The Sydcast

Episode Summary:

Imagine carrying a burden of self-doubt and insecurity while everyone else only sees a smart young woman taking on the world of business. At some point something has to give, and for my guest on this episode of The Sydcast it did, via a nervous breakdown and an epiphany that has led to a new career of helping fellow Latinas come to terms with a culturally-derived inferiority complex that holds back an immense talent pool from fulfilling their potential. This is the inspirational and gripping story of Valeria Aloe.

Sydney Finkelstein

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Valeria Aloe

Valeria Aloe, founder of Abundancia Consciente (Conscious Abundance), has designed and facilitated bilingual programs on cultural narratives, entrepreneurship, stress management, and more, coaching women and minority leaders, teams, and business owners throughout the U.S. and in 14 Latin American countries.Before launching her practice, she worked +20 years in business development, marketing, and finance in leading companies across 7 countries, including Procter & Gamble, Citibank, Reckitt Benckiser, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and TIAA. Born in Argentina and living in the U.S. since 2002, Valeria is on a mission to support Latinas who navigate new spaces as first-generation, as well as Allies who seek to become more assertive mentors and sponsors by understanding the Hispanic culture from within. She wrote “Uncolonized Latinas” (New Degree Press, Dec’21), a book that casts a new light on the limiting cultural narratives holding Latina women back, and that provides strategies and insights for career success and upward mobility. She holds degrees in Business Administration and in Finance from Universidad Catolica Argentina, an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and a Master in Spiritual Sciences.

Insights from this Episode

• How Valeria’s childhood was like growing up in Argentina
• How Valeria kept up with the expectations of her parents
• Differences between studying in Argentina and in the United States
• Challenges that Valeria faced as a Latina women when she emigrated to the United States
• Valeria’s adapting process as a Latina women in an American college
• The difficulties of constructing relationships in the United States as a member of the Hispanic community
• How imposter syndrome affects the Hispanic culture
• How gender roles in the Hispanic community impose pressure on Hispanic women
• How COVID-19 has affected Hispanic families

Quotes from the Show:

• “As an obedient Latina, I worked hard while keeping my head down. Played with self doubt and a sense of unworthiness”- Valeria Aloe in “Uncolonized Latinas” [05:36]
• “[About Valeria’s parents] I still remember they saying to me: You're going to be the first female in the family to go to college”- Valeria Aloe [11:30]
• “The initial conversation with my parents was like, you either study business or you study law or medicine, the traditional careers...there is this cultural relief that, that’s where you can do better”- Valeria Aloe [27:53]
• “Leaving Argentina was very emotional, it was a one way ticket, we had no idea what to expect”- Valeria Aloe [32:50]
• “[About Valeria’s experience in a US college] I was so intimidated and I felt so inferior in a way when I came here, that I used to only surround myself with Spanish speakers in the beginning. I was intimidated to approach people”- Valeria Aloe [35:04]
• “There is a cultural silence among hispanics. We come from cultures of struggle, so we accept that struggling is what it is and we’ll go through that and we don’t even talk about it”- Valeria Aloe [36:50]
• “When I was 20 I said, I want to be one of those facilitators, I want to be of those in the front of the room helping people with their own mindset, with their own challenges ”- Valeria Aloe [56:19]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Valeria Aloe

LinkedIn: Valeria Aloe 

Instagram: Valeria Aloe 

Book: Check in at Valeria's website for updates on availability: www.ConsciousAbundance.net

Abundancia Consciente

Website: www.ConsciousAbundance.net

Youtube: Abundancia Consciente USA

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

Imagine taking a career break for 11 years and then returning to face an entirely different world of work, technology, and even culture. Carol Fishman Cohen did it, and quickly came to realize that there are many thousands of others – mostly women – who are looking to make the same transition. They had high-powered jobs, and now they want to get back in the game. As it turns out, hundreds of companies are thinking the same thing – how do we tap into this experienced talent pool? And so was born iRelaunch, Carol’s work force re-entry consulting and training business that is normalizing the concept of a “career break” while demonstrating the value that “relaunchers” bring to the table. I think this is more a movement than a company, and Carol Fishman Cohen will tell you why, on this episode of The Sydcast.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Carol Fishman Cohen

Carol Fishman Cohen is the CEO and Co-founder of iRelaunch, a career reentry consulting, training and events company. iRelaunch has worked with over 200 clients on career reentry programs and programming. iRelaunch produces the iRelaunch Return to Work Conferences, and leads a community of nearly 100,000 "relaunchers" looking to return to work after career breaks of one to over 20 years. iRelaunch co-leads the STEM Reentry Task Force with the Society of Women Engineers, the groundbreaking career reentry initiative in its sixth year in which program managers from 34 leading employers to date have joined for top guidance on launching return to work programs at their respective organizations. Corporate giants that have launched return to work programs through this initiative include Johnson & Johnson, Raytheon Technologies, Apple, Merck, Northrop Grumman, P&G, IBM, Ford and Cummins. Cohen's TED talk "How to get back to work after a career break” has over 3.6 million views and has been translated into 30 languages. She is the author of the Harvard Business Review Magazine articles “The 40-Year-Old Intern,” and the recently released “Return-to-Work Programs Come of Age,” writes regularly for HBR Online and has presented on career reentry topics nearly 800 times. Cohen has been featured dozens of times in the major media. Her return to work at Bain Capital after an 11-year career break is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study and iRelaunch is the subject of a Stanford Graduate School of Business case study. Cohen is a graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Business School.

Insights from this Episode

• How Carol came up with the iRelaunch idea?
• How “returnship” programs have evolved over time
• Concerns of employers and managers towards the returnship programs
• The implications for a relauncher
• iRelaunch’s purpose
• What a career break really is
• Why a relauncher is valuable for a company
• The experience of the relaunchers after completing the iRelaunch program
• Advice for people who are looking to take a career break 

Quotes from the Show:

• “Executives tell me or CEO’s tell me how tough it is to find great people. The first thing I ask them is where are you looking? So often they’re looking at the same places”- Sydney Finkelstein [2:18]
• “People take these career breaks [because] of an external factor and not related to their work performance” - Carol Fishman [13:45]
• “[About the relaunchers] They are recruited and hired now, more with the idea that they are gonna come into the teams and get hired after the program ends ” - Carol Fishman [17:57]
• “[About iRelaunch] Our mission since our founding in 2007 has been to normalize the career path that includes a career break” - Carol Fishman [32:05]
• “The career break forces you to step back and reflect on whether you are on the right career path to begin with and where we can have the most value to an organization” - Carol Fishman [40:57]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Carol Fishman Cohen

LinkedIn: Carol Fishman Cohen

Twitter: Carol Fishman Cohen

Instagram: Carol Fishman Cohen 

Book: Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work

HBR article:"Return to Work Programs Come of Age"

HBS case study on return to Bain capital after 11 years: HBS case study

Stanford GSB case study: Stanford GSB case study 

TED x talk: "How to get back to work after a career break"

IRelaunch

Website: https://www.irelaunch.com/

LinkedIn: iRelaunch 

Twitter: iRelaunch

Facebook: iRelaunch 

Instagram: iRelaunch 

Youtube: iRelaunch

Podcast: 3, 2, 1 iRelaunch Podcast

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

Episode 112. Julie Quenneville is a path-breaking CEO whose personal journey reads like a greatest hits of modern challenges for women who want to make an impact. From being married to a partner that wanted her at home, to navigating multiple male-dominated professional settings, to bringing up children as a single Mom with a high-powered career, Julie has, and is, living her own life. Add in a dedication to mentoring other women, the ability to communicate her message in powerful ways, and a forthright honesty that comes through in our entire conversation, and Julie Quenneville’s story is a master class in the art of becoming the person you want to be.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Julie Quenneville

Julie Quenneville is the President and CEO of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation. Her vast knowledge of philanthropy, business and government relations has made her a sought-after speaker on multiple platforms. Whether as a commentator, panelist or media expert, Julie communicates her message in a dynamic and engaging way. She is a change agent, passionate about the need for innovative research as a global responsibility. As someone who has excelled in her field, Julie offers her expertise to business, corporate, community, health care and government leaders. She is a proud mentor, particularly passionate about empowering young women. Julie has been named a TOP 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada.

