The Business is a Harvard Business School podcast. Twice a month, host Brian Kenny will bring you a new take on the business world. Through unexpected stories, and conversations with business leaders, entrepreneurs and faculty members, our goal is to inspire listeners to think more broadly about the word business. Thanks for listening!
Health Care is Every Company’s Business
Every company is in the health care business, no matter its industry. So says John Quelch, a professor at both the Harvard Business School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where Quelch has devoted an entire class to the intersection of business and health care called “Consumers, Corporations and Public Health.” The course uses cases on a wide range of subjects, from HealthCare.gov to Royal Caribbean Cruises, to medical marijuana, to dig into issues of corporate strategy, employee safety, and how to solve health problems through research and innovation.
2/19/2015 • 15 minutes, 6 seconds
You Don’t Know @Jack: Twitter’s Founder Talks Entrepreneurship
Twitter’s Founder, Jack Dorsey, talks about the history of Twitter, the founding of Square, and how he made the transition from programmer to CEO.
2/12/2015 • 15 minutes, 25 seconds
Man of the Year-Up: Creating Opportunity for Young Adults
Year-Up, a business taking low-income 18 to 24 year olds from poverty to a professional career, seems more relevant than ever with business professionals pushing to fill the middle skills gap. Listen to last year’s interview with 2014 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award Winner Gerald Chertavian about how Year-Up is teaching young adults middle skills for success in Fortune 500 companies.
2/12/2015 • 15 minutes, 40 seconds
Philanthropy 2.0: Investing with a Purpose
HBS alumnus Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of Apax Partners and known as the father of venture capital in Great Britain, sits down with CMO Brian Kenny on The Business to talk about the importance of social impact investing, a new way to link financial incentives directly to social improvements that could change the world and revolutionize the philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors.
2/12/2015 • 18 minutes, 57 seconds
Ernest Shackleton: The Entrepreneur of Survival
On the 100th Anniversary of explorer Ernest Shakleton’s colossal failure to traverse Antarctica, professor and historian Nancy Koehn explains how Shackleton’s extraordinary crisis leadership ensured the survival of his crew. Listen for story of the Endurance expedition and lessons from the HBS case study.
2/12/2015 • 28 minutes, 28 seconds
The Men Behind the Mayors: How Business Can Impact Government
HBS Alumni Dan Koh (MBA 2011) and Senior Lecturer Mitch Weiss (MBA 2004) both served as Chief of Staff to the Mayors of Boston. Under the guidance of former Mayor Tom Menino and Mayor Marty Walsh, they learned to lead in the public sector for the greater good, but their path to get there wasn’t always a smooth one.
2/12/2015 • 15 minutes, 47 seconds
Not Your Basic Business Books
What books would guests on The Business give as holiday gifts? Listen for what Mitch Weiss, Dan Koh, Nancy Koehn, Max Bazerman, Frank Cespedes, and host Brian Kenny would recommend for the bookworm in your life.
2/12/2015 • 8 minutes, 57 seconds
The Revival of a Salesman: The Importance of Sales and Strategy to Business
Professor Frank Cespedes sits down to talk to Brian Kenny about his new book “Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors that Drive Effective Selling” and why sales and strategy are so important to business.
2/12/2015 • 18 minutes, 35 seconds
Collective Genius
If you want to know what “collective genius” can look like, watch a Pixar film. Pixar Animation Studios produce the first computer generated (cg) feature film, “Toy Story,” nearly twenty years ago. More blockbusters followed, including “Finding Nemo,” and “Monsters, Inc.” Pixar has thrived because it has never stopped innovating.
Our guest on this edition of “The Business” is Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill, one of the authors of the new book “Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation.” She says every one of these cg films has been an innovative tour de force, yet no solitary genius, no flash of inspiration, produced those movies.” Instead, she writes, they were the product of hundreds of people, years of work, and hundreds of millions of dollars.
2/12/2015 • 11 minutes, 8 seconds
Investing for Real and Permanent Good
Carnegie Corporation co-Chief Investment Officers Kim Lew (MBA 1992) and Meredith Jenkins (MBA 1999) talk about investment with a mission, what it’s like to share a leadership role, and offer advice for women in the HBS class of 2014.
