Podcasts about international business studies

Dr. Forrest Morgeson, Interim Chairperson of the Marketing Department, Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at Michigan State University, and former Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). With over two decades of rigorous research and numerous publications in top marketing journals, Dr. Morgeson shares his deep insights into the cyclical relationship between customer satisfaction and the economy. Discover how economic fluctuations, global events, and energy prices intricately affect customer contentment, and why satisfaction decreased pre-COVID only to rebound post-pandemic. Dr. Morgeson provides a critical analysis of the Biden administration's efforts to enhance citizen satisfaction through executive orders, exploring the complexities that set governmental services apart from the private sector. Join the discussion on common misconceptions, the importance of correlating customer satisfaction with ROI, and the challenges businesses face in capturing accurate data on satisfaction and churn. Learn why optimizing, rather than maximizing, customer experience is key to outpacing competitors, and what strategies can improve satisfaction and earnings across different industries. Tune in as Dr. Morgeson shares practical advice for business leaders and reflects on his own career journey, providing valuable nuggets of wisdom for anyone interested in customer experience and satisfaction metrics. Don't miss this opportunity to gain expert knowledge from a leading authority in the field. Subscribe to the Delighted Customers Podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and leave a five-star review to help us spread the word. New episodes drop every Thursday! For more information on the topics discussed, visit the Michigan State University's marketing department website.   Meet Dr. Morgeson Forrest V. Morgeson III is Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing, Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University. He also serves as the Co-Director of the Doctoral Program in Marketing. Dr. Morgeson teaches marketing management, marketing strategy, and marketing research courses to graduate students. Dr. Morgeson's past position was Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), where he managed ACSI's academic research and team of researchers, advanced statistical modeling and analysis, and the company's international projects and licensing program. Dr. Morgeson's research focuses on customer satisfaction and customer experience measurement and management. His work also explores the marketing-finance interface, the impact of political identity on consumer attitudes and behaviors, and the impact of information technology on customer service delivery (e-commerce and e-government). His highly cited research (4,349 citations on Google Scholar) has been published in the leading journals in marketing, including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of International Marketing, along with several publications in the leading journals in public administration and management. Dr. Morgeson has recently published two books: Citizen Satisfaction: Improving Government Performance, Efficiency, and Citizen Trust (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), and The Reign of the Customer: Customer-Centric Approaches to Improving Satisfaction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). In addition, over the past 20 years

When my clients need information, advice or help, I emphasize the importance and methods needed to proactively get the answers to move their goals forward. Yet, too often people hesitate, filling their heads with fear or self doubt, hampering their progress. I usually point out that if they do not make an inquiry or seek more information, then the answer is always NO. Not only is their progress stunted, they feel disappointed in themselves for not following through. My podcast guest this week,  believes in going beyond the NO to uncover answers to his questions. In our interview, André shares his educational journey, from a French community high school in Winnipeg to earning a PhD in management. His post-PhD career began at Michigan Tech and was followed by his return to Canada as a result of political constraints in the US. André delves into his interests in strategy, mentorship, and research, leading to the publication of his book on spinout ventures, . It covers the implications of spinout ventures, the academic and real-world perspectives on entrepreneurship, and the evolving regulatory landscape. Through personal anecdotes and professional insights, André emphasizes the importance of taking risks and continuous learning at any career stage. Today, as a Full Professor in Entrepreneurship and Strategy at Toronto Metropolitan University's Ted Rogers School of Management, André studies and teaches entrepreneurship and strategy. He is interested in the competitive and institutional barriers preventing potential entrepreneurs from launching new ventures successfully. André has over a decade of experience working as a business and information technology consultant in corporate Canada. He has performed many roles, including business analyst, systems analyst, project manager, practice leader, and integration architect. In this week's learn more about Andre's journey: André is a frequent judge at entrepreneurship pitch competitions and an experienced entrepreneur, having launched a startup while in Michigan. His research has appeared in top journals like Human Relations, Journal of International Business Studies, and Journal of Business Research, among others. Learn more and connect with Andre here: 

Discover how startups often start within well known companies and spin out in this episode. Dr. André Laplume, co-author of SPINOUT VENTURES, joins Bradley to discuss spinout ventures.Laplume is a Full Professor in Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the Ted Rogers School of Management, which is part of Toronto Metropolitan University. Laplume researches the intersections where new entrants and incumbent firms meet with the aim of breaking down the barriers facing entrepreneurs, while helping managers deal with entrepreneurial ambitions in their organizations. His research has appeared in top journals like Human Relations, Journal of International Business Studies, and Journal of Business Research, among others. He received his PhD in Management from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and spent seven years at Michigan Tech, teaching in its MBA program. Earlier, Laplume was a business and information technology consultant, helping clients integrate businesses and automate units. He is a frequent judge at entrepreneurship pitch competitions and an experienced entrepreneur, having launched a startup while in Michigan.Thanks to our sponsors...Club Capital provides monthly accounting, tax, and CFO services for insurance agency owners. Learn more at www.club.capitalBlueprintOS equips business owners to design and install an operating system that runs like clockwork. Through BlueprintOS, you will grow and develop your leadership, clarify your culture and business game plan, align your operations with your KPIs, develop a team of A-Players, and execute your playbooks. Discover our free resources for growing your business at www.blueprintos.com.Autopilot Recruiting is a continuous recruiting service where you'll be assigned a recruiter that has been trained to recruit on your behalf every business day. Go to www.autopilotrecruiting.com to get started.Coach P found great success as an insurance agent and agency owner. He leads a large, stable team of professionals who are at the top of their game year after year. Now he shares the systems, processes, delegation, and specialization he developed along the way. Gain access to weekly training calls and mentoring at www.coachpconsulting.com. Be sure to mention the Above The Business Podcast when you get in touch.TodayApp is a corporate approved app that allows you to build custom activities and track all your commissions and bonus structures, and integrates perfectly with your CRM. It can even manage your employees' time, track production, have a leaderboard with metrics, and more. Contact Today App and for a custom demo and let them know you heard about them on The Above The Business Podcast. https://todayapppro.com/

Dr. Mansour Javidan is a multiple award-winning and bestselling author and executive educator whose teaching and research interests span the globe, Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University received his MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota. He is the Garvin Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of Najafi Global Mindset Institute at Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University.Mansour is currently the Project Director and Principal Co-Investigator of GLOBE 2020, working with a team of 426 researchers studying culture change, leadership ideals, and trust dynamics. The project has received close to $1.5 million in funding and has completed data collection from over 60000 managers and professionals in 144 countries.He has designed and taught executive development courses and workshops, conducted consulting projects, and made presentations in over 40 countries. Published in the best journals.Mansour's article on global leadership recently received the Decade's Best Paper Award (2006- 2016) by the Academy of Management Perspectives. Dr. Javidan has been recognized by Stanford University as among the top 2% most cited scientists in the field of business and management in the world in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. He was also recently recognized as among the top 100 most influential (i.e., top 0.6%) authors in Organization Behavior in the world. Mansour was awarded the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Leadership Association.He has designed and taught executive development courses and workshops, conducted consulting projects, and made presentations in over 40 countries. His publications have appeared in such journals as Harvard Business Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, and Leadership Quarterly.A Quote From This Episode"One of the implications of living in such a diversity-rich environment is curiosity. Curiosity about how people do things? Why do they do things differently? This curiosity about how and why has been with me; it is in my genes."Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeBook: Developing Your Global Mindset: The Handbook for Successful Global Leaders by JavidanBook: Strategic Leadership Across Cultures: The GLOBE Study of CEO Leadership Behavior and Effectiveness in 24 Countries by JavidanWebsite: Globe ProjectMansour Javidan - Google Scholar About The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Register for ILA's 26th Global Conference in Chicago, IL - November 7-10, 2024.About  Scott J. AllenWebsiteWeekly Newsletter: The Leader's EdgeBlogMy Approach to HostingThe views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