Insights from this Episode

• Julie’s journey into leadership
• Julie’s life philosophy
• The impact of mentorship on Julie’s professional career and as a woman
• Secrets to why the McGill University Health Centre has had such success
• Challenges the McGill University Health Centre has faced during Covid-19
• Challenges Julie faced as a working mom during Covid-19

Quotes from the Show:

• “Women bring diversity to executive teams, but the nature of that diversity is not simply that there are women sitting around the table, is their life experience, so often different than men’s life experience ”- Sydney Finkelstein [2:27]
• “[About women during covid] Many of these women have dropped out of the fast track, sometimes out of the entire workforce because so much of the responsibility to cope rests on women in most families”- Sydney Finkelstein [3:09]
• “When we choose a different kind of lifestyle to balance being a wife, a mother and a leader, there’s still a lot of judgement” - Julie Quenneville [2:42]
• “I was never satisfied just observing and watching, which is what journalist are supposed to do” - Julie Quenneville [11:33]
• “The turning point for me was living everyday like it’s my last, and when I returned to school I joined absolutely every extracurricular activity” - Julie Quenneville [12:50]
• “There’s absolutely no going back to pre-covid. The world is completely different” - Julie Quenneville [36:08]
• “[About sexual harassment in the work place] This is your workplace, these are not your friends, you have to maintain a certain level of professionalism” - Julie Quenneville [42:25]
• “I think the male leaders play a role in ensuring that the work place is professional” - Julie Quenneville [46:57]
• “I have been successful because of the mentors that I have had” - Julie Quenneville [48:56]
• “If you have the right partner and the right support network around you, there is absolutely no reason to turn down career opportunities” - Julie Quenneville [54:40]
• “I believe that my children are better today or stronger today, and much more resilient and agile because of their mom’s career” - Julie Quenneville [56:04]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Julie Quenneville

LinkedIn: Julie Quenneville 

Website :https://www.juliequenneville.com/

McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation

Website: https://muhcfoundation.com/

Twitter: MUHC Foundation 

Facebook: MUHC Foundation

Instagram: MUHCFoundation

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

He is addicted to prescription opioids, he attempts suicide, he’s found guilty of white-collar crime and serves 13 months in prison. Now he’s out, free, and has a chance to do something good for others, and himself, with the rest of his life. This was, and is, Jeff Grant, and on this episode of The Sydcast we hear his story.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Jeff Grant

After an addiction to prescription opioids and serving almost fourteen months in a Federal prison (2006 – 07) for a white-collar crime he committed in 2001 when he was lawyer, Jeff started his own reentry – earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, majoring in Social Ethics. After graduating from divinity school, Jeff was called to serve at an inner city church in Bridgeport, CT as Associate Minister and Director of Prison Ministries. He then co-founded Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. (Greenwich, CT), the world’s first ministry serving the white collar justice community.

On May 5, 2021, Jeff’s law license was reinstated by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

Now again in private practice, Jeff is an attorney and counselor-at-law providing private general counsel, legal crisis management, and dispute strategy and management services to individuals and families, real estate organizations, family-owned and closely-held businesses, the white collar justice community, and special situation and pro bono clients.

For over 20 years Jeff served as managing attorney of a 20+ employee law firm headquartered in New York City, and then Westchester County, NY. Among other practice areas, the firm engaged in representation of family-owned/closely held businesses and their owners, business and real estate transactions, trusts and estates, and litigation. Jeff also served as outside General Counsel to large family-owned real estate equities, management and brokerage organizations, in which role he retained, coordinated and oversaw the work of many specialty law firms, including white collar defense firms.

Insights from this Episode

• Why Jeff wanted to become an attorney
• Family struggles Jeff went through during his auto-medication addiction problems
• How Jeff ended up in prison and what his experience was
• The steps of Jeff’s return journey to life after prison
• How Jeff supports white-collar criminals
• Patterns of white-collar crimes
• Institutional challenges towards fraud

Quotes from the Show:

• “I became addicted and slowly I started to deteriorate where I couldn't show up at work anymore and I couldn't run my firm even though it was continuing to be successful” - Jeff Grant [12:11]
• “I was betting my livelihood and health of my family and my future in ways that were just reckless” - Jeff Grant [17:02]
• “I learned more about human nature and respect and care and character in prison than I've learned in my entire life.” - Jeff Grant [24:48]
• “[About his early life as a successful attorney] Positional power and money bought me the illusion that I had anything important to say and that anybody ever cared what I had to say, and the truth was that I was just a narcissistic mess” - Jeff Grant [27:18]
• “I'm afraid that what we are doing is that we are teaching business leaders and political leaders...we are teaching them the wrong values” - Jeff Grant [50:17]
• “[About people who make fraud] It's not okay to take advantage of the system so long as you, either don’t get caught or if you do get caught, you won’t get prosecuted for it” - Jeff Grant [50:34]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Jeff Grant

LinkedIn: Jeff Grant

Website: https://prisonist.org/

Website: https://www.grantlaw.com/

Podcast: White Collar Week

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

Wendin Smith wanted Russia to stop polluting its largest lake and ended up becoming one of America’s leading thinkers on weapons of mass destruction. Her vantage point at the Department of Defense and now in consulting gives her access and insight to some of the most intractable challenges we face, from biological weapons to global cybercrime. In this episode of The Sydcast, an inside look and master class you wish you didn’t need.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Wendin D. Smith

Wendin D. Smith, PhD, currently serves as a Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting, LLP. Her professional background is in Russian and security studies, focused on countering weapons of mass destruction and environmental security. Prior to transitioning to Deloitte, she had the honor of serving as the Senior Advisor to the Commanding General of the U.S. Special Operations Command, supporting the Command in its capacity as the DoD’s Coordinating Authority for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD). Previously, she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for CWMD, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (DASD/CWMD). Across her career, she has led strategic initiatives in defense and national security at various smaller and larger firms, as well as inside and outside of government. On the entrepreneurial side, she has founded and operated two woman-owned consultancies, and has served overseas in various capacities in Moscow, Russia. Fluent in Russian and conversational in German, she is also proud to serve on various Boards, and - pending the season – is a competitive rower and nordic skier (xc, “skate” skiing). She enjoys spending as much time as possible outdoors, usually with her active, nature-loving 5-year-old daughter. 

Insights from this Episode

• How Wendin’s sense of purpose to protect the Baikal Lake from the Soviets was a crucial point to define her career.
• How Wendin became interested in weapons of mass destruction and global security.
• Strategies Wendin used to combine the security field with the environment and the challenges she faced by doing so.
• The crucial role she played in a treaty that controlled biological weapons production globally.
• How an exchange experience in Russia as a Native American, helped her to understand the logic of the geopolitical problems between the Russian and United States better.
• The difficulties countries face due to cyberterrorism because they are borderless.

Quotes from the Show:

• “Through the end of the late 80’s there had been a lot of changes in the leadership of the Communist Party and in the 1991 time frame the transition went from being the Soviet Union under Gorbachev to then Russia as the Russian federation” - Wendin D. Smith [13:45]
• “At what point can there be a norm around what acts you do or don’t do as an expert in your field and the ethics that come with that”- Wendin D. Smith [26:34]
• “With nuclear weapons we have mutual assured destruction” - Sydney Finkelstein [26:50]
• “Even if we could rapidly develop a policy, and rapid in that space would be a year or two which would be extraordinary, by the time we’ve developed that policy the technology would have evolved at a pace that the technology will likely not be entirely relevant ” - Wendin D. Smith [27:42]
• “[About United States culture] We are all about capitalism, and the market, and driving forward, so our mindset is much more driven to a path that puts us more vulnerable [to cyberterrorism] - Wendin D. Smith [30:18]
• “When you have a single leader with that much power, it is much easier to turn and change and do things as a country than in our system where consensus rules” - Wendin D. Smith [42:07] 
• “[About understanding Russia and their objectives] You can’t find yourself to resolution if you don’t understand whether it is an adversary or a partner and what their views are”- Wendin D. Smith [54:16] 

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Wendin D. Smith

LinkedIn: Wendin D. Smith 

Website: https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/dr-wendin-smith/

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

Imagine an investing strategy that takes advantage of biases and imperfections in the marketplace. Sounds good? Now imagine that these investments are in startups founded by women and people of color, groups that have not had access to the same funding opportunities as others have. Sounds even better, doesn’t it? And that’s what my guest on this episode of The Sydcast, Jacques-Philippe Piverger, is all about, as he tells his story of entrepreneurship, investment, and impact.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Jacques-Philippe Piverger

Jacques-Philippe Piverger serves as OzoneX’s Managing Partner, overseeing the firm’s operations with responsibilities across all aspects of the business. Jacques-Philippe is an entrepreneur who harnesses private and public sector experiences to affect change where it is needed most on the globe. He has co-created and scaled a wide range of enterprises including MPOWERD Inc., REALICITY, and The Council of Urban Professionals.

Jacques-Philippe developed his business acumen in the finance world, most notably as Director at AIG Investments and PineBridge Investments, where he participated in over $10 billion of real estate and venture capital transactions. He has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and by the Council on Foreign Relations as a Term Member. He also serves as a board member of the New York Economic Development Corporation's Build NYC and the Industrial Development Agency.

