Mike McCracken

What the Hell Happened (and what can I do about it?)

Business EN ↓ 4 episodes

Something happened this week that changed the conditions your organization is operating in. Most leaders will find out too late. What the Hell Happened? is a weekly 30-minute briefing for executives in healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and construction. Every episode takes the week's most consequential events — policy shifts, system failures, supply chain disruptions, regulatory changes — and works through what they mean for the people making decisions at the top. Three segments. Every episode. Readiness — what happened and why it matters. Resilience — wha...

Author

Mike McCracken

Episodes

Episode 4: What's Actually on the Shelf? 09.07.2026 16:37

Send us Fan Mail What the Hell Happened? — Episode 4: What's Actually on the Shelf? Two headlines that had nothing to do with each other, until they did. In January 2026, Pfizer discontinued the injectable form of Zithromax. Two months later, the tablets followed. Azithromycin isn't some rare specialty drug — it's one of the most prescribed antibiotics in the country, used for pneum...

Episode 3: The Dashboard Delusion 30.06.2026 25:45

Send us Fan Mail Episode 3: The Dashboard Delusion A senior bank attorney puts an illegal practice in writing to his board. He gets fired. The board investigates — and keeps charging the fees for two more years. Three states over, a pharmaceutical manufacturer's quality failures pile up on the production floor while leadership's dashboard stays green the whole time. Two industries. Two c...

Episode 2: When Crises Don't Wait Their Turn 23.06.2026 33:41

Send us Fan Mail On August 1, 2012, Knight Capital Group lost more than $400 million in forty-five minutes. Ninety-seven automated error alerts fired before the market opened that morning. All ninety-seven went unread. Three years later, Target Canada's inventory system reported normal operations while distribution centers overflowed with product that couldn't reach store shelves. Custom...

Episode 1: Nobody Had the Button 16.06.2026 19:00

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