Episode 206

Why 60-90% of Strategies Fail and How to Execute with Precision with Monte Pedersen

In Episode 206 of The Business Development Podcast, Kelly Kennedy sits down with Monte Pedersen, a globally recognized strategy execution expert with over 35 years of experience. Monte shares his insights into why 60-90% of strategies fail, emphasizing the critical gap between planning and execution. He outlines how businesses often craft ambitious strategies but fall short due to unclear goals, lack of accountability, and insufficient leadership commitment. Monte introduces practical frameworks for bridging this gap, including clear diagnoses, actionable initiatives, and consistent follow-through. Drawing from his extensive career and the lessons learned in corporate leadership, he provides a roadmap for leaders looking to turn vision into tangible results.

The conversation also delves into the transformative power of leadership and personal branding in today's business landscape. Monte highlights how leaders can inspire teams by connecting strategy to purpose and empowering individuals to execute effectively. Drawing from his own journey, including his success in building a LinkedIn following of over 200,000, he emphasizes the importance of authenticity, simplicity, and process in leadership and execution. Packed with actionable advice and inspiring anecdotes, this episode offers invaluable insights for entrepreneurs, executives, and aspiring leaders aiming to overcome the pitfalls of strategy execution and achieve sustained success.


Key Takeaways:

1. Most strategies fail because of a lack of focus on execution, with 60-90% never being fully implemented.

2. Clear goals and actionable initiatives are essential for turning strategy into results.

3. Leadership must prioritize alignment and accountability to ensure effective execution.

4. Execution is not intuitive; it requires a managed process and consistent follow-through.

5. Organizations don't execute strategies—individuals do, making personal accountability critical.

6. Strategy should be treated as a long-term vision, not constrained by yearly calendars.

7. Success often comes from simplifying processes and making them repeatable.

8. Leadership is about serving, empowering, and inspiring teams, not focusing on personal accolades.

9. Building a personal brand is essential in the modern era, offering influence and connection opportunities.

10. Courageous leadership, including having difficult conversations, is necessary to drive meaningful change.


Links referenced in this episode:


Companies mentioned in this episode:

  • CDA Group
  • Sodexo Education Services
  • Off Campus Solutions
  • Capital Business Development
  • CapitalBD
  • Aramark
  • Movement Mortgage
Transcript
Kelly Kennedy:

Welcome to episode 206 of the Business Development Podcast and today it is my absolute pleasure to bring you Monty Pedersen, a world renowned strategy execution Expert.

Kelly Kennedy:

With over 35 years of experience.

Kelly Kennedy:

Monty is going to teach us about the secrets to mastering strategy execution, unlocking leadership potential and harnessing the transformative power of a personal brand.

Kelly Kennedy:

Stick with us, you are not going to want to miss this episode.

Podcast Introduction:

The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.

Podcast Introduction:

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

Podcast Introduction:

And we couldn't agree more.

Podcast Introduction:

This is the Business of Development Podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and broadcasting to the world.

Podcast Introduction:

Get expert business development advice, tips and experiences and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs and business development reps.

Podcast Introduction:

You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by Capital Business Development, CapitalBD CA.

Podcast Introduction:

Let's do it.

Podcast Introduction:

Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

Podcast Introduction:

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy:

Hello.

Kelly Kennedy:

Welcome to episode 207.

Kelly Kennedy:

Six of the Business Development Podcast and today we bring an absolute rock star in the field of strategy and execution.

Kelly Kennedy:

Today I'm bringing you Monty Peterson.

Kelly Kennedy:

Monty is the principal of the CDA Group and he boasts a distinguished career marked by his unwavering commitment to leadership and strategy execution.

Kelly Kennedy:

to establish his own firm in:

Kelly Kennedy:

The CDA Group LLC specializes in strategy execution management for senior executives and their businesses, providing one on one coaching, senior leadership, team development and hands on training for frontline personnel.

Kelly Kennedy:

Monty's extensive experience includes his roles as Regional Vice President at Sodexo Education Services and Senior Vice President at Off Campus Solutions.

Kelly Kennedy:

It has equipped him with the insights and the skills necessary to transform organizations into high performing entities.

Kelly Kennedy:

Monty's approach centers on the belief that the ability to execute is the ultimate leadership identity.

Kelly Kennedy:

He is dedicated to embedding the discipline of strategy execution into the daily management practices of his clients teams ensuring alignment, accountability and continuous improvement.

Kelly Kennedy:

His passion for helping others avoid the pitfalls he encountered in his corporate tenure drives his full time focus on strategy execution.

Kelly Kennedy:

million views in:

Kelly Kennedy:

A lifelong learner and an advocate for true human leadership, Monty's dedication to excellence is not just professional but deeply personal as he strives to make every day an opportunity to be a better Human and leader.

Kelly Kennedy:

Monty, it's an absolute honor to have you on the show.

Monty Pedersen:

Thanks, Kelly.

Monty Pedersen:

I appreciate that.

Monty Pedersen:

And I try not to read my own press clippings, but that sounded pretty impressive.

Monty Pedersen:

And if I may, if we could start at the end, that last part that you talked about, I think that's an appropriate place to begin, because what undergirds everything that I do is, is the purpose of sort of business in general, if that makes sense.

Monty Pedersen:

That business I see as the greatest economic force for good on the planet, and it's an awesome responsibility, and that if we all took it as seriously as we should, we'd be helping a lot more people than, than just the people that we personally touch.

Monty Pedersen:

So I really strongly believe in that and that might be important for people to know about me, that, that, that undergirds everything that I do that, you know, if you, if you, if you work hard, you treat your people well and they return the favor to you, and that, that affects, you know, downstream lives of almost, you know, anyone.

Monty Pedersen:

You can't even, you can't even tell where it ends.

Kelly Kennedy:

So the impact that we can have as leaders is unbelievable.

Kelly Kennedy:

hat we can have as leaders in:

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, you are a testament to that.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, you have, you know, hundreds of thousands of followers on LinkedIn and each one of them is looking to you for guidance.

Kelly Kennedy:

When in history was, you know, an individual able to, able to kind of throw that type of, of power around?

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, like I've had Liz ryan on here, 3 million followers, you know, tune in and comment on her stuff on a daily basis or seeing that, those posts and things like that, it's like we have the ability to lead unlike ever before.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is, how are we going to do it?

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, I mean, there's two things to that, right?

Monty Pedersen:

There's the visibility that we can get through the Internet through social media platforms.

Monty Pedersen:

But the second part of it is probably the more important part is what are we going to do with it?

Monty Pedersen:

Because there are people who, who, who look at it, you know, solely from the standpoint of, of access.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, from a business development standpoint, right?

Monty Pedersen:

They think that, that it's this gold mine of person of people that, you know, you can just reach out to and start doing business with.

Monty Pedersen:

And that's not the, that's not the intention.

Monty Pedersen:

I think.

Monty Pedersen:

I think it's an artifact of social media and social capital in general.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

That, that if, if, if, if you deliver quality content, people respond to it, you're able to help them and a business relationship breaks out.

Monty Pedersen:

That's a, that's a good thing for both people.

Monty Pedersen:

But there's a lot of people that see it as a get rich quick scheme.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and, and, and so, you know, so, so what, what you choose to do and how you do it, you know, I think is pretty important to, you know, to get to the kind of numbers that you're talking about and have the kind of influence that is going to be positive and have, have high impact.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah, yeah, no, I agree.

Kelly Kennedy:

I actually find it kind of funny that you brought that up because I, I had a person reach out to me the other, you know, hey, I have an 80,000 following and we're doing nothing with it.

Kelly Kennedy:

What, you know, in your opinion, what should I do with it?

Kelly Kennedy:

And honestly, I didn't have an answer for him, Monty.

Kelly Kennedy:

I was like, you know what?

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm not the right person to ask about this.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm not sure what you should do with your following.

Kelly Kennedy:

Right.

Kelly Kennedy:

At the end of the day, you have that following because you're providing value.

