I am lucky. As part of the TRIUM Global EMBA team, I get to interact with some of the most interesting and informed people on the planet. This is never more true than in the conversations I have at the margins of the official program – exchanges with people who enrich, educate and entertain. TRIUM Connects seeks to reproduce those moments in a series of recorded conversations on topics from the worlds of business, economics, leadership and political economy. I hope the podcast gives people a ‘taste’ of what make the TRIUM experience so special and lets me share a little of my luck! – Matt Mulford
— Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and his guests and do not necessarily represent those of the TRIUM Global EMBA program or its three alliance schools (NYU Stern, the LSE, or HEC Paris). The content herein is intended solely for the entertainment of the listener and the host and should not be relied upon in making any decisions.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I am lucky. As part of the TRIUM Global EMBA team, I get to interact with some of the most interesting and informed people on the planet. This is never more true than in the conversations I have at the margins of the official program – exchanges with people who enrich, educate and entertain. TRIUM Connects seeks to reproduce those moments in a series of recorded conversations on topics from the worlds of business, economics, leadership and political economy. I hope the podcast gives people a ‘taste’ of what make the TRIUM experience so special and lets me share a little of my luck! – Matt Mulford
— Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and his guests and do not necessarily represent those of the TRIUM Global EMBA program or its three alliance schools (NYU Stern, the LSE, or HEC Paris). The content herein is intended solely for the entertainment of the listener and the host and should not be relied upon in making any decisions.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
At the heart of every organization lies a web of relationships: individual performance is shaped by not only a person’s inherent characteristics, but also by their interactions with others within teams, and their teams’ interactions with other teams across the system.
Within such a complex structure, how can we know how much of ‘deviant behavior’ can be explained by poor leadership? What kinds of inter-team conflict—between whom—improve performance, and which kinds undermine it? How do the relational dynamics of team performance create unavoidable challenges during rapid organisational scaling? How can we know if or when the potential benefits of teams will outweigh the ‘team tax’? My guest for this episode is Professor Brad Harris. Brad has dedicated his career to examining these types of questions by examining how social architecture of work shapes behaviour and outcomes.
Brad is the Associate Dean of MBA Programs, a Vice Dean for the TRIUM EMBA, and a Professor of Management and Human Resources at HEC Paris. Brad has received multiple teaching awards and was named a top “40 under 40 Business School Professor” by Poets and Quants. He has co-authored two books, Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High-Growth Organizations, and 3D Team Leadership: A New Approach for Complex Teams, and published research papers in leading journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Journal of Management. Brad’s work has been cited in leading popular press outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Harvard Business Review, NBC’s The Today Show, Inc.com, and Fast Company.
Brad has an amazing ability to translate academic findings into useful information for the leading teams and organisations. Brad brings humour, clarity, and passion to the topic of leadership and team performance—qualities that shine throughout our discussion. Enjoy the conversation!
Citations
Grann, D. (2023). The Wager: A tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder. Doubleday.
Greiner, L. E. (1998). Evolution and revolution as organizations grow (Revisited). Harvard Business Review.
Harris, T. B., & Bartlow, A. C. (2021). Scaling for success: People priorities for high-growth organizations. Columbia Business School Publishing.
Kirkman, B. L., & Harris, T. B. (2017). 3D team leadership: A new approach for complex teams. Stanford University Press.
Schmidt, E., Rosenberg, J., & Eagle, A. (2019). Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell. Harper Business.
Waller, M. J., Okhuysen, G. A., & Saghafian, M. (2016). Conceptualizing emergent states: A strategy to advance the study of group dynamics. Academy of Management Annals.
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How can we understand the decline of establishment political parties and the rise of new, successful challengers in Europe? Why are these new challengers predominantly right wing nationalist parties? How does their rise compare to the MAGA movement in the US? How is this new political landscape creating even greater challenges to attempts to solve cross-border problems with supranational cooperation?
To help answer these questions and others, my guest for this episode is Professor Sara Hobolt, the Sutherland Chair in European Institutions and professor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. Previously, she has held posts at the University of Oxford and the University of Michigan. She is also the Chair of the European Election Studies (EES), an EU-wide project studying voters, parties, candidates and the media in European Parliamentary elections. Sara has written extensively on the emergence of challenger parties within Europe and approaches the issue by applying a framework from the business world: entrepreneurial startups challenging incumbent firms in an imperfect market.
In addition to being a world renowned scholar in this field, Sara is one of TRIUM’s most popular teachers. She has the rare combination of deep subject level expertise, sophisticated research methodology, and an ability to explain complex topics clearly and coherently. I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Citations
DeVries, C. & Hobolt S. (2020) Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe. Princeton University Press.