2/12/2015 • 12 minutes, 42 seconds
When Girl Meets Oil
Christine Bader, author of The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil talks about what corporate social responsibility really means to big business.
2/12/2015 • 14 minutes, 40 seconds
Can China Lead?
A little over 100 years ago, the Chinese empire fell. 2000 years of imperial tradition ended, virtually overnight. After a century of searching for its political and moral core, China is once again poised to become the dominant global power. HBS Professors Bill Kirby, Warren McFarlan and Regina Abrami recently wrote Can China Lead? : Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth. Professor Kirby joins The Business to talk about China's major challenges and whether it will ever fulfill its potential. And then he breaks into song.
2/12/2015 • 21 minutes, 43 seconds
Privacy and Productivity
Harvard Business School Professor Ethan Bernstein talks about how, by planting researchers on factory lines in China, he found that giving employees more privacy can increase their productivity – a phenomenon he calls the Transparency Paradox.
2/12/2015 • 11 minutes, 22 seconds
Inside Bloomberg, Inc. with Chairman Peter Grauer
When former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg left Bloomberg, Inc. to take office, he handed the reins to Peter Grauer. Grauer talks with The Business about leadership, the anatomy of the company, maintaining its momentum, and how he met the billionaire who changed his life.
2/12/2015 • 15 minutes, 23 seconds
The Fourth Revolution: the Global Race to Reinvent the State
Adrian Wooldridge, management editor and Schumpeter columnist at The Economist magazine, on his new book, The Fourth Revolution: the Global Race to Reinvent the State, written with John Micklethwait. They argue that global financial problems and technological innovation are forcing states to change the way they operate.
2/12/2015 • 8 minutes, 43 seconds
Carrying the (Olympic) Torch for Women's Sports
HBS student and four-time Olympic medalist Angela Ruggiero just got back from the Russian town of Sochi, where she carried the Olympic torch on opening day. A former defenseman for the US women’s ice hockey team, Ruggiero is now a member of the International Olympic Committee and president of the Women’s Sports Foundation. We talked to her about Title IX, the transformative power of athletics, and the future of women’s sports.
2/12/2015 • 9 minutes, 29 seconds
The Real Rick's Cafe – Building a Business in Casablanca
You may remember Rick’s Café Americain as the gin joint in the movie Casablanca. For years Rick’s existed only on film. When Kathy Kriger, an American entrepreneur living in Casablanca, decided to bring Rick’s Café to life, she had no idea how hard it would be. In this episode Kriger tells The Business how corruption and lack of connections almost cost her her life-savings, and Harvard Business School professor Karthik Ramanna shares his advice on maintaining integrity in corrupt environments.
Music: Casablanca (Main Title), Knock on Wood (feat. Dooley Wilson), As Time Goes By (feat. Dooley Wilson), Casablanca (Medley), Ilsa Demands the Letters, Airport Finale - all from the Casablanca (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2/12/2015 • 15 minutes, 12 seconds
Stayin’ Alive: Technology and the End of Institutions
What happens to institutions when technology gives people the power to do everything on their own? Today it is easier than ever for individuals to start businesses, engage in politics, share information and ideas, and disrupt the status quo. Harvard Kennedy School faculty member and author of The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath, talks about why institutions are struggling to keep up, and what they have to do to stay alive.
2/12/2015 • 14 minutes, 3 seconds
3 Ways to Innovate in a Stagnant Environment
HBS Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter on innovation, advanced leadership, and how to make change in an inflexible organization. She also tells Brian why she has no use for the ‘r-word’: Retirement.
2/12/2015 • 13 minutes, 11 seconds
The World is Anything but Flat
Harvard Business School Professor John Quelch, author of All Business: Why Place Matters More Than Ever in a Global, Virtual World talks about the increasing importance of place in global marketing.
2/12/2015 • 11 minutes, 18 seconds
Saving the Earth is Good Business
World Wildlife Fund President and CEO Carter Roberts talks about why businesses need the planet just as much as the planet needs businesses.