Kelly Kennedy:

In my mind, just keep doing what you're doing because obviously you're helping the world.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, if, if you have to ask that question, I think you, you've really got to do some soul searching and consider what it is, what it is you're doing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah, it was, it was a very successful CEO, actually, and he has multiple, multiple companies.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I think in his mind, he's thinking, I have all these followers and we do absolutely nothing with them.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, in your opinion, like, what is the right thing for, you know, a CEO with a level, with a following like that?

Kelly Kennedy:

What, what should they do with that?

Kelly Kennedy:

Because obviously they built it by providing value about their company, by helping a certain industry.

Kelly Kennedy:

Is that not the point?

Monty Pedersen:

That's part of the point, but I think, I think the bigger point is, is that, that that CEO has the opportunity to affect all of their stakeholders with, with their influence.

Monty Pedersen:

And again, there aren't, there aren't a, I would describe, There aren't a ton of.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, there's 950 million people on LinkedIn, but not a lot of CEOs.

Monty Pedersen:

And again, some of it's a time issue.

Monty Pedersen:

Some, you know, but if you're thinking about it, right, your social capital as an organization, as a CEO, your digital footprint.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

Your branding, like what we were talking about before we went live, that's your platform.

Monty Pedersen:

And you can talk to your employees, you can talk to your customers, you can talk to prospective employees, prospective customers.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, there's really no limit to who you can reach and the conversations that you can start that just may be, you know, really positive and alter the course of your business, you know, maybe at a time when you really need it.

Monty Pedersen:

So I think CEOs have to, have to leverage it and again, not think of it in terms of sort of an Instagram, Facebook TikTok mentality.

Monty Pedersen:

Like, you know, I'm, you know, I'm old established and, you know, I have a reputation, but, you know, that's not it at all.

Monty Pedersen:

It's really just connecting with, you know, the right people that are going to, that you're going to have a positive impact on and they can potentially help you where some.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yes, yes.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I would say, like, since launching this podcast, you know, the greatest thing that has happened from this has been the amazing connections, both in person and digital, that I've been able to make with people because of the content that I put out to the world.

Kelly Kennedy:

And these have turned into real friendships, Monty.

Kelly Kennedy:

Real, real relationships with real, real people that have provided immense value to my life, both monetarily and personally.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I think that that should be the goal of social media.

Kelly Kennedy:

That should, it's not about the number of followers.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's about, did you create great relationships along that way?

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, I have to, I have to be honest with you.

Monty Pedersen:

I, I, up until:

Monty Pedersen:

Someone just suggested to me after I launched my business that LinkedIn might be a good channel to pursue.

Monty Pedersen:

And now it's eight years later, and just like you, I feel like I've almost earned a PhD just in terms of the knowledge and the people I've met.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, I've had conversations with former CEOs of major corporations, talked with people I never thought I'd have access to.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, it's just, it's an amazing tool, but it, but, but like all things, you know, it's an, it's an investment.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's right.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's right.

Kelly Kennedy:

And, you know, you can't just have a social media account and leave it blank or like, not contribute and think it's going to grow.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, you're right, it is.

Kelly Kennedy:

It sometimes feels like another job.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm getting a lot better at managing my social media and making sure that we're putting out great content, that we're actually creating more content.

Kelly Kennedy:

When I, when I created this podcast.

Kelly Kennedy:

I wasn't sure, you know, I didn't come from a media background.

Kelly Kennedy:

I didn't come from a podcasting background.

Kelly Kennedy:

I started from ground level and started talking to a wall and learned the whole thing on my own, the production on my own, how to manage a social media on my own.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, I'll be honest, Monty, I am still learning every single day, and we're improving every single day, but it is a lot to learn and it's a lot to manage.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And 206 episodes is a testament to all that.

Monty Pedersen:

So you don't, you don't get that far without, you know, some, some.

Monty Pedersen:

Some level of sacrifice.

Monty Pedersen:

I, I remember one of the podcasts I listened to.

Monty Pedersen:

I'm trying to think of the marketing guru who, who writes all in the short tidbits all the times, but he's very well respected.

Monty Pedersen:

And this particular podcast that I listened to, he was trying to get him on his show.

Monty Pedersen:

And, you know, I mean, this guy's like, Liz Ryan, like, he's got millions of followers.

Monty Pedersen:

And he just said to him, call me when you, when you've done your 75th or your 100th episode.

Monty Pedersen:

And I think that was his way of saying, you know, you know, go out and do something and commit to it, and then I'll know that, you know, this is worth my time in terms of, you know, investing in your audience.

Monty Pedersen:

So, yeah, yeah, it's a good thing.

Kelly Kennedy:

I actually agree with that.

Kelly Kennedy:

I actually do.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think people of your stature, like, the reality is, if you showed up to every single podcast that you were invited to, you would have no time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like, and I think it's really important for, for my fellow podcasters to understand that I did not get high quality guests like Monty until, you know, now, until way, way later in my journey.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I had to earn the right to have these conversations.

Kelly Kennedy:

I had to, I had to put in the effort and build my own ability, build my own show, build our own following so that there is value for Monty too.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because Monty's time is incredibly, incredibly valuable.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I think we need to remember that.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think sometimes as podcasters, it's easy to forget that the people, people on the other side of the line are actually people who are trying to manage their time just like we are.

Kelly Kennedy:

And this is an hour to an hour and a half out of Monty's day that he could be using to generate real revenue for his company.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so I've gotten to a point of just graciousness and appreciation, and I'm thankful and Honored to be able to bring on guests like you at this point in our career.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, it's a great perspective to have.

Monty Pedersen:

I appreciate you sharing that.

Kelly Kennedy:

Well, Monty, you know, bring us back to the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

How did you end up on this, on this journey?

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, it's interesting.

Monty Pedersen:

Like, like so many people.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and again, I'm a.

Monty Pedersen:

Just, just so, just so your audience knows, I'm a latent baby boomer.

Monty Pedersen:

So, you know, I, I grew up with parents who were of a.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, my, my parents are both high school graduates and in fact, they're still alive today.

Monty Pedersen:

They're, they're both 88 and in fairly good health.

Monty Pedersen:

So that's a, that's a, that's a good thing.

Monty Pedersen:

But, you know, I, I was raised to kind of, you know, in a blue collar background that, that, you know, where your parents say they want more for you than what they had.

Monty Pedersen:

And, you know, so their vision for, you know, all of their kids was really to, you know, go to college.

Monty Pedersen:

And, you know, back then it was to get a good job, you need a good education, right?

Monty Pedersen:

And that was sort of drilled into you.

Monty Pedersen:

So, you know, so, you know, I went to college and, and, you know, had a, had a good time, but was pretty aimless, you know, you know, when it was all said and done, you know, I did, I did finally earn a degree.

Monty Pedersen:

But it, you know, it took it a lot.

Monty Pedersen:

But the thing about it was, is as I worked all the way through college and the way I, you know, the way I, you know, financed my way through college, if you will, was was working in hospitality and, you know, in food service on, you know, on college and university campuses.

Monty Pedersen:

And so, you know, when I got out, it just sort of seemed like a natural.

Monty Pedersen:

I was a journalism sociology major.

Monty Pedersen:

And, you know, journalism was a highly competitive field.

Monty Pedersen:

And just looking back on what, you know, mainstream media has become, I think I dodged a huge bullet in terms of not pursuing that as a, as a career.

Monty Pedersen:

Chances are I probably would have failed pretty quickly, but I had a passion for writing and I enjoyed that aspect and that's really all I knew.

Monty Pedersen:

But I knew that I liked people and I liked working in hospitality because it was something that it seemed like the more I did of it, you know, the more I learned, you know, cooking banquets, bartending, the more skills that I added to my, you know, to my repertoire, the better I was at it.

Monty Pedersen:

And so I just sort of seemed like a natural.

Monty Pedersen:

So I, you know, so I basically just answered an ad and started, you know, working for A contract service management company.

Monty Pedersen:

By this time, mind you, I had had about four years in, you know, working, you know, at the school where I went to school and you know, they of course hired me and, and that started my, you know, almost, you know, 35 year career, you know, in hospitality.

Monty Pedersen:

That, that allowed me to grow and, and, and you know, so, and then here's the interesting thing, Kelly, is that I, you know, if I look back on my career, you know, it was very, it was very successful and, and did a lot of things for me and you know, helped put my kids through college and just, you know, do a lot of things.

