Podcasts about Olin Business School

(Airdate 3/28/25) Adrienne Davis holds a dual appointment as the William M. Van Cleve Professor in the School of Law and Professor of Organizational Behavior in Olin Business School.https://law.washu.edu/faculty-staff-directory/profile/adrienne-davis/ https://www.instagram.com/diprimaradio/

The Olin Business School at Wash U in St. Louis turns its attention to women leaders. One focus for this event, She Suite 2025, is negotiation. Dr. Hillary Anger Elfenbein, a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Olin, joined Megan Lynch.

In this episode of The Organisational Inclusionist, I'm joined by Gisele Marcus, Vice Dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Washington University. Gisele is a powerhouse in the DEI space, boldly leading change in education and beyond. We dive into why DEI matters now more than ever, the cultural nuances of inclusion around the globe, and what it really takes to prepare future leaders to thrive in diverse workplaces. If you're passionate about building inclusive spaces or curious about how DEI can look different across industries and countries, this is the episode for you. Download, like, and share this one—because conversations like these are where real change begins! Gisele Marcus is a Harvard MBA and Syracuse graduate who has held executive roles at companies such as Accenture and AT&T, where she managed businesses with revenues of up to $800M. She currently serves as the Vice Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Washington University's Olin Business School, where she also teaches DEI. In addition, Gisele is a two-time best-selling author, TEDx speaker, corporate director, and passionate advocate for supporting parentless children. She has traveled to 14 African countries and is based in St. Louis.

John Horn, Professor of Practice in Economics at Wash U's Olin Business School, joins Chris and Amy to break down tariffs and their impact. They discuss what tariffs are, who pays them, and how they affect American businesses, consumers, and international relations. John explains the short- and long-term effects, including inflation and reduced trade, and explores concerns over increased cronyism in Washington.

In 2024, Peter Boumgarden had the opportunity to lead a group of researchers and commissioners in a shared venture between Washington University in St. Louis and the Brookings Institution looking at the shifts of ownership for privately held firms. Because of the amount of these that are owned by baby boomers, it is often called a kind of silver tsunami. Today, you are going to hear pieces of that story from a few members of the team.