In today's environment, innovation is recognized as a critical business practice, but do companies encourage innovation to the fullest? Do business leaders feel secure in allowing ideas to grow and potentially sprout into a completely new organization? In this episode, Dr. Andre LePlume shares insights from his extensive research on spinout ventures explaining how companies can benefit from encouraging employees to form internal corporate ventures and pursue innovative ideas. Based on his book, Spinout-Ventures-Transitioning-Employees-Entrepreneurs, he also expresses his view that the best new companies aren't founded in garages, but rather come from a place of keen knowledge and understanding of the needs in a market. Episode Highlights: - Defining Spinout Ventures: Spinouts are created using knowledge and resources transferred from a parent organization. They can ultimately benefit the company even if the spinout founder creates a new company as it may offer needed services. - Encouraging Innovation: Andre points out the need for businesses to create an innovative culture, allowing employees the freedom to explore and develop new ideas internally and externally. - Success in Spinouts - These founders typically have greater experience, are more knowledgeable, and have positive support systems compared to other founders. - Case Study - Zoom: Zoom emerged as a successful spinout from Cisco, highlighting the potential of spinouts to revolutionize industries. - Navigating Legal Challenges: He notes the evolving legal landscape around non-competes and intellectual property, and how businesses can manage these issues to encourage spinouts. - Recommended Reading: "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen; "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore; and "Zero to One" by Peter Thiel. Dr. Andre Laplume is a co-author of Spinout-Ventures-Transitioning-Employees-Entrepreneurs. Andre is a Full Professor in Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the Ted Rogers School of Management, which is part of Toronto Metropolitan University. Laplume researches the intersections where new entrants and incumbent firms meet to break down the barriers facing entrepreneurs while helping managers deal with entrepreneurial ambitions in their organizations. His research has appeared in top journals like Human Relations, Journal of International Business Studies, and Journal of Business Research, among others. He received his PhD in Management from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and spent seven years at Michigan Tech, teaching in its MBA program. Earlier, Laplume was a business and information technology consultant, helping clients integrate businesses and automate units. He is a frequent judge at entrepreneurship pitch competitions and an experienced entrepreneur, having launched a startup while in Michigan. Connect with Andre: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-laplume-90639433/ Book: Spinout Ventures: Transitioning Employees Entrepreneurs can be found on Amazon Connect with Allison: Feedspot has named Disruptive CEO Nation as one of the Top 25 CEO Podcasts on the web and it is ranked the number 10 CEO podcast to listen to in 2024! https://podcasts.feedspot.com/ceo_podcasts/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsummerschicago/ Website: https://www.disruptiveceonation.com/ Twitter: @DisruptiveCEO #spinout #innovation #CEO #AI #Tech #Enterprise #startup #startupstory #founder #business #businesspodcast #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode, Riccardo Cosentino and guest co-host, Corail Bourrelier Fabiani, sit down with fellow alumnus Brandon de León to discuss his Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation on electric aviation.Brandon emphasizes the importance of public perception in adopting new technologies and explores the potential of electric aviation to transform urban mobility. The discussion covers technical advancements, regulatory challenges, and the necessary societal embrace for successful integration of electric aircraft into daily transportation. Brandon's insights highlight the intersection of technology, society, and the future of urban air mobility.“But what really validated my research was that social acceptance came up as an interesting issue already, before the first vehicle flies. And like I mentioned before, the next plans are also around big events, the World Expo in Osaka. Next year in 2025, this was to be flights. And in 2028 in Los Angeles for the Olympics there. Other companies from the US are also planning to fly. So yeah, social acceptance is already showing itself as a key risk.” – Brandon de León  Key Takeaways:Defining the pre-commercialization of electric aviationThe critical role of societal acceptance in the adoption of electric aviationThe potential impact of electric aviation on urban infrastructureInsights into the interplay of technological advancements and regulatory frameworksDistributed and decentralized mega projects If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our LinkedIn community: Follow Brandon de León on LinkedInFollow Corail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedInFollow Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedInFollow Navigating Major Programmes on LinkedInRead Riccardo's latest at wwww.riccardocosentino.com Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino  0:05  You're listening to Navigating Major Programmes, a podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino. I bring over 20 years of Major Programme Management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University Saïd Business School, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major programmes. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode as I press the industry experts about the complexity of Major Programme Management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion-dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us.  Riccardo Cosentino  0:54  Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new episode of Navigating Major Programmes. I'm here today with my co-host, Corail, and we have a special guest, a good old friend of ours joining us today on the podcast. I will pass the mic to Corail who's gonna co-host the podcast today and help me asking questions to this really great guest that has agreed to join us today. How are you doing, Corail? Corail  1:19  Hi, Riccardo, I'm doing really good. Thank you for having me co-hosting this great episode. And I'm excited to talk to Brandon. So maybe a little bit of background, we met doing a major programme management master in Oxford. And during that two years of our lives we met Brandon who was a superstar in our cohort because at the time, he was working for Tesla. And he was talking to us about this really exciting industry and how he's been part of the founders of Tesla. And he's been part of the team that made it a great company that we know today or the big adventure. And then he moved on to work for Rizwan and developing this into a great new enterprise that goes beyond Tesla by working on all different types of trucks and other things that I don't know enough about. But so I'm really excited to hear the story of Brandon. And I think Brandon, it would be great to start with you maybe introducing yourself telling us a little bit about how you ended up in the electric car industry and what drove you to that really expanding field. And yeah, to know a bit more about your background.   Brandon de León  2:37  Wow, what an introduction. Thank you guys so much for having me here on the podcast with you. It's been incredible to see what you guys have produced after the Master's course and hard to follow what you shared Corail. But I think, generally speaking, it's been an amazing learning experience. The Oxford Masters in Major Program Management, learned a lot from you guys, as well as the content. So happy to be here and share a little bit of what I've been working on and some of my background. It's been about 12 years since I've been in the electric car space, but maybe just a step back and give a little personal context about how I even ended up in that. I, my voice betrays me, I'm from the States originally, even though I'm coming to you from Holland today, I'm living in Rotterdam and working in Amsterdam. I grew up on the east coast of the U.S. mainly in Georgia in Florida. And then that's where I connected with Tesla. And what brought me down to Florida originally was my pursuit of International Business Studies. I wanted to study that because I had grown up hearing about how my parents met in Germany, in the army, and so early on, I was ingrained with these ideas of a world beyond the bubble that I lived in. So even though I grew up in small town, Georgia, I knew that I wanted to go and at least traveled to these places maybe even work in these places, if that were possible. And so in high school, when I discovered international business classes, I couldn't get enough. I also learned in those classes that there's a lot of ways society progresses, and probably the fastest mechanism to make that happen is commerce. So you know, regulation and government takes a long time. Nonprofits are phenomenal. But also some of them have limited impact. So it wasn't really clear what the best path was. But having parents that had done service for the country, as it were, and then pursued their careers and more local service type of roles and social worker and studying pre-med and things like that, I knew that I wanted to find a way to make the world a better place in my own little way. Right? So international business was my chosen vessel that brought me to Miami to study undergrad. And then in university there I had a chance to actually work in a company that I had admired for what I would consider a great engineering design and that was BMW their local retailer in the south Florida area. I persuaded them to let me take an entry level job that they didn't have at the time. But I was really eager to get out of the department store I was working at, and to go work in the company that I admired so much down the street and regularly saw the employees from that office. And so thanks to some persuasion and friendliness on their side, I was able to take a very administrative basic role. And I spent two years with BMW, but I realized that 18, 19, 20, there wasn't a lot of career options for someone that young, in the automotive retail space, at least not the traditional automotive, even with really innovative products like BMW. So I went on the search for career path, and I ended up in a bank and I thought, wow, this is terrific, financial district, maybe I peaked early, there's a career advancement ladder, it's all planned out, pension, etc, all the trappings of a great career, but then my interest in engineering and technology kind of clashed at a certain point, because new payment technologies came out into the market. And some people will be familiar with these dongles that you'd plug into an iPhone, which is relatively new back then. And you could swipe credit cards, and it was a revolution for small merchants and mom and pop shops, and I thought, this is wonderful, it's gonna be great for getting them better cash flow, they'll grow faster, it'll really helped a lot of small businesses out. But banking is a very conservative culture and does not run to embrace new technology. So at the time, we were working on a laptop that had an operating system that was three generations old, because the security patches were all well-developed and stuff, there was a clash there. And I figured, okay, I need to find a career path that's also aligned with my interest in technology or automotive or something along those lines. And after a lot of soul searching, and job board searching, I came across Tesla, and they were starting a store locally in South Florida. And through a lot of discussions for different roles. I ended up joining the launch team for the Model S, which was the car that really established the brand as a large volume producer of vehicles. And of course, its focus was electric cars. So that was 2012. I joined right after the vehicle launched. And it's been a wild ride since then. But at that time, because of my international orientation, I thought the wildest dream I have right now is that Tesla will do great. And then we'll get the chance to go and launch in other countries. And maybe I can be part of that. Happily, I had that chance. So although I started in California, and then after we launched the vehicle there, and I gained a lot of experience integrating, delivering the vehicles, the first vehicles and integrating it directly into the lives of people and families across California, I had the chance to bring that back to the East Coast. And then there was an opportunity to join a different department back at headquarters in California. And I jumped at that, because I knew if international opportunities emerge, there'll be people from there, they're good to go. And so that was a strategic step, it was not clear that it would work out. But happily, I was in the right place at the right time, there was an assignment to go help the team in Canada kind of get find their feet, if you will. And then after doing that a couple of times going out to Toronto, and doing what I would call international, but doesn't necessarily appear to be very international experiences going from California to Canada, I also had the chance to join a very small team of four or five that came out to Europe for a few months to do the same, essentially to help train the first model as launch teams here. And that was quite a privilege. When I came home to San Francisco, I thought oh, wow, this is it. Everything I could dream has happened. This is fantastic. What do I do now? And I didn't have to wait long for an answer because being at the headquarters in the beehive of activity, there was an opportunity that was presented to me to come over and help build critical partnership networks because we were starting to deliver vehicles but didn't really have solutions in place for if people were driving from the Netherlands or Norway down to Spain for holiday, what happens if they run out of charge or if the car breaks, and we had a very small footprint in Europe, within three weeks, I was on a one-way flight back to Europe. And I haven't looked back since. So that's a little bit about me in a very long-winded way and how I've gotten here to you. Corail  8:58  No, that was fantastic. Brandon, thank you so much for sharing your passion. It's really fascinating how you're constantly growing, reinventing yourself, but yet you seem to have such a drive. And that brings me to something a little picture that you shared of yourself recently that was you, yourself. I don't know how old you were maybe five or six. And you were in this beautiful little plane. And I think we talked about how you progressed from different career paths, but always with a certain drive and in that journey now I feel like you also have great interest into the future of electric aviation. And you decided to write your dissertation on this specific topic, and the social acceptance of electric aviation. Can you tell us a little bit more about this interest of yours and how you came to write about this in your dissertation in Oxford? Brandon de León  10:00  Yeah, sure. Thanks for reminding me of that picture. It's my haircut was terrible. But yeah, I was very young. And that was, it was a fun picture of me as a very small child in this mock-up of what must have been like a pretend F-16 for children at an Air Force stand at some air show in the U.S. So that was quite a throwback. Thanks for that. The, that picture I think really reflects my interest from the earliest of memories. And I call it transport now because it seems more appropriate. But it's really cars, planes, things that move fast. They're exciting, or have always been exciting to me. And I know that's sometimes cliche and certainly not exclusive to me. But that's where my fascinations were as a kid and that really hasn't died. But my career being mainly in automotive and electric automotive for more recent decade or so, maybe it's worth sharing, it's quick middle steps. So after about 10 years at Tesla, scaling the core product and ecosystems around it in North America and Europe, I thought, okay, what do I, the recipe is pretty much set at Tesla. So we have gigafactories opening, launched four or five different vehicle programs, how can I best use all this wonderful experience? And in 2021, I joined a company called Rivian, which essentially, is, for those who don't know, it a lot like Tesla in that it's a new company that makes cars. But their plan was to electrify totally new vehicle types, still ground vehicles, right? So trucks, which are hugely popular in North America, also SUVs, which are growing in popularity globally. Perhaps, if you look at the Tesla Model Y, the best selling car globally, right now in 2023, I think it was. And then for me sitting in Europe, perhaps most importantly, commercial vans, so they have or we have a huge order with Amazon for 100,000 delivery vans. And that was super exciting to me, because being in Europe, I know that trucks are not a big deal here. SUVs are typically on the smaller side or middle size, definitely not the large American scale. But I knew that if they produced the vans, then we would have a tremendous success on our hands. And that's gone really well. We've delivered over 16,000 vans now it's super exciting to see that happening. So essentially, why join Rivian was to extend electrification. So when looking for a dissertation topic, during our master's degree, I really wanted to take that opportunity to explore the other side of my fascination. One, because there wouldn't be any conflict of interest. So it was a lot cleaner to not do electric vehicles. And then the other side is there was a really interesting ecosystem emerging that was ripe for research. And that's electric aviation. It obviously aligns with my fascinations, but also super timely.   Brandon de León  12:32  So when I started looking into how can I use a dissertation to add some value, however minuscule to what's going on in this ecosystem that fascinated me so much, I started to reach out to people and one of the people I reached out to was someone I would consider a founding father, a modern time founding father in electric aviation. And he had spent three or four decades at NASA researching electric propulsion. And it really caught on towards the 2010s. And we'll get into that later. But essentially, I was asking people like him who are highly technical, unlike me, who's a non engineer, how can a non-engineer contribute to the conversation into the development of this space, and in our discussions that came out that acceptance is really interesting, because it is a known concern. But it's kind of a fuzzy topic, a fluffy topic, it's ambiguous, people aren't really quite sure what to make of it, how to define it, how to grapple with it. And there's not a unified message around it. That's, that seems ripe for Social Sciences dissertation. And that's what led me into it because there weren't any other spaces that weren't mostly other parts, or aspects of the ecosystem today, are highly technical, or regulation-oriented. And this was a space where someone coming from social sciences point of view could really add value. So that's what led me into it, happy to document it more. But that's the background and how I got there. Corail  13:51  I think it's so interesting that you're bringing, as you say, a non-engineer background into a field that is highly engineering-heavy. And we see in Oxford, we talk a lot about the work of Kahneman, for example, and how it mixes psychology and economy and what amazing ideas that created and I feel you coming from a different background is also generating discussion that we don't think the regular engineer doesn't necessarily think about. And I think it's quite beautiful. You talked about the social interest of your parents early on that kind of inspired you. And it's interesting that you went into social acceptance and which encompasses I think many things but also the how people receive what we're producing. Right? And I wanted to ask you a bit more about this because when I think about social acceptance of electric vehicles or electric planes, as of, I don't know, kind of French bias, (inaudible) we talk about how planes are terrible for the environment and we are always thinking about shaming each other in France for how much we travel? I know my aunt for example, is constantly telling me you shouldn't take the plane so often, etc. And so for me, I only see positive outcome, right, for electrifying planes. So why did you, how did you identify social acceptance as a risk? How is it perceived in the industry? Brandon de León  15:19  Yes, it's a great question. And actually, thanks for the chance to add more background because it's not, it wasn't something I was able to include in the dissertation itself, I had to really shrink down that context and generally referred to the study as a study into the acceptance of electric aviation without giving a lot of detail and color. So essentially, in order to understand that better, it's helpful to describe the 2010s and the emergence of the ideas around electric aviation and how it was going to look and feel what the vision was, and who was articulating it. So although there have been decades of research at NASA, in particular from the guy, Mark Moore, is the gentleman I talked to and brainstormed with around ideas, potentially, that could be useful to the ecosystem. So there was quite a lot of work done on the physics and the engineering aspect. But what was interesting is that it didn't come from a lot of technology seemed to come from the defense side, right, where you have the internet, GPS, other things that are developed for military or defense purposes, and then they become commercialized. This is a rare instance where, even though NASA had done prior work, and really help manifest the technology, or the idea around how to use it, it was actually technology, commercial minds, technology and commercial minds that were leading the development of this vision, a particular vision of electric aviation, and they called it urban air mobility, mostly. There were many different names and the names of all the increase since then, in the early 2010s, essentially, you had Google printing tons of money and so just to pick, cherry-pick a specific example, this is not the origin story for the whole ecosystem, but it's a major part of the background. So Google is just minting money, right? And Larry Page starts to make bets. And they're called Alphabet. Now, there's a play on words there. But essentially, Silicon Valley companies that make it that big start to then have to find new avenues to create growth. And these are the bets that they're making. And one of them was autonomous vehicles, right? And today, that's Waymo. And another one that was backed by Larry Page in particular was a company called Kitty Hawk. And it had different names, as in its predecessor phases, but essentially, they were making a two/four passenger air vehicle, and it was all electric. And it looked like nothing you've ever seen before. If I had to describe the inspiration, I think that in many cases, these air vehicles developed by the organization he was backing, or Google was backing. I guess it's more him than Google to be honest, on the on the electric aviation side. And other pioneers of electric aviation in the same timeframe, they kind of looked like scaled up drones, toys, essentially, they're called multicopters in that format. But essentially, the vision was that these were going to be flying taxis. And they were going to be in cities. Now I'm not old enough to remember this in person. But I've read stories about how Delta and United used to have these phenomenal helicopter services where you could catch a helicopter from the top of the Pan Am building in downtown Manhattan, or Midtown and then fly over to JFK, or whatever airport. And that was the heyday of aviation, right when it was really a VIP experience. And this wasn't just New York City, this was San Francisco, tons of other cities have this helicopter service. And it's not really the case anymore outside of a couple non-airline, independent helicopter services in, let's say, New York City for example. And enter Uber, another emerging tech company, who was really ambitious and wanting to really reinvent mobility, not just on the ground, but they also saw an opportunity to play a role in this airspace as well, if you will. And so they took what they knew about ride-hailing and the app and the data that they had seen, all the trips people were taking around urban areas like L.A. and New York and probably better than anyone they fully understood and had the data and the data orientation that a Silicon Valley company would do to understand how there's a huge amount of traffic between this origin and destination. And so airport, if we look back at this helicopter services presents an interesting option. And so they started to, they started a sub-organization or department called Uber Elevate, and they issued a white paper, I think it was 2016, maybe 2017. But the white paper basically articulated a really grand vision for all these air vehicles doing thousands of movements in urban areas a year. So it's a whole new kind of flying, not the wing and tube that we're used to going between over long distances or medium range distances.   Brandon de León  19:49  This was a whole different layer of air transport that hadn't been seen before, because presumably, existing small airplanes were, with the capacity of a ground taxi, four, five, six seats or whatever, were too noisy, not comfortable and outdated designs and they couldn't vertically take off. And that's a big difference too is that these new vehicles were supposed to take off and land like a helicopter. So that then unlocked a lot of opportunities to land in urban areas without a massive airfield and runway. And so that was the lower end division in that Uber Elevate white paper. These days, that evolution of that vision has evolved quite a lot and become a lot more mild. To give you one example, there were images circulating around the time of that white paper, where you would imagine a high-rise tower and different levels that would have open bays that the small car-sized air vehicle could fly into horizontally and land or land at a top and then the elevator would move it around. But essentially, it was beehive for these. And that's where social acceptance really became a question. Because if you have that many vehicles flying around in the airspace that's not really used today and they're potentially making a lot of noise because helicopters are super noisy. And that's the best benchmark that we have, even if they're electric and quieter, they're not going to be in silent, then how are people going to react to the noise? How are people going to react to the visual pollution or obstruction to whatever view they have, if you enjoy the city view of Manhattan, it's now going to have a lot of air vehicles in it. If you enjoy the Coastal View, perhaps you'll see a lot of vehicles above the beach, that sort of thing. Social acceptance was early on identified as a risk, something that needed to be dealt with. But how to deal with that wasn't really clear. Riccardo Cosentino  21:29  Brandon, I have a quick follow-up on that. Because it's very interesting how this was a dissertation. So was the final project for the master's degree or for a master in major program management. Can you articulate how you end up picking an industry as a major programme? I'm assuming, I'm paraphrasing a little bit because your study is not about one particular project, one particular company, it's really just societal, and how society is going to who's going to embrace this new technology or not. And so when you were discussing with your supervisor about this topic, how was it received from the academic side because we're all educated, and we're all told my major project is a project about 1 billion dollar/pounds, whatever. But I'm not a believer in that metric. To me, it's, major programmes are about complexity and I think your dissertation fits perfectly that definition, but you must have had some back and forth with your supervisor, or even with some other academics. Brandon de León  22:38  Yeah, it's a great question. And I really thought this was a risk to my dissertation to be fair open to the point of marking, I didn't know if it was going to be received well, that how to articulate this as a mega project or giga project, as I called it. But basically, I think that if we look at the way we presented this content in the course, just to give the listeners an idea, that for most of history, or let's say the last century, there has been increasing focus on these growing, the projects of growing scale and complexity, and cost getting into the billions getting into this, they totally changed traffic patterns in the city or they, if there are huge new bridge or something like that and it's just visually imposing huge civil infrastructure or digital systems that cost a ton or aerospace programs like an A380 Airbus, which is just a mega behemoth of an airplane, right? And if the complexity is clear, super tangible. But I think that's the school of thought that are when we had the great fortune of I think straddling two eras of the faculty at Oxford. And the first chair that we encountered was Bent Flyvbjerg. And he literally wrote the book on this stuff. And so far as the Oxford Handbook for Major or Mega Project Management, and in that, through that lens, or what he helped us understand, it was this more centralized type of project. And then later, we actually had another generation of leadership for the faculty come in with the new chair, Daniel Armanios, and he was very interesting in that he introduced the concept of it not necessarily having to be a centralized, that's a singular entity, the mega project could be distributed, decentralized, even. Right? And so after reading both of their research, I'd actually found that Flyvbjerg and contemporary said, coined the phrase of an array of projects. And I thought that fits this. This is actually exactly what I need to articulate how this is a large, complex project, although it's effectively being built in a decentralized manner and actually, quite extremely decentralized manner. There are over 800 different organizations that have released a concept for an electric aviation or electric air vehicle of some kind or another. There's this nonprofit that tracks the industry and most of the funding is with a handful and most ofthe technical progress is at a handful, but the reality is that there is a massive number of companies that intend to enter this space. And essentially, by building these vehicles, they're having to also engage regulators and build the regulatory envelope for this to actually happen. And then also go out and entertain cities and get them on side. They even let it fly. So ultimately, what they're all building towards is a central vision, even though it's moderated a bit since the over white paper in the beehive towers in the city, what they're actually when you step back and look at it all, what's actually being constructed, is something quite central. And that is a layer of air transportation, a new air transportation system that doesn't exist today. Because electrics, there's no charging out there. It's also and this is the part I didn't really get to yet is that a lot of the companies want to get towards autonomy. Some people might know already, there's a pilot shortage historically, pilots are now being paid very well, after having years and years of declining. That's not the case anymore. There's a vast shortage of pilots today. But also, if you're looking at technically looking at these vehicles through a technical lens, from a physics point of view, the energy density in lithium ion batteries or automotive grade, especially. But even research batteries, they're still limited compared to typical combustion fuels, hydrocarbon fuels, in so much in how much energy they can carry per kilogram. And if you're in aerospace where every gram matters, it's critical that you lighten the vehicle, because it's a trade-off for payload and revenue. And so although electric vehicles have started to scale up the production of lithium-ion batteries and automotive grade electric batteries have really gotten cheaper and better energy density so they're improving every day, in labs across the world they're still just crossing the threshold where they're useful in the air and just unlocking short-range missions. So this is a new, this is a new transport layer that is just becoming feasible in the late 2010s  and still in development. So that's where I basically come back to your point, which is it's not a central program, it's definitely super distributed and decentralized, but they're all building in essentially a common vision of electric air transport that doesn't exist today. Riccardo Cosentino  27:21  Okay, one more question that on that note, and then I'll pass it back to Corail. As an industry, I mean, where would you position it in the developmental phases of an industry? And maybe, if you could make a comparison, we always go back to the internet, right? So every time there's a new revolutionary technology, we always say, yeah, think of the internet in 1995 or finger the internet in the 2000. On that basis, so with that in mind, where would you place this industry in the developmental arch? Brandon de León  27:59  Yeah, maybe if I could go a few years before the internet just for a comparison that rings harder in my mind is mobile phones. I think we're at the place, there's a famous study from McKinsey that I'll get the number wrong slightly. But I think that they hint here McKinsey did a study for AT&T, I think it was where they predicted in the early 90s roundabout then that the maximum total addressable market for mobile phones is 900,000 Americans. I think we're at that stage with electric aviation. And I don't mean that in the, to poke fun at our friends at McKinsey, I know we all have some, anyway, consulting generally. But I think that it is impossible to anticipate the actual scale that this will be deployed at over time. And I say that because if you look at this technology, the business model for many companies is not clear yet. So I think that's, once the technology is ready, we're at the point where the technology is only just becoming certified. And even with helping hands from governments that are eager to be technology leaders in Q4, right about Q4 last year, the first electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle certified anywhere in the world was certified in China. And just this month, the first one was transacted to a Japanese customer from another company in China for demonstration flights at the upcoming expo, World Expo in Osaka. Nothing's actually, there's no revenue yet. Unless you talk about small revenue regimes from Defense Departments and things like that to help with the testing and helping R&D funds. So we're really pre-commercialization. And that's precisely why I wanted to jump in for the dissertation into this space. And I thought it was really rich picking for that study-wise because what we hear in the program and all the things we've learned about mega project management and so on, is that when did they go wrong, if not in execution mostly in the planning phases in the earliest phases. So this was a huge opportunity to talk to people across the G7 really across OEMs, regulators, infrastructure companies and so on. Even NGOs. And to get a sense for okay, where's everyone's head at individually and collectively. What's the sense for how they're all thinking about this particular aspect? Social acceptance of a new technology? Yeah. And so that's, I think lends itself to the study, but super early is the answer to the question in a couple of words. Riccardo Cosentino  30:19  Thank you.   Corail  30:20  Brandon, that's really interesting. And to go back to your dissertation, I think you were planning to interview 10 leaders and you ended up with 29 interviews. I think it shows the real interest that it sparked amongst the leader in that industry. And do you feel like they got interested because this is a topic that they didn't necessarily so much sought about? And they wanted to discuss more with you? Or was it very much a risk that was very present in their minds? And you just found that they had already thought about a lot of solutions to raising social acceptance? Brandon de León  30:59  Yeah, it's a fair question. You're absolutely right. My ambition was 10. I accidentally overshot that by three times. I paid for that on the back end, when it came to actually giving the proper level of attention to the data analysis and cleaning the data from the interviews. Yeah, that was, it was quite a heavy fall. But it was really a pleasure to, because once I started to talk to people in the space, Dr. Mark Moore and I had engaged over LinkedIn, of course, and email and then had a call. But I think that really, I realized early on, and one of the things that I picked up on from one of the faculty members, Dr. Harvey Mahler, was that observation can actually be a part of your research. And I thought, let me, let me go to at least one event where these people gather and just see what's the level of discourse? Is this really a risk? Or is it just something that I see in their social media content or things like that, and I was really lucky, because there were three major industry events, if I can call them that, that were happening right around the time I was doing my dissertation and or the early stages of it. And so I went to London to eVTOL Insights London Conference and it was very much inside baseball, you had the top leaders from the companies that were trying to develop and certify these air vehicles. But you also had the leading regulators, globally for aerospace were there, it was really interesting to just, fascinating to hear the conversation between them. But what I picked up on was that acceptance came up, it was, in some cases a footnote. In other cases, it was a panel topic. But it was never, there was only such a limited depth that could be accomplished in that format. And having chatted with Dr. Mark Moore, having seen that in person in London, but also at Revolution Aero, which is another major event in Dublin, I realized that there, there's not a lot of exploration of this topic, if this is essentially the limit of it. And there are other podcasts in the industry too, that I've listened to where it maybe it gets explored a little bit more, but usually, it's pretty, pretty limited how much people can talk about this, because the overwhelming focus right now is to use every dollar of investment. And right now there's over $15 billion, I think it's over 18 at last count, invested in this space, mainly in the vehicle developers, that will in the future produce these electric air vehicles, essentially, the ones that are just planning to actually produce the vehicles, a lot of them aren't necessarily interested in acceptance, that's something they consider a responsibility of the operator to go out and develop acceptance wherever they plan to operate the vehicles. The operator meaning like airline, essentially. And then the other case, some vehicle developers or pureplay operators, they see the acceptance risk a lot more clearly. And in some cases, they've experienced it before with their traditional air vehicles.   Brandon de León  33:42  So I think, for me, it became clearer and clearer that this was both interesting for me, and potentially helpful for them to have a longer form conversation, the average interview was something like 45 minutes to an hour, someone as long as two hours a couple of them, when as long as two hours, I made the coding quite a long process. But it was super insightful for me. And I felt really privileged. As I was reaching out to people, the reception I was getting was quite strong. I thought 10 was going to be the high end and also a significant enough sample that would make the research worthwhile and meaningful. But then actually, I started to realize that if there's greater interest, I'm happy to expand that to a larger number, especially if it allows me to get perspectives from multiple people representing the different sides of the ecosystem. So like I mentioned, regulators, not just in Europe, but also in North America. And also OEMs, not just in Europe, but from North America as well. So a lot of the funding sits in North America right now. And depending on who you ask the technological leaders, some of them are in Germany, some of them are also in California and Silicon Valley, and so on. So I didn't want to represent just one small pocket of the ecosystem because again, it's a larger array globally. If I could do a better job of capturing those points of view from a European point of view as well as an American point of view, I wanted to do that. And so that ended up getting me to nearly 30 interviews pretty quickly. That's how it grew so fast. Corail  33:44  I think it's fantastic. And there must have been so much work to just code this amount of interview, I just cannot imagine in the limited amount of time we have to do this dissertation. It's a lot. So congratulations. Brandon de León  35:26  Thank you. Corail  35:27  So can you share with us then how so I wanted to ask you, Brandon, how did this leader define the risk? And what were the solution that they were putting forward?   Brandon de León  35:39  It's a great question. I think maybe the step back as a precursor, or the best example of what they were trying to do before was helicopter services from decades ago. And if you live in New York City, or Sao Paulo, or Hong Kong, helicopter services are not an infrequent site. So there are places in the world where it's still quite common. It's just that in the U.S. we, being American, that's sort of my bias, those services had dwindled. After there was a famous incident in New York City at the top of the Pan Am building, I think it was bad weather that affected the helicopter landing. Long story short, one helicopter did a particularly bad job landing, and crashed onto the rooftop. And when it did, a propeller went this way. Another one fell to the ground, I believe it was or some debris fell to the ground and killed the young lady. The other one might have injured someone when it flew into a nearby building. This was, I didn't read the entire history of this industry, the helicopter service industry. But what I can tell you is that if you look at the old timetables and the brochures, being a historical geek and an aviation geek have done more than my fair share that there are very clearly helicopter services advertised in most, in a lot of major metropolitan areas from these mainstream airline names we all know and love today, or despise today, depending on what you think of it. But anyways, the reality is that those services dwindling, I think, in part happened, because there were restrictions put in place, when you had an incident like that it captured the attention of the public around, probably not just that city, probably not just the U.S., perhaps major cities around the world, especially as news could spread wherever the American newspapers are read. So I think that that put a little bit of ice on helicopter services. And so today, if you look at Blade, which is an operator that works does fly from Manhattan over to JFK, for example, to do the airport shuttle type use case, I believe they take off on the perimeter of Manhattan, they're not, they're just off on those waterfront, they're not on top of some building in the middle of the city. So things have definitely changed. And so when it came to acceptance and how they view it, one was, there was this precedent for things going wrong. And if things go wrong, it can really pause an industry. So making sure perceptions are warmed up to the idea of this happening again, because what they're talking about doing is literally lending in many different places across downtown Manhattan, for example of the island of Manhattan, actually being able to pop down on different buildings, but also perhaps green spaces or whatever, wherever they can place what they call a vertiport, which looks a lot to normal person, like a heliport, small helipad with a V instead of an H. There are other things there. The industry insiders will tell you, there's a lot more to it. And there is charging equipment and storage and things like that. But all that to say what the vision was in 2016-17, when Uber was hosting these huge industry segments with 72 experts one year and hundreds the next year to try and really build steam around this vision of urban air mobility. They knew they had an uphill battle. And then on top of that helicopters are famously extremely noisy. That's part of why they have limited routes that they can fly. The other part, of course, is safety and things like that there. If you look at London, I think there's one main helicopter route through the whole of London that goes, basically follows the river, for the most part. And then I think the only operational heliport inside core London, that's not a hospital for an air ambulance is essentially on the reverse side, too. So helicopters are really limited in where they could go, partly because of the noise, but other you know, fears, safety and things like that. And so that's essentially, what captivated the interests of the industry participants most was how do we reduce noise through technical innovation, better propeller design, electric motors are inherently quiet, they're not jet engines. Even if you hear things build as for marketing purposes, and electric jet, it's quite different. It's more of a fan. So I think that they saw an opportunity with electric propulsion to be much quieter, and also more safer, ironically, because you can put many more electric motors and propellers. So if one goes down, you're not worried about that you can still safely land the vehicle and then yes, I think basically centered around noise primarily because the industry insiders knew that, fundamentally, the vehicle was safer, more resilient, more robust, more redundant, if you will, with different electric motors and propellers, a higher number, some have six, some have eight, some have 12 propellers built into the vehicle design. So if one fails, it's really not a major issue for most of the format's of these electric air vehicles. But getting people to warm up to the idea of it was a real risk the way they see it. Riccardo Cosentino  40:29  So Brandon, obviously, this is a podcast about your dissertation. And you wouldn't, you wouldn't have a dissertation without a conclusion and some findings. What were your key findings? Brandon de León  40:40  It's a good, I think that so if I, my research question largely centered around how do these executives from all over the ecosystem, all sides of it, essentially define social acceptance? Who and what do they think drives it? And then also, effectively how they plan to approach it? Right? So how do they think that they can maximize social acceptance and minimize social rejection? And the primary finding I found in the case of the first question was, there is no single definition for acceptance. People describe it differently. You'll hear things like regulatory acceptance, social acceptance, of course, public acceptance, community acceptance, market acceptance. So it depends on the mentality of the person and what they're responsible for, and what they're interested in. So if you're looking holistically, you could argue that it's social acceptance, but some of them, a lot of them necessarily focus in on the stakeholders that are closest to the activities that are proposed. And first and foremost, these vehicles have to be certified in a very rigorous process, the organization's have to, as well. So regulators are front of mind. And then market acceptance, of course, they think there has to be some demand, whatever their chosen business model, whether it's airport shuttles or other things. So they look at it through those different lenses. But when you're at a conference, those are sometimes thrown around as synonyms. And people innately understand the acceptance, that means other people being okay with this, but who they're concerned with. And the degree of embrace is something that I found varies quite broadly. And I think what's interesting is, even with that said, it's kind of there's a structure, there's always a question of who are they talking about we're concerned with, and then what's the degree of embrace, and that was a common thread, and their different phraseology, if I can call it that. And then so far as who and what drives it, if you look at a template stakeholder map, this is a lot of the literature around stakeholder management is written by Dr. Friedman. And Dr. Friedman has multiple books on the topic, he's the most cited guy in the field. And I tried to stick to these bedrock, most cited folks in these different disciplines because I felt like you said, this is quite an ambiguous space I'm diving into, I need to anchor myself to really key literature here. And so there's a beautiful map of stakeholders, and he breaks them into primary and secondary. So we call primary stakeholders, essentially, everyone who's in the value chain, plus government and community. So the people, we're directly interfacing with whatever you're doing, plus the people helping you produce it, and finance essentially. So most of the industry is focused on primary stakeholders. And I think operators are a little bit more aware of the secondary stakeholders, but through the interviews, the 29 different executives, we touched on every one of them got covered at least once. So although there was an overwhelming focus on primary stakeholders, naturally, there was an awareness of an interest in getting all stakeholders on board. And so they defined it very differently. But when you ask them who they needed to actually get to accept, it was pretty comprehensive. So no surprise, these people were executives in this industry, or in adjacent industries that made them relevant for joining these jobs for decades, right? They have, I think, on average, almost two decades of experience, many have masters and doctorates. They've done this before, or at least led businesses before and are aware of the spectrum of stakeholders that they need to talk to. What I had hoped to get into, and maybe this is because I was just coming out of academia with that hat on was the nuts and bolts of human thinking and decision making around taking this vehicle or this airport shuttle or not. We didn't quite get into that. I think that what I quickly understood was that the level of discourse didn't go that deep yet. And so I was asking you about which bias do you think plays a role in the decision to take this air shuttle or not to the airport? And after a couple of interviews, I realized, okay, let me bring it back up a level and further define, really who's involved and who's being mentioned the most, who's most important or seen as most important? And that's about as far as I could go in that space. There was a fourth question, I omitted it earlier, but essentially it was to what degree is acceptance a risk and simple to say most of them surprisingly, there was a lot of actual alignment here, social acceptance was considered a risk but also a high risk, I think partly because of the helicopter service example, in Manhattan. And also just generally helicopter services being so restricted over decades that they, everyone in this space has seen, made it really clear that they need to do a lot of work on the side. But what was interesting to me is a few of them went further and said it was existential to the industry. And again, thinking back to that Manhattan rooftop, you can imagine why they might think that because if public opinion turns against the industry, there's no writers, there's no financing. And then it's not a great day for the participants in the industry. So that one was pretty clear. And then the other one was sort of how to maximize social acceptance. And that was really fascinating for me to hear. Because again, I was talking to people on all sides, there were some people who were in marketing, communications, leadership roles. There were other people that were in, essentially engineering leadership roles. What was fascinating is that, essentially, they all largely saw the demonstration flights as a major win that were happening. There were limited demonstration flights happening by a couple of companies that were making sure that they were being seen as leaders in this space, and then also taking advantage of being first mover at certain major events. So for example, last was it, I forget the month, I think it was June, I was able to go to the Paris Air Show. And there was a company from Germany called Volocopter, who was led by a former Airbus executive. And they were flying their two seater prototype called the VoloCity. And this is the one that's supposed to appear during the Olympic Games this year and do some flights over Paris as well. On this day, it was flying over the airfield Le Bourget in north of Paris, which is in aviation history, it's a fascinating place tons of history, museums there, Charles Lindbergh landed there when he did this transatlantic flight. Anyways, long story short, to see this electric multicopter. Aircraft take off and fly over the airfield was really cool for me, because of my research. But also, it was stunning, because even though I have worked for decade-plus in electric vehicles, and I know just how quiet electric transport can be, I was shocked that I couldn't hear it, it was inaudible, from a very short distance away. Doesn't make any sense in the mind. It doesn't compute, it should be audible. It's not once it's maybe a football field away, in my personal sense. And so I think that what, what they were getting on to is what I experienced at Tesla, which is the technology, if it's really good, is convincing on its own, all you have to do is show people allow them to drive an electric car allow them to go to an air show and see this thing flying. And understand that it's, it feels silent from most places. And I think they're definitely onto something with that. Others went further to say we need to do education campaigns, I think that generally the spirit is roughly the same. But when asked to diagnose the state of acceptance building, most of them agreed that not much has been done or not enough has been done there. Some companies have gone on like 60 minutes and other major news shows for a segment to talk about flying cars, or flying taxis and these sorts of things. Because it's interesting and cool that there's some new innovative air vehicle. But other than that, and social media content, which really only gets to their followers, few had gone out of those. And more is happening now happy to talk about that in a minute. But essentially, that those were the four areas that I asked about, and was able to get concrete answers and learn what their perspectives were. Corail  48:32  That's great. Brandon, I wanted to ask you, like you said that a lot of them flagged this risk as a critical risk. And yet one of your one of your notes in your dissertation is that yeah, there is very little that is done about it. And as you're saying it's starting to increase, and we have the Olympic Games coming in Paris, and potentially, I'd love you to talk more about this and what will happen during the games. But first, why do you think so little is done if it's seen as this important risk that needs to be managed early on?   Brandon de León  49:07  Yeah, it's a fair one. And also, it was the thing that perplex me coming out of the dissertation. Obviously, in the month since doing the dissertation. I've had more time to digest it and think about it. And to factor in more of their point of view, I think. But essentially, and also last week I was able to join one last conference in my roadshow, if you will, to see what had changed since I had done the conferences about a year ago. And I think the short answer, if I were to speak for them, what they would say is that acceptance is important, valuable, meaningful and critical when we get to commercialization. But right now, the reality is that most companies don't have enough money to make it to commercialization. They're staring down their coffers and they don't see enough financial runway and funding left to potentially even get through certification. Some of them have just enough to get there. But it's very clear that almost all them if not all of them are going to have to go back and raise more funds. So when the funds are that precious, they're looking at how do we maximize every dollar, or euro or pound, right? And in those cases, essentially the critical milestone they need to get to to show that they have a viable product and business insofar as at least producing these vehicles, if not, to operate themselves to sell to someone else to operate, is to get certification, or to show meaningful certification path progress, and it's no small task. So just to give you a taste, they have to prove that they can, they're certified design organization, that they have a production method that can make exact copies over and over again, and this has to be signed off by the regulator, this is not something they can self certify, like in much of the automotive space, which is also highly regulated, it's still a fraction of the regulation level of aviation. And then even once they get the design, organization approval, and the production organization approval, and I might be getting my words a little bit wrong here. So aviation experts don't scare me. But essentially, they also have to be able to get an approval that they have processes in place that are certified for maintenance, repair, and overhaul, just to name a few. There's other things that they actually have to get certified for. But essentially, getting those things, those ducks in a row is billions of dollars. And again, if the whole industry has, let's call it 18 billion and counting, and there's over 800 players, you can imagine most of them aren't going to make that. And even the ones that have raised money, they've burned billions in many cases already. There are major, let's say, some of the companies that have raised the most funds in Europe, for example, have about 12 months of runway, but they still have more than 12 months to get to certification potentially. So I think that they're resource-constrained and focused on the core next milestone but, to your point, I think it's also because it's a fuzzy topic. It's not really clear who's responsible for it and then who should be spending money on it, and if one company alone can do it. And there's other interesting things that I uncovered into the research in the financial filings of some of the companies that have gone public through IPOs, or specs in recent years. Some of them consider developing public acceptance as a potential risk to their first mover advantage, because it'll benefit the whole industry and their competitors too, in that subset, right or in that collective. So while they see it as a good thing to do, from a social point of view. And maybe even from a business point of view, they can appreciate that it would be helpful to reduce some friction in the future. I think they're betting that it's overcomable. And they're biasing towards maintaining a first mover advantage if they can do. Our research from literature and social sciences would argue that maybe that's not the best balance, happy to talk about that more. But essentially, they're taking a pretty big bet there that they're going to launch. And then be able to build awareness, convert people to believers, and interested customers, at least as fast as they can produce vehicles and put them into servers and build capacity. So I think that's where it's a bit of a risk is that if they don't start to build awareness, early, the lag, there's a time lag between building awareness and first awareness and actually being willing to use a service. Not everyone's an innovator, early adopter. And I think they're counting on the fact that they're going to have a slow ramp. So they're not going to be over capacity. They're going to have more than enough innovators and early adopters that are willing to take their services, or use these vehicles. And they rather maintain the first mover advantage, largely not everyone, but most people seem to be acting in that way. Corail  53:40  Okay, I guess I have one final question. I'm really intrigued about what you're thinking about the opportunity that the Olympic Games are representing in Paris for this industry? Are you excited to see something in the air at that time? Please, tell me what are your thoughts on the games coming? Brandon de León  54:01  Oh, yes, sorry. I missed that point entirely. Thanks for making sure I answered. So I think, yeah, it's a fantastic point. Because, for better or for worse, you can hate or love the Olympics, right? There's a lot of debate around that. But I think that the reality is major sporting events of other types, and just major events generally, whether it's a Swiftie concert, or whatever, that is a prime opportunity to build awareness and plant those seeds if you can get your product in front of that audience. It's massive for any business, right? This is why in the U.S., you see companies paying millions and millions and millions for 30 seconds during the Super Bowl, which is our American Football Championship, right? Every year. And it's the same thing is at play here. And so, the Paris Olympics are very interesting because Paris as of late, especially, has been a city that is very intent, with the city leadership on improving quality of life, introducing better transport, a lot more biking paths and making it just easier to use, to a more livable city, let's say it that way., I'm living here in the Netherlands bicycles are a way of life. And the people who are pushing the bicycle culture and infrastructure and urban planning from the Netherlands point of view at the universities and Amsterdam and other places, Paris is one of their favorite cases to point to. I think more people this week or this month, it was reported, more people were biking than driving in Paris for the first time in known history since I guess the advent of automotive. So I think it's really exciting time in Paris, but also Paris is also known for and France, too, for being unabashed in protecting their culture and also making sure that their perspectives are respected. And so you see a lot of this in sort of the way from the space I work in. Now with SUVs, one of the things I've noticed and seen is a policy around SUVs, where I think it's a proposal or it's gone into effect now, where SUVs will pay more for parking in the city. So what happens and where this comes into play with the Olympics is that for years, people have been in the industry targeting the Paris Olympics as a launch point some other some companies that were planning on doing flights at the Paris Olympics in this summer in 2024 realize they weren't going to make it in time technically, to be ready to fly. But this particular company called Volocopter, that I've mentioned before, out of Germany, they're very keen on demonstrating again, they were the ones that flew the Paris Air Show last time, and they've since done a massive amount of flights in the U.S. going around different cities and stuff on a roadshow. So they're very eager to build awareness, which results from this researcher's point of view, of course, and they see the Olympics as an iconic moment, because they're European company. They're very much proud of that. And also, if you look at the history of Airbus, Airbus was a European project, Pan European right parts come from all over Europe to build those planes. And this is maybe a second coming of Airbus in so many ways, in this new air transport world. And so it's super symbolic to be able to fly at Paris, in front of the crowds of Olympic spectators, not just at Paris airshow where you have a lot of aviation, aware or interested or geeky type folks, or people who work in the industry. It's a home field advantage when you're flying above that crowd. But when you put it in front of the Olympic audience, that's a whole nother level of magnitude and exposure and media coverage. And so that can do wonders for the company and change its fundraising prospects, it's runway and its ability to develop future products and launch into other markets and really, potentially accelerated and develop its first mover advantage, too. So it's huge. What's interesting is in September, the Paris city council acting on complaints from citizens about this plan of that air vehicle flying there now, I would say negotiations is not very clear what conversations are happening. But it was brought into question whether they're actually going to be allowed to fly over the city, whether or not they can get certified in time to do it. And that last check, I believe the CEO was reported as saying that they might not launch in July as originally hoped if the certification doesn't come on time. But they're hoping at least to be able to do it in August for the Paralympics. So there's a nonzero chance that they don't get to fly. That could happen. And that would be for them, I think they would class that as a really big disappointment, a missed opportunity, and so on. And also an opportunity for Europe and Paris, the show itself as a showcase for innovation in the space and air transport. So I think it's really interesting when you look at these big events, because they present such an opportunity. It's clear to the commercial side that they're chasing it. But what really validated my research was that social acceptance came up as an interesting issue already, before the first vehicle flies. And like I mentioned before, the next plans are also around big events, the World Expo in Osaka. Next year in 2025, this was to be flights. And in 2028 in Los Angeles for the Olympics there. Other companies from the US are also planning to fly. So yeah, social acceptance is already showing itself as a key risk. Corail  58:58  Yeah, that's crazy. It's kind of a live case study. For your (inaudible). The images you put in your executive summary of this electric planes flying were incredible. I have to admit, I didn't even know that it was already existing. and they were already flying planes, electric flying planes. So that was great. And I will be in Paris this summer, and I crossed all my fingers, that social acceptance is not blocking this line from playing because I want to be there and look at them.   Brandon de León  59:34  Same here.   Corail  59:35  Well, thank you so much, Brandon. I think I don't know Riccardo, if you have a closing question, or, but I think... Riccardo Cosentino  59:42  No, that's no, I think no, I'll leave it with you. Close.   Corail  59:46  Yeah. I think Brandon, that was fantastic. We learned so much. Although I read your entire dissertation. It was super interesting and fascinating. And I feel that you gave us even more explanations and stories in thepodcast. So thank you so much for being generous with all your knowledge. And yeah, I wish you the best in your career, really. Brandon de León  1:00:07  Thank you guys. Thanks for having me. Riccardo Cosentino  1:00:08  Thank you, Brandon. And thank you, Corail, for co-hosting the episode today. It's always an honor having you as my co-host, and there'll be hopefully more opportunities. And Brandon it's always a pleasure chatting with you. Brandon de León  1:00:21  Likewise. Take care, guys. Riccardo Co