Monty Pedersen:

But towards the end, the last four or five years, the business became what was already highly competitive, but it became highly commoditized as a result of that competition.

Monty Pedersen:

There were three major players and we just ate each other's lunch.

Monty Pedersen:

We traded business and it really got to the point where leadership was.

Monty Pedersen:

We had taken so much out of the business, out of the margins in the business to try and maintain our market share that there was no money to do some of the things that we really needed to do to differentiate ourselves and succeed.

Monty Pedersen:

So it was a lot of the last four or five years were just pretty brutal.

Monty Pedersen:

Leadership didn't really respect my ability to manage.

Monty Pedersen:

They, they sort of dictated to us what, you know, what they wanted us to do.

Monty Pedersen:

And so, you know, I knew, you know, that the end was near, that, you know, something was, something was going to happen soon.

Monty Pedersen:

And I, you know, I actually did a.

Monty Pedersen:

So I spent 25 years with one organization, Aramark, if people are familiar with that, and that's a Philadelphia based service provider.

Monty Pedersen:

They, if you remember versus Services in Canada, they, they acquired versa during my, during my tenure with them.

Monty Pedersen:

So their presence probably grew in Canada a little bit at that time.

Monty Pedersen:

But anyway, So I did 25 years with earmark and I never thought I wanted to leave.

Monty Pedersen:

And then, you know, I just, I got a bad boss.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And I was doing something important for the organization and you know, he wasn't making my life too comfortable.

Monty Pedersen:

And so their biggest competitor came along and had recruited me and, and at the, I had never listened before.

Monty Pedersen:

I'd been approached several times before and I just wasn't interested because I like my organization and never thought I wanted to leave.

Monty Pedersen:

But they just kind of called at the right time and I had the conversation and, and it led to some really good things for me that you know, the, you know, working with, you know, off Campus Solutions.

Monty Pedersen:

You mentioned that, you know, their subsidiary was a, you know, A tech startup that they had bought for their business.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, another great case study story for later maybe, But I got, I got to do some things I had never done before and was really appreciative of that.

Monty Pedersen:

But then, you know, the business, the business started to crash.

Monty Pedersen:

And along about that time, one of my clients and I'd worked in the higher education market, so the largest percentage of my business were, you know, colleges and universities across the Midwest.

Monty Pedersen:

And one of my clients was a major big ten university.

Monty Pedersen:

And I had a team on that campus.

Monty Pedersen:

And it turns out my district manager, his wife had worked for this gentleman who created a strategy execution management system.

Monty Pedersen:

He's a gentleman who was working in the aerospace business out in Southern California.

Monty Pedersen:

And he had a boss that came to him.

Monty Pedersen:

Not a boss, I'm sorry, a client who came to him and said, Wayne, Wayne Nelson is his name.

Monty Pedersen:

But he said, wayne, my people don't understand what I'm trying to do.

Monty Pedersen:

I need a system or something that gets them connected to what we're trying to achieve.

Monty Pedersen:

And Wayne, you know, like all good consultants, took his, took that client's problem to heart and went home to his wife, who was an Organizational Development PhD, and explained it to her.

Monty Pedersen:

,:

Monty Pedersen:

So they basically created a paper based system that they could go back to their client and said here, if we do this, we think this will pull your people into what you're trying to accomplish.

Monty Pedersen:

And it works so well that within four years, Wayne went from just general business consulting to making it his whole business.

Monty Pedersen:

So anyway, Wayne Nelson was now living in Bloomington, Indiana and met my district manager's wife and employed her.

Monty Pedersen:

And through that relationship got to know my district manager.

Monty Pedersen:

And Wayne essentially gave that team, my team, his system and trained them on it.

Monty Pedersen:

And when I inherited the account, I learned about it.

Monty Pedersen:

And so this was about, around:

Monty Pedersen:

So I was actually kind of a student or a client of this system before I, I decided.

Monty Pedersen:

But once I learned the system and I saw how effective it had been with my team, I just said to myself, holy cow, if I ever, if I ever get away from this field, and I know that time is coming soon, I could see myself doing this because if just in looking back, if I had had it and the level of responsibility that I had, I could have helped a lot more people and I could have probably helped the organization, you know, significantly achieve more as part of that.

Monty Pedersen:

So, so yeah, in:

Monty Pedersen:

My ticket to leave.

Monty Pedersen:

I took it.

Monty Pedersen:

And it probably took me all of about one or two weeks to decide.

Monty Pedersen:

I'm gonna.

Monty Pedersen:

I'm gonna start a.

Monty Pedersen:

Start a firm.

Monty Pedersen:

And it sort of focused on leadership training, but essentially I'm gonna work on strategy execution with, you know, with businesses and organizations.

Monty Pedersen:

And I'm going to try and, you know, teach people to avoid, you know, what I learned over the course of nearly three decades.

Kelly Kennedy:

Wow.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, one of the questions that I immediately have is I think a lot of companies, they.

Kelly Kennedy:

They don't even have a strategy.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I know that sounds.

Kelly Kennedy:

I know that sounds funny, but, like, how many companies.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've been at so many companies, and I don't think I've had one of them ever sit down and lay out and say, kelly, this is the plan for how we are going to accompl our goals over the next year.

Kelly Kennedy:

Two years, five years.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think there's like hundreds and thousands or hundreds of thousands of companies that don't even have a strategy.

Kelly Kennedy:

The strategy is don't fail by any means necessary.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And it's pretty easy to understand why when you.

Monty Pedersen:

When you sort of peel back the layers of the onion, because most organizations have tried strategy, and they've just not.

Monty Pedersen:

They've just not understood it at a level that they need to.

Monty Pedersen:

And I think.

Monty Pedersen:

I think, you know, consultants like me and other organizations have just overwhelmed them and made it more complicated than what it really needs to be.

Monty Pedersen:

And so they've just gone back to a set of performance metrics.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

Let's, you know, let's just add 10% to this year's budget and let's try and hit this number.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, you know, some strategies are as simple as that.

Monty Pedersen:

So that's one of the primary reasons why I'm in this field, is because there are experts on the strategy side and there are some expertise, although it's not quite as common as the strategy side.

Monty Pedersen:

But there's just this huge gap in between that even if I had a good strategy, I don't know how to get to the results.

Monty Pedersen:

So I almost use the metaphor of a bridge where someone's standing on one side with their strategy, you know, in their building tools, in their materials, and they're trying to figure out how they craft the path to execute to get to the results that they need.

Monty Pedersen:

And so that's essentially, you know, what my mission is, to fulfill that gap, get people understanding what strategy is demystifying, simplifying the process of strategy and execution and showing people a repeatable methodology that allows them, you know, to, to, to make that, to make that jump.

Monty Pedersen:

Because it's, it's not, it's not as complicated as, as people make it seem.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and when you really, when you really sit down and you look at it, it helps to have a good strategy, really does, as, you know, and, and then, and then that's what, that's what elicits, you know, great execution.

Monty Pedersen:

But, you know, you can still execute even if you just have three or four key initiatives that you want to accomplish in a year.

Monty Pedersen:

So we can always get people moving.

Monty Pedersen:

I can meet them where they're at and we can get them moving.

Monty Pedersen:

But over time, we're going to learn how to develop a good strategy and then we're going to learn what it takes to execute on it and get better at it year after year.

Kelly Kennedy:

Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

we're in, it's early new year:

Kelly Kennedy:

There's a lot of people who could benefit from understanding not only how to create a strategy, but obviously will lead into how to execute it to success.

Kelly Kennedy:

But, you know, I was hoping today, Monty, that you would really just give us a 101.

Kelly Kennedy:

We're talking to a lot of entrepreneurs, we're talking to a lot of, you know, executives.

Kelly Kennedy:

We're talking to a lot of people who maybe are looking to start their first company this year and, you know, understanding how to implement a strategy, plan a strategy and execute a strategy, to me could be the difference between failing and succeeding.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so, you know, if you could maybe give us a bit of a hypothetical situation and just run us through how do we create a strategy and then take us through to the proper execution.

