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NASRS23 in a Nutshell

The 2023 edition of the North American Sustainability & Responsibility Summit ran January 30th through February 1st at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines outside Austin, Texas. It was attended by 410 delegates, speakers, sponsor representatives, and guests from almost two hundred different companies and organizations. The agenda included more than fifty keynotes, case studies, workshops, roundtable discussions, and more. In the days after the event, feedback has been universally positive, and work is already underway to make the 2024 edition of the series event bigger and better. That is the shortest overview we can offer of the event. Here is…

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BLOG

A Checklist for Successful Digital Transformations

I’m a copywriter. I love synonyms. When there’s more than one way to say a thing, it gives me options to talk about the same ideas and concepts different ways without repeating myself too often. The Digital Revolution, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, or The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been a boon for business copywriters. It has been less of a boon for the people responsible for effectively delivering on its promises. Now that may seem unfair at first. Enormous corporate empires and entire professions have risen in the last few decades on the promise…

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BLOG

Building Sustainability into Corporate Culture

Unilever is one of the world’s largest multinational consumer goods companies. From food and refreshments, to home care, to beauty & personal care products, if you are not using a Unilever brand, you are using a Unilever competitor who very much has Unilever in mind when it chooses how to source, make, distribute, market, and deliver its products. Unilever is an industry leader and a trendsetter whose business decisions reverberate across economies. Unilever is also committed to being a Sustainability-focused company. They have spoken about it a number of times at Executive Platforms events, and they are very happy to…

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BLOG

The R-Word that Rhymes with Succession

There is a not-so-fun phrase you hear a lot when pundits talk about the state of the current economy. “We’re probably in a recession right now.” It doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the pundits’ understanding of the facts on the ground, does it? Having teed myself up, I guess I should say we’re probably in a recession right now, but this one is starting off unevenly, which gives businesses a chance to think through some of the things they want to put in place before the worst of it hits. What Exactly is a Recession? Let’s begin by…

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BLOG

Our Favorite Interviews of 2022

It’s the end of another year and a fine time to begin a new tradition: Let’s look back at some of our favorite interviews that we have done in 2022, and maybe something will catch your eye that you did not see the first time around! A couple of things to say at the top? First, the episodes we want to feature in this article are chosen based on things about them I remember fondly and want to highlight when I think of the year gone by, not any particular hard and fast metrics. Second, because of some ambitious plans…

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BLOG

Giving Your Data a Storyteller’s Voice

A common thread running through all of Executive Platforms’ events is the challenge of sharing and acting upon complicated information, especially when subject matter experts need to reach an audience outside their discipline or profession. Here are a few variations of what this shared talking point looks like as they have appeared on our agendas over the years: From Analysis to Action: Making Metrics Mean Something to Our Frontline Workforce Communicating and Collaborating Up and Down the Value Chain in Real-Time Improving Compliance Data Collection, Documentation, and Reporting The Power of Storytelling in Investor Relations Qualifying the Quantifiable and Quantifying…

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BLOG

Compensation, Benefits, and Incentives for Top Talent

I spent most of the past week speaking with senior HR professionals at Executive Platforms’ annual North American HR Executive Summit series in Orlando, Florida. Some of these conversations were with leaders responsible for tens of thousands of employees, and others were with executives from industry-leading companies with as few as 25 highly skilled and highly coveted experts on staff. From globally recognized brands to the small but mighty companies the public at large cannot name but depend on every day, the same topic of conversation came up over and over again: The disruption of the last three years has…

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The Holidays – The Most Productive Unproductive Time of the Year

Full Disclosure: I write this on the morning of our office holiday party. The afternoon is a write-off, and from here until the New Year Executive Platforms will probably never have a working day where all hands are on deck again. From now on, everything will be done with an understanding that things may take a little more time or even need to be put away for a while. Businesses everywhere are entering a period where productivity is going to fall off, and there is nothing even the best manager can do to prevent it. In fact, the best managers…

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PODCAST

The Story Behind Business Books and Business Memoirs — A Conversation with Kwame Scott Fraser of Dundurn Press

