World Reimagined (Nasdaq)

Mentor-mentee relationships can be extremely beneficial. For a mentee, having someone more senior advocating on your behalf can accelerate your career forward. For a mentor, building a connection with someone junior can ensure your stamp on the company doesn’t retire when you do. While figuring out how to build this relationship can be tricky, Integral Ad Sciences CEO Lisa Utzschneider has become an expert in the craft.

Meet Lisa:

Lisa Utzschneider has held high leadership positions across the tech industry, such as Yahoo, Amazon and Microsoft. As an East Coaster at companies that were predominantly based in the West Coast, Lisa got used to not only being the only female voice, but also being the only person joining the meeting remotely. Through her experiences, she learned the importance of having someone with a seat at the table willing to advocate for you.

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Lisa about the value of mentor-mentee relationships, how to initiate building this bond and how to ensure everyone gets the most out of it. 

Time Stamps:

1:43 The mentor-mentee relationship

3:54 Being mindful of your team makeup

8:26 Check your ego at the door

12:22 Getting a the seat at the table

14:45 Lead with a recommendation or idea

Whether you’re looking to climb a mountain in sub-zero temperatures or reverse decades of economic hardship, leading in impossible situations requires stepping outside your comfort zone. How can leaders create a culture that encourages people to bring all their strengths to the table? How can authentic and vulnerable leadership inspire a team to work together to achieve the impossible?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Vivian James Rigney, President of Executive Coaching firm Inside Us LLC and the author of Naked at the Knife-Edge and Deborah Wahl the Global CMO of General Motors about what it really takes to defy the odds and accomplish larger-than-life goals.

“This word: vulnerability. This is a strength, and it's a strength to want to be curious, it's a strength to ask for help.” —  Vivian James Rigney

“I think failure has so many negative connotations in business life. No one wants to fail, but yet it's the failures that drive us to the most incredible successes.”— Deborah Wahl

Resources:

• Naked at the Knife-Edge: What Everest Taught Me about Leadership and the Power of Vulnerability by Vivian James Rigney

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For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

• Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

• https://www.tdameritrade.com/
• https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

While the benefits of AI are undeniable, it’s not yet clear exactly how it will define the role of tomorrow’s leaders. In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two industry leaders with unique vantage points on how AI is transforming the world around us and redefining the future of leadership.

Shawn Bice is the president of Products and Technology at Splunk, the world’s first Data-to-Everything platform designed to remove the barriers between data and action. And, Nick Beim, partner at Venrock, is one of the world’s leading investors in AI, software, and fintech and is also on the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations.

“The AI revolution will force a philosophical reexamination of how we make our most important decisions in different spheres of society... It's almost as if by encountering a new form of intelligence, we learn more about ourselves and become more conscious and deliberate about how we make decisions.” — Nick Beim

“I think leaders that have emotion where they understand mood, or relationships, and how they’re interacting with others is great. To me, a machine is going to have an incredible IQ, but I don’t know that it’s going to have EQ. That’s where I think that real limitation comes in.” — Shawn Bice

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In today’s era of uncertainty, trust has never been more important. This presents an opportunity for organizations and leaders to step up on important topics to drive change and foster meaningful connections with customers, employees, and communities.  

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda is joined by Jeremy Skule, Chief Strategy Officer at Nasdaq and Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist at Canva and former Chief Evangelist at Apple to discuss how to build brand trust through authenticity, transparency, and integrity. 

“Building up trust takes decades, years, at least. Losing trust can happen in a matter of seconds.” — Jeremy Skule

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Literature Referenced:

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam

For more information on this episode’s guests please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

https://www.tdameritrade.com/

https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Laughter not only feels good, but it’s good for your mental and physical health. It reduces stress, promotes creativity, and helps people feel more connected. It can also help make you a more effective leader. 

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, co-authors of Humor, Seriously, and Joey Zwillinger, Co-founder and CEO of Allbirds about why and how leaders should use humor to unite and motivate employees and improve their work culture.

“You often hear people suggest that great leaders tend to be vulnerable leaders. I think that humor can be such a great tool to unlock vulnerability.” — Joey Zwillinger, Co-founder and CEO of Allbirds

“Humor is this powerful way to get serious things done. I think part of it is upending this deeply ingrained cultural corporate belief that humor and seriousness are at odds.” — Naomi Bagdonas, Lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Author of Humor, Seriously

“Creativity and humor are inextricably linked.” — Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Author of Humor, Seriously

Resources:

Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how Anyone Can Harness It. Even You.) by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas

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Today, business leaders have the power to create positive change. Not just within their organizations, but in society and in the world more broadly.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Reverend Cornell William Brooks, former head of the NAACP and the Professor of Practice and Public Leadership and Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Mohamad Ali, CEO of International Data Group, about the challenges and opportunities of corporations in the wake of COVID-19, profound social and economic upheaval, the death of George Floyd, and Black Lives Matter.

“So, in terms of this moment in which we find ourselves, in terms of ethical leadership, and responsibility of those in the business community, I would just simply say this, that on a regular and recurring basis, people in the business community are charged with the responsibility of delivering products, and services for this country are not merely disaggregated marketplaces, but a democracy and republic.”

  — Cornell William Brooks

“Business leaders have a responsibility to our planet, our people, our justice. And so, the answer is that emphatic yes, that I think many business leaders recognize that they have this privileged position from which to articulate the need for justice. Businesses are in an interesting position, because yes, they can stand up.”

  — Mohamad Ali

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Books Referenced:

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet, by Klaus Schwab

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein

Guest Info:

Cornell William Brooks is Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations and Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also Director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School's Center for Public Leadership, and Visiting Professor of the Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership at Harvard Divinity School.

Brooks served as the 18th president of the NAACP from 2014 to 2017. Prior to leading the NAACP, Brooks was president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. He also served as senior counsel and acting director of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities at the Federal Communications Commission, executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington, and a trial attorney at both the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the U.S. Department of Justice. Brooks served as judicial clerk for Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin, III, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Brooks holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Master of Divinity from Boston University's School of Theology, and a B.A. from Jackson State University. Brooks is a fourth-generation ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mohamad Ali was appointed CEO at International Data Group, Inc. (IDG), the world's leading technology media, events and research company, in July 2019.

Prior to this role, Mohamad was CEO of Carbonite, a publicly traded data-protection and security firm, where he grew the company's revenue four-fold, to more than a half-billion dollars in four years. Before that, Mohamad served as Chief Strategy Officer at Hewlett-Packard where he played a pivotal role in the company's turnaround and led the decision process to split HP into two companies.

Mohamad holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering, a B.A. in History and a master's degree in Electrical Engineering, all from Stanford University. He currently serves on the board of iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT) and Henry Schein, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSIC).

A leadership podcast for a changing world. Host Gautam Mukunda explores what it takes to lead through times of change and crisis — featuring unexpected conversations with global leaders across different fields and industries.

Meet Yusra Mardini: 

When the Syrian civil war broke out, Yusra Mardini and her sister fled. Eventually finding refuge in Germany, Yusra reignited her passion for swimming, joining the newly formed Olympic Refugee Team. Now, she’s at the helm of the Yusra Mardini Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing access to sports and education for refugee communities around the world.  

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Yusra about how she navigates challenges, leads by example and builds organizations that last. 

Notable Timestamps 

2:40 Olympics  

5:20 Leading for others 

9:40 Having your leadership tested 

13:45 Building organizations that last 

Resources Referenced  

• Epstein, D. J. (2019). Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. New York, Riverhead Books. 

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For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:  

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast  

Truth and trust are the cornerstones of U.S. democracy. How can the United States, and its leaders, resurrect those central ideas to ensure a viable future for the country and its people?

In this episode, Gautam Mukunda is joined by three-time Pulitzer Prize recipient and prolific author, Thomas Friedman, to discuss weaknesses in American democracy and how to repair them, and what the Biden administration can do to set the U.S. on a trajectory of long-term sustainable growth.

Throughout his career, Thomas Friedman has held various foreign and domestic positions with the New York Times, including Foreign Affairs Op-ed columnist and White House Correspondent. Friedman is the author of seven bestselling books, among them From Beirut to Jerusalem and The World Is Flat, and is a recipient of the National Press Club’s lifetime achievement award.

"We need to go back now and really look at all the things in our society that have been normalizing and monetizing the erosion of truth and trust because without that our democracy is not sustainable." — Thomas Friedman

@gmukunda On Twitter

Books Referenced:

From Beirut to Jerusalem, by Thomas Friedman

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Friedman

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – And How it Can Renew America, by Thomas Friedman

Strangers in Their Own Land, by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy, by Hal Harvey, Jeffery Rissman, and Robbie Orvis

The Politics of Innovation: Why Some Countries Are Better Than Others at Science and Technology, by Mark Zachary Taylor

A Promised Land, by Barack Obama

Guest Info:

Thomas L. Friedman became the New York Times Foreign Affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. He joined the paper in 1981, after which he served as the Beirut bureau chief in 1982, Jerusalem bureau chief in 1984, and then in Washington as the diplomatic correspondent in 1989, and later the White House correspondent and economic correspondent. Mr. Friedman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel). He also won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Mr. Friedman is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the National Book Award in 1989. He has written several other books, including Hot, Flat, and Crowded, an international bestseller.

