581: President of the Sy Syms Foundation on Legacy, Leadership, and Family Enterprise

581: President of the Sy Syms Foundation on Legacy, Leadership, and Family Enterprise

Marcy Syms, former CEO of Syms Corporation and president of the Sy Syms Foundation, reflects on leadership, governance, and the responsibilities of stewarding a family-founded, publicly traded business. Her perspective blends the operational discipline of retail with long-term thinking shaped by philanthropy and board service.

Syms underscores that organizational resilience rests on clear governance, candid communication, and leaders willing to face hard choices directly. As she puts it,

"Leaders are not tested when things are going well—they're tested when the pressure is on and they have to make tough decisions."

Key insights from the discussion include:
  • Governance as Stewardship
    Boards must challenge assumptions and safeguard alignment between values, accountability, and performance.

    "The role of an independent director is not to be a cheerleader, it's to really be a steward."

  • Succession in Family Enterprises
    Generational expectations can create friction with shareholder responsibilities. Codifying roles, rules of engagement, and equity structures helps prevent conflict.

    "If you don't write it down, you're going to end up with misunderstandings."

  • Retail as a Proving Ground
    Syms draws lessons from decades in a competitive industry, highlighting the need to balance cost discipline with customer orientation and agility in adapting to change.

  • Philanthropy with Rigor
    Through the Sy Syms Foundation, she illustrates how philanthropy can extend corporate values into society when managed with the same discipline as business strategy.

    "Philanthropy isn't just giving money away, it's about investing in ideas and people with the same rigor you bring to business."

  • Authenticity in Leadership
    For Syms, credibility is earned through constancy:

    "People watch what you do over time. If you stay true to your principles, that's how you build trust."


This conversation provides senior executives and board members with a grounded perspective on balancing family legacy, fiduciary responsibility, and societal contribution. It offers practical lessons in governance discipline, leadership maturity, and aligning enterprise with enduring values.

📚 Get Marcy's book, Leading with Respect, here: https://shorturl.at/V0zJ3

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Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach

McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf

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137: Blair Sheppard, PwC global strategy head and author. On four urgent global crises and their strategic solutions

137: Blair Sheppard, PwC global strategy head and author. On four urgent global crises and their strategic solutions

In today's episode of the Strategy Skills podcast, we have a conversation with Blair Sheppard, Global Head of Strategy and Leadership for PWC. Blair shares his views of looming global crises driven by wealth disparity, technological disruption, the polarization of people, and declining trust in society's institutions. Blair Sheppard is also the Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, where he taught for thirty-three years. He was the principal force behind opening Duke's campus in China, and the founder and CEO of Duke Corporate Education. Blair is a regular speaker at high-caliber international forums including the Global Solutions Summit, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and Slush. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) and lives in Durham, North Carolina (US). In his new book, TEN YEARS TO MIDNIGHT: Four Urgent Global Crises and Their Strategic Solutions, Blair sets out why that timeline is so crucial, what the most urgent challenges are and the key elements of a solution. The world faces four crises: A crisis of prosperity, with rising inequality, poor life choices for young people, the squeezed middle class and a mass of people on the brink of retirement but lacking the savings to sustain them; A crisis of technology, as our economic system drives innovation but fails to manage unintended negative consequences which pollute key elements of life support, from our atmosphere to our news; A crisis of institutional legitimacy, as traditional institutions try to maintain their existing structures in the face of major global forces, and find themselves buckling and warping rather than adapting; and, A crisis of leadership, as those who should help us manage these crises instead focus on narrow priorities rather than leading the world towards holistic solutions. Get access to sample training from our advanced programs here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get a bonus).

11 Maalis 20211h 10min

136: Rethinking M&A (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #18)

136: Rethinking M&A (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #18)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

9 Maalis 202138min

135: Apple disrupts a decades-old value chain migration (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #17)

135: Apple disrupts a decades-old value chain migration (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #17)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#17), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

1 Maalis 202138min

134: How to stop blaming Covid and start building revenue growth, with Kent Billingsley

134: How to stop blaming Covid and start building revenue growth, with Kent Billingsley

Welcome to the Strategy Skills podcast, from FIRMSconsulting.com. Today we have a very interesting guest, Kent Billingsley, who is going to talk about sales and the revenue side of management consulting. And about using the tools and techniques that he developed in his consulting career which he now applies in almost any kind of industry. We rarely talk about sales. So we thought it will be nice to do a podcast where we dive into this topic. Get Kent's book "ENTREPRENEUR TO MILLIONAIRE: How to Build a Highly Profitable, Fast-Growth Company and Become Embarrassingly Rich Doing It": https://amzn.to/3dU6aPN

26 Helmi 202158min

133: The single biggest strategy shift for the next few decades (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #16)

133: The single biggest strategy shift for the next few decades (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #16)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#16), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

22 Helmi 202140min

132: Apple car & Amazon's core strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #15)

132: Apple car & Amazon's core strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #15)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#15), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

15 Helmi 202135min

131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#14), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

8 Helmi 202132min

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#13), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

1 Helmi 202137min

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