2/12/2015 • 11 minutes, 19 seconds
Year Up: Why Investing in Young Adults Makes Sense
Gerald Chertavian is founder and CEO of Year Up, a one-year professional skill development program for low income young adults. He talks with Brian about why four years of full-time higher education just won't work for a majority of Americans.
2/12/2015 • 11 minutes, 30 seconds
Connecting Communities to Improve Post-Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery platform Recovers.org emerged from the wreckage of a tornado that tore through a small town in Western Massachusetts. Co-founder Morgan O'Neill talks with us about creating the platform and HBS Professor Dutch Leonard, an expert in crisis management, talks about the huge need for a tool like this.
2/12/2015 • 8 minutes, 30 seconds
Make Big Bets: How Blockbuster Strategies Work
What do Jay Z, Harry Potter and Grand Theft Auto have in common? They're hugely successful thanks to blockbuster strategies. HBS professor Anita Elberse is an entertainment industry expert and author of "Blockbusters: Hit Making, Risk Taking and the Big Business of Entertainment." In this episode of The Business she explains how putting a lot of eggs in one basket pays off in the entertainment industry.
2/12/2015 • 13 minutes, 56 seconds
Comeback Kids: How the Boston Red Sox went from last place to World Series
Last year at this time the Boston Red Sox had already packed up their lockers and headed home after finishing last in their American League East division. This year, they're in the World Series. We talk to Red Sox COO Sam Kennedy about how the Sox turned their team around in a year. Then HBS Professor Stephen Greyser weighs in on the risks and rewards of leveraging the Red Sox brand to expand beyond baseball.
2/12/2015 • 15 minutes, 7 seconds
Reading the Tea Leaves: Sourcing News from Chinese Social Media
David Wertime is a founding editor of the online magazine Tea Leaf Nation. The site features English-language news stories about China, sourced entirely through Chinese social media. Last week Tea Leaf Nation was acquired by the Foreign Policy Group, a division of the Washington Post Company. We talked to David earlier this year about this new media model, and the challenge of starting out in a struggling industry in a country that restricts press freedom.
2/12/2015 • 15 minutes, 31 seconds
Currency: Gautam Mukunda on Syria and Presidential Leadership in Times of Crisis
As the world waits for an end to the crisis in Syria, President Obama is facing arguably the most challenging foreign policy situation of his presidency. HBS Professor of Business Administration Gautam Mukunda, author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, comments today for The Business on leading in times of crisis. What are the constraints in this situation, and how will Obama decide what to do?
2/12/2015 • 7 minutes, 57 seconds
Authentic Leadership and the Defense of Marriage Act
HBS Professor of Management Practice Bill George discusses the US Supreme Court decision to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, also known as DOMA, and the role of business and business leaders in social change.
2/12/2015 • 9 minutes, 58 seconds
Success Spreads like Wildfire
Victoria Ransom (MBA 2008) never expected to start a company. She talks to Brian about her journey from a small New Zealand farming community to co-founder and CEO of social media marketing company Wildfire, acquired last summer by Google for $350 million.
2/12/2015 • 11 minutes, 26 seconds
Happy Money, The Science Of Smarter Spending
This week Brian talks to Michael I. Norton, co-author of the book Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending, about why Mike says changing how we spend our money makes us happier.
2/12/2015 • 14 minutes, 44 seconds
Words of Business Wisdom
There is no time like the new year to make a resolution to be a better (business) you! Some of our guests from the past year share the best advice they have ever received during their careers in various business sectors.
2/11/2015 • 10 minutes, 28 seconds
The Serial Entrepreneur: From E-Readers to Nuclear Fission
: Russ Wilcox (MBA 1995) has helped revolutionize the publishing and nuclear energy industry as the co-founder of E Ink and Transatomic Power. He is also an entrepreneur in residence at Harvard Business School, working on his next big idea and helping MBAs pursue their startup dreams. He talks with The Business host Brian Kenny about entrepreneurship, changing the world, and his motto "make meaning, then make money."
2/11/2015 • 20 minutes, 26 seconds
Blinded by the Light: Avoiding the Blind Spots of Leadership
From post 9/11 to the Catholic Church and Penn State Football, many notable organizations have “leadership blind spots”. Professor Max Bazerman talks about the power of noticing in leadership position and how noticing can enhance an organization.