Adamantios Diamantopoulos (Ph.D., D.Litt.) is Professorial Research Fellow at the Department of Marketing and International Business, University of Vienna, Austria. He is also Visiting Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Senior Fellow at the Dr. Theo and Friedl Schoeller Research Center, Germany. During 2004-2023, he held the Chair of International Marketing at the University of Vienna. During 2012-13, he was the “Joseph A. Schumpeter Fellow” at Harvard University, USA.   He is the author of 200+ papers with over 54,000 citations (h-index: 93; Google Scholar, November 2023) published, among others, in Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Service Research, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Retailing, MIS Quarterly, Organizational Research Methods, Psychological Methods, Information Systems Research, and British Journal of Management.   He ranks #8 worldwide in terms of citations among a total of 13,180 marketing scholars (Ioannidis, 2023) as well #1 in Austria and #94 worldwide in the 2022 Ranking of Top 1000 Scientists in Business and Management (Research.com, 2022). He is the most prolific contributor to Journal of International Marketing (Donthu et al., 2021) and the recipient of four Hans B. Thorelli Awards. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, the British Academy of Management, and the European Marketing Academy. In 2019, he was awarded the JIBS Silver Medal and, in 2021, he received the Significant Contributions to Global Marketing award from the American Marketing Association.   Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/adamantios-diamantopoulos/ for the original video interview.

