Host Bert Miller interviews leaders of Bacardi, Hostess, CareerBuilder, and Charles Krug in first four episodes.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — “Beyond The Bottom Line,” a video podcast series featuring exclusive interviews with C-Suite executives of leading brands, launches today with its first four episodes. The program is hosted by Bert Miller, the CEO of MRINetwork, a leading executive recruitment firm with 325 offices in the U.S. and internationally, and Chairman of Protis Global, a search firm focused on consumer product brands. The series will be available on all major platforms including, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and YouTube, as well as at bertmiller.com/episodes/.
In “Beyond the Bottom Line,” Miller connects with business leaders across categories to discuss their proudest achievements, most significant challenges, and where they focus their energy each day.
In the first four episodes, Miller interviews Pete Carr, Regional President of Bacardi North America, the world’s largest, privately-held spirits company; Andy Callahan, CEO of the Hostess Brands line of iconic snack cake products; Sasha Yablonovsky, President of CareerBuilder, one of the largest online employment websites in the U.S., and Peter Mondavi Jr. and Judd Wallenbrock, Co-proprietor and CEO, respectively, of Charles Krug, the oldest winery in Napa Valley.
Interview topics range from how these C-suite executives have dealt with the pandemic in terms of supply chain logistics and employee-customer safety, to the rapid increase in e-commerce throughout 2020 and how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives will continue to shape the world of work in 2021. Upcoming C-suite guest interviews will be announced in the coming weeks.
“It’s a privilege for me to share topline insights and opinions from CEOs who are among America’s brightest, most experienced executives. Their comments are not only fascinating but provide a collective blueprint on how we, as a nation, move forward in deciding the future of our economy, workforce, and a host of other topics relevant to anyone in the world of work,” says Miller.
Here are select highlights from the first four episodes:
Episode #1 — “Modernizing a Legacy” guest starring Peter Mondavi Jr. and Judd Wallenbrock, Charles Krug
Mondavi Jr.: “I don’t know if it was destiny or not for me to become a winemaker. It wasn’t explicitly stated within our family, perhaps implied, but I loved engineering, so that’s why I pursued it in college. Really, how it’s helped me in our business here is not the specific nuts and bolts that engineering may teach you, but it’s the thought process. The curiosity that engages and applying that philosophy to wine-making and the wine business as well, has really helped.”
Wallenbrock: “The wine industry is used to things. We’ve had earthquakes. We’ve had 9/11. We’ve had economic crashes. Hell, for 13 years we were illegal [during the Great Depression]. I mean, we’ve been through a lot. But for me, when the pandemic hit, the very first person I called was my head of sales and I said, ‘This is the time to attack. Let’s start going after market share.’ There were going to be a lot of people out there who would just sit back and say, ‘Well, we’re going to let this all blow over.’ For me, it was like, ‘No, let’s go. It’s market share, market share, market share, and attack.’ It’s actually proved to be quite a successful direction.”
Episode #2 — “Catching Curveballs” guest starring Andy Callahan, Hostess Brands
Callahan: “While I was in the Navy, I had a skipper when we were going to the Persian Gulf War and I remember him telling us, ‘When preparation meets opportunity, that’s what breeds success.’ The military teaches you to prepare and prepare better than anybody else for something that you’ll never likely have to execute…a crisis you need to prepare your values and culture to handle. I feel like Hostess was prepared.”
Episode #3 — “Getting Creative in Times of Crisis” guest starring Peter Carr, Bacardi Limited
Carr: “I operate the company off one sheet of paper; it’s called ‘plan on a page.’ And that’s where we really provide the organization direction as to where we’re going and what we’re doing. I probably have had that in place for six years now, and the entire company feeds off of that one sheet of paper. They know if it’s on that one sheet of paper, we’re going to do it, we’re going to go execute it. And even during the pandemic, we haven’t flinched. We never flinched for a minute. We never stopped. We actually never came out of high gear.”
Episode #4 — “Building a Flexible Future ” guest starring Sasha Yablonovsky, CareerBuilder
Yablonovsky: “Companies are being a lot more flexible with work-from-home options. Now, companies are able to find skilled employees all over the country that will help propel and drive their businesses forward. White-collar workers are no longer tethered to a geographic location, and this is something that companies are very aware of. And it’s a huge benefit for job seekers as well. You can get your dream job at your dream company.”
SOURCE Bert Miller