Meet Soyini Coke of Annona Enterprises and CEO Exclusive Radio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Soyini Coke.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Soyini. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Atlanta, raised by my mom on her own. I went to just a regular public high school in Stone Mountain, which is a suburb that’s about 45 minutes outside the center of the city. I moved on to Harvard for undergrad, and afterwards, started my career at McKinsey in their New York office. When I started my consulting business, I’ve developed a love for “teenage businesses”—midsized companies. Midmarket companies are big enough to have an impact but also small enough to be nimble and still have a personality.

It’s a well-known statistic that the midmarket is where most of the jobs in the economy are created. I just love them, because they make the whole world a more habitable and prosperous place to live. From an industry standpoint, most of my work has been in healthcare. I launched the CEO Exclusive podcast to provide actionable insights to CEOs in this market.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Um, no, it has not been a smooth road. “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”—Winston Churchill

My first business was a failed real estate company that taught me that I am a terrible landlord. Since then, I’ve had my current consulting practice, which I’ve had to pivot multiple times to deal with circumstances.

For example, business was terrible during the great recession because no one in my market wanted to spend money on strategy. I had to change markets and adjust my services.

Bizdev and selling—as skills—are a perennial challenge for me. But, revenue is oxygen for a business so I continue to persevere and try to get better every day. Hiring the right people is another source of failure and growth for me.

Please tell us about Annona Enterprises and CEO Exclusive Radio.
I have a boutique consulting company, Annona Enterprises, that does strategic planning and culture design primarily in health care, particularly hospitals. We started out doing business plans for middle market companies but have since done similar work for much larger institutions, government agencies, and divisions of Fortune 500 companies.

We’re best known for our weekly podcast, CEO Exclusive, where I interview leaders of mid-sized companies about trends in their industry and how they are creating a culture that achieves fast growth. My philosophy is that achieving financial targets, which is the goal of a good strategic plan, is a combination of understanding the market and effective leadership. CEO Exclusive wants to give our listeners insights from other CEOS that they can use to run their businesses better.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My mother would send me to spend summers with my grandmother in Jamaica. To this day, when I leave the Montego Bay airport and feel that swell of humid, tropical air, I feel an up-welling of joy from the tips of my toes to the top of my head.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1100 Peachtree Street NE
  Suite 200
  Atlanta, GA 30309
• Website: www.ceoexclusiveinsights.com
• Phone: 404.643.7643
• Email: info@annonaenterprises.com
• Twitter: @CEOXclusive
• Other: www.linkedin.com/in/soyinicoke

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