In the wake of a big government contract win, IT consulting organizations frequently savor the luster of being awarded plus-sized opportunities that can validate a firm's leading edge solutions.  However, pursuing government "big game" contracts - can lead consulting organizations to very often set priorities according to the ebb and flow of the government's procurement processes instead of the leading edge solution development.  Here's where Excella of Arlington, Va appears to have stayed the course and continued to focus and invest in commercial opportunities related to Agile software development  - despite the  sizable obstacle traditional government procurement policies have been to the adoption of Agile approaches.  Finally, as the government's procurement practices begin to thaw and slowly became more accommodating to those circumstances under which Agile solutions are best adopted,  Excella's dedication to development and not policy appears to be paying off.  Join us when Excella co founder Steve Cooper explains the Agile opportunity his firm patiently nurtured - while knowing perhaps the government's appetite for innovation would someday soon influence its procurement menu options.    

Join us when Glenn Hazard, CEO, OPAQ Networks, and middle-market veteran, traces his firm-building path from the Internet’s early commerical days to the present. Learn about the unique management mind-set and skillsets that have allowed Glenn to open new chapters of growth for midsize firms.  (Original broadcast date: April 13, 2017)

When Japan’s Sapporo last year acquired craft-beer pioneer Anchor Brewing, many craft brewers characterized the transaction as the end of an era. It’s one John Dannerbeck today looks back on fondly having worked alongside the brewery’s legendary owner Fritz Maytag and the eclectic mix of seasoned managers that stubbornly rejected the notion of growth for growth sake and consequently gave birth to a global movement of craft brewers. Join us when John revisits his entry into the brewing business and the unrelenting market dynamics that bruised management’s ability to keep growth at bay.

Fifteen years ago, when the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) announced the successful completion of the Human Genome Project, Sam Santhosh decided that it was time to study up and find all of what was required to compete inside the world of DNA sequencing. The way that Santhosh saw it, sequencing was really about data, a world he felt he understood well and one that he was confident would yield future business opportunities. Still, the unique opportunity that would give rise to MedGenome would first escape Santhosh’s lines of sight. The opportunity: India’s historic caste structure is responsible for creating an unusual human patchwork where the population is divided into distinct groups with striking genetic differences. In the genomic world, India’s unusual population patchwork provides a yet unmatched genetic pool to test and accelerate new medical therapies—while providing insights for drug development and precision medicine. Join us when Sam explains how the opportunity came more fully into view and how building a research capability in India became the first stage in pursuing a bigger data vision.

Compensation strategies have often been considered a luxury rather than a necessity inside the realm of middle-market businesses. However, as Xactly Corp. continues to enlarge its pool of compensation data, the company’s benchmarking insights have begun to alter the mind-sets of middle-market executives as the company helps to level the playing field when it comes to acquiring compensation smarts. Join us when Xactly CEO Chris Cabrera explains why talent-minded midsize companies are quickly acquiring an appetite for compensation insights.

For many of us, the phrase “domain registry” still harkens back to the dot-com days of yore when acquiring a dot-com domain was the only genuine ticket of entry to the online world. The early online gold rush made everyone marvel at the sensible business people who made money selling dot-com domains—the URL equivalent of picks and shovels that would empower others to pursue their dreams of dot-com riches. A little more than 20 years later, the registry business appears to be quickly broadening its menu of tools to help its customers open new veins of business opportunities. Join us when Bruce Jaffe, CEO of Donuts, Inc., explains how his firm is leaping beyond the dot-com realm to serve its customers new and premium domain opportunities and propel its registry sales to nearly $100 million annually.

Join us when Brett Goldberg, co-CEO and cofounder of upstart ticket reseller TickPick, explains how the middle-market company’s appetite for growth must at times be kept in check as the New York City–based firm fine tunes a success formula in which growth is but one of several contributing factors.

According to Cody Yarborough, when it comes to growing Lifecycle Biotechnologies, the greatest challenge that the biosciences firm faces today has little to do with finding new customers. Instead, the challenge is to better manage and monitor the company’s specialized suppliers

Join us when Raj Arora, President, Strategy and Business Development, Jensen Hughes, explains why strategy must always determine a company’s M&A path and not the other way around. Plus, learn what Raj’s priorities are when it comes to growing the safety and risk services firm over the next 12 months.

