SUMMER BONUS: Our Bold New Plan To Suck Less

Welcome to a special Remarkable Retail podcast summer series focused on what leaders need to do to help their organizations win the future and leap to higher ground. In this six-part limited series, Steve will be unpacking key lessons from his new best-selling book “Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption,” available everywhere books are sold.

***Special thanks to John Parolisi for joining us for a fun cameo on this episode!

In a world where anything less than delivering highly differentiated and truly remarkable customer value is often ignored, sucking less, merely closing the gap on competitive performance (what Steve calls “innovating to parity”) or offering a slightly better version of mediocre is choosing to move into a zone of irrelevance, or perhaps even putting your organization on the path to outright extinction.

Moreover, in a world where the pace of change is only accelerating, often becoming more exponential than linear, failure to transform at the speed of disruption only creates the likelihood that you will fall further and further behind. Minding this potential gap is critical. For struggling organizations, failure to close it by aiming higher, moving faster, and acting more boldly may mean they fall so far behind they can never catch up.

But even organizations that are performing well can find themselves in trouble if they don’t pay attention and let go of merely delivering incremental changes.This pattern of focusing on simply sucking less (at worst) or a relentless stream of optimization (at best) and exposing one’s organization to disruption is not new. In his classic book from the nineties, legendary HBS professor Clayton Christensen labelled this the “Innovator’s Dilemma.” The forces that keep legacy brands stuck are still very much in play today, but the challenge to truly transform in the face of disruption is much greater. And the penalty for merely closing a competitive gap, rather than leaping boldly ahead, has become much greater.

This 6-part summer series will explore why we must choose remarkable or risk irrelevance. We will go deep on unpacking the root causes that lead to an overly timid transformation. We will delve into what is required to lead in the face of relentless, unyielding disruption.

Season 9 of the Remarkable Retail podcast returns on September 10th in its usual format. Follow us wherever you enjoy your podcasts, and don’t forget to give us a 5-star review.

About Us

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.