Strategic Minds

By: Rich Horwath
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  • Summary

  • Are you tactical or strategic? Research shows that it’s the difference between bankruptcy and a Kevlar competitive advantage. In a world where bad strategy is the leading cause of business failure, and only one out of every four leaders are truly strategic, strategic fitness is the meta-skill of elite executives. On Strategic Minds, you’ll journey with New York Times & Wall Street Journal bestselling author Rich Horwath into conversations with extraordinary leaders and world-class experts to learn new ways to think, plan, and act strategically. You’ll discover game-changing insights, tips, and techniques to turbocharge your performance and position you as a true difference-maker in your arena.
    Rich Horwath
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Career Success Economics Management Management & Leadership
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Episodes
  • Playing the Long Game: Growing a Startup into a Household Name

    Playing the Long Game: Growing a Startup into a Household Name
    Mar 4 2025
    How does a long-term entrepreneur identify a good idea, scale it, and stay committed to that vision over 30 years? In this episode, Rich sits down with Angie Hicks, Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Angi, formerly Angie’s list. They discuss building a business from the ground up, leading employees and external partners, and maintaining enthusiasm for a long-term goal. ---------Key Quotes: “ If you don't maintain the culture, it'll be a bad culture.” “When I think about whether I like what I'm doing, I base it on two factors. One, do I like the people I'm working with? And two, am I learning new things?”“Sometimes you have to force a learning function on the organization because it's important. Because the landscape shifts and you don't want to get caught flat-footed.”“Find your unit that you're going to evaluate things on. What is it? What is that process? And then make sure you can always pull back the layers to make sure that element is working well.”Practice Makes Profit: Solve challenges effectively and efficiently with solutional thinking. League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:    How can I help my team be more innovativeWinsights: Ideas for Advantage: Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and HP Enterprises, said, “First, you need the right strategy. Less than perfect execution against the right strategy will probably work. 100 percent execution against the wrong strategy, won't.” Does your team have a strategy that you believe in and can help win in the market? If not, all the time you're spending on execution and tactics is being wasted. The motto is ready, aim, fire not just keep firing. Think first.--------Time stamps:(00:41) Deep Dive Interview with Angie(47:27) Practice Makes Profit486:57) League of Strategic Minds (50:11) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage ---------Links:Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/ Angie Hicks on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-hicks-30566/Angi: https://www.linkedin.com/company/angi/Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwathRich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/[Subscribe to the Podcast] On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941
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    52 mins
  • Battle-Tested Strategy: Lessons from a Four-Star General

    Battle-Tested Strategy: Lessons from a Four-Star General
    Feb 18 2025

    What military strategies and tactics can business leaders leverage to position their companies for success?

    In this episode, Rich sits down with four-star General Robert Brown, President and CEO of the Association of the United States Army. General Brown is an experienced commander who has led at every level, from platoon through Army Service Component Command, leading a group of over 100,000 soldiers.

    In this conversation, he discusses military strategy and best practices for navigating the modern Fog of War, sharing his insights on red teaming, after action reviews, and leadership principles.

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    Key Quotes:

    “Too much information has become the fog of war. It used to be not enough. Now it's too much… Now you've got to look through haystacks of information, thousands of haystacks of information, to try to find that golden needle in the haystack that will help you make a decision.”

    “ I've seen somebody say to me: ‘Here’s my strategy, it’s 15 pages.’ And it's like, hey, it's gonna fail, You might as well stop. Start again. Can't be 15. Nobody's gonna read it.”

    “ The key is creating a learning environment where people want to learn and that after action review helps you learn and overcome those issues that may be buried if you didn't pull them out. It's like pulling a band aid off. You can't be thin skinned. Sometimes it's tough.”

    Practice Makes Profit: Increasing team velocity through a decision inventory.

    League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:   What's the best way to tell if someone is strategic?

    Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:    Sun Tzu, the Chinese general and philosopher, wrote, “Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.” Are you and your team repeating the same tactics year after year and expecting some type of miraculous change?  Carve out time to think strategically about the changes in your market and with your customers. Stop procrastinating and start innovating.

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    Time stamps:

    (00:00) Deep Dive Interview with General Brown

    (54:57) Practice Makes Profit

    (56:17) League of Strategic Minds

    (57:31) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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    Links:

    Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/

    General Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-brooks-brown-1981usma/

    AUSA.org: https://www.ausa.org/

    Strategic Quotients Assessment: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-quotient-assessment/


    Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/

    Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath

    Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/

    Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/

    Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339

    New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com
    Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/


    [Subscribe to the Podcast]
    On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976

    On Spotify

    : https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941
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    59 mins
  • “All In” on Strategy: Insights from a World Poker Champion

    “All In” on Strategy: Insights from a World Poker Champion
    Jan 28 2025
    What strategic thinking techniques can leaders apply from a world poker champion to better position themselves for success? In this episode, Rich sits down with Darren Elias,  a four time World Poker Tour champion. Darren is ranked number one all time in victories, final tables and cashes on the World Poker Tour and has amassed over $12.5 million in live tournament poker winnings. In this conversation, Darren gives us insight into preparation and execution, how to adapt on the fly, assessing and reading competition, and maintaining emotional control to make good decisions. ---------Key Quotes:“You really can't think about the money that much. You have to execute the strategy and you shouldn't be thinking in dollars or anything like that. You should be thinking in numbers and players and the relationships between our strategies. I think a lot of mistakes I've seen at big final tables come from players that get a little overwhelmed by the moment or the thinking about the money. That stuff you really shouldn't be thinking about until after the tournament.”“ The biggest thing for me is objective self evaluation, where I'm looking at how I played, I'm looking at the decisions from a distance and saying, was this hand played well? Was this the right play against this player in that situation? And really remaining confident that even though you're losing, and in poker tournaments, you actually lose 80 percent of the time.”“ Know who you're playing against….because everybody has different strategies. You have loose players, tight players. You have ones that don't want to play big pots. You have ones that maybe don't play as many hands preflop….So really, try to understand your opponent. Uh, what they're trying to do with the table, what their general strategy is.”Practice Makes Profit: Reducing mental fatigue and burnout by batching your work. League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:  What's the best way to align strategies between different functional areas?Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:   Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, said, “Our company is 30 days from going out of business. You're always on the way to going out of business. If you don't internalize that sensibility, you will go out of business.” Ask yourself this, are you and your team meeting to discuss your business model and how it needs to evolve?--------Time stamps:(00:41) Deep Dive Interview with Darren Elias(37:48) Practice Makes Profit(39:43) League of Strategic Minds (41:08) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage ---------Links:Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/ Darren Elias on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-elias-3a1432114/BetMGM: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betmgm/Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwathRich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.comSign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/[Subscribe to the Podcast] On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941
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    43 mins

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