Borgen (2010-2022). [TV Series]. Netflix. Written and created by Adam Price. SAM Productions.
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The policies in the first 100 days of the Trump administration have resulted in an extraordinary time of uncertainty and change in the way the global economy works and how it will function in the future. The shock at the speed and scope of the undermining of the current system regulating global trade is real. When we feel disorientated by our current experience of chaos, it is often helpful to try to re-anchor ourselves in putting what we are experiencing into a historical context. In this way, United States’ actions can be seen as part of a semi-predictable, oscillating pattern of the rise and fall of market forces vis-a-vis assertions of state power.
In this episode, my guest is TRIUM’s own Robert Falkner, and we discuss his and Barry Buzan’s new book, The Market in Global International Society: An English School Approach to International Political Economy.
Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and is the Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global EMBA. Robert has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Simone Veil Fellow at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Associate Fellow of Chatham House. In addition to his role at the LSE, he is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
In their new book, Buzon and Falkner argue that while adopting market rules in the international system creates more wealth and power than any alternative organising principles (e.g. mercantilism), it also necessarily undermines state power and sovereignty, which inevitably leads to a reassertion of power by strong state actors. The book is an amazing combination of original theoretical understandings and a staggeringly detailed and nuanced historical account of the oscillations between market and more statist international systems.
In this episode, Robert and I discuss the evidence for this pattern and whether the challenges of climate change and technological developments – particularly AI – may mean that the cycle will end and that we are headed into something unknown and unknowable.
Buzon, B. & Falkner, R. (2025) The Market in Global International Society: An English School Approach to International Political Economy. Oxford University Press
Bassani, Giorgio (2007) The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Penguin Modern Classics, International Edition. First published in 1962.
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We are all born, become toddlers, teenagers, adults, mid-aged, late middle aged, and eventually die. Do company’s follow this same pattern? If so, can we use that pattern to better predict what they will do and compare that to what they should do at different stages of their life cycles?
My guest for this episode is Aswath Damodaran. Aswath is a Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University (Kerschner Family Chair in Finance Education). Aswath is a super star professor, considered both in and out of academia as the ‘Dean of Valuation’, and one of the best teachers I have ever had the privilege of working with together. We have been lucky to have him teaching on the TRIUM EMBA for the last 23 years!
In this episode we discuss his latest book, The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, investment, and Management Implications.
The work is an attempt to provide a unified theory of all of finance (with a bit of strategy, management and leadership). With clear, compelling and concise writing, Aswath views all of corporate finance, valuation, investment philosophy and management/leadership through the construct of the birth, aging and dying of firms. The scope and scale is vast, and in a less gifted writer, it would risk being reductionist and overly simplistic – the opposite of what we have here. I wish I would have read this book 20 years ago because it would have saved me a lot of time and effort!
In this conversation we cover the basics of the corporate life cycle and some of its implications. We get into a lively discussion about whether companies should strive to be ‘sustainable’, explore the leadership characteristic needed at different stages of a company’s life cycle, and outline the reasons why renewal and rebirth for company’s near the end of their life cycle is so difficult.
It is conversations with the likes of Aswath which make me feel so lucky to do what I do!
Citations
· Damodaran, Aswath (2024) The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications. Penguin Random House.
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My guest for this episode of Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics where he is the Emirates Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies. Fawaz earned his doctorate at Oxford and has taught there, as well as at Harvard and Columbia. He has been a research scholar at Princeton and is the author of 10 books on the Middle East and his articles and editorials have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, The Baltimore Sun, The Independent (London), Al Hayat (London), Foreign Policy, Newsweek, The National Interest, Democracy: a Journal of Ideas, Middle East Journal, Survival, Al Mustqbal al-Arabi, Middle East Insight, and many others.
Gerges has given scores of interviews for various media outlets throughout the world, including ABC, CNN, BBC, PBS, CBS, NPR, CBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and LBC. He has been a guest on The Charlie Rose Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC Nightline, World News Tonight, Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC), This Week, Good Morning America and other prominent shows. He was a senior ABC television news analyst from 2000 until 2007.
In this episode we first discuss Fawaz’s most recent book, What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East. This is an excellent historical study of the impact of US interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East in the post-WW2 era. It shows how the pursuit of stability, open commodity markets and anti-communism led the US to support and ally with anti-democratic autocrats throughout the region who eliminated legitimate nationalistic (and largely secular and democratic) political leaders. We see the consequences of these interventions in the region today.
We then turn to a discussion of the current catastrophe in the Gaza, Israel and Lebanon.
