Steve Duddy doesn’t just lead companies—he shapes cultures, mentors future leaders, and makes bold moves under pressure. In this episode, he shares hard-earned leadership lessons from the operating room to the boardroom. From his early days in medical device sales to running multimillion-dollar divisions, Steve reveals how leadership is less about credentials and more about people.

He discusses how real leadership happens in uncertainty—when the path forward is unclear and the stakes are high. He explains how he guided teams through SEC audits, product shortages, and pandemic disruptions without losing trust or momentum. Steve also breaks down how to turn adversity into creativity, and why asking the right questions matters more than having all the answers.

Steve believes strong leadership builds environments where people want to give their best—because they feel seen, supported, and challenged. His leadership style balances structure with adaptability and ambition with empathy. Whether mentoring a first-time CEO or rallying a startup team, Steve shows what it really means to lead with purpose.

Want to learn more about Steve Duddy's work? Check out their website at https://www.DuddyExecutiveServicesInc.com.

Connect with Steve Duddy on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveduddy/.

Key Points with Timestamps:

• (00:01:00) Steve’s path from East Coast corporate life to Silicon Valley startup life
• (00:02:30) Why biology and chemistry led Steve into medical devices
• (00:04:00) Learning leadership through experience—not academia
• (00:07:00) Inside the O.R.—what Steve learned about impact and purpose
• (00:10:45) Winning Rookie of the Year at 3M and an unforgettable lost-and-found story
• (00:13:30) Leadership through mentorship: why Steve helped someone else become CEO
• (00:15:30) From sales to marketing to CEO: how to grow across roles
• (00:17:00) Leading through Sarbanes-Oxley challenges and SEC pressure
• (00:20:00) Covid-era leadership: adapting, innovating, and leading from the front
• (00:24:30) Building morale and culture with a painted team wall
• (00:26:30) Return-to-office vs. remote work: Steve’s take on leadership balance
• (00:29:00) Conflict resolution and coaching team dynamics
• (00:30:00) Leadership is getting egos to row in the same direction
• (00:33:00) The danger of doing things “the way it’s always been done”
• (00:35:00) Competing by out-innovating—not by copying

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;15;17
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Steve Duddy. He is the founder of Duddy Executive Services. Steve is one of those people. Grew up in the East Coast, started in corporate America, and at one point just moved out to California, moved to Silicon Valley, and he got the startup bug. And he's never been cured since. He's a serial entrepreneur. And,

00;01;15;17 - 00;01;18;05
Craig Andrews
just one of the most positive people I've talked to.

00;01;18;09 - 00;01;29;05
Craig Andrews
And he and I've been talking for the last few minutes. I actually wish I had a hit record about ten minutes ago, and this is going to be just such powerful conversation for anybody,

00;01;29;05 - 00;01;30;11
Craig Andrews
especially leaders,

00;01;30;11 - 00;01;34;05
Craig Andrews
that have to deal with people. So, Steve, welcome.

00;01;34;08 - 00;01;38;18
Steve Duddy
Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate I'm looking forward to the conversation.

00;01;38;21 - 00;01;40;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So the,

00;01;40;19 - 00;02;00;12
Craig Andrews
So a lot of the work you do right now is like in, in medical medical device startups and, and that sort of thing. Correct? Correct. How how did you I mean, let's find the clock back. How did you get your start in that? Because you'd also mentioned three M somewhere in there.

00;02;00;14 - 00;02;01;10
Steve Duddy
Yeah. So,

00;02;01;10 - 00;02;12;20
Steve Duddy
I was in school, I latched on to the biology chemistry aspect of life. It was just something I loved. And my dad, God loved him. He was one of these where he said, you know, if you're not a doctor or a lawyer,

00;02;12;20 - 00;02;14;16
Steve Duddy
you're going to struggle.

00;02;14;16 - 00;02;26;26
Steve Duddy
And as I, you know, was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, this whole idea of finding a career in the business world that could keep the sciences, you know, in front of me.

00;02;27;01 - 00;02;33;01
Steve Duddy
It's something that excited me. And so I actually wound up in sales in the medical device arena,

00;02;33;01 - 00;02;38;07
Steve Duddy
first with Johnson and Johnson Ethicon, and then within a start up division of three

00;02;38;07 - 00;02;50;12
Steve Duddy
in cardiovascular. And I haven't looked back. It allows me to use the skills and working with people, combined with the biochem aspect of it, that I started very early on.

00;02;50;14 - 00;03;00;09
Craig Andrews
You know, it's it's interesting, I, I part of what helped me pay my way through college was I was designing amplifiers for cardio,

00;03;00;09 - 00;03;13;17
Craig Andrews
cardio, logical research at UNC Chapel Hill. And I had there were some doors that were open to me and it hit me. I was like, you know, in this world, unless you have a,

00;03;13;17 - 00;03;17;05
Craig Andrews
PhD or an MD or you're basically a nobody.

00;03;17;05 - 00;03;27;14
Craig Andrews
And I was like, I don't want to get all those credentials just to have street cred, right? Is, was that was that accurate or is that is that what you've seen or is it different?

00;03;27;16 - 00;03;46;09
Steve Duddy
No, no, I think there's some some truth to that. I remember hitting a point in my career where I said, I think I'm going to go back for my graduate degree and I went through all of the testing and all of that, and then I took a step back and went, how much is this going to change my career path?

00;03;46;12 - 00;04;07;25
Steve Duddy
You know, versus, you know, all of the trade offs. And I'm sure at some point it would have been very helpful. But I just decided to run with it. And most of my career has been on the job training, finding good people, picking the right mentors, being willing to be that sponge. And for me, it's worked out, you know, wonderfully.

