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

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

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 206 of the business development podcast. And today it is my absolute pleasure to bring you Monte Pedersen, a world renowned strategy execution expert with over 35 years of experience. Monte is going to teach us about the secrets to mastering strategy execution, unlocking leadership potential, and harnessing the.

Formative power of a personal brand. Stick with us. You are not going to want to miss this episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more.

This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences, and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs. And business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by capital business development, capitalbd.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the business development podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 206 of the business development podcast. And today we bring an absolute rockstar in the field of strategy and execution. Today, I'm bringing you Monte Pedersen. Monte is the principal of the CDA group, and he boasts a distinguished career marked by his unwavering commitment to leadership and strategy execution.

With over 35 years in the managed services industry, Monte recognized a critical gap in effective leadership and strategic planning, prompting him to establish his own firm in 2016. 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. Monte's extensive experience includes his roles as regional vice president at Sodexo Education Services and senior vice president at Off Campus Solutions. It has equipped him with the insights and the skills necessary to transform organizations into high performing entities.

Monte's approach centers on the belief that the ability to execute is the ultimate leadership identity. 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. His passion for helping others avoid the pitfalls he encountered in his corporate tenure drives his full time focus on strategy execution.

Monte's influence extends far beyond the boardroom, with remarkable presence on LinkedIn, where his posts have garnered over 43 million views in 2023. A lifelong learner and an advocate for true human leadership. Monte'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.

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

Monte Pedersen: Thanks, Kelly. I appreciate that. And I try not to read my own press clippings, but that sounded pretty impressive. And, and if I, and if I may, if we could, you know, start at the end, that, that last part that, that, that you talked about, I think that's a, that's an appropriate place to begin because what undergirds everything that I do is the, is the, the purpose of sort of business in general, if that, if that makes sense, 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, as we should, We'd be helping a lot more people than than just the people that we, you know, personally touch.

So I, 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 you can't even, you can't even tell where it ends so.

Kelly Kennedy: The impact that we can have as leaders. Is unbelievable. And I would say the impact that we can have as leaders in 2024 2025 2026 and beyond is unlike any impact that anybody could have ever had before. You know, you are a testament to that. You know, you have, you know, hundreds of thousands of followers on linked in and each one of them is looking to you for guidance when in history was And, you know, an individual able to able to kind of throw that type of power around, 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. We have the ability to lead unlike ever before. And I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is, how are we going to do it?

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, I mean, there's, there's two things to that, right? There's the, there's the visibility that we can get, you know, through the internet, through, through social media platforms. But, but the, the second part of it is probably the more important part is what are we going to do with it? Because there, you know, there are, there are people who.

Who look at it, you know, solely from the standpoint of, of, of access. I mean, from a business development standpoint, right. They think that, that it's this gold mine of person of people that, you know, you could just reach out to and start doing business with, and that's not the, that's not the intention. I think, I think it's an artifact.

Social media and social capital in general, right? 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, that's a, that's a good thing for both people.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes.

Monte Pedersen: But there's a lot of people that see it as a get rich quick scheme and, and, and, and so, you know, so, so, so what, what you choose to do and how you do it, you know, I think is, 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.

It is going to be positive and have have high impact.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. I actually find it kind of funny that you brought that up because I had a person reach out to me the other day who mentioned, you know, hey, I have an 80, 000 following and we're doing nothing with it. What, you know, in your opinion, what should I do with it?

And honestly, I didn't have an answer for him, Monte. I was like, you know what? I'm not the right person to ask about this. I'm not sure what you should do with your following, right? At the end of the day, you have that following because you're providing value. In my mind, just keep doing what you're doing because obviously you're helping the world.

Monte Pedersen: Yeah. Yeah. 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. Yeah. It was, it was a very successful CEO actually. And he has. Multiple, multiple companies, and I think in his mind, he's thinking, I have all these followers and we do absolutely nothing with them, you know, in your opinion, like, what is the right thing for, you know, a CEO with a level with a following like that?

What, what should they do with that? Because obviously they built it by providing value about their company by helping a certain industry. Is that not the point?

Monte 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. And again, there aren't there aren't. I would describe there aren't a ton of I mean, there's 950 million people on linked in, but not a lot of CEOs. And again, some of it's a time issue. Some, you know, but but if you're thinking about it, right, your social capital as an organization as a CEO, your digital footprint, right, your branding, like what we were talking about before we went live That's that's your platform and you can talk to your employees.

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

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

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, yes. 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. And these have turned into real friendships, Monte.

Real, real relationships with real people that have provided immense value to my life, both monetarily and personally. And I think that that should be the goal of social media. That should, it's not about the number of followers. It's about, did you create great relationships along that way?

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, I have to, I have to be honest with you.

I, I, Up until 2017, I never had a Facebook account or I was never on social media. So someone just suggested to me after I launched my business, that LinkedIn might be a, a good channel to, you know, to pursue and now it's eight years later and just like you, I feel like I've, I've almost. Earned a PhD just in terms of the knowledge and the people I've met.