Brian Campbell, Assistant Vice President for Athletics Development at the University of Miami, shares his journey from growing up in Columbus, Ohio, to becoming a leader in athletics fundraising, his experiences as a cadet at the Air Force Academy, the challenges he faced, and the resilience he developed.  SUMMARY In this conversation, Brian Campbell, Assistant Vice President for Athletics Development at the University of Miami, shares his journey from growing up in Columbus, Ohio, to becoming a leader in athletics fundraising. He discusses his experiences as a cadet at the Air Force Academy, the challenges he faced, and the resilience he developed. Brian emphasizes the importance of leadership, surrounding oneself with great people, and the impact of private investment in athletics. He also reflects on his transition from military to civilian life and his current role in shaping the future of athletics at UM.   OUR TOP 5 FAVORITE QUOTES   "I think it's important to be really authentic with people, and that has worked. It's worked well for me, especially when those decisions are consistent with being authentic to what we're trying to accomplish."   "I think a lot about the elements that we put into it, because it's hard on a daily basis to know if you're doing a good job being a leader, but if you take those pieces of the fabric that we learned at the Academy, and you keep doing it the right way and thinking about these things and surrounding yourself by people with with surrounding yourself with people of those kinds of values, and people that you can take little pieces of what they do and try to try to bring them with You. I think it's the right road."   "I don't think I've arrived as a leader and I but I started to think that I probably that I would be willing to bet that General Clark might say the same thing, and Coach Calhoun might say the same thing. So I think it's always a work in process."   "If you take those pieces of the fabric that we learned at the Academy, and you keep doing it the right way and thinking about these things and surrounding yourself by people with with surrounding yourself with people of those kinds of values, and people that you can take little pieces of what they do and try to try to bring them with You. I think it's the right road."   "I think it's always a work in process, but I think it's important to be really authentic with people, and that has worked. It's worked well for me, especially when those decisions are consistent with being authentic to what we're trying to accomplish."  - Brian Campbell '08, the Long Blue Leadership Podcast   SHARE THIS EPISODE FACEBOOK  |  LINKEDIN   CHAPTERS 00:00: Introduction to Brian Campbell 02:52: Growing Up in Columbus and Early Athletic Influences 06:14: The Journey to the Air Force Academy 08:59: Life as a Cadet: Challenges and Resilience 11:53: Leadership Lessons from the Academy 15:10: Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life 18:06: Fundraising and Philanthropy in Athletics 21:00: The Kutra Legacy Center: A Personal Connection 23:53: Current Role at the University of Miami 27:06: Leadership Philosophy and Key Takeaways   TAKEAWAYS Brian's journey highlights the importance of resilience in overcoming challenges. Authenticity in leadership fosters trust and connection with others. Surrounding yourself with talented individuals can enhance personal growth. Private investment plays a crucial role in the success of athletic programs. Experiences at the Air Force Academy shape leadership philosophies. Fundraising in athletics is about building relationships and trust. Transitioning from military to civilian life requires adaptability and networking. The Kutra Legacy Center represents a significant investment in future cadets. Leadership is a continuous journey of learning and growth. Engaging with alumni can create impactful opportunities for current students.   ABOUT BRIAN CAMPBELL '08BIO Brian Campbell '08 joined the University of Miami in May of 2023 as Assistant Vice President for Athletics Development. In this role, Brian has oversight of fundraising operations, programs, and the development team for Miami Athletics. Brian came to UM from his alma mater, the United States Air Force Academy, where he had spent the previous five years, beginning in 2018 as the Assistant Athletic Director for Development and finishing as the Executive Director of Development for Strategic Programs and Athletic Giving. At Air Force, Brian was responsible for the fundraising strategy and execution for athletic capital projects, endowments, and major giving, in addition to other revenue generating initiatives.  He also served as the liaison to the Air Force Academy Foundation Board of Director's Athletic Committee.  The academy experienced unprecedented fundraising success during Brian's time at USAFA – most notably completing a $270 million campaign nearly 18-months ahead of schedule, headlined by multiple record-breaking years of fundraising. As part of the campaign, Brian led a $37.5 million fundraising effort to support the $90+ million modernization of the east side of Falcon Stadium.  Additionally, he managed the philanthropic component of a $500 million public-private partnership to develop a new hotel and visitors center outside USAFA's north gate.  Other accomplishments during this stretch included a lead gift to launch the renovation of Air Force's baseball venue, Falcon Field, and building the Wayne Baughman Wrestling Endowment, which seeks to provide operational funding for Air Force Wrestling in perpetuity. Brian brings 15 years of organizational leadership experience to UM from multiple sectors.  He rose to the rank of captain in the US Air Force, then climbed to the partner level at Anheuser-Busch InBev   where he led the sales and marketing efforts for the Northwest region, including several of the largest sports and entertainment partnerships in the portfolio. In each of the communities he's lived in, Brian has supported local initiatives – serving on the boards of the National Football Foundation of Colorado, the Missouri Veterans Initiative, and the Boys and Girls Club of Alton, Illinois.  He was a football student-athlete at the Air Force Academy and earned his MBA from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. - Copy Credit:  University of Miami   CONNECT WITH BRIAN LINKEDIN     ABOUT LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP Long Blue Leadership drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn + Alexa, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms. Search @AirForceGrads on your favorite social channels for Long Blue Leadership news and updates!          FULL TRANSCRIPT SPEAKERS Guest, Brian Campbell '08  |  Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99   Naviere Walkewicz  00:00 My guest today is the Assistant Vice President for Athletics Development, Brian Campbell, USAFA, class of 2008. Brian joined the University of Miami in 2023 as Assistant Vice President for Athletics Development, where he oversees all fundraising for UM Athletics. In 2018 he served as Assistant Athletic Director for Development for Air Force Athletics, ultimately becoming Executive Director of Development for Strategic Programs and Athletic Giving. Brian led several highly successful, multi-million dollar fundraising campaigns, including playing a significant role in securing funding for the Falcon Stadium's newly open Kucera Legacy Center. While at the Academy, Brian was a football cadet-athlete and later earned his MBA from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He also spent five years in sports marketing with Anheuser Busch. We'll talk with Brian about his life as a young athlete, path to the Air Force Academy, his days as a cadet, leadership opportunities, and how he now uses what he learned to lead and positively impact others. Finally, we'll ask Brian to share advice for developing leaders and those in leadership aspiring to reach similar heights in their careers. Brian, welcome to long blue leadership, and thank you for joining us today.   Brian Campbell  01:18 Thanks, Naviere. I am honored to be on the podcast, and I'm really happy to be back in Doolittle Hall, albeit remotely, and I want to welcome you to the “U.”   Naviere Walkewicz  01:29 Thank you so much. I will take that warm weather. Yeah, well, we're really excited for this. Brian, I think a lot of our listeners love to hear the different paths that our leaders take from getting to the Academy in life after but we like to start by rewinding the clock a little bit. And we'd like to get to know you, Brian, as a young boy. Tell us about what life was like growing up, where you grew up, etc.   Brian Campbell  01:51 Yeah. I mean, I was, I grew up mostly in Columbus, Ohio. My family was from California, but my dad's job took us to Columbus when I was young. And you know, as I've reflected back on some of my career and the things that have led me to different spots, I think being a kid from Columbus, and regardless of people's feelings about Ohio State, which tend to be fairly negative here at the my current institution, the lens at which I grew up in was through a place with a massive presence of college athletics, you know, everything, everything in that community, with the fabric was Ohio State. I played every sport growing up. I'm very grateful to have grown up at a time where, you know, we went out in the yard, in the neighborhood, and did everything all day. We figured out our differences in the backyard. There are a couple other guys in the neighborhood who went on to very successful athletic endeavors as well. So, you know, athletics were very important all throughout and then as we got more serious and into competitive things later on, they become, you know, more and more formal. But you know, sports and the community were tied together, and they very much provided the context at which my career followed.   Naviere Walkewicz  03:14 That's awesome. So, you're really into sports. Did you have siblings as well? Or where was your neighborhood? Kind of the sibling playground for you.   Brian Campbell  03:22 I have two sisters both swam in college, although if one of them listens to this, I think she had like a cup of coffee on the swim team and realized that the rest of the extracurricular activities were a little bit more appealing. But my little sister swam all the way through in a very competitive college program. But there were but outside, in the streets and in the yard were where we spent our time. We would change by season. So, in the fall, we play football in the yard, and then the winter, you know, you'd shovel off and play basketball, and then in the summer, we'd play baseball. So, so all of the above.   Naviere Walkewicz  04:01 I love that. And I noticed you didn't say you ever went to the pool, so I'm sure that your sisters could definitely outswim you.   Brian Campbell  04:06 I went to the pool too. There was plenty of swimming in our family.   Naviere Walkewicz  04:12 Wonderful. So, you know, life as a child, you were really into athletics, and I think it developed your sense of competitor, you know, being a competitor about and winning. But also, it's probably teamwork. You know, what other things as a child could you share with our listeners about what it was like for you in Ohio?   Brian Campbell  04:32 I think all the above. I think, you know, when you have to work things out. You know, we weren't an era then the kids had cell phones or anything like that. You had to knock on someone's door, see if you could form a team, get out in the front yard and go take care of things. But yeah, we did stuff really. I mean, I'm kind of thinking back to one of my neighbors who went on to play some college football. He one time he broke his leg in the yard and kept playing.   Naviere Walkewicz Oh my goodness.   Brian Campbell Yeah, but, you know, you learn to get along with other people. You know the saying of taking your ball and going home, that's, you know, you have to figure out how to get past those things. And I think the social dynamic that you gain from those experiences very much stayed with me, and I think is some of the foundation and the work that I do now, and being able to identify with different people in different situations.   Naviere Walkewicz  05:28 Alright, so I like what you're sharing about kind of you know, the social aspect that you've experienced growing up. Tell me about how it the Academy came into the picture. Then was it, was there someone that you grew up learning from that went to the Air Force Academy. Or how did that happen?   Brian Campbell  05:46 Well, as a sophomore in high school, as I was thinking of thinking back to some of these things, my dad actually took me to visit West Point, and we had a family friend who went to school there, and I remember going to visit him, and he was probably getting close to maybe in the summer before his senior year, and I remember him like getting pulled aside, and there was something that he had been doing wrong. Maybe. Is it related to escorting guests around the campus? It was during Sandhurst, and so we watched Sandhurst, and honestly, I remember thinking like this does not seem like any way to spend college, but as I went back, I was very fortunate to have like really, really good coaches in my life who were very interested in developing me and growing me and pushing out of my comfort zone. My high school football coach was very hard on me at times, but I think he saw something in me. And you know, when I began to look at colleges, and I was thinking about, like, could I play football somewhere? And there was a variety of schools, and I went on, I went on different visits in different places, and I just remember feeling like nowhere really made a lot of sense for me, like I didn't really feel like any of them really fit the things that were important to me. And then I got the chance to go on a visit to the Air Force Academy, and honestly, I was just like, I just, why not go see Colorado? I've never seen the mountains. So we took the trip out, and I was hosted on my visit by Rob McMenamin, who recently, unfortunately passed away, but was like just the greatest person you know, that could have possibly, that I could have come across at that time, and between him and the people I met on my visit, it was more about the fact that I felt like I was at home, and I had found a group of people that seemed so similar to me that I ended up deciding that that's what I wanted to do. Now we got back to Columbus, and my mom wanted me to talk to someone who didn't play football, and so they somehow found some other cadet, and I had, she's like, “You have to call him and ask him.” So, I called this guy, and I don't even remember his name. We'll see if he listens to the podcast. But he told me he's like, “I don't, I wouldn't do it, you know?” He's like, “It's, it's brutal, it's really hard.” And, oh, wow, I just don't think. But I got off the phone, and it didn't matter to me, like and so for me, it was, maybe it was just a feeling. It was the excitement of being part of something like that. I think I did understand how important the academies are, and what a serious opportunity that was. And maybe it was the fact that I never really thought I would have an opportunity to go to a place like that, but once I, it just kind of sat right, you know, I decided to pursue it.   Naviere Walkewicz  08:48 I love that. And I think what was really key about what you said was it felt like family or you're finding others that are like you. And so how did your parents respond to that? I mean, I think I love that your mom said, “Let's look at both sides.” Let's get everything you know, a perspective that's beyond athletics as well. And so, it's kind of a testament to, probably your upbringing, the fact that your parents are like, let's make some really sound decisions. Would you say that that's the case?   Brian Campbell  09:17 Yeah, I think once my mom got over the fact that it was a military academy. I mean, she asked the one of the coaches that came to our house, like, “What's, what happens afterwards?”, you know, but what was instilled in me at a young age, and when we that, my mom valued education a lot, and so that was, that was in me, and candidly, it was probably the best educational opportunity I was going to have, and it was the best athletic opportunity I was going to have. So those two things were really important. I mean, when we got to the Air Force Academy, I remember my dad being like, “Holy cow, this is a really big deal.” And, you know, I just, I sometimes think back to those times. Times where you know before you go through it, and you see the full grind and all the things that are required, you know, to go through our school, you forget how cool it is from the outside, and the mystique and the things that make it so unique. And I remember, I just remember all that and, and obviously the football piece was a big deal, despite how my football career ended up going to be, to be offered an opportunity to be a part of something like that. Just the weight was, you know, it was so significant, it outweighed any other opportunity I had.   Naviere Walkewicz  10:37 That's wonderful. So, let's talk about that transition then. So, you came to the Academy, you recruited football for what position?   Brian Campbell  10:46 Tight end.   Naviere Walkewicz  10:47 Tight end, awesome. And so, what was, do you remember day one? What was it like coming to the Academy for the second time after your recruiting visit?   Brian Campbell  10:55 Yeah. So, you know, as I think back to my time as a cadet, I mean, the things that really weave through everything are the relationships, and it's interesting. I don't know when we'll broadcast this, but right now we're 4 and 0 here. We just beat South Florida and because we're not for here right now. But okay, that doesn't feel good to me either. But you know, when I was, when I was there, I had a call on the way to Tampa with the first person I met on my recruiting visit at Southgate, when they were trying to figure out how to get us on the base.,   Naviere Walkewicz Really.   Brian Campbell Yeah, and it's just, you know, it's completely normal, you know, or, you know, it's not like we're out of touch. But like that, I talked to that person and the person I spent the day with Saturday before the game was the person that I roomed with in basic training and I still talk to the people that I'm very close with every day. But you know, to this day, the two people I probably met first were, I mean, we're just a very significant amount of time last week. So, I mean, I remember everything. I remember going down the shot line, getting all the things in my arm, and then the blazing hot scissors or whatever they put on our head and everything and then I remember standing in the hallway, but I honestly had no idea what was happening. And I'll never forget that the next morning, when they come and start pounding down the doors, and like, my hands were shaking and they're yelling about, like, BD us. And I was like, “What on earth is a BDU?” And then, you know, I'm like, looking around, trying to figure out what people are going to put on. And then the guy that I was telling you about that I just saw in Tampa, you know, he was a Navy Junior ROTC, so he starts saying, like, sir to people. And like, you know, all chaos broke loose, and we were off and running.   Naviere Walkewicz  12:54 Wow. Well, I could say that your roommate was helpful, but until he said, “Ill sir.”, that might not have been too helpful for you. Yeah, he wasn't running.   Brian Campbell  13:02 Yeah, he wasn't. He wasn't all that helpful.   Naviere Walkewicz  13:05 Wow. So off you went into your four-degree year. What was life like as a cadet for you? I mean, I think you know, you obviously were in football and you were having to do all the academics. So, let's talk about that experience a little bit.   Brian Campbell  13:20 Yeah. I mean, the Academy was really hard for me, you know, as the first place where I was around so many talented people, and probably at a different you know, a lot of them were at a different stage in their journey than I think I was. I was really trying to figure things out as I went. You know, I kind of hit some bumps in the road with my health. And, you know, like anybody that your four-degree years, really, really difficult. And, you know, I showed up, I was probably about, you know, 220 pounds. And they, you know, were eating and eating and eating to try to get bigger. And I think I went home for like, winter break, I was already, like, 250 and, and so, you know, I don't know where things would have gone from there, but that spring of my four-degree year, I started to have some health problems and, and it took them a long time to figure out what was going on. And I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and I had lost like, 60 pounds by that point, and it was a really, really difficult period for me, because I was trying to get through school and academics. I tried to keep playing football. Eventually I had to, you know, step away for a little bit and figure out my health. But I learned in that time, a doctor said, like, you can't have Crohn's disease and be in the Air Force. And I remember walking out of the cadet clinic, and I took the elevator up by McDermott, and because it was a doctor's appointment, it's like, everybody's in class, so the place is completely quiet. And I walked out, and it was like just a crystal clear day, like the sky couldn't have been more blue above the Chapel and the Air Gardens are on, and I'm like, I don't want to leave here, you know. And I think that changed my perspective on the entire experience. And it was a really meaningful time for me, because I realized that the things that had already happened there and in a difficult first year were, had made a big impact on me, and I had some, I got some guidance from some other graduates, and they helped me navigate them, the medical process a little bit, and I was able to stay and I just wanted to be there long enough to graduate. And I was fortunate enough to have a little bit more. I managed to blow out both my knees after that. Naviere Walkewicz Oh my goodness!   Brian Campbell Yeah, both ACLs a year apart. So, I kept trying to do stuff, and it kept not working. But, you know, to be a part of the program and the relationships that I have from that, I mean, they still mean the world, even though, even though it was a little bit of a bumpy ride, right?   Naviere Walkewicz  16:03 So, your path, it looked a little different, probably from what you imagined coming to the Academy, especially growing up as the ultra-athlete. You know every sport for every season. Tell us about a little bit how you dealt with some of those challenges, because I think some of our listeners will experience things in life that kind of derail them from what they view as this is my path. And how did you keep your head above the fray and stay in a positive light, I guess, or maybe you didn't. What did that look like as you dealt with each of those challenges throughout the Academy?   Brian Campbell  16:38 Yeah, I mean, I think you learn in basic training there in hard times that you just are making it to the next meal. And I think for me, there was a stretch where I where I did that, and I look back now, and I feel like maybe because of that, there were things the academy offered that I wasn't able to take advantage of. But at the time, you know, I was so focused on just getting through the next thing and being able to kind of maintain my place there. But I think whether I knew it at the time or not, it built a significant resiliency in me, and I was not going to quit. I mean, if they were going to get rid of me, they were going to get rid of me, but I was not going to quit, and I was going to figure out a way to do it. And I think those are, those are elements that are very important in in what I've become and you know how I how I handle things to this day, if you can get through our school and if in everybody has challenges, and everybody has different things in their lives that they face. That's mine just happened to be health related, but I was very fortunate to have a huge support network. I had a great group of friends there. I mean, I had people who were who were rooting for me to be able to be successful and because of that, I was able to, I was able to continue to proceed through it, and all those elements were important for me in being able to do it.   Naviere Walkewicz  18:10 Now that's really, I think, insightful about you, and I think a testament to everyone just kind of finding something next to get to, like, in our case, it was getting to the next meal in basic, you know, you talked about being involved in sports and then having some of these health challenges. What did leadership look like for you at the Academy? Did you find yourself in certain roles where you were leading cadets? Or what did that look like?   Brian Campbell  18:37 Yeah, I mean, maybe this is if any cadets listen. You know, I was not in any, like, significant leadership positions as a cadet. I had, I think, what you would call some of the standard squadron jobs. And as I kind of reflect on, like, what I was learning about myself, you know, I think I tried to do a good job in those but, but, you know, I think I learned that there are formal leadership positions and then there's informal leadership. And what I don't think I appreciated was that, you know, you can still have impact on the people around you, whether or not you know the role dictates it, or your rank dictates it. I recall one time, you know, if you remember the squadron rankings, and we had gone from, like, second to 35th or something like that, and we had the equivalent of what would be like a players only meeting, where they said we were off in the S.A.R., like, trying to figure out, like, why we were in. And really, what you're driven by is there aren't going to be any passes to go anywhere, because at least at that time, it was directly related to how you were doing. And a lot of people talked, and there are a lot of opinions, and I remember finally feeling like I should say something, and I and I talked, and I just remember thinking like everyone seems to be listening. And I kind of noted that at that time, that I wasn't the squadron commander or anything like that, but it seemed like people valued my opinion, and it seemed like it resonated with a large swath of our squadron. And I think I take that with me now, because I believe there's kind of a meritocracy of ideas. You know, we all have rank in our organization, whether it's the military or whether it's something completely different. There's always different people who have different levels of authority. But, you know, I think great teams value ideas that come, that come from anybody.   Naviere Walkewicz  20:38 I think that is just a really important piece of information that you shared, because many times we have some of our developing leaders who may feel that they don't have the ability to share a thought because they think that they're too Junior. And so, what you just said, I think, was really powerful and hopefully empowering for some of our listeners to bring something to the table when they have something to share. So, I really appreciate you sharing that example. That was awesome. So, before we go into graduation, and what that looked like after you graduated, were there any specific people I know you said you had a great network of support. But were there any real like, inspirational leaders that kind of helped shaped you after you left the Academy, or right before you left into your life after the Academy?   Brian Campbell  21:31 Yeah, absolutely. I think that one thing that like means a lot to me are the people that I'm exposed to. I mean, I remember thinking a lot of General Rosa, who was our superintendent at the time. He guided the Academy through a difficult time. My four-degree AOC was just an outstanding leader, Joe Richardson. I have no idea what became of him, but, you know, in a tough year, it was like, every time we went in to our, you know, meet with our squadron, it was always like he had the right thing to say, and his presence was so strong, and we had some bumps in the road in our group that year, and he did everything he could to navigate through it. But, you know, he was, he was the kind of person who was, like, just a strong, inspirational type, type leader, and we needed that. I mean, you know, such a tough year, but you really felt like he was able to give us the energy and the courage to keep going for it, but he was also someone I think we all looked up to. And if you haven't been around the military a lot in your life, and you can see people like he went to our school and look at the kind of person he is now. That's a direction you hope you can follow. And then a completely other style was just being around Coach Deberry who wore his heart on his sleeve and said everything he wanted to say, and it came all out of love and passion. And he just he had that kind of style, and he built an organization that was really family centric and that was important to him. And then even my senior year, when I was just kind of like helping the staff in some different roles there, like when Coach Calhoun came in, it was a completely different style and tactic that he took. So I mean, the great thing about the Academy, I think we all talk about it a lot, is that you're exposed to leadership, you're exposed to cadet leaders, and you see how you respond to those things, too, and you take note of those as you grow, but we have some people who are also, like, very, very, you know, bona fide leaders that we had access to, and that would just be like the beginning of my list. I think now that makes sense.   Naviere Walkewicz  23:53 I'm sure the list is long because of just the exposure that you've had in different in different ways. So, when you graduated, what career field did you go into?   Brian Campbell  24:04 So I went into acquisitions, and my guidance from one of the doctors at the Academy there was, what can we do to take the least amount of grad physicals? So that's what I did.   Naviere Walkewicz  24:16 I was going to ask if that was what your passion was. But it sounds like it well, it teed off into something really well for you, and it also played well into your needs.   Brian Campbell  24:26 For sure, it did. It led me to things down the line, you know, Acquisitions. For me, it was an opportunity to be a part of a great organization. And there were parts of the Air Force that I valued. I also took note that that was probably not the thing that was going to excite me the most, and but I learned a lot about how, how kind of the business side of the Air Force works. And it was, it was still a great experience. I got to go all over the world. I got to be a part of a lot of really cool things that probably even at that age, I didn't really appreciate. I think the challenge for me in that particular career field is that you weren't really around a lot of active-duty Air Force members. And I think I missed that piece a little bit.   Naviere Walkewicz  25:13 Well, I think it's interesting, because one of the things that you've been able to do, I think, is find ways to give back in your career post, you know, military service, so that's probably been really rewarding for you. Can we talk a little bit about, you know, when you decided to transition out of the military? Because we do have listeners that both stay in uniform all the way through retirement and those who don't, who think about transitioning. So, I think it's really relevant. How did you come to that decision, and what did it look like for you?   