Born in Minneapolis, Mr. Friedman received a B.A. degree in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. In 1978 he received a master’s in modern Middle East studies from Oxford. His column appears every Sunday and Wednesday.

@TomFriedman on Twitter

Today’s increasingly digital world brings with it possibilities to create a more inclusive and accessible global economy. But, unless action is taken to enhance digital inclusion, the world may become more divided than ever before.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two leaders dedicated to digital inclusion who explain how to earn people’s trust and create a more inclusive world.

Ajay Banja is the Executive Chairman of Mastercard, after serving as President and CEO for almost 10 years. Under his tenure, Mastercard launched a program to bring 500 million people across 80 countries into the global financial system, and one billion by 2025. Bhaskar Chakravorti is the Dean of Global Business at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts, the author of The Slow Pace of Fast Change, and a former partner at McKinsey.

I think companies can set their examples and can lead by what they do...In totality, I think companies, corporations, need to start thinking about what role they play in the community they live in. And...to start putting real volume to the idea of doing well and doing good at the same time.” — Ajay Banga

“A combination of our inherent desire for stories, narratives, and personalities and the media's need to continue to reinforce that, our notion of trust has been intimately tied, not just by the functions and companies but by the leaders themselves.” — Bhaskar Chakravorti

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Literature Referenced:

The Slow Pace of Fast Change: Bringing Innovations to Market in a Connected World, by Bhaskar Chakravorti

For more information on this episode’s guests please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

While technology is a key driver of advancement and disruption, technology itself does
not produce innovation. It’s the people that make it possible—and the leaders who
aren’t afraid to take risks, admit when they’re wrong, and face failure head on.
In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Josh Wolfe, Founding Partner and
Managing Director of Lux Capital and Mike Pell, Envisioneer and Director at the
Microsoft Garage in NYC about how leaders should approach and encourage innovation,
and lead employees in a technology-driven world.
“I like to say that chips on shoulders put chips in pockets, in part because it is often
predictive of somebody that is going to be relentless against adversity.” – Josh Wolfe,
Founding Partner and Managing Director of Lux Capital
“Tech enables amazing, incredible new things we could never do before, but it's always,
for me, the people part that is far more interesting and far more powerful.” – Mike Pell,
Envisioneer, Director, The Microsoft Garage - NYC
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A rapidly-changing world is putting leaders—and their organizations—under stress as never before. In this episode, Gautam Mukunda is joined by former Navy bomb specialist Daniel (Danny) Glenn and biomedical researcher Aleksandra (Sandra) Stankovic to explore human performance in extreme environments and how to lead when the stakes are increasingly high.

Danny is a former Navy Special Operations Officer who was the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Commander for the Special Operations Task Force in Iraq. After the Navy, he was a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University and the CEO of a major family office in California. Sandra is an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. She is an aerospace psychologist, human factors engineer, and spaceflight biomedical researcher who studies human performance in extreme operational environments.

"It's not necessarily strength you want to build, but resilience. The ability to rebound back and forth from periods of intensity." — Aleksandra Stankovic

@gmukunda On Twitter

Books Referenced:

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything, by Chris Hadfield

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien

Guest Info:

Dr. Aleksandra Stankovic is an aerospace psychologist, and a human factors engineer and spaceflight biomedical researcher working to optimize high-level human performance and sustained behavioral health in extreme operational environments, much like the ones Danny was in disarming bombs. Human factors engineering, for those who don't know, is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to improve the design of systems and technologies in a human-centered way through the application of principles from psychology, physiology, and engineering, and she'll tell us more about it as we get into the conversation. Sandra was previously an Assistant Professor in the Space Medicine Innovations Laboratory at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and has recently joined the Neural Systems Group of the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she is starting up a new research lab focused on human performance.

@AeroAleksandra on Twitter

Daniel Glenn served in the United States military for a decade, acting as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit, where he was deployed to Iraq and other hotspots around the globe. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his work in countering the terrorist group ISIS. He studied International Relations at the United States Naval Academy before earning a Master's degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland. He was also a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he earned his second Master's degree. He was hired in Silicon Valley as a turnaround CEO and is now working in the private sector.

Effective communication and meaningful candor are the backbone of success for most teams, but they don’t come naturally – these skills have to be learned. In order to drive this success, leaders must create a culture of learning within their organizations. What are the tactics leaders can implement to achieve that learning culture? How can you become a leader that cultivates an environment of open feedback?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School’s Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, about how and why leaders should strive to create a culture of psychological safety in the workplace.

“You're trying to create an environment where people are able and aware to keep learning. That that's just recognized as essential…I think we're very much in a culture of knowing rather than a culture of learning.”

— Amy Edmondson

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For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

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https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Great leaders recognize that it takes more than talent to build a winning team. The culture and cohesion of a team can make or break it. It’s up to leaders to cultivate an environment that empowers people and promotes growth and opportunity.

 In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Daniel Coyle, Award-Winning New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code, The Culture Code and more and Vlatko Andonovski, Head Coach of the U.S. women’s national team, about the secrets of creating a world-class team.

 “Performance in business is actually a learning contest." - Daniel Coyle, Award-Winning New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code, The Culture Code and more

“I think that’s what drives me, the challenge to do something that has never been done before.” - Vlatko Andonovski, Head Coach of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team

Resources:

Books by Daniel Coyle

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

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The healthcare industry is one of the largest and most consequential sectors in the United States—but it’s also one of the most complicated. This unique complexity makes it challenging for the operational change and innovation the industry desperately needs in order to better serve citizens.

In contrast, the inherently innovative tech sector is not only a huge component of the U.S. economy, but it also plays a pivotal role in accelerating change across all other industries. In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Les Funtleyder and Dr. Raj Garg about what leaders can learn from combining the fast-paced innovations in tech with the cautious and deliberate rhythms of the healthcare industry.

Les is a portfolio manager at E Squared Capital Management, and the author of Healthcare Investing, and he sits on the boards of Applied Therapeutics and Acalis. Dr. Raj Garg was the former President and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, he was also one of the most trusted advisors to CEOs of the world’s largest healthcare companies during his time as senior partner in the healthcare practice at McKinsey. He is a doctor and attorney and serves on the boards of Health AI 360 and the National Spine and Pain Centers.

“What I would actually predict is that the next couple of decades are going to really be an age of biology, and an age of technology and healthcare that will cause pretty fundamental shifts.” – Dr. Raj Garg

“The biggest [healthcare] challenge from my perspective is that people don't like change, especially in systems that have been in place for a really long time.” – Les Funtleyder

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Literature Referenced:

Healthcare Investing: Profiting from the New World of Pharma, Biotech, and Health Care Services, by Les Funtleyder

For more information on this episode’s guests please visit:

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Today’s changing world faces continuous social, economic, and environmental
challenges—from disease to natural disaster to war. The leaders stepping up to solve these
issues possess deep ambition, vision, and skills to bring their ideas to life.
In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., Professor of
Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley and Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry
and Esther Duflo, Ph.D., Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT
and Nobel Prize Winner in Economic Sciences. Together, they discuss how great leaders can
pioneer breakthroughs and effectively enact change—from discovery to implementation.
Resources: 
Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
“There are so many things I kind of wish I had known early in my career, but the big ones for me
are, first and foremost, that each person is an individual and has their own sets of passions,
strengths, weaknesses, desires.” – Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and
Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley
“Try to avoid micromanaging people. You get much more done if you can trust someone to run
with it.” - Esther Duflo, Ph.D., Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at
MIT 
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For most leaders, failure is not a matter of life or death. But for some, making life-or-death decisions is part of the job. What can high-risk decision-making teach us about the more ordinary and conventional risk leaders assume every day? What roles do preparation and instinct play in this process? How can leaders become better at conquering a fear of failure in order to make hard decisions?

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks about risk and high-stake decision-making with two remarkable individuals who have spent their lives doing the impossible in the face of enormous danger. General Stan McChrystal is a retired four-star general, former Head of Joint Special Operations Command in Afghanistan, and the founder and CEO of the McCrystal Group. Alex Honnold is a professional adventure rock climber, who is known for his free solo ascents, most notably El Capitán as documented in the movie Free Solo.

“The more often you encounter the unexpected, the more comfortable you feel with the unexpected in general. You can prepare as much as you can, but you kind of know that some random thing is always going to go sideways, but then the more often that you encounter those kinds of sideways challenges and manage them… I think you build some confidence to just know that when a situation arises you'll figure it out quickly”

— Alex Honnold

“Nothing helps innovation like necessity.”

