Podcast
We try to curate and bring to you, some of the most intriguing and thought provoking insights in conversation with leading policy makers, public figures, entrepreneurs, multigenerational family businesses and business leaders. We hope you find them interesting and will be able to take a nugget or two out of some of these episodes.
The views expressed by our guests or my views are all personal and don’t reflect 3Sixty’s views, or opinions.
Episode 25: The World Beyond the Pandemic
Thinking on his feet and reaching new peaks is no challenge for Thierry Malleret. Join Ali Borhani in conversation with Thierry, Joint Founder and Managing Partner at Monthly Barometer and Summit of Minds, as they discuss the world beyond the pandemic and the beginning of the “great reset.”
Episode 25: Giving Big, Giving Now, Giving Right
Co-Founding Partner at Renewal Funds Joel Solomon is looking to invest in more reparational behaviours and supports governments and leaders who think this way. Join Ali Borhani in conversation with Joel as he discusses how much capitalism is enough and what we should do when we have an excess amount.
Episode 24: A Rising Tide of Solutions for a Freshwater Crisis
Activist-influencer Désirée McGraw puts a lot of faith into pairing next-gen leaders with technology. Her latest project has her waist deep in Canada’s freshwater plight. Listen now!
Episode 23: A Family Business Growing Wine in China is Winning the World Over
Join Ali Borhani in conversation with 3rd Generation Chinese wine maker Emma Gao, Owner & Co-Founder of Silver Heights, about how Emma has put China on the global wine map.
Episode 22: Global Harmony & Universal Mojo – Ali Borhani
This week we’re looking at the not insubstantial subject of Global Harmony & Universal Mojo
Much of what I speak to guests about each week is very personal and individual mojo. This week I wanted to look at our Collective or Universal mojo a little more.
Episode 20 – Seismic Shifts in a Family-Friendly Business
Doing business with other family-owned enterprises isn’t necessarily the rule, says Armour Valve’s Liz McBeth, but it brings an undeniable level of satisfaction when values come into alignment.
When Liz McBeth left San Francisco after the dot-com boom, it became increasingly clear to her that she was destined for a role in the family business. McBeth, who grew up in a household of entrepreneurs, is president of Armour Valve Ltd., a Toronto-based distributor of high-performance specialty valves used in heavy industries.
She recalls how her father, a former investment banker, was troubled by market volatility in certain industries and decided to diversify by “being involved in many of them.” That began in 1971, when Armour Valve was founded. From 1998 to 2007, McBeth ran her own business, McBeth Media, where she consulted small businesses and non-profits in the field of marketing and communications strategy. Now at the helm of second-generation Armour Valve, McBeth earned her stripes in her former role as the company’s marketing and business systems manager.
Integrity is a value she holds dear. “Reputation has to be formed on the service and the product that we deliver,” she says. “We have earned our reputation as a problem solver.” Meanwhile, as a woman in a male-centric industry, she takes her role in stride. “It has been an adjustment,” says McBeth, who has found strength in her mentors whom she identifies as her colleagues, past employers, academics and, of course, her family. Part of her success is her open-minded approach to tapping resources: “I guess when you have a learning culture, you have access to advice, and a culture of mentorship all around you.” McBeth recalls how, when it became clear her “career was going remain at Armour Valve,” she would form a leadership team to widen decision-making.
“The first transition along that path was to make decisions as a group rather than as a founder,” she says. “That was a seismic shift in how we approached planning, strategy and decision-making.” As for family enterprises, McBeth believes they matter because they often have values that align with her own family enterprise.
“We can make choices for different reasons than satisfying the requirements of a quarterly report. Over the years we found the companies that we work best with are also family-owned . . . because there is a certain understanding – not to say that we don’t work with other forms of businesses – but there is a really snug fit when it comes to two family businesses working together.”