I mean, I've had, I've had conversations with, you know, former CEOs of major corporations talk with people. I never thought I'd have access to, I mean, it's, it's, it's just, it's an amazing tool, but, but, well, but like all things, you know, it's an, it's an investment.

Kelly Kennedy: That's right. That's right. 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.

Like you're right. It is, it's sometimes feels like another job. I'm getting a lot better at managing my social media and making sure that we're putting out great content and that we're actually creating more content. When I, when I created this podcast, I wasn't sure. You know, I mean, I didn't come from a media background.

I didn't come from a podcasting background. 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. Like, I'll be honest, Monte, 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.

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, and 206 episodes is a testament to all that. So you don't, you don't get that far. Without, you know, some, some, some level of sacrifice. I remember one of the podcasts I listened to 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.

And this particular podcast that I listened to, he was trying to get him on his show. And, you know, I mean, this guy's like Liz Ryan, like he's got millions of followers and he just said to him. Call me when you, when you've done your 75th or your 100th episode. And, and, and, 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, I'll, I'll know that, you know, this is worth my time in terms of, you know, investing in your audience. So, Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a good thing.

Kelly Kennedy: I actually agree with that. I actually do. 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, like, and I think it's really important for my fellow podcasters to understand that.

I did not get high quality guests like Monte until you know now until way way later in my journey and I had to earn the right to have these conversations 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 Monte too, because Monte's time is incredibly, incredibly valuable.

And I think we need to remember that. I think sometimes as podcasters, it's easy to forget that the people on the other side of the line are actually people who are trying to manage their time just like we are. And this is an hour to an hour and a half on a Monte's day that he could be using to generate real revenue for his company.

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.

Monte Pedersen: That's a great perspective to have. I, I appreciate you sharing that.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, Monte, you know, bring us back to the beginning. How did you end up on this on this journey?

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting. Like, like so many people and, and again, I'm a just, just so, just so your audience knows I'm a latent baby boomer. So, you know, I, I grew up with Parents who were of a, you know, my, my, my parents are both high school graduates and in fact, they're still alive today.

They're, they're both 88 and in Wow. And in fairly good health. So that's a, that's a, that's a good thing. But you know, I, I, I was raised to kind of, you know, in, in a blue collar background that, that. You know, where your parents say they want more for you than what they had and, you know, so their vision for, you know, all of their kids was really to, you know, go to college and, you know, back then it was to get a good job.

You need a good education, right? And then that was sort of drilled into you. So, you know, so, you know, I went to college and, and, you know, had a, had a good time, but was, but was pretty aimless, you know, you know, what it was all said and done, you know, I, I did, I did finally earn a degree, but it, you know, it took, it took a lot, but the thing about it was, is, is I worked all the way through.

College and the way I, you know, the way I, you know, finance my way through through college, if you will, was was working in hospitality and, you know, in food service on, you know, on college and university campuses. And so, you know, when I got out, it just sort of seemed like a natural. I was a journalism, sociology major and, and you know, journalism was a highly competitive field and just looking back on on what I've You know, mainstream media has become I think I dodged a huge bullet in terms of not pursuing that as a, as a career, chances are, I probably would have failed pretty quickly, but I, but I, but I had a passion for writing and, and I enjoyed that aspect.

And that's, that's really all I knew. But I, 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.

And so I, it just sort of seemed like a natural. So I, so I basically just Answered an ad and, and, and started, you know, working for a contract service management company by this time, mind you, I'd had about four years and, 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, 30, 35 year career, you know, in hospitality that, that allowed me to grow and, and, and, and then here's the interesting thing, guys, 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, and you know, help put my kids through college and, and, and, and just, you know, do, do a lot of things.

But, but towards the end the last four or five years, the, the business became, well, it was already highly competitive, but it became highly commoditized as a result of that competition. There were three major players and we just ate each other's lunch. We just, we, we, we, we traded business and it really got to the point where leadership was, we, we'd, we'd 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. So it was a lot of the last 4 or 5 years were just pretty brutal. You know, leadership didn't really respect my ability to manage.

They, like. They, they sort of dictated to us what, you know, what, what they wanted us to do. And, and so, you know, I, I knew, you know, that the end was near that, you know, something was, something was going to happen soon. And I, you know, I, I actually did a, so I, so I spent 25 years with one organization Aramark, if people are familiar with that.

And that's a Philadelphia based, you know, service provider. They, if you remember Versa services in Canada, they, they, they acquired Versa. During my, during my tenure with them. So their presence probably grew in Canada a little bit at that time. But, but anyway, so I did 25 years with their market. I never thought I wanted to leave.

And then you know, I, I just, I got a bad boss and I was doing something important for the organization and, you know, he, he wasn't making my life. Too comfortable and, and, and so their, their biggest competitor came along and recruited me and, and at the, I had never listened before. 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.