Co mamy na myśli, nazywając kogoś utalentowanym? Jak definiujemy i rozpoznajemy talent? Czy różnimy się w postrzeganiu talentu pokoleniowo? I czy jesteśmy w tym rozpoznawaniu talentów równie surowi względem innych, jak wobec samych siebie? Podczas marcowej Premiery Pisma zastanowiliśmy się nad tym, czym jest talent i jak nie marnować związanego z nim potencjału – zarówno w perspektywie indywidualnej, jak i systemowej.  W rozmowie wzięli udział: prof. dr hab. Tomasz Szapiro – profesor w Szkole Głównej Handlowej. Rektor SGH w kadencji 2012-2016. Adjunct Professor of International Business Studies w Carlson School of Business Uniwersytetu Minnesoty w Minneapolis, USA. Członek Prezydium Rady Głównej Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego, Rady Narodowego Centrum Nauki, Prezydium Konferencji Rektorów Akademickich Szkół Polskich. Przewodniczący Stypendialnej Kapituły „Polityki”. Zajmuje się metodami analizy decyzji, wypromował 16 doktorów, autor licznych publikacji. Oktawia Gorzeńska – dyrektorka akademii programowania 42 Warsaw, autorka książki. Absolwentka Leadership Academy for Poland. Wieloletnia dyrektorka szkół publicznych. Autorka, współautorka i koordynatorka ogólnopolskich programów edukacyjnych. Doradczyni dyrektorów oraz wykładowczyni na uczelniach w Polsce i za granicą. Założycielka Akademii Przywództwa Edukacyjnego, współinicjatorka platformy EduLab, a także ogólnopolskiego ruchu #wiosnaedukacji. Debatę poprowadziła Zuzanna Kowalczyk, redaktorka prowadząca w „Piśmie”, dziennikarka, kulturoznawczyni, autorka esejów i podcastów. Wydarzenie powstaje we współpracy z Kancelarią CMS. Debata odbywa się w STUDIO teatrgaleria. ----------------------------------- Słuchaj więcej materiałów audio w stałej, niższej cenie. Wykup miesięczny dostęp online do „Pisma”. Możesz zrezygnować, kiedy chcesz. https://magazynpismo.pl/prenumerata/miesieczny-dostep-online-audio/

