangiamele, CEO, Legendary Restaurant Group I have been a “turn-around guy” for the last 20 years and rarely do I encounter someone like Paul Mangiamele, who swooped in to fix long-standing fast casual brands Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale. He not only wanted to set  these brands on a better course, he put his money where his mouth was and bought the franchise. Once he had them back on their feet (and ensured distribution of those Baby Back Ribs and Monte Cristo sandwiches again), along came the pandemic. And yes, he and his wife Gwen, the co-owners, persisted and came up with new ways of connecting with customers and even increased their reach globally. If you are not familiar with the Fast Casual category, the Applebee’s and Sizzler’s of the restaurant world promise familiar menus nationally, but have been contracting for some time. Paul Mangiamele  was brought in in 2011 to lead the turnaround of Bennigan's and Steak & Ale but he ended up buying the firm and bringing the brands back from the brink of Chapter 7. What worked? As Paul says “Not too many CEO’s own their brands (100%) and the fact that my wife and I have significant skin in the game by investing our own money lends strong credibility to our franchise offerings and models.” Paul’s work with these origin fast casual brands embodies the three key components of reboots that I teach at the Kellogg School: people, platform, and passion. Rather than cut costs as many turn-around experts advise, Paul decided to “invest our way into profitability, not save our way into profitability.” He followed the precepts of  Ray Kroc, of McDonald's, who always said that the quality of service, cleanliness and value equals profitability. “I bought what I saw was the unlocked value of the brand and wanted to shine up these diamonds that got a little dirty through the mismanagement of people. We brought the leadership and retained the intellectual capital that my team possesses.”

The Reboot Chronicles is about organizational and personal transformations, and my guest on this episode,  Michael Rubenstein, Co-Founder of OpenStore may likely not be known to you yet. But, the work he has done over the years has radically changed advertising and ecommerce. He is someone whose work likely touches everyone in business who does any kind of advertising and is currently helping early-stage ecommerce brands get the early liquidity they may want, and maybe be the next Chewy or Wayfair. Michael honed his skills at DoubleClick, where he was founder and general manager of their ad exchange and stayed with them through their acquisition by Google in 2007 for $3.1 billion. Before advertising exchanges, buying “spots” on TV, radio, print, and even digital was a holdover from the Mad Men world of phone calls, lunches and vast amounts of paperwork. Into this picture stepped DoubleClick that automated the buying of ads online and placed them on an ever expanding “network” of sites. Sellers could feed “inventory” into the system and buyers could place orders and within a day see their ads on their favorite websites. Wall Street sales efficiency entered the advertising world. Michael’s next move was running AppNexus which upped the ante for this ecosystem by being an exchange of all exchanges and coming up with the concept and the technology to deliver “RTB”: or real time bidding. Just like the automated commodities exchanges of corn and wheat, advertising became a traded commodity. What you may not realize is that the ads you see on digital content (and increasingly streaming video) that appear so relevant to your interests or purchasing habits are bought instantaneously on a bidding basis and matched in that instant to various databases of sales and online activity. As Michael recounts it: “if you look at the way media was bought and sold on the internet, prior to the advent of programmatic 15 years or so ago, it really looked a lot like the way television or magazine advertising or anything like that have been bought and sold. So the idea of actually putting that model online and using algorithms in real time to tailor media buying decisions was revolutionary. And what started in the early 2000s as an experiment using publisher remnant inventory, has since turned into a movement that has eaten the entire advertising and media buying world. Today the majority of advertising, even in traditional media is being bought and sold using programmatic techniques.”

When you hear the name “Boeing” you may think of airplanes and defense, but there is a huge division devoted to keeping that hardware running smoothly through technology. I recently interviewed Ted Colbert, the CEO of their Global Services division, which operates in 400 locations and over 70 countries servicing not just Boeing hardware, but also their competitors.  Ted was just awarded the 2022 Black Engineer of the Year Award, was the first recipient of the Fisher Center Prize at Berkeley for Business Analytics; and named one of the Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America by Black Enterprise magazine. He rose through the ranks of IT at companies like Ford before joining Boeing where their mission is is to keep the world's fleets flying safely and efficiently through data-driven innovation. I was interested in how what we often perceive as a hardware company has embraced digital. As he recounts, data and solutions help engineers and technicians make decisions with more clarity, faster and support predictive needs of the customer in the services world. Predictive capabilities improve the operational performance of Boeing customers’ fleets, improve crew scheduling, and help with fuel optimization. As he says, “You take a business metric that drives your business, and then you describe what success looks like. You go all the way back to how you do the work. We can think of and we can innovate around digital to make things that much better.” Boeing Global Services is a customer-centric organization. As Ted relates it, “we deliberately designed our services around key segments that serve our customers. That includes supply chain, training and professional services, engineering, global technical operations and digital data analytics…we believe that our domain platform, and knowledge around the world, is unrivalled and allows us to provide this customer-centric solution.” With billionaires throwing money at commercial space travel, how does a long-time aerospace company continue to innovate in the sector? NASA is a customer of theirs and they continue to contribute to the International Space Station. Ted cautions about the race for space and believes that their legacy of development trumps the current push to get more people into orbit. “Nobody needs to be in a rush to do this. We just need to do it right.” He sees Boeing’s recent $450 million investment in Whisk, an autonomous air taxi as a good and responsible example of partnership in future tech. “They have a lot of experience in building these types of vehicles, and know the regulatory aspects and safety aspects of them.

Best-Selling Author, ex-Coke CMO and Marketing Visionary Sergio Zyman spoke with The Reboot Chronicles about what was said to be an epic fail in marketing (remember the introduction of New Coke?). As the first person to EVER hold the title of Chief Marketing Officer, he should know! Lots of good nuggets in this episode, from his thoughts on pandemic marketing to why marketers are still focusing way too much on TV—including $6 mil. Super Bowl Ads. We had to, of course, address the elephant in the marketing room of the introduction of New Coke. So was it the debacle it was reputed to be? For those of you not around in the ‘80s it was all over the media. A guy at Coke dared to do what pretty much every soft drink in the world does now on a regular basis: introduce a new flavor. But here, someone was messing with an iconic brand. In response to the onslaught of the Pepsi Generation (that’s what young people drink!) Sergio backed the introduction of an updated formulation for Coke. Turns out there were a whole lot more lovers of the classic formulation than the company expected. Within a month, “Classic Coke” was back, fans were delighted. So what was the real story? As Sergio relates, there is more to it than I ever understood:

Long before the rise of Kim Kardashian or Jeffree Star, there were veritable armies of direct sales people going door to door selling their wares by telling stories and using their personal passion for the products. What happened to that model in the age of the influencer and with a pandemic that seems to never end? To understand direct sales today in health, beauty and wellness, I spoke with Tyler V. Whitehead, new CEO of Arbonne, about how his work and life, embody the principles of the Reboot Chronicles: be nimble, adapt to what life throws at you and always be leading

Heart to Beat: What A Cardiac Surgeon’s Experience Says About Leadership Dr. Brian Lima At the Reboot Chronicles, we most often talk to business executives about their challenges and triumphs. I met Dr. Brian Lima speaking at a conference and decided to up our ante to life or death issues. Dr. Brian Lima is a cardiothoracic surgeon and bestselling author of an inspirational autobiography, Heart to Beat, was awarded the 2020 top doctor of the year. I spoke with him about how his work and life embody the principles of the Reboot Chronicles: be nimble, adapt to what life throws at you and always be leading. Dr. Lima is a global authority on advanced heart failure, heart transplants and medical circulatory devices. In his world, there is no room for failure. How does he keep the stress in check? How did he rise to this position? When I met Dr. Lima, I was struck by his childhood story about how he came to want to be a doctor. Lots of people would probably mention a character they saw on TV as an inspiration. For Dr. Lima, it was at the age of 10 seeing his father have a heart attack. He turned the fear and helplessness into a desire to become a doctor. When he got to a surgery rotation in his training he found his “do what you love” moment.  As he says: “Surgery was love at first sight. And it was just a natural fit. It just seemed to click. I couldn't think of myself doing anything else.” And while surgeons are renowned for their confidence and egos, Dr. Lima is rather modest about his abilities. He’d agree with the old “99% perspiration” adage. Surprisingly, he never felt like heI was the smartest kid in class. “I felt like I always had probably a lower IQ relative to what I would you know, what I thought of as really geniuses with photographic memories.” What was his solution? He worked two or three times as hard and excelled even though it took him longer periods of time to absorb the information. He felt like an underdog but that was part of his motivation.