But. They just kind of called at the right time and I had the conversation and it led to some really good things for me that, you know, the, you know, working with, you know, off campus solutions, you mentioned that, you know, their subsidiary was a, you know, a tech startup that they had bought for their business.

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. But then, you know, the business, the business started to crash. And along about that time, 1 of my clients and I, I worked in the higher education market.

So the, the largest percentage of my business were, you know, colleges and universities across the Midwest. And 1 of my clients was a major big 10 university. And I had a team on that campus and it turns out my, my district manager. His wife had worked for this gentleman who created a strategy execution management system.

He's a gentleman who is working in the aerospace business out in Southern California, and he, he had a boss that came to him, not a boss, I'm sorry, a client who came to him and said Wayne, Wayne Nelson is his name, but he said, Wayne, my people don't understand what I'm trying to do. I need a system or something that gets them connected to what we're trying to achieve 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 who was an organizational development PhD and explained it to her.

And over over the weekend, they created, you know, this, this was in 99, 2000 created an execution management system. So they basically created a paper based system that they could go back to their clients. So here, if we do this, we think this is, this will pull your people, you know, in, into what you're trying to accomplish.

And it works so well that within four years, Wayne went from just general business consulting to making it as his whole business. So, so anyway, Wayne, Wayne Nelson was now living in Bloomington, Indiana. And met my district manager's wife and employed her and through that relationship, got to know my district manager and Wayne essentially gave that team my team his system and train them on it.

And when I inherited the account. I, I, I learned about it and so this was about around 2013. So I was actually kind of a student or a client of this system before I, I decided, 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, and, you know, 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. So, so yeah, in 2016 when I, when I got my my ticket to leave. I took it and it probably took me all of about one or two weeks to decide I'm going to, I'm going to start a, start a firm and it sort of focused on leadership training, but essentially I'm going to work on strategy execution with, you know, with businesses and organizations, 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. You know, one of the questions that I immediately have is I think a lot of companies, they, they don't even have a strategy. And I know that sounds, I know that sounds funny, but like, how many companies, 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 accomplish our goals over the next year, two years, five years. I think there's like hundreds and thousands or hundreds of thousands of companies that don't even have a strategy. The strategy is don't fail by any means necessary.

Monte Pedersen: Yeah. And it's, it's pretty easy to understand why when you, when you sort of peel back the layers of the onion, because Most organizations have tried strategy and they've just not, they've just not understood it at a level that they need to. And I think, I think, you know, consultants like me and, and, and other organizations have just overwhelmed them and made it more complicated than it.

Then what it really needs to be. And so they've, they've just gone back to a set of performance metrics, right? Let's, you know, let's just add 10 percent of this year's budget and let's try and hit this number. I mean, it's, you know, some strategies are as simple as that. So that's, that's one of the. You know, one of the primary reasons why I'm in this field is because there are experts on the strategy side and there and there and there are some expertise, although it's not quite as common as the strategies side.

There is just this huge gap in between that, you know, even if I had a good strategy. I don't know how to get to the results. So it's, you know, I almost use the metaphor of a bridge where, you know, someone standing on one side with their strategy, you know, in their building tools in the materials and they're trying to figure out how they craft the path to execute to get to the results that they need.

And so that's, that's essentially, you know, what my mission is, is to, is to fulfill that, to fill that, fulfill that gap, get people understanding what strategy is. De mystifying, simplifying the process of strategy and execution and showing, showing people a repeatable methodology that, that, that allows them, you know, to, to, to make that, to make that jump because it's, it's not it's not as complicated as, as people make it seem.

And, and when you really, when you really sit down and you look at it. It helps to have a good strategy. It really does, as you know. And, and then, and then that's what, that's what elicits, you know, great execution, but, you know, you, you can still execute even if you just have three or four, you know, key initiatives that you want to accomplish in a year.

So we, you know, we can always. We can always get people moving. I can meet them where they're at and we can get them moving. But over time, we're gonna, we're gonna learn how to, how to develop a good strategy. And then we're gonna, you know, learn what it takes to, you know, execute on it and get better at it year after year.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, we're in. It's early New Year 2025 at this point. You know, 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. But You know, I was hoping today, Monte, that you would really just give us a 101. We're talking to a lot of entrepreneurs.

We're talking to a lot of, you know, executives. 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. And so.

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

Monte Pedersen: The biggest thing that people get wrong about strategy is just not understanding. You know what it is and I ascribe to and this is really interesting and might appeal to some of your some of your, you know, Canadian viewers.

But, you know, I have some strong Canadian influence in my, in my thinking. And 1 of them is Roger Martin you know, from from Ontario, who's, you know, I forget the name of the school of business, but, university of Toronto. But he is one of the foremost leaders on strategy. And, and basically Martin's description of what a strategy is, is, is it's largely a theory that it, that it, that it's a, it's a guess it's our best case scenario for how we win on the, the playing field of our choice.