00;04;07;27 - 00;04;31;14
Steve Duddy
You know, and I get asked a lot, how did you transition from cell to marketing to a CEO? And, you know, for some they look into that. I don't understand that path, but it is a matter of just being that sponge and being able to push a little bit. And so an answer your question, I think the academic part is great, but there is so much more outside of the book knowledge that makes people successful.

00;04;31;14 - 00;04;34;00
Steve Duddy
And I've been fortunate from that perspective.

00;04;34;02 - 00;04;59;14
Craig Andrews
Yeah. That's, that's really good. And you know, that the other thing that turned me off actually published a paper on the cardio logical research we were doing as an undergrad. And you know how that goes, you submit the paper and then like a year later, nine months later, you actually present it. And by the time I went to present it, our

00;04;59;14 - 00;05;05;07
Craig Andrews
what we believed about the world, it changed as my, my boss, I said what do I do?

00;05;05;07 - 00;05;16;04
Craig Andrews
And he said, you present the paper you submitted. I'm like, but that's not my best advice. He's like, you present the paper you submitted that. That just left a bad taste in my mouth.

00;05;16;06 - 00;05;19;13
Steve Duddy
Yeah, yeah. I, you know, it's hard. Yeah. I heard,

00;05;19;13 - 00;05;34;12
Steve Duddy
I was listening to a podcast the other day, and it was, physician out of the UK, and he was talking about medical school, and he said the first day of medical school, our professor said to us, I'm going to tell you right now, the 50% of what we tell you is going to be wrong.

00;05;34;14 - 00;05;42;09
Steve Duddy
The problem is we just don't know which 50%. So you're just going to have to move forward with this and trust. Yeah.

00;05;42;09 - 00;05;50;13
Steve Duddy
And so but, you know, I have this, this term that I'll use with everybody and saying, look, I tried to look at this through the windshield and not the rearview mirror.

00;05;50;13 - 00;05;57;03
Steve Duddy
And so, you know, it's one of these trying to plan in advance, trying to look at all the different directions that this could go.

00;05;57;06 - 00;06;04;28
Steve Duddy
You may have something that applied in the past, but how do you position it? So it still has some value in the future?

00;06;04;28 - 00;06;15;13
Steve Duddy
But there is a lot to that strategy. And trying to think through all of these different pros and cons and trying to stay one step ahead of everybody. If you're going to be successful.

00;06;15;16 - 00;06;20;17
Craig Andrews
You know. Now, one thing you said that kind of surprised me was,

00;06;20;17 - 00;06;27;06
Craig Andrews
that three was in doing had a cardiovascular division. What what did they do? What did they build.

00;06;27;08 - 00;06;36;15
Steve Duddy
Yeah. So they wound up acquiring this product that was for inline blood gas monitoring. And so basically what that meant was,

00;06;36;15 - 00;06;50;18
Steve Duddy
when you were having open heart surgery, transplant surgery, they would put you on these perfusion machines. And what they would want to do is they basically stop your heart and they would reroute your blood through this machine and it would breathe for you.

00;06;50;18 - 00;07;01;29
Steve Duddy
So this particular product was going to be responsible for telling the perfusion is who told the cardiothoracic people. Here's how this patient is looking. You know, from a

00;07;01;29 - 00;07;13;18
Steve Duddy
blood perspective. And so they wanted some hired guns. You know it was something they hadn't done before. And I'll tell everybody, they'll say, what's the best part of a startup? And I'll say, nothing's carved in stone.

00;07;13;20 - 00;07;33;25
Steve Duddy
And they'll say, what's the worst part of a startup? I said, nothing's carved in stone. And so this was an opportunity where you got selected with, I don't know how many hired guns. There were a dozen of us where they sat us down. They treated us a little bit differently because hired guns sometimes, or can be a little pre-modern ish and said, tell us what you need.

00;07;33;28 - 00;07;50;28
Steve Duddy
Here's what our goals are. Here's what three M is needing from us. How do we get there? And you kind of roll up your sleeves and you were telling marketing, we need this, and you're telling manufacturing you need this and you're telling your managers, we need to do this. And they would shrug their shoulders and say, okay, let's go.

00;07;51;00 - 00;08;30;23
Steve Duddy
And it worked out well. It was an amazing experience. And forget about the sales success part. Craig. Personally, the experience I had in the O.R., seeing some of the things that I've seen was just nothing short of miraculous. I mean, there were 1 or 2 surgeries where The New York Times, you know, Journal of Medicine people are in the room, the lights are turned down, they've got X-rays and scans across the room, and they're doing this pro bono surgery for this young gentleman that's never been done before, where they're stopping his heart and taking his body temperature down to single digits for the slowed down metabolism.

00;08;30;25 - 00;08;45;22
Steve Duddy
And you're looking at this and saying, wow, what a difference, what an impact these people are having on this person's life. And so the business part of sight seeing and experiencing things like this, not many people get to see, which I'm truly grateful for.

00;08;45;25 - 00;09;08;18
Craig Andrews
I would imagine. I mean, and that would be so neat. I mean, most you think about most people whenever they get close to an O.R. it's not a great moment in their life, right? Right. And so here you are. You're getting to see these, you know, absolute masters of their craft, right? Doing amazing things with,

00;09;08;18 - 00;09;14;02
Craig Andrews
you know, not the emotional investment that the family has when they're standing there.

00;09;14;04 - 00;09;37;12
Steve Duddy
Right? Yeah. You see that? And it's I've been in rooms with physicians where they prepped the patient. They get them and the physicians ready to walk in, and they put on Bach music. And this physician walks in and does their thing. And it is amazing to see a transplant in some ways is easier and quicker than repairing the existing heart.