Jacques-Philippe holds a bachelors degree from Georgetown and a Master of Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He is an avid martial artist and practitioner of transcendental meditation. He is the father of Soleil and Jacques-Maxime.

Insight from this Episode

• Challenges Jacques-Philippe faced towards people not believing the potential of marginalized groups in the market.
• The differentiator factor that makes Ozone X successful in the entrepreneurship environment.
• Insight into the companies that Ozone X’s has invested in.
• The story behind Ozone X’s name 
• Ozone X’s client selection process 
• Secrets of entrepreneurial failure 

Quotes from the Show:

• “Many of the greatest challenges also present the biggest opportunities”- Jacques-Philippe Piverger [11:05 ]
• “We think [Ozone X’s] there are big ideas housed in communities that have historically been marginalized from the traditional flows of capital”- Jacques-Philippe Piverger [15:20]
• “[Some people] believe that women and various marginalized groups just don’t have the skill, expertise and talent to do as well as the [traditional] groups that have been gaining the capital” - Jacques-Philippe Piverger [21:21]
• “[When building a business] It’s almost impossible to raise money, it’s really hard to develop the product, you have to manage your SIMS, so unless you’re doing something you really believe in and you’re passionate about, you’re not gonna be willing to do what it takes” - Jacques-Philippe Piverger [45:18] 
• “There are certain things that are harder to foresee so you create a solution based on the challenges that you see, but then the market shifts in a way you didn’t anticipate and your solution is no longer relevant” - Jacques-Philippe Piverger [49:50] 
• “If you do that thing that you love, the money and everything else that you want is gonna come anyway” - Jacques-Philippe Piverger [54:21] 

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Jacques-Philippe Piverger

LinkedIn: Jacques-Philippe Piverger 

Twitter: @jacquespiverger

Facebook: jacques philippe.piverger

Instagram: @jacquespiverger

Ozone X´s

Website: https://www.ozonex.vc/

Instagram: @ozoneventures

Facebook:OzoneVenturesInd

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

Why do humans walk on two feet? Every other animal motors on four legs (paws), and they do it way faster than we do, but we humans walk upright. If you thought evolution is supposed to select for attributes that enhance survival, then we have a real puzzle, among the most fundamental in human evolution. And that’s the puzzle Jerry DeSilva sets out to explain in his highly accessible book “First Steps,” and in this episode of The Sydcast.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Jeremy DeSilva

Jeremy "Jerry" DeSilva is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. He is a paleoanthropologist, specializing in the locomotion of the first apes (hominoids) and early human ancestors (hominins). His particular anatomical expertise-- the human foot and ankle-- has contributed to our understanding of the origins and evolution of upright walking in the human lineage. He has studied wild chimpanzees in Western Uganda and early human fossils in Museums throughout Eastern and South Africa. From 1998-2003, Jerry worked as an educator at the Boston Museum of Science and continues to be passionate about science education. He is the author of the 2021 book First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human. Jerry lives in Norwich, VT with his wife Erin and their twins Ben and Josie.

Insights from this Episode:

• How Jeremy’s curiosity for studying human walking began.
• How writing a book and giving a voice to the scientist is perceived in the scientific community.
• Explanations on why the apes are relatives of the human species but not ancestors. 
• Hypothesis on how the phenomena of walking on two feet began seven to eight million years ago.
• Difficulties and advantages that walking upright brought to the human species.
• Myths about the evolution of the human species and its cooperative nature.

Quotes from the Show:

• “The best leaders are the ones that ask good questions”- Syd Finkelstein [3:43]
• “I'm really interested in how animals move and how they get from point A to point B and what adaptations they’ve evolved” - Jerry DeSilva [8:26] 
• “Once you start moving onto two legs it comes with the sacrifice of your ability to climb in an acrobatic kind of way”- Jerry DeSilva [12:46]
• “I wanted to produce something that was gonna have a wider reach and was gonna be read frankly by more people than you know, some paper on a fossil metatarsal that'll be read by 7 of my colleagues” - Jerry DeSilva [15:09]
• “[About Scientists] We’re just curious people wondering how the world works” - Jerry DeSilva [18:34]
• “I've always thought that the job of a professor/academic is the creation and the dissemination of knowledge” Syd Finkelstein [19:28]
• “Wherever you put down [in the museum] needs to be understood by people of all different ages, all different backgrounds, all different levels of education” - Jerry DeSilva  [21:56]
• “My father on the writing [process] used to always ask: when you put it on a paper and you read it out loud, would you ever say that? If you’re in a conversation with somebody, would you ever say a sentence like that? and If the answer is no, then don’t write it like that” - Jerry DeSilva [27:48]
• “[About the chimpanzee’s] we can't quite treat them as time machines but we can treat them as models” - Jerry DeSilva  [38:09]
• “What increases your ability to survive… is very often cooperation” - Jerry DeSilva [51:33]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Jeremy DeSilva

Twitter: Jeremy DeSilva (@desilva_jerry)

Website: https://sites.dartmouth.edu/desilva/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/First-Steps-Upright-Walking-Human/dp/0062938495

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

How did the dancing Jikaria Sisters – a JD, MBA and Engineer – become TikTok sensations in their spare time? And what should they do next? The three sisters talk about their upbringing, their new brand, and how they’re juggling their “real” careers with another one in the heart of social media. Lots of fascinating questions, from how to scale the brand to what to say to clients about something they see as much more than a side hustle. This is post-millennial Gen Z in action.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

The Jikaria Sisters

The Jikaria Sisters (Omi, Rish, & Aash) are a sister trio originally from New York City. They are trained dancers, content creators, and social media influencers. The Jikaria Sisters combine their diverse Indian and American identities in their art and content. Whether it's through creating Bollywood-Hip Hop fusion pieces, going back to their roots through Garba and Bhangra, or defining what it means to be a part of the South Asian diaspora, the Jikaria Sisters are passionate about pushing boundaries and inspiring other creators to do the same. They are proud to have a community of 610,000 followers on TikTok, 60,000 followers on Instagram, and 3,500 subscribers on YouTube.

In addition to being a content creator and professional dancer, Omika Jikaria is a business professional and management consultant with diverse interests in innovation, design, entertainment, and entrepreneurship. She holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a Bachelor’s degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Rishika Jikaria is a J.D. Candidate at the Fordham University School of Law and is passionate about corporate law, social justice, and public policy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Affairs from Emory University. Aashika Jikaria is an industrial engineer and Operations Management Trainee at L’Oréal USA. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she was also a Student-Athlete on the university’s official dance team.

Insights from the Episode:

• Understanding what identity means to young people especially for them growing up in neighborhoods where they are different 
• How to market yourself by adding flavor to your content to propel you forward
• Understanding your audience and the kind of content they want to see and engage with
• How to work with brands and leveraging your growth on social platforms

Quotes from the show:

• “People can do more than just regular jobs that they are doing and still perform at an extremely high level at that core job” -Syd Finkelstein [4:51]
• “We value both of our real careers as well as this because this is as real as it can be as well. It is definitely a place where we are also profiting” -Jikaria Sisters [24:58]
• “I think that it really showed a different side of me because it showed that I can also manage a business and I have entrepreneurial aspects and features as well, so I think it really helped in terms of comparing myself to other candidates when recruiting for jobs” -Jikaria Sisters [25:56]
• “I have learned to stay true to myself and understand that I want to work at a company that does value my skills and talents and my whole self” -Jikaria Sisters [27:53]
• “The thing that gives people power in their jobs is extreme competence because people start to depend on you: your bosses, your partners start to depend on you, and all of a sudden you gain power because people wanna hear what you have to say” -Syd Finkelstein [30:31]
• “It’s really empowering to have multiple interests and passions, but also multiple income streams. As the internet has blossomed over the past few years, it has become easier and there is a lot less friction to do that” -Jikaria Sisters [32:31]

Resources Mentioned

• ABC Good Morning America: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/video/jikaria-sisters-bringing-south-asian-representation-tiktok-77702259
• CBS: https://m-partners.facebook.com/watch/?v=961391011324907&_rdr
• Brown Girl Magazine: https://browngirlmagazine.com/2020/08/evolution-jikaria-sisters/

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Jikaria Sisters

Instagram: jikariasisters

Tiktok: @jikariasisters

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

What would happen if you took Silicon Valley smarts and talent and applied it to helping social impact entrepreneurs scale their enterprises? Doug Galen decided to find out. Motivated by his daughter's drive to make the world a better place, Doug founded RippleWorks, an organization that has now helped social ventures in 59 countries and counting. This is his story.