Co mamy na myśli, nazywając kogoś utalentowanym?Jak definiujemy i rozpoznajemy talent? Czy różnimy się w postrzeganiu talentu pokoleniowo? I czy jesteśmy w tym rozpoznawaniu talentów równie surowi względem innych, jak wobec samych siebie?Podczas marcowej Premiery Pisma zastanowiliśmy się nad tym, czym jest talent i jak nie marnować związanego z nim potencjału – zarówno w perspektywie indywidualnej, jak i systemowej. W rozmowie wzięli udział:prof. dr hab. Tomasz Szapiro – profesor w Szkole Głównej Handlowej. Rektor SGH w kadencji 2012-2016. Adjunct Professor of International Business Studies w Carlson School of Business Uniwersytetu Minnesoty w Minneapolis, USA. Członek Prezydium Rady Głównej Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego, Rady Narodowego Centrum Nauki, Prezydium Konferencji Rektorów Akademickich Szkół Polskich. Przewodniczący Stypendialnej Kapituły „Polityki”. Zajmuje się metodami analizy decyzji, wypromował 16 doktorów, autor licznych publikacji.Oktawia Gorzeńska – dyrektorka akademii programowania 42 Warsaw, autorka książki. Absolwentka Leadership Academy for Poland. Wieloletnia dyrektorka szkół publicznych. Autorka, współautorka i koordynatorka ogólnopolskich programów edukacyjnych. Doradczyni dyrektorów oraz wykładowczyni na uczelniach w Polsce i za granicą. Założycielka Akademii Przywództwa Edukacyjnego, współinicjatorka platformy EduLab, a także ogólnopolskiego ruchu #wiosnaedukacji.Debatę poprowadziła Zuzanna Kowalczyk, redaktorka prowadząca w „Piśmie”, dziennikarka, kulturoznawczyni, autorka esejów i podcastów.Wydarzenie powstaje we współpracy z Kancelarią CMS.Debata odbywa się w STUDIO teatrgaleria.-----------------------------------Słuchaj więcej materiałów audio w stałej, niższej cenie. Wykup miesięczny dostęp online do „Pisma”. Możesz zrezygnować, kiedy chcesz.https://magazynpismo.pl/prenumerata/miesieczny-dostep-online-audio/

Prof. MacDuffie's global research on the determinants of high-performance manufacturing is featured centrally in the books The Machine That Changed the World and After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Auto Industry. His publications can be found in top academic journals across a wide range of domains, including Global Strategy Journal, Human Relations, Industrial and Corporate Change, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, Organization Studies, Production and Operations Management, and Strategic Management Journal, and also in practitioner-oriented journals such as California Management Review and Harvard Business Review.Prof. MacDuffie's commentaries on the global automotive industry and trends in employment systems are featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, and on National Public Radio and Knowledge@Wharton. He is a founding board member and current President of the Industry Studies Association, co-curator of the Automotive Transformation Map of the World Economic Forum, and a former member of the Automotive Experts Group at the Federal Reserve Bank.

The psychology of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship is a fascinating area. Let's face it – it can sometimes seem completely bizarre that someone might leave a possibly well-paid and secure job in order to follow their entrepreneurial dream. Yet this is exactly what some people do, despite all the risks and challenges involved.So what is the “psychology of entrepreneurship”? And what is it that makes entrepreneurs so unique?About our guest…Ute Stephan is Professor of Entrepreneurship at King's Business School, King's College London, a Fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) and a 21st Century Entrepreneurship Fellow. She serves as Associate Editor at the Journal of Management and at Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. From 2015-2019 she was Editor-in-Chief of Applied Psychology: An International Review and from 2019-2022 Consulting Editor at the Journal of International Business Studies.As an expert on the Psychology of Entrepreneurship, Ute explores how individuals and societies can thrive through entrepreneurship. Ute's research builds evidence on how contexts (culture and institutions) shape entrepreneurship and well-being, and how entrepreneurship, in turn, can help to build more inclusive societies.You can find out more about Ute's research here: https://sites.google.com/site/stephanute/home Some relevant articles co-authored by Ute on the psychology of entrepreneurship are as follows:Gorgievski, M. J., & Stephan, U. (2016). Advancing the psychology of entrepreneurship: A review of the psychological literature and an introduction. Applied Psychology, 65(3), 437-468.- https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/28176/1/Advancing_the_psychology_of_entrepreneurship.pdf Gorgievski, M. J., Stephan, U., Laguna, M., & Moriano, J. A. (2018). Predicting entrepreneurial career intentions: Values and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of career assessment, 26(3), 457-475.- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1069072717714541 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

featuring Dr. Paul BeamishJoin host Todd Hovermale and guest Dr. Paul Beamish, Professor of International Business at the Ivey Business School and founder of the 39 Country Initiative, as they discuss the case study accessibility, getting the 39 Country Initiative started, and its needs moving forward. Paul Beamish is Professor of International Business at the Ivey Business School, Western University. His major areas of research emphasis include international management, strategic management, joint ventures, and more recently, outliers and rare events. He is the (co)author of 62 books and 150 refereed articles. There are over 45,000 Google Scholar citations to his research. This ranks him among the top 10 faculty members at Western University, and within the worldwide top 10 in the field of international business. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Journal of International Business Studies from 1993-97, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Asia Pacific Foundation, a Hellmuth Prize recipient, and past Dean of the Fellows of the Academy of International Business.Learn more about the 39 Country Initiative Episode 19: Improving Education Accessibility Globally

Hva er det mange menn syntes er vanskelig mentalt? Hvorfor er det vanskelig for menn å snakke om? Hva kan vi gjøre med det?   I denne episoden har vi fått med Norges absolutt beste og mest etterspurte foredragsholder. I sin over 25-år lang karrieren har Pellegrino holdt over 3 000 kurs og foredrag, både i Norge og i utlandet for både små og store organisasjoner. Pellegrino har også holdt 3 TED-Talks, det ene om kulturforskjeller har fått over 1,5 millioner visninger og brukes som pensum i en rekke «International Business Studies» kurs i utlandet. Målet i Pellegrinos foredrag er det han kaller for «The Three Es» (Entertain, Educate, and Elevate), altså Underholde, Lære og Inspirere. Dette oppnår Pellegrino gjennom en sømløs blanding av mesterlig historiefortelling og observerende humor, som han selv beskriver som «edutainment» (education + entertainment).   Pellegrino er forfatter av boken «Bedre pappa enn sin far» (Kagge forlag) og «Drowning Quietly». Den siste ble utgitt i USA på engelsk og ble en bestselger på Amazon i kategorien «Mental Health & Family Relationships». Begge bøkene er svært underholdende og lærerike med mye latter og tårer, aha-opplevelser, gjenkjennelsesfaktorer samt et par durabelige spark i baken!   God lytt:)

Texas State University's Jake Waddingham, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs trying to reenter the traditional workforce.  Americans launched new entrepreneurial ventures during the COVID pandemic at accelerated rates and those trends have continued through 2023. If any of these entrepreneurs decide to reenter the traditional workforce in the future, however, they may be in for an unwelcome surprise: a study coauthored by Waddingham showed that former business owners were less likely to get interviews compared with applicants with only traditional experience. This was true regardless of whether they had sold or closed their businesses. And the longer they were out of the traditional workforce, the worse their chances of success were. The surprising results were revealed in a survey of more than 700 hiring professionals as well as seven former entrepreneurs who successfully made the transition back into the workforce. Waddingham received his MBA from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in management from Auburn University. He has published in top management journals including the Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Small Business Management, and Business Horizons. Prior to joining academia, Waddingham worked as an associate editor of a daily newspaper in Creston, Iowa. He primarily covered breaking news, local politics, agriculture and sports.  FURTHER READING:Entrepreneurs, beware: Owning your own business can make it harder to get hired later  

What do we mean by “innovation”? Why do we need it? How can companies and societies encourage it? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Niron Hashai in this episode of “It's Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on innovation and entrepreneurship, Hashai is a Full Professor at the Arison School of Business, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel. He currently serves as the school's Dean. Hashai obtained his BSc in Computer Science from the Technion and his MBA and PhD from Tel Aviv University. His research was published in top strategy, management, international business, and innovation journals, including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Research Policy, Strategic Management Journal and Strategy Science, and he on the boards of the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and the Global Strategy Journal, among others. Before joining the Interdisciplinary Center, Hashai was a tenured faculty member at the School of Business Administration of the Hebrew University, where he also served as Vice Dean, Head of the Asper Center for Entrepreneurship, Head of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship area, the Academic Director of the EMBA program and held the Albertson-Waltuch Chair in Business Administration. Hashai is also a visiting Professor at the University of Manchester and an associate member at the John H. Dunning Research Centre, University of Reading. He has also held visiting positions at the Stern School of Business, New York University, the Blavatnik School of Government, the University of Oxford and Leeds University Business School. Hashai is co-founder and advisory board member of the Israel Strategy Conference (ISC). In this episode, Hashai explains how innovation is born of an openness to “disobey your superiors”, while also being able to collaborate with your coworkers. He stresses the importance of risk-taking and of one's willingness to fail to innovate, while “not failing too much”. Hashai also describes what a “culture of innovation” looks like: he gives some examples of companies that innovated and thereby improved their businesses, before examining the kind of corporate structure that can foster that kind of innovation. Later in this episode, he also discusses the dangers of “innovation for innovation's sake” Finally, he considers the potential benefits and dangers of Artificial Intelligence, in a conversation well worth listening to. More on this topic The Future of Foreign Direct Investment and the Multinational Enterprise, Niron Hashai (with Ravi Ramamurti, eds.) 2011 FDI, International Trade and the Economics of Peacemaking, Niron Hashai (with Tamar Almor, eds.), 2000 Niron Hashai's study on “Within-industry diversification and firm performance” Niron Hashai's study on “Sequencing the Expansion of Geographic Scope and Foreign Operations by 'Born Global' Firms” Niron Hashai's study on “How Outsourcing Affects Technological Knowledge Exploration Niron Hashai's study (with Sarit Markovich) on “The Effect of Competition Level and Startup Innovativeness”

Welcome to the inspiring world of Alexandra Nolan, a powerhouse digital entrepreneur and the driving force behind City Chic Living Blog and The UE Academy. Hailed as one of "Yahoo's Most Inspiring Influencers," Alexandra's journey to success has been nothing short of remarkable. With an unwavering determination, Alexandra ventured into the digital realm and carved her path as a self-made entrepreneur. But her achievements don't end there—she is also a devoted mother of three, proving that it's possible to conquer both personal and professional dreams. Academic excellence is at the core of Alexandra's accomplishments. She holds an MBA from the prestigious University of Memphis and has immersed herself in the world of International Business Studies at Bournemouth University, England. In pursuit of endless knowledge, she's currently working on her Ph.D. in Marketing. Her brilliance hasn't gone unnoticed, with appearances in renowned publications like "Forbes" and several other noteworthy national platforms. Alexandra's insightful contributions have touched the lives of countless entrepreneurs and empowered women all around the globe. Beyond her digital ventures, Alexandra is a beacon of inspiration, passionate about empowering women through her speaking engagements and mentorship. As a guiding light to numerous small business owners, she's paving the way for aspiring entrepreneurs to turn their dreams into reality. Find Alexandra on the web: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | City Chic Living 

It is now almost 20 years since the first podcast was launched, and if the available statistics are anything to go by, podcasts are definitely having a moment, with a reputed 2.5 million podcasts listed in Apple podcasts. When we think about who listens to podcasts, data from the US indicates that podcast listeners are 68% more likely to have a postgraduate degree, and 45% of podcast listeners have a household income over $250,000. And why do people listen to podcast? Apparently 74% of people listen to podcasts in order to learn new things. To discuss podcasts in more detail, and in particular consider how leaders can leverage business podcasts to enhance organizational performance, I am delighted to be joined by Professor Jake Waddingham. Jake Waddingham is an Assistant Professor of Management at McCoy College of Business at Texas State University. Jakes research explores how organizations and entrepreneurs manage stakeholder perceptions and his research has been published in the Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Studies and Business Horizons amongst others. Jake can be contacted via one of the following sites: • Google scholar - https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=XFWZXWYAAAAJ • LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwaddingham/ The Business Horizon's article referenced in the discussion is:Insights on the go: Leveraging business podcasts to enhance organizational performance by Jacob A. Waddingham, Miles A. Zachary, David J. Ketchen Jr. It is available to access here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339444655_Insights_on_the_go_Leveraging_business_podcasts_to_enhance_organizational_performance The podcast statistics quoted above are from this site: https://nealschaffer.com/podcast-statistics/ The various podcasts mentioned during the discussion include: • Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman – https://mastersofscale.com/ • The Indicator from Planet Money - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510325/the-indicator-from-planet-money • Worklife with Adam Grant – https://adamgrant.net/podcasts/work-life/ • Business Wars with David Brown - https://wondery.com/shows/business-wars/ • Freakonomics with Stephen Dubner – https://freakonomics.com/series/freakonomics-radio/ • Econtalk with Russ Roberts - https://www.econlib.org/econtalk/ • Axios Sports with Kendall Baker – https://www.axios.com/authors/kbaker

