Podcast appearances and mentions of gautam mukunda

In this podcast episode, we sit down with Gautam Mukunda, a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, to discuss what we can learn about leadership from presidential elections. Drawing on insights from his book 'Picking Presidents', which examines the qualities that make for successful leaders, Mukunda provides a fascinating analysis of filtered and unfiltered presidents alike. Whether you're a political junkie or simply interested in the qualities that make for effective leadership, this episode is sure to provide plenty of food for thought. Subscribe for ad-free interviews and bonus episodes https://plus.acast.com/s/the-unmistakable-creative-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Abhay is joined by professor, advisor, and author, Gautam Mukunda.He is the author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter and Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World, and has served as a professor at Harvard, Yale, and Tufts. By cultivating expertise as an advisor on leadership and strategy problems,  with publishing widely on innovation, security issues, and synthetic biology, in being on the board of the UPAKAR FOUNDATION (a national non-profit devoted to providing college scholarships to underprivileged students of South Asian descent), and in being a former Jeopardy champion, Gautam is well on his way to achieving his life's goal: to have the world's most confusing resumé !(0:00 - 2:40) Introduction(2:40) Part 1 - Systems, dispensability, seduced by unfiltered leaders(18:53) Part 2 - "Standing down", Kamala Harris, risk mitigation(41:59) Part 3 - Unlearnings and lessons, leadership style, advise for voters(1:03:18) Conclusion

How can we discern the true character of our leaders and make informed choices for the future of our nation? In this thought-provoking episode, we engage in a candid discussion with Gautam Mukunda, a former Harvard Business School professor, author, and expert on leadership and decision-making. As the U.S. presidential election approaches, Gautam shares his insights on the complexities of choosing a leader and the far-reaching consequences of our collective decision. Drawing from his extensive research and his latest book, "Picking Presidents," Gautam delves into the intricacies of the leader selection process, the role of character in leadership, and the potential pitfalls of relying on entrenched elites. He challenges conventional wisdom and encourages listeners to look beyond superficial factors when evaluating candidates. Join us for this timely and essential conversation as we explore the profound impact of leadership on our society and the critical importance of making informed, rational decisions in the face of emotionally charged political climates. Gain valuable insights into the key qualities to look for in a leader and learn how to navigate the complexities of the electoral process with discernment and wisdom. ** Note from the Host ** This conversation was not intended to argue which candidate is better but rather to focus on the factors to consider when choosing who you will vote for. Therefore, rather than engage in a debate, I chose to keep the conversation on topic. In doing so, I hope you find this conversation unique and insightful as you consider the type of leader this country needs right now and who best fits that profile. God bless America. Key Takeaways Power reveals a person's true character and underlying tendencies. A leader's vision for the use of power can reveal profound aspects of their public character. Voting is not a rational act, and it is crucial to consider the emotions that a leader inspires in the electorate. The tone and moral standards encouraged by a leader can have a significant impact on society. Emotion plays a significant role in decision-making, particularly during high-emotion situations, and it is essential to exercise discernment and critical thinking skills. The reliance on elites in American society, particularly in the financial sector, necessitates structuring the system to align their incentives with the public's interests. Avoiding disastrous presidential candidates is crucial, as poor leadership can have severe consequences for the nation. The character of a leader has a profound influence on those around them, shaping the moral fabric of their inner circle and beyond. Unfiltered leaders who lack rigorous selection processes are a risky bet, and the odds are against them being successful. The complexity and scale of the federal government pose significant management challenges, requiring candidates with genuine skill and competence. Chapter Timestamps 0:00 - When leaders really matter 5:23 - How authority reveals true character 11:47 - Emotional voting and the consequences of poor leadership 18:09 - The role of elites in American society and aligning incentives 24:36 - Avoiding disastrous candidates and the impact of leadership on followers 30:11 - The leader selection paradox and the risks of unfiltered leaders 35:44 - Managing the complexity of the federal government 40:28 - The importance of rational decision-making in leadership selection 46:02 - Wrap-up and final thoughts on picking presidents Favorite Quotes The Nature of Power: "Most people, when they gain power, become worse people because they no longer have to pretend to be someone they're not." - Gautam Mukunda The Role of Emotion in Voting: "Voting is not a rational act. It is an emotional act. And I would urge people to think about the emotions that a leader inspires in them." - Gautam Mukunda The Influence of Leadership on Others: "The character of a leader shapes the character of everyone around them. It is an unbelievable privilege to be a leader because you get to make the people around you better." - Gautam Mukunda Episode Resources and Show Notes: https://leadersoftransformation.com/podcast/leadership/506-choosing-the-next-president-with-gautam-mukunda/ Check out our complete library of episodes and other leadership resources here: https://leadersoftransformation.com ________

How the Most Important Hire in the World Has Been Made With, Good, Bad and Ugly Consequences | The Vice Presidential Sweepstakes and the Importance of Swing States | A Democratic Party Reborn backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Gautam Mukunda has collected some of the highest regarded titles at the most prestigious organizations that you could ask for in a career. Yet his plan all along has been to collect the most diverse collection of experiences. He's always enjoyed learning new things and set out on a mission to ensure that the world also learned something through him. His path has taken him from professor to author to advisor to investor. Many of those stops were unexpected like him joining Harvard Business School as a professor following his PHD. Listen to his story to be inspired by what happens when you relentlessly follow your curiosity in life. You will learn:You are only going to go on your path once so make it count and give it your all.People that are innovative tend to be those that push against the natural flow.You may not realize the impact you have on others in the moment by being your authentic self. You can follow Gautam's story at:LinkedIn / Newsletter / X / Books Follow the pod: IG - https://www.instagram.com/podwhatsyourstory/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@podwhatsyourstory Twitter - https://twitter.com/PodWhatsYourSto Follow my story: Main site - https://www.mattestory.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattestory/ IG - https://www.instagram.com/mattestory/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mattestory Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattestory

Gautam and I had a lovely conversation about environmental things. He's become a good friend (we talk outside our recordings). Still, listen to determine for yourself, but I'd say this conversation exhibited a minor mindset shift if any. After we talked about Gautam's experience, we spoke mostly about abstract environmental issues, not personal ones.He spoke about some difference in his views and feelings brought on by his commitment, but mostly he talked about the beauty of nature flying-distance away. I want to help people find the beauty or any value they like of nature where they are, or realize that it's possible, or worth fighting to restore if we've paved too much of it over.So it's a different conversation than usual---both friendlier between us and more abstract on his connection with the environment---though you might hear differently. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gautam Mukunda is an internationally recognized expert in leadership and innovation. He often jokes that his life's ambition is to have the world's most confusing resume and that he's most of the way there. Gautam is a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, Senior Advisor to America's Frontier Fund, the author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) and Picking Presidents: How To Make The Most Consequential Decision in the World (University of California Press, 2022), and the host of Nasdaq's podcast World Reimagined with Gautam Mukunda. Gautam has been a professor at Harvard Business School and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University. He was Head of Research at Rose Park Advisors, a specialized investment firm founded by his mentor Clayton Christensen, that invests using the theories of disruptive innovation. He has published articles in Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Slate, Fast Company, Parameters, Politics and the Life Sciences, and Systems and Synthetic Biology on topics including leadership, reforming the financial sector, military innovation, network-centric warfare, the security and economic implications of synthetic biology, and the TV show Mad Men. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, Atlantic, New Yorker, Economist, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and on All Things Considered. He is the Exclusive Leadership Consultant to U.S. Soccer. Find    