Once upon a time, the word "outsourcing" was associated with such dry-cleaned, stodgy corporate monikers as EDS, IBM, and CSC. No more. Join us when Bryce Maddock, CEO of TaskUs, reveals the outsourcer's unconventional first growth chapter and the unique business dynamics that would lead a cluster of high-tech startups to leverage the outsourcer's offerings and propel it into the ranks of middle-market firms.   “We've invested heavily in our (customer-serving) employees. We call this mentality front line first.… These are the people that matter the most. They are the ones who are keeping the lights on and the ones that are getting our bills paid.” - Bryce Maddock, CEO TaskUs

Few U.S. manufacturers appear to have defied the laws of global economics as effectively as Datron World Communications. Capturing 90 percent of its annual revenue overseas, Datron has continued to diligently serve its global customers from a 100,000 square foot San Diego manufacturing facility. Join us when Datron CEO Art Barter explains the unique technologies and regulatory dynamics that led him to double down on leadership development as Datron grew from $10 million in annual sales to more than $200 million in just six years.

Just as any sea captain worth his salt ultimately rejects his land legs and returns to the sea, Phil Carpenter's marketing career has seldom ventured beyond the entrepreneurial realm where he has held management roles in both startups as well as the integrated marketing agencies that eagerly serve them. Today as executive vice president and managing director of PAN Communications, Carpenter is once more satisfying his entrepreneurial itch as PAN advances up the ranks of midsize agencies as it serves a growing roster of technology and healthcare clients.  FREE E-Book: Learn how talent-minded CEOs from a dozen midsized companies Get, Retain and Engage Top Talent https://workplacechampions.gr8.com/ Guest: Phil Carpenter, EVP, Company: PAN Communications Headquarters: Boston Contact: www.pancommunications.com  @PANcomm  

Join us when Lee Mandel, CEO, Intralogic Solutions Inc. explains how integration capabilities and IT knowledge have empowered his company to marry traditional alarm systems with IT networks and software opening the door to a new chapter of growth.   

How do you make a great hire? Spalding:  The first thing we do is we look at our best people in each of our areas, right. So, our best technologists, what are the characteristics that make them really good? Who are our best sales people? What are the characteristics that make them really good? Right. And there might be some obvious things like, hey, they're very responsive to the customer, they present well, right, there's an experience there, there's a knowledge, they think strategically long-term. But, we try to capture those in a profile, and then we benchmark that against any candidate coming in. And we do that through a few ways, we do that through some testing that we do around different profiles, and so forth to match it up, kind of customize testing against our profiles. We also do that during the interview process. So, we tend to have, we get accused of hiring slow sometimes because we really believe that we want to have a variety of different people interview the candidate. And then, frankly, we want the candidate to get a really good sense of what is Peak 10 all about. What is our DNA? What makes us tick? Because no one wants to have that meeting six months down the road and say, "Hey, you're really not a good fit here." or, "Gee, this isn't the right company to be at." So, we try to minimize all of that by sharing as much as we can right up front. How we operate, how we think about our customers, how we do things internally, what we expect, etc. It's a little bit of a longer process than perhaps most, but at the end of the day we have to bring in the highest quality talent we possibly can to, you know, to match what we're doing for our customers, and that's being an extension of their business. So, those are some of the things we do. And tactically where we serve in markets, we're very community-oriented, we build relationships with the local technology schools. So, we're able to do some internships, and we're able to get some early views on potential, strong candidates, and they get a little more experience in the technology and service provider world and see if there's a match. So, we're doing some of that as we continue to get larger and be more innovative around that.

How do you make a great hire? Matt Calkins: In order to make a great hire there are a couple of steps. One is finding and motivating the potential employee to work with you. And I don't want to focus on that, because I think it's relatively obvious how you do that. You raise your profile, you meet people, you work the channel, you ask your employees for contacts, those things are pretty well known. I think I'll instead focus on how you select the individual that you want to hire. How do you know who you should bring on? Here's what I look for. It's my formula. I look for people who have a great deal of talent. And you can tell that by talking with them, exploring the things they care about, looking at their resume, looking at their job trajectory. All that will give you a sense of their talent. It's relatively easy to tell that compared to the other things you have to detect. Second, you want to be sure that they are a good fit with your culture. In Appian's case we look for people who are harmonious with each other, generous with their time, rally around a goal, and positive energy. Third, you look for people who are habitually successful. The things that they do, and I don't necessarily mean jobs, I mean their hobbies. I mean whatever they've chosen to put their time into, are they successful? Can you see not just the expenditure of time but the achievement with it? I love to ask people about their hobbies, about their interests. And see how well they've explored that interest and whether they've done anything with their time on that. So you could see it in their jobs if that's what they're focused on, you see it in a hobby. But I'm looking for people who have a habit of excellence, who have a tradition of it, who exude so much excellence, it just comes out in every direction. And wherever they touch something they want to make it better, they want to create something great. So I'm looking for this habit of excellence. Those are my three things, talent, culture fit, and a habit of excellence.