Cultural agility is a leadership skill many executives, managers and entrepreneurs don't typically think about.But the ability to work effectively with people from different cultures is increasingly important as domestic workplaces become more diversified and as more businesses expand their markets overseas.It can be challenging, but Prof. Paula Caligiuri, a Distinguished Professor of International Business at Northeastern University offers guidance for more success.What You'll Discover About Cultural Agility:Why cultural agility mattersHow cultural agility is a combination of nature and nurtureThe self-assessment tool to help you identify your own stereotypes that limit your cultural agilityThe three categories of competencies that can improve your cultural agilityPLUS so much more!Guest: Prof. Paula CaligiuriPaula Caligiuri is a Distinguished Professor of International Business at Northeastern University. She researches and consults in the areas of expatriate management, global leadership development, and cultural agility.She has served as an Area Editor for the Journal of International Business Studies and as a Senior Editor for the Journal of World Business.Paula has also been a frequent expert guest on CNN and CNN International and is an instructor for LinkedIn Learning courses.She was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Forbes “50 over 50” for co-founding a public benefit corporation, Skiilify, to help foster cross-cultural understanding.Paula holds a Ph.D. from Penn State in Organizational Psychology and is a Fellow of both the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Academy of International Business.Related Resources:If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Corporate Governance and Culture episodes.Contact Prof. Caligiuri and connect with her on LinkedIn.Check out her book, Build Your Cultural Agility: The Nine Competencies of Successful Global ProfessionalsLearn more about Skiilify, her public benefit corporation that helps foster cross-cultural understandingTake a self-assessment and learn more about MyGuiideJoin, Rate and Review: Rating and reviewing the show helps us grow our audience and allows us to bring you more of the rich information you need to succeed from our high powered guests. Leave a review at Lovethepodcast.com/BusinessConfidential.Joining the Business Confidential Now family is easy and lets you have instant access to the latest tactics, strategies and tips to make your business more successful.Follow on your favorite podcast app here as well as on Twitter, Facebook,

Ingmar Björkman is Rector (President) of Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. Before joining Hanken, Björkman was Dean (2012-19) as well as Professor (2020-22) at Aalto University School of Business in Finland. Ingmar's research interests focus on people management issues in international organizations. Ingmar is a winner of the JIBS Decade Award (with D. Minbaeva, T. Pedersen, C. Fey & H-J. Park). His most recent article is: Zeng, R., Grøgaard, B. & Björkman, I (2023): Navigating MNE Control and Coordination: A Critical Review and Directions for Future Research. Journal of International Business Studies, doi.org/10.1057/s41267-023-00600-7. His latest book is Global Challenge: Managing People across Borders (fourth edition, 2023), co-authored with Vladimir Pucik, Paul Evans, and Günter Stahl. Ingmar has received best/outstanding teacher awards in three different business schools across two continents and the International Educator (Dean) of the Year Award from the Academy of International Business (AIB) in 2019. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/ingmar-bjorkman/ for the original video interview.

Jan-Erik Vahlne is an award-winning international business scholar whose distinctions include: Journal of International Business Studies, Decade Award, 1987 and 2019 International Marketing Review, Best Paper Award 1990 International Business Review, Best Paper Award 2012 Over the course of his career, Dr. Vahlne has served in variety of professional positions, including: 1978-83: Secretary, Governmental Committee on Foreign Direct Investment 1986-88: Associate Dean, Graduate School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan 1988-1995: Professor, Stockholm School of Economics 1993-1995: President, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia 1996-2011: Professor, Gothenburg University 2011-Present: Professor Emeritus, Gothenburg University Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/jan-erik-vahlne/ for the original video interview.

Mohan Subramaniam is a Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He focuses on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms and new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. He is a recognized thought leader in digital strategy, and have helped senior executives in several companies find new sources of value and growth for their companies when competing with data within emerging digital ecosystems. He outlines his thinking in his 2022 book The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, where he introduces a new paradigm for competitive strategy anchored in data and digital ecosystems and the game-changing role of digital technologies in the modern economy. Legacy firms have for decades anchored their competitive strategy in products and industry characteristics, but these approaches are now becoming outdated. His book therefore explains how legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to leverage the new and explosive power of data by thoughtfully applying and emulating the best practices of digital titans such as Amazon and Google.His articles regularly appear in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. I have also published articles in several leading academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of International Business Studies, and my research has been recognized by awards from Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the Decision Sciences Institute. In this episode, Mohan shares:Why some of the long-prevailing concepts of competitive strategy, like Michael Porter's industry value chain, industry attractiveness (or five forces), and even the central paradigm of these approaches may have served us well for decades, but are increasingly becoming ineffectiveHow traditional legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to be even more effective at the digital game than digital native giants like Amazon and Google Why the first step for such incumbent organizations should be to evolve your traditional customers to digital customers Why we should not just be thinking about ecosystems broadly, but about two specific—and different—ecosystems we need to create, and what they areWhy the idea that so many companies have of capturing and owning lots of data misses the point of what it means to win with data, in a world where the shelf-life value of the data you collect is getting shorter and shorter _________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Highlight from today's episode01:02—Introducing Mohan + The topic of today's episode2:58—If you really know me, you know that...3:25—What is your definition of strategy?3:36—Could you talk to us about your thesis involving your ideas around Michael Porter's idea of competitive advantage?7:51—Why is competitive advantage less relevant today than it was 40 years ago when it was created?10:50—Can you explain how data has impacted our idea of customers, and how companies should make the transition from traditional customers to digital customers?13:06—Can you give an example of a physical product that is able to create continuous data and not episodic?15:11—Could you explain the differences between two different types of the two types of ecosystems you detail in your book?18:23—Could you explain how value chains have expanded to include complements outside of the traditional service and product offering?21:03—If we were to put production and consumption capabilities into a diagram (like an x and y-axis), how would you explain how the two interact and interplay?24:20—Could you illustrate your point of how products can deliver value outside of what its obvious value with the light bulb story?27:13—How should companies be thinking about the role of data given everything we've talked about today? It has a very short shelf life, so it is about controlling data necessarily?29:25—Closing__________________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources: Personal Page: http://www.professormohan.com/IMD Faculty Page: https://www.imd.org/faculty/professors/mohan-subramaniam/Newest Book: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david-shrier/basic-metaverse/9781472148131/Linkedin: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/mohan-subramaniam-961986bTwitter: https://twitter.com/Profmohans

Mohan Subramaniam is a Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He focuses on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms and new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. He is a recognized thought leader in digital strategy, and have helped senior executives in several companies find new sources of value and growth for their companies when competing with data within emerging digital ecosystems. He outlines his thinking in his 2022 book The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, where he introduces a new paradigm for competitive strategy anchored in data and digital ecosystems and the game-changing role of digital technologies in the modern economy. Legacy firms have for decades anchored their competitive strategy in products and industry characteristics, but these approaches are now becoming outdated. His book therefore explains how legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to leverage the new and explosive power of data by thoughtfully applying and emulating the best practices of digital titans such as Amazon and Google.His articles regularly appear in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. I have also published articles in several leading academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of International Business Studies, and my research has been recognized by awards from Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the Decision Sciences Institute. In this episode, Mohan shares:Why some of the long-prevailing concepts of competitive strategy, like Michael Porter's industry value chain, industry attractiveness (or five forces), and even the central paradigm of these approaches may have served us well for decades, but are increasingly becoming ineffectiveHow traditional legacy firms can harness their existing assets, infrastructure, and traditional strengths to be even more effective at the digital game than digital native giants like Amazon and Google Why the first step for such incumbent organizations should be to evolve your traditional customers to digital customers Why we should not just be thinking about ecosystems broadly, but about two specific—and different—ecosystems we need to create, and what they areWhy the idea that so many companies have of capturing and owning lots of data misses the point of what it means to win with data, in a world where the shelf-life value of the data you collect is getting shorter and shorter _________________________________________________________________________________________"The big shift in thinking is that we always thought of data as something that supports our product. What I'm saying is that think of products as something that can support your data."_________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Highlight from today's episode01:02—Introducing Mohan + The topic of today's episode2:58—If you really know me, you know that...3:25—What is your definition of strategy?3:36—Could you talk to us about your thesis involving your ideas around Michael Porter's idea of competitive advantage?7:51—Why is competitive advantage less relevant today than it was 40 years ago when it was created?10:50—Can you explain how data has impacted our idea of customers, and how companies should make the transition from traditional customers to digital customers?13:06—Can you give an example of a physical product that is able to create continuous data and not episodic?15:11—Could you explain the differences between two different types of the two types of ecosystems you detail in your book?18:23—Could you explain how value chains have expanded to include complements outside of the traditional service and product offering?21:03—If we were to put production and consumption capabilities into a diagram (like an x and y-axis), how would you explain how the two interact and interplay?24:20—Could you illustrate your point of how products can deliver value outside of what its obvious value with the light bulb story?27:13—How should companies be thinking about the role of data given everything we've talked about today? It has a very short shelf life, so it is about controlling data necessarily?29:25—Closing__________________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources: Personal Page: http://www.professormohan.com/IMD Faculty Page: https://www.imd.org/faculty/professors/mohan-subramaniam/Newest Book: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/david-shrier/basic-metaverse/9781472148131/Linkedin: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/mohan-subramaniam-961986bTwitter: https://twitter.com/Profmohans

Ilan Vertinsky is Vinod Sood Professor of International Business Studies, Strategy and Business Economics in the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is also an associate of the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies and a former Distinguished Scholar in Residence of the Institute. He previously served as director of the Center for international Business studies, Associate director of the Institute Asian Research, director of the Maurice Young Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Research Centre and Director of the Forest Economics and Policy Analysis unit. He was also a member of the faculty of the Institute of Resource Ecology. Ilan received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Business specializing in Operations Research. Prior to joining the faculty at UBC he served on the faculty of Northwestern University. He has published over 300 refereed journal articles, book chapters and books. His publications include journals such as The Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of international Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Operations Research, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Journal of Marketing. His research awards include the University's Killam Research prize, the Sauder's Professional Research Excellence Prize, AGSM's Outstanding Scholarship Award and the Seagram Senior Faculty Award. Ilan is a former area editor of The Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) and currently serves as a consulting editor of the journal. Ilan's current research focuses on the following areas: (1) transfers of knowledge in international joint ventures; (2) risk management and resilience development related to climate change, (3) competitive learning in domestic and cross- border alliances, patent litigation and innovation, and (4) the implications of the ongoing USA-China technology rivalry. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/ilan-vertinsky/ for the original video interview.

Unconventional Business Strategies in a Changing Business Landscape with guest Alexandra Nolan Fear is a natural feeling when considering entrepreneurism. Don't let it stifle your dreams. ~ Alexandra Nolan ALEXANDRA NOLAN, featured on “Yahoo's Most Inspiring Influencers” list, is a self-made digital entrepreneur, founder of City Chic Living Blog and The UE Academy, and mother of three. She obtained her MBA from the University of Memphis, studied International Business Studies at Bournemouth University in England, is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Marketing, and has appeared in “Forbes,” as well as many other notable national publications. Through her passion as a women empowerment speaker and mentor to many small business owners, Alexandra is paving the way for aspiring entrepreneurs all over the world. Connect with Alexandra on the web: City Chic Living | Alexandra Nicole Nolan | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

Asli M. Colpan is Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Graduate School of Management and Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University. She held the Alfred Chandler Visiting Scholar position at the Harvard Business School. Previously, she was also a visiting scholar at Harvard University and MIT, and visiting professor at Koc University's College of Administrative Science and Economics. Her research interests include corporate strategy, corporate governance, business history, and especially the evolution of large enterprises in developed and emerging economies. Her work has been published in such journals as Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Organization, Journal of Business Ethics, Business History and Corporate Governance: An International Review. She is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Business Groups, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010; Business Groups in the West: Origins, Evolution, and Resilience, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018; and Business, Ethics and Institutions: The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in Global Perspectives, 2020. She was awarded the Tachibana Prize for the most outstanding female scholar at Kyoto University. She is currently the Area Editor of Journal of International Business Studies and Senior Editor of Management and Organizational History. She also sits on the boards of Sumitomo Rubber Industries and NISSHA as an external director. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/asli-colpan/ for the original video interview.

What does it take to close nearly 700 loans in a single year without buying leads? Scotsman Guide Top Originator and Mortgage Champions advocate Kara Whitman shares her replicable formula on this episode of Batting 1,000 with her former coach, Dale Vermillion.Kara and Dale share a common commitment to putting others first, and to going the extra mile—in all things. It's that shared commitment that has propelled both of them to not only becoming elite performers in heir respective roles, but helped them to live fulfilled lives dedicated to more than just business success.Don't miss this uplifting, inspiring, and thought provoking conversation.Subscribe to Batting 1,000Apple Podcasts → https://bit.ly/3GTqzDbSpotify → https://bit.ly/3AZ7P1bAmazon Music → https://bit.ly/3u9xssuGoogle Podcasts → https://bit.ly/3VjQxElAbout Kara WhitmanKara was born and raised in Maryland, right outside of DC and moved to Charlotte upon graduation to start a career as a Mortgage Banker. Kara has been with Wyndham Capital for over 10 years and is a constant overachiever. Kara is recognized as a Scotsman's Guide top .01% originator leading the company with 658 loans in 2021 for $217,300,000 in volume. Kara graduated from Coastal Carolina University where she earned her degree in Business Finance and International Business Studies. When Kara is not in the office, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Joey and their two children Brayden and Emiliana.Kara's Mission StatementMy ultimate goal is to truly help people achieve both financial and personal goals they never dreamed possible. I do this through my strong work ethic, dedication and bubbly personality. I believe in providing exceptional customer service while making the process as simple and easy as possible. I also believe it is extremely important to establish a trusting relationship with all my clients. We will put together the right mortgage strategy tailored to each individual situation. The greatest feeling in the world is helping others achieve financial freedom and luckily, I am able to...

Aida Hajro is Professor of International Business and Director of the Centre for International Business at the University of Leeds (CIBUL), and a Visiting Professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business. She is also affiliated with the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development at the World Bank. Aida's general interest lies in sustainable development, with a focus on its social aspects, as embedded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as No Poverty, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work, Reduced Inequalities, and several others. More specifically, her research addresses these topics by zooming in on the global phenomenon of migration. Aida's work has been published in journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Journal of World Business. It has been also recognized by several awards including the Academy of Management Review Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management IMD Robert H. Schaffer Award, and the British Academy of Management Award. Aida's research has been profiled in a wide range of outlets, such as the World Economic Forum's Agenda, World Bank Blog, and B the Change. Aida has served on the editorial review boards of the Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Human Resource Management and Journal of World Business. She is also a co-founder of the “Migration, Business and Society” global network initiative. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/aida-hajro/ for the original video interview.

Organizations are always looking to improve their supply chains, whether it's to prepare for future disruptions, improve the bottom line, or outpace competitors. Anthony Roath, assistant professor of supply chain management in the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University, joins us to discuss how emerging technologies will affect future supply chains. About Anthony Roath focuses on understanding how supply chain networks respond to global environments. This study approach explores the interaction of companies as they react to and work with each other to compete and develop sustainable mechanisms, such as technology and innovation. The foundation to this research is grounded in logistics and international business research and practice; the findings and insight from these research studies have been published in outlets including: The Journal of Business Logistics (earning two paper of the year awards) and the Journal of International Business Studies. Subsequent research in these areas have expanded into interest in supply chain sustainability, which was enabled with a Fulbright Scholarship in the United Kingdom and a subsequent grant to help establish a study of supply chain efficiency with a large UK retailer. Prior to academia, Roath served in the Air Force and in the private sector in management consulting. These experiences are applied to the classroom to help impress upon the students the need to develop a broad understanding of global supply chain challenges to companies and communities and the important role of critical decision-making to help navigate challenges and explore opportunities.  

Jiatao (JT) Li is Chair Professor of Management, Lee Quo Wei Professor of Business, Director of the Center for Business Strategy and Innovation, and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He served as the Senior Associate Dean of the HKUST Business School from 2013 to July 2017; and Associate Dean (Faculty) from 2009 to 2013. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and an editor of the Journal of International Business Studies. His current research interests are in the areas of organizational learning, strategic alliances, corporate governance, innovation, and entrepreneurship, with a focus on issues related to global firms and those from emerging economies. His work has appeared in leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal. He also served as an Associate Editor of the Strategic Management Journal from 2009 to 2016. He is currently serving as a member of the editorial boards of leading journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Policy, Global Strategy Journal, and Long Range Planning, among others. He served as Vice President and Program Chair of the 2018 Academy of International Business annual conference in Minneapolis. Earlier in his career, JT worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Hong Kong. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/jt-li/ for the original video interview.

Anthony Goerzen is the D.R. Sobey Professor of International Business at Smith School of Business of Queen's University. Prior to academia, Anthony Goerzen spent 15 years in management positions in both small firms and MNCs. His research interests relate to the behaviour and performance of MNEs with a focus on location strategy, cooperative strategies (e.g., JVs, alliances, and networks) as well as social and environmental issue management within the context of global value chains. His research is published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Management International Review, Journal of International Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Peking University Business Review, Ivey Business Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, and Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/anthony-goerzen/ for the original video interview.

Welcome to an episode with a Professor of International Business and Strategy at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Ravi Sarathy. What happens if a company or country regulates its own digital currency? In this episode, Ravi Sarathy answers very interesting questions about blockchain and cryptocurrency. He outlines the features and capabilities of a blockchain, the implications of using it, and how organizations can leverage blockchain to their advantage. Ravi Sarathy is the author of Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain, published by MIT Press in Oct. 2022, in which he explains how companies can gain a competitive advantage by developing and deploying blockchain capabilities. Ravi has published in journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Small Business Economics, and California Management Review. His previous book was Firms within Families: Enterprising in Diverse Country Contexts. His research interests are in global strategy, technology strategy, and family business. Ravi holds a Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan, and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has taught executive education programs for companies such as BAE Systems, LG Electronics (S. Korea), Masa Shipyards (Finland), Mathworks, EMC, and others. He was a Fulbright scholar, as the Fulbright-Flad Chair in Strategic Management at the Technical University of Lisbon. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, at the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney, and other institutions. Get Ravi's book here: Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain: Lessons in Disruption from Fintech, Supply Chains, and Consumer Industries (Management on the Cutting Edge) Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Alexandra Nicole Nolan didn't mean to become an influencer. But she created a six-figure brand from thin air with sheer determination, creative thinking and resilience.  Now on The Business of You, Alexandra shares some of her hard-earned lessons on the power of influencer marketing and unconventional entrepreneurship! Alexandra, featured on Yahoo's Most Inspiring Influencers list, is a self-made digital entrepreneur, Founder of City Chic Living Blog and The UE Academy, and mother of three boys. She obtained her MBA from the University of Memphis, studied International Business Studies at Bournemouth University in England, is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Marketing, and has appeared in Forbes, as well as many other notable national publications.  Through her passion as a women empowerment speaker and mentor to many small business owners, Alexandra is paving the way for aspiring entrepreneurs all over the world.  Today, Alexandra shares some of the funniest, wildest and most fascinating stories behind her brand.  Surprise, you're on the Superbowl! When Alexandra was asked to make a video review for Everlywell, she was on board. She used the at-home testing kits for gut health, hormone testing and more. A while after submitting her video, she received a littany of texts from her friends - “Hey, do you know you're on the Superbowl?!” She was surprised and amused to see that she was front and center in an Everlywell ad during the Superbowl, giving them a rave review. Many people would be annoyed that their video rights were open for use at any time - but Alexandra took this as an important lesson. Now, she laughs about it as she tells the story. She reads her contracts thoroughly or consults her husband, who is a Contract Attorney. Through lessons like these, she learns the ins and outs of her chosen business and how to successfully partner with big brands. Personal branding wins and knee-scrapes When it comes to her brands, Alexandra has had some big wins. She has also experienced what she calls knee-scrapes…things that serve as lessons for later.  Now pursuing her Ph.D. in Marketing, Alexandra jokes about her crash-course in business as she launched, grew and sold multiple highly successful brands in fashion and beauty. From what to name your business to understanding your competition, Alexandra gets real about what worked and what didn't. How do Influencers get paid? Alexandra breaks down some of the most common ways Influencers make their money - helping us understand why Influencer marketing is so powerful.  Thinking of leveraging your audience and growing your brand? You can make money through paid posts, paid Instastories, blog and newsletter promos, making video recommendations, affiliate links, hosting events, and ads…the list goes on! During this episode, Alexandra shares her main sources of income and how she balances paid posts with her own personal content.  Quotes “I didn't aspire to be an influencer. I just had no money to market my store! I started a blog taking selfie pictures in my clothes. I shared makeup looks. Brands started noticing and reaching out.” “You have family on one side of the scale, and work on the other, and it has to be balanced. And if it's not, it has to be more family than anything. It's an exciting thing to live in your work-life passion. But it can overtake you, as an entrepreneur. I would be up at the store until three in the morning, unboxing stuff and listening to music. But family time was suffering.” “The world has changed so much. Everything's digital. You have to jump on that train, pivot and be flexible.” “Pinterest is a bomb waiting to explode. That's where it's at. It's so affordable to run ads on Pinterest. The number one driver to my blog is Pinterest, over Instagram.” “It's 100% branding. I have to be very protective. Not only of my brand and keeping the image that I have and promoting things my audience will like…but I don't want them to think I'm just selling. I find balance. The way influencers get paid is based on engagements and insights. They want to see your audience. I'm very particular and strategic.” Links mentioned in this episode: Visit Alexandra Nicole Nolan's website at https://www.alexandranicolenolan.com/  Get DIY tips, lifestyle advice and shop clothing and beauty on the City Chic Living website at https://citychicliving.com/  Buy Alexandra's book, The Unconventional Entrepreneur: Your Blueprint to Becoming Your Own Boss at https://main-hill-630.myflodesk.com/  Follow Alexandra on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/alexandra.nicole/  Follow Alexandra's Facebook at Https://www.facebook.com/alexandranicolenolan  Connect with Alexandra Nicole Nolan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-nolan-601755b1

Professor Maria Tereza Fleury is a full-time professor in the area of International Strategy, director of FGV SP, and of the Center for International Competitiveness, FGV. She is a Fellow at the Academy of International Business and President of AIB. She was previously dean of FGV EAESP – School of Administration of São Paulo at the Getulio Vargas Foundation and  FEA- School of Economics and Business Administration at the University of São Paulo. She is a member of international councils: Instituto de Empresas, Madrid, Tshinghua Latin America Center, among others. She was a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UK, Sussex University, UK, IDE, Japan, and a professor at ESSEC, France. In the past, she was the director of ANPAD, BALAS,  a member of the CNP Advisory Committee, FAPESP, FAPESP, editor of RAUSP; currently, she is a member of the editorial board of the Journal International Business Policy, International Business Studies, and RAE. She published more than one hundred articles and 25 books. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/maria-tereza-leme-fleury/ for the original video interview.  

Dr. Bird has served as President of The Kozai Group, Inc. since 2001. He is also Senior Professor at the Goa Institute of Management in Goa, India.  From 2009 to 2019 he was the Darla and Frederick Brodsky Trustee Professor in Global Business at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern, Dr. Bird was the Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Professor of Japanese Studies and also served as Director of the International Business Institute and Director of the International MBA program in the College of Business at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has previously been a Visiting Professor at Rikkyo University in Japan, Columbia University, Monterey Institute for International Studies, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Finland, Osaka International University and Japan's National Self Defense Academy. He has also served on the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. He teaches courses in global leadership development, intercultural management, international negotiations, and intercultural and global leadership assessment. He has authored, co-authored, or edited nine books, over 40 book chapters, and more than 60 journal articles. His most recent book (with M.E. Mendenhall, J.S. Osland, G.R. Oddou, M.L. Maznevski, M. Stevens, and G. Stahl) Global Leadership: Research, practice, and development (3nd Edition) was published in 2019.  The second edition won an Award of Merit for Research Scholarship and was a finalist for the University of San Diego's Leadership Book of the Year Award in 2013. His articles have appeared in the Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Executive, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of World Business, Journal of International Management, Journal of International Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management, International Studies of Management and Organization, International Journal of Intercultural Research, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Advances in International and Comparative Management, and Advances in Research on the Sociology of Organizations. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/allan-bird/ for the original video interview.  

David A. Griffith is Professor of Marketing, the holder of the Hallie Vanderhider Chair in Business, and Associate Director of Research of the Center for International Business Studies, in Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. In 2022, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of International Business. David's research focuses on the areas of strategy, global marketing, innovation, and international business. He has published over 125 articles, in outlets including the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Operations Management, etc. He is ranked among the most productive and impactful scholars in the international marketing discipline. He is the recipient of the 2021 S. Tamer Cavusgil Award, the 2021 Louis W. Stern Award, the 2019 Significant Contributions to Global Marketing Award presented by the AMA Global Marketing Special Interest Group, a two-time recipient of the Hans B. Thorelli Award (2018, 2015), as well as a two-time recipient of the AMA Global Marketing Special Interest Group's Excellence in Research Award (2018, 2014). In 2019 he was awarded a Silver Medal by the Academy of International Business for his contributions to the Journal of International Business Studies. David is serving as Editor for Global Marketing at the Journal of International Business Studies (2023-2025). He also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Marketing. Prior to these editorial roles, he served two terms as the Editor-in-Chief of the AMA's Journal of International Marketing (2008-2010, 2011-2013). Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/david-griffith/ for the original video interview.

Stephanie Decker is a professor of strategy at the University of Birmingham Business School. Previously she worked at the University of Bristol, Aston Business School, and the University of Liverpool Management School. She is currently joint editor-in-chief for Business History and serves on the editorial board of Organization Studies, Accounting History, and  Journal of International Business Studies. She is also co-Vice-Chair for Research & Publication at the British Academy of Management. As a historian working at a management school, most of Decker's research is concerned with the connection between the social sciences and history, specifically organization studies and history. She is interested in how to theorize from historical research and in developing archival and historical methods for organization studies. Her historical research focuses on the history of organizations, entrepreneurs and the wider political economy in sub-Saharan Africa. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/stephanie-decker/ for the original video interview.

Roger Strange is Professor of International Business at the University of Sussex Business School, United Kingdom. His current research focuses on four main areas of International Business: the reasons for, and the implications of, the growing trend towards the externalization of production in global value chains; the effects of corporate governance factors on foreign direct investment decisions; the determinants of MNE subsidiary location; and the impact of new digital technologies on international business theory and practice. He is the author/editor of fourteen books, and over one hundred journal articles and book chapters. Roger is the co-Editor-in-Chief of International Business Review, a former President of the European International Business Academy (EIBA), and an EIBA Fellow. He is a member of the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Business Policy, Journal of World Business, Global Strategy Journal, Asia Pacific Business Review, and the Journal of Management & Governance. He has been a consultant to UNCTAD on several World Investment Reports and to the World Bank on the forthcoming Global Investment Competitiveness Report 2021-2022. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/roger-strange/ for the original video interview.

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 302, an episode with a Professor of International Business and Strategy at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Ravi Sarathy. What happens if a company or country regulates its own digital currency? In this episode, Ravi Sarathy answers very interesting questions about blockchain and cryptocurrency. He outlines the features and capabilities of a blockchain, the implications of using it, and how organizations can leverage blockchain to their advantage. Ravi Sarathy is the author of Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain, published by MIT Press in Oct. 2022, in which he explains how companies can gain a competitive advantage by developing and deploying blockchain capabilities. Ravi has published in journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Small Business Economics, and California Management Review. His previous book was Firms within Families: Enterprising in Diverse Country Contexts. His research interests are in global strategy, technology strategy, and family business. Ravi holds a Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan, and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has taught executive education programs for companies such as BAE Systems, LG Electronics (S. Korea), Masa Shipyards (Finland), Mathworks, EMC, and others. He was a Fulbright scholar, as the Fulbright-Flad Chair in Strategic Management at the Technical University of Lisbon. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, at the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney, and other institutions. Get Ravi's book here: Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain: Lessons in Disruption from Fintech, Supply Chains, and Consumer Industries (Management on the Cutting Edge) Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Bodo B. Schlegelmilch heads the Institute for International Marketing Management at WU Vienna and is Chair of AMBA [Association of MBAs] and BGA [Business Graduates Association]. He was Founding Dean of the WU Executive Academy and initiated the Vienna Executive MBA, leading it into the Financial Times Top 50 ranking. Starting at Deutsche Bank and Procter & Gamble, he continued at the Universities of Edinburgh and California, Berkeley. Professorships at the University of Wales (British Rail Chair of Marketing) and Thunderbird School of Global Management (Head of Marketing Section) followed. To date, he taught in 31 countries on six continents. Bodo received awards and fellowships from the Academy of International Business, Academy of Marketing Science, American Marketing Association and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He serves on advisory boards of European and Asian universities, and holds guest professorships in China, Fiji, Thailand, UK and USA. His research spans from international marketing strategy to CSR, and appeared in leading journals, such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. In addition to some 150 journal papers, he published 15 books in English, Mandarin and German. Bodo served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Marketing and on editorial boards of the Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, AMS-Review and other top journals. Initially educated in Germany, he obtained two doctorates (in International Marketing Strategy and CSR) from the University of Manchester and an honorary Ph.D. from Thammasat University (Thailand). Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/bodo-schlegelmilch/ for the original video interview.