Episode 19 – Engineering Brighter Futures: A Family Business Perspective
Engineer, philanthropist and businesswoman, Gina Cody recounts her life trajectory as an Iranian immigrant to becoming one of Canada’s most influential women. Listen now!
Gina Parvaneh Cody takes more than a keen interest in lofty concepts of gender diversity, social inclusion, philanthropy and affordable education. As Concordia University’s first woman to earn a Ph.D. in building engineering, her story is a remarkable tale of generosity and influence. When Cody is not espousing the benefits of “smart cities” or actively encouraging young women to pursue the “wonderful” world of engineering, she reminds Canadians not to be complacent about their enviable status on the global stage.
As for family enterprises, Cody believes they have a twin role to play as economic engines and caretakers of our communities. It’s a recipe for opportunity, which includes a key ingredient: giving back. In 2018, Dr. Cody made a historic $15 million gift to her alma mater’s Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science. In honour of her generosity, the faculty was renamed the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science.
It is the first engineering faculty in Canada named after a woman. Cody, who immigrated to Canada from Iran in 1979, holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in building engineering from Concordia. She has more than 30 years of professional practice in the private sector as an engineer, corporate executive and principal shareholder of an engineering firm. She has provided engineering services to some of Canada’s largest Real Estate Investment Trusts, financial institutions, builders and developers.
Episode 18 – Harbingers of Hope
Humanitarian and global health activist Rachel Kiddell-Monroe delivers a post-pandemic message to family enterprises: “It’s no longer about just making money, it’s about contributions.”
When she was a teen growing up in the UK, she considered training to be a nurse. Instead, she became a lawyer and activist who now specializes in humanitarian assistance, global health, governance, and bioethics. As for the role of family enterprises in such matters, Rachel believes the depth of values and principles within family firms can have a meaningful and practical impact on marginalized members of our communities, cities, and the wider world – especially now in our post-pandemic economy.
This year could be a “turning point in the world” for us all, she asserts, in which capitalism will be “turned on its head” for the better. Family enterprises are well-positioned to start rethinking and reviewing how they do business and find more purpose. “It’s no longer about just making money, it’s about contributions.” As for Canada, there is an enormous role for family enterprises to bridge the gap that divides the haves and the have-nots. A professor of practice at the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University, Rachel Kiddell-Monroe is also executive director of SeeChange Initiative, which helps marginalized communities find empowering solutions to their healthcare needs.
She is a member of Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) international board of directors. Formerly president of the board of directors of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines from 2007 to 2013, Rachel now serves as a senior policy advisor. She was recently appointed to the McGill University Health Centres Clinical Ethics Committee. During her time with MSF, she led humanitarian missions in Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. After becoming the program director of MSF Canada, she was appointed regional humanitarian affairs advisor for Latin America based in Costa Rica.
Episode 17 – Beyond Generations
Renowned family business expert Dennis Jaffe compares and contrasts early, middle, and late generations as he uncovers the secrets of success of highly functioning family enterprises.
Dennis Jaffe is an emeritus professor of Organizational Systems and Psychology at Saybrook University in San Francisco. Over his 40-year career, he has helped families overcome personal, organizational, and governance challenges that hinder the smooth generational transfer of their businesses, wealth, values, and legacies. A faculty advisor to the Cornell Johnson College of Business, Jaffe is one of the original architects of the emerging field of family enterprise consulting. As a founding member of the Family Firm Institute, he has served on their board, written frequently for Family Business Review, and was awarded the Richard Beckhard and International Awards for his contributions. Jaffe is author Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises, Cross-Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations, and Stewardship of Your Family Enterprise: Developing Responsible Leadership Across Generations. In 1984, he founded Changeworks Global, a consulting firm in San Francisco, which works with organizations for long-term change to build competitive advantage by unleashing the power of employees.
Episode 16 – Yes WE Can!
Episode 15 – The Business of Diplomacy
Former British diplomat and active business consultant Sir Graham Boyce dispenses his wisdom on the future of leadership and managing global challenges in a world beset with crises.
