I’ve been an unabashed fan of Rick Goings’ since we first met at a CEO Summit where one of the most memorable moments involved a real-time display of the creativity that goes into the Tupperware new product development process! Rick has a distinguished career in the military, as an entrepreneur and more recently as the […]
Some of the most magical things that happen at work aren't expensive, hard or risky. Simple human connections, treating each other with dignity and kindness and leveraging the power of appreciation are things anyone at any level can do. My Friday Fireside guests this week are Chester Elton, the "Apostle of Appreciation" and his co-author […]
One of the biggest barriers to growth and innovation is the overhang of the corporate budgeting process. Bjarte Bogsnes, Chairman of the Beyond Budgeting Institute and implementation head at Equinor, Scandinavia's largest company, has a better idea. Get beyond rote, mind-numbing budgeting processes and create flexible, changeable structures that allow your company to actually use […]
Did you know that in 1945, there were 4.5 million beehives in the United States, but that today there are only about 2 million? In what promises to be a fascinating new topic for a Friday Fireside Chat, I’ll be talking to Noah Wilson-Rich, a beekeeper, biologist, TED speaker and founder of the Best Bees […]
Carter Copeland is the President of Melius Research, where he is also the lead research analyst covering the global aerospace and defense sector. He is consistently ranked in Institutional Investor’s annual survey of top analysts, and was named the number one aerospace and defense analyst by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. His recent co-authored book, "Lessons […]
Interbrand - the company that helps brands create iconic moves - is at the very forefront of new thinking about building brands and creating connections. I've been working with them on the concept of leaving behind industry-anchored thinking and embracing more arena oriented thinking. Charles also leads a fantastic podcast series called "Outside In With […]
My Friday Fireside guest this week is Michael Schrage, who was so far ahead of the rest of us on all things digital that he helped design the Microsoft CEO Summit for many years (an assignment I was part of as well). His day job is as a research fellow with the MIT Sloan School […]
Marissa King's fascinating new book "Social Chemistry: Decoding the Patterns of Human Connection" is leading people to completely rethink the networks they have and the networks they need. We all know that people who progress in their careers - and in life - manage their networks with great skill. What has been missing until now […]
Nina McLemore and I first met through the Committee of 200, a powerful women's organization and subsequently during her Executive MBA program at Columbia Business School. She's a former big-company exec, and entrepreneur and a visionary with respect to how women show up at work. Powerful women wear her clothes - think Janice Yellen (catch […]
Adam Bryant knows a thing or two about CEO’s and leadership – as he well should. In his years writing the famed “Corner Office” interview for the New York Times, he’s spoken to over 600 of them! He and the former CEO of Amgen, Kevin Sharer, have an exciting new book coming out that synthesizes […]
Led Google's AdWords team - arguably one of the most commercially successful innovations of all time - and author of a great book, "The Right It" - my guest this week is inventor, entrepreneur and Pretotyper extradordinaire, Alberto Savoia. He has a marvelous perspective on entrepreneurship, which he shares with eager students and businesspeople alike. […]
Julie Lythcott-Haims is a best-selling author, speaker, advisor and wise person. Her New York Times Bestselling book "How to Raise an Adult" drew on her years of experience as Dean of Freshman at Stanford Business School and changed the national conversation about overparenting and the stress, anxiety and depression it can cause. Her brand-new book […]
Tony Ulwick, Author and founder of the consultancy Strategyn is well known as one of the creators, with Clayton Christensen and the gang at Innosight, of the jobs-to-be-done theory of customer understanding. His book "Jobs to be done: Theory to Practice" is a super-useful guide to making this important idea come to life in your […]
Do you ever wonder why some social shifts seem to 'stick' while others, despite a lot of light and heat, never get off the ground? Why policies that are broadly popular never seem to be enacted because of small groups of passionate opponents? Well, join me this Friday for a chat with Leslie Crutchfield, whose […]
Ram Charan was a management guru before the category was well and truly invented! A friend, mentor and longtime collaborator, Ram's work with CEO's and leaders has had an outsize impact on the global economy. Despite a frenetic travel schedule, he's written at least 27 books that I could track down, including the bestselling "Execution" […]
It takes someone special to be a thought leader amidst all the brainpower at the BCG Henderson Institute, and Martin Reeves is just that special. I've enjoyed collaborating with him over many years, and was tickled that he listed the transient advantage approach as a new strategy idea in his book "Your Strategy Needs a […]