— Geoff Micks Head of Content & Research Executive Platforms Geoff joined the industry events business as a conference producer in 2010 after four years working in print media. He has researched, planned, organized, run, and contributed to more than a hundred events across North America and Europe for senior leaders, with special emphasis on the energy, mining, manufacturing, maintenance, supply chain, human resources, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, finance, and sustainability sectors. As part of his role as Head of Content & Research, Geoff hosts Executive Platforms’ bluEPrint Podcast series as well as a blog focusing on issues relevant to…

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BLOG

Supply Chain Resiliency

I have a lot of conversations with supply chain executives in my line of work. Executive Platforms organizes the long-running and successful North American Supply Chain Executive Summit series, and is launching a European series as well, but of course supply chain content is integral to our manufacturing summit series, our food safety and quality series, our pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical series, and our sustainability series as well. Something fundamental has changed in the nature of those conversations over the last year or so, and I missed it for a little while in the background hum of organizations weathering the storm…

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BLOG

Testing Creativity, and How That Applies to Business

Creativity is a slippery thing to define, but we all know it when we see it. It cannot really be taught, although it can be encouraged. Creative people tend to be successful problem-solvers who contribute more than the average to team projects and may rise to become ‘Top Talent’ as businesses like to identify the people who drive positive outcomes in their organizations. We also make a habit of suppressing creative people. Without in any way coming from a malicious or even intentional place, there are many spoken and unspoken influences that shape how a creative person acts in given…

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BLOG

The Future of Work

There’s no doubt that digital is quickly transforming the way we do everything. Organizations of all sizes are undergoing a period of intense transformation, and it can be easy to get swept up in new technologies. But at the core of each organization is its people, and it’s important to keep them at the forefront of your transformation.  At the 2021 edition of the North American HR Executive Summit, Binh Nguyen, VP of Talent Acquisition at Walmart, spoke about Walmart’s strategy to keep people at the heart of their digital transformation, and what they believe the future will look like. …

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BLOG

Building a World-Class Sustainability Program

The world is changing. Sustainability is quickly becoming a major topic among stakeholders, and it’s up to organizations to create and implement practices that satisfy the needs of the future.  In 2021, Chris Raymond shared his experience as the first Chief Sustainability Officer for Boeing at the North American Sustainability & Responsibility Summit. Boeing connects the world through aviation – but its industry can also be attributed to 3% of global carbon emissions. In his position, Raymond oversees the company’s approach on sustainable development and ESG priorities.  As the world continues to grow and shift, industries have to find ways…

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BLOG

Meeting Pharma’s Need for Talent

Jack Garvey, founder and CEO of Compliance Architects, is a frequent co-chair for Quality and Risk event content at Executive Platforms’ pharmaceutical manufacturing series. During the 2022 edition of the Pharma Manufacturing World Summit, Jack spoke about the talent crisis facing the industry and the tools needed for organizations to develop and nurture the next generation of professionals.  The talent crisis is not new —and it will probably never disappear— but there are steps that can be taken to offset its effects. Here are some of Jack’s thoughts:  Understanding the Role  The extent of the work a compliance officer does…

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PODCAST

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the Workforce – A Conversation with The Get REAL Movement

— Geoff Micks Head of Content & Research Executive Platforms Geoff joined the industry events business as a conference producer in 2010 after four years working in print media. He has researched, planned, organized, run, and contributed to more than a hundred events across North America and Europe for senior leaders, with special emphasis on the energy, mining, manufacturing, maintenance, supply chain, human resources, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, finance, and sustainability sectors. As part of his role as Head of Content & Research, Geoff hosts Executive Platforms’ bluEPrint Podcast series as well as a blog focusing on issues relevant to…

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BLOG

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security: It’s Already Serious. When Are We Going to Get Serious About It?

A common theme you will find in almost every Executive Platforms-organized industry event is about moving from reactive to proactive, about identifying and mitigating risks before things go wrong. From Food Safety to Biopharmaceuticals, and from Sustainability to Human Resources, people in leadership roles always want to be out in front of their organization’s challenges. Foresight beats hindsight in just about every business decision you can imagine. For some reason, cybersecurity does not get the same treatment as everything else. People like to turn a blind eye to the software, hardware, and infrastructure the world runs on when looking for…

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