Senior Advisor at Bank of America, Air Products, and DLA Piper, Sir Graham Boyce is a consultant to businesses with operations in the Middle East and North Africa. A retired British diplomat, Sir Graham served in the Diplomatic Service between 1968 and 2003 as Consul-General to Sweden, Ambassador, and Consul-General to Qatar, Ambassador to Kuwait, and Ambassador to Egypt. He is a member of the International Advisory Council, Kuwait Investment Office, a Global Ambassador for SOAS, a member of the Court of Patrons Thrombosis Research Institute, and a Trustee of the Dakhleh Oasis Trust (Egypt).
Episode 14 – Risks, Crises, and Families
Lansberg ▪ Gersick & Associates’ Devin DeCiantis sets out the benefits of risk-intelligent councils in family enterprises, how they function, and how they fit into risk management programs. A timely talk in our COVID-19 environment. Listen now!
Devin DeCiantis is a Managing Partner at Lansberg ▪ Gersick & Associates, advisers to some of the world’s largest family-owned businesses. Devin’s expertise in the Family Enterprise Risk Management (FERM) program is particularly relevant to the COVID-19 crisis currently unfolding. His work is focused on the financial, operational, and strategic aspects of family firms. An Adjunct Lecturer of Family Enterprise, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at Kellogg School of Management, Devin has worked with private and public sector leaders throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He holds an MPP from Harvard University and a BBA from York University.
Episode 13 – Family Business Dynamics & Dynamics of Family Business: Two Sides of the Same Coin – Some Know The Toss Better Than Others
Some of the family businesses are older than many nations, countries, and governments. Very few have studied them as closely as Prof. Joseph Astrachan Ph.D., the Faculty Scholar with the Smith Family Business Initiative at Cornell University who has examined the success, succession, and failure of family businesses for more than 35 years.
Episode 12 – He was supposed to be a doctor, Syrian war made him a refugee, destiny had bigger plans for him
In conversation with Tareq Hadhad, the Founder and CEO of Peace By Chocolate.
Episode 11 – The Secret Recipe of “The All in All” in One of the Most Successful Global Family Businesses
Disrupt From Within, Reinvent Regularly and Thrive Inclusively or Die Alone. Join our 11th episode in conversation with Antoine Mayaud, the former Board Member of AFM (Association Familiale Mulliez) and former Chairman of CreAdev.
Special Holiday Episode – Perfect Fits: The Best of Round Peg 2019
We’ve distilled the very best bits of 2019’s Round Peg podcasts. All you have to do is get cozy, sit back, and savor the highlights in our special year-end review. Don’t worry, 2020 will be packed with even more thought-provoking topics as we mine the world’s brightest brains. Happy holidays and best wishes for 2020!
Episode 10 – Refugees, Migrants & Us: The Intertwined Destiny of Humanity
Join the 10th episode of Round Peg in conversation with Senator Ratna Omidvar. Senator Omidvar is an internationally recognized voice on migration, diversity, and inclusion. She is also a Councillor on the World Refugee Council, a Visiting Professor at Ryerson University. In addition, she is a Member of the Order of Ontario and Order of Canada with both honors recognizing her advocacy work on behalf of immigrants and devotion to reducing inequality in Canada and the world at large.
Episode 9 – The Naked Diplomat
Join the 9th episode of the Round Peg podcast to find out why diplomacy is an indispensable craft? What are the risks of atrophy in diplomacy?
Tom Fletcher is the youngest Ambassador of The United Kingdom in the past 200 years and was an advisor to 3 prime ministers. He is a visiting professor at New York University and the author of The Naked Diplomat. The book is a refreshing take on a new marque of diplomacy in a world of interconnectivity on the net, and yet a dividing, diverging and polarising era.
