Thoughts-for-Tuesday the Podcast

In this episode, Suzanne Bates sits down with Sandi Fenwick, CEO of Boston Children’s Hospital, the world's largest, and leading center of pediatric medical, and health research. In addition to celebrating their 150th anniversary, Boston Children’s was just named the number 1 children’s hospital in the nation by US News and World Report for the sixth year in a row. Sandi talks with us about the challenges she faces day-to-day leading a hospital with over 12,000 employees. She also shares with us the immense amount of rapid change and discovery that Boston Children’s sees daily and the importance of having effective communication techniques to ensure all operations run smoothly.

In this episode, Suzanne Bates sits down with Gary Ambrosino, President and CEO of TimeTrade, a high growth tech company on the leading edge of the online appointment scheduling wave. Since taking over as CEO in 2014, Gary has been able to grow TimeTrade at a 30% growth rate year over year. Gary shares his views on the importance of brand loyalty and creating a “trust equation” between the buyer and seller, how developing a clear vision that team members can get behind is critical to any business’s success, and how minimizing risks and building trust within teams should be priorities for any CEO.

In this episode, Suzanne Bates sits down with Jack Roche, CEO of The Hanover Insurance Group, a property and casualty insurer. Prior to being named CEO, Jack ran Hanover’s biggest line of business and was part of a ten-year plan to transform the company. Now after a year as the CEO of The Hanover, Jack shares with us how he has been able to drive transformation in an industry not know for its appetite for change. He also discusses how to differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace and shares his perspective on rising through the ranks to become a chief executive officer.

In this episode, Suzanne Bates sits down with Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap, an E-commerce payment services provider. After leaving ACI Worldwide where he grew the company’s revenue from $300 to $900 million, Ralph started his own business, Bluesnap. Ralph shares with us why he decided to stop climbing the corporate ladder and become an entrepreneur, what aspects of his leadership style have led to BlueSnap’s immense growth, and the importance of earning your team’s buy-in on the company’s vision.

The retail industry is one in which there is constant change and fierce competition. Live from the Aldo Headquarters in Montreal, Suzanne Bates sits down with David Bensadoun, CEO of The Aldo Group. In this episode, David discusses his early years as an entrepreneur, followed by his transition into his family’s business (Aldo) where he eventually took over as the CEO. Now in a time where E-commerce is transforming the retail industry, David shares his leadership tactics and how he has been able to build a successful growth strategy for Aldo. 

In this episode, Suzanne Bates sits down with Ed Kinnaly, CEO of Bauer Hockey, Maverick & Cascade Lacrosse. Ed shares with us how he fell in love with the sport of hockey growing up and how his passion for the game shaped his career in the sports industry. Ed also discusses his decision to leave Bauer to return to his former company Nike, and ultimately come back to Bauer as CEO to lead the company in times of turmoil to sustain the culture of performance and innovation to drive growth. In addition, hear why Ed calls his meeting spaces “the locker room” and why he encourages constructive conflict amongst his team.

In this interview, Suzanne Bates sits down with Nicole Sahin, CEO of Globalization Partners, to discuss the complicated but rewarding world of global business. Nicole shares with us how growing her company 1,600% over the last three years led to increasing the size of her staff to minimize risk. Nicole also uncovers the challenges of doing business globally and shares how her team has overcome certain obstacles to stay on the right path and continue driving sustainable growth.

In this episode, Suzanne Bates sits down with Tim Hebert, former CEO of Atrion and now CEO/Founder of Trilix, where he discusses how he grew Atrion to a $168 million dollar company with an average growth rate of 22% year over year. Tim also shares his approach to hiring and retaining top talent, qualities he feels are essential for any leader to have to be successful, and advocates for developing meaningful relationships and establishing a "co-creation" mentality with clients.

Growth is hard for all companies, and sustaining that profitable growth is an even more difficult task. In this episode, Suzanne Bates sits down with Corey Thomas, CEO of Rapid7, to talk about his experience and success in leading growth in an industry-leading, IT security company. Since Corey took over as CEO in 2012, the company has gone public, more than quadrupled its revenues, as well as quadrupled its workforce. But this growth success did not come without some bumps in the road along the way. Corey discusses the challenges he has faced and the importance of leading and inspiring others in times of turmoil in order to achieve long term, sustainable growth.