Brian Campbell  25:44 Well, the Air Force came to the decision for me. So, I was going to PCS to my next station, and I'll never forget when the phone rang in my squadron commander's office. He came. It was like I knew what was going to happen, and the clock had run out on this whole Crohn's disease thing, and I was going to see a medical board and all that, all that kind of stuff. I ended up just saying that that's okay and I'll, I'm not. It was going to be like a year until I could go through that process, which didn't seem like very prudent at the time. I knew I was kind of proverbially playing with house money at that point, I was just so glad to have had my time in the Air Force and to be a part of the organization, you know, at least get to be a captain, but I didn't even fulfill my service commitment. So, it's really about the four and a half year point that that happened. And so, it was a little sudden, because I didn't know that that was going to happen. And so, I decided to kind of step away from the career field the you know, from work, I guess, altogether, and go to business school full time. So I went back to my desk, and I went through all the I got on US News and World Report and started going down the list of business schools and finding out who still had an application deadline available. And like three of the top 25 responded. And from there, I was able to do that. But the great thing for me was that I was able to spend two years away in a fully immersive environment, learning about the business side of management, which is different than the Air Force leadership style that we have in the in the military, and putting those two things together and thinking about some of my initial aspirations of, you know, maybe there's A career in sports. What might that look like? And you just get so, so many opportunities there to get exposed to people in different career fields. And those two years at “Wash U” for me were, were, I'm very, very fortunate to have those. They had a target of getting 10% of the class to be veterans, so I called the right school at the right time, and they were like, hey, just we'll help you. We'll help you figure this out. And they did everything they could to give me that opportunity.   Naviere Walkewicz  28:10 That's amazing. And I was going to ask, did you see the value of what you'd experienced at the Academy coming to play in your program there, that you were able to share with others, and what did leadership look like for you there?   Brian Campbell  28:23 Yeah, so, you know, in business school, it's a constant. I think balance between everything is about shareholder maximization and wealth creation, and they have to teach you those fundamentals. I think Olin did a good job reminding us about character-based management and leadership, and we had classes about critical decisions in leadership and management and things like that. And they brought some very senior business leaders in to talk about key inflection points of things that they had, and then, you know, we had, there's a professor there whose areas, area of study is, you know, economics with a higher purpose, and that's blending, like, how does being doing the right thing, and having something that's beyond just, you know, running your operation to the most efficient manner possible, and he's been able to show that organizations who do that and have a higher purpose are more successful. And so, for me, that is kind of the philosophy that I moved forward with in my career. So very different, very business fundamentals, but as you got towards the end, it was important to them that we understood that it wasn't always everything. Wasn't always about the near-term dollar and that things could your organizations are rewarded for doing the right thing and making decisions in the right way.   Naviere Walkewicz  30:00 Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like you absolutely picked the right program that really aligned with your own core values, you know, your own kind of, I think, navigational system as well as you know where you're wanting to go with things. So, what did that look like? Then, after you graduated, I know you spent some time at Anheuser Busch. Was that kind of just the next part of that journey?       Brian Campbell  30:20 Yeah, so I wanted to get back into sports right away, and so I started a networking process of I tried to meet with NFL teams. I didn't, I just didn't know how or what I was going to do, but I knew that that was my opportunity, a mentor of mine that I did a project for while I was at all. And he well, first of all, I started to find out also what jobs in sports pay. So, anybody listening to this guy's aspirations, just get that part settled for yourself right away. But it didn't matter to me. But I did have a bill I needed to figure out from business school. And his recommendation was, you know, you're down the street from essentially the biggest sports marketer in the world, you know, go there, you know, pursue that, and then figure out down the line if you still want to come back. And that ended up being the perfect step for me. You know, not only did I go to a place that ended up being a bridge back into this work, but Anheuser Busch, and the way that company is run is incredibly efficient and driven and lean and everything there is about value, and it's run by a set of Investment bankers who brought their philosophies into consumer goods, and, and, and they're extremely market share based, but it was, it was really cool to be a part of an organization that does things that way. And candidly, it was probably the other end of the spectrum than just being in the military. And both should operate in the way that they do, but that was such a valuable experience for me to work for an organization like that. I could not have done it forever. So, and I did get over into sports marketing, I ended up having what I think a lot of people would think is like maybe the coolest job of all time. I had the chance to run our whole northwest marketing portfolio. So, I had, you know, our Broncos partnerships and Vail Resorts. It took me back to Colorado to be in that office from, from being in New York City, we had the Seahawks, but it also we had a little college down the street that we had a partnership with called the Air Force Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz  32:39 I was wondering, how you direct to Colorado? That's where it was, yeah.   Brian Campbell  32:43 So, we had an office in Denver, and after a few years of doing that, Anheuser-Busch wants you to move around. They want you to grow. You can't stay in a lot of these jobs forever. And so, I knew there was a point where if I really wanted to do this, and I still felt such a calling to come and do this kind of work, and I kind of felt like I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try. So, I started making a lot of calls and knocking down doors. And eventually, eventually, a position opened back at the Academy, and I, like borderline forced them to hire me,   Naviere Walkewicz  33:15 Brian, I'm seeing a theme. I mean, as a kid, you would knock down doors come play. You know, when you were, got out of the military, when you were when you had to go, you were knocking down doors, “What's open for me?” So, I think the theme for you is, don't be afraid to knock down some doors and just see what's available. You went back to the Academy. Let's talk about your time there and what kind of evolved since then.   Brian Campbell  33:39 So, I came back to the Academy, we had a had the chance to learn a little bit about raising money in our athletic department, and we were coming up on a campaign like the first real significant campaign that had happened at the at the Air Force Academy. I mean, before I got back, I didn't even really know what a campaign was, to give people some context and where I was there, but General Gould said, “Hey, we're going to do this project on Falcon Stadium.” And, you know, and I thought to myself, hey, if I'm going to be here at the Academy, I need to be a part of this project. And so, I transitioned from our athletic department over to our foundation in about in 20-, early 2020, and had the chance to work on the projects that were that were happening there.   Naviere Walkewicz  34:27 So, I think this is helpful. Many of our listeners may not be aware of the ways that some of our foundations support the Academy, and I think through athletics is certainly one way. Can you talk a little bit about what that looks like, so that we can share more about the context of a campaign and giving back?   Brian Campbell  34:45 Yeah, I mean, I think my, my reflection on it is like the government's going to do enough to keep the doors open and provide a basic, solid experience. I think the US News and World Report rankings came out like today, we're number two. We're not number two without private investment. And I hear a lot from young grads about like they're asking me for money. They're asking me for money, and what they're asking you for is to invest in the experience and for us and on our resumes and the prevalence of our of our institution, and this is a competitive world that stuff matters and allows us at the Academy to keep professors that the government wouldn't necessarily be able to keep, to give very enriching research opportunities to cadets that otherwise I don't think we're really there when we were around. And it allows us, you know, militarily and then athletically, to be competitive at the highest level. And you know, when we say excellence in all we do, we're talking about being, you know, excellent in every facet of this of the Academy. And so, we're very fortunate that people have stepped forward at the Academy to invest in these areas and help us shape what they what they've created, and what they've become. And so private investment is a, is a real factor in our success there. And I got the chance to be in the middle of it and have a lot of those discussions and meet people who wanted to help. And it's an opportunity for them to kind of, you know, provide their passion or something they're particularly interested in, to shape the experience of the cadets. So, it's a very enriching process, and it's a really wonderful thing to be a part of.   Naviere Walkewicz  36:47 Well, I can share that, you know, I had the ability to work with you briefly when you came here, and then I joined in 2021 and there was so much that I learned. But I think what was really rewarding for me was to understand that to what you just said, you can actually invest in ways that you feel really compelled and what's important to you at the Academy. And so maybe you can share with our listeners what was something really rewarding, aside from the Kucera Legacy Center coming to life now, and we can talk about that. But what was something really rewarding to you that you were part of in the philanthropic side of our business?   Brian Campbell  37:20 Yeah, I mean not just being a fundraiser there, but I mean the chance to give myself and make the commitments that I could to the Academy that meant a lot to me to be able to help, but I enjoyed seeing like the little grassroots campaigns that were put together that gave cadets reprieve from life and rewarded them for different things. You know, NCLS is an amazing thing that happens there, that you get to take a step back from every year and appreciate the kind of people we bring back and put in front of the cadets. So, I mean, aside from the big projects, there's just stuff every single day, and you get emails from the cadets and ask like, “Hey, can we do this? Can we, what would it take to change our squadron to something else?” And you can help weigh out a little plan. And those aren't the dollars that necessarily drive campaign totals, but they matter because they matter to the cadets and the way that, you know those finances work there it's, you know, so many people have invested in the Foundation and the Association in a way that, you know, all these resources can get directly poured into cadets and because the government keeps the doors open, we can do things that are additionally impactful. You know, at other schools, like where I'm at now, we have to fill an endowment because of how we have to continue to operate the school. So that's not something we, I mean, there's ways that are that's helpful at the Academy too, but it's not as critical at the Academy, because the lights are on and we can be extremely effective in the investments through donors to impact cadets directly.   Naviere Walkewicz  39:06 No, that makes sense. I really like what you said about you got to give yourself. And I think part of what I've been picking up in our conversation is a lot of I think giving and investing is through relationships. And so I think some of the biggest pieces that come from that is the trust and relationships you build with people. Would you agree? Is that kind of how you feel about things?   Brian Campbell  39:26 Yeah, I do. And I you know, if I didn't go to the Air Force Academy, I'm not sure I would be doing this kind of work, even though the Air Force Academy is not designed to put you into this kind of work. But the relationships that I had from the academy and then throughout my time back there, are as important to me as just about anything you just the school exposes you to just such outstanding people. And I'm just very. Be grateful for, for all of those relationships that, that I've had the privilege to have.   Naviere Walkewicz  40:06 So, Brian, we've been talking about the ways we give back and relationships built. Let's, talk a little bit about the Kucera Legacy Center, because we just were able to the ribbon cutting and just beautiful experience with Jack and Vianne. What did it mean to you?   Brian Campbell  40:21 You know, being back at the Academy during the time that I was back, and maybe a lot of the people who listen to this maybe know what has happened on our Academy over the last three years, but the investment that's gone back into our school is just staggering. You know, not only the Kucera Legacy Center, but the Madeira Center, the hotel that's going up, the visitors center, the expansion to do it all, but the Kucera Legacy Center was kind of near and dear to my heart, and it was an opportunity given to me to be a really significant part of the entire project. Was one thing that took every piece of the institution to make happen. But it took Jack and Vianne really specifically. And it wasn't just their investment, but it was like a vision from Jack that I think got us through some times, that you know, maybe in years past, the project would not have, would not have continued on. And you know what I'll remember most is not just working on the gift that they made with them, but like working on the elements that were important to them to see in the facility. And the unique thing about that project is it's not just a facility. It is a way that we can invest back into our Academy and cadets. It's one of the few things on the Academy that can be commercialized and a positive return on investment. So, it's going to be used for a lot of things, but I'll never forget of the groundbreaking. Jack does so much for our school. And he was talking about, you know, why he flies Coach Calhoun around to recruit, and for coach, it's hugely helpful for him to get, you know, Division One coaches essentially have to fly in that manner. They have to fly private to be able to recruit effectively. That's a that's not an easy thing for our school to provide, and so Jack flies coach around a lot. And you know, I know Jack wants us to win football games, because I've watched some football games with him, and he's like one of the few people that can match as tense and nervous as I am, but he talked about the fact that everywhere they go, they knock on a door, and Coach Calhoun is giving some young person an opportunity to change their life. And you know, for them, we have this beautiful facility. Now, I can't wait to come back and see it, but I think that's what it is for them, is that's maybe the physical manifestation of their gift is knowing that, you know when, when, when young people accept that opportunity to come to the Air Force Academy, and they probably wouldn't have gotten it for this particular subset without a sport, that they can change their lives. And you know, watch being a part of that, even the small little part that I was is something that I think is a really, really significant part of my career and my journey.   Naviere Walkewicz  43:30 Wow. I mean, that's almost a 360 for you, right? You were someone who was given that opportunity, and now thinking about the future cadets that are going to be given a similar opportunity with something that you were part of in such a legacy and visionary manner, from Jack and Vianne. I mean, it's just incredible.   Brian Campbell  43:48 Yeah, absolutely.   Naviere Walkewicz  43:51 So, Brian, you have taken a role at the University of Miami, and let's talk a little bit about that. So, you were able to do some things here at the Academy. How's it been in the transition for you there at UM?   Brian Campbell  44:04 I mean, it's been, it's been crazy. So, you know, we're in the real battle of college athletics down here at a time that's very dynamic. It's an unbelievable opportunity to be a part of a traditional powerhouse with really, really significant aspirations, but a big part of it for me as I had the chance to come down here and work for a really high level team at a time that the school wanted to invest in athletics. And you know, the athletic director that I work for here, he won two national titles at Clemson. We have multiple other former division one athletic directors on our staff, and we do transformational things around this campus through athletics, but for other areas, our medical system and our academic side as well. So, it's been a challenge for me to get to learn the dynamic here. You know, at the Air Force Academy, a lot of people have a lot of thoughts on a lot of things. Miami supporters have a lot of thoughts on one thing, and that's winning football games. But, you know, the fundamentals remain the same, and I've been given a chance to kind of reshape the way we do this work. And for those that follow college athletics, it's been at a very, very fascinating time where there's huge change in the industry. There's a ton of uncertainty, and it's really forced me to think a lot about how we do our work and why we do it. And I think as a lot of people probably think that with Nio and possible rev-share and things like that, that we're losing the fabric of college athletics. There are little instances of that, but we are able to kind of double down on other ways to make an impact on our student athletes here and invest in their lives. So, it's been it's a challenge. We have a lot of work to do, but we're on the road, having some successes is really helpful. And being in a place that has really, really high expectations is really special to be a part of.   Naviere Walkewicz  46:16 So, you talked a bit about the fundamentals, and so what have you taken from your time at the Academy throughout your career to bring to UM now?   Brian Campbell  46:27 Yeah, I think the noise in college athletics and our work has become more complex. I took the opportunity to kind of distill things back down to the core mission of what we do, and that's to positively impact lives through excellence in athletics and our team, our role in that effort is to is to invest in those areas. So, we focus on, you know, kind of three key areas to do that. One of them is performance, kind of elite performance. The next one is what we call champions for life, which is investing in academics and in student athlete development. And then the last one is competitive excellence, and that's acknowledging that there's an area now with Nio and possible revenue share with athletes that we also have to be competitive in. But I've encouraged our team to think about, like, what the real purpose of our work is, and like what we do every day. And I think I kind of touched on a little bit of that earlier, when things got really confusing in the industry and stuff like that, understanding that, like our job really is simply to enrich an experience for our student athletes here, and best prepare them for the world. And if we do that really well, we're going to be really successful. And when we talk about that purpose on our team, you know, I try to find people to join our team who are going to resonate with that. And for me, I think when you identify with that purpose and kind of the core elements of it, it also makes me better at what I do, and better at leading and being authentic with the team that there are challenges but in there, and we're in a we're in an environment with headwinds and high expectations and high levels of competitiveness. But if we can focus on doing those things, we're going to make we're going to make every bit the kind of impact that has always been made in college athletics.   Naviere Walkewicz  48:33 So, what have you learned about yourself as a leader throughout this journey? It sounds like you've had just various opportunities to understand who you are in different roles. How does that translate in your leadership? What does that look like to our listeners?   Brian Campbell  48:49 Yeah, I think what I've learned over time is that in the Air Force, you are in the people business, and everything we do is kind of by for and through people. And I'm not sure if I understood it, even when I was in the beer business, but really, you're in the beer business, you're in the beer business, or you're in the people business, and your product is beer. And then now I'm kind of in the in the middle of this now, where we have a product, but our product, once again, is people. Now we have to be, you know, commercially viable, and there's a there's a significant financial side of what we do. But I think back to my time at the Academy, and I think one thing you can't escape at the Academy is that you know you're bringing your whole self every day to what we're doing. You know you are you're in it. You don't go home anywhere else. So, your squadron is where you live, and, and you realize that you know what's happening in your life, and, and, and for anybody that's on the team, like they're going to bring it with them, and, for me, I've thought, I think we talk a lot in business and leadership about acknowledging that and being there for people and being empathetic. But the other side of it is, you know, if our people are our most important asset, then what are we doing to invest in them and through, you know, this is a really busy kind of work, and authentically making sure that my team knows, and I hope that they do that we're going to try to grow them, and we're going to try to reward them for being successful, because it matters to the bottom line. It's not just the right thing to do. It helps move us forward, because if we're improving the conditions that they can go home to and spend with their families, we're going to get a better version of them, and it's going to improve the work that we do. So I think being in such an immersive type of place like the Air Force Academy, you realize that there is no turning it off when you leave or go somewhere, we go through difficult times, but we also have the opportunity in these kinds of roles to improve that and make sure people are fulfilled and finding their purpose in our work. And inevitably, I really do believe that that impacts our bottom line.   Naviere Walkewicz  51:21 What fulfills you and your work as a leader?   Brian Campbell  51:26 I mean, there's so much. This is what I love to do. And I love to be around the competition side of things, and I love to see when we're able to make something happen, a donor's vision to invest in our student athletes. And, you know, you see some of the things that they go on to accomplish, and you see what it means to the institution. I mean, you know, here, I think sometimes we think like, wow, college football in America is just bonkers, and it's crazy. It's gone off the rails, you know. But here at the University of Miami, you know, we have a we have a really, we have the biggest research based health system in South Florida, and it's the same logo that's on our helmet and that health system is successful because we have a very strong brand through football mostly, and In so I think we take that very seriously, that you know our work is directly tied to things that happen, not only on our campus, but in the healthcare system here as well. But you know, the true where the rubber meets the road is seeing the success that you know our student athletes have and enriching their experience and being able to tie that back to the people that make that possible.   Naviere Walkewicz  52:45 So, if we have any listeners that are interested in getting into the gift officer kind of role, the ability to help others invest, what would you share with them as maybe just a path or things to be considering?   Brian Campbell  52:59 Yeah, I mean, fundraising and development's a whole it's a whole industry, and it would be great to have more grads that would come into this kind of work. I mean, I was often asked by donors at the academy, why more people? Why more grads aren't doing it? And it's a unique it's a unique career path, but if there's elements of things that are meaningful to you, and you think that you know, nonprofit work might be appealing. Fundraising is a great way to do it. There's ups and downs. It's challenging. There's a bit of a craft to learn to it, but it's, this is not rocket science in any way. But if I really thought I was going to do it, I'd pick up the phone and call a grad who does it. I can think of a couple names off the top of my head and just ask and start to network. And when I moved over into college athletics in order to do that, I mean, I probably made 500 phone calls, and I always ask someone for the next name and network that way. And I received tremendous advice, and it was really good practice for what I ended up doing. I would encourage. I would love it if more would come into this line of work. You heard it here first friends, yeah, we'll see how effective it is.   Naviere Walkewicz  54:15 That is wonderful. Well, we're going to get into a couple more things before, before our podcast ends. So, Brian, I just want to ask you in advance so you have some time to think about this. Our listeners want to know something unique about you, maybe something that you haven't shared with anybody you know, something fun or some kind of talent you have. So, I'll give you a little bit of time to think about that, and then we're also going to want to hear your takeaways. So, before we get there, we're going to ask for Brian's final thoughts next. Before we do that, I'd like to take a moment and thank you our listener for listening to long blue leadership. The podcast publishes Tuesdays in both video and audio, and is available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Be sure to watch or listen to all episodes of Long blue leadership@longblueleadership.org All right, so Brian, welcome back, and we're really excited. Our listeners love to learn things here on Long Blue Leadership that they can only hear here. So, would you mind sharing with us something that is unique about you?   Brian Campbell  55:15 Well, I think before the break, you mentioned a talent, so I'm going to take credit for this being a talent during covid, I started getting into, like, amateur mixology, and so, yeah, at home. Now this is maybe a dangerous habit to have, but I do, I do share some of my work with some of the administration there still so, so it's definitely bled into Doolittle Hall a little bit, but I've learned to make, like, very specific cocktails and stuff like that. And I love doing it. I love trying something new all the time. So, I don't know if that's a talent or not. People can come have a have a drink with me at my house and decide to do when you have, when you have two little kids, you need to bring the fun. Needs to be at home. That's right, yeah, so, so, so that's, that's kind of my unique interest, I guess, more than a talent.   Naviere Walkewicz  56:13 We love that. So maybe we'll see a line down the road of a series of Campbell drinks. Or…   Brian Campbell  56:21 …yes, yeah, I do name some of them after things at the Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz  56:25 Just so, you know, okay yeah, I guess I could ask you to share one of them, maybe one name.   Brian Campbell  56:30 Well, you know, a lot of good supporters were in the class of '75 so I changed French '75 to '75 Best Alive.   Naviere Walkewicz  56:39 Love that.   Brian Campbell  56:43 People have no idea what I'm talking about.   Naviere Walkewicz  56:45 I would want to twist to that. I would want to twist that and skip it. So that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing that well. Before we close, we really like to leave our listeners with just a couple of key leadership nuggets that you'd like them to have. What would you leave our listeners with, Brian?   Brian Campbell  57:03 Yeah, you know, I think as I look at some of the people that were on this podcast, I mean, you have some folks who are very, very accomplished and at the top of their fields, and then you have some others who are at the beginning of their careers and heading down that, that road. You know, for me, I'm probably in the middle of it. And as I look at the arc of my career, I don't think I've arrived as a leader and I, but I started to think that I probably that I would be willing to bet that General Clark might say the same thing, and Coach Calhoun might say the same thing. So, I think it's always a work in process, but I think it's important to be really authentic with people, and that has worked. It's worked well for me, especially when those decisions are consistent with being authentic to what we're trying to accomplish. And the other thing that's meant the most to me, and is just surrounding myself with the best people possible, and that has continued to help me grow and evolve, and not just the people I hire, but I think back to my time working there at the academy and how cool it is in a you know, couple year period I was around, you know, Mark Welsh and Dana born, and Jack Kucera and Paul Madera and the Brunies (SP?) and Mike Gould and these kinds of people. And that's who I had the chance to surround myself with, and I, think that that has more to do with me having other opportunities in my career to go grow and learn at a different place and hopefully be successful here as much as anything that I did. And so I think a lot about the elements that we put into it, because it's hard on a daily basis to know if you're doing a good job being a leader, but if you take those pieces of the fabric that we learned at the Academy, and you keep doing it the right way and thinking about these things and surrounding yourself by people with surrounding yourself with people of those kinds of values, and people that you can take little pieces of what they do and try to try to bring them with You. I think it's the right road.   Naviere Walkewicz  59:22 Well, Brian, it's been a pleasure. I know I've just taken away some things, and in our time together here, learning about you, but also just inspiring me thinking about how we can give and it really is a pleasure. I can't wait to see where your trajectory of your career takes you and the ways that you'll continue to make an impact.   Brian Campbell  59:39 Wow. Thank you. Naviere, it was great to be a part of it. Thank you everyone at the Association and the Foundation. I'm glad that we have a podcast. I know that there's so many efforts that are happening to connect with grads at all stages in their careers and their journey, and I just really appreciate that. Audience to be on and all the incredible work that's happening back there at our school.   Naviere Walkewicz  1:00:06 Thank you. So, we can end with the Go Falcons, right?   Brian Campbell  1:00:08 Yeah. Beat Army, sink Navy!   KEYWORDS Brian Campbell, Air Force Academy, leadership, growth, development, athletics, fundraising, University of Miami, Kucera Legacy Center, resilience, sports marketing, philanthropy       The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation        