Monty Pedersen:

The biggest thing that people get wrong about strategy is just not understanding what it is.

Monty Pedersen:

And I ascribe to, and this is really interesting and might appeal to some of your Canadian viewers, but I have some strong Canadian influence in my thinking.

Monty Pedersen:

And one of them is Roger Martin, you know, from, from Ontario, who's, you know, I, I forget the name of the school of business, but the University of Toronto, but he is one of the foremost leaders on strategy.

Monty Pedersen:

And basically Martin's description of what a strategy is, it's largely a theory that it's a guess.

Monty Pedersen:

It's our best case scenario for how we win on the playing field of our choice.

Monty Pedersen:

And whereas I think that explains, you know, what, what a strategy is, right, and why you don't, you know, why you don't have to, why you don't take it so seriously, right?

Monty Pedersen:

You're, you're you're just making, I guess, so many people think that they have to go out and, you know, they need a, you know, they need a big consultant, McKinsey or Boston Consulting or whoever it is to come in and tell them how to, you know, how to do it.

Monty Pedersen:

And then.

Monty Pedersen:

And then.

Monty Pedersen:

And then go out and do it.

Monty Pedersen:

That's not the way it happens, you know, at all.

Monty Pedersen:

And then the second influence is a gentleman by the name of Richard Rumhalt.

Monty Pedersen:

And if you want to.

Monty Pedersen:

If you want a really good book on strategy, Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rummel.

Monty Pedersen:

I think he wrote that book in:

Monty Pedersen:

But Rummel brings strategy down to three things.

Monty Pedersen:

So whereas I like Martin's description in terms of what it is, Rummel put some meat on the bone by, you know, he talks about it like being a kernel of corn.

Monty Pedersen:

And evidently, I mean, I'm from the Midwest, I should know this.

Monty Pedersen:

A kernel has three components.

Monty Pedersen:

So does.

Monty Pedersen:

So does strategy.

Monty Pedersen:

And the first one is to have a rich or clear diagnosis of your problem.

Monty Pedersen:

So, for example, Southwest Airlines, you know, in the U.S.

Monty Pedersen:

knows them, and, you know, in:

Monty Pedersen:

So, so, you know, their.

Monty Pedersen:

Their diagnosis of.

Monty Pedersen:

Of their strategy was that the common man couldn't afford to fly, right?

Monty Pedersen:

That it was, you know, business people and, you know, executives and took money to fly.

Monty Pedersen:

It was.

Monty Pedersen:

It was expensive.

Monty Pedersen:

And so, you know, he wanted to, you know, become the greyhound of the skies and, you know, make it, you know, make it affordable for.

Monty Pedersen:

For.

Monty Pedersen:

For people to, you know, to fly.

Monty Pedersen:

But there were.

Monty Pedersen:

There were extensive regulations right at the time.

Monty Pedersen:

And a lot of people don't know this, but, you know, Southwest was founded in 67.

Monty Pedersen:

st flight didn't happen until:

Monty Pedersen:

They spent four years fighting regulations, trying to earn the right, you know, to fly.

Monty Pedersen:

And that was at that point in time, it was just around Texas.

Monty Pedersen:

So so obviously, Herb Kelleher and his partner, you know, had a vision, and that was their strategy.

Monty Pedersen:

So their clear diagnosis was that most people can't afford to fly, and there's not a reasonable offering for them in the marketplace.

Monty Pedersen:

And they felt they could fill that void.

Monty Pedersen:

And so that's a pretty rich diagnosis, right, according to Rummel's theory.

Monty Pedersen:

So the second component, the second part of the kernel of strategy is, is to have a guiding policy.

Monty Pedersen:

And a guiding policy is nothing more than a framework that helps you achieve Your achieve your vision or achieve your, you know, reach, you know, your diagnosis.

Monty Pedersen:

And so, you know, in the case of Southwest Airlines, and I just love this about, about them because they're, you know, this permeates their organization.

Monty Pedersen:

But you know, they have three things that they stand for.

Monty Pedersen:

The first thing is low fares.

Monty Pedersen:

The second thing is on time, departures and arrivals.

Monty Pedersen:

It's just, you know, it's a non negotiable.

Monty Pedersen:

We will keep these planes running and keep them on time.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And the third important element to them is to not tolerate anybody who stands in the way of the first two elements.

Monty Pedersen:

So a guiding policy applies to everybody inside the organization and everybody knows what to do because they, you know, they said we're, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna be this low fare, cost effective airline.

Monty Pedersen:

But things have got to run well and they've got to run quickly and we've got to take costs out of the system and you know, we've got to make it function and operate.

Monty Pedersen:

So you know, whether you're a baggage handler or a flight attendant or a gate agent or someone in the, in the front office, you can, you can make decisions based on that guiding policy.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, someone says, you know, we want to, you know, well let's, let's consider serving salads on our planes and you know, they're going to go out of ignore.

Monty Pedersen:

It costs too much money, takes too much time and you know, it doesn't, doesn't fit what we're all about.

Monty Pedersen:

That's our guiding policy.

Monty Pedersen:

So, so, so you can kind of see where a clear, you know, guiding a clear diagnosis and a guiding policy really benefit each other.

Monty Pedersen:

The third element of strategy is to have a coherent set of actions.

Monty Pedersen:

And this is where a lot of organizations fall short.

Monty Pedersen:

And I can tell you the strategies where it falls short is where they create strategies that are sort of pie in the sky, warm and fuzzy, a lot of fluff, sound good, public facing statements, but there's no meat on the bone and you need those coherent actions because that's what you're going to execute against.

Monty Pedersen:

So, so in the case of, in the case of Southwest, you know, defeat, defeat the regulations, right?

Monty Pedersen:

Let's, let's, let's get, you know, let's get our case stated and let's get out there and let's be, let's be able to operate first of all.

Monty Pedersen:

Second thing, let's go to, let's go to these underutilized secondary airports in major cities and let's revitalize them.

Monty Pedersen:

Let's you know, let's rent gate space from them, you know, at a more cost effective rate.

Monty Pedersen:

And we can, and we can compete.

Monty Pedersen:

Let's not have seating assignments.

Monty Pedersen:

Let's only serve peanuts, right?

Monty Pedersen:

You know, let's, let's make, let's make customer service a hallmark of what it is we do.

Monty Pedersen:

Let's make this fun, right?

Monty Pedersen:

People, people may begrudge the fact that they don't have an assigned seat and that they have to board quickly and get off quickly and, but, but, you know, let's make this fun for them.

Monty Pedersen:

So, you know, the flight attendants are, I mean, they hire the right people, right, that they're singing in the aisles and they're making people happy.

Monty Pedersen:

And, you know, people look forward to that time that they spend with Southwest.

Monty Pedersen:

And then the real big one, right, was let's fly point to point.

Monty Pedersen:

Let's just, let's keep our aircraft in the air.

Monty Pedersen:

Let's only use one aircraft, a 737.

Monty Pedersen:

So, you know, everything's consistent and maintenance needs are all met.

Monty Pedersen:

So, so you, everybody knows the story.

Monty Pedersen:

But, but when you lay it out against Rumelt's strategy, Colonel, and saying you need these three actions, you can see why they're successful.

Monty Pedersen:

So just in the scope of understanding these last few minutes, what strategy is and if you apply Rumelt's three kernels to it or three components of a kernel to it, you understand what you need to do.

Monty Pedersen:

And then, and then it's all about execution and then it's about planning and putting that together and, you know, turning sort of the intangible, you know, into results.

Monty Pedersen:

But what I'll say on the execution side from a, you know, from a one on one standpoint, is that it's not intuitive.

Monty Pedersen:

And a lot of people think it is, that if we create and we craft this brilliant strategy, we make assignments, you know, marketing does this, operations does this, sales does this, that everything's just going to come together in the end and it's going to be peachy.

Monty Pedersen:

And never has a bigger load of crap been sold to more people because it just doesn't happen that way.

Monty Pedersen:

Execution is something that you need to manage and you need to pay attention to it.

Monty Pedersen:

And you need to be able to take that strategy and effectively translate it throughout the organization and empower people to act against it and stay connected to it.