        — General Stan McChrystal

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Books Referenced:

Alone on the Wall, by Alex Honnold

Risk: A User’s Guide by Stanley A. McChrystal and Anna Butrico

Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? by Philip E. Tetlock

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

Guest Info:

Alex Honnold is a professional rock climber whose audacious free-solo ascents of America’s biggest cliffs have made him one of the most recognized and followed climbers in the world. A gifted but hard-working athlete, Honnold is distinguished for his uncanny ability to control his fear while scaling cliffs of dizzying heights without a rope to protect him if he falls. His humble, self-effacing attitude toward such extreme risk has earned him the nickname Alex “No Big Deal” Honnold.

This Sacramento, California-native’s most celebrated achievements include the first and only free-solos of the Moonlight Buttress (5.12d, 1,200 feet) in Zion National Park, Utah, and the Northwest Face (5.12a) of Half Dome (2,200 feet), Yosemite, California. In 2012 he achieved Yosemite’s first “Triple Solo”: climbing, in succession, the National Park’s three largest faces — Mt. Watkins, Half Dome, and El Capitan — alone, and in under 24 hours. In 2017 Alex completed the first and only free-solo of El Capitan’s “Freerider” route (5.13a, 3,000 feet), a historic accomplishment that has been hailed by many as one of the greatest sporting achievements of our time. The story of this feat was told in the Academy Award-winning documentary, FREE SOLO. Whether climbing with a rope or without, Honnold believes climbing is a fantastic vehicle for adventure, an opportunity to seek out those high-test moments with uncertain outcomes in which you’re forced to push through to survive.

Though Honnold often downplays his achievements, his rope-less climbs have attracted the attention of a broad and stunned audience. He has been profiled by 60 Minutes and the New York Times, featured on the cover of National Geographic, appeared in international television commercials, and starred in numerous adventure films including the Emmy-nominated “Alone on the Wall.” He is the founder of the Honnold Foundation, an environmental non-profit.

General Stanley A. McChrystal is A transformational leader with a remarkable

record of achievement, General Stanley A. McChrystal was called “one of America’s greatest warriors” by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. He is widely praised for launching a revolution in warfare by leading a comprehensive counter-terrorism organization that fused intelligence and operations, redefining the way military and government agencies interact.

The son and grandson of Army officers, McChrystal graduated from West Point in 1976 as an infantry officer, completed Ranger Training, and later Special Forces Training. Over the course of his career, he held leadership and staff positions in the Army Special Forces, Army Rangers, 82 nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Army Airborne Corp, and the Joint Staff. He is a graduate of the US Naval War College, and he completed fellowships at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997 and the Council on Foreign Relations in 2000.

From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal commanded JSOC - responsible for leading the nations deployed military counterterrorism efforts around the globe. His leadership of JSOC is credited with the 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein and the 2006 location and killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In June 2009, McChrystal received his fourth star and assumed command of all international forces in Afghanistan.

Since retiring from the military, McChrystal has served on several corporate boards of directors that include Deutsche Bank America, JetBlue Airways, Navistar, Siemens Government Technologies, Fiscal Note, and Accent Technologies. A passionate advocate for national service, McChrystal is the Chair of the Board of Service Year Alliance, which envisions a future in which a service year is a cultural expectation and common opportunity for every young American. He is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on leadership. Additionally, he is the author of the bestselling leadership books, My Share of the Task: A Memoir, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, and Leaders: Myth and Reality.

General McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011. Recognizing that companies today are experiencing parallels to what he faced in the war theater, McChrystal established this advisory services firm to help businesses challenge the hierarchical, “command and control” approach to organizational management.

In a world of specialists, a generalist’s broad range of knowledge and expertise can actually make his or her team much better. But, being a generalist requires grit and courage. The courage to raise your hand, to take chances, and to be confident in your ability to tackle any subject.

However, in a world that most often rewards specialists, where and how can generalists shine? What benefits and learnings can leaders draw from focusing on generalization, versus specialization?

This week, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two trailblazers who have reinvented their careers by way of passion, diversity, and failure. David Epstein, the New York Times bestselling author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, shares thoughts about how generalism is at the core of true innovation. And Reshma Saujani, who is the first Indian-American woman to run for U.S. Congress and the Founder of Girls Who Code, discusses how failure-bred resiliency inspires confidence.

“Being a generalist allows you to raise your hand when you don’t know exactly what you are doing because you have built this base of skill set that gives you the confidence to know that you can get in it and try to figure it out.”

— Reshma Saujani

“I think there is all this evidence that every conceivable kind of diversity adds to the potential problem-solving toolbox.”

   — David Epstein

“My read of the research is that sometimes what gives you the short-term advantage, or what appears to be a head-start, actually undermines your long-term development, whether that is developing a sport or music skill or deciding what to study, or deciding what to do in your career, or accumulating the skills you need for problem-solving. That there is a tension between short and long-term development and I wish it weren't that way.”

  — David Epstein

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Books Referenced:

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein

The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation, by Frans Johansson

Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, by Gautam Mukunda

Guest Info:

David Epstein is author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He was previously an investigative reporter at ProPublica and before that a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. His two TED Talks have been viewed more than 11 million times. David has master's degrees in environmental science and journalism and is currently the host of Slate’s How To! podcast and author of the “Range Report” newsletter.

Reshma Saujani is a leading activist and the founder of Girls Who Code and the Marshall Plan for Moms. She has spent more than a decade building movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and most recently advocating for policies to support moms impacted by the pandemic. Reshma is also the author of the international bestseller Brave, Not Perfect, and her influential TED talk, “Teach girls, bravery not perfection,” has more than five million views globally. Reshma began her career as an attorney and Democratic organizer. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress. Reshma lives in New York City with her husband, Nihal, their sons, Shaan and Sai, and their bulldog, Stanley.

Good leaders change their organizations. Great leaders change the world. But even the best leaders, committed to making the world a better place, can face an uphill battle with constant, expected tradeoffs between purpose and profit. How can leaders navigate purpose, profit, and impact? How can they drive change in the world while also unlocking long-term, sustainable value for stakeholders?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with purpose-driven leaders Nate Mook and Vincent Stanley on the importance of storytelling for inspiring change and accelerating impact within organizations and the world more broadly. Nate Mook is a tech entrepreneur, storyteller and documentary producer who now serves as the CEO of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit NGO dedicated to providing nutritious food to people in the wake of natural disasters. Vincent Stanley is the co-author of "The Responsible Company" and Patagonia’s Director of Philosophy.

“The way you tell a story also becomes, in a way, the strategic discipline of the company.” — Vincent Stanley

“If you really want to look at systems change and changing the world for the better, and addressing major, major challenges that we all face right now, you have to think bigger. And I think that's really about making people connect with those stories of why you are there.” — Nate Mook

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

For more information on this episode’s guests please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

https://www.tdameritrade.com/

https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Great leaders have the insight to see what the right thing to do is, the skill to do it, and the courage to do it even when it is hard. When those three things come together, the impact a great leader can have and the number of lives they can touch are vast.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two phenomenal leaders who have completely upended, transformed, and positively impacted the culture of their respective organizations. As CEO of Anglo American, Cynthia Carroll was the first female CEO of a major mining organization and in 2008, Forbes listed her as the fifth most powerful woman in the world. In 2017 Frances Frei served as Senior Vice President of Uber, and radically changed the toxic culture into one the employees could be proud of. She is currently a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School.

“I was relentlessly optimistic and rigorous about the future, and I think if you have a rigorous and optimistic way forward, coupled with honor and reverence for the past, I think that's what facilitates change, and maybe an insider or outsider helps but I think those two might be more important.” - Frances Frei 

  “I think you need a catalyst for change, and that's what I aimed to do at Anglo American, through prioritizing safety as had never been done before. But it really woke everybody up that we were on a different path, and starting with the protection, the care and respect of each and every person who worked in our operations, or within our walls.” - Cynthia Carroll

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, by Anne Morriss and Frances X. Frei

Guest Info:

Cynthia Carroll has spent most of her career leading global businesses in the industrial sector. Cynthia began her career as an exploration geologist at Amoco Production Company in Denver, Colorado before joining Alcan Aluminum Corporation. She held various executive roles at the company including President of Bauxite, Alumina, and Specialty Chemicals, and Chief Executive

Officer of the Primary Metal Group, Alcan’s core business. From 2007 to 2013, Cynthia served as the Chief Executive Officer of Anglo American plc. At the time, Anglo American was one of the largest and most diversified mining companies in the world employing approximately 160,000 people with operations on six continents and a market capitalization of approximately $40 billion. Anglo American ranked in the top 20 companies on the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 100 Index.

Cynthia sits on the boards of Hitachi Ltd, Baker Hughes, Pembina Pipeline, Glencore, American Securities, and Prince (an American Securities company). She previously chaired the boards of Anglo American Platinum Ltd, De Beers Société Anonyme, and Vedanta Resources Holdings Ltd. and has also served on the boards of BP, the International Council on Mining and Metals, the International Aluminum Institute, the American Aluminum Association, and the Sara Lee Corporation. She is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Cynthia holds a Bachelor's degree in Geology from Skidmore College, New York, a Master’s degree in Geology from the University of Kansas, and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard University. She has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Exeter, Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Skidmore College, and an Honorary Doctorate of Economics from the University of Limerick. In 2009, Forbes ranked her the fourth most powerful woman in the world. She is the only woman to have held a CEO position of a major mining company. Cynthia and her husband have four children ranging in age from 21 to 27.