Fawaz and I disagree on many issues. For example, he paraphrases towards the end of our conversation a school of thought which has come to see Israel as the last, ‘Settler Colonial’ state. I think this way of approaching the situation is an invitation to endless violence and despair. For a history of the evolution of this approach, I recommend On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence and Justice by Adam Kirsch. There are also many things Fawaz says with which I agree. For example, his historical analysis of the monumental failure of US foreign policy seems to be me to be compelling. But my role as the host of this podcast is not to be a judge of other’s views. In fact, what I agree with or do not agree with is not relevant. My job is to bring you views which may challenge your own; views which help us to understand the ways in which understandings and beliefs can be fundamentally different.
The only way forward is to start with a genuine curiosity of what others think, believe and feel. Just as importantly, curiosity does not imply agreement. Too many times we pretend to attempt to understand something by seeking out others to confirm what we want to, or already believe. It is much better to be challenged by difference. From that starting point, we can, perhaps, begin to be able to predict and influence the future for the better.
Fawaz is a thoughtful, careful, prolific and elegant scholar. While I may differ with him in some areas, I have never questioned his fundamental decency and humanity. I always learn and am challenged by our conversations together - which is a great gift. I hope you enjoy our conversation as well!
Citations
Gerges, F. (2024) What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East. London: Yale University Press.
Kirsch, Adam (2024) On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence and Justice. WV Norton & Co.
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Across the world, the rise of various forms of authoritarianism and ethno-nationalism seems to be on an ever upward trend. This creates huge uncertainties across multiple dimensions – personal, cultural, political, and not least of which in challenges business leaders face as they attempt to navigate across this uncertainty.
All of this turmoil is, according to Larry Kramer - the Vice Chancellor and President of the London School of Economics - to be expected. Neo-liberalism, the once dominant political/economic paradigm, is no longer able to explain or order our understandings of our world. This triggers a search for, and creation of, alternatives. If, or until a different liberal paradigm emerges, we are destined to contend with illiberal, authoritarian and often ethno-national alternatives. In this podcast Larry and I discuss the fall of neo-liberalism and the emerging contours of what may come to replace it.
How and when this new paradigm emerges and whether it will successfully defeat the existing alternatives is perhaps the most important question we will face in the next decade(s).
Larry provides a thoughtful and provocative framework in which to understand these macro trends. Prior to being appointed to lead the LSE, Larry was the President of the Willam and Flora Hewlett Foundation for 12 years. With assets of over $14 billion, the Foundation is one of the largest sources of grants in the USA. Prior to his work at the Foundation, Larry was the Dean of the Stanford Law School and is a world expert in US Constitutional law and the role of judicial review within that system.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity to discuss recent shifts in the US Supreme Court with such an expert, at the end of our conversation we discuss these developments as an example of the power of a paradigm shift - the rise of ‘originalism’ as a reaction to the state-led expansion of individual rights – to take on real world consequences. In this context, we discuss the Dobbs decision, the overturning of the Chevron defence and the emerging presidential immunity doctrine.
My discussion with Larry reminded me of how fortunate we are at TRIUM to have the LSE as a partner. The depth of analysis and understanding of the macro trends affecting the environment in which business operates continues to be a unique selling point of our EMBA. Enjoy the show!
Citations
Operation Mincemeat by Cummings, D. Hodgson N. and Roberts Z. at the New Diorama Theatre,London.
A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and adapted by Kip Williams, with Sarah Snook at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London.
Labatut B. (2024) The Maniac. Pushkin Press.
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Once in a while you come across a person who embodies, in their thoughts and deeds, a kind of archetype or ideal form of a role – the great artist, the wise philosopher, the genius physicist. Hervé Coyco, for me, is the archetype of the best of business leaders. In our conversation he shares some of the wisdom, humility and practices which have made him such a successful leader and impressive human being.
Hervé spent his whole corporate career at Michelin – 30 years - where he started as an entry level engineer and rose to be the President of the Passenger Car Division – at the time, a 60,000 employee, 8 billion Euro/year business unit – before finishing as the President of Michelin Asia-Pacific Operations. In this podcast, Hervé and I discuss what he learned during that time. This includes what he sees as the three styles of leadership needed to succeed in different situations: the jet airplane pilot, the skipper of a boat and the coach. Next we turn to the leadership challenge of hitting short term performance and efficiency goals while simultaneously preparing the organisation for the future. This leads on to a discussion of the role of empowerment and managing failure – when to accept failure, the need to adopt a ‘no surprises’ policy with your own boss, and the importance of ethical and value alignment.
For the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of working with Hervé in his role as Professor at HEC-Paris. We conclude our conversation here with Hervé ’s reflections on what he has learned from his role as a program director of customised executive education at HEC – both about the academy but also about how leaders in some organisations fall short in their roles.
I have learned so much from Hervé about ethical and learning based leadership, I wanted to share his insights with you! I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Citations
Covey, S.R. & Merrill, A.R. (1994) First Things First. Simon & Schuster.