It is seldom that a management book could be described as "delightful." But, I'm thrilled that David Duncan's new book "The Secret Lives of Customers" is exactly that. It's a detective story with a hero who is a data detective, clues to solving the customer behavior challenge and a terrific (and very user friendly) introduction […]
George Stalk is a legend in the field of strategy. He was called a "Johnny Appleseed" at respected strategy consultancy BCG, invented a concept called time-based competition and has introduced many other ideas that have fundamentally shaped the field. He's had a huge influence on my thinking and I'm thrilled that he will be joining […]
And now for something completely different! I first learned about category-defying artist Dessa from her brilliant Hamilton-style rap song in honor of Janet Yellen, the first female secretary of the Treasury. She's a singer, songwriter, author, speaker and just all-around fascinating person and I'm really looking forward to sharing an hour learning about her world. […]
Something we don't do enough when looking for answers for big, hairy social problems is find places where solutions are actually working and see how we might benefit from their success. David Bornstein's "Fixes" column in the New York Times is a shining exception. He finds novel and unusual ways in which social problems can […]
Recent events from the COVID-19 pandemic to the killing of George Floyd have sparked social justice movements around the world and have placed diversity, equity, and inclusion at the forefront in politics, classrooms, and corporations. Financial institutions too are taking part as keen investors increasingly turn their attention to the “Social” aspects of Environmental, Social […]
Jayshree Seth, Ph.D., is a corporate scientist and chief science advocate for 3M Company, where she has worked for over 27 years to advance science and develop new technologies and environmentally sustainable industrial products. She has over 70 patents to her name (with more on the way), received the incredibly prestigious Society for Women Engineers […]
When I learned that Rob Siegel had been the lead researcher for Andy Grove's book "Only the Paranoid Survive," I knew I just had to meet him! Today, he is a lecturer in management at Stanford, is a partner in a venture investment fund, sits on a bunch of boards and is generally very plugged […]
Quick: When I say "tax guy" at a Big Four accounting firm, my guess is your pulse doesn't start to quicken. But in the case of Jeff Saviano, you'll find a delightful departure from that stereotype. Jeff hosts a podcast called "Better Innovation," is the EY Tax Innovation Leader for the firm and has just […]
The thing about inflection points is that steady-state is not an option. You’re either going to seize the moment and thrive or miss it and suffer a setback. The good news is that using the tools built for high-uncertainty environments, you can move forward into the future with more confidence. Rita McGrath will share her […]
I first met Zachary Karabell when he was enrolled in my Columbia Executive Education program "Leading Strategic Growth and Change" and he made a big impression on me all those years ago. I'm delighted to catch up with him to talk about his rich collection of activities - he has a brand new book out […]
Zoe Chance graduated from a massively successful corporate career to doing groundbreaking research to teaching a hugely popular elective at Yale called Mastering Influence and Persuasion, aka "Doing Uncomfortable Things That Make You a Better Person.” She's a TED speaker, consults with major companies and has a new book coming out in 2022, "Influence for […]
We think of unusual events as rare - but as my Friday Fireside Chat guest, Jonathan Brill, points out, they may be rare individually, but when they accumulate, the chance of their creating a catastrophic inflection point increases. Indeed, his research finds that most firms in the US have faced four significant calamities every year! […]
John Hagel was seeing around the corners of the business world long ago. He's well known for his work presented in 7 books on business, digitization and what he's learned as the director of the Deloitte Center for the edge. He's moving on from that role, and in this chat we'll be talking about his […]
Sarah Stein Greenberg has been a fixture at Stanford's famous "d.school" since 2010, and is currently its Executive Director. When the design movement swept across the product landscape, led by thinkers such as David M. Kelley, a co-founder of IDEO, the d.school was where many of its most important advocates and evangelists called home. Greenberg […]
Peter Cappelli and I go back a long way and I can't wait to get caught up with him in this Friday Fireside Chat. Cappelli was one of my professors at Wharton and had a huge influence on the way I think about talent and people strategies. He's a high-impact scholar who looks at questions […]
If you could pick someone to lead you through an intelligent conversation about the new world of work, you couldn't do better than to consult with Jennifer Moss. Author of the forthcoming HBR Press book "The Burnout Academic," Jennifer has written a best business book of the year, won awards for her success as an […]