Frances Frei is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School. Her research investigates how leaders create the conditions for organizations and individuals to thrive by designing for excellence in strategy, operations, and culture. She regularly advises senior executives embarking on large-scale change initiatives and organizational transformation, including embracing diversity and inclusion as a lever for improved performance.

A global thought leader on leadership and strategy, Frances is widely recognized for her dynamic teaching style and breakthrough courses optimized for rapid, lasting impact. She developed one of the most popular classes at HBS, which explores business models that reliably delight customers. She also led the design and launch of HBS’s innovative FIELD curriculum built around learning experiences that are experiential and immersive.

In 2017, Frances was tapped to be Uber’s first Senior Vice President of Leadership and Strategy with a mandate to help the company navigate its very public crisis in leadership and culture. Her firsthand experience in Silicon Valley gave her a new lens on the urgent topic of trust, and in May 2018, Frances delivered a widely-viewed TED talk on “How to build (and rebuild) trust.” This powerful framework delivers a crash course on stakeholder trust: how to build it, maintain it and restore it when lost.

We don’t often think about common ground as a forum for disagreement. But the most productive discourse often requires first identifying a shared set of goals, facts, or ideas. How can today’s leaders help build an environment of mutual understanding, respect, and productive disagreement in an increasingly divisive world? What role do technology and the internet play in helping people find and create common ground? 

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two digital strategists about the role of commonality in productive dialogue and debate and the impacts that technology has had on building common ground. Katie Harbath was Facebook's Public Policy Director before founding Anchor Change, a consulting firm dedicated to upholding democracy and stopping the spread of misinformation around elections. Michael Slaby, author of For ALL the People and Chief Strategist at Harmony Labs, was the Deputy Digital Director and Chief Technology Officer during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

“I feel we do have that commonality of wanting to make sure that the internet is a space that can help to raise voices that wouldn't otherwise get to be heard, that can increase access to the democratic process, and can get more people involved.”

— Katie Harbath

“The nature of how a company believes what its responsibility and relationship is to community, what their responsibilities are for leadership -- that's not just a soft positioning, values-based conversation -- that needs to be a more fulsome understanding and a more multi-dimensional, quantifiable understanding of what a successful company means.” – Michael Slaby

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

For ALL the People: Redeeming the Broken Promises of Modern Media and Reclaiming Our Civic Life by Michael Slaby

For more information on this episode’s guests, please visit: https://www.nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Today’s shifting economic and political landscape is reshaping the American labor market. But amid all of the change is an opportunity to create a better workforce for the future. What are the forces at play in our current labor market? How will these changes impact employees in the long term? What role should leaders play in creating a workforce that puts its people first?

This week, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two experts about the new administration’s economic policy agenda. Noah Smith has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan, taught finance at Stony Brook University, writes a column on economics for Bloomberg, and a substack newsletter, Noahpinion. Dr. Betsey Stevenson is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan, was a member of President Obama’s Economic Advisors, and hosts the think tank podcast Think Like an Economist.

“Necessity is the mother of invention, to say that, you know what, we've had so many bad shocks by this point that we're just going to have to be bold and go for broke... We're going to have to go into the foreign markets and compete on the international stage. We're going to have to train people as if there's a future. We're going to have to take big risks because our backs are to the wall after these two decades of disasters.”

— Noah Smith

“We look for the good in everyone in our family when we pull together. We need to do the same thing in our country. We need to be loyal to everyone in our country. We need to look for the good in everyone in our country, and we need to pull together.”

— Betsey Stevenson

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Books Referenced:

The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas McGregor

The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights, by Douglas Conant

Guest Info:

Noah Smith is a writer for Bloomberg Opinion and writes a Substack newsletter called Noahpinion. He did his economics Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and worked as a finance professor at SUNY Stony Brook. He has also lived in Japan for several years. He has two very chubby, fluffy rabbits.

Dr. Betsey Stevenson is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. She is also a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a visiting associate professor of economics at the University of Sydney, a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, and serves on the executive committee of the American Economic Association.

She served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2013 to 2015 where she advised President Obama on social policy, labor market, and trade issues. She served as the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011, advising the Secretary of Labor on labor policy and participating as the secretary’s deputy to the White House economic team.

As a leader, transparency can be a tricky topic to navigate. It’s often framed as an end-goal -- an inherent good that all leaders should aspire to -- but full transparency just isn't possible in most industries. So, how should leaders think about transparency in the workplace? How can they use it to motivate and inspire their teams? When should they share, and why?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with GitLab’s co-founder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij and the Deputy Managing Editor of the New York Times Rebecca Blumenstein about how being intentional with transparency can result in authenticity, honesty and openness in workplace culture.

“Companies that are more forthcoming about their challenges and their problems generally fare much better.” — Rebecca Blumenstein

“What’s really important is that we’re transparent by default. So, things are public by default unless we have a good reason not to do that.” — Sid Sijbrandij

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

https://www.tdameritrade.com/

https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

To lead is to exercise power. And to do it well, one must have expertise and character. Perhaps no one understands this better than the President of the United States of America. What can we learn from the Presidency about how to use power – and when?

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with John Dickerson, Chief Political Analyst at CBS News, about what it takes to wield the power of the Presidency. John has reported on the presidency for over 30 years. He has reported for Slate, Time Magazine, and CBS News. His most recent book, The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency is a New York Times Bestseller.

“People require having been tested in their lives so that when they get the keys to the fancy car of the presidency they have some familiarity with what it's like to deal with serious things and be on the spot or else they're going to make decisions and have reactions that are going to be unsorted and disorganized.”

— John Dickerson

“I think the overwhelming evidence of both history and just human behavior suggests that those who've been successful — whether it's surviving the marshmallow test or any other use of willpower — to restrain yourself is an important quality.” — John Dickerson

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Books Referenced:

The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency, by John Dickerson

Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It's Everyone’s Business, by Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro

Taming the Prince, by Harvey C. Mansfield Jr.

Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, by Gautam Mukunda

Guest Info:

John Dickerson is CBS News Chief Political Analyst, Senior National Correspondent, and CBS Sunday Morning Contributor. He recently published his third book, and second New York Times Best-Seller, The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency. Dickerson was previously co-anchor of CBS This Morning. From 2015 to 2018 he was the anchor of Face The Nation, and CBS News’ Chief Washington Correspondent. Dickerson is also a contributing writer to The Atlantic and co-host of Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast and host of the Whistlestop podcast.

Dickerson started his career with Time Magazine, covering economics, Congress, and the presidency. In the last four years of his twelve at the magazine, he was its White House correspondent. From 2005 to 2015, he was Slate magazine’s chief political correspondent. He has covered the last seven presidential campaigns.

A native Washingtonian, Dickerson graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor’s degree in English and a specialty in American Studies. His mother, Nancy Dickerson, was CBS News’ first female correspondent. Dickerson is the author of On Her Trail (Simon and Schuster), a book about his mother. He is also the author of the New York Times best-seller Whistlestop: My Favorite Stories from Presidential Campaign History (Twelve Books). He is the recipient of the Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency and the David Broder award for political reporting.

Economic growth demands a stable climate. So, what happens when that stability starts to erode? What becomes of our economy when it is too hot to go outside for six months of the year? Or, when the coastal cities of the world are no longer inhabitable? What does this mean for business?

Climate change is a systemic risk to the global economy.

However, it is a collective risk and, if we take collective action across industries and around the world, we can mitigate the worst effects of climate change. However, we must act quickly.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Rebecca Henderson, one of 25 University Professors at Harvard and the author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, and Spencer Glendon, an economist and senior fellow at Woodwell Climate Research Center, about saving the planet, the future of capitalism, advocating for good regulation and better government, and the idea of investing in the future without financial return.

“If we decided we wanted to address climate change we couldn’t fix it, but we could absolutely ameliorate the worst effects before it’s too late. It’s not a technical problem. The problem is political will. The problem is persuading people that this is real, that it’s going to happen, [and] that it’s going to have immediate effects. If we can do that, then I am quite sure that we can address it.”

— Rebecca Henderson

“Climate change is a systemic risk to the entire economy and the entire financial system. You cannot diversify away from it. The pursuit of alpha in the face of this kind of risk is bizarre if you have financial holdings of any size or grandchildren.”

— Rebecca Henderson

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

Reimagining Capitalism in a World On Fire, by Rebecca Henderson

Fixing the Game: Bubbles, Crashes, and What Capitalism Can Learn from the NFL, by Roger L. Martin

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson

Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation, by Jonathan Lear

Guest Info:

Rebecca Henderson is one of 25 University Professors at Harvard, a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a fellow of both the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her research explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy. Rebecca sits on the boards of Idexx Laboratories and of CERES. Her most recent publication is Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, which was shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey 2020 Business Book of the Year Award.

