Execution Beats Ideas: Turning Visions into Reality with Anupam Bedi

Welcome to the B2B Growth Blueprint podcast, where we talk with entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders at B2B services, tech, and SaaS companies to learn the systems and processes they've used to create success for their business. We'll also learn from marketing and sales experts to provide insights to help you grow your business. I'm your host, Mark Osborne, and the podcast is brought to you by Modern Revenue Strategies and their 10x ROI B2B Growth Guarantee. Schedule a free diagnostic call to learn the fastest path to double your B2B revenues in just 90 days. Welcome to another episode of the B2B Growth Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Osborne, And today, I'm very excited to welcome Anupam Bedi. He is the co-founder and CEO of Andean Advisory. Anupam has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry for companies including Johnson Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Atracure. And in 2020, he co-founded Andean Advisory, which is an executive advisory and consulting firm advising dozens of companies across industries and geographies with strategic operations, growth strategies, and partnerships. Anupam also serves on Wright State University's Foundation Board of Trustees on the Audit Committee and also served WSU on Biomedical and Industrial Engineering Department Advisory Board. He's a strategic advisor to several early-stage companies across industries, and I know he's got a lot of insights to share with us today. Anupam, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks, Mark. It's great to be here. I appreciate it.

Yeah. So obviously really amazing background, 25 years of experience across lots of industries and really deep expertise in healthcare. Tell us more about what you're doing there with Andean.

Yeah. So as an advisory firm with Andean Advisory, I co-founded it, you know, just 4 years ago, really to help a lot of different early stage, early to sort of mid-stage companies with their growth strategy. So prior to me finding my own, co-founding my own advisory firm, I worked exclusively within the healthcare space. And then after I went through business school, I decided, you know, that a lot of the challenges that companies face are similar to what I've experienced before in the healthcare industry in terms of how a company is growing, how they're looking to increase penetration, maybe they're facing challenges in their business and they've hit a certain inflection point and sometimes just get stuck, or they're on the other side of that and they're looking to say, okay, how do we further expand our footprint in the marketplace? And perhaps they're looking for an exit and they're looking to move forward beyond that. So there are a lot of different, a lot of different areas that I found that regardless of the industry that they're in and in many cases, regardless of the geography that they're in, companies are still looking to ultimately is to grow, get established, to grow and continue to grow, gain new customers and lead to that customer success also that's gonna enable them to take them that much further. So because of that, because I work across industries, the name Andean Advisory, just to give a brief kind of history is—

Yeah.

So it's founded off of the, the name came from the, so the Andes Mountains.

Uh-huh.

Located in South America. So the Andes Mountains are the largest above-ground mountain range in the world.

Okay.

So they have the broadest range. And so the logo that the company uses also is the Andean condor, which is the largest flight bird actually. So the bird in the world with the largest wingspan.

Okay.

So there's breadth in addition to depth that we offer as a company. And so it's enabled us to be involved in not just healthcare, but beyond that. So we're talking fintech and technology software across cleantech, advertising Technology. So you name it, we've pretty much been involved in one aspect or another of so many different industries.

Oh, that's really interesting. So the breadth of the wingspan from the Andean Condor and then the depth, because in terms of, I guess you're saying like total mass of mountain range, it's the biggest. So it's not as tall as Everest, but it's—

That's right. But it's the, it's the, it's the, yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.

That's really interesting. That's really interesting. I don't suppose that's what the background is behind you, is it?

No, that's not. That's actually just a background photo I took here where I'm based in Cincinnati. So just because it's a beautiful sunny day, I took it out just to see sort of the city skyline. And it's probably hard to see on the podcast. But yeah, there it is behind me.

That's great. So you talked about a few topics in there in your experience that I think could be really interesting for our audience. One of them, that I heard you mention was you talked about an inflection point. And oftentimes we see as companies grow, you know, they sort of struggle with, you know, what got them here won't get them there in terms of, you know, like maybe they start and it's, you know, a few guys in a garage kind of idea and they all just work really hard and they're all really smart and they know their industry because maybe they had some expertise in it. But then as they look to sort of grow and scale, they have to sort of figure out systems that can move beyond them. And we talk a lot about, you know, here about how systems set you free because once you've got a system, then you don't have to own it. You can, you know, enable other people. You can all sort of collaborate on the system. Tell us a little bit about your experience there and how you've seen that work for companies.

It's, you know, in the beginning when you've got a co-founder or one or more co-founders who are just working together, collaborating and just being very scrappy and saying, look, in the beginning we are just trying to make that first sale or we're trying to build our product and make that first sale. So if it's just, I'll just say, you know, I have 2 people, you know, trying to get that first transaction accomplished and then they have their first customer. Great. Fantastic. And then once that happens, and you get, you start to build further and get that second customer or you're able to sell more to that first customer. Ultimately, you and your co-founder or co-founders are doing everything on their own. And ultimately, then suddenly the good problem becomes a situation where one customer can become 5. And then if you're still the same, just, you know, group of 2 or 3 co-founders, how do you sort of meet that demand then suddenly that you've got. And so you can't be sort of the, you know, the one-size-fits-all, or so the one-man show or the one-person show or the two-person show moving forward. You have to be able to free up your time and find ways then to automate that. So a lot of times there's that sort of kind of operational piece, that phase also that kicks in where people need to consider how do I find a way to automate either certain customer success or, you know, sort of the day-to-day of even just sometimes Sometimes even the back office stuff like accounting and finance and IT and a lot of those factors, because one mistake I've sometimes seen companies do early on is they spend a lot of time with that back office administration type stuff and not enough time focused on their product or building the relationship with the next customer. And they can get caught up. It's important, but not as important as continuing to move forward as an organization. And that's where a lot of the blockage can also happen with an organization if they're not able to set themselves free and then sort of bring in, okay, now how do I resolve that? And sometimes it's hard for them to recognize that without a fresh set of eyes looking in.

Interesting. Do you have any sort of tips or tricks or rules of thumb that you've used with companies to help them identify like When, what are those inflection points of when it does make sense to bring in outside, you know, sort of experts versus when are they just being lazy and spending money that they should be keeping, you know, dry powder or, uh, right, that money and other things. Any, any tips on how to recognize those right inflection points?

In the beginning, when you're setting, one thing that's important is, is, is setting organizational goals, your, your milestones, having those milestones putting them in writing somewhere. So you're holding yourself accountable to that. And then once you've accomplished a certain set of milestones, meaning you've maybe you've built your MVP for your product, you have your first sale, and now you're kind of getting the repeat sales, maybe getting a second customer. Now you're looking to move forward and to say, okay, now I'm at a point where it may help to have some outside help even more on an ad hoc basis, maybe as an advisor. So somebody who can come in and provide sort of an some objective guidance also, sort of removed from the day-to-day operations. What I mean by that is a person who comes in who isn't necessarily the domain expert in what they do. So they're not a finance person, you know, they're not necessarily a marketing person, but they can say, hey, good, that's fine. I don't need one more of those. I've already got plenty of those. I need somebody to look and tell me that I'm doing the right thing and helping me as the co-founder hold myself accountable as well to ensure that we're on the right path here. And if there's a question also about how to do that, what goal is there going to be there that's different than what I was doing before? And then talking through to make sure that whatever is being done makes sense also for the company to move forward. So where I've kind of come in to say is I come in to sort of independently and say, look, I'm not an accountant, I'm not a marketing person, I'm not involved in the day-to-day, but I can give you objectively whether you're on the right track or not. provide more guidance in that area so that they are able to look at things a little bit differently at that point and not feel so caught up also on other minutiae and details that are slowing them down as well. So then that's where I come in also, where I say I'm not afraid to present that to people sometimes because sometimes the truth can be a little more difficult also for if they're not necessarily receptive to it as well.

Sure. That's really interesting. Well, and, and you made such a great point about just like having goals that are written down. You know, we, we throw around a phrase around here that Harvard Business School says that companies with a marketing plan that's written down have 4 times the success of those without. And like, just the fact of writing it down puts you in a whole new category of, of potential success. And it's so surprising to me how, you know, companies like, yeah, I know what I know what I want to do or we've all talked about it, but just taking the time to write it down can make such a big difference. We even say that or see that, you know, taking the time to kind of visualize it and just go beyond a written thing, especially as your team gets bigger because something like 40% of people are primarily visual. And so if you're just writing stuff down or talking about it out loud, that's for the auditory people. Visual people need to kind of see it out on a map. Like, what does this look like on a timeline?

Yeah.

And failing to activate that visual part, you're not getting the best out of people. So it can really, really unlock some breakthroughs just by taking that extra step.

Yeah, that's 2 things you just mentioned that are really great points. There is, one is that visual aspect of it where you're, if you're kind of like saying, okay, what's that? What's my thought process and methodology? Also, when I'm trying to accomplish the goals or my organization is trying to accomplish those goals. And it helps to have, even if it's just like a flow, like a process, so you don't have to have to be very detailed, but it gives an idea of kind of like, you know, even if it's your own thought process, putting pen to paper and being able to see that helps so much and reframe it a little bit too. So it's clear to yourself and your organization also, because if it's not clear to you, are you gonna be able to convey that to others within your organization, much less your customers?

That's right. Well, and much less other external partners. And one of the things that you and I talked about a little bit, you know, prior to this call is in addition to sort of organic growth, which is, you know, bringing in more customers, getting them to buy more stuff from you, you know, adding more value to them that they're willing to exchange, you know, compensation to you. Another really important sort of growth driver for businesses, especially early stages, can be these kind of inorganic activities. So things like Getting funding or bringing in a partner or looking at M&A. I know you've had some experience there. What, what are, you know, sort of things to think about as companies think about, you know, a way to propel their growth beyond just, you know, bringing in more customers? What are some of the things they should be thinking about and what are some of the things they should be doing operationally to sort of prepare for that?

You know, as a, as a, as as a company's growth strategy starts to evolve and they're sort of, you know, putting pen to paper for the next level of sort of the next goals to say, okay, now in this first year we've achieved $1 million in sales. Now we're gonna get to $10 million or, and whatnot. But then how is that, how are we gonna accomplish that? Is it just purely because of new customers? Is it because we're gonna acquire somebody? Are we gonna get outside capital? Or, and maybe all of them are options. They might all be viable options, and you're just going to pursue whichever one really works out. That comes into play also where you are still, one, of course, just writing yourself down, writing those down to hold yourself accountable and making sure that it's presentable to everybody. 2 is to get there. Looking in, looking inside internally within the company, do you have the talent there to help accomplish those goals? I always say, In general, you probably shouldn't because it would be better that you are going outside and somebody's offering a fresh perspective to come in. So I always, I'm always a big proponent of that, I'll call it diversity of thought.

Sure.

Somebody comes in and offers insight that you ordinarily would not have so that they have skill sets also that are complementary to what you and your other co-founders might have or other, you know, maybe you've built a team and you have 6 or 7 other people, whatever it might be. But then bringing in also that somebody else who is, you know, directly as a growth driver for the organization to move it forward. So maybe now you are ready to bring in a Chief Marketing Officer or a Chief Revenue Officer, or you're looking for saying, okay, outside partnerships, and it's more like a business officer or more biz dev, whatever that might be. Then you might say, okay, now I know that I have certain skills, certain people that I need to bring on board. For one. And then the second piece then would be, yes, more operationally then. Is it more, you know, something on the day-to-day as far as communication, more systems? Then are you ready now to build, you know, a more substantial CRM system for all of your customers and how you track the different conversations? Even if it doesn't lead to any specific traction, you're still maintaining a history, if nothing else, internally for the company to follow up on later on. So that offers at least some, at least a little bit of an example of where a company is looking to grow, how they're looking to grow and move forward.

That's really interesting. You made such a great point that diversity of thought. We also sort of see just sort of like the, you know, hire an expert if you want it done right. And I always tell the story on myself, you know, not that long ago, we decided we were gonna repaint a bathroom. And so I was like, I can do this. And I watched some videos on YouTube and I went out and bought all the stuff and then I made a mess of it and then I had to hire a professional anyway. And I'm like, man, think how many times in business, you know, people kind of take the time to educate themselves because they're like, oh, it's so important to do this. I should know how.

Yeah.

And then they're like, they get sort of substandard results and they waste the time and then they got to spend the money to fix it anyway.

That's right.

Started with a professional, they'd be further down the road faster with better results.

That's right. Yeah, exactly. And then, yeah, and I'm guilty of that too. I've done things where I'm like, oh, I should have done this before, or even like building my company's website and kind of iterating it and iterating it and then get to a point. And this was early on, kind of the one of the learning things I had also for myself was like, okay, don't get so caught up in that kind of minutia. That's there, but focus on what's most important and then say, okay, it's good, it's done, it's set. Now let's move forward. And so getting that professional help, getting that outside help is one and then knowing kind of where to draw the line to say, okay, you know what, this is not my area of expertise. Let me give it to somebody else to take care of that so I can move forward.

I think I'm gonna remember this correctly, but maybe not. Well, I think one of my entrepreneurship professors in school is like, you know, the key is knowing which 20% of the job is the important part for the entrepreneur to know and knowing that amount of it and then not knowing and sort of disciplining yourself to not get lost in the other 80%. That doesn't mean it's just 20% of the job. There's a certain 20% of the job that you gotta know.

Yes.

Which is, you know, how You know, Billy Joel gets taken for millions of dollars because his accountant stole all his money and now he has to, you know, go back on tour. But like, it's that he didn't know the right 20% of the accounting part of the business. He knew the wrong 20%.

That's right. Yes.

But so, yeah, interesting. Interesting. Well, I know one sort of inflection point and you talked about, you know, sort of bringing in outside partners and one that a lot of you know, founders are either thinking of towards an exit or, you know, appears to them on their journey is, you know, sort of exiting from their organization and bringing in a partner either so that they can move out of the day-to-day operations or so they can move on to opening something new. I know you've had some experience there. What are things that, you know, founders and entrepreneurs should be doing early on To make sure that they're sort of setting the stage for success towards the end. They, what's the Covey phrase, begin with the end in mind. But, you know, what are those things? And then what are some watchouts, you know, for people to think about?

You know, thinking about kind of where the end is. I know sometimes companies don't necessarily, founders, I should say, may not necessarily know where that end is. They might hit their goal or they just feel like, okay, I've taken it as far as I want to take it or I can take it. Now it's time to hand the reins reins over to somebody else. And then, you know, one founder I met before was very specific, like I want to get to this point in 3 years and I'm done, I'm exiting and I'm moving on to the next thing. So some are very specific about it while others then are more, you know, they may be involved in multiple businesses. And so where I could say like I'm a serial entrepreneur, but close enough at least, but have multiple businesses going on at the same time.

Right.

it gets to a point where it's not about the money anymore for them and it's more about their time. And they want to be able to buy out of their— out of a situation where even for a company that's growing and to say, I need my time back because I don't have time to pursue another venture that I want to do, another passion that I have because I'm too caught up now in the day-to-day. So where it started as this person was involved as a founder of the company, And has begun to sort of position the company for a potential exit, you know, and then looking to move forward and to say, how do I get my time back also to do so? And then there's that aspect of it to consider as well. And so when I've advised, and there's more than one example of this that I've encountered in the, you know, in my experiences where I, and I tell them to say, look, okay, as you're getting the company prepared to do something of that and to move forward, You know, everything financially, transactionally, operationally, you know, get it to a point where that handoff, you have somebody who's interested in taking it over and then they're taking it over is, you know, is capable. There's synergy there for the parties to align to move forward because certainly the organization is still one of your passion projects, still one of your babies. You don't wanna have it to get run into the ground.

Right.

While you've moved on also. So I said, You know, also, and then there's that aspect of it as well. And then obviously, as it commonly occurs in M&A, most of those transactions tend to be more confidential and not as open, even with a company's own team members. So it tends to be a very select few who are in the loop on that type of information. And so the other part of that also is that sometimes it's not the outside party, but internally. and getting the messaging right also to say, why are you, you know, Mark Osborne looking to exit your company and to move forward? Then what's the messaging you're gonna send to the 50 people who work for you also?

Right.

And so that the culture of the organization is not impacted negatively as well. So I think arguably that's one of the biggest factors I've seen in organizations, no matter how much everything aligns, you know, in terms of products, Finances, if it makes sense to get past that, because you do have to do that aspect of it. The next piece then also is that is the culture and never underestimating how important that is to maintain and to continue to grow it because it's going to change.

That's right.

Even if, even if all these 50 people are on board, it is going to change when so-and-so is leaving. And then once Mark is leaving and then so-and-so is coming in, then that's— so that's gonna be something else also to strongly keep in mind and to consider.

Yeah, for sure. Well, and again, we put a lot of emphasis on systems partly because when you're getting ready for an exit or even just bringing in another partner, being able to have systems that you can point to ensures that continuity of at least process and creates a framework for collaboration so that it's not, well, the old way versus the new way. It's the company's way. And that can live past the person that was overseeing the project because the system becomes its own sort of living thing. So that's a perspective.

Yes, definitely.

So, you know, exited, bringing in, you know, other partners, that's a really exciting thing that is on the horizon for, you know, some folks. What's something that's, you know, exciting for you? What's something that's on the horizon for you, your business that you're excited about?

You know, I think for where we are looking to grow and expand as well into, you know, new markets and new spaces that we aren't necessarily in. So, you know, as I talked earlier before about, there's the healthcare aspect, there's the non-healthcare aspect of it as well. And part of what we are trying to do also is to look for new channels also to grow that could be sustainable over a longer period of time. Healthcare is one. So I have a co-founder who also works with me, who's very well experienced also within the healthcare space. And we've talked about where we're looking to grow and move forward. That's actually something we're doing actually in real time now and how to take that further now in markets that previously we haven't really made any attempt to do so for just no reason other than just it hasn't come on the horizon. Mm-hmm. Reaching out to certain contacts that we have also to sort of establish some new partners for companies who are looking to make an entry in the US. So there's that aspect of it also. So new technologies, new products that are exciting that aren't previously available as well is something that always keeps me interested and gets me excited as well.

Wow, that's really interesting. And I'm sure very exciting to sort of bring in new technologies into new markets can be really transformative. You see something really big happen in a short time period there. So you've shared a lot of great insights with our audience today. I gotta be sort of mindful of your time. I'm sure we could talk all day. But so you've shared a lot of insight around, you know, sort of the value of bringing in external expertise. And so as, you know, our audience has been listening and thinking about, you know, Andean Strategies as a source for that expertise, what would you tell them? You know, what makes you different? Like, how are you different from all of the other business advisories that are out there or people that they, that they might want to talk to or get advice from?

You know, one of the areas of specialty is just, is the breadth and the depth also. So have it working across industries for one. So agnostic to any industry or geography as well. So we don't necessarily have to focus on any specific domain, which has made that part of it easier because usually those companies say that we've got domain experts, we need other expertise, we need strategic advisory, we need sort of that growth strategies, we're looking for partners to either buy us out or invest in or what. So those are more kind of the areas of expertise that we come in and offer as well. Another also sometimes has just been, you know, to make new connections and to network as well, to say, look, I've worked very insular in my organization and now I feel like I've gotten to a point of growth, but I don't know enough people.

Yeah.

I need to, and I don't know, or I don't know any, and I need to know more people and you seem like somebody who would be able to come in and do that. And to make sure that there's that alignment also between my company because I'm looking for an investor or I'm looking to exit or whatever and making sure that our strategy is aligned, our milestones are well defined. Are we missing any resources as well? So being able to look top to bottom also at an organization, it's easier to do it obviously the earlier you are and have that well established so they know that, okay, I know I now I have a very good strong plan. Now it's a matter of executing on that plan. and being able to move forward. So I tell, you know, a lot of the early stagers also to say, look, the idea is one aspect of it. Lots of founders I've talked to where it's been like, okay, they have a really great idea, they're excited about it, but then they have no idea about how to go about operationalizing it as well. And I said, your idea is not gonna go anywhere if you don't have a strong team around you to move forward and to actually just execute and just get stuff done. And that's really important for, I think, for a lot of founders also to keep in mind, for as much as they are passionate about their projects and they think it's the greatest thing that they've come up with. Fantastic. Now build a team around it that can execute, that's scrappy, that can carry also and get them on board with your vision so that you know that, okay, now I've got a team on board to help carry this forward. Now let me continue to grow that team. someone like Andean can come in also to help to enhance their brand, enhance their messaging, and to help get the word out also further with other organizations, other partners, whoever that might be to take them that much further.

Yeah, that's great insight. And I've heard it said before, and I definitely think it's true that A+ execution of a C idea beats C+ execution of an A idea every time.

Every time. Every time.

It's that execution, like people think it's the idea, but really often it's the execution of that idea. And that's why when you look, you know, at the graveyard of good ideas that the entrepreneurial journey people will see along the way, like that's a lot of what happens there. So thank you, Anupam, so much for joining us today. So for our audience that wants to get in touch with you and learn more about working with Andean Advisory, how do they get in touch with you?

Reach out. I've got my page on LinkedIn. It has a reference also to my email and my website that's there. That's probably the easiest way to do that. I'm on LinkedIn frequently and just feel free to reach out, reference this podcast, and we'll be able to make the connection that way.

Fantastic. Thank you. And I'll put the link to your LinkedIn on the show notes so that it'll be easy for people to find.

Sounds great.

Thanks again, Anupam. Really appreciate you joining us today.

You're very welcome. Thanks so much for having me, Mark, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Thank you for joining this episode of the B2B Growth Blueprint podcast. We hope you've gained insights to grow your business. If you enjoyed this discussion, please rate, comment, like on your favorite platform, and share to others who will find it useful. Do you know a CEO, founder, or leader at an early-stage B2B services, tech, or SaaS company who would like to be a guest and share their story? Send us a note. Let's schedule a conversation.