 This week, we revisit our interview with Anjan Thakor, Senior Associate Dean, and John E. Simon, Professor of Finance at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. Anjan was previously The Edward J. Frey Professor of Banking and Finance at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, where he also served as chairman of the Finance area. He has served on the faculties of Indiana University, Northwestern University, and UCLA.  He has worked with many companies, including Whirlpool Corporation, Allision Engine Co., Citigroup, RR Donnelley, Dana Corporation, Anheuser-Busch, Zenith Corporation, Lincoln National Corporation, J.P. Morgan, Landscape Structures, Inc., CIGNA, Borg-Warner Automative, Waxman Industries, Reuters, The Limited, Ryder Integrated Logistics, AT&T, CH2M Hill, Takata Corporation, Tyson Foods, Spartech. He has published over 75 research papers and seven books. He is past managing Editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation and past president of the Financial Intermediation Research Society. He has a Ph.D. (Finance) from Northwestern University.

Welcome back to our 7th season of the Eccles Business Buzz! And what better way to kick it off than with our new Dean Kurt Dirks.Dean Dirks started his role just a few months ago, on July 1st, 2024. Prior to joining us here at the Eccles School, Dean Dirks was the Bank of America Professor of Leadership at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to serving as a faculty member, Dean Dirks served in multiple senior leadership roles at WashU, including as Acting Provost, Senior Advisor to the Chancellor for Leadership, Vice Chancellor of International Affairs, and as Senior Associate Dean and Interim Dean at the Business School. Kurt sits down with Host Frances Johnson to share with us a bit about his journey as a first-generation college student, the critical role of public universities, and the importance of creating a culture of belonging at the Eccles School. Dean Dirks also discusses his vision for business impact, the significance of ethical leadership and trust, and the evolving landscape of business education and AI at Eccles.Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:The significance of ethical leadership and trust in shaping our approach to emerging technologies like AI [Dean Kirk Dirks] 22:01: We have a responsible AI initiative at the U, which is thinking about this, not just at the business school, but across the entire university. And so, it's something that we are a part of, our faculty are a part of, and thinking about that.On the other side of it is certainly thinking about helping our students understand their values. And when those values get challenged, how do they respond to them? Certainly, something important about being leader in whatever way we think about that, that term is really understanding your responsibility in society, in business to try to make the world better and how that applies in, you know, day to day life. And so, that's certainly one of the areas where I hope we can get each of our students to think about, that their role as a leader in society, making the world better and how that is steered by their values and their purpose.[Frances Johnson] And again, this idea that everything is business, right? We're not just learning to crunch numbers. We're not just learning to analyze data, but we're really thinking about, what's important to me? How can I bring that to an organization? How can I seek out organizations that align with that? And then how can I make a positive difference? So, the interconnection really continues.[Dean Kirk Dirks] Very powerful. There is no doubt that, if we help our students along all those facets, again, the values, the quantitative and economic skills that they have and the business mindset, I think we're going to serve them well for their life and career.How building trust can foster a unified community[Frances Johnson] 07:25: What role does trust play as we really try to build a cohesive community at the Eccles School where everyone has a place?[Dean Kirk] 07:44: In terms of the role of trust and how that fits with them, when we think about earning that trust, it really is around three things. And I think it speaks to this notion. One is a sense of competence and capability, that we have the knowledge and skills and support to really help them be able to succeed at what they want to do. Second is we talked about character, that piece of values that is important to allow students to feel a connection and that our values are consistent with theirs. And then the last piece, which really speaks directly to this is caring, that, often, when people want to be able to trust someone, they want to know that, we think about them and care about them. And I think that's a really important part of this set.Dean Kurt shares a piece of advice he wished he had when he was starting his college journey30:22: One of the most wonderful parts about being a university student is that self-discovery. You're certainly learning a lot about business, but equally important, learning a lot about yourselves and new paths. So, go out and try something new this semester. Meet a new group of people, try a new experience at the U, something that you may not have done before. And perhaps, you'll get a surprise that maybe it becomes your future.Show Links:Dean Dirks - The David Eccles School of BusinessKurt Dirks | LinkedInInstagram Post from Move-in Day 2024 at the US4E1: Helping Companies Do Good While Doing Well feat. Jim SorensonS6E7: Driving Economic Inclusion Through Entrepreneurship with the Eccles MBC w/ Rena Vanzo & Paul BrownDavid Eccles School of Business (@ubusiness) • InstagramEccles Alumni Network (@ecclesalumni) • Instagram 

John Horn, Economist at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis joins Tom and Megan to talk about what the latest polls show the biggest concerns are for Americans as the election nears.

Welcome to Episode Five of the Owner's Box by WashU Olin's Koch Center for Family Enterprise. This week, we learn from Michael and John Kennedy on how they have worked together as siblings and a broader family to build out Fraiche Wine Group.

In today's tactics from the Owner's Box, we introduce the four critical questions for strategic owners – questions of What, How, When, and perhaps most importantly, Why.

Today on “Tactics from The Owner's Box,” we explore the meaning of legacy and how it plays into the design of a business and philanthropy over time.

John Horn, a professor of practice in economics at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, joins Megan Lynch and Tom Ackerman with reaction and analysis to the new Federal Regulations for three large tech companies for AI.

This virtual research symposium will feature cutting-edge research from the field of strategic human capital. Four scholars, whose research focuses on strategic human capital, will present their latest research paper, and two discussants will share their feedback on the papers, followed by feedback from the audience.   The 3 scholars presenting their work in this virtual symposium are: Thomaz Teodorovicz, Assistant Professor in the Department of Strategy and Innovation at the Copenhagen Business School Shinjae Won, Assistant professor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illionis at Urbana-Champaign Federica De Stefano, Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources, HEC Paris   The two distinguished discussants are: Vanessa Burbano, Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School Seth Carnahan, Associate Professor of Strategy, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis   (c) STR - Strategic Management Division - AOM

On a mid-May afternoon in 2020, Lauren Kriegler sat in her home office and scribbled a warning to her young kids—who were in the thick of remote learning—on a Post-It Note and stuck it to her office door: “Important call. Do not come in!”For five years at Alaska Airlines, Kriegler had led a massive project to overhaul the uniforms provided to its 20,000+ frontline employees—five years building a program from raw materials to design and development, inventory planning and distribution, and ultimately the culmination of a rollout during the early stages of the pandemic. This included multiple visits to China to get closer to the supply chain, as well as the integration of industry-leading textile safety standards, leading Alaska to be the first North American carrier to integrate Oeko-Tex into a custom supply chain. Along the way, Kriegler led additional teams, including retail operations, freight and logistics, and print programs. As the uniform program launched and was moving to steady state, she was starting to think about her next challenge.Now, as the Teams window on her computer flashed open to her weekly tie-in with her boss, she was confronting what might come next: leading the fuel program for the airline as director of fuel—an area of the business where she had no experience. It was a role fraught with challenge and opportunity that started with the consolidation of two departments, the lack of a hand-off from her predecessors in the role and a massive learning curve.Once she assumed the role that July of 2020, she would see planes get fueled for the first time, spend time on the ramp learning the operation and become quickly immersed in the complexities of the oil and refining markets and supply chains. She openly acknowledged with internal and external partners that at many times she had more questions than answers.She worked diligently to overcome her learning curve in order to prepare the fuel program to support the airline's emergence from the pandemic, both operationally and financially. Through all of these learnings, she also started to wrap her arms around an initially small but critical component of the fuel program: Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)—something that as the months went by would become a much more significant focus of her day-to-day role. By the end of her first year and what Kriegler called a “brutal summer,” she had confronted all that and more, including a Mother's Day 2021 alert to the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, wildfires, labor shortages, extreme weather and other external events that buffeted fuel supply chain operations.“I've only known volatility,” Kriegler said. “During that first summer, I remember thinking (that) how I navigated that summer's seemingly never-ending challenges would shape my future at Alaska as an operational leader. I was determined not just to get through it, but to establish an industry-leading program that was resilient and intentional. And to be honest, I had many moments of self-doubt given my lack of experience—and I know others did as well.”Related LinksLauren shares supply chain learnings with students at the University of Washington.Alaska Airlines' news release on the launch of its uniform redesignMore about WashU Olin's Sergio ChayetLauren's LinkedIn pageCreditsThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact-checking and creative assistanceAustin Alred and Olin's Center for Digital Education, sound engineeringHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website support

In the heating-and-cooling industry, they're calling it “The Great Consolidation” as the pace of company acquisitions has risen from about 20 in 2011 to 120 a year by 2019. Meanwhile, The Great Consolidation is slamming head-first into the pandemic-born Great Resignation, as firms battle for a share of the scarce pool of talent on the market.That's the environment Chris Hoffmann has faced since 2016, after taking over the St. Louis-based, family-owned business his father began 28 years earlier with four employees and a simple business model. Today, while he watches competitors grow through acquisition and consolidation, Hoffmann sees an alternative path: scaling up geographically and serving existing customers more deeply.That's why he's expanded into Nashville. That's why he's exploring adding pest control to his suite of commercial and residential services. But there's still that other nagging problem. "The companies that are going to be able to grow are the ones that can solve the talent issue,” Hoffmann said on a recent industry podcast. “Everyone knows that. Everyone's talking about that."In this episode of On Principle, we talk to Chris Hoffmann about how he came to realize Hoffmann Brothers would have to make some big investments to thrive in a heavily fragmented but consolidating industry. What drove his decision to grow by expanding his service area and his services? Why did he decide against buying his way into new markets by acquiring existing residential and commercial services firms?And what does it take to move from simply recruiting talent on the open market to growing your own in a newly built, 15,000-square-foot training facility?Related LinksThe Hoffmann Brothers websiteThe family office site Chris and his family created to manage investmentsMore about Peter BoumgardenThe Koch Family Center for Family EnterpriseA piece Chris Hoffmann wrote for the Tugboat Institute on employee engagementThe St. Louis Business Journal reports on Hoffmann Brothers' expansionThe Olin Brookings Commission project referenced in this episodeCreditsThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact-checking and creative assistanceAustin Alred and Olin's Center for Digital Education, sound engineeringHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website support

Hundreds of entrepreneurs from St. Louis and beyond apply for the Arch Grants Startup Competition each year, in the hopes of securing a $75,000 grant. The stakes are high, but a free mentorship program at the Olin Business School at Washington University is giving founders valuable feedback to help take their application to the next level.

Since 1999, the digital agency that Brian Williams and his brother cofounded has weathered—often just barely—some tough blows to the economy. There was the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Then there was 9/11. Then, the global financial crisis of 2008.In fact, that last shock compelled Williams to create a formal business development function at Viget—a team that would market the firm, demonstrate its expertise, drive in-bound business leads and keep the phones ringing. Viget hummed into its 15-year anniversary in 2015 with an energizing employee retreat near Boulder, Colorado, where the firm opened a new branch office.But when the year drew to a close with dismal results, Williams was worried. Yes, Viget had built a business development function. But it hadn't created a way to forecast and project revenue, anticipate when existing projects would end, maintain a pipeline of “back-up” projects for slow times and rigorously manage existing projects.There was no external economic shock, yet business had collapsed. “This was a crisis of our own making,” Williams said. “My mistakes led to us being in this precarious position.”With potential layoffs looming ahead, Williams issued an off-the-cuff rallying cry that came to be known as “Best 6 Ever”—an audacious goal to exceed Viget's previous best six-month period. And the team rallied. Extra hours. Aggressive marketing. Sharing the #Best6Ever hashtag internally. Meanwhile, Williams and his team worked to create version 2.0 of Viget's business development team—complete with all the accountability measures that hadn't existed before.Today, Viget's biz dev function is more sophisticated. The business is more profitable. The firm's leadership is better equipped to accurately forecast revenue trends. And Williams sleeps better at night.Related LinksViget's websiteBrian Williams' bio page on the Viget websiteMore about Jackson Nickerson from the WashU Olin websiteJackson's Wikipedia pageCreditsThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact-checking and creative assistanceAustin Alred and Olin's Center for Digital Education, sound engineeringHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic support

Should you shout your sins from the rooftops? How many skeletons are in the average person's closet? And what has Angela been hiding? SOURCES:Maya Angelou, memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist.Stephen Baum, postdoctoral researcher at Olin Business School at Washington University.Clayton Critcher, professor of marketing, cognitive science, and psychology at Berkeley Haas School of Business.John Legend, singer-songwriter and pianist.Kareem Abdul Jabbar, former professional basketball player.Michael Slepian, professor of leadership and ethics at Columbia Business School.Jason Sudeikis, actor, writer, and producer.Chrissy Teigen, model and TV personality.Vauhini Vara, journalist and author.Lindsey Vonn, alpine ski racer.John Wooden, men's basketball coach at the University of California, Los Angeles. RESOURCES:"The Bright Side of Secrecy: The Energizing Effect of Positive Secrets," by Michael Slepian, Katharine Greenaway, Nicholas Camp, and Adam Galinsky (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2023)."Ghosts," by Vauhini Vara (The Believer, 2021)."The Costs of Not Disclosing," by Stephen Baum and Clayton Critcher (Current Opinion in Psychology, 2020)."Why the Secrets You Keep Are Hurting You," by Michael Slepian (Scientific American, 2019)."The Benefits and Burdens of Keeping Others' Secrets," by Michael Slepian and Katharine Greenaway (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2018)."The Experience of Secrecy," by Michael Slepian, Jinseok Chun, and Malia Mason (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2017).Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2017)."Survey Says 1 In 5 People Are Keeping A Major Secret From Their Spouse," by Taryn Hillin (HuffPost, 2014). EXTRAS:Ted Lasso, TV show (2020-2023)."All of Me," song by John Legend (2013).