Spencer Glendon is working to make the consequences of climate change more vivid, intuitive, and useful. Collaborating with scientists, designers, technologists, and other concerned generalists like him, he founded the forthcoming initiative, Probable Futures, which will soon make local and global projections of heat, drought, wildfire, and other variables available, for free, to anyone in the world. Spencer is a pro bono consultant to many institutions and is a Senior Fellow at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. He has worked in Michigan, Chicago, Germany, Russia, China, and Boston. For many years he conducted and directed research at Wellington Management. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and a Ph.D. in Economics.

What drives a Super Bowl champion, a top-notch angel investor, a healthcare executive, and a coach for the ultimate NFL dynasty?

Today’s guest, Jerod Mayo knows that growth and opportunity begin with getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. As leaders, how can we get to the point where discomfort is something that we lean into, not away from? We all start as rookies but not all of us become champions, and what differentiates the two? It may be the desire to never stop learning, and never stop leveling up.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with mentor, leader, investor, former linebacker, and current inside linebacker coach for the New England Patriots, Jerod Mayo, about the difference between motivation and discipline, how he uses Impostor Syndrome to his benefit, the importance of asking for help, and what makes Coach Bill Belichick such a powerful leader.

“The guys understood I have no pride here. I have nothing to lose. I’m going to go in there and fight for you guys. That’s how it started. The guys knew I cared about them. I think that is first and foremost what a leader has to be able to do.”

- Jerod Mayo

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

The Bible

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by Joshua Foer

Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry, by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff

Guest Info:

Jerod Mayo is the linebacker coach for the New England Patriots and an Angel investor. He has had an impressive career achieving success across the diverse sectors of professional sports, finance, and healthcare. Beginning by playing college football for the University of Tennessee and earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Sport Management, he joined the New England Patriots as a first-round draft pick in 2008, going on to win NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Mr. Mayo remained with the Patriots for the entirety of his professional football career, and in 2015 won a Superbowl XLIX with the team against the Seattle Seahawks.

After retiring as a player from the NFL, Mayo went on to a successful business career in technology and healthcare. From 2016 to 2019, he served as Vice President of Business Development for UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division, the consumer-technology initiative of the health insurance company. In his capacity there, he leveraged his extensive expertise leading successful teams strategically through challenges. Additionally, he has been an active early investor in several successful tech ventures.

In 2019, the Patriots tapped Mr. Mayo to return to the organization as a coach. He is based in Massachusetts with his wife, son, and three daughters.

New digital tools can allow us to combat loneliness as the world transitions to a predominately remote workplace. But can technology create an experience where people feel a deeper source of connection with one another? Can it mimic the face-to-face environments of the past? One thing we do know: The only way we will be able to overcome this pandemic is if we do it together. But in a time of such intense isolation, how do we reclaim togetherness to solve the problems that plague us?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda is joined by President Biden's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and award-winning author, Dr. Tsedal Neeley to discuss how humans will thrive in the post-pandemic, new world of work.

“Deep human connection is built not through grand gestures, but through those small moments when we stop by and look into someone's lives, allow them to glimpse into what is happening in our lives, and through those moments of authenticity, of transparency, we forge a deep connection.”

— Dr. Vivek Murthy

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Books Referenced:

Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, by Vivek Murthy

Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding From Anywhere, by Tsedal Neeley

The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations, by Tsedal Neeley

Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World, by Karim R. Lakhani and Marco Iansiti

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger

Braving the Wilderness, by Brené Brown

Trust: America’s Best Chance, by Pete Buttigieg

Guest Info:

Dr. Vivek Murthy was confirmed by the Senate in 2014 to serve as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States and currently serves as co-chair of the President-elect's COVID-19 Advisory Board. A renowned physician, research scientist, entrepreneur, and author of the bestselling book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, Dr. Murthy is among the most trusted voices in America on matters of public health.

As “America's Doctor,” Dr. Murthy helped lead the national response to a range of health challenges, including the Ebola and Zika viruses, the opioid crisis, and the growing threat of stress and loneliness to Americans' physical and mental wellbeing. Prior to his tenure as Surgeon General, Dr. Murthy co-founded VISIONS, a global HIV/AIDS education organization; the Swasthya Project, a rural health partnership that trained women in South India to become community health workers and educators; TrialNetworks, a technology company dedicated to improving collaboration and efficiency in clinical trials; and Doctors for America, a nonprofit mobilizing physicians and medical students to improve access to affordable care. His scientific research has focused on vaccine development and the participation of women and minorities in clinical trials. And as an internal medicine doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Murthy cared for thousands of patients over the years and trained undergraduates, medical students, and medical residents.

Raised in Miami, Dr. Murthy received his bachelor of arts degree from Harvard, his Master’s in business administration from the Yale School of Management, and his MD from the Yale School of Medicine. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Dr. Alice Chen, and their two children.

Vivek Murthy

@vivek_murthy on Twitter

Dr. Tsedal Neeley is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Her work focuses on how leaders can scale their organizations by developing and implementing global and digital strategies. She regularly advises top leaders who are embarking on virtual work and large scale-change that involves global expansion, digital transformation, and becoming more agile.

Tsedal heads and teaches in the first-year required Leadership and Organizational Behavior course in the MBA program that focuses on how to lead effectively; the curriculum addresses group behavior and performance, organization design, change, and how to align people behind a common vision. With Bill George and Krishna Palepu, she co-chairs the executive offering, Leading Global Businesses, which helps top leaders develop emerging and mature market strategies in a global and increasingly digital economy. She also teaches extensively in executive programs such as Harvard Business Analytics Program. Tsedal is a recipient of the prestigious Charles M. Williams Award for Outstanding Teaching in Executive Education and the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to Harvard Business School. She serves on the Board of Directors of Brightcove, Brown Capital Management, Harvard Business Publishing, and the Partnership Inc.

Her forthcoming book, Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere (2021, Harper Collins Business), provides remote workers and leaders with the best practices necessary to perform at the highest levels in their organizations. Her award-winning book, The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations chronicles the behind-the-scenes globalization process of a company over the course of five years. She has also published extensively in leading scholarly and practitioner-oriented outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, Journal of International Business, Strategic Management Journal, and Harvard Business Review, and her work has been widely covered in media outlets such as BBC, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. Her HBS case, Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, is one of the most used cases worldwide on the subject of virtual work.

Prior to her academic career, Tsedal spent ten years working for companies like Lucent Technologies and The Forum Corporation in various roles, including strategies for global customer experience, 360-degree performance software management systems, sales force/sales management development, and business flow analysis for telecommunication infrastructures. A sought-after speaker with extensive international experience, she is fluent in four languages. She holds a patent for her software simulation on global collaboration and is a member of Rakuten’s Advisory Board.

Tsedal received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering, specializing in Work, Technology, and Organizations. Tsedal was named to Thinkers50 2018 On the Radar list for making lasting contributions to management, honored as a Stanford Distinguished Alumnus Scholar, and was a Stanford University School of Engineering Lieberman award recipient for excellence in teaching and research.

Dr. Tsedal Neeley

@tsedal on Twitter

Disrupting an industry takes more than just new ideas and a desire to shake things up. It takes vision, passion, and relentless innovation. And sometimes it means more than just changing the business landscape; it means changing people’s minds. How can leaders harness disruption to build a business that creates change? How can they convince customers to come along for the ride?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Airbnb Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Nate Blecharczyk and Founder and CEO of CoderBunnyz, Samaira Mehta about the challenges associated with changing people’s perceptions to create industry-defining disruption.

“It's important to use those mistakes and those failures as building blocks and reapply them to create a path that will lead you to success.” — Samaira Mehta

“If you’re persistent enough to keep trying, then all that learning will pay dividends in the long run.” — Nate Blecharczyk

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

https://www.tdameritrade.com/

https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Leaders can’t surpass the achievements of the past by sticking to the ways of the past. They must continuously challenge the status quo to inspire teams to break new ground and achieve new possibilities. Few organizations embody this approach to leadership as well as NASA.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with NASA’s Chief Flight Director, Holly Ridings about how to build a diverse culture of collaboration, innovation, and disruption. She also discusses how to lead through insurmountable challenges and inspire teams to reach new heights. Holly was the lead flight director for Expedition 16 and SpaceX Dragon. In her current role, she is responsible for the safety and success of human spaceflight at NASA.

“I’m always pushing the envelope because in my opinion, as leaders of human spaceflight we have to disrupt ourselves in order to stay ahead and be relevant in terms of leadership. If we are not disrupting ourselves then how do we lead the industry through all of the transitions and changes?”

— Holly Ridings

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Literature Referenced:

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe

Columbia Accident Investigation Report

For more information on this episode’s guests please visit:

www.nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Our regrets influence the way we engage and interact with the world. Having the ability to reflect and learn from these moments gives us the perspective to better lead while understanding the context, experiences and feelings of others. How can leaders reflect on these defining experiences and moments of regret to make them more empathetic leaders? How can empathy help leaders become more effective?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Daniel Pink, author of five New York Times bestsellers, including The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, about how leading with trust and empathy can transform workplaces and change how we see the world.