Monty Pedersen:

Otherwise you're just going to have a, you know, you're just going to have a disparate group of tools and people that are out there doing what they think is best and, and Again, in some cases, businesses have been doing things certain, you know, long enough that, you know, that they can cover up problems and you know, they can maintain profitability and do those things, but they'll never be high performing.

Monty Pedersen:

So there's this natural, natural flow.

Monty Pedersen:

And one of the things, one of the missions that I'm on personally right now and that I mentioned to you, my partner, Jacob Boven over in Switzerland, that we've sort of identified this huge gap, right, this chasm, this bridge where CEOs and leadership teams are standing on one end, wondering how to get to the other end.

Monty Pedersen:

And that's what we're trying to fill.

Monty Pedersen:

We're trying to fill that void, to create an awareness around strategy and execution and what it takes to get there.

Monty Pedersen:

In addition to that, obviously, for the right people, for the committed organization, that 2% out of the 10% that probably make their strategy annually, the only way you're going to get to high performance is through us, through a system, you know, a repeatable framework and methodology that's going to, you know, that your people, that's easy to understand, that your people are going to learn and they're going to be able to do it year in and year out and improve as a result of it.

Monty Pedersen:

So I really, I mean, I love the system that's the core of my business and what I go to market with.

Monty Pedersen:

But I've just recently come to terms with this idea that we can't get those people to that point unless they really understand what strategy execution is all about.

Monty Pedersen:

And so that's where I've sort of landed.

Monty Pedersen:

And with the help of Jacob, that's who we've launched this recent program with.

Monty Pedersen:

And strategy execution, Unriddled is what it's called, but that's why we've done it and, and where we're at right now.

Kelly Kennedy:

Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

I love that you stopped on process and because, you know, I look back at my career, I've been doing business development at this point for home and business development sales for the Greater part of 18 years.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I didn't really get great at business development until I created a process and followed it on a regular basis.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was consistency and process over time that made me successful.

Kelly Kennedy:

Not, not necessarily amazing talent, but just following a system that I created and following it consistently and when it worked, repeating that system over and over and over again.

Kelly Kennedy:

Now we teach that system here at Capital.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, I coach that system, but it was, it was consistency and a good process over time that led to success.

Kelly Kennedy:

I like that you also talked about the simplicity.

Kelly Kennedy:

The more I could simply simplify the system, the better it was, the easier it was to follow and the easier it was to keep going.

Kelly Kennedy:

But it's funny because it makes sense that it would translate into just about everything, including execution of a plan.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, there's no question that execution's involved in everything that we do.

Monty Pedersen:

And you found it out.

Monty Pedersen:

And here's the world's worst kept secret, right?

Monty Pedersen:

You don't have to have the smartest people in the world.

Monty Pedersen:

You just have to have committed people that understand what you're trying to do and, you know, sell them on your, sell them on your process and the benefits and they'll execute on it.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, they will.

Monty Pedersen:

There's just, I mean, people don't go to work wanting to do a bad job.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's right.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, they want some guidance, they want to be directed, but yet they also want the autonomy to make decisions on their own and to contribute.

Monty Pedersen:

And, you know, when you allow that to happen, when you unleash that in people, you're gonna, you're gonna see some stars, you know, come out of nowhere and, and you've probably, you've probably, you know, found that to be true in your business.

Kelly Kennedy:

Well, like I said, you know, like, I'm pretty good at speaking with people, but if I was not following a process, if I hadn't created something that I could follow on a weekly basis that was repeatable, I would not have been as successful.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was being able to do the same thing over time, consistently, consistently, that made me successful.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because with business development, we're always planning for the future.

Kelly Kennedy:

We're always looking for the future opportunity.

Kelly Kennedy:

And sometimes that opportunity takes three months of consistency for that to come in.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so if you're constantly doing something that's going to lead to more lead generation, you're going to always have leads coming in, even ones that you've been working on for three, six, eight months because you've put in that work consistently.

Kelly Kennedy:

They know who you are.

Kelly Kennedy:

And you don't know when they're going to ring the bell and say it's time to have that conversation.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, that's, that's, that's so important, you know, because, because everybody sells, right?

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, I don't care what it is you're doing, you know, whether you're selling internally or externally, you've got to have that.

Monty Pedersen:

And so, you know, process is, is sort of, you know, king in terms of, you know, in terms of doing that.

Monty Pedersen:

You've got to have something to, you Know, teach and guide and lead your people because it's a, it's a human behavior issue.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

he book Detonate, came out in:

Monty Pedersen:

But what I, what I love about it is, you know, they, they really feel like you have to blow up best practices that, that we've gotten into this.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, for, for decades, right, Businesses have run just, you know, based upon how, how we did things in the previous decade.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

But, but now the, the, the millennials and the Gen Xers and, and the, the Gen Zers, you know, are dominating the workforce.

Monty Pedersen:

And, you know, they're, they're essentially showing us a different way.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

A different way to sell, a different way to work, you know, a way to use technology, you know.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, to our advantage.

Monty Pedersen:

And so you've got these, you've got these people who are kind of proving the boomers wrong, right, and the traditionalists, you know, in terms of how things have to operate.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, we, you know, going back to my story, right, we just thought we needed to, you know, work for a company for 30 years and, you know, get the gold watch and have the, the retirement party.

Monty Pedersen:

And they're, and they're, they're looking at it and going, no, I don't think I want to do that.

Monty Pedersen:

Why would I do that?

Monty Pedersen:

And so, so what are they doing?

Monty Pedersen:

You know, they either like what you're doing and they'll continue to work with you and learn from you.

Monty Pedersen:

They don't like what you're doing.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, they'll probably quit and they'll, they'll get a side gig and they'll figure out what, you know, what they're going to do until they find something else, or they'll take what you're doing and they'll go out and build a better mousetrap and then, and then go out and, and develop that as a business.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and I mean, this is unprecedented in terms of, you know, what we've seen happen in, you know, in business, you know, for decades.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and so that's what we're dealing with.

Monty Pedersen:

And that's, that's why you need a, that's why you need a process.

Monty Pedersen:

Because, you know, these, these kids, I guess I'll call them that because they're very calculated, right?

Monty Pedersen:

They know what they're doing.

Monty Pedersen:

They have a strong digital presence.

Monty Pedersen:

They understand what technology and what social platforms do for them.

Monty Pedersen:

And quite frankly, I think it's going to drive even more success in our economy.

Monty Pedersen:

And AI is only the latest chapter, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

Sure.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's like everything is being designed to simplify almost all systems using AI, which, you know, and, you know, we.

Kelly Kennedy:

AI is a whole nother topic because the reality is it's changing so quickly that trying to keep up with it is almost damn near impossible.

Kelly Kennedy:

I've been, you know, I mean, I've been using it since we launched this podcast for the most part.

Kelly Kennedy:

And like, the amount of changes we've had with AI programs simply in the last year and a half or two years has been absolutely astronomical.

Kelly Kennedy:

But you're right, it's going to change everything.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it's so funny because recently.

Kelly Kennedy:

Well, I guess not recently now, but I had spoken with Liz Ryan and she was really talking about, yeah, like, the future is personal brand.

Kelly Kennedy:

The future is everybody needs to.

Kelly Kennedy:

Needs to be able to look after themselves and have their own skill sets because the days of the gold watch and retirement seem to be long, long gone.

Monty Pedersen:

People are waking up and recognizing that they have a choice and who they work for and what they do.

Monty Pedersen:

And whereas I think that was probably true, you know, in previous generations, people, people got to a point where they just didn't want to start over.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

So they, you know, so they, they remained.

Monty Pedersen:

And again, that.

Monty Pedersen:

That probably drove a good part of my career.

Monty Pedersen:

They have no fear.

Monty Pedersen:

And so what they're proving to others.

Monty Pedersen:

And again, there's, there are people of my age who are, you know, who have been let go.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

They've just been, you know, they rise to a level of salary and, you know, that, you know, call it ageism.

Monty Pedersen:

Don't call it ageism, but basically, you know, organizations weed out people that cost them, you know, money.

Kelly Kennedy:

That's right.