Sydney Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Doug Galen

Doug Galen has been building innovative and disruptive companies for some twenty-five years. Doug Galen is the Co-Founder and CEO of RippleWorks. RippleWorks is relentlessly focused on the needs of social ventures, providing the practical support impactful entrepreneurs and their teams need to improve more lives. We work in 59 countries and have a portfolio of 110 organizations of which these ventures have helped 216 million people.

In addition to RippleWorks, Doug teaches Startup Garage at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Doug sits on the Boards of Heifer International and Kenzie Academy as well as advises early-stage companies.

Prior to RippleWorks, Doug served as Chief Revenue Officer at Shopkick, a mobile app startup backed by Kleiner Perkins and Greylock that successfully sold to a Fortune 50 company, SVP of business and corporate development at Shutterfly where he helped grow revenue from $50 million to $500 million and a successful IPO, VP and GM of new ventures for eBay where he helped create eight new business units with revenues of $500 million and was employee #3 and Vice President of Sales and Business Development for E-LOAN which had a successful IPO.

Insights from the Episode:

• Understanding the ability to bridge from where you are to where you want to go in your career.
• How to pursue what you love doing: pursue it and stop when it is not working.
• How to acknowledge when you are out of sync and figure out what you have to do about it.
• How to marry purpose and impact into your day job and enjoy and feel happy about your work.

Quotes from the show:

• “Naivety is a blessing and a curse when you are starting a company” -Doug Galen [14:53]

• “Trust isn’t always in a great product or about speed, rather it is in the testimonials and attaching credibility to your company” -Doug Galen [20:10]

• “Trust is almost like the underpinnings of a capitalist society” -Sydney Finkelstein [26:12]

• “It’s important to build a company that adds value and withstands hard times” -Doug Galen [23:05]

• “Money is a scarce resource, but so are skills and the ability to scale an organization” -Doug Galen [43:13]

• “There are a lot of people in the world who would like to help and give back but they do not know how to or where to begin” -Doug Galen [45:25]

• “Some of our best lessons in life come from our mistakes” -Doug Galen [43:59]

• “When an organization becomes really big, a great strategy is to zoom in on their operations and focus on something narrow that you can do better than them” -Doug Galen [1:04:20]

• “Don’t go after what you should do, go after what you want to do. And if you go after what you want to do and it doesn’t work, it is okay to stop and start over” -Doug Galen [1:07:00]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Doug Galen

Website: Homepage - Rippleworks

Facebook: Doug Galen

LinkedIn: Doug Galen

Twitter: @DougGalen

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

“If you don’t start with reality, you can’t fix it.” Simple yet deeply meaningful. Alex Liu – one of the world’s top management consultants – has an interesting take on lots of things, including diversity and how to make it work better, racism and how to make it stop working, and joy at work, the secret sauce of successful organizations. All on this episode of The Sydcast.

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Alex Liu

A trusted advisor to CEOs and boards, Alex joined Kearney as a partner in 1996 and later served as head of the firm’s global Communications, Media & Technology Practice and as a member of the board of directors. He was elected as the firm’s ninth managing partner in 2018. He also serves as the firm’s chief diversity officer. Alex has served as both speaker and co-chair at World Economic Forum (WEF) events, including the Annual Summit in Davos and the WEF Africa Summit, sharing his perspectives on the fourth industrial revolution and future-workforce topics. He is also a member of the WEF International Business Council (IBC), an advisory body made up of 100+ influential chief executives and chairs. Alex has been published in The Harvard Business Review, featured in The Financial Times, and selected a “Top 25 Consultant” by Consulting Magazine and a Top 20 Global Diversity CEO in 2020. He hosts a podcast #Joy@Work. Alex has previously served as a board advisor to Emirates Telecommunications Company (Etisalat) in UAE. Prior to Kearney, Alex was CEO of a technology startup and a partner with the Boston Consulting Group, helping establish the firm’s Asian operations outside of Japan in the 1990s. He began his career in brand management at a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble. Alex earned an MBA from Harvard, BA from Yale and serves as a trustee of Episcopal High School (Virginia). He remains an avid rugby player.

Insights from this episode:

• The idea that curiosity and learning is not just beneficial for consultants, but for everyone.
• Understanding what workplace culture truly is and entails.
• Identifying responsibilities that business leaders have in recognizing social inequities and leading by example to move toward solutions.   
• Making joy a priority at work.

Quotes from the show:

• Consulting is “the hidden growth industry, because it’s an index for change.” -Alex Liu [3:42]

• “As soon as you stop learning about an industry, a sector, people, how people work, you’re not a very good teacher, consultant, or coach. So I think consultants need to be curious. They need to want to make a difference.” -Alex Liu [5:15] 

• “We need to make sure that we create a culture, which is not only you feel psychologically and physically safe to be in, you need to be seen for who you are, not just your identity because most diversity is actually invisible, as you know. It’s not just race, gender, or age. It is many other things.” -Alex Liu [13:23]

• “We’re human at our core, and companies and people that are successful recognize and treat people that way--as individuals, not as easy identities.” -Alex Liu [33:50] 

• “If you don’t start with reality, you can’t fix it.” -Alex Liu [45:50] 

• “Run your own race. Self-define your passion, your definition of success, because you’re your own board of directors.” -Alex Liu [59:52]

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Alex Liu

LinkedIn: Alex Liu

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Episode Summary:

It is now a common phrase: fake news. Are you getting tired of it? I wanted to talk to someone who doesn’t have a horse in the race and who has studied media, polling, political polarization, and the psychology of how people think about political media so I can get handle on the Trumpian bon mot that is lasting a lot longer than he did. Dr. Jennifer Jerit is that person, and this is our conversation.

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Jennifer Jerit

Jennifer Jerit is a Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. She studies American politics with a focus on public opinion and political communication. Her research explores how information (from elected leaders and the media) influences people’s attitudes as well as their knowledge about the political world. She also studies misinformation and techniques for correcting this problem. Several of her current projects examine best practices for the measurement of public opinion through survey and experimental methods. 

In 2010, Jerit received the Erik Erikson Early Career Award for Excellence and Creativity in the field of Political Psychology and her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council. Professor Jerit has been the recipient of Best Paper awards from the American Political Science Association, International Society of Political Psychology, and International Communication Association. She is on the editorial board of several leading political science journals and a co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology (3rd edition). Prior to coming to Dartmouth College, Jerit held positions at Stony Brook University, Florida State University, MIT, and University of Connecticut. 

Insights from this episode:

• Understanding the psychology of how people process and use political information.
• The idea that a general concept becomes a partisan issue.
• How specific motivations can drive behavior in order to influence others.
• Understanding that algorithms influence exposure to specific resources.
• How the pandemic is affecting general public health behaviors. 

Quotes from the show:

“There has been, it seems, like a separation between people who study politics and people who practice it. And I’m not quite sure I understand why that’s the case. I do think there are people who get phDs or maybe Master’s in political science and then they go on and work in the political world, so they’ve been trained as political scientists. But I don't think political scientists have had the kind of experience as economists have had.” Jennifer Jerit [28:21]

“The content of these two channels is obviously vastly different. It’s challenging to identify the effect of that on people because people are choosing to watch these programs. You know, there’s some element by which there are different people who watch these programs and so they’re different to begin with. They may have different persuasions. They may have different levels of knowledge, different levels of interest. They may differ on other characteristics that we can’t even mention. And so there are different viewers and they are selecting into these channels, most likely. And so that, from a social science standpoint, that’s the biggest challenge: is how to identify or isolate the unique effect from the same person watching Fox versus that same person watching MSNBC.” Jennifer Jerit [30:22]

“When the algorithms know what we like, it is logical for those algorithms to suggest more similar things, which takes you deeper and deeper down the same pathway that you’ve been on and it leads to less diversity and variety of perspectives, if you let that happen. And that’s their job. And many people, I mean I was quite happy about these algorithms when Amazon said, “You might like this book.” And I said, “You know what, I think I might.” But when you start to reflect on it, algorithms are a method, a very common method everywhere really now, that leads people to narrower range of use--less exposure to diverse products, ways of thinking, books, records, who knows what.” Syd Finkelstein [34:20]

“The real challenge measuring opinion through polls is that the people who agree to participate in a poll are different than the people who don’t. And so even with the very highest quality probability based polls there’s still the choice of whether or not you’re going to participate once you’ve been selected to be a respondent. And so, you know, the conventional way to deal with this is through weighting, where we upweigh the responses of the people who choose to participate among these underrepresented groups. And so I think some of the thought was that that was not being done. There were some mistakes or errors in the way that was done for particular groups, particularly groups related to education in 2016. But weighting, the philosophy of that approach assumes that you know everything about the people who decided to participate; that you can solve this problem through weighting. And I’m just skeptical that that can be done. Because I think there are some differences that maybe we haven’t measured--that we can’t measure. Or maybe there are differences that we don’t even know about.” Jennifer Jerit [45:09]

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Jennifer Jerit

Website: http://www.jjerit.com

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Episode Summary:

In the age of Amazon, it’s important for a start-up e-commerce company to be able to offer something different. This is why exclusivity is such an important element. When offering an exclusive partnership with vendors or suppliers, it’s also important to establish mutual benefits within that partnership. Dave states that the secret to make all of this happen effectively is determination, motivation, and inspiration among the team. In this episode, Dave Bolotsky describes giving up a lucrative, stable career to start a new business in e-commerce and why he did it. He also describes some fears and struggles that he experienced as an entrepreneur in a relatively new industry at the time.

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

David Bolotsky:

David Bolotsky founded UncommonGoods with the goal of introducing more people to creative design in a sustainable way. UncommonGoods is a hub of creativity - from collaborations where we work with designers to help get products made to the commerce side of our website and catalog where customers can purchase a broad range of items that are great for gifts or themselves. We strive to do everything in a sustainable manner, beginning with treating everyone with dignity and respect, paying a living wage, using environmentally-friendly materials and working with vendors who share similar practices. We are a Founding B Corporation and we successfully advocated for Paid Family Leave and a higher minimum wage in New York.

In an earlier life, Dave was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, specializing in investment research in the retail sector. Dave is active in community service in New York’s Lower East Side, where his family has lived for generations. Dave was a founder of Comprehensive Youth Development, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide support services to disadvantaged public high school students, where he has been involved for 27 years. 

Insights from this episode:

• The importance of exclusivity in partnership with another company to develop mutual benefits.

• Tips and ideas for starting an e-commerce business in the age of Amazon.

• Balancing merchandise predictions and sales using analytics, inspiration, and insight.

• The return on investment for advertising an online retail store versus the investment for a physical retail store.

• Finding your company’s critical competitive advantage over larger retailers.

• Doing something that is more aligned with your values.

Quotes from the show:

“I think that the mindset of the entrepreneur is one that I hope each of us, whether we’re entrepreneurial or not, whether we are in business or not, each of us can adopt. I mean, it really is a can-do attitude. It really is, ok I got a problem I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to try to solve this problem and I’m not just going to complain about it. And that’s a pretty important life skill.” - Syd Finkelstein [01:42]

“Just about anything that can go wrong, has gone wrong over the past 22 years at one time or another. So, better to be ready for it than be surprised by it.” - Dave Bolotsky [25:44]

“At Goldman I sort of had the equivalent of front row seats at Madison Square Garden watching, assuming the Knicks were good at the time, watching the Knicks play. And it was exciting, but it was a spectator sport. I was a critic as opposed to an actor. And I’d always had that feeling gnawing at me, that I wanted to try to build something. The internet was such an exciting thing and I wanted to be more of an actor in it.” - Dave Bolotsky [29:21]

“There is way more to life than money. And my parents had raised me to try to make the world a better place in whatever way that I could, as corny as it sounds. And they’ve lived their lives that way. And I felt like I wasn’t. I didn’t feel like what I was doing was immoral, but I felt it was amoral. I was helping the wheels of capitalism spin faster but not necessarily in a direction that I particularly believed in.” - Dave Bolotsky [30:01]

“I think that was probably the single biggest thing that I had to work on was my nature to look at the glass as half empty and recognize that that’s not inspiring. It’s great, if you’re an analyst, to identify what’s wrong. It’s also very helpful as a CEO, but I had to learn how to tamp that down and be more positive and frame things in a more constructive way. - Dave Bolotsky [35:32]

“The one thing I could say from my own experience, having taught MBA students now for almost three decades, is there’s been a tremendous change in their mindset coming in the door. And they absolutely care a lot about environmental and social issues, diversity and inclusion. And the rubber meets the road when you see what companies they work for and what those values are and what they’re going to do when a company doesn’t have all the values or doesn’t live up to the values they might espouse. - Syd Finkelstein [54:45]

On advice to his twenty-one year old self: “I would say be kind to yourself. You know, my parents always raised me to believe in myself and I think I have. I’ve certainly had self-doubt, but in general believed in myself. But, that glass half empty mindset can wear on you and wear you down, because I’m my own harshest critic. And so, I think just appreciating the things that go well and focusing on that as much as things that I can do better.” - Dave Bolotsky [56:32]

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

David Bolotsky:

Website: https://www.uncommongoods.com

LinkedIn: Dave Bolotsky

Twitter: @DavidBolotsky

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Episode Summary

Bruno Viniciguerra - Bain, Sotheby's, Dell, Disney, Bonham's - he's worked in senior leadership roles at cool companies in cool industries. What did he learn? What does he know, and what doesn't he know? How did he learn to adapt to different industries, companies, and cultures? Bruno - one of Syd's favorite business thinkers - shares his wisdom, advice, and stories, on this episode of The Sydcast.

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Bruno Vinciguerra

Bruno Vinciguerra is the Global CEO of Bonhams. He was appointed in September 2018 to lead Bonhams after the auction house was acquired by Epiris, the UK-based private equity company.

Vinciguerra – who holds dual French-American citizenship and is a graduate in business administration and economics from ESSEC (Ecole Superieure des Sciences at Commerciales) in Paris – has offices based in Bonhams New York and London. He has led global businesses in the consumer, luxury and technology sphere such as Bain & Co, Disney and Dell. Vinciguerra's previous role before joining Bonhams was Chief Operating Officer at Sotheby's, which he joined in 2007 and where he was responsible for the global P&L and the management of the worldwide organization. His influence on complex deals, auction sales and staff around the world was instrumental in Sotheby's return to all-time high levels of profitability after 2009.

Vinciguerra also played a major role in Sotheby's expansion in Beijing, making the company the first international fine art auction house in mainland China, and in the development of the company's digital initiatives.

Insights from the Episode:

• How important creativity and intuition are in business and leadership
• The ways managerial skills can be successfully transferred to different industries
• How the art market exists, and how it has changed over the past years especially with the introduction of NFTs
• How listening to the expertise of someone else can change your perspective

Quotes from the Show:

• On how working for Bain helped him: “It was all about trying to understand a program that you don't have a lot of experience with, first hand. And working in a team with very smart people, focusing on the quality of your communication to convey a message to an audience you have a limited time with, and being effective at using the information you have and at conveying it.” - Bruno Vinciguerra [8:23]

• On why he loves working art auctions: It is thrilling, exhilarating, to see the best of human creativity through the ages, and that’s what I deal with on a daily basis. - Bruno Vinciguerra [9:08]

• On how one’s production shouldn’t define one’s career: “I think depending on who you are, you can live in this business of big events that can be triumphs, or could be moderate successes. Or you can be in a world of perfection and optimization where you know what you deliver.” - Bruno Vinciguerra [11:37]

• On the shift away from longer plans and towards new, faster forms of development: “I see with my team developing a website; there is a concept of ‘sprints.’ Six-week sprints, which is, they say, these small bites, these small projects. ‘Okay, what can we achieve in six weeks,’ and it is completely different, and it’s all the new programming.” - Bruno Vinciguerra [20:53]

• On how to keep up with changing trends: “To your question, the ultimate goal is to be flexible. To be able to get information as fast as possible, analyze it, and modify trajectory as fast as you can.” - Bruno Vinciguerra [25:22]

• On how difficult it is for new players to enter the art selling market: “This is not only a business about selling this is also a business about sourcing. And in the world of rarities, in the world of the exceptional, the success factor is having the best art to sell, or the best cars to sell, or the best jewelry to sell.” - Bruno Vinciguerra [26:48]

• The usual criteria for a collector to sell. “The four ‘D’s’, Death, Debt, Divorce, and Desperation.” - Bruno Vinciguerra [28:18]

• On why shifting to an online model of art auctions is working: “The secret of this industry is the following: you have 500, 600 people in an auction room during a great evening sale in the art world, maybe 5 people in the room are bidding. They are here for the entertainment, and the majority, the vast majority, I’m talking more than 90% of the bidders are either online, on the phone, or leave what we call an absentee bid, which means ‘buy it, to that level, for me.’” - Bruno Vinciguerra [35:50]

• People say ‘you know you’re going to pay 0 for a copy of a Picasso, so why do you pay millions of dollars for the original painting,’ and you say ‘Because it was painted by the hand of Picasso,’ and there is a reality to the object. - Bruno Vinciguerra [43:31]

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Bruno Vinciguerra

LinkedIn: Bruno Vinciguerra

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Episode Summary

In this riveting episode of The Sydcast, Syd sits down with Doug Conant to talk about life, leadership, and the pursuit of improving business from the top down. No matter where you may be positioned in your current work situation, the lessons Doug shares will bring your attention to how important a brilliant leader is for a business and how you can take concrete steps towards being one yourself. These aren’t lessons pulled from a vacuum either, this is Doug’s lived experience, and what an experience it is. 

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Doug Conant

Doug is the only former Fortune 500 CEO who is a New York Times best-selling author, a Top 50 Leadership Innovator, a Top 100 Leadership Speaker, and one of the 100 Most Influential Authors in the World.

A devoted leadership practitioner and teacher, Doug’s 45-year career has been defined by achieving high performance through an intentional commitment to studying, practicing, improving, and spreading the tenets of “leadership that works.”

He is Founder and CEO of ConantLeadership, former President and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, former President of Nabisco Foods, and former Chairman of Avon Products. He has also served on multiple corporate boards including AmerisourceBergen and RHR International. He began his career in marketing at General Mills and held leadership positions in marketing and strategy at Kraft.

Doug is also Chairman of CECP—Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, and proudly

serves on the boards of The Center for Higher Ambition Leadership, the National

Organization on Disability, the Partnership for Public Service, and Hope College. Previously, he was Chairman of The Conference Board, Chairman of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and Chairman of Enactus.

His new Wall Street Journal bestselling book, co-authored with Amy Federman, The

Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights, is available now and is a seminal treatise on leadership and practical guide for leading effectively in a chaotic world. He is also the New York Times bestselling co-author with Mette Norgaard of TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments.

Doug is a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and served as the Chairman of Kellogg Executive Leadership Institute for five years. He is an instructor of leadership at the Higher Ambition Leadership Institute and he teaches many of the concepts advanced in The Blueprint to seasoned and aspiring leaders in his own signature leadership development course, The BLUEPRINT Boot Camp by

ConantLeadership.

Conant has been named a Trust Across America Top Thought Leader in Trust for five

consecutive years and is a Top Thought Leader in Trust Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. He has also been lauded as a Top 100 Leadership Speaker by Inc. Magazine; a Top 100 Most Influential Author in the World; a Top 30 Leadership Professional by Global Gurus; a Leader to Watch by the American Management Association (AMA); a Top 50 Leadership Innovator Changing How We Lead; and a Top 75 Human Business Champion.

Finally, he is the ever-so-proud husband of Leigh and father to their three remarkable children.

Insights from the Episode

• The role a brilliant leader should fill for a company
• How to learn from failure
• How to use role models to guide your career
• How to develop world-class talent
• The importance of crafting a career, not following a straight line

Quotes from the Show:

On the importance of learning from past experiences. “I’m constantly looking at what's working and what's not, what can I do differently, how can I be a little better tomorrow than I was today, how can I grow. For me it’s what makes life so interesting.” -Doug Conant [8:29]

On how to navigate imperfect jobs early in one’s career. “For me it’s about growth, and it’s not just my growth, it's growth and contribution to others. And so I’m always looking through the lens of growing and contributing in a more substantial way.” -Doug Conant [9:22]

“As a CEO, you’re crazy if you think you’re going to know everything. So you’ve got to be able to have a collection of people that know a lot about the subject matter expertise and then you’ve got to be incredibly fluent at orchestrating to optimize your effectiveness at calling on all those talents.” -Doug Conant [10:24]

On leadership as a learnable skill: “I view leadership in a mastery model, you've got to become a craftsman at it. You apprentice, you study, you learn, and most of the time you do it by the seat of your pants, let's be honest. But I think it's imperative that you really embrace the notion of being a brilliant leader to get the most out of people.” -Doug Conant [12:43]

“It’s hard to have courage if you’re not clear on your convictions.” -Doug Conant [26:46]

“You were an overnight success 25 years in the making.” -Syd Finkelstein [30:49]

On the most important aspect of leadership “I find that my effectiveness, in every situation, improves if I’m a good listener. If I’m very attentive with it. I serve people better because I better understand their situation. They appreciate that I’m earnestly trying to hear them and we move forward in a way that’s a higher order of effectiveness.” -Doug Conant [52:24]

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Doug Conant

Website: https://conantleadership.com

LinkedIn: Douglas Conant

Twitter: @DougConant

Youtube: Doug Conant

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Episode Summary:

In this episode of The Sydcast, serial entrepreneur Adrian Johnson sits down and gives us the details of his fantastic life from childhood to where he is now. He has a curiosity and an entrepreneurial mindset that is, to put it lightly, extraordinary, and a heart that seeks to help wherever he can. This episode has it all, from the ways technology can assist in education to what it was like starting a business in Eastern Germany after the Berlin Wall came down.

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Adrian Johnson:

Adrian Johnson is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship and a technology and media entrepreneur. Since 1993 he has co-founded several companies, including Poptel, Germany's first phone-to-phone Internet telephony service provider (VC-funded and successfully sold in a trade sale); Archimation (www.archimation.com), Germany's first architectural animation and visualization company; MrFootage (www.mrfootage.com), a web-based film footage library; Eventival (www.eventival.com), the world’s leading online film festival management system and SeriesIMPACT, an “EdTech" business creating “NextGen" live cases (www.LiveCASE.com). 

At INSEAD Adrian is an Adjunct Professor and teaches the legendary "Your First Hundred Days" (YFCD) MBA/EMBA course as well as Executive Education company-specific and open-enrolment programmes at INSEAD’s campuses in Fontainebleau, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Adrian is also a supervisor of final EMBA student projects, and has been teacher, judge and mentor for Startup and Sci-Tech Commercialisation Bootcamps. After fourteen years on the INSEAD MBA Admissions Committee, he now sits on the INSEAD Global EMBA Admissions Panel. Investing in the next-generation leaders of tomorrow, Adrian is the Programme Director of the Summer@INSEAD business awareness summer camp for 15 to 18 year olds. 

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Adrian began his career with ICI, then the largest manufacturer in Britain. After his MBA, he moved to the IT services industry, later working for the German Treuhandanstalt, privatising East German companies in Dresden and Berlin. 

After a childhood spent in Sierra Leone, Kenya and the USA, Adrian studied Electrical Engineering at Imperial College London and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

Insights from the Episode:

• How important a Team is to starting a new business
• What Eastern Germany looked like, from a business perspective, after the wall came down
• The nuances of choosing between different countries to start a business in
• The potential for technology to integrate with education going forward

Quotes from the Show:

• Getting an MBA is a way of reducing your career risk because you’re increasing your skill set and marketability and your own brand, and coming out of an MBA program you are really extremely marketable - Syd Finkelstein [19:47]
• On the most important part of a startup: It's kind of easy coming up with ideas but actually turning an idea into a successful venture; I have definitely come to the conclusion that the team ends up being the most important thing. - Adrian Johnson [23:33]
• We started working together, and we were so complementary to each other. That's why our business worked, and cementing that was the trust that we had and we built over the years. And of course we ended up becoming very good friends - Adrian Johnson [25:34]
• On the way Germany handled business ventures after the wall came down: I think what has worked very well in Germany is that sort of the social democratic structure, so there was not this massive transfer - as many east germans feared - that the wealthy Germans would come in and take all the wealth and we’d end up with a load of very rich people and a load of very poor people. - Adrian Johnson [36:43]
• The problem is France didn’t have any real role models, successful entrepreneurs. There’s no Bill Gates, there's no Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. - Adrian Johnson [49:07]
• Entrepreneurship can create, not can, but does create wealth not just for the entrepreneurs that are successful but for the entire economy and employment - Syd Finkelstein [57:57]
• There's still a lot of innovating to be done around how to more effectively use technology to help kids learn. And maybe it's not just in the content delivery but its the process of; how do you actually teach, how do people learn, and can they learn more effectively. - Adrian Johnson [62:11]

Stay Connected:  

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Adrian Johnson:

Website: adrianjohnson.com

Blog: Adrian Johnson

INSEAD: Adrian Johnson

Twitter: @acvjohnson

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Episode Summary:

In this episode of The Sydcast, Syd sits down with American businessman Michael Ainslie to discuss how the former President and CEO of Sotheby’s fits into the complex stories of the 2008 financial crash, the ever-fluctuating prices of art, and the nature of educating underprivileged youth. It seems unbelievable that one man can be a focal point for three topics as diverse as these, but it’s all true, and you can hear it all on this episode of The Sydcast. 

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Michael Ainslie:

Michael Ainslie is an American businessman who’s distinguished career includes, among other things, serving as President and CEO of Sotheby’s from 1984-94 and transforming the world of auctioning. Prior to this he was the CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation where he helped to rewrite a tax law to provide a 25% investment tax credit for investment in historic buildings. He was a director at Lehman Brothers for 12 years, culminating with its 2008 bankruptcy. Ainslie was one of the ten people in the room on the night of September 14th, the night of the largest bankruptcy filing in US history, and afterwards was part of the team that oversaw the sale of the company’s remaining assets. 

One of his more passionate ventures involved the Posse Foundation, which he helped to launch in 1994. This foundation finds young leaders from public and parochial high schools in ten major cities and sends them to one of over 50 elite university partners. They travel as a cohort of 10 scholars, and all receive a full merit leadership scholarship. To date there have been over 9200 Posse Scholars who have been awarded over $1.4 billion in scholarships. 

He is a Trustee Emeritus of Vanderbilt University and has served on the boards of Sotheby’s, the United States Tennis Association, and the St. Joe Company. In 2020 he authored a book called A Nose For Trouble: Sotheby’s, Lehman Brothers, and My Life of Redefining Adversity, in which he describes his personal experience with these high profile events. 

Insights from this episode:

• The complicated nature of the 2008 financial crisis and where Lehman Brothers exists in the story
• How deeply the global financial system depends on trust
• Understanding how the art market exists as one of the purest free markets in the world, for better or for worse
• How important it is to provide students from under-privileged backgrounds with the support they need in University settings 

Quotes from the show:

• “The ability of a buyer from China or Russia or anywhere in the world to participate is now very easy to do. That has made it a true global market, it's also driven up the prices because a lot of these people have new wealth and they either want to own the art or be known to own the art.” - Michael Ainslie [00:32]
• “Universities go out of their way to admit students from very underprivileged backgrounds and they think their job is done. ‘We have diversity, we did a good thing, this is great,’ and then they leave these kids to sink or swim.” - Syd Finkelstein [05:58]
• “The problem was that causing the bankruptcy triggered that basically banks stopped and stopped working together, and the global financial world froze.” - Michael Ainslie [12:55]
• There's something that gets done after a bankruptcy that's called an examiners report, and a firm from Chicago was hired to do that. Believe it or not they spent $100 million on the forensic evidence to put together that examiners report. They concluded there was no malfeasance, there was no lack of carrying out responsibilities by the audit committee, the board, or management. They literally said ‘Lehman became illiquid in the last 5 or 6 days of its existence due to things I spoke about earlier.’” - Michael Ainslie [26:28]
• Congress literally opened the floodgates to the subprime mortgage crisis, you remember this, they were changing the lending standards. Do they go to jail for that decision? Because that, in a sense, is what really precipitated the flooding of money into these financial instruments that financed these subprime mortgages.” - Michael Ainslie [29:03]
• I think the involvement of wealthy individuals, and frequently very newly wealthy individuals, in the art market has driven prices to levels that are really quite remarkable. And frankly I think a lot of people have trouble with that. When paintings cost three or four hundred million dollars, even though they’re some of the great works of art, that seems excessive. - Michael Ainslie [32:39]
• “The Posse is kind of a genius idea because you have a team, you have friends, you have support group right from day one, which gives you a huge comfort level. You don’t have to worry about having nothing to do on a Saturday night in the first month because you don’t know anybody, you know nine people” - Syd Finklestein [49:24] 

Stay Connected:  

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Michael Ainslie

Website: https://anosefortrouble.com/ 

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Episode Summary

When it comes to entrepreneurship and investment, underrepresented communities face many challenges. As a female investor in a male-dominated field, Marjorie Radlo-Zandi, has overcome her own set of challenges and helped others to do the same. In conversation with Marjorie, Syd explores how successful entrepreneurs and investors operate and the tools they need to make it to the top of their field. 

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.  He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.”  He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus.  Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Marjorie Radlo-Zandi 

Marjorie Radlo-Zandi is an experienced angel investor, board director, mentor and consultant who focuses on investing and mentoring early-stage companies in life sciences, diagnostics, software/IT, clean technology, ed-tech, food/beverage/ag and related food related technologies. She invests primarily for impact with an eye to diversity through two angel investment groups where she is a member, Launchpad Venture Group and Branch Venture Group.  Launchpad is the most active angel investment group in the Northeast and top three-ranked group in the U.S. It invests in life sciences, diagnostics, medical devices, software / IT, ed-tech, web and e-commerce, media/social media, and clean technology. Branch invests nationwide in start-ups in the food/beverage/ag CPG and related technology space. Fifty percent of her investments are in women-led businesses and fifty percent are led by people of color. 

Prior to becoming an angel investor, she was a senior executive and leader in Silicon Valley and the Boston life science diagnostics sector, where she developed a reputation for driving domestic and international organizational growth through innovation, global market expansion and building robust cross-cultural teams. She also improved organizational performance by both positioning and evaluating companies for acquisition. Her biggest achievement: grew the food diagnostics company she led with angel funds, expanded in over 100 countries, and sold it to a two billion dollar publicly-held firm. This company she led positively impacted the lives of millions by protecting and enhancing the global food supply. 

Marjorie grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, so entrepreneurship is in her blood. Her first entrepreneurial venture at age 19 was a high-profile sailing program where none existed previously in Burlington, Vermont. She now focuses her time on investing, being a board director, mentoring and consulting in companies which makes an impact with an eye to diversity. 

Marjorie holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont, and a master's degree in business administration from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Insights from this episode:

• How to predict individual and entrepreneurial success using algorithms  
• Different ways to foster success in others by providing thoughtful and sustainable support 
• The best problem-solving strategies used by both successful entrepreneurs and investors 
• The benefits of targeting investments that align with personal values 
• The essentials of successful angel investing 
• The secrets to preparing a successful pitch for an angel investor as an entrepreneur
• Benefits of expanding the workplace and the workforce through investing in virtual corporations and e-commerce 

Quotes from the show:

• “Virtual Corporations are going to expand the workplace opportunities, so those people who are in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming who didn’t have the richness of opportunities of Silicon Valley or Boston or New York City are going to have that open to them with the advent of work from many different places.” - Marjorie Radlo-Zandi [00:10]
• “We all like to complain, we all like to wonder, we all like to think, but actually fix the problem. And fix it in a way that could be beneficial to other people, and if it leads to wealth generation, that’s a good thing” - Syd Finkelstein [11:10]
• “The most important thing is have your vision, execute your vision, get the go-to market plan, and go and market well.” - Marjorie Radlo-Zandi [12:12]
• “Technology is in the DNA of the economy. It’s not going away. The mutation has occurred.” - Syd Finkelstein [16:44]
• “It was a very male-oriented culture, mostly white males. But yet, yes there was sexism along the way. But I’d say I had some fabulous mentors in Silicon Valley, and the learning opportunities were tremendous…There were some challenges along the way, but you can't let that get in the way of your progress.” - Marjorie Radlo-Zandi [18:56]
• “If I’m targeting for anything, it's investments that make a social or environmental impact.” - Marjorie Radlo-Zandi [22:49]
• “I think where there’s an opportunity for President Biden is helping those underserved communities and putting investment in underserved communities who don’t have the friends and family round.” - Marjorie Radlo-Zandi [34:43]
• “I think there can be an algorithm for a lot of different things, but there is a direct human element in terms of evaluation and working with different groups to assess them. I’m not quite sure that an algorithm could do that.” - Marjorie Radlo-Zandi [42:42]

Stay Connected:  

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Marjorie Radlo-Zandi 

Website: https://www.jazzas.com/ 

LInkedIn: Marjorie Radlo-Zandi

Twitter: @margorieradlozandi 

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by  Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Episode Summary

Throughout Dr. Rowland Hazard’s career, listening and human connection have been at the core of his success in both medicine and business. Through asking simple questions such as “who are you?” and “where are you from?” Rowley has been able to help people through the toughest period of their lives. Syd and Rowley discuss Rowley's journey from dishwasher to world-renowned MD and back pain specialist. 

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Rowland G. Hazard

Rowland G. Hazard, MD recently retired from an over 30-year career devoted to people disabled by chronic back pain. Currently Emeritus Professor of Orthopaedics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, he is a physician, internationally respected scholar and researcher, widely published author, teacher, inventor, entrepreneur, athlete and jazz musician. 

As a clinician and director of Functional Restoration Programs (FRPs) at the University of Vermont (1986-2000) and at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (2002-2018), Dr. Hazard cared for several thousand patients with back pain and lead FRP teams of physicians, psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, and trainers. A board-certified internist, he is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians. 