“In the architecture of regret, people tend to regret inactions more than actions.” — Daniel Pink

“You don’t want to be the leader you had. You want to be the leader you should have had.” — Daniel Pink

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Literature Referenced:

The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, by Daniel H. Pink

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink

The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

www.tdameritrade.com

www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

It once wasn’t uncommon to hear a boss tell their employees “just get it done. I don’t care how.” However, in the last decade, organizations have evolved. Now, we often hear leaders priding themselves on encouraging their employees to speak up. 

But, what if leaders created environments and cultures in which it didn’t take an act of courage for employees to speak their minds?  In this episode, we explore how leaders can create a framework and playbook for moral leadership at their organizations that allows employees to out-behave and consequently out-perform the competition. 

Meet Dov:

Dov Seidman is the founder and chairman of LRN, an ethics compliance training firm, as well as the founder and chairman of The HOW Institute for Society, which is dedicated to infusing ethics into corporate culture. He is also the author of the bestselling book “HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything.”

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Dov about the framework for moral leadership and why organizations benefit from building a do-it-right culture. 

Timestamps:

[1:05] Business is Human Endeavor

[6:00] Employees Want Moral Leadership

[10:30] Your Reputation Precedes You

[14:20] Showing up 

Resources Referenced:

HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything, by Dov Seidman

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com.

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

In the face of our ever-changing working environments, the stories we tell ourselves will change the way we see the world. Focusing on our strengths and finding meaning in what we do will unlock our best selves and allow us to lead and succeed even when the going gets rough, even when it seems like success and integrity are at odds. In this episode, Gautam Mukunda is joined by serial entrepreneur, author, and co-founder of the Happiness Studies Academy, Tal Ben-Shahar, and blog writer and author Eric Barker to discuss how creating a meaningful narrative can change our experience.

“One of the biggest insights of all of social psychology is that the situation is often more predictive of behavior than individual personality traits. So, leaders need to frame the new experience of work from home.”

— Eric Barker

@gmukunda On Twitter

Books Referenced:

Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, by Tal Ben-Shahar

The Joy of Leadership: How Positive Psychology Can Maximize Your Impact (and make you happier) in a Challenging world, by Tal Ben-Shahar

Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong, by Eric Barker

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem: The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field, by Nathaniel Branden

Daniel Deronda, by Mary Ann Evans aka George Elliot

On Becoming a Leader, by Warren G. Bennis

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, by Peter F. Drucker

Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut

Guest Info:

Tal Ben-Shahar is an author and lecturer. He taught two of the largest classes in Harvard University’s history, Positive Psychology and The Psychology of Leadership. Today, Tal consults and lectures around the world to executives in multinational corporations, the general public, and at-risk populations. The topics he lectures on include leadership, happiness, education, innovation, ethics, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and have appeared on best-seller lists around the world. Tal is a serial entrepreneur and is the co-founder and chief learning officer of Happiness Studies Academy, Potentialife, and Happier TV.

@TalBenShahar on Twitter

Eric Barker’s humorous, practical blog, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, presents science-based answers and expert insight on how to be awesome at life. Over 345,000 people subscribe to his weekly newsletter and he has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, and the Financial Times. Eric has given talks at MIT, Yale, Google, United States Military Central Command (CENTCOM), and the Olympic Training Center. His first book, Barking Up The Wrong Tree, is a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

@bakadesuyo on Twitter

How do you find the next big idea — one that will change business or the world? As the main forces of R&D have moved out of government offices and into private businesses, many organizations lack the structure to properly engage them. How can companies encourage innovation and growth in our fast-moving world? What organizational changes can be implemented to create a structure that nurtures sky-high, implausible ideas that challenge conventional wisdom and lead us to our next innovation revolution?

In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with two best-selling authors and entrepreneurs. The physicist founder of a biotech company, Safi Bahcall, and author, investor, and startup CEO, David Kidder describe how to organize your teams and methods for a breakthrough.

“I'm a huge believer in structure. Regardless of whether a company desires growth or not, most efficiency-driven, short-termism-driven cultures — I like to refer to them as the big to bigger — really are at war with growth in their incentive. The talent, the structure, and the models are not designed in any way to create growth as a natural order of their management. Trying to do innovation or disruption anywhere inside or near it is literally a fool’s errand.”

— David S. Kidder

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Books Referenced:

Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, by Safi Bahcall

New to Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth, by David Kidder and Christina Wallace

Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance, by Gary P. Pisano and Willy Shih

Leading Without Authority: How the New Power of Co-Elevation Can Break Down Silos, Transform Teams, and Reinvent Collaboration, by Keith Ferrazzi

Nabokov books

Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman, by Richard P. Feynman, Michelle Feynman

Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography, by Janet Browne

Guest Info:

Safi Bahcall is a physicist, a former public-company CEO, the founder of a biotechnology company specializing in cancer drugs, and the author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries. An instant WSJ bestseller, Loonshots has been translated into 18 languages; selected as a best business book of the year by Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., the Washington Post, and others; and recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Kahneman, Ed Catmull, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and Malcolm Gladwell. Loonshots was the #1 most recommended book of the year in Bloomberg’s annual survey of CEOs and entrepreneurs.

Safi received his BA summa cum laude from Harvard, completed his Ph.D. in physics at Stanford, and served for three years as a consultant at McKinsey and Company. In 2001, he co-founded Synta Pharmaceuticals. He led the company's IPO and served as its CEO for 13 years. In 2008, he was named E&Y New England Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2011, he worked with President Obama’s council of science advisors (PCAST) on the future of national research. Safi currently advises CEOs and leadership teams on strategy and innovation and is working on his next book. He lives with his wife and two children in Cambridge, MA.

David S. Kidder is an entrepreneur and an angel investor in over 40 companies. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Bionic, a company that unlocks new growth for the world's most competitive enterprises by leveraging the mindsets and methodologies of venture capital and entrepreneurship. Previously, he served as the co-founder and CEO of venture-backed startups Clickable and co-founded SmartRay Network. A graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, he received Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008. He is the creator and co-author of two-time New York Times bestselling series The Intellectual Devotional, The Startup Playbook and his latest book, New To Big, published in April 2019 with Penguin Random House. David can be found across all social platforms at @davidskidder and at onbionic.com and davidskidder.com.

Research shows that strong comradery and collaboration among coworkers is essential
for building successful organizations. And in today’s world of hybrid work, it’s perhaps
more important than ever. It’s up to leaders to create a culture that prioritizes these
positive co-working relationships and fosters employee engagement.
In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Ben Michealis, Co-founder and CEO
of the group.io, and Kevin Delaney, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Charter, about how
leaders can build successful teams in this new world of work. The duo discusses the
importance of bringing humanity to work, while maintaining boundaries between work
and personal life.
“The quiet quitting and Great Resignation are diagnostics on businesses.” — Kevin
Delaney, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Charter
“So much of the problem is we get into these sorts of momentary, transactional
relationships where it's just about what is the transaction, as opposed to the larger
picture, which is the broad relationship of how do we, how are we relating to one
another long term?” - Ben Michaelis, Co-Founder and CEO of Group.io

Resources:
Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You
Work, by Leslie A. Perlow
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, by Charles
Duhigg
Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com
For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:
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Leaders model behavior and inspire others to emulate them in their personal lives and on a bigger scale. Just as we have a choice to do the right thing in our personal lives, business leaders have that choice at work. Many strive to be people of good character in all aspects of their lives. But, what does it really mean to be a person of good character? Or, from a business perspective, a company of character? If character is the critical component of ethical leadership, how do we cultivate it in ourselves and in our organizations?

In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with the Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point and Soldier’s Medal recipient, Col. Everett Spain and the legendary former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi about how today’s leaders can model courage to do the right thing.

“The character of a corporation is not the personality. The character of a corporation is the integrity and morality of the company. How much does the company believe in the betterment of society? How much does the company believe it cannot succeed at the expense of society? That is the true character of a corporation. I don't want us to lose sight of that.”

— Indra Nooyi

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Books Referenced:

The Arc of Ambition, by James A. Champy and Nitin Nohria

2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything, by Mauro F. Guillén

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond

How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi

The Captain Class: The Hidden Force that Creates the World's Greatest Teams, by Sam Walker

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, by Marshall Rosenberg

The Colored Cadet At West Point: Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U. S. A., first graduate of color from the U. S. Military Academy, by Henry Ossian Flipper

Guest Info:

Colonel Everett Spain is a Professor, USMA, and the 7th Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point. Everett has served with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq, V Corps in Europe, 1st Infantry Division in Kosovo, Multi-National Force-Iraq, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and as a White House Fellow under the Bush and Obama Administrations. A native of Pensacola, Florida, Everett received a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from West Point, a Master of Business Administration from Duke’s Fuqua School, and a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He actively researches and writes about talent management. Additionally, he serves as a senior advisor to the Army Talent Management Task Force, is the president of the Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization 501(c)(3), and volunteers as a Holocaust Legacy Partner. Everett and his spouse Julia live at West Point and enjoy raising their four children, including a West Point cadet, a college freshman enrolled in Army ROTC, and two high school sophomores.