Meet Yusra Mardini:  When the Syrian civil war broke out, Yusra Mardini and her sister fled. Eventually finding refuge in Germany, Yusra reignited her passion for swimming, joining the newly formed Olympic Refugee Team. Now, she's at the helm of the Yusra Mardini Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing access to sports and education for refugee communities around the world.     In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Yusra about how she navigates challenges, leads by example and builds organizations that last.      Notable Timestamps    2:40 Olympics     5:20 Leading for others    9:40 Having your leadership tested    13:45 Building organizations that last    Resources Referenced     Epstein, D. J. (2019). Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. New York, Riverhead Books.    Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit:   Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast    

Cynthia Carroll was only a few months into leading the global mining firm Anglo American when she suspended operations in their South African platinum mine. She was concerned about worker fatalities there. But it was an unprecedented move, and it came at a huge cost for the company. Harvard Kennedy School of Government research fellow Gautam Mukunda explains how Carroll used that temporary shutdown to make changes to the company culture at Anglo American.

In the first part of our conversation, we start by reviewing Gautam's commitment to sailing, which seemed and still seems a good idea to him. but maybe too much for now. We revisit what motivated him and come up with a new commitment.The second part gets more exciting. Gautam expresses that we need to develop technology to help people who aren't living as well as us so we can help them. (I may not have summarized accurately; listen to his recorded words for his precise meaning.) This view is like waving a red flag to me since I used to think things like that but now see otherwise.We engage in different views on technology, progress, how humans used to live versus how we live today, values, and such.In other words, we openly talk about the underlying beliefs driving our culture and individual behavior we don't question or talk about, but that guide our decisions and behavior. If we can only imagine a world working a certain way, we can't change course. If that course leads to billions of people dying, being stuck in beliefs is a problem.I greatly appreciate a civil, productive conversation on topic that many find inflammatory.The paper on human lifetimes: Longevity Among Hunter- Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination, by Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan. Michael Guvern was a guest on this podcast. Quoting from the paper:The average modal age of adult death for hunter-gatherers is 72 with a range of 68–78 years. This range appears to be the closest functional equivalent of an “adaptive” human life span. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've made it no secret that sustainability lacks leadership and leaders. If you want to help on sustainability, I suggest that the most valuable thing you can do is learn to lead. If you know how to lead, improve it. Nothing can change as much as leading cultural change.Gautam's passion is to learn how leadership works, how to teach it, learning more about it, writing about it, the military, most relevant to our conversation: conveying what he knows and that passion.The upshot: someone who knows as much as anyone about leadership, what works, what doesn't, learning more about it, how to teach it, and passionate to convey what he's learned. He also knows and has befriended some of today's most effective leaders, whom he mentions in our conversation. He calls General Stanley McChrystal "Stan."Let's see if we can bring Gautam's knowledge, experience, and connections to sustainability.Gautam's home pageGautam's page at Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast episode, we sit down with Gautam Mukunda, a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, to discuss what we can learn about leadership from presidential elections. Drawing on insights from his book 'Picking Presidents', which examines the qualities that make for successful leaders, Mukunda provides a fascinating analysis of filtered and unfiltered presidents alike. Whether you're a political junkie or simply interested in the qualities that make for effective leadership, this episode is sure to provide plenty of food for thought. Subscribe for ad-free interviews and bonus episodes https://plus.acast.com/s/the-unmistakable-creative-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we will highlight some of the best moments of Series 4, with great interviews with Michelle “MACE” Curran, Emma Weber, Gautam Mukunda, Paul Day, Chris Tuff, and Michael Bungay Steiner. They'll share their fascinating stories and insights, with a heavy focus on the ways they are building playgrounds and disrupting leadership through experimentation, play, and failure, giving you actionable tips, fresh perspectives, and advice to ponder. Let's dive in.

When you vote for president, Gautam Mukunda says you are making the most important decision in the world. With the power presidents wield over the US and the world, picking the wrong person can bring disaster - or wonderful things - to billions of people. On this episode, Gautam Mukunda explains how we can spot candidates that will do well in office, and also ones who are likely to fail. His "filtered vs. unfiltered" test, he says, is a prescription for doing your duty, and doing it right. We walk through some of the history of good choices by the American people, some bad ones, and also how we could change the process to improve our chances of success. This former "Jeopardy!" champion also explained how he wound up on the show, and how an unusual resume led him to presidential history.Gautam Mukunda's website is at https://www.gautammukunda.com/Information on his coursework at Harvard can be found at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/gautam-mukundaInformation on Gautam Mukunda's book can be found at https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520379992/picking-presidentsSupport our show at https://patreon.com/axelbankhistory**A portion of every contribution is given to a charity for children's literacy** "Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at https://twitter.com/axelbankhistory https://instagram.com/axelbankhistory

Absolutely fascinating—Gautam's research on how we choose our leaders, and the phenomenon of “unfiltered” leaders who bypass the traditional and risk-averse selection process, is eye-opening for anyone in the leadership arena, whether they're selecting leaders or leading themselves.Gautam Mukunda is a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, and the host of NASDAQ's World Reimagined podcast. He was formerly an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University.In this episode, we discuss the filtration process that creates leaders, the difference between filtered and unfiltered presidents, and how leaders are chosen by organizations and nations.Links Mentioned:‘Picking Presidents' by Gautam Mukunda‘Indispensable' by Gautam MukundaGautam's Personal Website‘NASDAQ World Reimagined' on Apple Podcasts

John Dickerson talks with author Gautam Mukunda about his new book Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. They talk about how Mukunda's first book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter laid the groundwork for Picking Presidents. Later, Dickerson and Mukunda dig into why ‘intellectual brilliance' – which goes beyond IQ - is a strong predictor of presidential performance and how the human portion of the job of president is changing.  Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickerson talks with author Gautam Mukunda about his new book Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. They talk about how Mukunda's first book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter laid the groundwork for Picking Presidents. Later, Dickerson and Mukunda dig into why ‘intellectual brilliance' – which goes beyond IQ - is a strong predictor of presidential performance and how the human portion of the job of president is changing.  Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickerson talks with author Gautam Mukunda about his new book Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. They talk about how Mukunda's first book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter laid the groundwork for Picking Presidents. Later, Dickerson and Mukunda dig into why ‘intellectual brilliance' – which goes beyond IQ - is a strong predictor of presidential performance and how the human portion of the job of president is changing.  Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickerson talks with author Gautam Mukunda about his new book Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. They talk about how Mukunda's first book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter laid the groundwork for Picking Presidents. Later, Dickerson and Mukunda dig into why ‘intellectual brilliance' – which goes beyond IQ - is a strong predictor of presidential performance and how the human portion of the job of president is changing.  Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickerson talks with author Gautam Mukunda about his new book Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. They talk about how Mukunda's first book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter laid the groundwork for Picking Presidents. Later, Dickerson and Mukunda dig into why ‘intellectual brilliance' – which goes beyond IQ - is a strong predictor of presidential performance and how the human portion of the job of president is changing.  Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickerson talks with author Gautam Mukunda about his new book Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. They talk about how Mukunda's first book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter laid the groundwork for Picking Presidents. Later, Dickerson and Mukunda dig into why ‘intellectual brilliance' – which goes beyond IQ - is a strong predictor of presidential performance and how the human portion of the job of president is changing.  Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World by Gautam Mukunda Celebrated leadership expert and political scientist Gautam Mukunda provides a comprehensive, objective, and non-partisan method for answering the most important question in the world: is someone up to the job of president of the United States? In Picking Presidents, Gautam […] The post Chris Voss Podcast – Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World by Gautam Mukunda appeared first on Chris Voss Official Website.

Innovation always requires some level of risk. For leaders, this means taking the right risks and knowing when to walk away. How do leaders make decisions when the outcome is uncertain?  How do they create a culture that promotes innovation and enables risk taking?   In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Annie Duke, Cognitive Scientist, Decision Strategist, and Author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, and Paul Misener, the VP of Global Innovation Policy and Communication at Amazon about the process of decision-making and innovation in uncertain conditions.   Resources:   Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts, by Annie Duke   Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, by Annie Duke   “If we are not failing ever, we are not trying hard enough; we are not being innovative enough.” — Paul Misener, VP of Global Innovation Policy and Communications at Amazon   “There's a time-accuracy trade-off when we're making decisions. The more time we take, usually, the more accuracy we're going to accrue. The less time we take, the less accuracy we're going to accrue.” — Annie Duke, Author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, Decision Strategist and Former Professional Poker Player   Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast  

Our guest today is the author of the new book "Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World", Gautam Mukunda! Adam and Gautam talk about what makes a "filtered" vs. "unfiltered" president, whether the situation makes the man or vice versa, the most filtered and unfiltered presidents of all time, and how an unfiltered president can be devastating to our nation.Pick up Gautam's book here on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere you get your books or e-books!Special thanks to The Dugout - customized and vintage apparel. Use promo code FOUNDATION at checkout and receive 15% off of your entire order! Visit them on Instagram at instagram.com/thedugoutbrandSpecial thanks to 10th Ward Barbershop - Proudly serving the historic 10th Ward in Lawrenceville and surrounding areas, 10th Ward Barbershop is a full service barbershop offering quality haircuts, beard trims, and hot shaves. Schedule your appointment with "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Corey Graves' favorite barbershop today at www.10thwardbarbershop.com! Web: www.foundationradio.netInstagram: @foundation_radioTwitter: @fndradipodAdvertising requests can be sent to adam@foundationradio.net.Host/Executive Producer: Adam BarnardAdditional Production/Narration: Sam KreppsEngineer: Carl PannellSpecial Thanks: Greg Mead, Joe Keane, Geoff Quinn, Dr. Ruth AlmyIntro Music: "Ugly" by Dumb UglyOutro Music: "Rug Burn" by Dumb UglyMusical Accompaniment: Enrichment

Great leaders recognize that it takes more than talent to build a winning team. The culture and cohesion of a team can make or break it. It's up to leaders to cultivate an environment that empowers people and promotes growth and opportunity.  In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Daniel Coyle, Award-Winning New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code, The Culture Code and more and Vlatko Andonovski, Head Coach of the U.S. women's national team, about the secrets of creating a world-class team.  “Performance in business is actually a learning contest." - Daniel Coyle, Award-Winning New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code, The Culture Code and more “I think that's what drives me, the challenge to do something that has never been done before.” - Vlatko Andonovski, Head Coach of the United States Women's National Soccer Team Resources:   Books by Daniel Coyle Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl   Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast  

In this bonus feature, World Reimagined is turning the table on its host, Gautam Mukunda. Interviewed by his good friend, General Stan McChrystal, Gautam discusses the inspiration behind his newest book, Picking Presidents, shares what leadership means to him, and reveals who his ultimate hero is. Gautam also gets a second chance at answering the presidential history question that ended his reign on the TV show Jeopardy! many years ago.   Resources:   The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, by John Keegan Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World, by Gautam Mukunda Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay   “If you want to solve a problem about leadership, the presidency is uniquely fertile ground.” — Gautam Mukunda, Author of Picking Presidents & Host of The World Reimagined Podcast   Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast  

In Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World, Gautam Mukunda says that experience is somewhat important, but real inexperience is a huge gamble. So our choice comes down to this: Do we need to take a big risk in selecting who runs America? Also, all those investigations—special and not-so-special—and the baby's name that will one day be the stuff of Legend. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's the best way to determine whether a presidential candidate is truly up to the task? Former Harvard Business School professor Gautam Mukunda joins Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. Mukunda outlines his non-partisan set of criteria for how we can evaluate if a presidential candidate would be an effective leader and why some of the worst—and best—leaders are of the “unfiltered” variety.

Today's changing world faces continuous social, economic, and environmental challenges—from disease to natural disaster to war. The leaders stepping up to solve these issues possess deep ambition, vision, and skills to bring their ideas to life. In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley and Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry and Esther Duflo, Ph.D., Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT and Nobel Prize Winner in Economic Sciences. Together, they discuss how great leaders can pioneer breakthroughs and effectively enact change—from discovery to implementation. Resources:  Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo “There are so many things I kind of wish I had known early in my career, but the big ones for me are, first and foremost, that each person is an individual and has their own sets of passions, strengths, weaknesses, desires.” – Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley “Try to avoid micromanaging people. You get much more done if you can trust someone to run with it.” - Esther Duflo, Ph.D., Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT  Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

(11/3/2022) In Picking Presidents, Gautam Mukunda sets his sights on presidential candidates, proposing an objective and tested method to assess whether they will succeed or fail if they win the White House. Combining political science, psychology, organizational behavior, and economics, Picking Presidents will enable every American to cast an informed vote. Picking Presidents provides analysis of filtered and unfiltered presidents alike, from failed haberdasher and skillful president Harry Truman, to the exceptionally well-qualified—and ultimately reviled—James Buchanan; from Andrew Johnson, who set civil rights back by a century, to Theodore Roosevelt, who evaded party opposition to transform American society. Join us when Gautam Mukunda examines Picking Presidents, which lays out a clear framework that anyone can use to judge a candidate and answer the all-important question in order to determine if they are they up to the job on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

While technology is a key driver of advancement and disruption, technology itself does not produce innovation. It's the people that make it possible—and the leaders who aren't afraid to take risks, admit when they're wrong, and face failure head on. In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Josh Wolfe, Founding Partner and Managing Director of Lux Capital and Mike Pell, Envisioneer and Director at the Microsoft Garage in NYC about how leaders should approach and encourage innovation, and lead employees in a technology-driven world. “I like to say that chips on shoulders put chips in pockets, in part because it is often predictive of somebody that is going to be relentless against adversity.” – Josh Wolfe, Founding Partner and Managing Director of Lux Capital “Tech enables amazing, incredible new things we could never do before, but it's always, for me, the people part that is far more interesting and far more powerful.” – Mike Pell, Envisioneer, Director, The Microsoft Garage - NYC Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Research shows that strong comradery and collaboration among coworkers is essential for building successful organizations. And in today's world of hybrid work, it's perhaps more important than ever. It's up to leaders to create a culture that prioritizes these positive co-working relationships and fosters employee engagement. In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Ben Michealis, Co-founder and CEO of the group.io, and Kevin Delaney, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Charter, about how leaders can build successful in this new world of work. The duo discusses the importance of bringing humanity to work, while maintaining boundaries between work and personal life. “The quiet quitting and Great Resignation are diagnostics on businesses.” — Kevin Delaney, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Charter “So much of the problem is we get into these sorts of momentary, transactional relationships where it's just about what is the transaction, as opposed to the larger picture, which is the broad relationship of how do we, how are we relating to one another long term?” - Ben Michaelis, Co-Founder and CEO of Group.io Resources: Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work, by Leslie A. Perlow The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Gautam Mukunda, author of Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World. Gautam Mukunda is a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, and the host of NASDAQ's World Reimagined podcast. He was formerly an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World by Gautam Mukunda Celebrated leadership expert and political scientist Gautam Mukunda provides a comprehensive, objective, and non-partisan method for answering the most important question in the world: is someone up to the job of president of the United States? In Picking Presidents, Gautam Mukunda sets his sights on presidential candidates, proposing an objective and tested method to assess whether they will succeed or fail if they win the White House. Combining political science, psychology, organizational behavior, and economics, Picking Presidents will enable every American to cast an informed vote. In his 2012 book Indispensable, which all but predicted the Trump presidency, Mukunda explained how both the very best and very worst leaders are "unfiltered"—outsiders who take power without the understanding or support of traditional elites. Picking Presidents provides deep analysis of filtered and unfiltered presidents alike, from failed haberdasher and skillful president Harry Truman, to the exceptionally well-qualified—and ultimately reviled—James Buchanan; from Andrew Johnson, who set civil rights back by a century, to Theodore Roosevelt, who evaded party opposition to transform American society. Picking Presidents lays out a clear framework that anyone can use to judge a candidate and answer the all-important question: are they up to the job?

Laughter not only feels good, but it's good for your mental and physical health. It reduces stress, promotes creativity, and helps people feel more connected. It can also help make you a more effective leader.    In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, co-authors of Humor, Seriously, and Joey Zwillinger, Co-founder and CEO of Allbirds about why and how leaders should use humor to unite and motivate employees and improve their work culture.   “You often hear people suggest that great leaders tend to be vulnerable leaders. I think that humor can be such a great tool to unlock vulnerability.” — Joey Zwillinger, Co-founder and CEO of Allbirds   “Humor is this powerful way to get serious things done. I think part of it is upending this deeply ingrained cultural corporate belief that humor and seriousness are at odds.” — Naomi Bagdonas, Lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and Author of Humor, Seriously   “Creativity and humor are inextricably linked.” — Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and Author of Humor, Seriously Resources:   Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how Anyone Can Harness It. Even You.) by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas   Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast  

Episode SummaryA wide-ranging discussion with the multi-talented Gautam Mukunda. Leadership, Theranos, Failure and Learning, Luck, Russia and Ukraine, the Financial Crisis, Inequality, Innovation. Bezos, Jobs, Holmes, Neumann, Sackler, Putin.Sydney Finkelstein Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein's research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.Gautam MukundaGautam Mukunda is an internationally recognized expert in leadership and innovation. He often jokes that his life's ambition is to have the world's most confusing resume and that he's most of the way there. He is a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership and the host of the Nasdaq podcast World Reimagined with Gautam Mukunda. Previously he was a professor at Harvard Business School and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University. He is the author of two books: Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) and Picking Presidents (University of California Press, forthcoming in August 2022). He has published articles in Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Slate, Fast Company, Parameters, Politics and the Life Sciences, and Systems and Synthetic Biology on leadership, reforming the financial sector, military innovation, network-centric warfare, the security and economic implications of synthetic biology, and the TV show Mad Men. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, Atlantic, New Yorker, Economist, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and All Things Considered. He advises a variety of companies and organizations on leadership and strategy. Gautam was a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Security Studies Program and Program on Emerging Technologies. He was a Paul & Daisy Soros New American Fellow, an NSF IGERT Fellow, a Next Generation Fellow of The American Assembly, and a Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation's Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center. He served on The Chief of Naval Operation's Executive Advisory Panel and as a member of the New England Regional Selection Committee for the White House Fellowship and was a Member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership. He was also a Jeopardy Champion. At MIT, Gautam was the National Science Foundation Synthetic Biology ERC Postdoctoral Fellow resident at MIT's Center for International Studies. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in political science focusing on International Relations and Security Studies, where he was a Paul & Daisy Soros New American Fellow and an NSF IGERT Fellow. He received his AB in Government from Harvard, magna cum laude. Before his academic career, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he focused on the pharmaceutical sector. In addition to his current work as an academic, Gautam is a member of the board of directors and chair of the Mentorship Committee of The Upakar Foundation, a national non-profit devoted to providing college scholarships to underprivileged students of South Asian descent. He is on the Advisory Board of Bionic Solutions and Fount Bio. He is an Overseer of the Boston Ballet and a member of the Museum Council of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.Insights from this episode: Mukunda's thoughts on leadership and innovationInsights into what his upcoming book, Picking Presidents, is aboutInsights into Theranos and Elizabeth HolmesThe dark side of successful businessesEffects of the 2008 financial crisis on the economyMukunda's thoughts on the Ukrainian war and the role of the WestQuotes from the show:“I do believe this, both as a matter of inclination and a matter of research, that in a world of specialists, there is a real advantage to being a generalist” –Gautam Mukunda [2:23]“I think it's possible to be an extraordinarily successful leader, and obviously he [Duke of Wellington] was without being innovative” –Gautam Mukunda [10:04]“If you do the same thing as everyone else, it's difficult or impossible to produce unique results” –Gautam Mukunda [10:24]“I think it's really important to have people in senior executive positions who are capable of doing the job” –Gautam Mukunda [12:15]“Organizations that exist in domains of limited losses and unlimited gains have a tendency to become far too risk-averse” –Gautam Mukunda [19:32]“It's not an experiment, whatever the project is if you know it's gonna succeed” –Syd Finkelstein [22:00]“If you are not angry about this [economic crisis], you are not paying attention. Anger is an appropriate response to the scale of bad things that we saw” –Gautam Mukunda [39:00]“Much of the behavior that led to the financial crisis was criminal. And the federal system just chose not to prosecute it” –Gautam Mukunda [39:25]“We are on the forefront of a medical revolution to a scale of which baffles the mind” –Gautam Mukunda [53:56]Stay connected:Sydney FinkelsteinWebsite: http://thesydcast.comLinkedIn: Sydney FinkelsteinTwitter: @sydfinkelsteinFacebook: The SydcastInstagram: The SydcastGautam MukundaWebsite: Gautam MukundaLinkedIn: Gautam Mukunda Facebook: Gautam MukundaTwitter: Gautam MukundaInstagram: Gautam Mukunda Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Whether you're looking to climb a mountain in sub-zero temperatures or reverse decades of economic hardship, leading in impossible situations requires stepping outside your comfort zone. How can leaders create a culture that encourages people to bring all their strengths to the table? How can authentic and vulnerable leadership inspire a team to work together to achieve the impossible? In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Vivian James Rigney, President of Executive Coaching firm Inside Us LLC and the author of Naked at the Knife-Edge and Deborah Wahl the Global CMO of General Motors about what it really takes to defy the odds and accomplish larger-than-life goals.   “This word: vulnerability. This is a strength, and it's a strength to want to be curious, it's a strength to ask for help.” —  Vivian James Rigney “I think failure has so many negative connotations in business life. No one wants to fail, but yet it's the failures that drive us to the most incredible successes.”— Deborah Wahl    Resources: Naked at the Knife-Edge: What Everest Taught Me about Leadership and the Power of Vulnerability by Vivian James Rigney   Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast   Learn more about TDAmeritrade: https://www.tdameritrade.com/ https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Effective communication and meaningful candor are the backbone of success for most teams, but they don't come naturally – these skills have to be learned. In order to drive this success, leaders must create a culture of learning within their organizations. What are the tactics leaders can implement to achieve that learning culture? How can you become a leader that cultivates an environment of open feedback?   In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School's Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, about how and why leaders should strive to create a culture of psychological safety in the workplace.   “You're trying to create an environment where people are able and aware to keep learning. That that's just recognized as essential…I think we're very much in a culture of knowing rather than a culture of learning.” — Amy Edmondson     Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast   Learn more about TDAmeritrade: https://www.tdameritrade.com/ https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Disrupting an industry takes more than just new ideas and a desire to shake things up. It takes vision, passion, and relentless innovation. And sometimes it means more than just changing the business landscape; it means changing people's minds. How can leaders harness disruption to build a business that creates change? How can they convince customers to come along for the ride?   In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Airbnb Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Nate Blecharczyk and Founder and CEO of CoderBunnyz, Samaira Mehta about the challenges associated with changing people's perceptions to create industry-defining disruption.   “It's important to use those mistakes and those failures as building blocks and reapply them to create a path that will lead you to success.” — Samaira Mehta   “If you're persistent enough to keep trying, then all that learning will pay dividends in the long run.” — Nate Blecharczyk     Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit:   Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast   Learn more about TDAmeritrade:   https://www.tdameritrade.com/ https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

As a leader, transparency can be a tricky topic to navigate. It's often framed as an end-goal -- an inherent good that all leaders should aspire to -- but full transparency just isn't possible in most industries. So, how should leaders think about transparency in the workplace? How can they use it to motivate and inspire their teams? When should they share, and why?   In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with GitLab's co-founder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij and the Deputy Managing Editor of the New York Times Rebecca Blumenstein about how being intentional with transparency can result in authenticity, honesty and openness in workplace culture.   “Companies that are more forthcoming about their challenges and their problems generally fare much better.” — Rebecca Blumenstein   “What's really important is that we're transparent by default. So, things are public by default unless we have a good reason not to do that.” — Sid Sijbrandij       Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   For more information on this episode's guest please visit:   Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast   Learn more about TDAmeritrade:   https://www.tdameritrade.com/ https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

In our increasingly complex world, leaders have to manage more challenges, stakeholders, and scenarios than ever before. To grow an organization amidst all of this, how can leaders create a proactive profile that enables them to manage in a constructive way? How can they put people first, without sacrificing growth, and still be remembered as an impactful leader?   In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with founder of ConantLeadership and former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, Doug Conant, and the CEO of Edelman U.S., Lisa Osborne Ross, about how a leader's ability to orchestrate an organization with integrity, empathy, and confidence can leave an enduring contribution.   “The more you sharpen your leadership skills it's amazing how much better your gut gets.” — Doug Conant   “If you put people first, profitability follows.” — Lisa Osborne Ross     Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   Literature Referenced:   Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, by Jim Collins   For more information on this episode's guest please visit:   Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast   Learn more about TDAmeritrade:   https://www.tdameritrade.com/ https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Our regrets influence the way we engage and interact with the world. Having the ability to reflect and learn from these moments gives us the perspective to better lead while understanding the context, experiences and feelings of others. How can leaders reflect on these defining experiences and moments of regret to make them more empathetic leaders? How can empathy help leaders become more effective?   In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Daniel Pink, author of five New York Times bestsellers, including The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, about how leading with trust and empathy can transform workplaces and change how we see the world.   “In the architecture of regret, people tend to regret inactions more than actions.” — Daniel Pink   “You don't want to be the leader you had. You want to be the leader you should have had.” — Daniel Pink   Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   Literature Referenced:   The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, by Daniel H. Pink Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins     For more information on this episode's guest please visit:   Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast   Learn more about TDAmeritrade:   www.tdameritrade.com www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

In today's era of uncertainty, trust has never been more important. This presents an opportunity for organizations and leaders to step up on important topics to drive change and foster meaningful connections with customers, employees, and communities.   In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda is joined by Jeremy Skule, Chief Strategy Officer at Nasdaq and Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist at Canva and former Chief Evangelist at Apple to discuss how to build brand trust through authenticity, transparency, and integrity.  “Building up trust takes decades, years, at least. Losing trust can happen in a matter of seconds.” — Jeremy Skule   Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   Literature Referenced: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam   For more information on this episode's guests please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast   Learn more about TDAmeritrade: https://www.tdameritrade.com/ https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Good leaders change their organizations. Great leaders change the world. But even the best leaders, committed to making the world a better place, can face an uphill battle with constant, expected tradeoffs between purpose and profit. How can leaders navigate purpose, profit, and impact? How can they drive change in the world while also unlocking long-term, sustainable value for stakeholders? In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with purpose-driven leaders Nate Mook and Vincent Stanley on the importance of storytelling for inspiring change and accelerating impact within organizations and the world more broadly. Nate Mook is a tech entrepreneur, storyteller and documentary producer who now serves as the CEO of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit NGO dedicated to providing nutritious food to people in the wake of natural disasters. Vincent Stanley is the co-author of "The Responsible Company" and Patagonia's Director of Philosophy. “The way you tell a story also becomes, in a way, the strategic discipline of the company.” — Vincent Stanley “If you really want to look at systems change and changing the world for the better, and addressing major, major challenges that we all face right now, you have to think bigger. And I think that's really about making people connect with those stories of why you are there.” — Nate Mook Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com For more information on this episode's guests please visit: Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast Learn more about TDAmeritrade: https://www.tdameritrade.com/ https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html    

Gautam Mukunda is an internationally recognized expert in leadership and innovation. He has been everything from an Ivy-League professor to a podcast host. Gautam received his PhD from MIT in political science and an AB in Government from Harvard, and since then has followed his many interests wherever they will take him. He has served on numerous councils in the worlds of politics, biotechnology, art, and economics, including the Council of Foreign Relations, The Chief of Naval Operation's Executive Advisory Panel, the New England Regional Selection Committee for the White House Fellowship, the Museum Council of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership, among many others. He is on the board of directors and chair of the Mentorship Committee of The Upakar Foundation, a non-profit providing scholarships to underprivileged students of South Asian descent. He has been a research fellow at Harvard and the American Assembly, as well as a Principal Investigator on the National Science Foundation's Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center grant. With far-reaching passions and areas of expertise, it should come as no surprise that Gautam has also been a Jeopardy Champion. Gautam is the author of two books: Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter and the forthcoming Picking Presidents. He has published articles on everything from leadership to politics and beyond in Harvard Business Review, Slate, Fast Company, Politics and the Life Sciences, and many more. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and many more distinguished publications. He also advises a variety of companies and organizations on leadership and strategy. Gautam often jokes that his life's ambition is to have the world's most confusing resume and that he's most of the way there. Read the show notes here: https://bwmissions.com/one-away-podcast/

Released 7 October, 2021. Statistical evidence suggests that Army battalion commanders are significant determinants of the retention of their lieutenants—especially high-potential lieutenants. Further, this so-called Battalion Commander Effect should be included in brigadier general promotion board assessments and used to inform officer professional military education curricula. Click here to read the article.

In a world of specialists, a generalist's broad range of knowledge and expertise can actually make his or her team much better. But, being a generalist requires grit and courage. The courage to raise your hand, to take chances, and to be confident in your ability to tackle any subject. However, in a world that most often rewards specialists, where and how can generalists shine? What benefits and learnings can leaders draw from focusing on generalization, versus specialization? This week, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two trailblazers who have reinvented their careers by way of passion, diversity, and failure. David Epstein, the New York Times bestselling author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, shares thoughts about how generalism is at the core of true innovation. And Reshma Saujani, who is the first Indian-American woman to run for U.S. Congress and the Founder of Girls Who Code, discusses how failure-bred resiliency inspires confidence. “Being a generalist allows you to raise your hand when you don't know exactly what you are doing because you have built this base of skill set that gives you the confidence to know that you can get in it and try to figure it out.” — Reshma Saujani “I think there is all this evidence that every conceivable kind of diversity adds to the potential problem-solving toolbox.”    — David Epstein “My read of the research is that sometimes what gives you the short-term advantage, or what appears to be a head-start, actually undermines your long-term development, whether that is developing a sport or music skill or deciding what to study, or deciding what to do in your career, or accumulating the skills you need for problem-solving. That there is a tension between short and long-term development and I wish it weren't that way.”   — David Epstein Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   Books Referenced: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation, by Frans Johansson Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, by Gautam Mukunda   Guest Info: David Epstein is author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He was previously an investigative reporter at ProPublica and before that a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. His two TED Talks have been viewed more than 11 million times. David has master's degrees in environmental science and journalism and is currently the host of Slate's How To! podcast and author of the “Range Report” newsletter. Reshma Saujani is a leading activist and the founder of Girls Who Code and the Marshall Plan for Moms. She has spent more than a decade building movements to fight for women and girls' economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and most recently advocating for policies to support moms impacted by the pandemic. Reshma is also the author of the international bestseller Brave, Not Perfect, and her influential TED talk, “Teach girls, bravery not perfection,” has more than five million views globally. Reshma began her career as an attorney and Democratic organizer. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress. Reshma lives in New York City with her husband, Nihal, their sons, Shaan and Sai, and their bulldog, Stanley.

This week, Stan and Chris speak to Gautam Mukunda. Gautam is an expert in leadership who says he aims to have the world's most confusing resume. Gautam is a Jeopardy champion, former consultant, and a Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy's Center for Public Leadership. He has degrees from Harvard, Dartmouth, and MIT and is the host of Nasdaq's "World Reimagined" podcast. Gautam speaks to leadership and power, the risks of having "superstars" on teams, and gives us a new perspective on the story of George Washington and his wooden teeth.

This week, Stan and Chris speak to Gautam Mukunda. Gautam is an expert in leadership who says he aims to have the world's most confusing resume. Gautam is a Jeopardy champion, former consultant, and a Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy's Center for Public Leadership. He has degrees from Harvard, Dartmouth, and MIT and is the host of Nasdaq's "World Reimagined" podcast. Gautam speaks to leadership and power, the risks of having "superstars" on teams, and gives us a new perspective on the story of George Washington and his wooden teeth.

Ethical leadership is both personally rewarding — and incredibly hard. How do ethical entrepreneurs and leaders maintain faith in their vision, pivot when necessary, reconcile unintentional consequences, implement innovation guardrails, and persevere in the face of powerful obstacles? It helps to have a North Star – an unwavering vision for the future and a real sense of who they want to be in the future. In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with two industry creators, Bodhala CEO Raj Goyle and Twitch Co-founder Justin Kan about what it takes to disrupt the world to build a better one. “As I became more successful and more recently, I realized that wasn't as fulfilling as I thought. And so now what's really activating for me is to think about things that are maybe a little bit more in service to other people. And that manifests in a bunch of different ways.” – Justin Kan Follow @GMukunda on Twitter  or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com   Books Referenced: The Fracturing of the American Corporate Elite, by Mark Mizruchi The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, by Michael Alan Singer The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor The Power Broker, by Robert Caro   Guest Info: Justin Kan is an American Internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder of Twitch, the internet live video streaming platform. In 2006, Justin launched the live video service Justin.tv, a company that started when he strapped a camera to his head and streamed his life to the internet 24/7. Over the next eight years, through twists and turns, he and his cofounders turned the business into Twitch, ultimately selling to Amazon in 2014 for $970 million. Over the years, he has founded half a dozen companies that have raised over $500 million in venture capital and invested in some of the fastest-growing startups around, including Reddit, Cruise Automation, Bird, Rippling, and many more. He is the host of The Quest, a podcast telling the stories of trailblazers in business, music, sports, and entertainment. Raj Goyle is CEO of Bodhala, a leading legal technology company based in New York City and Ann Arbor focused on legal spend management and analytics. Co-founded with a fellow Harvard Law graduate, Bodhala helps large and small in-house legal departments, saving companies significant time and money through the creation of a competitive, transparent legal marketplace. Goyle, who received his undergraduate degree from Duke University, served two terms in the Kansas House of Representatives after working as a policy analyst and civil rights attorney. He serves on the boards of Hunger Free America, the American India Foundation, Everyartist.me, Issue One and chairs the State Innovation Exchange. Goyle lives in New York with his wife Monica Arora, a partner at Proskauer. They have two daughters.

How do you find the next big idea — one that will change business or the world? As the main forces of R&D have moved out of government offices and into private businesses, many organizations lack the structure to properly engage them. How can companies encourage innovation and growth in our fast-moving world? What organizational changes can be implemented to create a structure that nurtures sky-high, implausible ideas that challenge conventional wisdom and lead us to our next innovation revolution? In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with two best-selling authors and entrepreneurs. The physicist founder of a biotech company, Safi Bahcall, and author, investor, and startup CEO, David Kidder describe how to organize your teams and methods for a breakthrough. “I'm a huge believer in structure. Regardless of whether a company desires growth or not, most efficiency-driven, short-termism-driven cultures — I like to refer to them as the big to bigger — really are at war with growth in their incentive. The talent, the structure, and the models are not designed in any way to create growth as a natural order of their management. Trying to do innovation or disruption anywhere inside or near it is literally a fool’s errand.” — David S. Kidder Follow @GMukunda on Twitter   Books Referenced: Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, by Safi Bahcall New to Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth, by David Kidder and Christina Wallace Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance, by Gary P. Pisano and Willy Shih Leading Without Authority: How the New Power of Co-Elevation Can Break Down Silos, Transform Teams, and Reinvent Collaboration, by Keith Ferrazzi Nabokov books Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman, by Richard P. Feynman, Michelle Feynman Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography, by Janet Browne   Guest Info: Safi Bahcall is a physicist, a former public-company CEO, the founder of a biotechnology company specializing in cancer drugs, and the author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries. An instant WSJ bestseller, Loonshots has been translated into 18 languages; selected as a best business book of the year by Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., the Washington Post, and others; and recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Kahneman, Ed Catmull, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and Malcolm Gladwell. Loonshots was the #1 most recommended book of the year in Bloomberg’s annual survey of CEOs and entrepreneurs. Safi received his BA summa cum laude from Harvard, completed his Ph.D. in physics at Stanford, and served for three years as a consultant at McKinsey and Company. In 2001, he co-founded Synta Pharmaceuticals. He led the company's IPO and served as its CEO for 13 years. In 2008, he was named E&Y New England Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2011, he worked with President Obama’s council of science advisors (PCAST) on the future of national research. Safi currently advises CEOs and leadership teams on strategy and innovation and is working on his next book. He lives with his wife and two children in Cambridge, MA.   David S. Kidder is an entrepreneur and an angel investor in over 40 companies. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Bionic, a company that unlocks new growth for the world's most competitive enterprises by leveraging the mindsets and methodologies of venture capital and entrepreneurship. Previously, he served as the co-founder and CEO of venture-backed startups Clickable and co-founded SmartRay Network. A graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, he received Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008. He is the creator and co-author of two-time New York Times bestselling series The Intellectual Devotional, The Startup Playbook and his latest book, New To Big, published in April 2019 with Penguin Random House. David can be found across all social platforms at @davidskidder and at onbionic.com and davidskidder.com.