Leading Strategic Growth and Change (Live Online) is a five-day virtual program focused on the process of finding opportunities, launching new ventures, and leading necessary organizational changes to revitalize and transform an organization in times of uncertainty. Participants will learn how to thrive in rapidly changing and highly uncertain environments and will be able to […]
Everybody Wants To Rule the World. When R "Ray" Wang says it, he isn't just channeling a popular musical line, he really means it. In his view, digital giants are pulling further and further ahead of the rest of us and will eventually reshape our economic future into one of extreme capitalism. He anticipates we […]
I promised Harvard Professor and expert on equality and inclusion Robert Livingston that I would read his book "The Conversation" before he joined me for a Friday Fireside Chat. I did, and am ever so glad. He takes us through a journey centered on three questions: What is racism? Why should everyone care? What can […]
Liz Wiseman changed the way we think about high performing organizations with her groundbreaking book "Multipliers." She found that, despite the best of intentions, some leaders diminish the creativity and impact of their teams while others multiply those same attributes. The performance effects are astonishing! Now, she has a new book on the brink. "Impact […]
Ron Adner and I have been intellectual sparring partners and friends for a very long time. He's just come out with a terrific new book, "Winning the Right Game" which tackles head on the strategic challenge executives confront when the ecosystems they compete in are disrupted. The problems start, as Adner explains, when strategists choose […]
Marcus Eriksen made a huge impression on me when I first met him. He is an environmental scientist, educator and author as part of his day job. On the side, he's built rafts out of junk, floated down the Mississippi river for days on said raft, writes books about his adventures and advocates for the […]
Chris Ategeka is an opportunity / talent catalyst, a successful entrepreneur, a TED talker and a Ugandan orphan, among many other things. His accolades go on for pages! He came to my attention for his work on the unintended consequences of technology, which he is addressing through an unusual startup funding model. We'll be talking […]
Anne-Marie Slaughter burst into the public eye with her 2012 article in the Atlantic "Why Women Still Can't Have It All." Since then, she's gone on to run New America Foundation as its CEO (among many other things, including her highly acclaimed book "Unfinished Business"). She has a new book out, "Renewal: From Crisis to […]
Christopher Mims is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and writes Keywords, a weekly column on technology. He has a fascinating new book out called "Arriving Today" that is particularly relevant to our pandemic-related supply chain disruptions. It's really eye opening! Before joining the Journal in 2014, he was the lead technology reporter for […]
Sought after author, consultant and speaker, Whitney Johnson, already laid the groundwork for personal and professional development in her previous work on how people can traverse the "S-curves" of learning. It's delightful that she has published an even deeper dive in her new book "Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company". […]
We are told that human beings make decisions on the basis of data and facts. Not so fast, suggests my Friday Fireside Chat guest, author, speaker and Columbia faculty member Frank Rose. We are instead hard-wired to respond to stories. His new book, "The Sea We Swim In" is a masterful exposition on storytelling, including […]
The dopamine hit - that delicious feeling your brain delivers to you as a reward, and part of our evolutionary programming - is addictive. And that's a problem, observes Anna Lembke, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and author of the New York Times best-selling book "Dopamine Nation." We have as a […]
Michael Sikorsky is an entrepreneurs' entrepreneur! He's been named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year, has started and sold several businesses (one of which grew 2,300% in one year!) and is going to be joining me by the fireside! We're going to talk about his new venture, Copia Wealth Studios, which uses beautiful software to […]
Roger Martin has been many things - a top-ranked management thinker, author of best-selling books, advisor to business leaders and the Dean of a Business school. I'm delighted that he will be joining me by the fireside to share insights from his latest fascinating book (created in partnership with our mutual friend David Champion over […]
Sure, we're all Olympic athletes and Nobel prize winners in our own minds, but have you ever wondered what makes them different than you and I? My Fireside chat guest has a great new book out that encapsulates the answer, synthesized from hundreds of hours of interviews with hugely successful people. "The Success Factor," Ruth […]
Women’s Health Tech Wednesdays are designed to engage and inspire innovation within the healthcare community. All are welcome to participate in the weekly event, which will consist of a brief interview, followed by a live Q&A. We aim to facilitate connections and inspire change within the women's healthcare industry.
