Kevin Price, Host of the Price of Business on Business Talk 1110 AM KTEK (on Bloomberg’s home in Houston) recently interviewed Sandra Stein.
About the interviewee
Sandra Stein, Principal at Better Leaders, Inc (BLI) puts her hybrid experience as a classic marketer and senior-level advisor to work to the benefit of her clients. Insightful, incisive, and proactive, Sandra quickly identifies which areas offer the greatest leverage and uses them to deliver lasting results.
Prior to joining (BLI), Sandra was CEO of Talbott Teas, recently sold to Jamba Juice after an appearance on Shark Tank. Before that, Sandra had a successful career as a Marketing executive for companies including Kraft/General foods and Godiva Chocolatier. She receivednumerous awards, including a “Star” for the successful turnaround of Kraft’s Jello brand, an Effie for extraordinary volume performance on Minute Rice, and “Agency of the Future” from Adweek. She has successfully launched and developed multiple start-ups.
She is an Adjunct Lecturer at Fordham’s Graduate School of Management and serves on a nunber of Boards and Advisory Committees.
Tell me about your firm (number of employees, location, type of companies you work with, etc.).
Better Leaders, Inc. is based in New York City at 245 Park Ave. As organizational consultants and executive coaches, we help senior leaders solve organizational problems, increase their own effectiveness and work better together. Our clients exceed their own expectations and deliver uncommon results.
We have 3 employees plus an extensive network of Associates, each with expertise in a specific area, whom we call upon depending on the needs of the assignment.
What type and size of companies do you have as clients?
We serve a range of clients, but the majority are in the $200 – $500 Million revenue range and tend to be in the “talent” oriented fields –i.e those where people and their skills and talents drive the business. These include: finance, advertising/marketing, fashion, e-tailing, etc.
What comes to mind when you see this topic?
Because change can be most effective when you start at the top, our clients are the most senior leaders of the company. It is their leadership that will make the implementation of any program most effective. The CEO or C-suite level must be personally invested for the work to be effective and deliver results. The changes, solutions, outcomes must be agreed upon, supported and reinforced for the client to be likely to be successful. The work has to further the goals of the CEO, be consistent with the company’s culture and values, and have a meaningful impact on performance for it to be valuable—all of which requires the CEO’s active engagement.
What are the best practices when it comes to this issue?
Best practices start with educating the c-suite leader as to why they want to implement such a program and how it will enhance their bottom line
Other best practices include:
Engendering trust by maintaining extreme confidentiality and transparency
Serving the needs of the organization as well as the individual
Employ solutions that help the client identify and use their unique talents to contribute to the organization and become more successful, rather than trying to take on aspects of someone else or meet some generalized expectation
Extreme efficiency, i.e. achieve significant positive impact with minimal change
Contact information:
betterleaders.com