After the positive reception to our first listener question episode featuring co-host Xiao-Li Meng last August, we decided to start the new year with an exclusive interview with one of our most esteemed guests yet: HDSR's own Liberty Vittert! For this special episode, Xiao-Li is joined by guest co-host, Arianwyn Frank, a producer of this podcast, a data science undergrad at Washington University, and a former student of Liberty's. Listen now to their fascinating conversation with Liberty as they discover how a woman of many talents found herself in the exciting world of data science. Our guest: Liberty Vittert, Professor of the Practice of Data Science, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis; resident on-air statistician for NewsNation; and feature editor of Harvard Data Science Review  

This story is not really about the first pivotal moment Camryn Okere navigated. That's the moment when the pandemic upended plans for a college internship and shuttered a business she had grown to love. In that moment, she decided to gather some mentors and some fellow students across a few universities to create a boutique consulting firm serving small community businesses—and providing experience to budding business leaders.No, this story is about another big “oh, shoot!” moment, after that volunteer, student-driven firm—Rem and Company—took off across 20 college campuses, recruited more than 650 student consultants and served more than 300 small businesses around the country.It's about the moment Okere's partners in the early days of Rem and Company started charting another career path, found appealing full-time jobs and left Okere to figure out how to make her baby a sustainable enterprise. She didn't want her work—providing professional experiences for students and services for local businesses—to die.“My moment was truly understanding that something has to change,” said Okere, BSBA 2020. You want it to become something, but that means the systems have to be built to make it sustainable.”What was Okere's story and how did it lead to that moment? How much of herself had she invested in Rem and Company—and why? What compelled her to think the enterprise was something worth sustaining in the first place? How did she realize that the model as it was created wouldn't be sustainable? What steps did she take to traverse that “oh, shoot!” moment for Rem? What can we learn from her experience? And in what ways was her experience transferable to larger enterprises?Related LinksThe Rem and Company websiteRem's Instagram and LinkedIn pagesAn Olin Business magazine story featuring Camryn OkereOlin Blog story about Rem and Company soon after its launchMore about Staci ThomasCamryn, as a WashU sophomore, was featured for winning “best room” in a residential life competition.Camryn and Rem featured in her hometown newspaperCreditsThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact-checking and creative assistanceAustin Alred and Olin's Center for Digital Education, sound engineeringHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic support

In the wake of the global pandemic, some of the loudest voices in corporate America proclaimed the end of work as we know it. Lockdown, it seemed, had proven workers could be productive from home. Work-from-home came into vogue. We'd never have to commute to the office again, some suggested.But as pandemic-era restrictions eased in mid-2021, Steve Degnan, then chief human resources officer for Nestlé Purina PetCare, joined other senior leaders and prepared to bring its workforce back. All of them. In-person.“It was not without controversy,” Degnan, EMBA 2008, recalled. “It was our belief that better work happens when people are together. But we did lose people.” Indeed, about 30% of Purina's workforce declared its dissatisfaction with the return-to-work policy, which launched in 2022. The company, for years a leader in worker satisfaction ratings on jobseekers website Glassdoor, saw its scores plummet in the wake of the decision.Beyond their basic belief that employees work better together, Purina leaders had also just gone through a process to combat “big company diseases” such as lumbering decision-making and single-stream work processes. They'd fostered greater agility in their work teams, empowered team members to make decisions, coached effective collaboration.“That work was being blown up,” he said. Degnan, now retired, recalled how senior leadership knew it would have to spend some of its cultural capital to implement a decision that many rank-and-file employees would support—but that a small and vocal group would not, including a large share of Generation Z and Millennial team members.Why did Purina buck what seemed to be a trend in its approach to the workplace? How did it manage the communication of that requirement? What were leaders willing to sacrifice to make that decision—and what were they not willing to sacrifice?RELATED LINKSMore about Steve DegnanMore about Andrew KnightBloomberg: “People Working in the Office Spend 25% More Time on Career Development” (paywall)A version of the same story that's not behind a paywallNestlé Purina PetCareMcKinsey & Company: “Americans are embracing flexible work—and they want more of it”Business Insider: “Here's a list of major companies requiring employees to return to the office”Nina Leigh Krueger: Her On Principle episode, “Out of the Box”CREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceAustin Alred and Olin's Center for Digital Education, sound engineeringHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic support

In early March 2022, the skies over Irpin, Ukraine, sizzled with Russian missiles and thundered with mortar shells. Under those skies in the first days of Russia's aggression, the lead software developer for a Chicago-based startup huddled in his parent's basement when the air raid sirens sounded.For a substantial investment of thousands of dollars, the leadership at that startup—Phenix Real Time Solutions—could hire an extraction team to relocate their Ukrainian-based developer and his parents to relative safety in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv."It didn't take any convincing for our CEO or our founder,” said Kyle Bank, BSBA 2014, and the COO at Phenix. “It was, 'What's it going to take? How do we do it?' Same thing with our board of directors. Not one word of hesitation.”It was a situation Bank never anticipated when he joined the video streaming company in 2016. Bank joined soon after Phenix found a Ukrainian software engineer through an outsourcing company and built an in-country development team around him.That programmer's harrowing ordeal with his parents, who are in their 70s, started with a walk through a Russian checkpoint and across a makeshift bridge to replace the bombed-out span. They had to hurry to the Ukrainian-occupied part of Irpin, where they could catch a ride with volunteers to neighboring Kyiv. A day later, the extraction team—actually, a single driver employed by an organization that arranges such things—would collect the threesome and their belongings.“The experience of getting out of Irpin to Kyiv was probably the most dangerous part of the story,” the programmer said as he described the ordeal, which included a 13-hour drive to Lviv through more checkpoints and around battle-damaged roads. Said Bank: "I was absolutely glued to the computer screen all day trying to find out if he'd made it. It was a nerve-wracking day."The programmer was the focus of this particular episode. But it wasn't the only thing Phenix did for its Ukraine-based team of developers in the early days following Russia's aggression.RELATED LINKSWebsite for Phenix Real-Time SolutionsKyle Bank on LinkedInStory on WashU Olin's website about Bank's story about the programmerVice News report from Irpin by Ben Solomon mentioning the Irpin BridgeMore about Kurt Dirks"Leadership in Dangerous Situations," a book referenced by Dirks, to which he contributedCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceAustin Alred and Olin's Center for Digital Education, sound engineeringHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic support

Christine Chang recalls the moment in the back seat of a cab, heading across Manhattan to her next appointment. She and her cofounder, Sarah Lee, finally had to have a tough conversation about the future of their beauty business Glow Recipe.The pair had originally built a successful business focused on curating Korean beauty products produced by other manufacturers. A business that had generated a significant customer following and an engaged fan base through savvy use of social media. A business that generated the majority of Glow Recipe's revenue, which was reported to be $1 million in their first year of business and growing triple digits year over year.But the other 10% of their revenue was calling to them. That was the revenue that began to grow in 2017 after Glow Recipe started its own in-house brand of beauty products. And there Chang and Lee sat, in the back of a cab in early 2019.“As a growing but small team, we were being pulled in multiple directions by having to manage a rapidly growing in-house brand and another business vertical together," Chang, BSBA 2004, recalled. “We talked seriously about whether this was sustainable. Five years from now, what will we wish we'd done? By the end of that cab ride, we had aligned.”The curation business had to go. Glow Recipe would be all-in with its in-house brand of products. People would have to be let go. Inventory had to be shed. Their online community of fans and customers—invested in one version of Glow Recipe—would have to be invited along for a difficult transition.Skincare brands are typically known to position their brands as either serious and clinically efficacious or whimsical and fun. Glow Recipe's mission was to combine both worlds into a line of products that delivered results but were also sensorial, joyful and approachable.“It was a massive pivot to shut down the curated business,” Chang said. “As the brand grew, we realized we couldn't do both.” Two years later, the pivot paid off as Chang and Lee's company continued an explosive growth trend.RELATED LINKSThe Glow Recipe websiteElanor Williams' page on the WashU Olin Business School siteChristine Chang's Instagram pageGlow Recipe on InstagramCNBC reports on the Glow Recipe storyA report by Katie Couric Media on Glow RecipeCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

This week, we interview Anjan Thakor, Senior Associate Dean, and John E. Simon, Professor of Finance at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. Thakor was previously The Edward J. Frey Professor of Banking and Finance at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, where he also served as chairman of the Finance area. He has served on the faculties of Indiana University, Northwestern University, and UCLA.  He has worked with many companies, including Whirlpool Corporation, Allision Engine Co., Citigroup, RR Donnelley, Dana Corporation, Anheuser-Busch, Zenith Corporation, Lincoln National Corporation, J.P. Morgan, Landscape Structures, Inc., CIGNA, Borg-Warner Automative, Waxman Industries, Reuters, The Limited, Ryder Integrated Logistics, AT&T, CH2M Hill, Takata Corporation, Tyson Foods, Spartech.  He has published over 75 research papers and seven books. He is past managing Editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation and past president of the Financial Intermediation Research Society. He has a Ph.D. (Finance) from Northwestern University.

Do you know how family businesses can thrive across generations? Join us in our episode with Richard Ryffel, professor of finance practice at Washington University in St. Louis. With 35 years of experience in financial services on Wall Street and regional firms and an MBA in finance, Richard has seen it all. He is currently teaching several finance courses as part of the Koch Center for Family Enterprise to help families better understand how to manage their businesses. Richard discusses the importance of diversification in family-owned businesses, how liquidity events should be handled, and the value of having a trusted advisor. He also explores the idea that wealth should be concentrated and diversified to stay wealthy, different generations' attitudes towards risk-taking, and the potential for failure as a learning experience. Tune into this riveting episode![00:00 - 08:04] 35 Years of Financial Services ExperienceRich's brief background and careerThe Koch Center for Family Enterprise was set up to drive research into the practice of running family businessesThere is a proliferation of private companies and more entrepreneurial spirit than ever before[08:05 - 13:58] Investing for Wealth PreservationSt. Louis has a robust history of companies that have survived for multiple generationsThe risks of not diversifying and how to do so without selling the business[13:59 - 22:35] Maximizing Value for Your Company Step back and think about culture and how important it is to maintain itConsider family involvement and whether you wish to continue to be involved in the businessHave a group of people around you with different lived experiences for inputConsider if there is a distinct competence or moat when expanding into adjacent businesses[22:36 - 30:52] Exploring Risk Taking and Risk Mitigation for Family BusinessesThe mindset of the younger generation is different from the baby boomer generation when it comes to family businessesYounger people are more willing to take risks but should be careful when investing in something that might failFailure can be a learning experience, but educated risks should be takenThe Center educates students on modern techniques and governance issues that may not have been considered before[30:53 - 37:23] Closing SegmentQuotes:"Careers always look organized in the rear view mirror. They look perfectly ordered. But when you're going through it, not so much." - Richard Ryffel"You get rich through concentration. You stay rich through diversification." - Richard Ryffel"Money in and of itself is nothing. Money is a tool to achieve something your wants and needs." - Richard RyffelConnect with Richard!Email: ryffel@wustl.edu Olin Business School: https://olin.wustl.edu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardryffel Connect with me on LinkedIn!LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND LEAVE US A REVIEW on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in, and Stay Tuned for the Next Episode COMING SOON! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Akeem Shannon was stressed. In three weeks, his Shark Tank episode would air, the episode where he'd pitch Flipstik—a novel cellphone attachment that doubles as a kickstand and a sticky wall mount.He knew one thing with absolute certainty: Whether or not the “sharks” on the popular ABC-TV show offered him a deal, he was going to sell some Flipstiks. Probably a lot of them. And he didn't have any. Or any money.At the time, in mid-October 2020, Shannon's startup was so young he sometimes sold only one Flipstik a day. One bright spot: He'd recently landed a commitment of $50,000 from Arch Grants, a St. Louis nonprofit that provides capital to startups willing to plant roots in the community.With the Shark Tank air date weeks away, he contacted his manufacturer in China. “I need product. Lots of it. Right now,” he said. He mobilized his team to build a makeshift distribution warehouse. He upgraded his website's software to handle the crush of transactions he expected. He maxed out his credit cards.It wasn't enough. Ultimately, he had to pick up the phone to Arch Grants, which was supposed to pay out its commitment in quarterly installments. “Is there any way I can get some cash up-front—right away?” Shannon pleaded. “I don't have two weeks to wait.”The cash arrived. The episode aired—with one more hitch. Ninety seconds into his segment, ABC broke in with news from the 2020 election. “I just cried when it happened,” Shannon said. But it didn't matter. He'd set the hook. He reeled in Shark Tank fans, with orders totaling more than $100,000 in just a few days. When the episode repeated on January 1, 2021, sales spiked once again. Ultimately, Shannon got an offer from one of the sharks—a deal that later fell apart off-air. Yet for Shannon, the episode was a turning point. The last-minute race to prepare, the 11th-hour request for cash, maxed out cards—it had paid off.RELATED LINKSThe Flipstik websiteAkeem Shannon's segment on Shark Tank (including his rap)Akeem on InstagramMichael Wall's faculty page at WashU Olin Business SchoolThe St. Louis Business Journal on the Inc. rankingsCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

At the start of the day, Lisa Baron and her board of trustees gathered for the fifth strategic planning cycle in the 20-year history of Memory Care Home Solutions, the nonprofit Baron founded to serve families with Alzheimer's patients. How would they expand? How would they diversify their revenue sources? How would they create sustainable long-term earnings?But after dinner, at the end of the day, the planning facilitator put a question to Baron and her board, a question she wasn't expecting at all. “You can grow incrementally,” the facilitator said, “or you can change the world. What do you want to do?”The question sent a bolt of lightning through Baron and her board. It changed the focus of their strategic planning entirely. The game was no longer just about contract reimbursements, revenue streams and federal grants. It wasn't only about seeking inclusion in employer assistance programs or third-party healthcare contracts.It was about advocacy for families. It was about forming coalitions to influence policy around memory care issues. “It was huge,” Baron said. “It opened us up to the power of more people helping us achieve more than we could by ourselves.”Within weeks, work had begun to expand the agency's vision into the advocacy space, using the experience of hospice workers—who moved the palliative care practice from the fringes of healthcare into the mainstream—as an example.What steps in its history brought Baron and Memory Care Home Solutions to this moment? How are they building the groundwork to “change the world”? And what can business leaders learn from Baron's experience?UPDATE SINCE THIS EPISODELisa Baron announced her retirement from MCHS in December 2022 and officially stepped down May 31, 2023. According to Jill Cigliana, the organization's new executive director, “Lisa continues to inspire and guide MCHS in her new role as founder and director emeritus. She remains involved in advocacy and policy work on behalf of people living with dementia and family care partners.”Since the approval of the fifth strategic plan, Cigliana said the organization has focused on building out its dementia navigation service line based on the Care Ecosystem model of care developed at the University of California-San Francisco. “This work connects us with a national team of researchers and collaborators to advance best practices in dementia care and is aligned with our strategic goals. Additionally, we have been meeting with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services to inform a payment model for dementia care services.”On July 31, MCHS was invited to Washington, DC, to attend the advisory council meeting of the National Alzheimer's Project Act. At that meeting, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a test program to roll out a dementia care model which will be covered through Medicare benefits. “This means that for the first time in this country, there will be a covered benefit for Medicare beneficiaries who are living with dementia, including education, training and paid respite for their family caregivers. MCHS will continue to be involved in the testing for this model of care.”Said Lisa Baron, “It's thrilling that we are being included in the national conversation. This is exactly what we were aiming for.”RELATED LINKSMemory Care Home Solutions websiteFrom Small Business Monthly: “Time With The Boss - Lisa Baron, Memory Care Home Solutions”Nick Argyres' page on the WashU Olin websiteLisa Baron testified in 2016 about Alzheimer's services to the Special Senate Committee on AgingCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