00;09;37;14 - 00;09;48;15
Steve Duddy
Right. And seeing what goes into that. And then as you're exiting the room, seeing the family, glad that the patient is coming out. Now there was some there were some outcomes that were a little bit,

00;09;48;15 - 00;09;50;06
Steve Duddy
you know, less desirable.

00;09;50;06 - 00;09;59;03
Steve Duddy
But seeing that joy and coming out and saying that particular person gave this person life. And so it's really impactful.

00;09;59;05 - 00;10;07;02
Steve Duddy
And it's nice to be in the room to experience that, because like I said, I've seen some things that have just been mind blowing from that perspective, and it keeps the

00;10;07;02 - 00;10;18;19
Steve Duddy
the creative juices and the desire to get back in there and, and to learn. And whether it's learning the business end of it or learning the science end of it, it just keeps you, you know, excited and stoked.

00;10;18;21 - 00;10;22;11
Craig Andrews
So this little division of three M was it successful?

00;10;22;13 - 00;10;37;16
Steve Duddy
Successful. And they had a another big division there called Sarge. And they wound up folding that product into the big science portfolio. And then at that point in time, I moved into medical lasers. And that's what brought me out to California.

00;10;37;18 - 00;10;38;25
Craig Andrews
Now, you mentioned,

00;10;38;25 - 00;10;44;16
Craig Andrews
three M gave you some type of, award or you did something notable there.

00;10;44;18 - 00;10;49;16
Steve Duddy
I did this is a great story to to restore your faith in humanity, Craig. And so,

00;10;49;16 - 00;10;58;02
Steve Duddy
I received the rookie of the year award, and it was one of these where I was so proud because it was competing against some hired guns.

00;10;58;02 - 00;11;07;08
Steve Duddy
And the manager absolutely loved. I had a friend in the company, and they gave me this gold Montblanc, and it had my name engraved on it, and it was just my pride and joy.

00;11;07;10 - 00;11;14;29
Steve Duddy
And I was traveling with it, and I was in Atlanta airport. I remember to this day, and I had to take my jacket off and put it through,

00;11;14;29 - 00;11;32;19
Steve Duddy
X-ray. And it came through and the pen was gone and we were looking all over for it. And I was heartbroken. We couldn't find it. Fast forward not kidding. 12, 15 years later, I'm going through email and I just happened to be looking at my junk.

00;11;32;21 - 00;11;53;28
Steve Duddy
And in the subject line is, I have your pen. And I'm saying, now this can't be true, right? I said, but okay, I knew I had that pen, I got lost, I still thought about it, I clicked on it and the email basically said, hey, I don't know if this is you or not. I went on Google, I found you and your name.

00;11;54;00 - 00;12;13;05
Steve Duddy
My wife worked for Home Depot. She was coming through Atlanta airport one day and found this pen in the TSA checkpoint, brought it home, and he said, I meant to try to track you down, but I stuck it in the desk drawer. Didn't get to and we're moving. And I came across it and wanted to see if this, in fact, was you.

00;12;13;06 - 00;12;29;29
Steve Duddy
So if you can describe it, I'll put it in a box and send it to you. And I went how two, 15 years later, how is this possible? I said to Beaumont, blank has my name middle initial. He said, I got it because it's in the mail. And I said to him, I can't thank you enough, you know, can I?

00;12;30;03 - 00;12;49;28
Steve Duddy
He said, I just paying it forward. And he sent it to me and I got it and I was like, oh my, I put it away. I don't even take it out anymore because it was such a unique circumstance and a unique gift. But I think back at it, when I tell people the story they're going this year in a way, and I'm saying honest, I would have never expected they could have polished the name off of it.

00;12;49;28 - 00;12;55;21
Steve Duddy
They could have taken it and done whatever they wanted to do. But how coincidental and how nice it was.

00;12;55;23 - 00;12;59;19
Craig Andrews
And that that does restore hope.

00;12;59;22 - 00;13;00;17
Steve Duddy
It does.

00;13;00;20 - 00;13;03;05
Craig Andrews
It really does. It's, you know,

00;13;03;05 - 00;13;08;27
Craig Andrews
I'm glad you shared that because we. You know, we need more moments like that.

00;13;08;27 - 00;13;10;09
Craig Andrews
You know, I,

00;13;10;09 - 00;13;14;06
Craig Andrews
Yeah, we need more moments like that. We need more stories like that in the world.

00;13;14;08 - 00;13;35;00
Steve Duddy
And, you know, there's other ways it doesn't have to be returning the pin, right? There are other things that we can do to help others. Right. And so in my particular work, you know, there is somebody who presented this business opportunity, and she was talking to me about coming on board as the fractional acting CEO, if you will.

00;13;35;03 - 00;14;00;21
Steve Duddy
But deep down, she had this desire to be a CEO, extremely well-spoken, knowledgeable attorney by trade. And you could tell that she had this passion to do this. And then I just said to her, do you want to be a CEO? And she said, I would love to. I just don't know how to go about doing it. And so my returning of the pen is saying, I'll be your wingman.

00;14;00;24 - 00;14;07;19
Steve Duddy
You know, you'll be the CEO. You know I'll be here, I'll help you through these will prep. We have little, you know,

00;14;07;19 - 00;14;19;12
Steve Duddy
safe words and conversations. If she's feeling like she's lost. But there are ways of giving back. It may not be the pen back, but there are ways in the world we're living in where we can contribute and feel good about it.

00;14;19;15 - 00;14;30;17
Steve Duddy
And having somebody walk away and go, wow, that was a great experience for me. And so I think we all need to look for those opportunities because they're in front of us. We just have to be aware of it.