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My guest for this episode is Laurence Lehmann-Ortega. Laurence is one of the world’s leading experts on how existing firms can create innovative new business models. In this episode we discuss the newest edition of her book, Re(Inventing) your Business Model: The Odyssey 3.14 Approach, co-authored with Helene Musikas and Jean March Schoettl. The book has also been adapted into a MOOC by Coursera.
Like many of the best business schoolteachers, Laurence started her career in the consulting world before transitioning to academia, first at GSCM Montpellier and from 2010 at HEC Paris. At HEC she teaches strategy and business model innovation in the masters programs, the MBA, EMBA and in customised executive education programs. She has won multiple teaching awards at HEC. Laurence is also the Academic Director of the Masters in Strategic Management and our very own TRIUM EMBA program. In addition, she is the academic director on a number of large and complex programs in HEC’s custom executive education portfolio.
In this episode we discuss the problems of alignment between business models’ value propositions and the existing firm’s value architecture; the challenge of trade offs across different values – profit, people and planet – when evaluating the contribution new business models will make to the firm’s goals; how to tell if a firm has a healthy innovation culture; the need for proper, scientific testing of innovation, and; the problem of applying ROI to innovation spending.
We finish the discussion with a short conversation about the executive education industry. Laurence and I are both in the ‘supply side’ of this business. Here, we put ourselves on the ‘buy side’ and discuss what we would look for if we were making the decision to spend time and money on learning and development – both for the individual consumer and the corporate client.
Laurence is one of the most talented teachers and academic directors I have ever met. I always look forward to our conversations because I walk away feeling like I’ve learned something. This conversation is no exception. I hope you enjoy!
Citations
Laurence Lehmann-Ortega, Hélène Musikas & Jean- Marc Schoettl (2023) (Ré)inventez votre Business Model - 3e éd.: Avec l'approche Odyssée 3.14. English version to be available in June 2024.
Gawande, Atul (2010) The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. Picador Paper.
Cylien Gibert & Sihem BenMahmoud-Jouini (2020) Créez le prochain Uber et soyez rentables d’ici la fin de l’année : Les managers de labs d’innovation face aux contradictions entre mandat et gouvernance. Revue Française de Gestion.
Breaking Boundaries : The Science of Our Planet (2021) Netflix Series. Directed by Jonathan Clay.
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I am delighted to be joined by Suzy Welch for this episode. Suzy has had an amazing career! After graduating from Harvard, she became a crime beat reporter for the Miami Herald but after a short time was re-assigned to the business section – a change which would set the stage for the rest of her career. She then left journalism and went back to Harvard for her MBA. After graduating with honours, Suzy launched into a successful stint at Bain and Company as a consultant working with heavy manufacturing clients in the Midwest of the USA.
Suzy left a successful career in consulting to return to journalism with a job at the Harvard Business Review, where she was eventually named editor-in-chief in 2001. At HBR she conceptualised and edited articles on topics as diverse as strategy, operations and organisational behaviour and penned her own on leadership, change and crisis management, the role of boards, the proper functioning of HR and career dynamics.
With her late husband, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, Suzy co-authored two international best-selling books – Winning published in 2005 and The Real-Life MBA in 2015. An interesting little fact, during the promo tour for Winning, I interviewed Jack at the LSE at a TRIUM event! Suzy is also the sole author of the New York Times and Wallstreet Journal bestseller, 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea – which we discuss during this episode. Suzy has also been a regular contributor to the US television network CNBC and the popular program, the Today Show.
In addition to her writing and media work, amongst other projects, Suzy serves on the board of ANGI as well as being a senior advisor at the Brunswick Group.
And last, but not least, Suzy is currently a professor at NYU Stern School of Business, creating and teaching one of its most popular and impactful classes – ‘Becoming You: Crafting the Authentic Life You Want and Need.’ In this episode I talk to Suzy about the reasons she put this course together and the secrets to its success.
Suzy Welch is a kind of force of nature with some important things to share which she has learned from a lifetime in leadership and around other leaders. I was delighted when she agreed to be on the show and I hope you enjoy our conversation!
Citations
Welch, S. (2009) 10-10-10: 10 Minutes, 10 Months, 10 Years: A Life-Transforming Idea. Scribner.
Welch, J. with Welch, S. (2005) Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book. HarperCollins.
Welch, J. & Welch, S. (2018) The Real-Life MBA: The No-Nonsense Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team and Growing your Career. Harper Thorsons.
Cunk on Earth (2022) Television Show starring Diane Morgon and produced by Charlie Brooker.
Succession (2018-2013) Television show produced by HBO Entertainment.