Monty Pedersen:

Especially if they don't feel they're being effective enough.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and, and those people are still willing to work and contribute and, you know, do things and, and they're, they're, I think they're a valuable part of the workforce that, that, you know, right.

Monty Pedersen:

Right now are being neglected.

Monty Pedersen:

So in effect, they're rising up and, and responding by, you know, doing their thing and, you know, personal branding and, you know, creating a digital footprint is, are probably the first, you know, two things they think of.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy:

Well, either way, it's happening and it's happening all over the place.

Kelly Kennedy:

And it does seem to be the trending conversation that I've really had over the last year has been a lot of people just chatting about, you know, the power of personal brand.

Kelly Kennedy:

But, you Know, I want to spend some time.

Kelly Kennedy:

We did spend some time on that in the beginning.

Kelly Kennedy:

I do want to spend a little bit of time on it before we, before we end today.

Kelly Kennedy:

But, you know, I want to go back into the execution part because me and you discussed this, you know, in our very first conversation.

Kelly Kennedy:

You were saying, Kelly, you know, like a lot of people are, they're pretty good at making a plan.

Kelly Kennedy:

They're pretty good at making some type of strategy plan.

Kelly Kennedy:

Where it falls short.

Kelly Kennedy:

Short.

Kelly Kennedy:

Where it falls short is the execution.

Kelly Kennedy:

And you mentioned that like most plans, 60 to 90% of them are never able to execute properly.

Kelly Kennedy:

Can we talk about how can we change that?

Kelly Kennedy:

That number is horrible.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, yeah, it really is.

Monty Pedersen:

And it's one that's hard to put an accurate number on because I think people aren't, they aren't honest about it in terms.

Monty Pedersen:

And again, it just may be an artifact of how they did things.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

Because you could.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, holy cow.

Monty Pedersen:

I worked for a $16 billion organization.

Monty Pedersen:

And one of the hallmarks of our CEO, he was a great CEO at the time, no complaints about his leadership, but he always believed in stretch assignments.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

So all of our business plans, and that's really what we followed.

Monty Pedersen:

Right?

Monty Pedersen:

We did, we didn't have a, I mean, there might have been a global strategy or something which, which were just, you know, words developed by the board or, you know, so forth.

Monty Pedersen:

But he, he would hang the number out there pretty, pretty high, aggressively, be very aggressive.

Monty Pedersen:

And if we got to 60 or 70% of it, you know, the leadership would be pretty happy.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, and, and that, the idea of that is just crazy to me.

Monty Pedersen:

But it's, it's indicative of what business leaders do, you know, from an execution standpoint.

Monty Pedersen:

They, you know, they sort of do what works for them and, and that's what, you know, that's why, you know, the majority of these strategies have just been a, you know, a list of performance metrics.

Monty Pedersen:

And you know, at that point you overlook the whole cultural element of what strategy execution can do for your organization.

Monty Pedersen:

You have no common purpose.

Monty Pedersen:

You have, no, again, you may have a long term vision, but you don't do an effective job of communicating it throughout the organization.

Monty Pedersen:

And so you miss that opportunity to get your people united around like Southwest.

Monty Pedersen:

The idea of, you know, people never before flying, you know, getting to get on a plane and go somewhere quickly and cost efficiently.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, another, another, you know, great story along that line of, of execution and relating it back to, you know, to, to culture and common direction and Purpose is in, in America there's a.

Monty Pedersen:

About a 15, I think they might be almost 20 years old now, a mortgage company called Movement Mortgage.

Monty Pedersen:

And they were, they came out of the financial crisis and basically the CEO had this vision where coming out of the crisis and you know, what kind of a debacle that was with homeownership, right, where, you know, they were selling mortgages and putting them in subprime, you know, tranches and, you know, collapse the market.

Monty Pedersen:

So his idea was people are going to want a different kind of experience coming out of.

Monty Pedersen:

Of that crisis.

Monty Pedersen:

So he created this company that was just focused on sort of love and, you know, caring for, you know, caring for people.

Monty Pedersen:

Well, one of the early problems they had as an organization was in the loan processing documents.

Monty Pedersen:

There were just a lot of errors and omissions, you know, being done by the, you know, people in the, you know, in the back of the house.

Monty Pedersen:

And so he got this idea that, you know, there was just something missing.

Monty Pedersen:

Well, the missing element was they weren't seeing the impact of what it is they were doing.

Monty Pedersen:

And so he, so he asked the mortgage companies, the lending partners that they worked with, once you close the sale, take a picture of the new owner with the keys and the, you know, and their loan papers or, you know, whatever.

Monty Pedersen:

But they would get these smiling shots of a single mom with, you know, two kids, you know, being able to, you know, to buy a home.

Monty Pedersen:

And.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, and what he did is he took all these pictures and he posted them on a bulletin board in the loan processing department so all these people could see what, you know, what they were doing and what it contributed to, and it like, cut their error rate, like in half almost, Almost overnight.

Monty Pedersen:

And so, so you, so you see the connection that, you know, having.

Monty Pedersen:

Having a strategy, right?

Monty Pedersen:

Something that.

Monty Pedersen:

A purpose, a common purpose that you want to do, having that vision.

Monty Pedersen:

So you have all these foundational elements and they just don't reach people.

Monty Pedersen:

But you've got to do that.

Monty Pedersen:

You've got to get those connected to people so that they understand their role and that what they're contributing to means something to somebody.

Monty Pedersen:

And then they have purpose.

Monty Pedersen:

So there's a cohesive relationship here that comes from the strategy and then the execution part.

Monty Pedersen:

But the primary execution driver in all of that is this understanding that from our strategy.

Monty Pedersen:

And again, people get this idea that you need a strategy every year, and strategy doesn't happen every year.

Monty Pedersen:

You gotta trash the calendar when it comes to picking a time for strategy to work, because you don't, you Just don't know.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

It's, you know, going back to Roger Martin, it's just your guess.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

So it may take three years, it may take five years.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, who knows, it may take less.

Monty Pedersen:

You have to be prepared to live through multiple years.

Monty Pedersen:

So, so you set strategic initiatives every year that you think get you to that strategy or that, you know, comply with your vision.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

That's, that are directionally correct.

Monty Pedersen:

But those strategic initiatives that you create annually need to be crystal clear if you're going to execute well.

Monty Pedersen:

Because when you write initiatives for each level of the organization that tell that, spell it out in words that those people understand so they know what it is they have to be doing.

Monty Pedersen:

And then when you write clear, relevant and engaging goals for the people you know who are going to drive the completion of those initiatives, it's a multiplier effect.

Monty Pedersen:

Those initiatives then add up to, you know, the strategic initiatives all get accomplished and that directly contributes to the overarching objective of the whole organization.

Monty Pedersen:

So execution has to have, has to have that connectivity and it needs those key drivers.

Monty Pedersen:

You really want to get to a point where execution is intuitive with your people that every year they know that there are going to be four or five key initiatives that the organizations want, wants to accomplish and they and their department may touch two or three of them.

Monty Pedersen:

And from those two or three, they're going to be figuring out what they, you know, what they need to do, you know, goal wise in their department to contribute to those, to those initiatives.

Kelly Kennedy:

Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

So it's like stepping stones, like instead of it just being like, you know, almost a little bit unbearable because it's a long way away to that, to that, to that goal, you essentially have a whole bunch of mini goals that will eventually get you there over time.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

The important thing to remember is that organizations on their own don't execute.

Monty Pedersen:

Individuals execute.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yes.

Monty Pedersen:

And individual performance leads to collective results.

Monty Pedersen:

So when you get people understanding what it is that you want to do and you get them focused like a laser on accomplishing the things that are going to drive those initiatives, then that's where the magic happens.

Monty Pedersen:

And this is the getting back to your original question.

Monty Pedersen:

The reason why execution fails is that most organizations and most leadership teams aren't willing to do what it takes to do that.

Monty Pedersen:

And I love the, I love the James Clear quote, Clear quote that says we tend to romanticize our ideas, but the magic we, we seek is in the work that we're avoiding.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah, I agree, I agree.

Kelly Kennedy:

I would say that most of the time if you're struggling to grow or achieve something, it's the thing you're avoiding.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's, you know, mean the thing that you're avoiding is the thing you need to be doubling down on 90% of the time.