John M. Jennings is president and chief strategist of St. Louis Trust & Family Office, a $15 billion wealth management firm. As an author and speaker, he is a leading voice in the space of wealth management and leadership. His book, The Uncertainty Solution, is an engaging dive into investing philosophy and best practices as well as an authorita¬tive, accessible guide for anyone who feels inundated with financial news and data. Jennings is also the author of the highly acclaimed IFOD Interesting Fact of the Day blog, is an adjunct professor at Washington University's Olin Business School, and frequently writes on wealth management topics for Forbes. He has finance and law degrees from the University of Missouri and a professional certificate in Decision Making and Behavioral Finance from Harvard. Today: 1. We touched on John's professional turning point, the Financial Crisis of 2008, and how it reshaped his identity and approach towards honesty with his clients. 2. John shared a fascinating study about human behavior. 3. We delved into the topic of information overload in investing. John explained his evolution from an exhausting need-to-know-everything approach to a more balanced, big-picture perspective. 4. We explored the concepts of past performance, regression to the mean, and the roles of luck and randomness in investing, as highlighted in John's book. 5. John unpacked the difference between the unknowable and the unknown in the world of investing, emphasizing the pursuit of knowledge and the struggle for perfection. 6. We discussed the human tendency to simplify complex situations into single-cause explanations and how this often contradicts the intricate nature of the world. 7. John shared an intriguing anecdote about diet choices and health, underscoring the importance of sample size in decision-making processes. 8. John elaborated on his viewpoint that "The stock market is not the economy," 9. John shared his belief that waiting for perceived safety and economic health is not a profitable strategy, offering a contrarian perspective. 10. We discussed the perils of predictions through stories of Alan Greenspan and a New York hedge fund manager, reinforcing the idea that predictions often fall short. 11. John walked us through the eight best behavior practices he outlines in his book: inactivity, simplicity, investment policy need, margin of safety, long-term focus, avoiding portfolio checks, maintaining a play account, and choosing the right advisor. https://johnmjennings.com/john-m-jennings-author-speaker-chief-strategist/ His website: https://johnmjennings.com/ His blog "The Interesting Fact of the Day": https://johnmjennings.com/the-ifod/ ---- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Crisis Investing: 100 Essays⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - My new book. To get regular updates and bonus content, please sign-up for my substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bogumilbaranowski.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow me on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/bogumil_nyc⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bogumil Baranowski⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sicart Associates, LLC⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. NEVER INVESTMENT ADVICE. IMPORTANT: As a reminder, the remarks in this interview represent the views, opinions, and experiences of the participants and are based upon information they believe to be reliable; however, Sicart Associates nor I have independently verified all such remarks. The content of this podcast is for general, informational purposes, and so are the opinions of members of Sicart Associates, a registered investment adviser, and guests of the show. This podcast does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any specific security or financial instruments or provide investment advice or service. Past performance is not indicative of future results. More information on Sicart Associates is available via its Form ADV disclosure documents available ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠adviserinfo.sec.gov⁠⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/talking-billions/message

Joining us for this episode is John Horn, author of the new book Inside the Competitor's Mindset. John's book analyzes how businesses can better understand their competitors and maximize the value of their competitive insights. He is a Professor of Practice in Economics at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. We also have Emma Gibbs with us. Emma is a partner in our London office, and head of our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice in the U.K., Ireland, and Israel. Join our LinkedIn community of more than 90,000 members and follow us on Twitter at @McKStrategy. Explore our collection of Inside the Strategy Room episode transcripts on McKinsey.comSee www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Joining us for this episode is John Horn, author of the new book Inside the Competitor's Mindset. John's book analyzes how businesses can better understand their competitors and maximize the value of their competitive insights. He is a Professor of Practice in Economics at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. We also have Emma Gibbs with us. Emma is a partner in our London office, and head of our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice in the U.K., Ireland, and Israel. Join our LinkedIn community of more than 90,000 members and follow us on Twitter at @McKStrategy. Explore our collection of Inside the Strategy Room episode transcripts on McKinsey.comJoin 90,000 other members of our LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The voices in today's bonus episode may be familiar to On Principle listeners. They're voices from previous guests, sharing stories about some major “Oh, shoot!” moments they confronted in their businesses. They came together for a special "On Principle Live!" event at WashU Olin Business School on September 1, 2022, called "Now What?" The event was the first of our Leadership Perspectives events for the academic year.Featured GuestsAlaina Macía. An Olin MBA alum and president and CEO of MTM, a nationwide non-emergency medical transportation service provider.Angel Likens, third-generation president of Bogey Hills Country Club, a St. Charles, Missouri, institution since 1962.Jason Wilson, an Olin Executive MBA alum, coffee entrepreneur and owner of Northwest Coffee Roasting Company.Gerard Craft, St. Louis chef and restaurateur and owner of Niche Food Group, with eight restaurants in St. Louis and one in Nashville.CreditsThis podcast is a production of Washington University in St. Louis' Olin Business School. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Lesley Liesman and Judy Milanovits, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact-checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

Welcome to an interview with the author of Inside the Competitor's Mindset, John Horn, where he shares proven techniques to help businesses think like the competition and understand why they act the way they do. Inside the Competitor's Mindset presents a systematic approach to competitive intelligence that starts with three frameworks to get inside the competitor's mindset, predict their reactions to your moves, and assess whether the competition is getting ready for a spontaneous move of their own.  John Horn is a professor of practice in economics at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He teaches MBA students microeconomics, macroeconomics, and global business. John was a Senior Expert in the Strategy Practice of McKinsey & Company for 9 years, working with clients on competitive strategy, war gaming workshops, and corporate and business unit strategy across a variety of industries and geographies. He helped over 100 clients with war game workshops and developed a set of simulation exercises to help companies understand the challenges of reallocating resources. He continues to consult through his LLC: Gateway Competitive Insights. John has published nine papers in the McKinsey Quarterly and three in the Harvard Business Review, mostly on the application of behavioral economics and competitive insight to business strategy. John has a PhD in economics from Harvard University, where he also received a Masters degree in economics. Get John's book here: Inside the Competitor's Mindset: How to Predict Their Next Move and Position Yourself for Success. John Horn https://rb.gy/ahn1x Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

John Jennings Author of The Uncertainty Solution: How to Invest With Confidence in the Face of the Unknown John M. Jennings, president and chief strategist of St. Louis Trust & Family Office, a $15 billion wealth management firm, is a renowned author, speaker, and influential figure in the field of wealth management and leadership. With his book, "The Uncertainty Solution," hailed as a definitive guide for navigating financial complexities, Jennings provides readers with insightful investing philosophy, best practices, and a refreshingly accessible approach to managing wealth amidst a deluge of financial information. Endorsed by Charles R. Schwab as a "must-have addition to anyone's reading list," Jennings is recognized for his expertise. Additionally, he shares his wisdom through his highly acclaimed IFOD blog, serves as an adjunct professor at Washington University's Olin Business School, and regularly contributes articles on wealth management to Forbes. With degrees in finance and law from the University of Missouri, coupled with a professional certificate in Decision Making and Behavioral Finance from Harvard, Jennings brings a comprehensive understanding of the industry to his work. Connect with John Jennings: LinkedIn | Twitter | Amazon  

When this month's guest and I originally talked, she remembered the toilet paper woes in the early days of the pandemic as a turning point for consumers, a time when supply chains entered the common lexicon. We decided to take a deeper dive into the topic by going further into that original interview from May 2022.CreditsThis podcast is a production of Washington University in St. Louis' Olin Business School. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Lesley Liesman and Judy Milanovits, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact-checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportMark P. Taylor, strategic supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

If you like to tinker with your investments, then it's tough to beat the market over a long period of time. John M. Jennings is the president of St. Louis Trust & Family Office, a Professor at Washington University's Olin Business School, and the author of “The Uncertainty Solution: How to Invest with Confidence in the Face of the Unknown.” Deidre Woollard caught up with Jennings to discuss: - Why the improbable happens all the time - 1 key attribute that some of the best-performing stocks have in common - And the business advantage that “fast followers” have over pioneers    Companies mentioned: SCHW, TJX, APPL, HUM, SHW Host: Deidre Woollard Guest: John M. Jennings Producer: Ricky Mulvey Engineers: Dan Boyd, Heather Horton

Our first season three bonus episode looks back at my conversation with Erik Dane, an associate professor of organizational behavior at WashU Olin Business School. We originally spoke for our episode called “Warrior Heart, No Stigma" featuring Gen. Mike Minihan. Today, we're revisiting Erik's comments about how mindfulness and its perceived opposite, mind-wandering, are valuable tools in the workplace by driving efficiency, creativity and well-being.CreditsThis podcast is a production of Washington University in St. Louis' Olin Business School. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Lesley Liesman and Judy Milanovits, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportMark P. Taylor, strategic supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

John Horn discusses his book “Inside the Competitor's Mindset” and how to predict your competitor's next move. John is Professor of Practice in Economics at the Olin Business School at Washington University. His global economics courses are informed by his nine years of work on competitive strategy with the Strategy Practice of McKinsey & Company. Listen for three action items you can use today. Host, Kevin Craine Do you want to be a guest?

John M. Jennings is president and chief strategist of St. Louis Trust & Family Office, a $15 billion wealth management firm. He is an adjunct professor at Washington University's Olin Business School and writes on wealth management topics for Forbes. In his book, The Uncertainty Solution, Jennings uses mental models to create a latticework of wisdom that will help you evaluate investment decisions and investment advice and provides insight into broader aspects of our complex and uncertain world. https://johnmjennings.com/Meg Eden Kuyatt is a neurodivergent author and college-level creative writing instructor. She is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee, and the author of poetry books. When she isn't writing, she's probably playing Fire Emblem. Inspired by her experience living on the spectrum as someone who largely “passes” in society as neurotypical, Meg's book Good Different is an extraordinary novel-in-verse about a neurodivergent girl who comes to understand and celebrate her difference from a promising new voice in children's literature. https://www.megedenbooks.com/Ellen Braaten, PhD, is Executive Director of the Learning and Emotional Assessment Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, and Visiting Professor at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Braaten is widely recognized for her expertise in pediatric neuropsychological and psychological assessment, particularly in the areas of assessing learning disabilities and attentional disorders. In her book, Bright Kids Who Couldn't Care Less, Dr. Braaten helps you understand the myriad biological, psychological, and social factors that affect motivation, and get to know your own child's unique strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits better. https://www.ellenbraatenphd.com/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/3240061/advertisement

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 341, an interview with the author of Inside the Competitor's Mindset, John Horn, where he shares proven techniques to help businesses think like the competition and understand why they act the way they do. Inside the Competitor's Mindset presents a systematic approach to competitive intelligence that starts with three frameworks to get inside the competitor's mindset, predict their reactions to your moves, and assess whether the competition is getting ready for a spontaneous move of their own.  John Horn is a professor of practice in economics at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He teaches MBA students microeconomics, macroeconomics, and global business. John was a Senior Expert in the Strategy Practice of McKinsey & Company for 9 years, working with clients on competitive strategy, war gaming workshops, and corporate and business unit strategy across a variety of industries and geographies. He helped over 100 clients with war game workshops and developed a set of simulation exercises to help companies understand the challenges of reallocating resources. He continues to consult through his LLC: Gateway Competitive Insights. John has published nine papers in the McKinsey Quarterly and three in the Harvard Business Review, mostly on the application of behavioral economics and competitive insight to business strategy. John has a PhD in economics from Harvard University, where he also received a Masters degree in economics. Get John's book here: Inside the Competitor's Mindset: How to Predict Their Next Move and Position Yourself for Success. John Horn Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo  

The Uncertainty Solution: How to Invest with Confidence in the Face of the Unknown by John M. Jennings A better approach to investing This is not a typical investment book. It is an experiential guide on cultivating the mindset and behavior necessary to weather inherently uncertain and unpredictable markets. It doesn't just tell you how to invest but how to think better about investing. Referencing studies on psychology, decision making, and investment behavior, Jennings provides a no-nonsense analysis of the financial markets and a road map to navigating its inevitable twists and turns. Jennings uses mental models to create a latticework of wisdom that will help you evaluate investment advice and learn better behavior in the face of uncertainty. To name a few: ignore expert predictions, be wary of stories, and try to invest like a dead person. An engaging dive into investing psychology and best practices, The Uncertainty Solution is an authoritative, accessible guide for both lay investors and professionals inundated with financial news and data. Read this book to improve your thinking about investing, practice better investment behavior, and ultimately, have more money. About John M. Jennings John M. Jennings is president and chief strategist of St. Louis Trust & Family Office, a $15 billion wealth management firm. He is an adjunct professor at Washington University's Olin Business School and writes on wealth management topics for Forbes. He has finance and law degrees from the University of Missouri and a professional certificate in Decision Making and Behavioral Finance from Harvard.