If, like me, you have found yourself at large conferences wondering where the diversity is, you would have been surprised and delighted to see Shelley Zalis leading groups of like-minded women across the giant trade halls of CES, the esplanades of Cannes Lion or the conference rooms of the World Economic Forum.. Shelley, who built her career in market research, responded to a need for connection, first among women, now among all those seeking greater diversity and inclusion in an organization called The Female Quotient. From its beginnings as an ad hoc networking organization, the group has expanded to take on representation of women in media and mentorship of the next generations of leaders. What started as “The Girls Lounge” has turned into the “Equality Lounge” and now embraces male attendees as well. Before Covid, it was operating as pop ups at 70 major conferences around the world. I sat down with Shelley to talk about her journey.

We now welcome onto The Reboot Chronicles Tom Deierlein. Bronze Star and Purple Heart Recipient and serial entrepreneur.  On this Veterans Day, we are honored to have Tom, a 1989 graduate of West Point, who is also an Airborne Ranger, Wounded Warrior and angel investor. Tom was recently named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year, Greater Washington and is the co-founder and current CEO of a major systems integrator that specializes in data center solutions for the Federal government. But unlike most of us, Tom (at the age of 38) had a call to duty that took him to the frontlines of Iraq leading a regiment. A sniper cut short his service. He not only had to learn how to walk again, he had to reboot his business and personal life as he reentered the civilian world.

I recently sat down with Christopher Gavigan, the founder of Honest Company, (which had a wildly successful IPO this year) to talk about Prima, his latest venture. With this company he is boldly going into the premium CBD space, separating the “woo woo” from science, and in the process bringing pain and sleep relief to a Covid weary world. Chris started thinking about CBD products before he teamed up with Jessica Alba to launch the Honest Company in 2012. His latest venture went on hold as he built one of the most successful subscription-based CPGs of recent times. He’s someone who understood the potential for purpose driven, natural, healthy, clean nontoxic lifestyle goods. He’s also a champion of human health social entrepreneurship, and author of a bestselling book I like called Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home.

Keep learning, even at home The COVID-19 pandemic closed offices and schools around the world last year. 1.6 billion students around the world had their schools closed in April 2020 or 90% of all students. My partner is an assistant principal at a K-12 school in Colorado, and I have witnessed first-hand the new challenges that she and all educators and learners have had to navigate. On the Reboot Chronicles podcast, I recently interviewed Jeff Maggioncalda, Board Member at Silicon Valley Bank and CEO of Coursera, which provides anyone anywhere with access to online courses and degrees from world-class universities and companies. Coursera, which was once known as the Craigslist of education, enrolled 30 million new learners in 2020 and grew revenues by 64% year over year. Lifelong, “chunky” learning has moved from a nice to have to a must do! The world is moving and changing faster than ever, so it is critical for everyone to continue to learn new skills to stay relevant and grow personally and in their careers. Higher education reinvents itself Jeff detailed how Coursera was not a business at all when it started, and grew from the “Craigslist of Education” to a multi-platform business. Initially it only offered free courses directly to consumers. Many top universities, expanded their businesses when they began publishing their content and supplying it to global audiences through Coursera. Now as a business, Coursera has three institutional channels—one for businesses, one for campuses and one for governments. “What they're all looking for is really high quality, online courses that they can get and use for their constituents,” said Jeff of their customers. The higher education business model is under pressure and somewhat fragile. Their curriculum is an institution’s core offering or the family jewels. However, from Jeff’s point-of-view, tools like Coursera are allowing the higher education sector to reinvent itself. Universities are collaborating and licensing content from other academic institutions. This is very similar to textbooks, but just with the digital mechanism that empowers speed and scale.

There is more content available to consumers than ever before. Content that stimulates almost all our senses -- streaming video, podcasts, short social clips, blogs and much more. With so many content options, creators have to produce high quality content to be rewarded. And the more that quality content is rewarded, the more incentive there is for brands and creators to elevate the content they are making. My recent guest on the podcast, Triangle Capital Partner, Richard Kestenbaum believes this pattern has us in the golden age of content. Richard is an expert on consumer products, apparel, retail and digital markets, co-author of three books on finance and computer programming as well as a Forbes contributor. I also recently contributed a Forbes article about the creator economy that explored how influencers and content are reshaping retail and the consumer experience. Amway, an unexpected leader, essentially created the influencer economy by working with and launching entrepreneurs—which is really what creator/influencers are.