00;14;30;19 - 00;14;41;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. So how did you go from 3 a.m. out to the Bay area?

00;14;41;15 - 00;15;06;07
Steve Duddy
So I wound up taking a position in sales in New York City selling medical lasers. And I remember Craig, when I would be in the hospital to do another business, he used to see medical laser salespeople go, when I grow up, that's what I want to do, right? There's nothing sexier, more scientific than lasers. And so I started selling lasers in New York, but I started doing other things for my business.

00;15;06;07 - 00;15;26;22
Steve Duddy
So I started doing my own marketing, and I started doing my own workshops. And I was a trainer for the company. And the company had said, hey, you know, we'd like to have you come out and train some people. And and so it was funny, I went from a snowy, you know, East Coast environment to California where the cherry blossoms were out.

00;15;26;22 - 00;15;47;13
Steve Duddy
They got me a convertible. They put me up at this beautiful hotel and said to me, how'd you like to move out here? And I just said, well, I'm a I'm a sales guy. And they said, no, no, no, we got some ideas. And so it literally happened that quick. It was just meant to be in some ways, but came in and started in the marketing role and really loved it.

00;15;47;20 - 00;16;01;26
Steve Duddy
And then I got tapped for new biz dev within the company, something the company had never done. And look, you know, there's no place to go but up when nobody's ever done it before, right? And so I said, hey, you know, I'm in, let's do it.

00;16;01;26 - 00;16;07;21
Steve Duddy
And then I got tapped to move to take over a quarter of $1 billion, you know, North American operation.

00;16;07;21 - 00;16;09;25
Steve Duddy
And it just continue to build,

00;16;09;25 - 00;16;26;13
Steve Duddy
and learn and have some fun and have some heartache. But it was a lot of fun, and it was a publicly traded company, which I never dealt with before. And so that was it had his challenges and it was unique. But that really started my movement into let me learn the business side of this.

00;16;26;16 - 00;16;30;02
Craig Andrews
Was that pre Sox or post Sox.

00;16;30;05 - 00;16;31;26
Steve Duddy
Pre

00;16;31;29 - 00;16;33;12
Craig Andrews
Sarbanes-Oxley.

00;16;33;14 - 00;16;40;02
Steve Duddy
Oh that was, that was post. I had to think about the timing. It was post.

00;16;40;05 - 00;16;40;13
Craig Andrews
Well

00;16;40;13 - 00;16;45;28
Craig Andrews
and that carries that carries some extra weight on your shoulders.

00;16;46;01 - 00;16;47;27
Steve Duddy
It does and I remember

00;16;47;27 - 00;17;07;22
Steve Duddy
the division part of the reason for them bringing me over into this other piece was the division was having some issues, and it was going to be SEC related, you know, to get things up. Right. And I remember dealing with this and saying, okay, I didn't create the situation, but they're still depending on me to try to fix this.

00;17;07;25 - 00;17;18;18
Steve Duddy
Yeah. Right. And I remember corporate CEO coming in and saying, you're going to get one chance at doing this with the SEC, you know. So let's take your best shot. I'm going no pressure. Right.

00;17;18;18 - 00;17;30;24
Steve Duddy
But again it was quite the experience. And you do the best you can. And and it's lonely at the top. So you try to find other people you bring in to help coach you through this because you've never been through it before.

00;17;30;26 - 00;17;34;12
Steve Duddy
But again, once you get through, you go, oh, I can do that. You know,

00;17;34;12 - 00;17;36;26
Steve Duddy
similar to some of the things we talked about.

00;17;36;29 - 00;17;47;08
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah. And. And I think that's, that's one of the challenges when you're, when you're in the,

00;17;47;08 - 00;18;01;11
Craig Andrews
the senior role in the company, you know, I don't know that I'll speak for myself. I have moments where I'm just kind of like, crap at myself. I'm like, I don't know what to do here. And you wouldn't be careful how much you project that to the team, right?

00;18;01;13 - 00;18;06;20
Craig Andrews
Because, you know, people get a little bit unstuck. They get a little nervous, update their resumes and start thinking about other things.

00;18;06;22 - 00;18;11;27
Steve Duddy
Right? Right. It was almost like that scene. Do you watch Saving Private Ryan?

00;18;11;29 - 00;18;12;29
Craig Andrews
It's been a while.

00;18;13;01 - 00;18;32;06
Steve Duddy
Okay. There was one scene that I remember where Tom Hanks was with some of the members of his troop, and I remember them talking to him and saying to him, we never hear you complain. Do you ever complain? And he said, I do. And they said, well, how come I don't hear it? And he said, because I complain up.

00;18;32;08 - 00;18;50;14
Steve Duddy
And so the back to your point of the people below you, you've got to be a strong role model and be the one that he either knows, doesn't know. But you're in charge, right? But you're still human, right? And you still are going to have your complaints. And, you know, I would take mine up.

00;18;50;14 - 00;18;56;05
Steve Duddy
But my goal was to try to keep everybody's head on straight, positive.

00;18;56;08 - 00;18;59;02
Steve Duddy
And, you know, I tell people right from the beginning, you know,

00;18;59;02 - 00;19;06;25
Steve Duddy
my style. I ask a lot of questions. And so my questions are not being critical. They're not,

00;19;06;25 - 00;19;16;22
Steve Duddy
making a statement of you made the wrong decision. They are purely data gathering. And then they say, I also reserve the right to sleep on the decision. Yeah, right.

00;19;16;22 - 00;19;24;29
Steve Duddy
Because I feel like those sometimes, you know, are the best decision. So I had no problem making a decision to b say, tell me now what are you going to do.