Sandbrook: References count for me, references that I trust. Because in that hour interview or whatnot, you can get some sense but you can't be 100%. You're not always a 100% knowing that individual, what their work ethic is, how they really handle pressure, what are their true innate problem solving abilities? And I'm not a huge fan of canned tests. I think that leaves out another dimension and I think it demeans the individual. That I'm gonna look at all your test results from all these different prognostics and I'm gonna come up with who I think you are. So, I will tell you, what counts the most for me is somebody that I trust, maybe in another company that I've worked with before, to give me an honest opinion of the pluses and minuses of that individual. That outside reference is so critical to me, and it won't come off of that individual's list of references. It'll come off my own personal references that I'll find somebody that knows that individual.

   

Our C-suite leader guests answer one of the middle market's most daunting questions: How do you make a great hire? How do you Make a Great hire? So, we do a couple things to enhance the hiring process. The one most important thing I think we do is about two years ago we began to document our culture. And so it was writing down in what has turned into nine culture code statements that really we believe encompass our culture. And when I say document I think it’s important to remember that culture, well, you can write down whatever you want…you think you want your culture to be. But often times, our day to day actions turn into culture. That is, in fact, how culture gets built around the world, even like local country culture. It’s a sum of the series of actions and behaviors that a group of people take. And so we want to document that though to see what are the things that we seem to value and what are the things we seem to not value and, in fact, devalue or cause us problems? And so as we did that it became this really good framework for interviewing potential team members. And so about half of our interviewing process is skill set, so do they have the right skills for the job? And that’s a relatively easy thing to get through. I mean, the resume helps and then, you know, a series of interview questions just to understand are they technical enough. We actually run people through a project of some sort, so if you’re a developer we actually want to see you code. That’s extremely illuminating to kind of get a sense of how you operate and how you work. Read More

Our C-suite leader guests answer one of the middle market's most daunting questions: How do you make a great hire? Workforce Resources for Growing Companies     How do you make a great hire? “Be quick, but don’t hurry, number one. And number two is, there is a process. I mean, as we talked about previously, most processes involve … in today’s environment, when you’ve got employees all over the United States, one. And two, a lot of the corporate personnel, particularly in our space, the mortgage banking environment, a lot of these professionals work from home. Which is perfectly fine, because we measure by results and not effort. “And the ability to work from home is a big advantage to individuals, and it’s perfectly fine with us, but how does someone that works from home really understand about the organization that they’re going to work for? If the interview process just simply takes place over the phone, you take a look at a resume, and maybe call a referral or two, or you know, check on some references. It’s very difficult to have a long-lasting relationship with such a short ‘dating phase.’ I mean, think about when folks get married, do you get married the same way that you interview people for your company? I don’t think so. “But if you went through the dating process, and our process starts out with a phone call with me, a phone call with the manager of the department that is going to be responsible for that individual. And if those two things work out well, I will fly that individual, no matter where they are in the country. I will bring them to our corporate office for a full day, and what I tell them … I walk through the entire process that they’re going to go through at our corporate office, so they understand and can see what’s happening versus just kind of wondering what’s going to happen in the next hour. And I tell them, ‘My commitment to you is that all you need to do is get to the airport. I’ll take care of the rest, it’ll be white-glove service from the time you leave to the time you get home.’ “But by the time you go home, if we are going to proceed with this job offer, I’m going to put you in a position to make a decision one way or the other by the time you step home and talk to your spouse or have your ability to go through your decision-making process, whatever it may be. And we really introduce the individual to our company, they can see our culture, see our environment, see our people. Are they walking around, are they smiling? Are they wearing Bermuda shorts and flip-flops, are they dressed professionally? What is it like? Because what you see here at our corporate office is what permeates throughout all of our offices across the country, this is where it starts. So you might as well be able to go back and back it all the way up to where it starts, which is here, and see if that’s something you want to be a part of. That’s the way we do it. “Look at it this way. The first thing that I talk to a prospective candidate about when I get on the phone is, I’ll ask them straight up. Let’s say that, as an example, you’re interviewing for an underwriting position at InterLinc, right? I’ll ask the candidate, ‘On a scale of one to 10, how good are you?’ And they’ll kind of hem and haw, and then they’ll give me an answer. And I’ve got some that have said, ‘I’m an eight, I’m a nine, I’m a 10.’ Some have said, ‘I’m a 12′; I love it when they say, ’12.’ “On the flip side, I’ve had some that said, ‘Man, I’m about a six.’ And if they give me anything less than an eight, I’ll say, ‘Man, it’s been fantastic talking to you, but we only hire eights or better. As you progress in your career, and you become more and more advanced, and you think you’re an eight, man, give me a call back. I’d love to talk to you again.’ Because imagine the organization, if you were a client doing a home transaction with this company, and you asked me the question, ‘Jim, on a scale of one to 10, what type of people do you hire?’ And I say, ‘Great question, we hire a bunch of sixes.’ You’re going to be like, ‘Fantastic talking to you, I’m going down the street.’ But if I tell you, ‘We hire eights or better,’ then you feel pretty good when you talk to your wife about doing business with InterLinc.” —Jim VanSteenhouse, CEO, InterLinc Mortgage  