Leaders model behavior and inspire others to emulate them in their personal lives and on a bigger scale. Just as we have a choice to do the right thing in our personal lives, business leaders have that choice at work. Many strive to be people of good character in all aspects of their lives. But, what does it really mean to be a person of good character? Or, from a business perspective, a company of character? If character is the critical component of ethical leadership, how do we cultivate it in ourselves and in our organizations? In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with the Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point and Soldier’s Medal recipient, Col. Everett Spain and the legendary former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi about how today’s leaders can model courage to do the right thing. “The character of a corporation is not the personality. The character of a corporation is the integrity and morality of the company. How much does the company believe in the betterment of society? How much does the company believe it cannot succeed at the expense of society? That is the true character of a corporation. I don't want us to lose sight of that.” — Indra Nooyi Follow @GMukunda on Twitter   Books Referenced: The Arc of Ambition, by James A. Champy and Nitin Nohria 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything, by Mauro F. Guillén Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi The Captain Class: The Hidden Force that Creates the World's Greatest Teams, by Sam Walker Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, by Marshall Rosenberg The Colored Cadet At West Point: Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U. S. A., first graduate of color from the U. S. Military Academy, by Henry Ossian Flipper   Guest Info: Colonel Everett Spain is a Professor, USMA, and the 7th Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point. Everett has served with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq, V Corps in Europe, 1st Infantry Division in Kosovo, Multi-National Force-Iraq, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and as a White House Fellow under the Bush and Obama Administrations. A native of Pensacola, Florida, Everett received a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from West Point, a Master of Business Administration from Duke’s Fuqua School, and a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He actively researches and writes about talent management. Additionally, he serves as a senior advisor to the Army Talent Management Task Force, is the president of the Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization 501(c)(3), and volunteers as a Holocaust Legacy Partner. Everett and his spouse Julia live at West Point and enjoy raising their four children, including a West Point cadet, a college freshman enrolled in Army ROTC, and two high school sophomores.   Indra Nooyi is the former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (2006-2019); a Fortune 50 company with operations in over 180 countries. In this role, Mrs. Nooyi was the chief architect of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo’s pledge to do what’s right for the business by being responsive to the needs of the world around us. As part of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo was focused on delivering sustained growth by making more nutritious products, limiting its environmental footprint and protecting the planet, and empowering its associates and people in the communities it serves. During her tenure, PepsiCo grew net revenue by more than 80%, and PepsiCo’s total shareholder return was 162%. Before joining PepsiCo in 1994 Mrs. Nooyi held senior positions at The Boston Consulting Group, Motorola, and Asea Brown Boveri. Currently, Mrs. Nooyi is a member of the board of Amazon and sits on the Audit Committee. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan Kettering, she is a member of the International Advisory Council of Temasek, an independent director of the International Cricket Council, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is also a Dean’s Advisory Council member at MIT’s School of Engineering and a member of the MIT Corporation. Additionally, she is the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at West Point. Mrs. Nooyi has received many prizes, accolades, and honorary degrees over the years. In 2007, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan, the country’s 3rd highest civilian honor. In 2007, she was named an “Outstanding American by choice” by the U.S. State Department. In 2019, her portrait was inducted into the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. She holds a B.S. from Madras Christian College, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and a Master of Public and Private Management from Yale University. Mrs. Nooyi is married and has two daughters.

Leaders are faced with difficult choices every day, but when you factor in crisis circumstances like we are dealing with now, even the most basic decisions can feel hard. This week we are looking at ways to become more confident and effective in your decision-making during chaos and crisis. We’ll dig into these questions:   ✔️What type of leaders are best suited to understanding and navigating through a crisis situation?  ✔️What are the necessary decision-making tools we can all learn to improve our own leadership skills?  ✔️What types of teams do best when facing adversity?  ✔️How can teams work effectively to make hard choices under difficult circumstances? ✔️How can we more easily discern our best options, given today’s constant onslaught of new information?    Join us with our special guest Gautam Mukunda, author, research fellow and host of the podcast “Nasdaq’s World Reimagined.” We’ll explore his latest research on the key attributes that are elevating leaders and teams and helping them succeed in these challenging times.

In a way, the space where we live is an exhibition, a curation of an exact moment in time. As humans, we are constantly assessing the world around us and arranging it to fit our values. But, what factors influence our sense of taste and point of view? What makes something desirable? What methods do designers and leaders apply to contextualize products, information, and experiences people love? In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with the Head of the Design Lab at Harvard, Dr. Beth Altringer, and the Chair, Art for Europe at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Dr. Frederick Ilchman about the relationship between design and technology, and how shaping taste is a powerful way to lead. “Curating properly means to care for something, to preserve it. It's a rather beautiful calling. You are trying to save the best of the past for the present so we can understand what our future is going to be.” — Dr. Frederick Ilchman Follow @GMukunda on Twitter   Books Referenced: Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944, by Antony Beevor Stalingrad, by Antony Beevor Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, by Leanne Shapton Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, by Samin Nosrat The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs, by Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, by Jesse Schell Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado-Perez   Guest Info: Dr. Frederick Ilchman is an art historian and museum curator. He specializes in Italian Renaissance painting, particularly that of Venice. He’s chair of Art of Europe for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His acclaimed exhibition, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice (2009), organized with the Musée du Louvre, won several awards. Eager to enlist supporters for his favorite city, he is also the Chairman of Save Venice, the largest non-profit organization specifically devoted to preserving the art and architecture of Venice.   Dr. Beth Ames Altringer is an award-winning designer and runs the Design Lab at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In 2016, The Harvard Crimson recognized her as one of the university’s top 15 professors. Altringer founded the Desirability Lab, which has helped teams at companies like IDEO, Gucci, Puma, IKEA, Disney, Piaggio, Swarovski, and Uber to create more desirable products and services based on behavioral research. When she's not teaching, Altringer is usually in her studio working with flavor data or making art. She built the iOS app, Chef League, an interactive game that lets you learn flavor intuition from chefs, created flavor research software called the Flavor Genome Project, paints for fun, and is a former champion blind taster.