Big capital projects - hydroelectric facilities, subway systems, massive ERP installations - have in common that they are often built in a monolithic and customized way. Huge upfront investment, and no benefit until the thing is complete. It doesn't have to be that way, according to research conducted by my guest Bent Flyvbjerg. Even with […]
Michael Bungay Stanier (or "MBS" as those who know him affectionately call him has written books that have sold over a million copies, rebelled against a traditional path that would have been his fate after his Rhodes scholarship and developed an approach to coaching that "un-weirds" it. His latest book is "The Advice Trap: Be […]
Sharon Price John, the CEO of Build-a-Bear workshop, has had a fabled career that includes losing (even though you won), taking big risks and having them pay off, the mom thing and more recently the turnaround and transformation of the beloved brand. She's written about her experiences in a great book called "Stories & Heart" […]
Everyone knows that agile ways of working depend on effective teamwork. What is less obvious is how effective teamwork fits into the capability creation process. In this talk, we will explore the four elements that signal that a team is working effectively, debunk pervasive myths (for instance that satisfaction on a team is highly correlated […]
Dick Rumelt has often been described as a strategists' strategist, someone who can reduce the most complex problems to their essence and use strategic choices to make the most significant difference in the outcome. He has a new book out, "The Crux" in which he debunks a lot of the activity that unfortunately takes the […]
Keith Ferrazzi is a consummate networker, an iconic influencer, and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His new book "Competing in the New World of Work" is an eye-opening tour of the new skills that are going to separate winners from losers in the post-pandemic competitive environment. He'll be joining me by the fireside […]
Winner of the 2022 New York EY Entrepreneur of the Year award, ExecOnLine co-founder Stephen Bailey has been revolutionizing access to high-quality executive development. One of the first to recognize how valuable on-line learning could be to anyone, he also emphasizes how important it can be to the career prospects of diverse talents. He's also […]
Matt Richtel is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist with the New York Times, a prolific writer and author of the new book "Inspired: Understanding Creativity, A Journey Through Art, Science and the Soul." He's uniquely qualified to write this particular book, which gets at the essence of human creativity through the lenses of biology, neurology […]
Leaders today are facing challenges unlike any other era. Business and workforce disruptions have reached epic proportions, competitors are appearing from new and unexpected places, and the return to normal has been replaced by a new constant – change. How do we make sense of this new business environment, and help workforce leaders adapt and […]
In 2018, Goldman Sachs reported that Google paid Apple $9 billion to be the default search engine on the iPhone; by 2022 that number is reportedly $20 billion. Why is a position that a user could easily change with just a few clicks so valuable? The answer, according to my Friday Fireside Chat guest, Eric […]
Join us for the launch of the CBS Alumni Club of HK’s Women's Committee, featuring a hybrid panel discussion on Mindful Leadership: Why It Matters Now with our distinguished panelists from the CBS community.
I just love a scrappy entrepreneurial story, and my Friday Fireside Chat guest, Ryan Close, has a great one. A former bartender, he noticed that people would love to enjoy cocktails, but didn't have the ingredients, the skill or the time to make them up. He started to play around with the concept that would […]
The Innovator's Handbook is published every year as the "bible" for everyone leading and doing innovation in large organizations, summarizing best practices and sharing how-to advise on everything innovation management. The launch for the 2023 edition is on December 6th The overall theme for the launch event is "Innovation Management in 2023", to inform the […]
Rita Kakati-Shah, an award-winning gender inclusion strategist, is the author of "The Goddess of Go-Getting," a fun guide to making your way in the world when you are not in the majority group. Rita’s spin on diversity, equity and inclusion is that most people get it wrong and, as a result, the outcomes are causing […]
Richard Rumelt has been described by no less than McKinsey as a "giant in the field of strategy." He's also a dear friend and an enormously influential thought leader. We're going to chat about his latest book, "The Crux" in which he illustrates the principles of challenge-based strategy. The idea is that strategists need to […]
Bob Sutton is a rarity - a talented academic who knows how to translate serious research into practical use. He has more books to his name than we'll have time to talk about but some of my fave's are "The No A**hole Rule" and "The Knowing-Doing Gap." He's got a new one coming out with […]
Hiding in the Bathroom: How to Get Out There When You’d Rather Stay Home - Is this a great title, or what?? My Friday fireside chat guest is Morra Aarons-Mele, a globally recognized speaker, podcast host and author of the new book "The Anxious Achiever." She's on a mission to get people to understand that […]
Bent Flyvbjerg, a Professor at Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford and IT University of Copenhagen, is a leading world scholar on project and program management. His new book, How Big Things Get Done, was described by The Wall Street Journal as a "seminal work on big projects." Professor Flyvbjerg's research has led him to formulate an innovative approach to building […]
We all know about the big things that cause us to feel burned out. Toxic bosses. Obnoxious colleagues. Too much work. Impossible deadlines. The list goes on. But, did you know that sometimes your feeling of burnout isn't the result of one big thing - its the accumulation of tons of little things - Microstressors […]