And, and whereas I think that explains, you know, what a, what a strategy is, right? And, and why you don't, you know, why you don't have to, why you don't take it so seriously. Right. 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 and then, and then, and then go out and do it that that's not the way it happens, you know, at all. And then the second influence is, is a gentleman by the name of Richard Rumelt. And if you want to, if you want a really good book on strategy, good strategy, bad strategy by Richard Rumelt, he's, he's a professor of management at Anderson.

At UCLA and and he may be emeritus at this point because I think he wrote that book in 2011. But rumble brings strategy down to 3 things. So so whereas I like Martin's description in terms of what it is. Rommel put some meat on the bone by, by, you know, he talks about it like being a colonel of corn.

And evidently, I mean, I'm from the Midwest. I should know this. A colonel has three components. So does soda strategy. And the first one is to have a rich or clear diagnosis of your problem. So, so for example Southwest airlines, you know, in the U S everybody knows them. And, you know, in 1967. Wanted to democratize the skies.

So, so, you know, their, their diagnosis of, of their strategy was that the common man couldn't afford to fly, right. That it was, you know, business people and, and, you know, executives and, and, and, and took money to fly. It was, it was expensive. And so, you know, he wanted to, you know, become the gray hound of the skies and, and, you know, make it, you know, make it affordable for.

For, for people to, you know, to fly, but there were, there were extensive regulations, right. Or at the time, and a lot of people don't know this, but you know, Southwest was founded in 67, the first flight didn't happen until 1971 because they spent, they spent four years fighting regulations, trying to earn the right, you know, to, to fly.

And that was at that point in time, it was just around Texas. So, so obviously Herb Kelleher and, and his partner, you know, had, had a vision and. That was, that was their strategy. So their clear diagnosis was that most people can't afford to fly and, you know, there's, there's not a, there's not a reasonable offering for them in the marketplace and they felt they could fill that void.

And so that's a pretty rich diagnosis, right? According to, you know,  Rumelt,  Rumelt theory. So the, so the second component, the second part of the kernel of strategy is, is to have a guiding policy. And a guiding policy is nothing more than a framework that helps you achieve your, achieve your vision or achieve your, you know, reach your, you know, your diagnosis.

And so, you know, in the case of Southwest Airlines, and I just love this about, about them because they're, this permeates their organization, but, you know, they have three things that they stand for. The first thing is low fares. The second thing is on time departures and arrivals. It's just, you know, it's a non negotiable.

We will, we will get these, keep these planes running and keep them on time. And the, and the third important element to them is to not tolerate anybody who stands in the way of the first two elements. So, so, you know, so a guiding policy applies to everybody inside the organization and everybody knows what to do because, you know, they, you know, they said, we're, you know, we're, we're going to.

We're going to be this low fare cost effective airline, 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. 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, right? 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 a note, cost too much money, takes too much time. And, you know, it doesn't doesn't fit what we're all about.

That's our guiding policy. So, so, so you can kind of see where a clear, you know, guiding a clear diagnosis on a guiding policy. Really benefit each other. The third element of strategy is to have a coherent set of actions and this is this is where a lot of organizations, you know, fall short. 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 you know, there's no meat on the bone and you need you need those coherent actions because that's what you're going to execute it again. So, so, in the case of in the case of Southwest. You know, defeat, defeat the regulations, right? 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.

1st of all, 2nd thing, let's go to, let's go to these underutilized secondary airports in major cities and let's revitalize them. Let's, you know, let's rent gate space from them, you know, at a more cost effective rate and we can, and we can compete. Let's not have seating assignments. Let's only serve peanuts, right?

You know, let's, let's make, let's make customer service a hallmark of what it is we do. Let's make this fun, right? 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 him. 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. And, you know, people look forward to that time that they spend. With Southwest and then, and then the real big one, right? It was, let's fly point to point. Let's just, let's keep our aircraft in the air. Let's only use one aircraft, a 737.

So, you know, everything's consistent and maintenance needs are all met. So, so you, you, everybody knows the story, but, but when you lay it out against  Rumelt strategy. Colonel and saying, you know, you, you need these three actions. You can see why they're successful. So, you know, just in the, just in the scope of understanding these last few minutes, what strategy is, and you know, if you, if you apply  Rumelt's three kernels to it or, or three components of, of a kernel to it, you understand what you need to do.

And then, and then it's all about execution and then it, and then it's about planning. And putting that together and, you know, turning sort of the intangible, you know, into results, but but what I'll say on the execution side from a, you know, from a 101 standpoint is that it's not intuitive and 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, it's going to be, it's going to be peachy and, and, you know, never has a, you know, bigger load of crap been sold to, you know, more people because it just doesn't happen that way.

You execution is something. That you need to manage and you need to pay attention to it 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. 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, that they can cover up problems and, you know, they can maintain profitability and do those things, but, but they'll never be high performing. So, so there's this, there's this natural, natural flow.