New digital tools can allow us to combat loneliness as the world transitions to a predominately remote workplace. But can technology create an experience where people feel a deeper source of connection with one another? Can it mimic the face-to-face environments of the past? One thing we do know: The only way we will be able to overcome this pandemic is if we do it together. But in a time of such intense isolation, how do we reclaim togetherness to solve the problems that plague us? In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda is joined by President Biden's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and award-winning author, Dr. Tsedal Neeley to discuss how humans will thrive in the post-pandemic, new world of work. “Deep human connection is built not through grand gestures, but through those small moments when we stop by and look into someone's lives, allow them to glimpse into what is happening in our lives, and through those moments of authenticity, of transparency, we forge a deep connection.” — Dr. Vivek Murthy Follow @GMukunda on Twitter   Books Referenced: Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, by Vivek Murthy Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding From Anywhere, by Tsedal Neeley The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations, by Tsedal Neeley Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World, by Karim R. Lakhani and Marco Iansiti Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger Braving the Wilderness, by Brené Brown Trust: America’s Best Chance, by Pete Buttigieg   Guest Info: Dr. Vivek Murthy was confirmed by the Senate in 2014 to serve as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States and currently serves as co-chair of the President-elect's COVID-19 Advisory Board. A renowned physician, research scientist, entrepreneur, and author of the bestselling book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, Dr. Murthy is among the most trusted voices in America on matters of public health. As “America's Doctor,” Dr. Murthy helped lead the national response to a range of health challenges, including the Ebola and Zika viruses, the opioid crisis, and the growing threat of stress and loneliness to Americans' physical and mental wellbeing. Prior to his tenure as Surgeon General, Dr. Murthy co-founded VISIONS, a global HIV/AIDS education organization; the Swasthya Project, a rural health partnership that trained women in South India to become community health workers and educators; TrialNetworks, a technology company dedicated to improving collaboration and efficiency in clinical trials; and Doctors for America, a nonprofit mobilizing physicians and medical students to improve access to affordable care. His scientific research has focused on vaccine development and the participation of women and minorities in clinical trials. And as an internal medicine doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Murthy cared for thousands of patients over the years and trained undergraduates, medical students, and medical residents. Raised in Miami, Dr. Murthy received his bachelor of arts degree from Harvard, his Master’s in business administration from the Yale School of Management, and his MD from the Yale School of Medicine. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Dr. Alice Chen, and their two children. Vivek Murthy @vivek_murthy on Twitter   Dr. Tsedal Neeley is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Her work focuses on how leaders can scale their organizations by developing and implementing global and digital strategies. She regularly advises top leaders who are embarking on virtual work and large scale-change that involves global expansion, digital transformation, and becoming more agile. Tsedal heads and teaches in the first-year required Leadership and Organizational Behavior course in the MBA program that focuses on how to lead effectively; the curriculum addresses group behavior and performance, organization design, change, and how to align people behind a common vision. With Bill George and Krishna Palepu, she co-chairs the executive offering, Leading Global Businesses, which helps top leaders develop emerging and mature market strategies in a global and increasingly digital economy. She also teaches extensively in executive programs such as Harvard Business Analytics Program. Tsedal is a recipient of the prestigious Charles M. Williams Award for Outstanding Teaching in Executive Education and the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to Harvard Business School. She serves on the Board of Directors of Brightcove, Brown Capital Management, Harvard Business Publishing, and the Partnership Inc. Her forthcoming book, Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere (2021, Harper Collins Business), provides remote workers and leaders with the best practices necessary to perform at the highest levels in their organizations. Her award-winning book, The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations chronicles the behind-the-scenes globalization process of a company over the course of five years. She has also published extensively in leading scholarly and practitioner-oriented outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, Journal of International Business, Strategic Management Journal, and Harvard Business Review, and her work has been widely covered in media outlets such as BBC, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. Her HBS case, Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, is one of the most used cases worldwide on the subject of virtual work. Prior to her academic career, Tsedal spent ten years working for companies like Lucent Technologies and The Forum Corporation in various roles, including strategies for global customer experience, 360-degree performance software management systems, sales force/sales management development, and business flow analysis for telecommunication infrastructures. A sought-after speaker with extensive international experience, she is fluent in four languages. She holds a patent for her software simulation on global collaboration and is a member of Rakuten’s Advisory Board. Tsedal received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering, specializing in Work, Technology, and Organizations. Tsedal was named to Thinkers50 2018 On the Radar list for making lasting contributions to management, honored as a Stanford Distinguished Alumnus Scholar, and was a Stanford University School of Engineering Lieberman award recipient for excellence in teaching and research. Dr. Tsedal Neeley @tsedal on Twitter

Risk: the tug-of-war between innovation and the looming prospect of failure that is behind the scenes of every business and industry. And few industries see greater tension between innovation and failure than that of motion pictures. So, how do we innovate and transform a risk-averse industry, especially one that shapes our culture and how we see ourselves? In this episode, Gautam Mukunda is joined by the Founder and CEO of the Black List, Franklin Leonard, to discover what can be learned from his experience taking big risks in the film industry, which can lead to losses but also to monumental pay-offs. “You are always performing your way to freedom when the resources necessary to do what you do are so considerable.” — Franklin Leonard Follow @GMukunda on Twitter   Books Referenced: The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight   Guest Info: Franklin Leonard is a film and television producer, cultural commentator, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Black List, the company that celebrates and supports great screenwriting and the writers who do it via film production, its annual survey of best unproduced screenplays, online marketplace, and screenwriter labs. More than 400 scripts from the annual Black List survey have been produced as feature films earning 250 Academy Award nominations and 50 wins including four of the last thirteen Best Pictures and eleven of the last twenty-four screenwriting Oscars. Franklin has worked in feature film development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, and Leonardo DiCaprio. He has been a juror at the Sundance, Toronto, Guanajuato, and Mumbai Film Festivals and one of Hollywood Reporter’s 35 Under 35, Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future,” and Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.” He was the recipient of the  2019 Writers Guild of America, East's Evelyn Burkey award for elevating the honor and dignity of screenwriters. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, a Board member of American Cinematheque, and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). His TED talk has been viewed more than 1.6 million times.  The Black List @FranklinLeonard on Twitter & @theblcklst on Twitter @FranklinJLeonard on Instagram & @theblcklst on Instagram

On today’s Gist, what’s this about a Tony Award–winning dry cleaner? Presidential inexperience does not always lead to failed presidencies. Some traits can temper inexperience—like the depressive realism of Abraham Lincoln or Lyndon B. Johnson. Other traits magnify inexperience—like narcissism. Gautam Mukunda takes a close look at presidential inexperience in his 2012 book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter.  In the Spiel, Rudy Giuliani had a strategy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s Gist, what’s this about a Tony Award–winning dry cleaner? Presidential inexperience does not always lead to failed presidencies. Some traits can temper inexperience—like the depressive realism of Abraham Lincoln or Lyndon B. Johnson. Other traits magnify inexperience—like narcissism. Gautam Mukunda takes a close look at presidential inexperience in his 2012 book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter.  In the Spiel, Rudy Giuliani had a strategy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HBS organizational behavior Prof. Gautam Mukunda on how Democrats should rethink and rebuild after 2016's disaster -- which he just wrote about in the Harvard Business Review: https://is.gd/9jZInP. We're on Twitter @FullDRadio

Cynthia Carroll's breathtaking story about taking decisive action in the face of a complex and dangerous situation. Harvard Business School professor Gautam Mukunda discusses his case.

There's a lot of crying and shouting both in politics and at the office. Gautam Mukunda of Harvard Business School and Gianpiero Petriglieri of INSEAD help us try to make sense of it all.

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?

Gautam Mukunda, HBS professor, on the dangers of managing companies for shareholders.

Gautam Mukunda, Harvard Business School assistant professor and author of "Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter."