In this concise interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Michael Frankel, Vice President of Sales at Celerant Corporation, a global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) systems serving food & beverage, specialty chemical, and personal care process industries. Frankel highlights the appeal of his industry—decision makers driven by innovation or automation and the dynamic nature of the three core markets. He emphasizes the importance of a ‘getting things done’ mindset as the essential chapter for any company, stressing agenda alignment, empathy, and coordinated team effort. He recommends a colleague, Darren Roberts, who blends a Harvard Law background, NFL coaching experience, and sports innovation, as a valuable podcast guest. Frankel shares his first job at the now‑defunct Caldor department store, noting how varied retail roles taught inventory management and supervisory styles. He concludes by directing listeners to connect with him via LinkedIn.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hi, Professor Pete Alexander. My name is Michael Frankel. I'm Vice President of Sales with Celerant Corporation. Celerant is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management systems. PLM is a technology that companies use to do all aspects of product development, from ideation all the way to product retirement, and the markets that we're in are food and beverage, specialty chemical, and personal care process industries.
Michael, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
I think there's a couple of things. First of all, the decision makers themselves. They're— these individuals are being driven by one of two things: the desire to innovate or the desire to automate. And that makes for— these are people that are really committed to these costs, so that they're great people to work with, really real change agents. And the second thing is the markets themselves. As I mentioned, we're in 3 core markets, and there's some uniqueness and some differentiation in these, uh, the food and beverage, uh, specialty chemical, and, um, uh, personal care. So that makes for a real dynamic, uh, situation.
Neat. It sounds really fun. Question number 3: I have a book, a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Hmm, you know, Professor Pete I think I would go to the middle of it and the chapter would be on getting things done. You know, you form a company, you got your product, your people, your operation, and all of that. And as you're going to market, the game is really all about with whatever area you're involved in, the getting things done. And I think that's something that's typically neglected, and at the end of the day, that becomes one of the key success factors that a company has.
Absolutely. It sounds like the government could use that as well, wouldn't it?
Most definitely.
Question number 4: Other than generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Maybe I'll take Getting Things Done and apply it a little bit. When you're getting things done, you've got agendas. Sometimes it's your boss's agenda, sometimes it's your own, and sometimes it's your team. But you get things done both by your efforts and also by what you do to coordinate the energy of your team. And I think that if you can have the empathy, be able to share your agenda and really and truly get the feedback of the team, that's an important element towards getting things done. And I think that's the kind of classic business advice of walk in other people's shoes, really seek that kind of feedback and be able to adjust it accordingly, but still be able to focus on the agenda.
And if you're getting the feedback from the individuals on the team too, that seems like it would create even a more collaborative environment, would it not?
Uh, yeah, completely, Professor Pete. Uh, most of what you will do and succeed is going to be a collaborative effort, so strongly encourage that.
That's great. Thank you for that. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Oh, let's see. Um, I've got a really good LinkedIn network of innovators, but one person comes to mind His name is Darren Roberts. Darren has an interesting background. He is a— he's got a Harvard Law degree. He was actually a coach in the NFL, I think with the— spent some time with the Chiefs and Cleveland Browns for a while. He is now involved in sports innovation, and he actually has a— I don't know if it's a podcast, but a— kind of a blog series that he does about staying in the deep end. But I've been watching it lately, and I've been reading his stuff, and he has some really positive things to say. And I think that kind of a background, I don't know, I find it to be very intriguing.
I think so. That's a great referral. Thank you for that. I'll reach out.
I'll get you the connection when we're done here.
Perfect. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
My first job was in high school, 16 years old. I was living in Stamford, Connecticut. There was a department store there called Caldor. It's no longer in business. I worked there, I worked there for off and on for 2 years. It was a great job on a couple levels. One was the customer-facing element of it. You spent your time either in front of customers or working in the stockroom, so I learned a lot about inventory and those kinds of things. I also, it was, I also worked in a number of departments there. I did everything from being in automotive and paint to toys to juvenile furniture. And in the course of doing that, I got to work with a variety of different supervisors that had styles. So all of those things I got a lot out of, and I also was able to grab some pretty good overtime that helped me finance my first car back then. So that was, that was really good.
That's a great story, and getting to learn from the different departments and the different styles, it's, it's a great learning experience.
I really, I really thought so.
That's great. So, Michael, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
I think the best way is to look on LinkedIn, Michael Frankel, and I'm pretty easy person to find on there. And by all means, people are interested in getting a hold of me, they can.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life Podcast. Thanks for listening.