Our C-suite leader guests answer one of the middle market's most daunting questions: How do you make a great hire? Workforce Resources for Growing Companies

When Nino Tarantino moved to Boston from Rome, Italy nearly 20 years ago, he had no way of knowing that he would someday be charged with building the North American subsidiary of a brash European technology startup.  As fate would have it, Tarantino received a call from Fabio Sbianchi, a former colleague from the 1990s, who had a unique North American opportunity to discuss.  Sbianchi had been busy making headlines in Europe inside the fledgling field of telematics - the leading edge technology that was upending traditional auto insurance consumer models by empowering insurers to more closely track the driving behaviors of customers. Founded in 2002, Sbianchi's company Octo Telematics quickly surged into the ranks of Europe's middle market companies, and the entrepreneur was now looking for someone to lead the charge in North America. Tarantino was more than intrigued and accepted Sbianchi's forthcoming job offer.  Only four years after its launch, Tarantino's North American business passed 1.5 million telematics policies users throughout the U.S. and Canada, according to a recent press announcement. Join us when Nino recalls the opportunity that came knocking and the path to grow he is now blazing.

Dropping the accelerator on a disruptive cloud computing model in the midst of an economic downturn may not have been the smoothest path to growth, but when Tom Franceski and two partners acquired docSTAR in 2007 they understood the cloud  transformation path was the surest bet for a software firm in the digital age. Ten years later docSTAR is recently became part of Epicor Software, the fast-growing ERP contender, currently in the midst of its own cloud-computing transformation.

It’s no secret that the IT infrastructure and applications business is experiencing hyper growth these days. And few technology business leaders are more focused on making the appropriate investments to scale their businesses than those who today compete inside the managed services realm. Join us when AHEAD CEO Dan Adamany explains how “cultural fit” is now top of mind as AHEAD’s employee payroll grows and the search for talent widens.

Having grown to 38 offices and more than 900 employees, Risk Strategies Company has entered the ranks of leading national insurance brokers with a strut that signals an appetite for M&A. Join us when the firm’s founder and CEO Mike Christian explains how acquiring companies in key markets, with key business practice areas has made the firm a discriminating buyer inside an industry known for its frequent waves of consolidation. Guest: Mike Christian, CEO Company: Risk Strategies Company Headquarters: Boston, MA Contact: www.risk-strategies.com @RiskStrategies

What are your priorities for growing this middle-market business over the next 12 months? Glenn: “Our priorities are to look at those areas of the business that we may need to tweak and adjust them as we start to really open up the doors and explore the local market here in Colorado. And then, as I mentioned earlier, once we get the model right here—I keep referring to the model, and by that I mean the language that we use in our software—it means assessing the key verticals or the five that I mentioned we’re going to concentrate on. It could be one or two out of those five that are standouts for us, where our software is a 100% fit as opposed to being prepped to a 95% fit. So I think we’re going to be doing some learning, and then take that model and replicate it in various cities and states throughout North America.”

In 1995, Tony Zito started his first business, Precision DataLink, which was acquired in 2001. He then went on to found MediaForge, which was acquired by Rakuten Marketing in 2012. Today, he oversees Rakuten Marketing in the Americas, Europe, and Australia, spearheading acquisitions and integrating offerings into an expanded platform of performance marketing offerings.

In the flash and splash world of data technologies, few companies have their technology more deeply entrenched inside the academic institutions that pollinate and energize the world’s research communities than QSR International. Join us when QSR CEO Chris Astle explains why a three-decade-old midsize firm is enjoying some new luster among the data tech world’s up-and-comers.