00;19;24;29 - 00;19;35;24
Steve Duddy
But I prefer to gather the data and then think about it. And I may even make a phone call between now and then, but you do have to read the room and you have to look at where are everybody's head's at.

00;19;35;24 - 00;19;54;12
Steve Duddy
You know, Covid was the perfect example. You know, the governor sends a memo and says, you got to close the offices down. But yet we have investors and strategic that are putting a pressure on you. And everybody's going, what do you do? You just say, okay, guys, here's the path, here's the plan. And we'll pick up the next part of the plan tomorrow.

00;19;54;15 - 00;20;14;00
Steve Duddy
But you've got to do it. And it's just part of that role. And people are looking at you for some guidance on this. And there are a lot of people that really want to be successful. They want to do well. And, you know, I'll tell people this is like being in a boat with you. I'm the coxswain. You're the oarsman.

00;20;14;03 - 00;20;28;01
Steve Duddy
And we got to row together here. Right? But they're depending on the coxswain to keep the stroke count. Yeah. And so that's kind of the way I look at it. But I'll also tell people, if you don't want to be the boat or you're not going to row, get out of the boat. Right. Because we're all in this together.

00;20;28;03 - 00;20;30;03
Steve Duddy
But yeah, it's tough.

00;20;30;05 - 00;20;42;03
Craig Andrews
You know, one of the things I thought made Covid easy in some ways, and it was very hard. Yeah, I don't want to diminish that. It was. And for me, it was heartbreaking watching,

00;20;42;03 - 00;20;55;11
Craig Andrews
business after business that, you know, just shut down, couldn't make it. It was heartbreaking. But the thing that was really neat was it was a time where you could say the rules don't matter, right?

00;20;55;11 - 00;21;08;25
Craig Andrews
And people would come in and say, well, these are the rules. And they're like, no, no, no, no. Those were the rules right back before March, right? We get to write the rules, right? You can we can write whatever rules we want and people will accept them.

00;21;08;27 - 00;21;31;03
Steve Duddy
Right? Right. And the investors and the board would come and say, do what you need to do, you know, tell us what you need. But you're right. With Covid, you know, I talked to the CEO and I said I'd never been through this before. And he said, Steve, nobody has. And so we would spend time trying to figure out we were in this critical stage of product development and testing.

00;21;31;03 - 00;21;51;00
Steve Duddy
And so we couldn't go to China. So we had to move people and product to Hungary, where we all traveled to. And then Covid was coming to Hungary, and we had to call China back and saying, hey, can we get some things to China? But then we couldn't get to China, so we had to train people. So you put cameras up and you run shifts because of the time differences.

00;21;51;00 - 00;22;03;12
Steve Duddy
And so you're working remotely and it's just a moving target and you're just trying to think outside the box and saying, okay, how do we do this? What's available. And so you're right, it's unconventional.

00;22;03;12 - 00;22;08;29
Steve Duddy
But I think it's the strong and the creative that survive. And in many of those circumstances.

00;22;09;01 - 00;22;30;11
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, one of my mentors said, he's a ad writer, and he said, you don't find creativity with a blank canvas, right? You find creativity with narrow constraints where you're boxed in right? And that's where you come up with some of your most creative things. And I know that that's been the case for me is,

00;22;30;11 - 00;22;34;23
Craig Andrews
you know, slapped me with a bunch of constraints and, and the quality of my ideas go up.

00;22;34;26 - 00;22;53;05
Steve Duddy
Right? Yeah. And again, you may not have an abundance of cash to go spend and do whatever you want to do. Right. And you may not have a huge window of time. And so you've got to recognize what are the rails that have been put on this. And how do we get through it. And I think, you know,

00;22;53;05 - 00;23;01;06
Steve Duddy
they may or may not have shared with you, but we ran into this situation where the price of boards, for instance, were just astronomical.

00;23;01;13 - 00;23;25;29
Steve Duddy
There were brokers, I called them scalpers that were hoarding all of these components and then marking them up ten times, 15 times, 20 times the cost. And so when you were a small company, how do you how do you deal with that? And so I get the idea of saying, what if we put one broker scalper up against the other and do a winner take all and give him a list of here are the top 20 components we need.

00;23;26;01 - 00;23;43;23
Steve Duddy
It's going to be a winner take all, and all of a sudden the prices got back in line to what we were dealing with because they wanted to get rid of inventory. Yeah. And so you're right. I think it's a matter of saying, okay, you got these guardrails that are here. Sky's not the limit. And so you've got to think about, you know, how do you get there.

00;23;43;24 - 00;24;06;16
Steve Duddy
And you don't have to be alone. You can solicit ideas and get everybody together and buy lunch and saying here's where we're at. Who's got ideas? And it may not be one person coming up with the be all, end all, but it's a little here, a little there. And then everybody feeling like they lend a hand and coming up with the solution, and it gets everybody on the same page to start rowing that boat together.

00;24;06;19 - 00;24;26;14
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, I think you said a couple things there. That's, that's really critical is it's rare. I mean, it makes for good television where the person in the room looks like they're passing a kidney stone, and all of a sudden they come out with this brilliant idea, right. But in my experience, I think it's what you just said.

00;24;26;14 - 00;24;42;17
Craig Andrews
It's not that you come up with the brilliant idea. You say something that maybe at first pass you're like, well, that wouldn't work. But but hang on. What would work? You know, open it. It opens the door to a discussion that leads to what does work.

00;24;42;23 - 00;25;04;05
Steve Duddy
Right? Yeah. What if. And so it's like, okay, what if is right. So in this particular we need a place to build this. Well I happen to know somebody that's got a clean room in their company that they're not using. What if I call him and ask him if we could borrow his room? Right. And so it's, you know, silly things like that, but it it gets that survival instinct going.