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

And that's the, that's what we're trying to fill. We're trying to fill that void to create an awareness around strategy and execution and what it takes to get there. In addition to that, I obviously for the for the right people for the committed organization, you know that that 2 percent out of the 10 percent that probably make their strategy annually.

The only way you're going to get to high performance is through us through a system, a repeatable framework and methodology that's going to. You know that your people it'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.

So I really, I mean, I love the system that's the core of my, my, my business and what I go to market with, but I've just, you know, recently, you know, come to terms with this idea that, you know, we can't, we can't get those people. To that point unless they really understand what strategy execution is all about and so that that's where i'm that's that's where i've sort of landed and you know, with the help of jacob that's that's, you know, who we've launched this recent program with and strategy execution on riddled is what it's called but that that's.

Why we've done it and where we're at right now.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. 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, oh man, business development sales for the greater part of 18 years. And I didn't really get great at business development until I created a process and followed it on a regular basis.

It was consistency. And process over time that made me successful, 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. Now we teach that system here at capital. You know, I coach that system, but it was it was consistency and a good process over time that led to success.

I like that. You also talked about the simplicity. Yeah. The more I could simplify the system, the better it was, the easier it was to follow, and the easier it was to keep going, but it's funny because it makes sense that it would translate into just about everything, including execution of a plan.

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, there's no question that Execution's involved in everything that we do and, and, you know, you found it out and, and, you know, the, here, here's the, here's the world's worst kept secret, right?

It's, you don't have to have the smartest people in the world. You just have to have committed people that understand what you're trying to do and, and, you know, sell them on your, sell them on your process and the benefits and they'll, they'll execute on it. I mean, they will. There's just, I mean, people don't go to work wanting to do a bad job.

That's right. You know, they, they, they want, they want some guidance. They want to be directed, but yet they also want the autonomy to make decisions on their own and, and to contribute. And, you know, when you, 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, 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. It was being able to do the same thing over time consistently consistently that may be successful because with business development, we're always planning for the future.

We're always looking for the future opportunity, and sometimes that opportunity takes three months of consistency. For that to come in. 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 368 months because you've put in that work consistently.

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

Monte Pedersen: Yeah. That, that's that's, that's so important. You know, because, because everybody sells, right? I mean, I, I, I don't care what it is you're doing, you know, whether you're selling internally or externally you, you, you, you've gotta have that.

And, and so, you know, processes is sort of, you know, king and in, in, in terms of, you know, in terms of doing that, you've gotta have something to, you know, teach and, and guide and lead your people because it's a, it's a human behavior issue. Right. I mean, I love, I don't know if you're familiar with the book, Detonate came out in 2018 by a couple of Pricewaterhouse consultants.

But what I, what I love about it is, you know, they, they really feel like you have to blow up best practices that we've gotten into this. I mean, for decades, right? Businesses have run just, you know, based upon how, how we did things in the previous decade, right? But, but now the, the, the millennials and the Gen Xers and the Gen Zers, you know, are dominating the workforce.

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

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah.

Monte Pedersen: A different way to sell a different way to work, you know, a way to use technology, you know, you know, to our advantage. And so you, you've got these. Yeah. Yeah. 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. 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 retirement party and they're, and they're, they're looking at it and going, no, I don't think I want to do that.

Why would I do that? And so, so what are they doing? You know, they, they either like what you're doing and they'll continue to work with you and learn from you. They don't like what you're doing. 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 and I mean, this is unprecedented in terms of, you know, what we've seen happen and, you know, in business you know, for decades. And so that's what we're dealing with. And that's that's why you need. That's why you need a process. Because, you know, these, these kids, I guess I'll call them that, because they're, they're very calculated, right?

They, you know, they, they know what they're doing. They, they have a strong digital presence. They understand, you know, what, what technology and, and what social platforms, you know, do for them. And, and you know, quite frankly, it's, you know, I think it's, I think it's going to drive even more success, you know, in our, in our economy.

And AI is only the latest chapter, right?

Kelly Kennedy: Sure. Yeah, it's like everything is being designed to like simplify almost all systems using AI, which, you know, and you know, we could 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.

I've been, you know, I mean, I've been using it since we launched this podcast for the most part, 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, but you're right, it's going to change everything. And it's so funny because recently, 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.

The future is everybody needs to 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.

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

Right? So they, you know, so they, they remained. And again, that probably drove a good part of my career. They have no fear. And so what they're proving to others and again, there's There are people of my age who are, you know, who have been let go, right? They've, they've just been, you know, they rise to a level of, of, of salary and, you know, that, you know, call it ageism.

Don't call it ageism, but basically, you know, organizations weed out people that cost them, you know, money. That's right. Especially if they don't feel they're being effective enough. And, and, and those people are still willing to work and contribute and, you know, do things. And, and I think they're a valuable part of the workforce that, that, you know, right, right now are being neglected.

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, well, either way, it's happening and it's happening all over the place 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, but, you know, I want to spend some time.

We did spend some time on that in the beginning. I do want to spend a little bit of time on it before we before we end today, 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, you were saying, Kelly, you know, like a lot of people are you.

