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Growth CEO Interviews

Interview with Flourish Advisory Boards CEO, Mike Maddock

September 25, 2026

I sat down with Mike Mad­dock, some­one I’ve known for many years. I first inter­viewed him about 15 years ago when we were work­ing on Scal­ing Up, and he always gives me a new perspective.

Mike spent decades run­ning Mad­dock Dou­glas, an inno­va­tion agency that worked with a quar­ter of the For­tune 100. He’s writ­ten four books on how good ideas live and die inside orga­ni­za­tions: Brand New, Free the Idea Mon­key, Flirt­ing with the Unin­ter­est­ed, and Plan D. He also hosts the pod­cast Your Seat at the Table. Today he runs Flour­ish Advi­so­ry Boards, peer groups where CEOs pres­sure test the deci­sions they can’t put on a slide, hand to a con­sul­tant, or bring up at din­ner. What makes Flour­ish dif­fer­ent is how the groups are built. Every group is designed so a chal­lenge gets looked at through six dis­tinct lens­es: oper­a­tor, strate­gist, rain­mak­er, vision­ary, tech futur­ist, and orchestrator.

That design came from a hard les­son. Mad­dock Dou­glas grew from $5 mil­lion to $25 mil­lion in a few years, then slid back to $18 mil­lion. When Mike final­ly had his exec­u­tive team assessed, he found that almost every­one around the table solved prob­lems the exact same way. They were smart peo­ple who loved each oth­er, and they were all ham­mers look­ing for nails.

In this con­ver­sa­tion, we get into why the hard­er a com­pa­ny tries to inno­vate, the worse it gets at it, and why that’s play­ing out right now with AI (Mike calls it ​“FOMAI”). We talk about why insight has to come before ideas, why an idea every­one agrees on prob­a­bly isn’t dis­rup­tive, and why ​“don’t should on me” might be the best rule for any peer group or lead­er­ship team. Mike also shares why wis­dom beats intel­li­gence, and why the most suc­cess­ful CEOs he knows are often the ones who feel like they don’t belong in the room.

Here are some high­lights cap­tured in clips:

Why Your Ideas Fail (1:45)
Why Most Com­pa­nies Fail (1:37)
Why Wis­dom Trumps Intel­li­gence (2:45)
Bat­tling Imposter Syn­drome (1:06)
Or watch the full inter­view here (55:46):
Addi­tion­al Resources Relat­ed to Mike’s Story:

About Lawrence & Co.
Lawrence & Co. is a growth strategy and leadership advisory firm that helps mid-market companies achieve lasting, reliable growth. Our Growth Management System turns 30 years of experience into practical steps that drive clarity, alignment, and performance—so leaders can grow faster, with less friction, and greater confidence.

About Kevin Lawrence
Kevin Lawrence has spent three decades helping companies scale from tens of millions to hundreds of millions in revenue. He works side-by-side with CEOs and leadership teams across North America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Europe, bringing real-world insights from hands-on experience. Kevin is the author of Your Oxygen Mask First, a book of 17 habits to help high-performing leaders grow sustainably while protecting their mental health and resilience. He also contributed to Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0). Based in Vancouver, he leads Lawrence & Co, a boutique firm of growth advisors.