00;25;04;05 - 00;25;24;12
Steve Duddy
It's that desire to succeed going. It's that team. It's a synchronized swimming event that's getting that team feeling that. And then in amongst all of these other things, Craig, one of the other things that that we did that I thought went a long way was I had this wall in our conference room and it was just a blank white wall.

00;25;24;15 - 00;25;45;00
Steve Duddy
And what I decided to do was break that wall up into as many pieces as I had team members, and we taped it all off, and everybody picked a number out of the hat. And that was their choice as to what section of the wall they got. The paint, and we put the paints in front of them and said, do whatever you want in your section and sign the bottom of it.

00;25;45;02 - 00;26;04;10
Steve Duddy
And we went into meetings and people would see the wall and they would recognize it together. You know, we were able to do this, which meant we were able to do that to and there was a lot of joy. People were bringing their family in after Covid to look at the wall. We painted right in. And, mom, dad, where's your square?

00;26;04;10 - 00;26;18;26
Steve Duddy
In the wall. Where's your piece of the wall and that? And what's this and what? And some of the creativity, Craig, that came out was absolutely amazing to me. And so, you know, it's just things like that that make a difference from my perspective.

00;26;18;28 - 00;26;40;18
Craig Andrews
Well, you know, one of the things that you've really hammered on is, you know, you told me in the green room, people are people. And there's, there's a couple issues that I know a lot of people are wrestling with, a couple discussions. One is, you know, do we bring people back to the office? And the other discussion is, is I going to take my job?

00;26;40;20 - 00;26;47;29
Craig Andrews
And I'm just interested in your take. What's what's your take on coming back to the office and what's your take on I steal in jobs.

00;26;48;02 - 00;26;54;21
Steve Duddy
And so, you know, people back in the office, there are just some roles and responsibilities that can't be done remotely. Yeah.

00;26;54;21 - 00;27;06;22
Steve Duddy
In my role as the CEO, there were some companies where I said Friday you were the option. It gave people a bit of an opportunity to just kind of take a deep breath and go, if I want to work from the Home office.

00;27;06;24 - 00;27;27;07
Steve Duddy
But there is a lot to be said about the camaraderie, especially when when times are tough, right? Because there is nothing better, more comforting to know that we're all sweating this out together, right? And as difficult as it is, being able to walk over to the office of the cube is great. You know, as far as I goes, I think I has its place.

00;27;27;14 - 00;27;31;25
Steve Duddy
I mean, look, I've used ChatGPT many times to help me write things.

00;27;33;00 - 00;27;55;22
Steve Duddy
But it's not perfect and there are still things you can't get from that, like that passion, you know, like that person saying you tell me what you need, I'll come in on the weekend. We have people working on weekends, you know, on planes, doing the night shifts. There's nothing to do with ChatGPT. And that to me, is what makes the company and it's what makes the success and what builds relationships.

00;27;55;24 - 00;28;03;04
Steve Duddy
And you can't get that. Yes, you know, ChatGPT, I will get you hopefully the right answers, but they should have to be careful.

00;28;03;04 - 00;28;16;24
Steve Duddy
But it's still missing that human side to it. Or seeing somebody going, tell me, what do you have over there? You can't get to give it to me. I'll do it right. And there is this more than just the right answer or the buyer.

00;28;16;24 - 00;28;24;20
Steve Duddy
It is creating these long lasting relationships with people. Which then are your future opportunities.

00;28;24;22 - 00;28;46;02
Craig Andrews
You know, from my perspective, I think I does a lot, but one thing it hasn't figured out is how to replace the human connection element. Yeah, there's something magical. And yeah, I won't say it on air, but there's one industry that would adopt AI in a second,

00;28;46;02 - 00;28;58;26
Craig Andrews
if they could, but they haven't. And I think the reason it has you don't see it there is it's there's a human connection element that, hey, I just haven't been able to figure out,

00;28;58;26 - 00;29;07;20
Craig Andrews
but I think humans who aren't using AI are going into today's workforce.

00;29;07;23 - 00;29;16;06
Craig Andrews
Without a good toolset, it would be like the idea of showing up at work without having a computer. I mean, you just want and think about doing that right?

00;29;16;13 - 00;29;34;18
Steve Duddy
Right. No, it's true. And I think that, you know, having that exposure and experience and knowing when to use it, you know, I think is critical. Now on the relationship side, you know, there is nothing better than you all working together. And all of a sudden you get the call saying, we're getting an Loi letter of intent in from a potential buyer.

00;29;34;21 - 00;29;53;04
Steve Duddy
And that excitement that the group and God, oh my God, we did it. You know, there's nothing like it. Yeah. On the other hand, you're then dealing with the employees that aren't getting along. Right. And there have been times where I've had conversations where I've had two people, you know, one on each side and saying, okay, here's how this conversation is going to go.

00;29;53;06 - 00;30;12;12
Steve Duddy
You are not going to use the term you. What you're going to do is you're going to say, I don't like it when and you're going to give the, you know, each other an opportunity to talk, because when we leave here, we have to work together. Yeah. And so you're almost a counselor in some ways of getting people to, to work together and get through some of the conflict.

00;30;12;15 - 00;30;16;00
Steve Duddy
But at the end of the day, it's usually worth it.

00;30;16;03 - 00;30;16;28
Craig Andrews
You know, I,

00;30;16;28 - 00;30;18;11
Craig Andrews
I'm just drawing a blank. The,

00;30;18;11 - 00;30;21;20
Craig Andrews
the coach of the Bulls back in,

00;30;21;20 - 00;30;22;29
Steve Duddy
Michael Jackson.