Join us when Mark Benson explains how Exosite is helping customers transform their traditional businesses by embracing the Internet of Things and adopting new software and strategies that allow them to  optimize cost and create new revenue streams. Guest: Mark Benson, Chief Technology Officer Company: Exosite Headquarters: Minneapolis, MN Ownership: Private Contact: www.exosite.com  @exosite (twitter)

When John McDonald first grasped the developing business opportunity around what is today known as the virtual private cloud he was a seasoned  software executive inside IBM’s sprawling software kingdom.  Join us when John explains how industry’s widespread adoption of cloud technologies has led businesses to rethink their IT spending priorities opening the door to a new breed of private cloud services providers.

Eight years from now when Lance Ruttenberg blows out the candles on a birthday cake celebrating his company’s 100th birthday – the CEO of American Textile Company will be savoring an industrial hallmark no Fortune 500 CEO has ever known.  Lance and his brother Blake are today the third generation of Ruttenbergs to own and lead the textile firm first established in 1925. While the company may not be the same weight class as other successful firms with generational-family origins (Ford Motor Company, IBM Corp.) ATC’s longevity is a testament to an ownership/ management model that has successfully served an industry, a family and a devoted employee population for nearly 100 years.

Having invested in 53 companies including over a dozen cybersecurity ventures, Ray Rothrock took on the CEO role at RedSeal confident that he could redirect the company's security offerings to a more fruitful opportunity.  Three years later the career venture capitalist appears to have done just that having returned RedSeal to profitability and year over year growth.  Join us when Ray explains the opportunity that lay in waiting, and the values and priorities that would empower RedSeal to pursuit it

At the beginning there was a mission in search of a business model – a fact that arguably sets Study.com apart from most middle-market businesses. Along the way, as the subscription economy began to blossom, Study.com’s founders buckled their fledgling business into an energetic subscription model and turned their attention to managing the growth that comes when mission and model unite.  Join us when Adrian Ridner, CEO and Co-founder, Study.com steps back in time to spotlight the stubborn mission that would not be compromised for growth sake, and the business model that would ultimately allow the mission to survive and thrive.

Seth Merrin probably didn't have to write a book to understand the origins of his passion for market disruption, unfair sustainable advantage has been a life long pursuit.  Join us when Seth explains the competitive forces that allowed Liquidnet to disrupt the ebb-and-flow of traditional institutional trading and expand the firm's network around the world. Seth's Book THE POWER OF POSITIVE DESTRUCTION: How to Turn a Business Idea into a Revolution (Wiley, January 2017) Guest: Seth Merrin, CEO (Author) Company: Liquidnet Industry:  Institutional trading  Headquarters: New York, NY Ownership: Privately held Contact: www.liquidnet.com @liquidnet (Twitter)

Metromile, a provider of pay-per-mile for insurance, raised a whopping $191.5 million in funding last year empowering the insurance disrupter to acquire a carrier called Mosaic Insurance to handle the underwriting of its policies.  Join us when Dan Preston, CEO of Metromile, explains how the firm’s next chapter of growth will involve the marriage of new and old talent competencies as Metromile advances its on-demand offerings into new geographies and further enhances its high tech pedigree with seasoned insurance industry talent.

CEO CFO Management Teams

Three US Business Leaders Reflect on Chinese Market Ambitions 

No Pain, No Gain

Jack Sweeney & Brett Knowles Spotlight Strategies From Talent-Minded Business Leaders

Learn More About These Middle Market Business Leaders Tom Stewart CFO, SecureAuth Which industry is currently having the greatest impact on the evolution of the finance function? Join us when CFO Tom Stewart of SecureAuth adds his voice to the innovative clan of “Subscription Economy CFOs” who are determined to recast the mission of the finance function for generations to come. Bob Hammer, CEO Commvault Bob Hammer springboarded Commvault into the middle market by creating products to address data management challenges that would reside years into the future. However, even he was caught off guard by the speed with which Cloud computing solutions gained acceptance with Commvault’s customers. The digital blind spot would trigger a major restructuring for the data management firm. Join us as Bob recalls the decision-making that put Commvault back on an impressive growth trajectory.  Anil Chakravarthy, CEO, Informatica For most high-tech firms, migration to a cloud computing business model is no longer a question of if, but when. For Informatica, this migration was put into high gear last year when the provider of data management solutions was taken private as part of a deal north of $5 billion. Join us as Informatica CEO Anil Chakravarthy exposes the firm’s transformational path and the structural milestones designed to open a new chapter of growth. Kathy Crusco, CFO, Epicor When Activant and Epicor were acquired by Apax Partners and later merged into a new $800 million software company Kathy Crusco was named CFO of the newly merged firm that retained the name Epicor.  Join us when Kathy reveals her CFO mindset and revisits the appointment that brought opportunities as well as challenges to a seasoned finance leader.