Many challenges that companies face stem from a disconnect between sales and marketing teams. Finger pointing between the two departments, who ultimately have the same end-goal, can infect an organization. Next to reputational damage, it is a CEO’s worst nightmare. I recently welcomed back a great leader and friend to the Reboot Chronicles podcast, Scott Miller, best-selling author, fellow podcast host, leadership coach, columnist and advisor to FranklinCovey, to talk about his latest book, Marketing Mess to Brand Success. Inspired to help sales and marketing teams get on the same page, Scott’s new book was pulled from his 10 years of experience as a public company CMO and various sales and leadership roles. He strongly believes that sales and marketing have to “stop the finger pointing, get on the same boat and start rowing the same direction.” Similar to the other books in his Mess series, this book outlines 30 challenges that he had in his marketing role which every marketer needs to understand and learn from his mistakes. No matter what you are doing, you will enjoy his new book. I laughed at many of the challenges when reading the book as they were messes I’ve participated in, in my past CMO and CRO roles. Bruise hard and heal fast While it sounds painful, to bruise hard and heal fast is valuable life advice. Throughout all aspects of our lives, lots of people give unsolicited feedback. This is especially true for marketers, because everyone thinks they can put on their marketing cap and give you their opinion on your campaigns and branding efforts. Scott advises to be the open-minded marketer who is open to other stakeholders’ insights. Take the feedback. Forget the bad suggestions. Implement the good. Then heal fast and pivot. Don’t go down with one campaign that you’re especially passionate about. Think longer-term about protecting the power you have over the brand. Good advice, many of us can relate to, I definitely fell on some swords I should not have when I was a CMO of a large B2B company in my 20s and when CMO of LG Zenith.

Serial CEO and entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman has had his hands in a number of different ventures, including Priceline, a Grammy-winning jazz album, an Emmy Award-winning television show and a best-selling book. On this episode of the Reboot Chronicles, I spoke with Jeff about 1871, the travel industry, helping entrepreneurs, the current financial craze of SPACs and crowdfunding and how to successfully scale your business. Inspired by 1871 As the chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship network, Jeff’s focus is to create ecosystems for entrepreneurs in any geography and ecosystems, allowing for a breadth of experiences and backgrounds. Jeff was inspired early on by our Chicago-based incubator 1871, ranked the top global business incubator, with over $1 billion of funding associated with the member companies since inception. We have various corporate and entrepreneurial programs, with hundreds of startups and DEI initiatives for women, Hispanics, African-Americans, Veterans and Neighborhood Accelerators. Jeff and the Global Entrepreneurship team are also focusing on initiatives for female entrepreneurs and minorities, ensuring that they have the resources to succeed and grow their companies. The Art of Scaling Jeff and I have been deeply involved in scaling businesses, which led to an interesting conversation about how every startup is different. It’s not enough to provide generic advice to an entrepreneur—you need to assess the business, people and market to give advice situationally. While some might need examples of how to pitch investors, others might require direct funding and scaling help. As scalers, we exist to create the experiences and space that early stage, growth stage and corporate innovators need while they build extraordinary businesses. Unreasonable Expectations Working with one of his mentees, Daniel Epstein, Jeff’s involved in the Unreasonable Group, which was named after the George Bernard Shaw quote that reasonable people adapt to the world around them, while unreasonable people expect to adapt to them. The idea behind the group is that entrepreneurs are the people most likely to solve the world’s biggest problems, so they focus on social entrepreneurship. To play into the idea of being “unreasonable,” the team spent over 100 days on a research ship, dedicating different boat decks to various initiatives. For example, the fifth deck was an incubator, where mentors would meet with entrepreneurs and help them grow their start-ups—sounds like the area I’d hang out in! Mentors would join the ship as they circumnavigated the globe, creating a collective of investors that companies could tap into for all aspects of their growth strategy. While this might not have been your traditional cruise ship, participants enjoyed themselves, and over $4.5 billion was raised though this and the other Unreasonable initiatives so far.