Episodes
Aug. 6, 2025
Founder’s Fog: When Vision Gets Cloudy
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...
July 30, 2025
Too Late to Triage: From Hype to Liquidation in 4 Years
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...
July 23, 2025
When Growth Bleeds Cash: A Cautionary Tale from Food & Beverage
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...
July 16, 2025
The Anniversary Emergency: CrowdStrike, Continuity & a Giveaway
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...
July 9, 2025
Why Public Sector Change Is a Masterclass in Complexity
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...
July 2, 2025
AI FOMO: Stop Watching, Start Winning
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...
June 25, 2025
Why Leaders Need a Flight Plan with Peter Brandl
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...
June 18, 2025
When Chaos Hits, What’s Your Plan B?
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...
June 11, 2025
Board Strategy: Who You Seat Shapes Growth
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...
June 4, 2025
Catch the Creep, Dodge the Jailbreak
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...
May 28, 2025
Fixing Sales Before It Bleeds You Dry
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 ...
May 21, 2025
What a Gun in the Face Teaches You
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...
May 14, 2025
Foresight Unleashed: SCAN Smart!
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...
May 7, 2025
How to Be a Cybersecurity Porcupine
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. ...
April 30, 2025
VITALS Matter – Reading People When It Counts
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...
April 23, 2025
Conflict Is Inevitable—How You Respond Isn’t
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. ...
April 16, 2025
Don’t Wait Out Market Chaos—Act Now
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...
April 9, 2025
The Danger of Drifting: Why Businesses Fail in Volatile Times
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...
April 2, 2025
Scaling Checkup: Is Your Leadership Fit for the Future?
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...
March 26, 2025
The Hidden Growth Killer: A Stagnant Team
When your leadership team can’t evolve with your business, scaling challenges become even harder to navigate. How do you know when it’s time to make tough decisions about key positions in your organization? In this episode,...
March 19, 2025
Scaling Smart: Avoiding Investor Fallout
Trust is everything in leadership. Lose it, and investors won’t think twice about making a change. Maartje van Krieken takes a hard look at investor trust in scaling businesses as she breaks down why half of founder-CEOs don’...
March 12, 2025
Scaling Right: The Role of Brand Messaging
Most businesses think they know why customers choose them until they realize they’ve been focusing on the wrong thing all along. Maartje van Krieken sits down with Orly Zeewy for a sharp, no-nonsense look at brand messaging s...
March 5, 2025
Delegation Done Right: Free Up 40% of Your Time Without Losing Control
Most leaders could free up nearly half their workload but refuse to let go. Why is delegation so hard, and what’s the cost of holding on too tightly? Maartje van Krieken unpacks why so many leaders become the bottleneck in th...
Feb. 26, 2025
Growing Pains: The Leadership Shift from Doing to Delegating
Scaling a business comes with big decisions, tough conversations, and the challenge of building a team that can grow with you. How do you know when it’s time to shift roles, implement structure, or step back so others can tak...