00;30;23;01 - 00;30;49;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Phil Jackson. Right? Yeah. I mean, the characters that he was able to pull together on that team, Dennis Rodman and and Jordan and Pippen, I mean, the fact they got Dennis Rodman to play ball with anybody, it was just, you know, a testament to his leadership. Right? But look at what happens when you can get these strong personalities all working in the same direction.

00;30;49;17 - 00;31;19;23
Steve Duddy
Right? No, it's absolutely true. You've got huge egos, people with a tremendous amount of money and power. And to me, the coach, the CEO. It's not about being right. It's not about making sure you know that they're taking direction from you. It's using what you've learned to to maximize that skill set together. Right. And there are some coaches with some big league teams, you know, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, you know, back in the day of the Patriots, the Cowboys.

00;31;20;00 - 00;31;36;29
Steve Duddy
You've got some big big egos there with some big talent. And you just had to figure out how do you get them all to contribute and not be a threat. And there is a skill set involved. But but you're right. If you can do that, man, you know, sky's the limit.

00;31;37;01 - 00;31;53;00
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, and a lot of people I think look at Steve Jobs as a tyrant. But 20 years ago when they were working on the original iPhone, both Steve and Jony Ive said it's not going to have a SIM card. I don't know what the SIM card thing is. Get rid of that SIM card.

00;31;53;02 - 00;31;53;20
Steve Duddy
Right?

00;31;53;22 - 00;32;13;18
Craig Andrews
And the team was able to persuade. I mean, imagine this. Imagine being a part of that team, right? You're like, oh geez. Not only is Steve Jobs believe this, but Jony Ive, these guys have lunch together every day, which is. Yeah. How am I ever going to convince these guys? But he had built a culture where you could challenge his idea.

00;32;13;19 - 00;32;31;05
Craig Andrews
You better show up prepared right? Don't show up unprepared. That's not going to go well, right. But the team was able to persuade them. And what they did was they just they put up a map of all the networks in the world. And they said, Steve, if this doesn't have a SIM card, here are the networks available to you.

00;32;31;05 - 00;32;32;09
Craig Andrews
And,

00;32;32;09 - 00;32;32;22
Craig Andrews
and

00;32;32;22 - 00;32;35;21
Craig Andrews
and change Steve Jobs, mind it.

00;32;35;22 - 00;32;39;04
Steve Duddy
You know, and if you look at this and then think about that and then think on the,

00;32;39;04 - 00;32;52;03
Steve Duddy
on the other side of this. So I wrote a book called Think Again. Yeah. And they talk about the CEO of BlackBerry back in the day. And his team would come to him and say, look, we're going to get our butts kicked by this iPhone.

00;32;52;06 - 00;33;09;01
Steve Duddy
If we don't get into something that's more than just email. And, you know, he kept saying, no, people, you know, they thrive on this. They need this. You know, we've got a brand. And they couldn't convince him. And so what happened? You know, I remember having a BlackBerry.

00;33;09;06 - 00;33;09;20
Craig Andrews
Oh yeah.

00;33;09;20 - 00;33;22;03
Steve Duddy
All of a sudden iPhone kicked in. And Steve Jobs you know, took that path. And the people of BlackBerry were gone. We missed that opportunity because they wouldn't go that path that that Steve and others went.

00;33;22;06 - 00;33;30;08
Craig Andrews
Not only them but Nokia. There was a at that point around the time that the iPhone came out, Nokia had pretty close to 50% market share.

00;33;30;10 - 00;33;32;08
Steve Duddy
Wow. Wow. That's huge.

00;33;32;11 - 00;33;33;15
Craig Andrews
And now they're out of the business.

00;33;33;20 - 00;33;57;08
Steve Duddy
Yeah yeah yeah. I mean you have to evolve, right? And I think that if you stay in one place and hold on to one belief, I think you're going to have a hard time doing that. Yeah. You know, and as uncut, comfortable as it may be, if you're going to survive, if you're going to grow as a person, if you're going to grow as a leader, you've got to be able to open up to that.

00;33;57;08 - 00;34;10;25
Steve Duddy
And to me, the worst thing, the thing that used to bug me the most is when somebody say, well, we're going to do it because we've always done it that way. Yeah, timeout, timeout. That does not make it right and that will sink the ship. If we keep that mentality.

00;34;10;27 - 00;34;11;24
Craig Andrews
You know what my,

00;34;11;24 - 00;34;28;12
Craig Andrews
the one that I always raise raises my hackles up. I have a I have a quick response to it. But when somebody says, well, that's not how it's done in our industry. And my response, you know, and it's usually clients, people who are paying me money who say that.

00;34;28;14 - 00;34;28;29
Steve Duddy
Yeah.

00;34;29;01 - 00;34;35;20
Craig Andrews
And so I'll ask them, I was like, okay. And I'll just say, is your goal to be average?

00;34;35;20 - 00;34;54;28
Craig Andrews
And no, no, no, we're not average. We're not average. I said, well, when you do things like it's done in your industry, your mathematically limited to average. If you want to be extraordinary, you can't just do what everybody else is doing.

00;34;55;00 - 00;35;04;09
Steve Duddy
Yeah. So true Craig. It's so true. I think you're on the right track. If somebody says, well, nobody's ever done that before and gone perfect, that's me.

00;35;04;09 - 00;35;11;12
Craig Andrews
That's that's where the gold's hidden. As soon as I hear it, that's not how it's done. I'm like, oh, I have to do this. Get that rock turned over and there's gold there.

00;35;11;14 - 00;35;29;12
Steve Duddy
Yeah. Watch it. I can't tell you, you know, on a couple of startups I've done where people come up and go, I talked to so-and-so and they said, this is never going to work. And I said, watch us. Yeah, right. And that was almost one of these, oh, now I've got to really show you. Right. If you're going to tell me it's not going to work, then I really am going to show you how we're going to do this.

00;35;29;15 - 00;35;35;13
Steve Duddy
And then before, you know it, people are trying to copy the technology and go for something. It wasn't going to work. We did pretty well.

00;35;35;15 - 00;35;48;01
Craig Andrews
Yeah, well, and the funny thing is, when the iPhone came out, I was actually in the mobile phone industry. I was in with a semiconductor company, and we remember going through it. And when the iPhone first came out, because we're trying to figure out

00;35;48;01 - 00;35;52;10
Craig Andrews
where we're, you know, unfortunately, you know, we're going after multiple,

00;35;52;10 - 00;35;56;12
Craig Andrews
customers. But the question was,

00;35;56;12 - 00;35;59;10
Craig Andrews
you know, where does this iPhone fit into things?

00;35;59;10 - 00;36;09;23
Craig Andrews
And, and we we don't remember the iPhone as a gradual rise in market share. But that's what it was. It wasn't like one day iPhone showed up and everybody had them. Right. And

00;36;09;23 - 00;36;18;27
Craig Andrews
at the time I remember this discussion, the we were talking about, well, the iPhone is more of a consumer device. The BlackBerry is a business device.

00;36;18;29 - 00;36;21;24
Craig Andrews
And part of the reason was the iPhone hadn't fixed the,

00;36;21;24 - 00;36;30;11
Craig Andrews
the data security issue that the BlackBerry had. And, and I think that's the other thing that, that got BlackBerry,

00;36;30;11 - 00;36;36;20
Craig Andrews
behind the times is you you assume my, my wife used to work for NCR,

00;36;36;20 - 00;36;41;11
Craig Andrews
and they make the POS systems that go in restaurants. And there was this company that,

00;36;41;11 - 00;36;47;12
Craig Andrews
started up and they had these little handheld held devices, and she kept saying, oh, these devices are no good.

00;36;47;12 - 00;36;50;11
Craig Andrews
And, you know, we don't have to worry about them. I said,

00;36;50;11 - 00;37;02;06
Craig Andrews
don't bet on them not fixing their issues. Right. And now it's flipped these little the other companies they're they're dominating. Yeah.

00;37;02;07 - 00;37;07;01
Steve Duddy
But yeah I think it's critical. Never underestimate the competition.

00;37;07;03 - 00;37;07;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;37;07;19 - 00;37;28;22
Steve Duddy
Right. And even if their track record has been such that they've never made the best decision, all it takes is for one new person to come join them with that idea for things to flip, you know. And so I think you need to be prepared for at some point somebody is going to catch up with us, but then what do we do next?

00;37;28;22 - 00;37;53;14
Steve Duddy
Right. And so you always want the competition to be chasing the rearview mirror, right? And not the windshield. Right. Just as they come up with it. We're really moving on to the next thing. And so, you know, I'm a believer if I'm building a company, give your salespeople about 18 months in a product, and then you better be prepared to have something new coming out because the sales cycle gets old, they get tired of it.

00;37;53;14 - 00;38;07;04
Steve Duddy
The customer wants to see you're evolving, never mind, because the stock market, you know, they want to know what is it you are? Are you a one horse race or are you going to be able to do more with this? And I think that's part of the key to success here.

00;38;07;07 - 00;38;17;21
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Steve, I we could talk for another hour. We could absolutely talk for another hour. And it would be amazing.

00;38;17;21 - 00;38;35;19
Craig Andrews
But we got to wrap up, what's one piece of advice that you would give? What's what would be your parting advice to somebody who's in the, you know, in the leadership role of the company? And they have that that gut churning.

00;38;35;19 - 00;38;41;00
Craig Andrews
They're not sure what to do. They're trying to figure out the path forward. What would you tell them?

00;38;41;03 - 00;39;08;07
Steve Duddy
So I would say if your gut is churning, that's the first good sign of, you know what? You don't know. And so then the next step is going to be get friendly, get close, find somebody that knows what you don't know, and be open to what it is that they're going to share or suggest, because that's how you're going to move forward and be a better leader, and you're going to be more successful.

00;39;08;07 - 00;39;10;15
Steve Duddy
And look at the end of the day, you're going to make more money.

00;39;10;18 - 00;39;14;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah. That's awesome. So,

00;39;14;10 - 00;39;18;02
Craig Andrews
Steve, how did people reach you?

00;39;18;05 - 00;39;20;06
Steve Duddy
And so I have my website,

00;39;20;06 - 00;39;22;23
Steve Duddy
daddy executive services. Inc.com.

00;39;22;23 - 00;39;28;04
Steve Duddy
You can shoot me an email at Duddy dot Stephen at gmail.com.

00;39;28;04 - 00;39;30;29
Steve Duddy
And I would be happy to connect,

00;39;30;29 - 00;39;39;19
Steve Duddy
with you if you just want to throw some ideas, have some questions, or want to exchange career stories, I'm happy to chat with people.

00;39;39;21 - 00;39;44;18
Craig Andrews
That's awesome. Well, this has been an awesome conversation. Thanks for coming on, Leaders and Legacies, Craig.

00;39;44;18 - 00;39;52;16
Steve Duddy
It's been my pleasure and I really thank you for having me. This is great and I love what you're doing.

00;39;52;16 - 00;40;19;10
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;40;19;10 - 00;40;21;05
Craig Andrews
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00;40;21;07 - 00;40;44;17
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest, tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;40;44;19 - 00;40;52;24
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe your thumbs up! Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;40;52;24 - 00;42;54;29
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.