The Standing Apart Podcast

Most organisations have a strategy for sales, marketing and product. Almost none have a strategy for the thing running all of it — the mind. Marc Champagne spent two decades in corporate healthcare, reaching the top of the country in sales before leaving to study a question he couldn't let go of: how do the best thinkers in the world train their minds to work for them instead of against them? Twen...

Most businesses still operate on a logic built for the last century: create value in advance, store it, distribute it and hope customers come looking. Kaihan Krippendorff 's Proximity thesis argues that logic is being fundamentally inverted - and the firms that understand why are the ones pulling ahead. In this episode, Kaihan - Wharton Senior Fellow, Thinkers50 management thinker and author of si...

Most businesses assume their biggest branding challenge is awareness. Warren Kornblum thinks that's almost the wrong problem to solve. After a career spanning global brands including Toys R Us and Serta Simmons Bedding, Warren has spent decades studying why some brands earn deep, lasting loyalty while others fade despite heavy marketing investment. His answer centres on a concept he calls Share of...

Most people treat self-esteem as a by-product of events, rising after a win and faltering after a setback. Alan Weiss argues the opposite: self-esteem doesn't decline because of what happens to you - it declines out of neglect. Despite decades of positive psychology, Weiss makes the case that most of us have quietly surrendered the internal resource that determines whether we succeed consistently,...

Leadership looks straightforward until it isn't. When conflict is sitting in the room, when your natural style is the wrong one for the moment, when you have to be both tough and fair at the same time — that's where most leadership development leaves you on your own. In this episode, Nigel Ridpath speaks with Dr James Walsh : US Air Force veteran, retired Department of Defense civilian, lecturer a...

Most conversations about gender fairness in the workplace start from the assumption that it's primarily a women's issue — or worse, a compliance one. Brad Johnson and David Smith start from somewhere different. Their argument, grounded in decades of research at the US Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins, is that the current structure of most organisations fails men and women in different but related w...

Pest control is not the first industry most people look to for business insights. That's rather the point. Tim Witt spent 30 years rising through corporate leadership in one of the most consistently recession-resistant, AI-resistant sectors in the economy, before starting his own company from scratch in rural Oklahoma — during the 2008 financial crisis, when most sensible people were heading in th...

In Part 1, Johan Roos introduced the central choice every professional now faces: the Amplification Curve or the Erosion Curve. In this second conversation, we get into the harder questions - and the more practical ones. Johan Roos is a management scholar, co-inventor of the LEGO Serious Play methodology, Professor and former Chief Academic Officer at Hult International Business School, and author...

As AI takes on more of the work once done by people, a fundamental question is emerging for leaders everywhere: what exactly is your role now? It's a question I've been wrestling with myself. I've spent years teaching and writing about leadership skills - motivation, situational leadership, delegation, team behaviour - and wondering whether any of it still holds. My guest in this episode has been...

Nigel sits down with Melissa Swift to untangle what really makes people and teams effective in a world drowning in meetings, notifications and shiny tools. Together they trace a path from the urgent scramble of modern work to quiet systems that deliver results: the fire‑fighter’s practiced rope, the ER doctor’s plan for interruptions and the consulting rituals that make good work repeatable. Throu...

What if the reason customers choose the cheapest or the loudest option isn’t because you’re bad, but because you’re easy to compare? Nigel Ridpath takes listeners on a crisp, story-driven journey through the quiet killers of great businesses - friction, generic messaging, and the danger of blending in. Through vivid examples, he shows how specificity, named methods, clear proof and brave trade-off...

Most corporate values are written for outsiders: customers, candidates, procurement, the internet. But culture is what happens internally on a wet Tuesday when something goes wrong.   In Episode 23 of Standing Apart , Nigel Ridpath gets practical about the gap between corporate values and company culture, why values statements so often become “values theatre” and how to build values that actually...

Nigel Ridpath speaks with Paul Ingram, Kravis Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, about values-based leadership and how to turn values from vague aspirations into a practical tool for decision-making, hiring and organisational culture.   They explore why the exact word matters, how values show up under pressure, how a single “chief executive value” can resolve hard trade-offs and a...