In this episode with Dr. Anjan Thakor we discuss Purpose-Driven organizations, what they are, why they work, and how to establish yours. Dr. Thakor is the Dean of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the co-author of The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight counterintuitive steps for creating a purpose driven organization, and co-wrote one of the most read articles ever published in the Harvard Business Review. He is a teacher, author, researcher, and an expert on Purpose-Driven organizations and how they outperform their competition.  For more about Sturdy's coaching, speaking, and programs for business owners, visit ⁠SturdyCoaching.com⁠. #smallbusiness #businessowner #leadership #management #entrepreneur #purpose

Arguably, the four consultants in our story have already weathered their share of pivotal moments. They've navigated a full-time MBA program, coursework across three continents in six weeks and a global pandemic halfway through their studies.Indeed, all that may have prepared them for the professional path they've taken. All four work full-time as consultants. They're also co-founders of Oystar, a student-driven platform to improve and expand university recruiting. “We're better at being comfortable with the inconsistency of what we're working on,” said Lungile Tshuma, a consultant at World Wide Technology. “We've learned how to be more comfortable with adjusting.”But that convergence of ambition might be tossing the most meaningful moments across their paths in a series of small, pivotal moments as they skip back and forth between managing their startup and managing their day jobs. “Something we learn in our real jobs we can quickly apply to our startup,” Tshuma said. “And it goes both ways.”The foursome—all 2021 Olin MBA grads—includes Tshuma, Kevin Ko, Tim Brandt and Abhinav Gabbeta. As professional consultants, they've quickly learned how to refine a presentation deck for their big clients—and adapted that skill to showcase their startup.They've run across challenging leadership personalities—learning what kind of leader they want to be … and don't want to be. They've watched how their big clients depend on Agile development practices—and adopted them at Oystar. They've mastered multitasking across four time zones. They've learned to trust each other—so they don't all have to attend every meeting with advisors, potential funders and their intern team.In this edition of On Principle, our roundtable conversation with Tshuma, Gabbeta, Ko and Brandt examine the small pivotal moments in the life of a business leader—and the high impact those moments ultimately yield.RELATED LINKSOystar's LinkedIn company pageOystar wins startup funding at the Skandalaris Center's Entrepreneurship AwardsThe company is featured in Washington Magazine, the university's alumni magazineThe company gets a shout-out in Poets & Quants after the WashU Olin MBA entrepreneurship program takes a fourth consecutive No. 1 ranking.Abhinav Gabbeta mentioned his appreciation for Asha for EducationCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

In this episode of The Ethics Experts, Nick welcomes Robert Zafft. Robert Zafft, a former McKinsey consultant and global law-firm partner, provides corporate and executive training that uniquely develops such capabilities. An Adjunct Lecturer at Olin Business School, Robert is the author of The Right Way to Win: Making Business Ethics Work in the Real World. He also writes a Forbes column on Leadership Strategy: Ethics, Compliance, and Governance. The Right Way to Win: Making Business Ethics Work in the Real World: https://www.amazon.com/Right-Way-Win-Making-Business/dp/1538140713 Forbes Column: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertzafft/?sh=4a486d98343d

Kendra Kelly wryly refers to it as “her old friend.”She's an accomplished junior executive with years of marketing experience. She served as a field organizer for the Obama presidential campaign. She led WashU Olin's graduate student body as its president and was elected its graduation speaker.Yet a year after joining L'Oréal, where she serves as chief of staff for the president of the luxury division, she's only just beginning to understand how to deal with her old friend—an unwelcome visitor otherwise known as “imposter syndrome.”In a recent piece in the Harvard Business Review, authors Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey write of the phenomenon as “a workplace-induced trauma” induced by the repeated confrontation of systemic racism and bias. They argue that addressing imposter syndrome should be less about “fixing women at work” and more about fixing the places where women work.And yet, a year after earning her MBA, in the wake of her mother's passing, in the shadow of the isolation of learning and working remotely during the pandemic, the challenges posed by her “old friend” persist. She found herself occasionally gripped by self-doubt in her company's fast-paced work culture—while she must step back, slow down and meticulously break down business problems.“Your brain is not your friend,” Kelly said. “I was not myself. It was starting to weigh on me. And I realized this was not OK.”How did Kelly come to realize her old friend was knocking on the door? How did it affect her at work? How did she come to confront it? And how is she learning to deal with it? And what, more broadly, should workplaces do to banish this “old friend” from their hallways, offices and conference rooms?Kelly's story is emblematic of the oft-stated importance of bringing one's whole self into the workplace—knowing what it means and knowing how that principle can contribute to the organization and support the individual. In Kelly's case, for example, she came to learn her meticulous approach to work was a valued skill—different, but necessary. “I have found it to be a skill,” she said, “to take the thing we've all been swirling around and name it.”More than that, she's learning how to cope with her old friend. “This is not something I need to get over,” she said, “but learn to live with and thrive with.”RELATED LINKSWorkplace-induced trauma. Read how the Harvard Business Reviewdiscusses the concept of imposter syndrome.Kendra Kelly on LinkedIn. See her profile.Best and Brightest. While Kendra Kelly was an MBA student, Poets & Quantsnamed her among the “best and brightest” MBA students that year.Hannah Birnbaum. See her website.CREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

Eighteen whiskey producers comprise the famed Kentucky Bourbon Trail, something of a mecca for bourbon aficionados. They come to wander the trail and sample each distillery's golden recipe—a guarded combination of grain types and grinds, cooking times and temperatures, yeast blends and finishing processes borne from generations of tradition and training.Among the trail's newest stops: Bardstown Bourbon. Founded in 2014, the distillery has decidedly less than a generation of tradition under its belt. But it has shaken the industry with a new approach: a “collaborative distilling program” serving brand owners and non-distilling producers eager to market their own unique whiskies.Along the way, it's learned a thing or two about rocking tradition—and serving customers.For co-founder and WashU alum David Mandell, AB 1996, a lawyer and former chief of staff for several high-profile federal agencies, Bardstown Bourbon exploited an opportunity revealed when the US bourbon market began to boom. Indeed, its model was so successful, Bardstown sold out its own planned capacity before it finished building its facility. The company quickly attracted big-name brands, including a well-known global manufacturer that had committed tens of millions of dollars to a contract with Bardstown. That's where a chink in the model first appeared.Turns out producing custom whiskey for multiple companies isn't easy. Everyone wasn't always satisfied—including that high-profile customer. And when Bardstown's master distiller balked at being questioned about his ability to deliver a product that satisfied their strict requirements, Mandell had to navigate the intersection of tradition and customer service—and quickly.“Nobody was used to giving customer service like we were promising in this industry,” Mandell said. “And that customer was roughly 50% of our business at the time.” How did Bardstown Bourbon solve the problem? What did they learn from the experience? And how did one of Mandell's earlier industry failures inform the creation of Bardstown? RELATED LINKSThe Bourbon Trail homepageWashU profiles David Mandell in Washington MagazineStoli Group announces hiring David Mandell at Kentucky Owl Real Estate to lead construction of a new distilleryRaphael Thomadsen's WashU Olin homepageRecent Thomadsen research: “Forecasting the spread of COVID-19 under different reopening strategies”CREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

If you read the website for Jimmy Sansone's company, he doesn't beat around the bush: He hated working in finance—a career he pursued for five years after earning his business degree from WashU. But then, there was that shirt …Yes, Sansone made a shirt. A shirt he loved. A shirt he thought everyone would love. He called it the Normal Shirt. And in 2015 he quit his finance job, moved into his parents' basement and started making shirts. Full time. And people loved them. His brothers joined him right away and now they run it together.People might have loved them too much. Because that's when Sansone, BSBA 2010, realized they didn't have the supply chain expertise they needed. How do you source fabric, thread, buttons? How do you define cut, color and wash? How do you ship products from Asia to your distribution markets?"We had a middle-man that was handling a lot of this,” Sansone said. “Then we didn't have one in the middle of the season.” That was 2016.They'd never talked directly to a factory owner. They'd never directly managed shipping from a different country. “We had no visibility into the process. We weren't in control of that. We needed to learn quickly and have people on the team who could handle it,” he said.“We had to source the backup plan very quickly,” he said. “Had we not been able to do that, we probably wouldn't have the company.”How did he do it? How did he go from zero to 100 mph in the supply chain world on the turn of a dime? What did he learn in the process? And what would he counsel others to do in the same situation?RELATED LINKSThe Normal Brand. Find men's and women's apparelJimmy Sansone, BSBA 2010, was named one of Olin's emerging leaders in 2022An early story about The Normal Brand from the Olin Blog.Faculty page for Lingxiu Dong, Olin's Frahm Family Chair of Supply Chain, Operations, and TechnologyCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.

Mike Gorodinsky is an American poker player. He has won two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets including the prestigious $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2015. In that same year, he won WSOP Player of the Year. Gorodinsky was born in St Petersburg, Russia and graduated from Olin Business School at the Washington University in St. Louis in 2009. His first recorded cash on The Hendon Mob came in 2008, with Gorodinsky's cashes coming in a wide variety of tournaments including 8-Game, Chinese Poker, and Pot-Limit Omaha. Gorodinsky made his first WSOP final table in 2012, finishing sixth in the $2,500 10-Game and won his first WSOP bracelet in 2013, taking down Event #5: $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better for $216,958. In 2015, Gorodinsky was named WSOP Player of the Year after a performance that saw him finish second in the $10,000 Razz Championship and win the $50,000 Poker Players Championship 12 months after finishing ninth in the same event. Since 2015, he has been a regular at the WSOP and in High Roller Mixed Game tournaments. In 2018, he won a US Poker Open Pot-Limit Omaha title in 2018 for $179,200. Here is what you can expect on this week's show! 2:46 Starting out as a PLO player but missing out on the boom 8:58 Mixed games proficiency and strategy 16:10 Side Action Hustles 32:00 Chinese Poker is all about the math 34:37 Surfing and rock climbing to lead a well-balanced life 36:30 A musical duet between Mike and Jungleman 53:00 Don't mess with the Jungleman ▬ Winning the Game of Life ▬▬▬▬▬▬ Check out other "Winning the Game of Life" episodes: ► https://www.youtube.com/c/WinningTheGameofLife Connect with Mike Gorodinsky: Twitter: @gordoMG Follow "Jungleman" Dan Cates on social: Websites: https://www.wtgol.com Instagram: @wtgolpodcast @thedancates Twitter: @junglemandan

Gen. Mike Minihan will be the first to tell you: The United States loses a staggering number of veterans or servicemembers to suicide every month. Indeed, a 2021 report pegged the number at 30,177 suicides among military personnel and veterans since 9/11. That's about 127 a month. And it's more than have died in military operations in that time—by a lot.As Minihan put it, traditional approaches tend not to “crack the code” on the problem. One day at a leadership workshop, a retired chief master sergeant approached Minihan, commander of the US Air Force's Air Mobility Command, issued a challenge to the general. If you want to make a difference, make a mental health appointment. Put it on your calendar.Minihan was in the Pentagon on 9/11. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's ridden in military Humvees carrying human remains, watched body bags being loaded into planes, comforted grieving servicemen and women, and commanded airmen in combat zones.But when he made that appointment, when he put it on his calendar, when he shared a picture of that calendar entry on Twitter, “It started the most terrifying three days for me.” How would it be received? Would it make a difference? “I'd rather fly into Baghdad.”“Warrior heart,” the tweet read. “No stigma.”In this episode, we look at the place well-being, mindfulness and mental health play in the workplace and what one leader did in one of the most traditionally hard-boiled institutions in the country, the US military. Minihan has no illusions that his statement will revolutionize attitudes, only that it's a step toward normalizing attitudes about mental health.RELATED LINKSSuicide Prevention Lifeline. In the United States, simply call 988. More information. Visit here for international resources.CHADS Coalition. Communities Healing Adolescent Depression and SuicideMilitary Crisis Line. Free, confidential resource for service members and veterans.Gen. Minihan's tweet. "Warrior heart, no stigma"USO story. "Military Suicide Rates Are at an All-Time High; Here's How We're Trying to Help"Military suicide research. Paper by scholars from Brown University and Boston UniversityTask & Purpose coverage. Publication covering military issues tells Minihan's storyMinihan bio. On the US Air Force websiteErik Dane. His background and access to his CVCREDITSThis podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include:Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistanceJill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistanceHayden Molinarolo, original music and sound designMike Martin Media, editingSophia Passantino, social mediaLexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website supportPaula Crews, creative vision and strategic supportSpecial thanks to Ray Irving and his team at WashU Olin's Center for Digital Education, including our audio engineer, Austin Alred.