Shige Makino is Professor at Faculty of Economics/Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Japan, and Emeritus Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received LLB and MBA degrees from Keio University, and PhD from Ivey Business School, Western University. Shige's current research focuses on strategies and performance of multinational corporations. He is especially interested in exploring non-economic based motivations on economic activities and their performance consequences in international business. His research has appeared in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal, among others. Shige served as a Vice President of the Academy of International Business (Program) and a President of the Association of Japanese Business Studies. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for Global Strategy Journal, a Consulting Editor of Journal of International Business Studies, and an editorial and advisory board member in a number of local and international journals. He has received several major research awards and honors, including the JIBS Gold Medal (2019) and the International Business Review (IBR) Best Journal Paper of the Year Award (2020). He teaches strategic management and business models at undergraduate, masters and PhD levels and received many teaching awards at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, including the Vice Chancellor's Exemplary Teaching Award (the University's top teaching award) and the Teaching Excellence Award (the Business School's top teaching award). Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/shige-makino/ for the original video interview.

Wayne F. Cascio is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Business School of the University of Colorado Denver, where he served as a member of the management faculty from 1981 to 2020. A former area and consulting editor of the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), he has published more than 200 articles and book chapters, and 33 books, including Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits (12th ed., 2022), Investing in People (3rd ed., 2019 with J. Boudreau and A. Fink), and Applied Psychology in Talent Management (8th ed., 2019 with H. Aguinis). In 2016, by a vote of 90 countries, he received the George Petitpas [Lifetime Achievement] Award from the World Federation of People Management Associations. In 2020 he received the inaugural Ulrich Impact Award from the HR Division of the Academy of Management for his research that links theory to practical applications, and he was also inducted into the Australian HR Institute's Hall of Fame. In 2022 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Colorado Board of Regents for his service to the state and to the nation. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/wayne-cascio/ for the original video interview.

Esther Tippmann is Professor of Strategy, Leadership and Change at NUI Galway, Ireland. Before joining NUI Galway, she was a faculty member at University College Dublin and Research Fellow at Grenoble Ecole de Management, France. Esther's research and teaching interests revolve around the strategic challenges of internationally operating organizations. She has worked closely with several scaling firms and multinational corporations in Ireland, France, U.K. and the U.S. on case studies and research projects. She has been published in the Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Studies, Journal of World Business, Journal of Management Studies, Global Strategy Journal, Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review, among others. Her research received several honours, including awards and nominations from the Academy of Management, Academy of International Business and Strategic Management Society. Esther currently serves as Senior Editor for the Journal of World Business and on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies and Long Range Planning. She held a Marie-Curie Fellowship, funded by the European Commission and Irish Research Council. Esther has taught in the areas of Strategic Management, Global Strategy, International Business, and Qualitative Research across all levels, including executives, in Ireland, Germany and France. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/esther-tippmann/ for the original video interview.

Pasha Mahmood is a Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School where he studies and works with multinational firms and local enterprises on their emerging market strategies. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's international panel of experts, acting as the co-curator for the ASEAN Transformation Map. Pasha obtained his B.A. in Economics from Oberlin College and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Prior to joining academia, he had worked as a management consultant for Gemini in Chicago. From 2012 to 2015, Pasha was a Professor of Strategy and Innovation at the IMD Business School in Switzerland. He has also held several Visiting Professor appointments at universities such as Waseda and Hitotsubashi in Japan, and St. Gallen in Switzerland. Pasha's work looks at the interface between innovation and strategy in the context of emerging markets. He won the Haynes Prize by the Academy of International Business (AIB). In 2014, Pasha also won the Aspen Award by the Aspen Institute for promoting sustainable business models in his research and teaching. His recent case on bKash, a fintech firm in Bangladesh, won the bestselling case award in 2021 from Ivey Publications. Pasha's research has been published at leading management journals including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), Management Science, Organization Science, Research Policy, Strategic Management Journal, etc. He has also served as an Area Editor for JIBS from 2010-2013 and as a Senior Editor for the Management Organization Review from 2013-2015. Literature, history, coffee, and train rides are some of his passions. It is the opportunity to be useful to his students and colleagues that excites Pasha the most about his job as a business school professor. Visit https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/ishtiaq-pasha-mahmood/ for the original video interview.  

Is the criticism of ESG well-founded or political posturing? Listen to Jason Mitchell discuss with Professor Ioannis Ioannou, London Business School, about what is at stake in the backlash to ESG, how to think about the factors driving its politicisation, and why we need to work harder towards finding ways to turn down the heat in this increasingly partisan debate. Prof. Ioannis Ioannou Ioannis Ioannou is a professor at London Business School, and strategy scholar whose research focuses on Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. He consults on and researches how environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) strategies are adopted, embedded and successfully implemented by organizations globally. His work has been published in top academic journals, including the Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science and the Journal of International Business Studies. He is the co-Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Panel of Merck KGaA and a member of the ESG Advisory Board of the DWS Group. Ioannis also recently served on the Stakeholder Working Group of the UK Treasury's Asset Management Taskforce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to an interview with globally recognized academic thought-leader on digital transformation and innovation management, Satish Nambisan. Get Satish's book here: https://amzn.to/3QpWQE3 In this episode, Satish spoke about real-world examples of companies that use digital technology as their unique competency to move and globalize faster. He defined “globalization” and “digital” in a broader perspective, and elaborated on their role in a company to thrive through an emotional connection with customers. Satish also explained the idea of tight and loose coupling and how it allows companies to continuously adapt to disturbances that happen in different parts of the world without reinventing the business model, processes, or operations. Satish Nambisan, Ph.D. is the Nancy and Joseph Keithley Professor of Technology Management at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. His current work focuses on how digital technologies, platforms, and ecosystems shape innovation, entrepreneurship, and international business. His publications have appeared in journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Management Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Science, Academy of Management Review, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is the co-author of The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World (Wharton School Publishing). His latest book is The Digital Multinational: Navigating the New Normal in Global Business (MIT Press, 2022). Get Satish's book here: The Digital Multinational: Navigating the New Normal in Global Business (Management on the Cutting Edge). Satish Nambisan & Yadong Luo: https://amzn.to/3QpWQE3 Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with a well-recognized professor, Ben M. Bensaou. Get Ben's book here: https://amzn.to/3xpI9Zb Many people think that you need a genius leader or need to become a start-up to innovate. But we all have the potential to innovate. In this episode, Ben speaks about everyone's role in innovation and how it can be performed like a habit in our everyday lives. He also discussed the need to develop a deeper understanding of customers and create a culture of collaborating with customers to offer the ideal combination of performance, attributes, price, and other characteristics that customers need and want, or produce a product and service with a powerful market appeal. Ben M. Bensaou is a Professor of Technology Management and Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. He served as Dean of Executive Education in 2018–2020. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard Business School in 1998-1999, a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of Management in 2007-2008, and a Visiting Scholar at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley in 2013-2015. He received his PhD in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, US, and his MA in Management Science from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan; his Diplôme d'Ingénieur (MSc) in Civil Engineering and DEA in Mechanical Engineering from respectively the Ecole Nationale des TPE, Lyon and the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, two Grandes Ecoles in France. His research and teaching activities focus on: (1) how to create innovating capabilities and competencies as a way to build an innovating organization and culture; (2) Blue Ocean Strategy and value innovation implementation, and roll out processes across the whole organization; (3) how to build social capital within firms; (4) new forms of organizations, in particular networked corporations, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and value-adding partnerships; and (5) the impact of information technology on innovation. Professor Bensaou addresses these issues from an international comparative perspective, with a special focus on Japanese organizations. Professor Bensaou's research on buyer-supplier relations in the US and Japanese auto industries won him the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award in the field of information systems and a finalist nomination for the Free Press Award for outstanding dissertation research in the field of business policy and strategy. His case studies on innovation won the 2006, 2008 and 2009 ECCH Best Case Awards (with Kim & Mauborgne). His publications include papers in Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly and MISQ Executive. He has been listed in the Who's Who in the World since 1998. He has been consulting for Asian, European and US corporations since 1993. At INSEAD, Professor Bensaou developed two new MBA courses: 'Managing Networked Organisations' and 'Understanding Japanese Business.' He also teaches courses on Competitive Strategy, Innovation, Blue Ocean Strategy and Value Innovation, Information Technology and Comparative Management (in English and French). He was a Visiting Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, where he taught his 'Information Technology and Corporate Transformation' course. He has also been teaching (in Japanese) in Executive Education programs at Keio Business School, Tokyo, Japan. Get Ben's book here: Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA. Ben M. Bensaou: https://amzn.to/3xpI9Zb Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 244, an interview with globally recognized academic thought-leader on digital transformation and innovation management, Satish Nambisan. In this episode, Satish spoke about real-world examples of companies that use digital technology as their unique competency to move and globalize faster. He defined “globalization” and “digital” in a broader perspective, and elaborated on their role in a company to thrive through an emotional connection with customers. Satish also explained the idea of tight and loose coupling and how it allows companies to continuously adapt to disturbances that happen in different parts of the world without reinventing the business model, processes, or operations. Satish Nambisan, Ph.D. is the Nancy and Joseph Keithley Professor of Technology Management at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. His current work focuses on how digital technologies, platforms, and ecosystems shape innovation, entrepreneurship, and international business. His publications have appeared in journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Management Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Science, Academy of Management Review, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is the co-author of The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World (Wharton School Publishing). His latest book is The Digital Multinational: Navigating the New Normal in Global Business (MIT Press, 2022). Get Satish's book here: The Digital Multinational: Navigating the New Normal in Global Business (Management on the Cutting Edge). Satish Nambisan & Yadong Luo Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 227, an episode with a well-recognized professor, Ben M. Bensaou. Many people think that you need a genius leader or need to become a start-up to innovate. But we all have the potential to innovate. In this episode, Ben speaks about everyone's role in innovation and how it can be performed like a habit in our everyday lives. He also discussed the need to develop a deeper understanding of customers and create a culture of collaborating with customers to offer the ideal combination of performance, attributes, price, and other characteristics that customers need and want, or produce a product and service with a powerful market appeal. Ben M. Bensaou is a Professor of Technology Management and Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. He served as Dean of Executive Education in 2018–2020. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard Business School in 1998-1999, a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of Management in 2007-2008, and a Visiting Scholar at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley in 2013-2015. He received his PhD in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, US, and his MA in Management Science from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan; his Diplôme d'Ingénieur (MSc) in Civil Engineering and DEA in Mechanical Engineering from respectively the Ecole Nationale des TPE, Lyon and the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, two Grandes Ecoles in France. His research and teaching activities focus on: (1) how to create innovating capabilities and competencies as a way to build an innovating organization and culture; (2) Blue Ocean Strategy and value innovation implementation, and roll out processes across the whole organization; (3) how to build social capital within firms; (4) new forms of organizations, in particular networked corporations, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and value-adding partnerships; and (5) the impact of information technology on innovation. Professor Bensaou addresses these issues from an international comparative perspective, with a special focus on Japanese organizations. Professor Bensaou's research on buyer-supplier relations in the US and Japanese auto industries won him the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award in the field of information systems and a finalist nomination for the Free Press Award for outstanding dissertation research in the field of business policy and strategy. His case studies on innovation won the 2006, 2008 and 2009 ECCH Best Case Awards (with Kim & Mauborgne). His publications include papers in Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly and MISQ Executive. He has been listed in the Who's Who in the World since 1998. He has been consulting for Asian, European and US corporations since 1993. At INSEAD, Professor Bensaou developed two new MBA courses: 'Managing Networked Organisations' and 'Understanding Japanese Business.' He also teaches courses on Competitive Strategy, Innovation, Blue Ocean Strategy and Value Innovation, Information Technology and Comparative Management (in English and French). He was a Visiting Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, where he taught his 'Information Technology and Corporate Transformation' course. He has also been teaching (in Japanese) in Executive Education programs at Keio Business School, Tokyo, Japan. Get Ben's book here: Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA. Ben M. Bensaou  Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Jenni Byrd Grier is a transformational speaker, personal development coach, and Next Level Achievement™ expert. Today we discuss why she left the corporate world and became an entrepreneur who is committed to providing achievement and personal growth for all clients. Jenni also shares some transformative insight into how feelings can impact your business and personal life. Tune in to learn how to transform your thoughts and become free from your limiting beliefs.     IN THIS EPISODE:  [07:34] Jenni shares the moment she knew she wanted to dedicate her life to coaching business owners.   [11:39] How your feelings can impact situations and decisions in business settings and in everyday life.   [18:37] How we unknowingly let our past affect our present and future.   [26:00] How to start your journey of getting unstuck from your limiting beliefs.   [32:54] The way you speak to yourself when faced with a choice matters.     KEY TAKEAWAYS:  When you're an entrepreneur and you work really hard, you can really feel the direct impact of your work faster than if you were in the corporate lifestyle.   We all have the tendency to view current circumstances through the lens of past experiences.   Your thoughts don't just impact yourself, they impact everyone around you.  Intentional thoughts have the power to transform your world.   Affirmations don't help if you immediately go back into our day with fear and doubt.  We not only have to say our affirmations, we have to live in those feelings as if what we want has already happened.     LINKS MENTIONED: https://byrdgroup.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/byrdgroup/   BIO: Jenni Byrd Grier has achieved her dream goal to work side-by-side with her father. Jenni is a transformational speaker, personal development coach, and Next Level Achievement™ expert. As the President of The Byrd Group, Jenni is committed to providing achievement and personal growth for all clients. Before joining The Byrd Group, Jenni served as Director of Customer Experience and Marketing at Duke Energy in Charlotte, N.C. During her 13+ years at Duke Energy, Jenni completed the Duke Energy/University of Chapel Hill Strategic Leadership Program and the Charlotte Leadership Program. Jenni grew up in Waco, Texas and attended the University of South Carolina, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration, Marketing and Management degree. She then went on to receive her Master of International Business Studies at the University of South Carolina. Jenni is now located in North Carolina with her husband, Rob, and their two daughters. 

Ron Gill is the former CFO of NetSuite and currently an Operating Partner at Lead Edge Capital and a board member of HubSpot, Benchling, Amplitude, and others. Prior to joining NetSuite, Mr. Gill was vice president, finance, at Hyperion Solutions. Previously, he held a variety of financial positions with several of the world's largest technology companies, including SAP, Dell, and Sony. Mr. Gill holds a Master of International Business Studies degree from the University of South Carolina and a B.A. from Baylor University.