The Strategy and Leadership Podcast with Anthony C. Taylor

For many entrepreneurs, growth means hiring more people, increasing revenue, and expanding into new markets. But what if there were another path to scaling—one that uses capital markets, partnerships, and strategic acquisitions to grow faster and more efficiently?
In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Callum Laing, partner at Unity Group, investor, entrepreneur, and M&A practitioner who has been involved in more than 100 transactions and helped create over $500 million in shareholder value. Callum specializes in helping ambitious entrepreneurs use the capital markets to scale their companies and unlock new opportunities for growth.
Callum explains how small and mid-sized companies can think differently about scaling by leveraging public markets, partnerships, and acquisition strategies rather than relying solely on organic growth. Drawing on decades of experience working with entrepreneurs, investors, and boards, he shares how capital structures and strategic positioning can unlock growth opportunities that many business leaders overlook.
The conversation explores Callum’s work building and leading MBH Corporation PLC, a publicly listed holding company designed to help profitable small businesses scale through an agglomeration model. Instead of forcing companies to merge operations, the model allows independent businesses to retain their identity while benefiting from shared resources, capital access, and strategic alignment.
Anthony and Callum discuss the realities of mergers and acquisitions, the common mistakes leaders make when approaching deals, and why ego and impatience often undermine successful partnerships. Callum also shares why entrepreneurs must think differently when operating in capital markets, and how the strategic “game” changes once businesses move from private ownership to public market environments.
The episode closes with a powerful insight for leaders: scaling a company isn’t only about growing bigger—it’s about building the right structures, partnerships, and strategy that allow businesses to create long-term value.
Responsible for strategy?
We’ve created Strategic Leadership Foundations — a concise executive course on alignment, decision-making, and execution structure.
It’s free, practical, and designed for leaders running the process themselves.
Enroll here:
https://courses.smestrategy.net/courses/Strategic-Leadership-Toolkit
For in-person strategic planning and leadership alignment programs:
https://www.smestrategy.net

In this episode, you will learn:
How small businesses can use capital markets to accelerate growth

Why mergers and acquisitions can be powerful tools for scaling companies

How the agglomeration model allows businesses to grow without losing independence

The strategic differences between running a private company and operating in public markets

Why patience and alignment matter more than speed when structuring M&A deals

How entrepreneurs can think differently about partnerships, capital, and long-term value creation

Connect with Callum Laing
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/callumlaing/
Unity Group: https://www.unity-group.com/
Website: https://www.callumlaing.com/
About the Host
Anthony Taylor is the CEO and Founder of SME Strategy and a trusted expert in organizational alignment and strategy execution. With over 15 years of experience facilitating strategic planning and leadership development, he helps organizations align their people, accelerate execution, and achieve their biggest goals.
Connect with Anthony: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
About SME Strategy
SME Strategy is a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and implementation. We help organizations align their teams around a shared vision so they can focus on what truly drives results.
Learn more: www.smestrategy.net
Podcast produced by: www.rednyne.com

In business, leaders make decisions every day under uncertainty. But what if the biggest risk isn’t the one you see — it’s the one you misunderstand?
In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Dr. Michael Orkin, Professor Emeritus of Statistics and author of The Story of Chance: Beyond the Margin of Error, to explore how probability, randomness, and cognitive bias shape executive decision-making.
Drawing from decades of experience in statistics, gambling mathematics, and data science, Dr. Orkin explains why leaders often confuse correlation with causation, overestimate their odds of success, and underestimate the role of scale and opportunity in rare events. From lottery math to prediction markets, casino risk models to executive strategy, this conversation reframes how organizations should think about expected value and long-term advantage.
Dr. Orkin breaks down why even “positive EV” opportunities can fail if risk is mismanaged, introduces the Kelly Criterion as a disciplined approach to capital allocation, and highlights how cognitive traps can distort judgment at every level of leadership.
Anthony and Dr. Orkin explore what it means to increase your “house edge” in business — not through luck, but through disciplined probability thinking, structured decision-making, and clear risk allocation.
The episode closes with a powerful reminder: strategy is not about eliminating uncertainty — it’s about making smarter bets under uncertainty.
Responsible for strategy?
We’ve created Strategic Leadership Foundations — a concise executive course on alignment, decision-making, and execution structure.
It’s free, practical, and designed for leaders running the process themselves.
Enroll here:
https://courses.smestrategy.net/courses/Strategic-Leadership-Toolkit
For in-person strategic planning and leadership alignment programs:
https://www.smestrategy.net
In this episode, you will learn:
• Why rare events happen more often than you think
• The difference between correlation and causation in business data
• How expected value applies to strategic decisions
• Why risk mismanagement destroys even strong opportunities
• How the Kelly Criterion informs smarter capital allocation
• How leaders can avoid cognitive traps when interpreting data
Connect with Dr. Michael Orkin
Website: https://drmikeorkin.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-mike-orkin-5600584/
About the Host
Anthony Taylor is the CEO and Founder of SME Strategy and a trusted expert in organizational alignment and strategy execution. With over 15 years of experience facilitating strategic planning and leadership development, he helps organizations align their people, accelerate execution, and achieve their biggest goals.
Connect with Anthony: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
About SME Strategy
SME Strategy is a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and implementation. We help organizations align their teams around a shared vision so they can focus on what truly drives results.
Learn more: www.smestrategy.net
Podcast produced by: www.rednyne.com

In many organizations, engagement is treated as a morale metric or a human resources initiative. But what if engagement isn’t a byproduct of strategy — what if it is the strategy?
In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Christine Miller, former CEO of Melinta Therapeutics and seasoned Life Sciences executive, to explore how disciplined strategic planning, structural clarity, and cross-functional alignment can transform enterprise performance. With a background spanning engineering, portfolio leadership, and executive transformation, Christine shares how she helped reshape an organization by building a clear five-year roadmap anchored in four unwavering strategic priorities.
Christine explains why engagement cannot be separated from execution. Leaders often chase growth without building the structural foundation required to sustain it. By aligning teams around long-term objectives, reinforcing priorities annually, and resisting the temptation to chase distractions, her organization increased engagement from 69% to 95%, achieved profitability for the first time, and more than doubled revenue.
The conversation dives into the realities of leading in complex, highly regulated industries where innovation, regulatory oversight, and stakeholder alignment must coexist. Christine outlines how designing products with patients and payers in mind requires long-term thinking, rigorous data discipline, and iterative strategy — not reactive decision-making.
Beyond operational structure, Christine shares insights into leadership visibility and the importance of advocating for both yourself and your team. She reflects on the underrepresentation of women in senior biotech roles and explains how strategic self-promotion, mentorship, and collective amplification can strengthen leadership pipelines across industries.
Anthony and Christine explore what it takes to move from vision to execution, why strategic planning is often hardest to start but most valuable over time, and how leaders can create clarity in the face of macro uncertainty.
The episode closes with a powerful reminder: growth without foundation is fragile. Engagement, when treated as a strategic lever rather than a scorecard, becomes one of the most powerful drivers of enterprise value.

Responsible for strategy?
We’ve created Strategic Leadership Foundations — a concise executive course on alignment, decision-making, and execution structure.
It’s free, practical, and designed for leaders running the process themselves.
Enroll here:
https://courses.smestrategy.net/courses/Strategic-Leadership-Toolkit
For in-person strategic planning and leadership alignment programs:
https://www.smestrategy.net

In this episode, you will learn:
Why engagement must be designed structurally, not socially
How to build and maintain a five-year strategic roadmap
The role of cross-functional alignment in driving enterprise value
Why disciplined priorities outperform reactive decision-making
How long-term strategy supports innovation in regulated industries
The importance of visibility and self-advocacy in leadership progression

Connect with Christine Miller
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemiller95/

About the Host
Anthony Taylor is the CEO and Founder of SME Strategy and a trusted expert in organizational alignment and strategy execution. With over 15 years of experience facilitating strategic planning and leadership development, he helps organizations align their people, accelerate execution, and achieve their biggest goals.
Connect with Anthony: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604

About SME Strategy
SME Strategy is a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and implementation. We help organizations align their teams around a shared vision so they can focus on what truly drives results.
Learn more: www.smestrategy.net
Podcast produced by: www.rednyne.com

In a business world driven by growth targets, dashboards, and scale, leaders are often told that expansion is the ultimate measure of success. But what if the real challenge isn’t scaling bigger, it’s protecting what matters?
In this episode of the Strategy and Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor sits down with Richard Mah, former Global Head of Digital Marketing at ASICS and now steward of Northern Cafe and Grill, a family-run Vancouver diner that has served its community since 1949. With more than 20 years of experience leading digital teams across Asia, aligning global markets, and building performance-driven platforms, Richard has lived the world of multi-million-dollar budgets, executive reporting, and international KPIs. Today, he applies that same strategic thinking to a deeply local, human-centered business.
Richard shares what it was like to build digital infrastructure from scratch at ASICS, break down data silos across regions, and align diverse markets around a single performance dashboard. He reflects on the realities of leading inside hierarchical organizations, earning executive buy-in, and balancing global strategy with local cultural nuance.
The conversation then shifts from corporate boardrooms to brunch service. Richard explains why he chose to return to Vancouver and join his family at Northern Cafe and Grill, a 1949 diner that has since been named Yelp’s Top Place to Eat in Canada. Rather than chasing rapid expansion, Richard and his family focus on consistency, community, and care. They listen closely to guests, protect the legacy of the brand, and modernize thoughtfully without losing the soul of the business.
Anthony and Richard explore the tension between efficiency and hospitality, innovation and stewardship, and scaling versus sustaining. Richard argues that while many businesses pursue hype and growth, long-term success often comes from doing one thing exceptionally well and honoring the vision that built trust in the first place.
The episode closes with a powerful reminder that leadership looks different at every scale. Whether managing global teams or greeting guests by name, protecting what matters may be the most strategic decision a leader can make.
Enroll in our strategic thinking training today for $0!
https://courses.smestrategy.net/courses/Strategic-Leadership-Toolkit
If you want your team’s execution to be smoother, faster, and easier, your team needs the right tools and coaching. Enroll in the Strategy Leadership Accelerator and level up your leadership team.
https://courses.smestrategy.net/courses/Leading-Strategy-Execution
In this episode, you will learn:
Why alignment is more challenging than strategy in global organizations
How to build digital teams and unified dashboards across multiple markets
Why localization and cultural nuance matter in international brand growth
The difference between scaling a brand and stewarding a legacy
Why consistency often beats hype in long-term brand building
How care and hospitality can become strategic advantages
Connect with Richard Mah
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahrichard/
Northern Cafe and Grill: https://northerncafeandgrill.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/northerncafeandgrill/
About the Host
Anthony Taylor is the CEO and Founder of SME Strategy and a trusted expert in organizational alignment and strategy execution. With over 15 years of experience facilitating strategic planning and leadership development, he helps organizations align their people, accelerate execution, and achieve their biggest goals.
Connect with Anthony: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
About SME Strategy
SME Strategy is a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and implementation. We help organizations align their teams around a shared vision so they can focus on what truly drives results.
Learn more: www.smestrategy.net
Podcast produced by: www.rednyne.com

Why good decisions often fail after they’re made — and how leaders can align intuition, planning, and execution so choices actually turn into results.
Even strong strategies can fall apart if organizations aren’t designed to execute them. Decisions that look right on paper often fail downstream, not because they were wrong, but because the systems, structures, and judgment required to carry them through were never put in place.
In this solo episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, host Anthony Taylor examines why execution breaks down after decisions are made and what leaders can do to prevent it. Drawing on years of experience working with leadership teams, Anthony explains how strategy is less about the plan itself and more about the upstream conditions that allow people to make good decisions consistently.
Anthony explores how judgment is shaped by organizational design, why treating all decisions equally undermines execution, and how prioritization, trade-offs, and sequencing determine whether work actually gets done. He challenges leaders to rethink how resources are allocated, how focus is created, and how teams are supported to act with clarity rather than noise.
The episode also unpacks the role of meetings, decision rights, and leadership responsibility in surfacing uncertainty before it becomes costly. Anthony makes the case that execution improves when leaders intentionally design environments that reduce friction, eliminate unnecessary choices, and create space for reflection and alignment.
This episode is a practical guide for leaders who want their decisions to survive execution and turn strategic intent into measurable progress.
Enroll in our strategic thinking training today for $0!https://courses.smestrategy.net/courses/Strategic-Leadership-Toolkit
If you want your team’s execution to be smoother, faster, and easier, your team needs the right tools and coaching. Enroll in the Strategy Leadership Accelerator and level up your leadership team.https://courses.smestrategy.net/courses/Leading-Strategy-Execution
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why good decisions fail during execution- How upstream structures shape downstream results- Why focus and trade-offs matter more than more initiatives- How leaders can design organizations for better judgment- What it means to align planning, intuition, and execution- How to create conditions that allow teams to execute with clarity
About the Host
Anthony Taylor is the CEO and Founder of SME Strategy and a trusted expert in organizational alignment and strategy execution. With over 15 years of experience facilitating strategic planning and leadership development, he helps organizations align their people, accelerate execution, and achieve their biggest goals.
Connect with Anthony: linkedin.com/in/anthonyctaylor604
About SME Strategy
SME Strategy is a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and implementation. We help organizations align their teams around a shared vision so they can focus on what truly drives results.
Learn more: www.smestrategy.netPodcast produced by: www.rednyne.com