It's easy to despair at high levels of inequality and lack of access to capital and resources that still face entrepreneurs who aren't white, male or well-connected. Freada Kapor Klein's career is a beacon of hope for those of us looking for real, practical solutions. The Fund, Kapor Capital, which she co-founded puts its money […]
Do you see employees as units of cost? Do you think that offering "market based" pay, few opportunities for advancement and obsolete tools is a solid path to business success? Then please join me and MIT professor Zeynep Ton for a session that could prove life-changing. Zeynep's research shows that well paid workers, trained, with […]
Tiffani Bova, author and Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce is herself a force of nature! While everybody sort of gets it that there is a relationship between the work experience of your people and the service experience received by your customers, they don't understand the real nature of the connection. In her forthcoming […]
Jeremy Utley is a major presence at the Stanford Design School, author of the recent popular book "Ideaflow" and a serial entrepreneur to boot! In what will prove to be an exciting conversation, he and I will be talking about how you can train yourself to generate a continual flow of good ideas and how […]
You have doubtless at some point been asked to fill in a "Mad Libs" style positioning statement. Product ___ offers ___ benefits to ___ target customer, allowing them to ____. Typical. My guest this week, April Dunford, thoroughly debunked this nonsensical approach to positioning in her previous book "Obviously awesome" which is an amazing guide […]
Aside from being one of my dearest colleagues at Columbia, and someone I love to casually say I last saw at Davos, Sheena Iyengar is one of the worlds' foremost authorities on choice and choosing. She has a wonderful new book out on how we can find great solutions to truly difficult problems, with lots […]
We all know that competitive advantages often don’t last, and that means you need innovation skills to create new advantages and transformation skills to shift the center of gravity of your organization when an old advantage has eroded. But it is still a huge organizational struggle. In this webinar, Valize partners Rita McGrath and Ron […]
Kai D. Wright is many amazing things - a podcast host, an award-winning journalist, a historian, a novelist, and now (as if that wasn't enough) he's going to be joining me by the Fireside to talk about his new projects. I had the privilege of getting to know him as a guest on his podcast […]
Forensic accounting and filmmaking? How does that go together? Well, join Kelly Richmond-Pope, a Professor at DePaul University in Chicago as we delve in what she's learned from years of studying fraudsters, scammers and backroom operators of all kinds. Her new book is "Fool Me Once" and it uncovers what makes perps tick, why victims […]
Well, here's a great way to build some new, essential skills for 2024. Who doesn't want to rock their next informal meeting or be the one everyone remembers after some seemingly idle chit-chat? And who hasn't had the experience of flubbing an opportunity and wishing there was a chance for a do-over? My Friday Fireside […]
SparcHub is a software app designed to make it easy to implement Rita McGrath's famous discovery driven growth method. It allows you to track ideas and opportunities, estimate how much uncertainty you have across your portfolio, keep track of what teams are learning and find out quickly if projects are developing issues. It's easy to […]
Stanford's Bob Sutton is one of the smartest people on the planet with respect to what goes on in organizations and why (hint - he's the guy that helps you deal with organizational A**holes). He has a brand new book coming out, "The Friction Project" with Huggy Rao on the subtle ways in which leaders […]
SparcHub is a software app designed to make it easy to implement Rita McGrath's famous discovery driven growth method. It allows you to track ideas and opportunities, estimate how much uncertainty you have across your portfolio, keep track of what teams are learning and find out quickly if projects are developing issues. It's easy to […]
SparcHub is a software app designed to make it easy to implement Rita McGrath's famous discovery driven growth method. It allows you to track ideas and opportunities, estimate how much uncertainty you have across your portfolio, keep track of what teams are learning and find out quickly if projects are developing issues. It's easy to […]
Chip Conley is on a mission to make mid-life a welcome and joyous part of life's journey! His new book "Learning to Love Mid-Life" is an invitation to explore the wisdom that comes with experience, to let go of baggage that doesn't serve you well and to transform toward a fulfilling future. He'll be joining […]
Anupam B. Jena has a day job as the Joseph P. Newhouse Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and a physician in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His vantage point at the intersection of health […]
The phrase "innovate or die" has never been more relevant, yet the track record of most companies for organic innovation is dismal. But, there are leaders who demonstrate that making innovation an actual proficiency can be accomplished. Steve Wunker, together with his co-authors Jennifer Luo Law and Hari Nair, de-mystify the process. Examples include Microsoft's […]
Barron Witherspoon enjoyed tremendous success in a 38-year career with major leadership responsibilities at Procter & Gamble (as well as in a second career as an ordained minister!). Nonetheless, the journey wasn't always easy as a Black man making his way in corporate America. He's now distilled his wisdom into a new book, "The Black […]
As you aim to enhance your leadership skills, you face the challenge of fewer development opportunities in today's flatter organizational structures and the need for rapid adaptation in roles with shorter tenures. The Impact peer-to-peer network offers you a solution: access to a trusted group of peers for decision support, feedback, and shared experiences. Additionally, […]
Paul J. LeBlanc is one of my personal heroes. As President of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) he did what many said was impossible - he took back on-line education from predatory for-profit schools and made it possible for tens of thousands of students to graduate and seize opportunities. He's also the author of a […]