Four Middle Market Business Leaders Share Their Customer First Strategies

Step back in time and peer into the offices of C1S Group of Dallas and chances are you’d find the lights burning late into the evening with Julie Strong and her husband Matt paying invoices or responding to one last customer query.  Today C1S  is the culmination of many long days, nights and weekends for the two business leaders (and there devoted team of employees) that together have managed to advance the construction firm into the ranks of Dallas-Fort Worth metro area’s midsized businesses. Join us when Julie recounts the firm’s growth milestones and shares the unique workforce mindset that sets C1S apart from its much larger competitors

 Pete Butler, CEO, MS Companies

 Lawrence Levy (former CFO Pixar)  & John Sculley (Former Apple CEO)  recall being Recruited by the late Silicon Valley Business Builder

Justin Tydal, CSO, Seven Corners

Joe Cowan, CEO, Epicor Software

Phil Friedman, President & CEO, CGS

Matt Calkins, CEO, Appian

Matt Dircks, CEO, Bomgar explains how his firm is preparing for the next growth threshold - $100 million in annual revenues and beyond. 

When a middle-market firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a giant telecommunications company, how does the path to expansion differ from the growth tracks of independent firms?   Join us when Jeffrey Puritt, CEO of Telus International, retraces the steps that allowed Telus to advance beyond the shadow of its parent, Canadian telecommunications giant, Telus.

Bob Hammer springboarded Commvault into the middle market by creating products to address data management challenges that resided years into the future. However, even he was caught off guard by the speed with which Cloud computing solutions gained acceptance with Comvault's customers. The digital blind spot would trigger a major restructuring for the data management firm. Join us as Bob recalls the decision making that put Commvault back on an impressive growth trajectory.  

Mike Scher, CEO, Frontline Selling

Chris Cabrera, CEO Xactly Corporation 

Jim Krampen, Co Founder, Seven Corners

MMTL Interviews Jason Witty, Chief Information Security Officer, U.S. Bank  "There have been some obvious hacking attacks where theft is the motivator. There have also been, simultaneously, in the past 18 to 24 months, people whose motivation is just simply disruption. They’re looking to disrupt the network, or they’re looking to just make it difficult for a company to run or make it difficult for that company’s website to be available to their customers."  ~ Jason Witty, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) U.S. Bank

The rise of a middle-market business houses a multitude of stories, but few are as compelling as that of a founder who strives to stay in step with a quickly expanding enterprise. Entrepreneurial “exits” are the accepted rite of passage for many firms when one-time leaders quietly stomach the unspoken notion that their creations may have in certain ways outgrown them. Join us when Tim Hebert, CEO of Atrion, exposes the path that allowed him to grow as a business leader alongside the firm he would grow to more than $150 million in annual sales before advancing with a historic merger.

Walker White, President, BDNA

How Midsized Firms Fight and Win Against Much Larger Rivals

One of the middle market's foremost talent-minded CEOs returns to discuss her new book and the latest chapter for her family-owned company.  

In the first of a series of occasional interviews, Middle Market Thought Leader host Jack Sweeney speaks with Elliot Jaffee, Head of Commercial Banking, U.S. Bank, about economic uncertainty, Brexit and how middle-market firms can achieve greater financial flexibility.  

Mark Dohnalek, CEO, Pivot International

Ken Makovsky, Makovsky Integrated Communications

 Rohit Kshetrapal, CEO Tegile

Cedric Bru, CEO, Taulia

Jim Gregory, Chairman, Tenet Partners

Bob Vormittag, President, VAI

Three Middle Market CEOs Share Their Workforce Philosophies

Joe Bizzarro, CEO, Vizant

067: Kirsten Dolan, COO,  One Parking

Chris Sullens, CEO, Workwave

David Ciccarelli,  CEO, Voices.com

064: Daniel Gold, CEO, Future Energy Solutions

Rob Bohorod, CFO, Yuenglings Ice Cream

 Growing Pains: Four CEOs Share Their Organizational Aches

Nikolaos Tezapsidis, CEO, Neurotez

When Troy Helming started up Pristine Sun in 2009, the renewable energy startup began pursuing multiple paths to growth - an approach the firm soon modified after striking a rich vein of activity inside a fruitful niche market.   - See more at: http://middlemarketexecutive.com/#sthash.0bvBnj3B.dpuf

059: Business Leaders Share Their 2016 Growth Priorities

Jim Taylor, CEO, Falcon Steel Company

It’s hardly a surprise that the realm of payment risk analysis and identity verification is drawing the attention of investors and customers alike these days. Join us when Melissa Brown, CEO of Giact Systems, explains how a determination to deliver an unmatched customer experience has led to steady growth. y.dpuf

Shane Broussard, Owner & Founder, The Bike Waiter

 Jay VanOrden, CEO, Worldwide Supply

 Mark Weiss, CEO Action Staffing Group

 Marcus Wagner, CEO, AcctTwo Shared Services

Sanjay Govil, Chairman, Infinite Computer Solutions

 Mark Gross CEO, Data Conversion Laboratory

Maury Blackman, CEO, Accela

Peter Handal, CEO Smart Source

048: Will Fleming, CEO, MotionPoint Corp. 