Episode 8 – The Age of Tech Rich and Poor Leadership
Join our 8th episode of Round Peg in conversation with Kawa Hassan the Vice President of Middle East and North Africa Program at EastWest Institute (EWI). Kawa is author and co-editor of numerous publications and a frequent commentator on international, regional and national media about Middle East affairs. We discuss the deficit in global leadership and why albeit the rise of renewable energy, the Middle East and African affairs will remain relevant and reverberating across the world.
Episode 7 – The Serious Entrepreneur Turned Passionate Mentor
Join the 7th episode of Round Peg in conversation with Tony Bury. Tony is the founder of Mowgli Mentoring. You could also say he is a living encyclopedia of entrepreneurship. He believes that his life and success is centered on the mentors in his life.
Join us in listening to the thoughts of a successful serial entrepreneur who believes we are all in our own Hero’s Journeys and why having a mentor is a must-have for any entrepreneur, intrapreneur and family business.
Episode 6 – Family Business: Family Business: The Key to Success is LQ: Learning Quotient
I believe family businesses are live performance stages for daily auditions of courage, screenplays of vision and sheer power. Some scripts lead to generational sequels like a great movie, and some miserably fail. They can be dramas of broken relationships, and bonds, or a laboratory in which values and integrities go through constant stress tests.
Join me in exploring some of the key influencers in success of family businesses. How families can learn to unlearn, re-learn and to prepare their current and next generations for the exciting, unnerving and rewarding times in which we live in.
Episode 5 – The Story of Eric Molson – Beer Baron of Canada
Join the 5th episode of Round Peg in conversation with Helen Antoniou Molson the author, the executive coach, the lawyer, and last but not least, the daughter-in-law of the legendary Eric Molson.
Back to Beer … and Hockey is the biography of Eric Molson, the Chairman of Molson Coors Brewing Company. It is a chapter of Quebec’s history and how one of the most famous Canadian family businesses was seeded, survived and succeeded through seven generations.
Episode 4 – Family Business: Through The Asian Optics & With a Global Gaze
Join the 4th episode of Round Peg in conversation with Yuelin T. Yang, the Deputy Group Managing Director of IMC Industrial Group. IMC is one of the eldest and most reputable Asian conglomerates. In this episode, we discuss not only the rise of Asia but also the socio-cultural and emotional differences of how Asian family businesses tick and continue to outperform.
Episode 3 – Climate Change: The Untold Story of the Carbon Footprint of Destruction & Conflicts
Perhaps the most pressing and important challenge we face today is climate change. Join me in my podcast where I table an ultra unconventional proposal, and a bold way with which we can stop future invasions, arbitrary conflicts and wars, and how we can garner the biggest positive impact in mitigating climate change.
Episode 2 – Global Trade, Tariffs & Tantrums with Perrin Beatty
In this episode of The Round Peg podcast, we are joined by the Honourable Perrin Beatty, Chairmain and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Very few know Canada as good as Perrin. We ask Perrin about the future of world trade, tariffs and tantrums and what all of this means for Canada, the challenges of being stuck between two major world powers, the rise of China, the arrival of a new C as Cannabis in the Canadian economy and why future generations are here to surprise us with all of this.
Join us in this podcast as it can’t get more Canadian than it does with Perrin.
Episode 1 – A Life Changed: One Advice, One Question & One Mentor
In our inaugural episode of The Round Peg podcast we are joined by Bob McBean the Chairman of Wentworth Resources Ltd.
Intro to Round Peg podcast
The growing and widening holes in our world whether climatic, commercial, conflicting, some continental or simply in fabric of our communities and citizenry, these holes present intricate gaps and complexities that can’t be solved or closed by the old pegs.
At Round Peg, we focus on the wisdom of circular contemplation to constructively challenge your thinking and to crystallize your optics. No idea is too crazy, no dialogue too controversial.
Join us in discussion with the world-renowned entrepreneurs, policy makers, movers and shakers who care. Our guests are real, revealing and reliable.
In partnership with:
