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'Leading the Way' Podcast: Kevin Oakes, CEO i4cp

And now a word from our sponsor! The company that proudly presents the popular weekly Leading the Way Podcast and shares the powerful perspectives from major players in the world of business, sports, entertainment, healthcare and philanthropy has some wisdom of its own to share. Kevin Oakes, CEO and humble leader of i4cp, speaks out on his journey to success, how i4cp came into existence, and what drives our research in next practices that generously contributes to the success of some of the biggest companies in the world. If you are wondering what happens behind the scenes at the most respected human capital research firm on the planet, then you’ll want to tune in to hear the high performing perspectives of Kevin Oakes.

Throughout the interview, you’ll hear insights on what Kevin has learned from studying the highest performing organizations in the world and which practices he has implemented in his own employee-owner culture that makes i4cp such a great place to work. Find out why transparency is so important today, how leaders can integrate innovation, and how to weave a culture of learning into an organization’s workforce. Snippets of some of i4cp’s most rewarding research--on the topic of diversity & inclusion--is revealed in this exclusive interview with one of HR’s most sought-after keynote speakers.  

Each week on i4cp’s Leading the Way podcast, we share insights, next practices and empirical data as we highlight a CEO who is making a positive impact in the business world. In this special edition of Leading the Way, Kevin shares the foundation of the what it takes for leaders, in today’s rapidly changing world, to truly transform their organization and achieve the next greatest vision of success in Corporate America.  

Key Soundbites

  • On transparency – “The one thing that is common in high performing organizations is transparency. I would encourage any organization to make sure they’re being as transparent as possible. Transparency is the number one practice for a company to be aware of, although it’s not easy.”  
  • On culture – “We have a very transparent environment overall as a company. One of the things we do to be transparent is I run the company on an open book management policy. I treat our employees as owners of the company. Every single employee has equity in the company and I want them to act like owners and make decisions as if they were 100% owner of the company.”  
  • On talent mobility – “I’m seeing that in other companies where they take more of a learning-culture approach as well as an approach where employees rotate throughout the organization, particularly top employees. As opposed to allowing managers to hoard talent or individuals to hoard knowledge, they take active steps to make sure the managers are both promoting their employees’ development and moving that talent throughout the organizations, those are very healthy things for any growth company.”  
  • On innovation – “It’s very easy for companies to punish people who fail inside the organization. The most progressive companies look at that as an educational opportunity, an investment in education, and it’s all part of the innovation process. Innovative organizations recognize we’ve got to celebrate failure, we’ve got to talk about failure openly, and be transparent about it in order to keep innovating.”  
  • Advice to young professionals – “One of the things I would say to new professionals is to be prepared, the other is persevere. While preparation is great, you’re going to run into a lot of setbacks, you’re going to run into things that don’t make you comfortable, and you’ve just got to persevere through it.”  

About Leading the Way

Leading the Way is a weekly radio show and podcast series that highlights influential business leaders and leading people practices from i4cp. Co-hosted by Emmy award-winning television anchor and radio host, Scott Murray, and i4cp’s Angel Carlton, the show features interviews with respected business leaders from the world of business, sports, entertainment, healthcare and philanthropy.  

The show airs live every Sunday at 4 pm CT on KLIF 570 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, the global audience is invited to listen live on www.klif.com  and the weekly podcast debuts on iTunes or Google Play and the i4cp website the following week.