They're pretty good at making a plan. They're pretty good at making some type of strategy plan where it falls short short where it falls short is the execution and you mentioned that like most plans 60 to 90 percent of them are never able to execute properly. Can we talk about how can we change that?

That number is horrible.

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, yeah, it really is. And it's, it's, it's one that 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. And again, it just, it just may be an artifact of how they, how they did things. Right. Because you could, I mean.

Holy cow. I worked for a 16 billion organization and, you know, one of the hallmarks of, of, of our CEO, and he was a great CEO at the time, no complaints about his leadership, but he always believed in stretch assignments, right? So all of our. Business plans and that's really what we followed, right? 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.

But he, he would hang the number out there pretty, pretty high aggressive, be very aggressive. And if we got to 60 or 70 percent of it. You know, the, the leadership would be pretty happy.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah.

Monte Pedersen: And, and, and, and that, the idea of that is just crazy to me, but it's, it's indicative of what business leaders do, you know, from an execution standpoint, 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.

And you know, at that, at that point, you overlook the whole cultural element. Of what strategy execution can do for your organization. You have no common purpose. You have no, you know, again, you may have a long term vision, but, you know, you don't do an effective job of communicating it. You know, throughout the organization, and so you miss that opportunity to get your people united around, you know, like Southwest, you know, the idea of.

You know, people never before flying, you know, getting to get on a plane and go somewhere quickly and cost efficiently. You know another, another, you know, great story along that line of, of, of execution and relating it back to, you know, to, to culture and common direction and purposes. In, in America, there's a, about a 15, I think they might be almost 20 years old now, a mortgage company called movement mortgage, and they were, they came out of the financial crisis.

And basically the the, the CEO had this vision where coming out of the crisis and, and, you know, what kind of a debacle that was with home ownership, right? Where, you know, they were selling mortgages and putting them in subprime, you know, tranches and, you know, collapse the market. So, his idea was people are going to want a different kind of experience coming out of that crisis.

So. He created this company that was just focused on sort of love and, and, you know, caring for. You know, caring for people, one of the early problems they had as an organization was in, in, in, in the, in the loan processing documents, there were, 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.

And so he got this idea that, you know, there was just something missing. Well, the missing element was they weren't seeing. The impact of, of what it is they were doing. 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, of the new owner with the keys and the, you know, and, and their loan papers are, you know, Whatever, 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.

And, 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 an half almost, almost overnight. And so, so you, so you see the connection that, you know, having.

Having having a, you know, a strategy, right? Something that, you know, a purpose, a common purpose that you want to do having that vision. So you have all these foundational elements, right? And they just don't reach people and but but you but you've got to do that. You've got to get those. You know, connected to people so that they understand their role and that what they're contributing to means something to somebody and then they have purpose.

So there's a, there's a cohesive relationship here that comes from the strategy and then, and then the execution part, the primary execution driver in all of that is this. Understanding that from our strategy and again, people get this idea that you need a strategy every year and strategy doesn't happen every year.

You got to trash the calendar when it comes to picking a time for strategy to work because you don't, you just don't know, right? It's going back to Roger Martin. It's just your guess.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah,

Monte Pedersen: so it may take three years. It may take five years. You know, who knows? It may take less. You have to, you have to be prepared to live through multiple years.

So, so you set strategic initiatives every year that you think gets you to that strategy or that, you know, comply with your vision, right? That's that are directionally correct. But those strategic initiatives that you create annually need to be crystal clear if you're going to execute well, 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 what it is they have to be doing 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. 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. So execution has to have has to have that connectivity, and it needs those key drivers. 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 organization's want, wants to accomplish, and their department may touch two or three of them, 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. 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.

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, the important thing to remember is that.

Organizations on their own don't execute, individuals execute.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes.

Monte Pedersen: And, and individual performance leads to collective results. So you, 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, then that's where the magic happens.

And, and this is, and this is the, you know, getting back to your original question, but the reason why execution fails is that most organizations and most leadership teams aren't willing to do what it takes to do that. And I, 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. I would say that most of the time if you're struggling to grow or achieve something, it's the thing you're avoiding. It's, you know, I mean, the thing that you're avoiding is the thing you need to be doubling down on 90 percent of the time. And that happens in business development literally all the time.

I can't tell you how often most of the recommendations I'm giving to people are pick up your phone and actually call somebody because that's the secret. It's no secret. The secret is no secret. Just get in touch with the people who actually need your products and services, and you'll probably sell some of them.

Monte Pedersen: That's right. That's right. When you, when you, when you, when you break it down to the lowest common denominator and you simplify it that's where, that's where it's going to happen. And, and, you know, what, what people don't get is it's just fundamental human behavior, right? You've got to, you've got to, 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.

Yeah, and that's, that's all it comes down to.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally, totally.

No, this has been amazing, Monte. Thank you so much. 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. You're a leader in that area.