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Occasionally you read a book that changes the way you think about a topic or a place. The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism by Keyu Jin is just such a book and it was great to have her join me on TRIUM Connects. We discuss the consequences (both intended an unintended) of the one child policy, the combination of strong political centralisation and economic decentralisation, the ‘mayor economy’ and the combination of a super powerful yet agile state, able to act much more quickly than more democratically constrained actors.
Jin argues that to understand all of this, you need to read China in the original – that is, as much as possible, not through the lens of Western, capitalistic assumptions about economic development but to see it for what it does, within its own terms.
Jin is a great guide for this journey – she was born in China, educated in the USA (BA, Masters and PHD from Harvard) and now lives in London. She is an associate professor of economics at the LSE where her research focusses on global trade imbalances, global asset prices and China's economic growth model. Jin has also advised and consulted for the World Bank, the IMF and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The book ends with a discussion of the current challenges facing China. Jin argues that the reforms and policies which created the tremendous economic development over such a comparative short time must now change if China is to avoid its own version of the middle income trap. Whether China is able to do so will, in no small measure, shape the kind of world we will all live in.
Jin’s background, insight and deep knowledge shine through in the book and in our conversation. I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Citations
Keyu Jin (2023) The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism. Viking Press.
Swerling J. and Burrows A. Guys and Dolls – First performed in 1950.
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I am guessing that most of you have heard about Chinese firms and government’s large involvement and investment in Africa. For example, as part of a strategy to secure the resources needed to play a leading role in the economy of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, China has purchased mining rights, mined, and built refineries for rare earth elements in multiple locations in Africa.
But did you know that the annual amount of traded goods between China and Latin America, as well as foreign direct investment is about twice as much as between China and Africa? If we look at Chinese development loans, Latin America has received more in loans than Africa.
It has been clear for more than a century that to understand Latin America you must understand the involvement and intervention of the United States in the military, economic and social history of the region. It is now impossible to understand Latin American economies and politics without an understanding of the growing role of China. Looked at through the lens of US/China competition and conflict, this is a major development. Historically, the USA has reacted forcefully to what it saw as ‘interference’ in the America’s by other countries – will that continue or will the recent neglect/disinterest of the US to LA continue, creating more space/opportunity for even greater Chinese influence?
To help us understand these issues and others, I am delighted to be joined in this episode by Professor Chris Alden of the London School of Economics (and a regular contributor to TRIUM). Chris is Deputy Head of the International Relations Department, the Director of LSE IDEAS, and a Research Associate with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Chris’s newest book (co-authored with Alvaro Mendez) China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics was published earlier this year.
Before this book, Chris has written or co-authored of numerous books, including Apartheid’s Last Stand – the Rise and Fall of the South African Security State (Palgrave 1996), Mozambique and the Construction of the New African State (Palgrave 2003), China in Africa (Zed Books 2007) Land, Liberation and Compromise in Southern Africa (Palgrave/Macmillan 2009) The South and World Politics (Palgrave 2010),
Chris is one of the world’s leading experts of Chinese involvement in the global south and it was a real pleasure to sit down with him for a wonderful discussion of his latest work. I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Citations:
Podcast – China and the Global South hosted by Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden and produced by The China-Global South Project (CGSP).
Alden, C. & Mendez, A. (2023) China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics. Bloomsbury Academic
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In 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis, 25 US banks failed. Their combined asset value was equal to $526 billion (adjusted for inflation). In the first 5 months of 2023, three banks have failed with a total asset value of $532 billion. Let that sink in – we are in uncharted territory. What is happening and why? Why do we see a kind of slow-motion contagion effect? Will more banks fail? Has the US government practically removed the limit on deposits insured through the FDIC? What does the current situation tell us about the health of the banking sector and the regulatory framework meant to prevent such problems – in the US and around the world?
In this episode I’m joined by Jean Edouard Colliard to discuss what the current crisis tells us about how and why regulatory regimes succeed and/or fail. Jean Edouard is Associate Professor of Finance at HEC Paris, which he joined in 2014. Before joining HEC, he worked for two years as an economist in the Research department of the European Central Bank. He is a co-holder of the research chair "Analytics for Future Banking" (HEC Paris - Natixis - Polytechnique).
Jean-Edouard is also a member of the Finance Theory Group and a Research Affiliate of CEPR and SUERF. He received the "Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance" Award of IEF / Foundation SCOR 2022, the "Young Researcher in Economics" Award of Foundation Banque de France in 2017, the Eurofidai-BEDOFIH Data Award 2017, the "Young Researcher Award" 2015 of AMF (the French Securities Markets Authority), and the 1st SUERF/Unicredit & Universities Foundation Research Prize 2013.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!
Citations
Palmer, A. (2017) Too Like the Lightning: Book 1 of the Terra Ignota Series. Head of Zues Publishing.
Calomiris, C.W. & Haber, S.H. (2014) Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of the Banking Crises and Scarce Credit: The Princeton Economic History of the Western World: 50.
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Upwards Influence – The Art and Science of Being Heard
Over the last several decades, more and more leadership research has highlighted the need for leaders to create an environment where disparate and diverse opinions and approaches are elicited and incorporated into decision making. If leaders can manage that, they can more easily avoid premature consensus and narrative fallacies, thereby improving performance.
Much of this research addresses the ‘demand’ side of the equation – how can/should leaders create environments whereby people feel that they have a permission structure to contribute to – or even openly question and contradict – a leader’s position?
However, this leaves the ‘supply side’ of the equation open. That is, how do we instil in people the self-belief and confidence to make themselves heard and seen? What behaviours are most likely to increase junior members’ impact on decisions?
In this episode we discuss the challenges of ‘upwards influence’. That is, what are the challenges we face when we seek to influence people with more power than we have.
My guest is Connson Chou Locke – someone who has made these supply side questions a centre piece of her life’s work. In 2021, in a distillation of more than 30 years of experience, she wrote a book addressing these issues entitled, Making Your Voice Heard: How to Own Your Space, Access Your Inner Power and Become Influential.
Connson is a Professorial Lecturer of Management at the LSE, where she has won multiple teaching awards for her classes on Leadership, Organisational Behaviour, and Negotiation and Decision Making. Prior to entering academia, Connson was a Regional Training and Development Manager for the Boston Consulting Group, responsible for training and development across 10 offices throughout the Asia Pacific region. She has a PhD from Berkley and did her undergraduate work at Harvard.
In our conversation we discuss the role of confidence in perceived expertise, how power and influence can only be defined in the context in which they occur, how being influential is often the end point of long and carefully executed preparatory strategy, how women face specific challenges from agentic models of leadership and how to strategically think of cultural lenses when interacting with individuals.
I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Enders G. (2017) Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ. London: Scribe UK.
Locke, C.C. (2021) Making your Voice Heard: How to Own Your Space, Access Your Inner Power and Become Influential. London: Endeavor Publishing.
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Explanations of individual’s political affiliations which do not take non-material into account are fatally flawed. We simply cannot explain or predict people’s political behaviour without thinking about how support for individuals/parties are affected by, and shape people’s identities, felt exclusion/inclusion, legitimacy, and recognition.
However, when it comes to trying to explain how states will behave in the international system, our theories mostly ignore these factors. Traditionally, scholars have focused on how particular actions are driven by states’ perceptions of their own material interests (or at least their elites). In that context, if/when a state will undermine, challenge, ignore or support the current international order is simply a matter of exploring the costs/benefits it perceives will flow from a specific action.
Using this framework, many scholars and commentators now believe that conflict between the ‘West’ and China is inevitable. China, or any ascending power, will increasingly see it in their material interest to exert their increasing power to challenge an international political order – an order which it did not have a hand in creating and that it sees as being purposely designed to entrench the powers of and enrich the founders of the order. The powerful states which benefit from the existing order, will struggle to accommodate the new power into the old structure, leading to an increasing chance of conflict.
My guest for this episode is Dr Rohan Mukherjee. Rohan thinks that this type of analysis misses a key factor in determining state behaviour – perceived recognition, increases and decreases in a state’s status. Like in domestic politics, explanations which ignore these elements will fail in its predictions. In his excellent new book, Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions, he argues that whether rising powers cooperate with, challenge, or try to reform, an international order depends on the extent to which its core institutions facilitate symbolic equality with the great-power club.
Rohan is in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. Prior to joining the LSE, he was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He received his PhD from Princeton and holds a Masters in Public Administration from its School of Public and International Affairs. He is also a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at MIT’s Security Studies Program, and a non-resident Visiting Fellow at the UN’s University of Tokyo.
Rohan is a thoughtful and creative scholar, and it was a great pleasure to explore how his approach can be applied to understand that the behaviour of China, India, the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where we should expect cooperation, reform or conflict in the international political order, and many other elements in our world today. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!
Citations
Everet, P. (2022) The Trees. Influx Press.
The Expanse TV show produced by the Syfy Network (Series 1-3) and Amazon (Series 4-6) based on novels by James Corey
Lucy Dacus, musician. See Lucy Dacus
Mukherjee, R. (2022) Ascending Order: Rising Powers and Politics of Status in International Institutions (Cambridge Studies in International Relations). Cambridge University Press.
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Search Amazon for the word ‘innovation’ in its ‘Business, Finance & Accounting’ book section, and you will find more than 60,000 volumes. The trick is finding stuff worth reading in this deep and wide ocean of material. The new book, Ideaflow: Why Creative Businesses Win, by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn is just such a book. I welcomed Jeremy to this episode of TRIUM Connects to discuss the book as well as his general views on creativity and innovation.
In the book, Jeremy and Perry argue that we shouldn’t think of innovation as an event, a workshop, a sprint or a hackathon…but rather as a more general capability that can be learnt and is relevant to everyone. Their core principle is that you need ideas to solve problems – in contrast to completing tasks where you just need to get on with the work. But, instead of obsessing over quality, successful innovators focus on the generation of many ideas. Volume is key. Once you have a sufficient volume, then you run quick and cheap experiments to gather more information, revise and test again.
Jeremy knows what he is talking about. He is one of the world's leading experts in innovation. As the Director of Executive Education at Stanford's renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka "the d.school"). His courses [K1] have been experienced by nearly a million students of innovation worldwide. He advises corporate leaders on how to embed[K2] the methods and mindsets of design thinking into their organizations, and works with professionals to cultivate a robust personal creative practice. He also co-hosts the "Stanford Masters of Creativity," program where Jeremy shines the spotlight on exemplars of creative practice across disciplinary boundaries.
What makes Ideaflow a great book, and what I really enjoyed in my conversation with Jeremy, is the concrete, actionable innovation practices described and the fact that they are backed up by solid research and evidence. I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Cited Work
McKeown, Greg (2015) Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Virgin Books.
Koestler, A. (2014) The Act of Creation. One 70 Press.
Lotto, B. (2017) Deviate: The Creative Power of Transforming your Perception. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Lucas, B.J. & Nordgren, L.F. (2020) ‘The creative cliff illusion,’ Psychological and Cognitive Sciences: Volume 117 (33), pp 19830-19836.
Mackinnon, D. W. (1962). The personality correlates of creativity: A study of American architects. In G. Nielson (Ed.), Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of
Applied Psychology. Vol. 2. Personality research (pp. 11–39). Munksgaard.
Randolph, M. (2021) That will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life on an Idea. Endeavour.
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We have all become aware how important data is as everything becomes more digitalised. Data is everywhere – nearly our every moment and movement is recorded and stored. Connected devices offer more and more convenience. Our cars exchange information with our phones, which exchange information with our smart houses, which exchange information with our home computers,… and on and on. Without the digital exchange of information our personal and professional lives have become practically impossible. To be ‘disconnected’ is not really an option for most. But, the more connected we are, the more nodes in our network, the more we rely on digital exchanges, the more we are susceptible to cybercrimes.
My guest for this episode, to discuss all things cybersecurity, is Todd Wade. Todd is a chief information security officer with over 20 years of experience working with cybersecurity and technology and the author of the recently published book, Cybercrime: Protecting your business, your family and yourself.
He has led the information security departments for multiple financial services and technology organisations. He is passionate about championing cyber risk governance and empowering organisations to protect themselves against cybercriminals.
Todd has worked with leading information security organisations like the Information Security Forum and Chartered Institute of Information Security and is currently an advisor to several cybersecurity start-ups, including the Cyber Risk Management Group and Scapien. And last, but certainly not least, he is a member of the Class of 2009 of TRIUM!
Cited Work:
Wade, T. (2022) Cybercrime: Protecting Your Business, Your Family and Yourself. London: BCS Learning and Development
White, G. (2022) The Lazarus Heist: Based on the No 1 Hit Podcast. London: Penguin Business
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We are at the start of a time when humans will be able to program cells and organisms in analogous ways to which we now program computers. Our technology and understanding of the basic structures of life, augmented by computer simulations driven by AI, are driving breakthrough innovations at an ever-increasing rate.
What will this mean for us all? It could mean the end of most diseases and the actual process of aging. I could mean that the current existential risks of climate change and bio-diversity collapse could be removed. It could also mean that our exposure to the existential risks of bioterrorism grows exponentially. I could mean a radical new social class structure based on different access to, and use of human ability enhancements will generate political upheaval and violence. What is inarguably true, is that advances in our understanding and ability to manipulate biological systems will disrupt business, governance, culture and geopolitics in fundamental ways. This may not happen this year, or next, but make no mistake, the challenges are coming.
Amy Webb, my guest for this episode, believes we desperately need to start these conversations now, while we still have some time to shape what the future will hold. Amy’s, and her co-author Andrew Hessel’s book, The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Ague of Synthetic Biology, is a wonderful, guided tour of synthetic biology’s past, present, and likely future. It is also a catalyst to the discussion about how we balance the risks and amazing promise of these innovations. As Amy says, the best way to understand this technology is that it gives us options which we have never had – how we choose amongst those options is what we need to think about now.
Amy is a quantitative futurist and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New York University Stern School of Business. Her research focuses on strategic foresight and using data to model probable, plausible and possible scenarios for the future. She was named to the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and won the prestigious 2017 Thinkers50 RADAR Award for her research and work in strategic foresight. She is also the CEO and founder of the Future Today Institute, a leading strategic foresight and future forecasting firm that researches emerging technology on behalf of Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies and financial institutions around the world. In addition to being a best-selling author of multiple books, Amy’s future forecasting work has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review and more.
It was an absolute pleasure to discuss with Amy the issues raised in her book. It is unsurprising that so many people and organisations turn to her when they want a view of what our possible futures may be! Her knowledge is deep and her ability to communicate is exceptional – I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Citations
Bostrom, N. (2019) ‘The Vulnerable World Hypothesis,’ Global Policy 10:4.
The Boys. Developed the Amazon Prime Video by Eric Kripke, based on a comic book of the same name, written by Garth Ennis and Darick Roberson.
Huxley, A. (1932) Brave New World. Chatto and Windus.
Niccol, A.(Director) (1998) Gattaca. Columbia Pictures and Jersey Films.
Severance. Created by Dan Erickson, Apple TV+
Webb, A. (2019) The Big Nine: How Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity. New York: Public Affairs.
Webb, A. (2022) The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology. New York: Public Affairs.
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What does being a fabulously successful, early stage VC investor have in common with being a world class CEO? The answer, according to Jihoon Rim, my guest for this episode, is the ability to select the right people and then, largely get out of their way and let them do their jobs.
Jihoon, after a stint at Softbank, founded his own VC firm – Kcube Ventures – in 2012 with an initial fund of USD 10M. In 2021, when the fund was liquidated, it returned more than USD 1B. In 2015, Jihoon was appointed the CEO of Kakao. In the 2.5 years of his leadership, Kakao’s revenues and operating profits more than doubled (from USD 932M to USD 1.972B and USD 88M to USD 165M, respectively). Such successes led to Jihoon being recognised in 2017 Korea’s number 1 CEO (by Insight Korea), and in 2018 as one of Korea’s Top Ten Heros (by Maeil Broadcasting Network).
He joined NYU’s Stern School of Business as an Adjunct Professor in 2019 where he teaches some of the most highly regarded elective courses in the entire School. Between 2018 and 2022, he completed his Doctorate degree. This was all completed before he turned 43 years old.
In this episode we discuss what Jihoon looked for when investing in founders and how he took the lessons from that world and applied them in his role as CEO of Kakao. We also discuss how people routinely misunderstand the nature and scope of tech companies’ powers – which he believes is too great, and how transparency will play a crucial role if we ever want to do something about this problem. Finally, we explore why Korean content has been so successful on the international entertainment stage.
Jihoon is smart, articulate, highly accomplished and wonderfully humble. His candour and honesty in our discussion was refreshing. He is proof that wisdom does not need to rely on age. This episode is, in my mind, an exemplar of how a good leader sees the world and their role in it. Enjoy the conversation!
Citations
Frans Johansson (2014) The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World. Penguin
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Over the last 10-20 years we have seen the rise and rise of populist and nationalist movements in democracies across the world. This, in part, reflects a growing dissatisfaction with the state of our democratic institutions. Many people just don’t believe that democracy delivers for them.
My guest for this episode is Professor Alberto Alemanno. To combat the ever-increasing attraction of illiberal political movements, Alberto believes we need to work towards creating a more even playing field between companies and citizens in our civil society. If we could do that, so the argument goes, we would have a healthier polity and more effective democratic institutions.
A specific step toward these goals would be to expect private firms to make public all of their political activity – adding a ‘P’ for politics – to their existing ESG reporting requirements. As part of this, firms would need to report their support and membership of trade associations and the policies those associations work for and against. Like holding firms responsible for the ESG of companies in their supply chains, this type of political reporting would hold firms responsible for the interventions in the political system made on their behalf by others. Alberto argues that this would stop companies from playing a double game of supporting one policy publicly while simultaneously working to stop that policy through their support of other organisations and associations. The idea is a fascinating one, and Albertos knowledge and passion of the issues it raises shine through in our conversation.
Alberto is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law & Policy at HEC Paris. He is also the founder of the civic startup, The Good Lobby, whose mission is to equalize access to power by strengthening the advocacy capacity of civil society and making corporate political influence more accountable and sustainable. He sits on the board of several civil society organizations, such as Friends of Europe, European Alternatives, VoxEurop, Access Info Europe, as well as the citizens’ campaigning movement We Move, which operates transnationally.
I hope you enjoy the episode!
Citations
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