Mike Thorpe, Co owner, Drones Plus

 Faisal Husein, CEO, Synechron

Marc Spector, The Spector Group

David Mattson, CEO, Sandler Training 

Rick Roussin, CEO, Coast to Coast

 Michael Skitzki, COO, Title Boxing Club

John Van Siclen, CEO, Dynatrace It's no secret a middle-market firm's greatest competitive edge is often the dedication and focus with which it serves a specific set of customers. Join us when CEO John Van Siclen reveals the twisting but determined path Dynatrace advanced down as it climbed the ranks of middle-market firms.

040: Troy Cooper, COO, Boston Restaurants & Sports Bars

Mike Rooney, General Manager, BPM Online  Ever wonder what type of leadership is required to expand a middle-market business overseas? Join us when Mike Rooney, General Manager, BPM Online, explains the mix of experience, opportunity and risk that led him to join a European CRM company and execute on its global ambitions.

038: Five Midmarket Business Leaders List Their Growth Priorities

Mike Weinberger, CEO Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffees and Smoothies

Aaron LoCascio, CEO, VapeWorld

BONUS EPISODE Renee Hornbaker, CFO, Stream Energy

Rick Skaggs, President, TSP Inc.

 Idan Shpizear, CEO,  911Restoration

Mike Lorenz, President, Ephesus Lighting The biggest growth opportunities don't always reside close to home for middle-market firms. In fact, more middle-market firms are expanding overseas than ever before. Join us when Mike Lorenz explains how this year's Superbowl supplied Ephesus Lighting with a stadium-sized marketing opportunity to propel business abroad. Listen Now.

Leslie Stretch, CEO, CallidusCloud Since being named CEO of  CallidusCloud, a publicly held high tech company, Leslie Stretch has transformed the software firm’s business by establishing a recurring revenue model that he believes is now primed to propel the sales automation firm beyond $1 billion in annual sales.  Join us when Leslie explains why companies no longer must forfeit their middle-market agility to climb into the ranks of billion-dollar firms. 

Renatto Beninatto, CMO, Moravia It’s without a doubt the biggest hurdle every middle-market business faces when expanding overseas.  Join us when Renato Beninatto, CMO of Moravia, a global translation company, shares his global mindset and explains how the world became a level-playing field for his middle-market firm.

Dan Macklin, Co-Founder, SOFI

Steve White, President, PuroClean

Mike MacDonald, CEO, Medifast, Inc. 

Jasen Urena, Hidden Villa Ranch  As consumers demand more sustainable, responsible, and humanely created food products, the brands of Hidden Villa Ranch continue to muster extra clout inside the food industries. Join us as Hidden Villa’s Jasen Urena shares his middle-market mindset, and explains how M&A activity is now helping Hidden Villa blaze a growth path inside the quickly evolving Organic and Non-GMO (non-genetically modified organisms) food industries. 

Chris Reed, CEO, Reed Inc. When Chris Reed decided it was time to enlist some investors to fuel the expansion of his fast-growing soft drink company, he wasn’t willing to part with all of the management control that perspective venture partners required.  Instead, Reed Inc. would become listed on the New York Stock Exchange and sell shares to the public – a decision the firm’s founder and CEO has never once regretted.  Join us as Chris retraces the steps that empowered Reed Inc. to grow into a $50 million firm inside the always competitive soft drink market.

M&A Outlook, Mike Nall, Founder, AM&AA

Todd Krizelman, CEO MediaRadar Listen Now.

 Don Ochsenreiter, CEO, Dollamur Sports Surfaces. Listen Now.

 Michael Mothner, CEO, WPromote 

Joe Judson, CEO, Fusion Logistics Listen Now.

 Part 2-- Bill Angrick, CEO, Liquidity Services  Listen Now.

(Part I)  Bill Angrick, Chairman & CEO. Liquidity Services Listen Now.

National Center for the Middle Market Q1 Middle Market Inicator Listen Now.

Rob Reid, CEO, Intacct When Rob Reid joined cloud accounting software developer Intacct in 2009, the seasoned high-tech CEO buckled up for a wild ride. Join us, when Rob reveals how the cloud is empowering his firm to shake up the finance function as it extends the lines of the sight midmarket firms have into their financials. Listen Now.