Kelly Kennedy:

That happens in business development, literally all the time.

Kelly Kennedy:

I.

Kelly Kennedy:

I can't tell you how often most the recommendations I'm giving to people are pick up your phone and actually call somebody.

Kelly Kennedy:

Because that's the secret.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's no secret.

Kelly Kennedy:

The secret is no secret.

Kelly Kennedy:

Just get in touch with the people who actually need your products and services, and you'll probably sell some of them.

Monty Pedersen:

That's right.

Monty Pedersen:

That's right.

Monty Pedersen:

When you, when you, when you, when you break it down to the lowest common denominator and you simplify it, that's where.

Monty Pedersen:

That's where it's going to happen.

Monty Pedersen:

And you know what, what people don't get is it's just fundamental human behavior.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

You've got it.

Monty Pedersen:

You've got to.

Monty Pedersen:

If you're going to change anything, you're going to ask a human being to do something different than what they're doing today.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And that's.

Monty Pedersen:

That's all it comes down to.

Kelly Kennedy:

Totally.

Kelly Kennedy:

Totally.

Kelly Kennedy:

No, this has been amazing, Monty.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank you so much.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, I think, I think strategy and execution, like I said, this is the first show we've ever actually had on strategy and execution in 200 episodes, and I appreciate it immensely.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're a leader in that area.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're a leader in leadership.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, I wanted to chat with you.

Kelly Kennedy:

now, just because I feel like:

Kelly Kennedy:

You have a following of, you know, 200,000 people on LinkedIn.

Kelly Kennedy:

Let's chat a little bit about that.

Kelly Kennedy:

You're leading in this area.

Kelly Kennedy:

You've been able to build an amazing personal brand.

Kelly Kennedy:

Can, can you speak to your strategy and why you chose to go that route, or was it just something that happened?

Monty Pedersen:

I started out with the idea that visibility gave you exposure and that if you could meet people.

Monty Pedersen:

And I'm a huge relationship person.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

I think relationships undergird so much.

Monty Pedersen:

It's the reason we're in business.

Monty Pedersen:

So I thought relationships were what I was after, and I got that.

Monty Pedersen:

But I think what I learned was that, you know, there was, there was something bigger there, that when you put out quality content and you helped people and you could, you could see the almost daily, you know, the benefits of, of the content that you're putting out there, that, that inspires you.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

That, that, that motivates you, you know, to, you know, to want to do it.

Monty Pedersen:

And I think maybe for a while, I got caught up in the numbers.

Monty Pedersen:

What was interesting about it, Kelly, was the first three or four years that I was on social media, my numbers didn't grow.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, up until probably about three years ago, maybe I had 20,000 followers.

Monty Pedersen:

But then all of a sudden, about three years ago, it just sort of took off and I started getting, you know, posts with, you know, half a million, three quarter of a million, a million impressions.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and then, and then all of a sudden you're kind of saying, you know, I've ignited a spark here.

Monty Pedersen:

And, and so you, you know, you, you sort of follow that.

Monty Pedersen:

And.

Monty Pedersen:

But, but the idea of it is, is that just put out quality content, meet the right people, create the.

Monty Pedersen:

Create the, you know, the right relationships, help the people that you can.

Monty Pedersen:

And again, you can't help everybody.

Monty Pedersen:

It's a big world out there.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

And there's a lot, you know, 950 million people, obviously not all of them are active, but, you know, sometimes, you know, people show up from places you never thought you, you know, you'd ever.

Monty Pedersen:

You'd ever touch.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And want your help, you know, encourage people, you know, give them, you know, give them courage, you know, give them something, you know, to believe in and understand.

Monty Pedersen:

Because there's a.

Monty Pedersen:

There's a lot of organizations that just aren't doing it.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And I think, I think, you know, education's being reformed somewhat through social media, you know, because you've got.

Monty Pedersen:

You've got topics of, you know, you've got subject matter and you've got topics of conversation that we've never had before, and the only place you can learn it are from the people who are online already doing it.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And so that's where the, you know, the online programming and coursework, I think, is performing it.

Monty Pedersen:

Plus, we have two generations that comprise about 65% of the workforce right now that think, you know, pursuing a college education, you know, when there's no degree in their field for what they're trying to do, doesn't make any sense to them.

Monty Pedersen:

So, you know, they're out there trying to.

Monty Pedersen:

To learn.

Monty Pedersen:

And unfortunately, you know, you run into the major influencers.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

That are just, you know, buying paid ads and cranking people in and out of their system for money.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, I mean, I guess you have to expect that.

Monty Pedersen:

But if, if you're really serious about it and you build a relationship with somebody on, you know, on social media, build your brand, sell your footprint.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, people subscribe to what it is you do, they go to your website and they, you know, they buy into more than just what you post in terms of articles and content.

Monty Pedersen:

You've probably got a friend for life, right?

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And somebody who may be willing to invest in your services if they feel they need that.

Monty Pedersen:

But the way that I looked at it was build the relationships and create that relationship.

Monty Pedersen:

Because even if it doesn't end up in a business transaction, you still have that.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And that, and that's something of value.

Monty Pedersen:

And I think that's what most people don't get about, you know, the whole process.

Monty Pedersen:

At least, at least the people that, you know, are interested in building long term success with their, with their enterprises and their own, you know, their own digital footprint and, you know, market viability.

Kelly Kennedy:

I had a great conversation with a gentleman named Marcus Chan and he said that you should give away 90% and at most charge for 10.

Kelly Kennedy:

And that was his, his kind of motto.

Kelly Kennedy:

And he's like you, he's got a pretty massive following on LinkedIn and he shares it all.

Kelly Kennedy:

He doesn't hold anything back.

Kelly Kennedy:

He's written an amazing book and it just, I believe it was called Six Figure Sales.

Kelly Kennedy:

And yeah, it was just one of those, it was one of those great pieces of advice.

Kelly Kennedy:

And, you know, I mean, I think he's completely on point.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, when we started the business development podcast, I said, why not?

Kelly Kennedy:

I'll just tell them exactly how I do business development.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'll teach them the lessons that I learned.

Kelly Kennedy:

There was nothing in the space for business development.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was completely overlooked.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I remember getting into it and wondering, what the hell should I be doing?

Kelly Kennedy:

And so I just wanted to help the world with this show.

Kelly Kennedy:

And obviously it's turned into something much bigger than just business development.

Kelly Kennedy:

But when I initially started, that was it.

Kelly Kennedy:

It was like, why, you know, I don't want to be.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think now I have the knowledge that I could help past me.

Kelly Kennedy:

When I got into this and didn't know anything about it and there was no resources available, we needed to give back and it was a way that I could.

Kelly Kennedy:

And so it was my way of giving 90%.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I think that is the future of the world.

Podcast Introduction:

Right.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like you can find out just about anything you want to find out on YouTube, on LinkedIn, through podcasts.

Kelly Kennedy:

We live in this amazing time where almost Anything you want to learn is available to you.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think that might be the real challenge that you're seeing with universities, is that people are realizing that they don't need to go to one organization to find this information.

Kelly Kennedy:

A lot of it is readily available to you.

Kelly Kennedy:

Them.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a different time.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

And a lot of the, you know, a lot of the professors and the really, the really smart, active people who see education as being, you know, a real need, they're out there already.

Monty Pedersen:

They're, they're online and they're, they're working through a number of different sources and institutions and, you know, creating even greater value and probably, you know, profiting personally from it, you know, more than if they just, you know, stayed in one place and, and affected, you know, whoever comes through their door and sits in their classroom.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a brave new world.

Kelly Kennedy:

And, you know, while we're getting into that, I did just want to close the show today.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, you've been a leader for over 35 years.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, you've experienced a lot.

Kelly Kennedy:

I'm sure a lot has changed in that time with regards to leadership.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, we're talking to a lot of people in the new year.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, maybe they're new leaders, emerging leaders, or been leaders a long time, but, you know, there's a lot of lessons that you can impart on them.

Kelly Kennedy:

ces of advice here going into:

Kelly Kennedy:

What should they be considering in this new world?