You're a leader in leadership. You know, I wanted to chat with you. We got into it at the beginning of the show and we're going to circle back to it now just because I feel like 2024, 2025, you know, the real thing that everyone seems to be Talking about his personal branding. You have a following of, you know, 200, 000 people on LinkedIn.

Let's chat a little bit about that. You're leading in this area. You've been able to build an amazing personal brand. Can you can you speak to your strategy and why you chose to go that route? Or was it was it just something that happened?

Monte Pedersen: I started out with the idea that, you know, visibility gave you exposure.

And then if you could meet people and I'm a, I'm a huge relationship person, right? You know, I think relationships undergird so much. It's the reason we're in business. So I thought relationships were what I was after and I got that, 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, right? That, that, that motivates you, you know, to, you know, to want to do it. And, you know, I think maybe for a while I got caught up in the, in the numbers. What was interesting about it, Kelly, was the first three or four years that I was on social media, my numbers didn't, didn't grow.

I mean, up until probably about three years ago, you know, maybe I had 20, 000 followers, but then all of a sudden you know, about three years ago, it just, it just sort of took off. And, and I, I started getting, you know, posts with, you know, half a million, three quarter of a million, a million impressions and, and then, and then all of a sudden you're kind of saying, you know, I've ignited a spark here and, and, and so you, you know, you, you, you sort of follow that and, but, but the idea of it is, is that just put out quality content, meet the right people, create the, create the, you know, the right relationships, help the people that you can. And again, you can't help everybody. It's a big world out there, right? 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'd, you know, you'd ever, you'd ever touch 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 because there's a, there's a lot of organizations that just aren't doing it.

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

And, and so that's where the, you know, the online programming and coursework I think is, is reforming it plus we have two generations that comprise about 65 percent of the workforce right now that think, you know, pursuing a college education, you know, when, when there's no degree in their field for what they're trying to do.

Doesn't make any sense to them. So, you know, they're, they're out there trying to, to learn. And, and, and, and unfortunately you, you know, you run into the major influencers, right. That are just, you know, buying paid ads and cranking people in and out of their system for money.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah.

Monte Pedersen: You know, I mean, you, I guess you have to expect that, but 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, you know, people subscribe to what it is you do. They, they go to your website and they, you know, they buy into more than just what you, what you post in terms of articles and content. You've probably got a friend for life, right? Yeah.

And, and somebody who's somebody who may be willing to invest in your services if they feel they need that. But the, the way that I looked at it was. Build the relationships and create that relationship because even if it doesn't end up in a in a business transaction, you still have that

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah.

Monte Pedersen: And that and that's something of value and I think that's what most people don't get about You know the the the whole process at least at least the people that You know, are interested in building long term success with their, with their enterprises and, and, and their own, you know, their own digital footprint and, and, 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 percent and at most charge for 10 and that was his his kind of motto and he's like you he's got a pretty massive following on LinkedIn and he shares it all he doesn't hold anything back he's written an amazing book and it just I believe it was called six figure sales and yeah it was just one of those.

It was one of those great pieces of advice. And you know, I mean, I think he's completely on point. You know, when we started the business development podcast, I said, why not? I'll just tell them exactly how I do business development. I'll teach them the lessons that I learned. There was nothing in the space for business development.

It was completely overlooked. And I remember getting into it and wondering what the hell should I be doing? And so I just wanted to help the world with this show. And obviously, it's turned into something much bigger than just business development. But when I initially started, that was it. It was like, why, you know, I don't want to be it.

I think now I have the knowledge that I could help past me 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 and so it was my way of giving 90 percent and I think that is the future of the world, right?

Like you can find out just about anything you want to find out. On YouTube, on LinkedIn, through podcasts, we live in this amazing time where almost anything you want to learn is available to you. 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.

A lot of it is readily available to them. It's a different time.

Monte Pedersen: Yeah. And a lot of the you know, a lot of the professors and the really, the really smart, active people who see education as, as being, you know, a real need that they're out there already, they're, they're online and they're, they're working through a number of different sources and institutions and, and, you know, creating even greater value and, and, 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. It's a brave new world. And, you know, while we're getting into that, I did just want to close the show today. You know, you've been a leader for over 35 years.

You know, you've experienced a lot. I'm sure a lot has changed in that time with regards to leadership. You know, we're talking to a lot of people in the new year. You know, maybe there are new leaders, emerging leaders have been leaders a long time, but you know, there's a lot of lessons that you can impart on them.

And I guess I would just say what would be, you know, say your top three leadership pieces of advice here going into 2025 for people, what should they be considering in this new world?

Monte Pedersen: Well, the biggest thing from a leadership standpoint is, and I, and I like to say it this way own, own the real estate that you walk on, meaning invest in, you know, invest in your people.

I've obviously I'm an advocate of truly human leadership, human centric approach that it all starts and ends with people. But the reality is, as there are leaders, Who look at, look at themselves and they, they sort of take care of themselves. They, you know, they lead others and they, and they do certain things, but they don't invest in their people.