Indra Nooyi is the former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (2006-2019); a Fortune 50 company with operations in over 180 countries.

In this role, Mrs. Nooyi was the chief architect of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo’s pledge to do what’s right for the business by being responsive to the needs of the world around us. As part of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo was focused on delivering sustained growth by making more nutritious products, limiting its environmental footprint and protecting the planet, and empowering its associates and people in the communities it serves. During her tenure, PepsiCo grew net revenue by more than 80%, and PepsiCo’s total shareholder return was 162%.

Before joining PepsiCo in 1994 Mrs. Nooyi held senior positions at The Boston Consulting Group, Motorola, and Asea Brown Boveri.

Currently, Mrs. Nooyi is a member of the board of Amazon and sits on the Audit Committee. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan Kettering, she is a member of the International Advisory Council of Temasek, an independent director of the International Cricket Council, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is also a Dean’s Advisory Council member at MIT’s School of Engineering and a member of the MIT Corporation. Additionally, she is the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at West Point.

Mrs. Nooyi has received many prizes, accolades, and honorary degrees over the years. In 2007, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan, the country’s 3rd highest civilian honor. In 2007, she was named an “Outstanding American by choice” by the U.S. State Department. In 2019, her portrait was inducted into the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

She holds a B.S. from Madras Christian College, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and a Master of Public and Private Management from Yale University. Mrs. Nooyi is married and has two daughters.

Risk: the tug-of-war between innovation and the looming prospect of failure that is behind the scenes of every business and industry. And few industries see greater tension between innovation and failure than that of motion pictures. So, how do we innovate and transform a risk-averse industry, especially one that shapes our culture and how we see ourselves? In this episode, Gautam Mukunda is joined by the Founder and CEO of the Black List, Franklin Leonard, to discover what can be learned from his experience taking big risks in the film industry, which can lead to losses but also to monumental pay-offs.

“You are always performing your way to freedom when the resources necessary to do what you do are so considerable.”

— Franklin Leonard

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter

Books Referenced:

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight

Guest Info:

Franklin Leonard is a film and television producer, cultural commentator, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Black List, the company that celebrates and supports great screenwriting and the writers who do it via film production, its annual survey of best unproduced screenplays, online marketplace, and screenwriter labs. More than 400 scripts from the annual Black List survey have been produced as feature films earning 250 Academy Award nominations and 50 wins including four of the last thirteen Best Pictures and eleven of the last twenty-four screenwriting Oscars. Franklin has worked in feature film development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, and Leonardo DiCaprio. He has been a juror at the Sundance, Toronto, Guanajuato, and Mumbai Film Festivals and one of Hollywood Reporter’s 35 Under 35, Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future,” and Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.” He was the recipient of the  2019 Writers Guild of America, East's Evelyn Burkey award for elevating the honor and dignity of screenwriters. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, a Board member of American Cinematheque, and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). His TED talk has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. 

The Black List

@FranklinLeonard on Twitter & @theblcklst on Twitter

@FranklinJLeonard on Instagram & @theblcklst on Instagram

In this bonus feature, World Reimagined is turning the table on its host, Gautam Mukunda. Interviewed by his good friend, General Stan McChrystal, Gautam discusses the inspiration behind his newest book, Picking Presidents, shares what leadership means to him, and reveals who his ultimate hero is. Gautam also gets a second chance at answering the presidential history question that ended his reign on the TV show Jeopardy! many years ago.

Resources:

The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, by John Keegan

Picking Presidents: How to Make the Most Consequential Decision in the World, by Gautam Mukunda

Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay

“If you want to solve a problem about leadership, the presidency is uniquely fertile ground.” — Gautam Mukunda, Author of Picking Presidents & Host of The World Reimagined Podcast

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Meet Bozoma:

Bozoma Saint John is no stranger to loss. In college, she lost her boyfriend; later in life she dealt with the loss of a premature baby and most recently, she lost her husband to cancer. Through these experiences, Bozoma has learned the importance of actively looking for joy, whether that be in the workplace or in life.

She is a Hall of Fame-inducted marketer, entrepreneur, and author of The Urgent Life and has held leadership roles at some of the most defining companies of our generation, such as Netflix, Uber and Apple. 

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Bozoma about how she builds teams that embrace peoples’ differences, her approach to marketing household names, and how she actively finds joy even in the darkest of times.

Timestamps:

[0:30] How differences make better executives

[5:10] The key to marketing household names

[11:00] Joy is an action

[16:00] Finding excitement to help you through your days

Resources Referenced:

The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Bozoma Saint John

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com.

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

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Innovation always requires some level of risk. For leaders, this means taking the right risks and knowing when to walk away. How do leaders make decisions when the outcome is uncertain?  How do they create a culture that promotes innovation and enables risk taking?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Annie Duke, Cognitive Scientist, Decision Strategist, and Author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, and Paul Misener, the VP of Global Innovation Policy and Communication at Amazon about the process of decision-making and innovation in uncertain conditions.

Resources:

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts, by Annie Duke

Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, by Annie Duke

“If we are not failing ever, we are not trying hard enough; we are not being innovative enough.” — Paul Misener, VP of Global Innovation Policy and Communications at Amazon

“There's a time-accuracy trade-off when we're making decisions. The more time we take, usually, the more accuracy we're going to accrue. The less time we take, the less accuracy we're going to accrue.” — Annie Duke, Author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, Decision Strategist and Former Professional Poker Player

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Choice is the foundation of self-determination. But, what if too much choice leads to the inability to act or move forward? The most successful leaders are the ones who prioritize their time, minimizing the number of choices they make on a daily basis.

Meet Sheena:

After losing her vision as a teenager, Sheena Iyengar became very accustomed to hearing the phrase “it’s not possible.” Due to her own circumstances, she became fascinated with the concept of choice.

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Sheena, an author and Columbia Business Professor, about what can happen when people have too much choice, and how the best leaders approach the art of choosing.

Timestamps:

[4:29] Three to Five Most Important Choices

[7:22] Choice Explosion in the Marketplace

[9:45] Self-determination

[14:57] Choice ≠ Importance

Resources Referenced:

The Art of Choosing, by Sheena Iyengar 

Think Bigger: How to Innovate, by Sheena Iyengar

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Contrary to conventional wisdom, economic research makes it clear that increased immigration to the U.S. would be a huge boon, spurring innovation, entrepreneurship and long-term economic growth.

Why then are some in politics and the media stoking an anti-immigration sentiment?

Is it possible that fear of cultural disruption is standing in the way of boosting the American economy, improving international relations, jump-starting local communities and driving future innovation? 

How does this research change the debate around immigration? What leadership role should companies play? What is their moral responsibility?

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with award-winning NPR journalist, best-selling author, and activist Aarti Shahani about her tenacious campaign to emancipate her father from the threat of deportation and her ongoing advocacy for migrant identity. And Brookings Institute Economist Dany Bahar shares his research on why immigration may be essential for creating America's next big economic boom.

“The thing you have to remember about this country is it is, by design, supposed to be the place where the rest of the world converges. That is the American experiment. It is an experiment in multi-ethnic democracy like the world has never seen before.”

— Aarti Shahani

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

Good Economics for Hard Times, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares (A Memoir), by Aarti Shahani

The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public, by Lynn A. Stout

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A Promised Land, by Barack Obama

Guest Info:

Aarti Shahani is an award-winning NPR journalist and best-selling author. Her new show Art of Power (a co-production with WBEZ) is inspiring a generation of listeners to act, skillfully.Aarti spent her 20s organizing prisoners. When she pivoted to business journalism, she enjoyed a meteoric rise at NPR, as Silicon Valley correspondent. She’s guest-hosted NPR’s All Things Considered and KQED’s Forum.

Aarti’s first book, Here We Are (Macmillan), chronicles her unlikely journey from undocumented kid in Queens, New York to national voice on the frontlines of the most powerful industry on earth. An Amazon bestseller, the memoir has garnered critical acclaim.

“Riveting…a bruising critique of colonialism” (NPR); “heartfelt, galvanizing” (San Francisco Chronicle); “timely, bittersweet” (Publishers Weekly); “among the finest memoirs written in recent decades…a vivid, almost cinematic journey that is both beautiful and unforgettable” (Guy Raz, Host, How I Built This and TED Radio Hour).

Aarti’s reporting has received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award. Her very first newsroom was ProPublica.

She received her masters degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, with a full scholarship from the university and additional support from the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. She completed her bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago. She was among the youngest recipients of the Charles H. Revson Fellowship at Columbia University and is an alumna of A Better Chance, Inc.

Aarti lives in Oakland, California with her nephew. She loves storytelling and justice.

Dany Bahar is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. He was previously a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings. An Israeli and Venezuelan economist, he is also an associate at the Harvard Center for International Development, and a research affiliate both at CESifo Group Munich and IZA Institute of Labor Economics. He also hosts the podcast “Economists on Zoom Getting Coffee.”

