POWER PLAYERS: ROB McPHERSON, SCOURGE OF CANNABIS LINKEDIN

Normally we call our weekly interview “Power Players,” though former liquor executive Rob McPherson says the moniker doesn’t apply to him. He has, however, become a prominent voice on LinkedIn for his scathing, unsentimental assessments of the legal industry.

We discussed why vertical integration doesn’t work, the segment best positioned to succeed and the high-profile U.S. brand he liked a lot, until he didn’t.

Much of his assessment can be boiled down to, “They all built things and put out stuff without ever knowing, and ever asking, and ever really caring about who it was that they wanted to actually purchase this.”

He does not mince words.

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