In this episode Nigel Ridpath sits down with entrepreneur and author Justin Hai to unravel a startling idea: stress isn’t new, but technology has stolen the off switch. Through vivid examples - from 80's TV to midnight binge culture - Justin traces how endless content and constant notifications have rewired our cortisol rhythm and left our bodies running on permanent alert. As the conversation mov...

Step off a pretty Cotswold lane and into a building that used to be a Salvation Army citadel - and now pulses with the kind of live theatre that makes a town rally around it. Nigel Ridpath sits down with John Terry, the long-time Artistic Director of Chipping Norton Theatre and untangles the unusual, heartwarming story of how a 200-seat venue turned eccentric vision, invention and a beloved pantom...

Join Nigel Ridpath for the second half of a gripping conversation with Vala Afshar and Henry King, authors of Autonomous, as they trace the line between human and machine, and reveal how AI-first strategies can heal the blockages choking modern businesses. Through vivid metaphors - cars without steering wheels, living organisms and clogged arteries - and hard-won examples from companies deploying...

Join Nigel Ridpath as he sits down with Salesforce evangelist, Vala Afshar, and his colleague, Henry King, to tell a story of transformation: how two thinkers traced a path from centuries-old silos to a future where AI is not just a tool but a colleague. Through vivid examples and personal histories - from refugee beginnings and engineering cubicles to CIOs and innovation labs - they reveal why th...

Step into a conversation that treats ambition like a puzzle you can actually solve. In this episode Nigel Ridpath sits down with Kyle Austin Young , a strategist who teaches you to diagram the path to success, spot the single step that could ruin everything and then quietly rewrite the odds in your favour. Through vivid examples - from marathon training to start-up breakouts and Edison’s relentles...

Step into the bustling corridors of MJBizCon with Nigel Ridpath as he unpacks the cannabis industry from seed to sale through a revealing conversation with Emile Lewis and Harrison Radie - a world where federal bans collide with state-by-state markets, entrepreneurs innovate around impossible rules and every regulation hides an opportunity. Follow the drama: bankers shut out, crippling taxes, mark...

Nigel returns from a hiatus and dives into  conversation with Grace Gimson , CEO of Holly Health , tracing the startup’s journey from low-code experiments to machine-learning personalisation, deployed in NHS settings. Through candid stories of pivots, funding challenges and clinical partnerships, Grace reveals how technology and behavioural science create scalable habit-change ... change that coul...

In this episode of Standing Apart, host Nigel Ridpath delves into the essential theme of motivation. Discover why traditional motivation tactics often miss the mark and explore groundbreaking insights from Dan Pink's research on what truly drives human performance. As we unravel the complexities of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, you'll gain access to practical strategies designed to harnes...

Join host Nigel Ridpath in a captivating exploration of premium positioning, where daring pioneers challenge the status quo to create extraordinary value. This episode of Standing Apart delves into the stories of remarkable businesses and individuals who defy conventional norms, demonstrating that standing apart is more than just a strategy—it's a movement. From the intriguing journey of Daylesfor...

In this episode of Standing Apart, join host Nigel Ridpath as we dive into the transformative journey of inbound marketing in the era of Gen. AI. Explore how traditional marketing has shifted from outbound strategies based on interruption to a more consumer-centric, inbound approach. We unveil the story of a mid-sized UK e-commerce business navigating the saturated market of sustainable living. Di...

Standing Apart, hosted by Nigel Ridpath, focuses on the theme of differentiation - both personally and in a business sense. Episode 11 focuses on maximising the relationship with existing clients. I chat with Tamara Phelan about best practice.    I also reveal who is Superhero of the Week, which, this week, is from the world of TV comedy, and I get to have my 1-Minute Rant.    ** Please like, rate...

Standing Apart, hosted by Nigel Ridpath, focuses on the theme of differentiation - both personally and in a business sense. Episode 10 is part 2 of an interview with Hugh Taylor from Roadnight Taylor . We discuss the energy sector that is the business focus, but also the purposefulness with which Hugh leads the organisation.  You can find the Roadnight Taylor flywheel here . Here is Hugh's reading...