His research sits at the intersection of international economics and economic development. In particular, his academic research focuses on the diffusion of technology and knowledge within and across borders, as measured by productivity, structural transformation, exports, entrepreneurship, and innovation, among other factors. Lately, his research has focused on migrants and refugees as drivers of this process, alongside trade and capital flows.

His expertise on policy issues includes international migration, trade, and globalization more generally, as well as the understanding of economic trends in the global economy and in particular regions. His academic work has been published in top economic journals and he often contributes to leading media outlets in the United States and around the globe. He has worked and consulted for multilateral development organizations, such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Bahar holds a B.A. in systems engineering from Universidad Metropolitana (Caracas, Venezuela), an M.A. in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an M.P.A. in international development from Harvard Kennedy School, and a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University.

In our increasingly complex world, leaders have to manage more challenges, stakeholders, and scenarios than ever before. To grow an organization amidst all of this, how can leaders create a proactive profile that enables them to manage in a constructive way? How can they put people first, without sacrificing growth, and still be remembered as an impactful leader?

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with founder of ConantLeadership and former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, Doug Conant, and the CEO of Edelman U.S., Lisa Osborne Ross, about how a leader’s ability to orchestrate an organization with integrity, empathy, and confidence can leave an enduring contribution.

“The more you sharpen your leadership skills it’s amazing how much better your gut gets.” — Doug Conant

“If you put people first, profitability follows.” — Lisa Osborne Ross

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Literature Referenced:

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Learn more about TDAmeritrade:

https://www.tdameritrade.com/

https://www.tdameritrade.com/tools-and-platforms/trader-offering.html

Ethical leadership is both personally rewarding — and incredibly hard. How do ethical entrepreneurs and leaders maintain faith in their vision, pivot when necessary, reconcile unintentional consequences, implement innovation guardrails, and persevere in the face of powerful obstacles? It helps to have a North Star – an unwavering vision for the future and a real sense of who they want to be in the future.

In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with two industry creators, Bodhala CEO Raj Goyle and Twitch Co-founder Justin Kan about what it takes to disrupt the world to build a better one.

“As I became more successful and more recently, I realized that wasn't as fulfilling as I thought. And so now what's really activating for me is to think about things that are maybe a little bit more in service to other people. And that manifests in a bunch of different ways.” – Justin Kan

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter  or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

The Fracturing of the American Corporate Elite, by Mark Mizruchi

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, by Michael Alan Singer

The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor

The Power Broker, by Robert Caro

Guest Info:

Justin Kan is an American Internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder of Twitch, the internet live video streaming platform. In 2006, Justin launched the live video service Justin.tv, a company that started when he strapped a camera to his head and streamed his life to the internet 24/7. Over the next eight years, through twists and turns, he and his cofounders turned the business into Twitch, ultimately selling to Amazon in 2014 for $970 million. Over the years, he has founded half a dozen companies that have raised over $500 million in venture capital and invested in some of the fastest-growing startups around, including Reddit, Cruise Automation, Bird, Rippling, and many more. He is the host of The Quest, a podcast telling the stories of trailblazers in business, music, sports, and entertainment.

Raj Goyle is CEO of Bodhala, a leading legal technology company based in New York City and Ann Arbor focused on legal spend management and analytics. Co-founded with a fellow Harvard Law graduate, Bodhala helps large and small in-house legal departments, saving companies significant time and money through the creation of a competitive, transparent legal marketplace. Goyle, who received his undergraduate degree from Duke University, served two terms in the Kansas House of Representatives after working as a policy analyst and civil rights attorney. He serves on the boards of Hunger Free America, the American India Foundation, Everyartist.me, Issue One and chairs the State Innovation Exchange. Goyle lives in New York with his wife Monica Arora, a partner at Proskauer. They have two daughters.

In a way, the space where we live is an exhibition, a curation of an exact moment in time. As humans, we are constantly assessing the world around us and arranging it to fit our values. But, what factors influence our sense of taste and point of view? What makes something desirable? What methods do designers and leaders apply to contextualize products, information, and experiences people love?

In this episode, Gautam Mukunda speaks with the Head of the Design Lab at Harvard, Dr. Beth Altringer, and the Chair, Art for Europe at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Dr. Frederick Ilchman about the relationship between design and technology, and how shaping taste is a powerful way to lead.

“Curating properly means to care for something, to preserve it. It's a rather beautiful calling. You are trying to save the best of the past for the present so we can understand what our future is going to be.”

— Dr. Frederick Ilchman

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Books Referenced:

Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944, by Antony Beevor

Stalingrad, by Antony Beevor

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, by Leanne Shapton

Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, by Samin Nosrat

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs, by Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, by Jesse Schell

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado-Perez

Guest Info:

Dr. Frederick Ilchman is an art historian and museum curator. He specializes in Italian Renaissance painting, particularly that of Venice. He’s chair of Art of Europe for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His acclaimed exhibition, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice (2009), organized with the Musée du Louvre, won several awards. Eager to enlist supporters for his favorite city, he is also the Chairman of Save Venice, the largest non-profit organization specifically devoted to preserving the art and architecture of Venice.

Dr. Beth Ames Altringer is an award-winning designer and runs the Design Lab at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In 2016, The Harvard Crimson recognized her as one of the university’s top 15 professors. Altringer founded the Desirability Lab, which has helped teams at companies like IDEO, Gucci, Puma, IKEA, Disney, Piaggio, Swarovski, and Uber to create more desirable products and services based on behavioral research. When she's not teaching, Altringer is usually in her studio working with flavor data or making art. She built the iOS app, Chef League, an interactive game that lets you learn flavor intuition from chefs, created flavor research software called the Flavor Genome Project, paints for fun, and is a former champion blind taster.

Meet Ginni:

Fifty years ago, Ginni Rometty’s father walked out of her life, leaving behind her mother and her younger siblings to fend for themselves. As Ginni watched her mom slowly move up in the workforce, she learned the difference between access and aptitude - a lesson she has taken with her through her incredible career.

Three years ago, Ginni retired as IBM's president, chairman, and CEO. Today, she co-chairs OneTen foundation, an organization that aims to close the opportunity gap for Black talent and others who do not have a four-year degree. At one point in her life, she was the most powerful person at one of the world’s largest companies. At another, she was almost powerless. That life story has made her think deeply about the dynamics in the world around her. She has even written a book about them called Good Power, which takes the reader through who has clout, who needs it, and perhaps most importantly, how to do the most good with it. 

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Ginni about what “good power” looks like in action, the power of a good attitude, listening with the intent to learn and the value in finding what you are in service of.

Timestamps:

[:30] You define who you are 

[3:30] Good power

[8:00] Attitude

[13:40] Being prepared gave me confidence

[17:10] Appealing to the heart and mind

Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World, by Ginni Rometty

Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong, by Eric Barker

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, by Adam Grant

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com.

For more information on this episode’s guest please visit:

Nasdaq.com/world-reimagined-podcast

Imagine determining the course of the American economy.

Twelve people in the United States actually have that job. They sit on the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee. Their votes affect hundreds of millions of people. And it’s just one of their many responsibilities.

Rob Kaplan is one of those twelve. How does he do it? He focuses on communication - no small task when you help lead one of the most tight-lipped institutions on the planet.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with Rob Kaplan, the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a giant institution responsible for everything from setting interest rates to keeping the economy growing at a steady pace to running a contest on economic analysis for high school students. Kaplan has a long and distinguished career in global finance, notably serving as the Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs. He is the author of several bestselling books, and served ten years as a professor at Harvard Business School.

“What do we do that's distinctive at the Fed? . . . We've got to be a thought leader and we've got to understand economic conditions. We have to be a leading citizen in our communities, and we have to track, retain and develop superb people.”

• Rob Kaplan

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

What You Really Need to Lead: The Power of Thinking and Acting Like an Owner, by Robert S. Kaplan

Guest Info:

Rob Kaplan has served as the 13th president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas since September 8, 2015. He represents the Eleventh Federal Reserve District on the Federal Open Market Committee in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy and oversees the 1,200 employees of the Dallas Fed.

Kaplan was previously the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice and a Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School. He is the author of several books, including What You Really Need to Lead: The Power of Thinking and Acting Like an Owner; What You're Really Meant To Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential; and What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential. Prior to joining Harvard in 2006, Kaplan was vice chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. with global responsibility for the firm's Investment Banking and Investment Management Divisions. He became a partner in 1990 and served as co-chairman of the firm’s Partnership Committee. He was also a member of the Management Committee.

Following his 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, Kaplan became a senior director of the firm. He serves as chairman of Project A.L.S. and co-chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm that invests in developing non-profit enterprises dedicated to addressing social issues. He is also a board member of Harvard Medical School. Kaplan previously served on the boards of State Street Corporation, Harvard Management Company, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. He was also a trustee of the Ford Foundation, co-founding board chair of the TEAK Fellowship, co-founder and chairman of Indaba Capital Management, LP, and chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee at Google, Inc. Kaplan was appointed by the Governor of Kansas as a member of the Kansas Health Policy Authority Board. Born and raised in Prairie Village, Kansas, Kaplan received a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.