Episodes

Most business exits fail not because of flawed numbers but because the hidden value of people, culture, and legacy is overlooked. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken explores why exits are among the most personal and emotion...

Most leaders spend far too much of their day answering questions, and Atiba De Souza believes that habit is holding businesses back. How much more progress could you make if your time went into vision and strategy instead of ...

More leads won’t save your business if your revenue systems, lead quality, and sales pipeline health aren’t working the way they should. Maartje van Krieken talks with Mark Osborne, a fractional chief revenue officer for bout...

Most business failures can be traced back to weak or rushed due diligence, and that gap often turns into costly business risk. When the stakes are high, whether you are hiring a key leader, buying a company, or entering new p...

Entrepreneurial coach and author David J. Greer opens up about the side of success most people never see: the quiet reality of high-functioning leaders living with addiction. Maartje van Krieken talks with David about how he ...

Most startup founders don’t realize they’ve become accidental CEOs until their own success turns into the biggest reason they can’t scale. Maartje van Krieken and Pete Steege discuss the “founder’s fog,” that frustrating plac...

A startup with cutting-edge tech and global momentum collapsed in under four years because no one stopped to build the structure needed to sustain it. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken reflects on the rise and fall of Hyzo...

Scaling looks like success, until your product hits every shelf and you’re still bleeding cash. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks with food and beverage strategist Debbie Wildrick about what really happens when growt...

A single line of flawed code grounded planes, shuttered hospitals, and crashed cash registers… What would your business do if the emergency was already underway? One year after launching this podcast in the middle of real-lif...

Public sector leaders are quietly mastering the kind of complex, human-centered change most businesses struggle to get right. Maartje van Krieken is joined by Vijay K. Luthra, a former civil servant and transformation strateg...

AI isn’t some future threat on the horizon. It’s already changing how businesses operate, and the question is whether you’re keeping up or falling behind. In this 50th episode of The Business Emergency Room, Maartje van Kriek...

Most leadership failures don’t happen because of bad strategy. They happen because we overlook how human we all are when the pressure’s on. Maartje van Krieken is joined by German author, speaker, and former airline pilot Pet...

Most businesses won’t survive their next big disruption. Not because the crisis is too big, but because their business continuity plan (BCP) was either half-baked or never tested. Maartje van Krieken makes the case for recove...

Most boards don’t fail because of bad people. They fail because the right people aren’t at the table when it counts. Maartje van Krieken sits down with Dr. Keith Dorsey, the founder of Boardroom Journey, to talk about what ma...

A jailbreak in New Orleans becomes a sharp metaphor for what happens when creeping dysfunction goes unchecked inside a business. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken unpacks the hidden costs of ignoring early warning signs in...

Sales problems rarely start loud. They build quietly through messy processes, wishful thinking in the pipeline, the wrong people in key roles, and pricing that no longer makes sense. Maartje van Krieken is joined by Nicholas ...

High-stakes decisions don’t reward the loudest voice; they favor the calmest mind and the clearest why. Maartje van Krieken is joined by Jeffrey Owens, a former police officer, FBI-trained hostage negotiator, and executive le...

Most businesses don't fail from bad decisions; they fail because they never saw the storm coming. This episode is a wake-up call for leaders who are too busy managing today to think about what’s coming next. Maartje van Kriek...

Most businesses overlook cybersecurity risk management until an attack hits, but small moves like the “porcupine strategy” and multi-factor authentication can be the difference between staying safe and facing a major breach. ...

When a crisis hits, the leaders who move fastest aren’t the ones clinging to the org chart. They’re the ones who know exactly who their people really are. In this episode, Maartje van Krieken shares a look at crisis leadershi...

Conflict doesn’t kill momentum. Our silence around it does. Maartje van Krieken makes a case for why conflict resolution in growing businesses should be a core leadership skill, not something we save for when things get bad. ...

When the market tilts without warning, leadership means stepping up even when the chaos wasn’t your fault. What do you do when geopolitical tension, tariffs, or broken supply chains knock your business off course? In this epi...

Waiting out the chaos might feel safe, but in business, standing still during a storm is often the fastest way to lose your course entirely. When a crisis hits, why do so many leaders freeze? What makes waiting feel safer tha...

Most CEOs don’t plan their own exit. What happens when the person who built the company isn’t the right one to scale it? Scott Calderwood joins Maartje van Krieken to talk about CEO transition strategies, scaling leadership c...