Monty Pedersen:

Well, the biggest thing from a leadership standpoint is, and I like to say it this way, own.

Monty Pedersen:

Own the real estate that you walk on, meaning invest in, you know, invest in your people.

Monty Pedersen:

Obviously, I'm an advocate of truly human leadership, human centric approach that it all starts and ends with people.

Monty Pedersen:

But the reality is, as there are leaders who look at themselves and they sort of take care of themselves, they lead others and they do certain things, but they don't invest in their people.

Monty Pedersen:

And the way I look at owning your own real estate is if, if one of your people fail, you fail.

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, that, you know, you've got to own everything that goes on.

Monty Pedersen:

The good, the bad.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, when, when something happens inside your team or your organization that, that, that shouldn't have happened.

Monty Pedersen:

Are you evaluating your role in, in how that happened first before you start pointing fingers and going after other people?

Monty Pedersen:

And the reason why that's sort of number one on my list is I spent 30 years doing the Opposite, right, Where if somebody screwed up, if somebody failed, that was on them.

Monty Pedersen:

I had my story and I knew what I was doing and I thought it was sound.

Monty Pedersen:

And so that's a very non linear view of leadership, but it's pretty important.

Monty Pedersen:

And so the second one kind of dovetails from that.

Monty Pedersen:

And that's, it's always remember that it's not about you, it's about them.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, that you, you know, leadership ultimately is, is about, you know, getting things done through people.

Monty Pedersen:

Yes, you, yes, you contribute on your own.

Monty Pedersen:

Yes, you guide through information and obviously you're, you're privy to the big picture and other things that you do.

Monty Pedersen:

But when it comes down to it, you're, you're, you're inspiring, empowering and serving people that you haven't within your charge.

Monty Pedersen:

this probably applies to your:

Monty Pedersen:

We really do.

Monty Pedersen:

If you can't call somebody out within your organization.

Monty Pedersen:

Right.

Monty Pedersen:

I mean, assuming you have a psychologically and safe environment, I don't, I don't want people marching into the boss's office and, you know, you know, chewing them out if it's going to get them fired.

Monty Pedersen:

But yeah, we've, we've got to be able to have the difficult conversations with people.

Monty Pedersen:

When someone's screwing up, you've just got to go to them and say, what, what's going on?

Monty Pedersen:

What can, you know, what can I do differently?

Monty Pedersen:

What can I help you with?

Monty Pedersen:

Or is this just not a good fit?

Monty Pedersen:

And maybe there's something else we can do with you, you know, inside the organization if this isn't what, you know, what you, what you feel passionate about.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah.

Monty Pedersen:

So most managers, I would say, aren't, aren't willing to have those.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, they do, they do things by the book.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, they're all about the nuts and bolts.

Monty Pedersen:

And we need, we need good managers and we need good leaders.

Monty Pedersen:

There's no question about it.

Monty Pedersen:

But, but a leader will be able to have that difficult conversation and make those hard decisions and be courageous in terms of how they lead.

Monty Pedersen:

That's, that's the only way we surface reality and that's the only way we can act on it when, you know, when we know something needs to change.

Kelly Kennedy:

Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Thank you so much for that, Monty.

Kelly Kennedy:

I think leadership is challenging And I think a big part of that is that we can be reluctant sometimes to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves, what could we have done better?

Kelly Kennedy:

Right.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's a lot easier, easier to point fingers sometimes than it is to look in the mirror and say, look, there's usually a failure on both sides.

Kelly Kennedy:

It's not usually one sided.

Kelly Kennedy:

There's usually things that we could do.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I think as leaders, the more that we can try to reflect on ourselves and how we can do better, the better, the better off we'll be.

Monty Pedersen:

Absolutely, absolutely.

Monty Pedersen:

Absolutely.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, you and I, and I know that, you know, central Canada is a lot like the great Midwest in the US and you know, we have this tendency to be, what we call, it might be called something different in Canada and down here it's called Minnesota.

Monty Pedersen:

Nice, right?

Monty Pedersen:

Where we don't want to offend anybody.

Monty Pedersen:

We want, we like to please people and we need more of an east coast attitude, you know, where somebody gets in your face because, you know, you know, the number one right of every team member is to know where they stand with their manager and the boss, you know, the company every day.

Monty Pedersen:

And if we're not, if we're not giving them that, then, you know, then we're shortchanging them and we're missing out on an opportunity to, you know, optimize their, their abilities with, you know, within our, our group or department or whatever.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah, absolutely.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I agree.

Kelly Kennedy:

Yeah, I think we do struggle with that.

Kelly Kennedy:

We do struggle for it's confrontation.

Kelly Kennedy:

Right.

Kelly Kennedy:

We're, we're avoiding confrontation.

Kelly Kennedy:

And you know, I, I know I've struggled with that and so have many, many, many people.

Kelly Kennedy:

And I'm, I'm a recovering, I'm a recovering confronter.

Kelly Kennedy:

Is that the right way of saying it?

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy:

Monty, this has been absolutely amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

You know, I want to chat a little bit about CDA Group.

Kelly Kennedy:

You guys offer a wide range of services as we talk.

Kelly Kennedy:

Like it started off with one, but it's starting to expand into more.

Kelly Kennedy:

Can we chat a little bit about CDA Group and the services that you provide?

Monty Pedersen:

Yeah, so, so, so CDA comes from clarify, Deploy, achieve, which, which is really, you know, what great execution is all about.

Monty Pedersen:

You know, clarify what, what you need to have done, deploy the resources necessary to the right people and then go out and deliver on it.

Monty Pedersen:

And so that's sort of where the, where the acronym came from.

Monty Pedersen:

But you know, we are a leadership training firm and leadership is firmly embedded into everything we do.

Monty Pedersen:

So we have, you know, we have an execution management system That I think is the best in the market.

Monty Pedersen:

There aren't that many.

Monty Pedersen:

They haven't been around that long.

Monty Pedersen:

But this is a very, very solid, easy to learn, understand and manage process that will get you executing really, really, you know, quickly.

Monty Pedersen:

And so we have, that I just mentioned, you know, our educational platform in terms of, you know, that we're moving into where we're, we're trying to bring knowledge and understanding to the whole strategy to execution gap that exists out there.

Monty Pedersen:

And so, you know, strategy Execution Unriddled is the, the know the program that I've built with, you know, with Jacob Boven in Switzerland.

Monty Pedersen:

And we're, what's interesting about it is, you know, we're trying to affect, you know, Central Europe and the United States, you know, in, in the same sort of in the same bucket.

Monty Pedersen:

But, but we have, we have a, we have a couple of online courses that we've developed.

Monty Pedersen:

One of them is the Strategy Execution Essentials course.

Monty Pedersen:

Just completing the first cohort.

Monty Pedersen:

We have a second cohort starting in August.

Monty Pedersen:

So if you follow my stuff or you know, go to clarify deployachieve.com, you'll find out more about that.

Monty Pedersen:

And then I've just sort of by accident been asked to keynote and so I do formalize presentations for organizations that are interested in it.

Monty Pedersen:

It's not what I would consider that I'm in the business to do, but for the right opportunity.

Monty Pedersen:

In, in October, I'm going to be in Moncton, New Brunswick speaking with the Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium.

Monty Pedersen:

They're having, they're having a fall one day conference and I'm going to keynote for them.

Monty Pedersen:

So that, that's October 22nd, if anybody in Atlantic Canada is listening or interested.

Monty Pedersen:

So, so yeah, so there are other things including formalized workshops and customized, you know, strategy execution programs that, that, that we do.

Monty Pedersen:

So we've, we've diversified quite a bit here over the last eight years and it just I guess continues to get more and more exciting.

Kelly Kennedy:

Amazing, Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy:

Monty, thank you so much for joining us today, sharing all the information.

Kelly Kennedy:

Until next time, this has been episode 206 of the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

Podcast Introduction:

This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Podcast Introduction:

business development firm in:

Podcast Introduction:

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

Podcast Introduction:

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

Podcast Introduction:

For more we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd ca see you next time on the business development podcast.

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The Business Development Podcast is an award-winning show dedicated to entrepreneurs, executives, sales, and business development specialists.

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Kelly Kennedy