Laurie Sudbrink, Author, Leading With GRIT Ever wonder how workplace unhappiness is curtailing your firm's performance? Laurie Sudbrink, Author of Leading with GRIT: Inspiring Action and Accountability with Generosity, Respect, Integrity and Truth, explains how inspired leaders take a more personal approach that melds life values, discipline and self discovery. Listen Now.

John Sculley arrived at Apple in 1983 when the firm was generating a mere $564 million in annual sales and exited ten years later when the firm's sales were $8.3 billion annually. Forever tagged as the man who fired Steve Jobs -  it would seem Sculley is arguably worthy of yet another label: Apple's middle-market champion. Join us as the former CEO of Pepsi and Apple recalls the roller coaster ride that became Apple's middle-market years and shares insights from his new book Moonshot - a text designed to help middle-market business leaders turn their firms into billion-dollar businesses. Listen Now.

Mimi Thigpen, CEO, North Plains Systems When  Mimi Thigpen was named CEO of North Plains Systems nearly a year ago, she took the helm of a firm largely built by acquisition.  To open a new chapter of growth, Thigpen says she realized the teams of employees from the recently acquired firms would need to find a single path to together serve the firm's customers.  Listen Now.

David Walsh, CEO, Amalgamated Life  Being only the fourth person in 70 years to lead Amalgamated Life of White Plains, New York, David Walsh likes to characterize the company’s latest chapter as the end of the beginning. What lies ahead, according to Walsh, is an age of geographic growth — one that should pose few hurdles so long as Amalgamated stays true to its mission as it expands its base.

(Part 2) Fred Burke, CEO, Guardian Pharmacy

(Part 1) Fred Burke, CEO Guardian Pharmacy Listen Now.

Randy Starr, COO, Topgolf What are the tell tale signs that a middle-market firm is opening a new chapter of growth? Join us as Randy Starr, COO of Topgolf, reveals the market opportunity and strategic insights that are allowing Topgolf to open an exciting new chapter of middle-market growth. Listen Now.

Les Charm, Babson College Listen Now.

Stephen Sheinbaum, CEO, Merchant Cash and Capital. When does it make sense for a middle -market firm to expand overseas? Join us as Stephen Sheinbaum shares his middle-market mind-set and reveals his plan to begin serving small business customers inside the Japanese market. Listen Now.

Mary Miller, CEO, JANCOA When CEO Mary Miller joined her husband Tony’s janitorial services company 20 years ago, the firm’s employee turnover rate was 360 percent. By accepting the notion that no one wants to be a janitor forever, Miller says, she and her husband began to consider how their firm,JANCOA, could motivate its employees to think of work as more than just a paycheck. Join us, as Mary retraces the steps that empowered JANCOA to open a new chapter of growth. Listen Now.

Chuck Runyon, CEO, Anytime Fitness Listen Now.

Randy Thompson, CEO, Thompson Gas When Randy Thompson began running the family business a little more than 20 years ago, ThompsonGas had just one store, three delivery trucks, and eight employees serving three states. Today, the middle-market firm has more than 51 branch locations and 350 employees serving 12 states. Join us as Randy tells us where the firm’s next chapter of growth is being written. Listen Now.

Joel Basgall, CEO, Geneca,  likes to tell his software firm’s customers that they’re in the software business these days. Whether they’re florist giant FTD, Inc., movie rental upstart Redbox, or Blue Cross/Blue Shield, when it comes to attracting customers, partnering with suppliers, and employees interacting both internally and externally, it’s all about the software.Listen Now.

Mike Damiani, CEO, Radco Industries  Long before the U.S. military became the largest end user of its performance fluids, Radco had established itself in the early 1970s as a recycler — rather than producer — of specialty fluids.  Join us as Mike Damiani tells us of his plans to grow this middle-market manufacturer of high quality specialty fluids and lubricants. Listen Now.

David Morken, CEO, Bandwidth.com  How can a middle-market telecom provider compete successfully against industry giants such as Verizon and AT&T? Join us as David Morken explains how Bandwidth.com’s two operating divisions, Republic Wireless and Bandwidth Business Solutions, are growing remarkable value from mobile and IP networks. Listen Now.

Anisa Telwar, CEO, Anisa International  Creating a successful middle-market business is never easy, especially one that crosses international borders and requires special manufacturing skills. Join us as Anisa Telwar tells us how she overcame those obstacles and grew Anisa International Inc. into a major producer of beauty brushes for the cosmetics industry