And the way I look at owning your own real estate is if, if one of your people fail, you fail that, you know, you've got to own everything that goes on, the good, the bad You know, when, when something happens inside your team or your organization that, that, that shouldn't have happened, are you evaluating your role in, in how that happened first, before you start pointing fingers and going after other people.

And, and, and, and, and the reason why that's sort of number 1 on my list is, is I spent 30 years doing, doing the opposite, right? Where, you know, if somebody screwed up, if somebody failed, you know, that was on them, you know, I, I had my story and I, I knew what I was doing and I thought it was sound and so, so that's, that's, that's a, that's a very nonlinear view of view of leadership, but it's but it's, but it's pretty important.

And so the 2nd, 1 kind of dovetails from that. And that's, it's always remember that, that it's not about you. It's about them. You know that you, you know, leadership ultimately is about, you know, getting things done through people. Yes, you, yes, you contribute on your own. Yes, you guide do information. And obviously you're, you're privy to the big picture and other things that you do.

But when it comes down to it. You're, you're, you're inspiring, empowering and serving people that you have within your charge and, and, you know, the minute you take the focus off of them, the minute you, that you start losing your leadership credential, at least in my mind. And then the last thing that I, that I would say is more than ever, and this, this probably applies to your, you know, 2025 thinking is that.

You know, business needs courageous leaders. We, we really do. If you can't call somebody out within your organization, right. As 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, if, if it's going to get them fired.

But yeah, we, we, we've got to be able to have the difficult conversations with people. When someone's screwing up, you've just got to go to them and say, what, what's going on? What can, you know, what can I do differently? What can I help you with? Or is this just not a good fit 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.

Monte Pedersen: So most. Managers, I would say aren't aren't willing to have those. You know, they do, they do things by the book, you know, they're all about the nuts and bolts and we need, we need good managers and we need good leaders.

There's no question about it. 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. 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. Amazing. Thank you so much for that, Monte. 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, right? It's a lot easier to point fingers sometimes than it is to look in the mirror and say, look, there's usually a failure on both sides.

It's not usually one sided. There's usually things that we could do. 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.

Monte Pedersen: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, you and I and I know that you know, central Canada is a lot like the great Midwest in the U. S. And, you know, we have this tendency to be what we call it might it might be called something different down here. It's called Minnesota. Nice. Right. Where we don't want to offend anybody. We want, we like to please people and we, 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, is to know where they stand with their manager and the boss, you know, the company every day. And if we're not, if we're not giving them that, then, 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. And I agree. I think we do struggle with that. We do struggle for it's confrontation, right? We're avoiding confrontation and you know, I know I've struggled with that. And so have many, many, many people and I'm a recovering I'm a recovering confronter, is that the right way of saying it?

Monte, this has been absolutely amazing. You know, I want to chat a little bit about CDA Group. You guys offer a wide range of services as we talk. Like it started off with one, but it's starting to expand into more. Can we chat a little bit about CDA Group and the services that you provide?

Monte Pedersen: Yeah, so, so, so CDA comes from clarify, deploy, achieve, which is really, you know, what great execution is all about, 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.

And, and, and so that, that's sort of where the, where the acronym came from, but, you know, we are a leadership training firm and leadership is firmly embedded into everything we do. So, so we have you know, we have An execution management system that I think is the best in the market. There aren't that many.

They haven't been around that long, but this is a very, very solid, easy to learn, understand and manage process that, we'll, we'll get you executing really, really, you know, quickly. And, and so, so, so, so we have that I just mentioned, you know, our educational platform in terms of the, 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.

And so, you know, strategy execution, un riddled is, is the, the. You know, the program that I've built with, you know, with Jacob Boven in Switzerland, 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 the same sort of in the same bucket, but we have, we have a couple of online courses that we've developed. One of them is the Strategy to Execution Essentials course just completing the first cohort. We have a second cohort starting in August, so if you follow my stuff or, or, you know, go to clarifydeployyachieve. com, you'll, you'll find out more about that.

And then I I, I've just sort of, you know, by accident been asked to, you know, keynote. And so I, I, I do, I do. Formalized, you know, presentations for, for, for organizations that are interested in it. It's not what I would consider that I'm in the business to do, but for the right opportunity. I'm in in October.

I'm going to be in Moncton, New Brunswick speaking with the excellence and manufacturing consortium. They're having they're having a, a fall 1 day conference, and I'm going to keynote for them. So that, that's October 22nd, if anybody in Atlantic Canada is listening or interested. So, so yeah, so there, there are the things including formalized workshops and, and, and customized, you know, strategy execution programs that, that, that we do.

So, we've we've diversified quite a bit here over the last 8 years and it just, I guess, continues to get more and more exciting.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. Monte, thank you so much for joining us today, sharing all the information until next time. This has been episode 206 of the business development podcast, and we will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry. And founded his own business development firm in 2020. His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development. Your business development specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.