Challenge the Status Quo; Business as Usual is Dangerous with Wally Brant

Jun 11, 2023 | Change Management, Hot Mess Hotline Podcast

“Challenge the status quo!” The executives we work with shout this from rooftops with their teams. “Business as usual” means a slow decline toward irrelevancy.

The reality is that a business that isn’t growing in some way is in decline and shrinking the value it’s bringing to the world. And “growth” doesn’t always mean revenue, profit, and headcount. Growth in rate of change; growth in technical capabilities; growth in integration; growth in project management skills. These are all forms of valid growth too. “Growth” also means that some things do stay the same to create stability.

While we tend to encounter leaders who NEED and WANT growth, their everyday habits reward compliance — until sh*t hits the fan. Listen in to Wally’s lessons as a longtime CEO to reward challenging the status quo now.

Listen on Libysn
Listen on Libysn
Listen on Libysn
Listen on Libysn

Lead Kick Ass Meetings

Download this toolkit and you'll get resources to:

  • Easily manage task items from every meeting
  • Design agendas quickly and allow folks the right info to prepare
  • Hold your next effective staff meeting with focused content
  • Run a quick daily meeting so your team gets more shit done
  • Have your staff turn in meaningful updates so meetings are shorter
  • Start meetings in an engaging way. Get everyone to laugh, not roll their eyes.

About Wally Brant and Indiana Oxygen

Wally Brant is the CEO and owner of Indiana Oxygen Company, a 108-year-old, four-generation, family-owned company.  Indiana Oxygen manufactures and distributes industrial, medical, and research laboratory gases and related welding and safety equipment and has branch stores/production facilities in fourteen (14) Indiana cities and two (2) in Ohio.

Its online subsidiary, weldingsuppliesfromioc.com, has consistently been voted top welding supply online store by Newsweek Magazine each of the past five years.  Online sales account for 25% of Indiana Oxygen’s total annual revenue, which exceeds $90 Million.   

A graduate of Purdue University, Wally served seven (7) years in the U.S. Air Force as a Navigator on a B-52 Combat Crew, flying missions in S.E. Asia during the Vietnam War.  He later served in the Air Force Reserves, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  In 1982, Wally was named CEO of Indiana Oxygen Company.  He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year” and is a “Purdue University Distinguished Graduate.”  In 2018 at the age of 68 Wally graduated from the University of Notre Dame with his MBA Graduate Degree.