He has published over 50 journal articles and book chapters and delivered scores of related academic lectures and media appearances in the US, Europe and Australia. He has served as reviewer and technical expert for the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and as an editorial board member of Spine and The Back Letter. He has twice represented the US at the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. 

His new book, Talking Back: How to Overcome Chronic Back Pain and Rebuild Your Life, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in May, 2021.

Insights from this episode:

• How to effectively communicate with your doctor and peers about your goals and expectations
• Benefits of following your skills and finding your passion within those skills
• The differences between pain and disability stemming from pain and fear of reinjury
• Advantages of manipulation and functional restoration for back pain and treating disability
• The power of listening and its ability to propel you into success in a variety of different fields
• Advice on how to treat and manage chronic, acute back pain

Quotes from the show:

• “I learned in a way that was completely different from the book learning I was accustomed to, and I loved it.” – Rowland G. Hazard [11:55] Episode #97
• “I just think true reform of the national healthcare system should involve education, research, and practice. Not just, you know, with your taxes, you’re going to pay for your gall bladder operation. It’s more complicated than that. ” – Rowland G. Hazard [23:01] Episode #97
• “I was hit over the head by how ignorant I was about how to take care of people who had back pain. So for almost a year, I dedicated Thursday nights. I stayed up every Thursday night, reading everything I could get my hands on about back pain.” – Rowland G. Hazard [24:00] Episode #97
• “There’s a huge variety of treatments out there for back pain. There are many belief systems underneath those that pass as science, but the science is actually pretty thin.” – Rowland G. Hazard [27:06] Episode #97
• “If I go back to doing all the things I did before, there is a fear of getting much worse. The pain itself is not terrible, it’s manageable. Just you sharing that actually is good to know. It at least helps me process it in my head and recognize what choice is happening implicitly” Syd Finkelstein–  [37:20] Episode #97
• “You gotta have passion, and you have to work hard. You can be fearless, but if you can’t listen, you can drive really hard down the wrong road quickly.” – Rowland G. Hazard [46:25] Episode #97
• “In my own practice, I rarely talked to people about opioids, even though I was seeing ‘the worst of the worst of the chronic pain patients’.” – Rowland G. Hazard [59:48] Episode #97
• “90% of people who have an acute episode of back pain get better, almost no matter what you do.” – Rowland G. Hazard [62:29] Episode #97

Stay Connected:  

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Rowland G. Hazard 

New book: Talking Back: How to Overcome Chronic Back Pain and Rebuild Your Life

LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowland-hazard-8a8a2174/ 

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

TSC 96: The Wisdom of Philippe Bourguignon

Episode Summary

Vice Chairman of Revolution Places and Executive Co-Chairman of Exclusive Resorts Philippe Bourguignon shares his zigzag journey that led him to the top of the travel industry. Once the CEO of Euro Disney, Philippe gives advice on having fun, being a dreamer, and taking time for yourself. Hear Philippe Bourguignon’s stories, business strategies, and wisdom in this episode of The Sydcast. 

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Philippe Bourguignon

Vice Chairman, Revolution Places; Executive Co-Chairman, Exclusive Resorts

Philippe Bourguignon is vice chairman of Revolution Places, a company that is creating a new model for travel and tourism that promotes and encourages a healthy lifestyle, Philippe establishes consumer brands that reflect those values. In addition, he serves as executive co-chairman of Exclusive Resorts, a carefully vetted collection of more than 300 privately managed multimillion-dollar residences in iconic destinations paired with highly personalized and intuitive service. Revolution Places’ approach is to create unique, authentic experiences that can become treasured memories that last a lifetime — and build large businesses in the process.

Prior to joining Revolution Places, Philippe was co-chief executive officer of the Davos-based World Economic Forum in 2003 and 2004. Previously, as chairman and chief executive of Club Med, he was widely credited with a comprehensive turnaround of the company in 2000. The change included refocusing the brand, revamping operations and restoring competitiveness, implementing an innovative pricing policy, and completely overhauling the management culture.

Beginning in 1988, Philippe worked with Disney in several capacities, including as chairman and chief executive officer of Euro Disney, and executive vice president of Disney Europe. As the head of Euro Disney, he led a far-reaching corporate restructuring which restored the company on solid financial footing and achieved operating results far ahead of market expectations.

Previously Philippe spent 14 years with the Accor group, one of the largest hotel groups in the world. Initially serving as vice president of Development for Asia/Middle East and executive vice president of North America, he was eventually promoted to president of Accor for the Asia/Pacific region.

Today, Philippe sits on the board of two Revolution companies: Exclusive Resorts, a luxury travel club, and Mint House, a hospitality company setting a new standard in business travel.

He also co-founded Le Shack with his daughter in 2020.

In addition, he is also an active member on the board of Neiman Marcus, the global board of Operation Hope and chairman of HOPE Global Forums, a non-profit organization with a vision to eradicate poverty.

He is also the chairman of Primonial a Paris based wealth management firm and an active investor in OneRagtime, a European disruptive venture platform. He previously served as a member of the board of directors for Zipcar and spent 11-years on the board at eBay.

Philippe is also a co-founder of the Monthly Barometer. The Barometer is a subscription service that enables executives and leaders from around the world to anticipate and leverage emerging trends, using “contextual intelligence” methods to distill into one page the macro issues relevant to time-starved decision-makers. It has been in existence for more than five years and has a remarkably accurate track record.

In 2005, Philippe published his first book, Hop!, a revealing discussion on the paradoxes of the world and the French economy.

On a personal note — Philippe Bourguignon is married, and the father of two children. He is a man of many passions – a dedicated racer of yachts who, with Bruno Peyron, set a record in 1996 for crossing the English Channel.

Insights from this episode:

• Reasons why it is important to have fun and play, no matter what your age. 
• Tips for practicing unconsciousness to overcome doubt and imposter syndrome. 
• Information on the “zigzag strategy” and how to leverage it in your life and career.
• How Philippe helped revive Club Med and Euro Disney, and his reflections on the travel industry. 
• How Philippe is working to create “opportunities of collision.” 

Quotes from the show:

• “You should still play as a kid. Even if you learn serious things, you should still play because the minute you stop playing, you become serious. And when you become serious, it’s the beginning of the end.” — Philippe Bourguignon [13:32]
• “A good businessman needs to have a certain level of unconsciousness. If you are too conscious, you don’t take risks.” — Philippe Bourguignon [22:19]
• “I don’t believe in straight lines… Americans believe in straight lines. America is the only country which has built a city based on straight lines over 14 hills called San Francisco and swear… straight lines are efficient.” — Philippe Bourguignon [26:27]
• “In life you meander, you don’t go straight. Those people who want to go straight, they lose opportunities.” — Philippe Bourguignon [27:24]
• “Experience is like the light on the back of a train. It lights the backtrack behind us. While vision lights the tracks ahead, where you’re not sure where you’re going.” — Philippe Bourguignon [30:27]
• “I was feeling more like a carton of milk with an expiration date, but after I joined Revolution, I became like a bottle of old wine.” — Philippe Bourguignon [35:17]
• On branding: “A lot of agencies force, or a lot of clients of agencies accept to have a brand bible, and all of a sudden, the brand is driving the decisions of the company, while the brand should be the expression of what the company is.” — Philippe Bourguignon [50:28]
• “Those hotels have a soul. They don’t need a loyalty program for me to come back. The experience I got there is good enough that I don’t need points to come back.” — Philippe Bourguignon [52:05]
• “I was given a chance. Therefore, I knew and trusted my leaders that I would get somewhere.” — Philippe Bourguignon [1:04:53]

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Philippe Bourguignon

Website: https://www.revolution.com/ 

Linkedin: Philippe Bourguignon

Le Shack: https://leshack.fr/

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

TSC 95: Professor Emily Finn: How Our Brain Activity is as Unique as our Fingerprint

Episode Summary

New Dartmouth professor and brain scientist Emily Finn talks about how our brains are wired and how we have something akin to a neural connection fingerprint. In addition to discussing the implications of this headline discovery, Dr. Finn shares her own motivations in her research and her personal journey in arriving where she is now in this episode of The Sydcast. 

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Emily Finn

Emily S. Finn, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. She completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Yale, and her postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health. Before that, she received a B.A. in linguistics, also from Yale. Emily’s work is focused on individual variability in brain activity and behavior, especially as it relates to appraisal of ambiguous information under naturalistic conditions. She is particularly interested in how and why, given the same experience, different individuals arrive at different conclusions. She was recently named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science, and her work has been featured in popular media such as The New York Times, BBC, NBC, PBS, CBS, Scientific American, Discover, and WIRED.

Insights from this episode:

• Dr. Finn’s journey to becoming an independent researcher and a scientist and what she learned along the way. 
• The value of strong communication skills when you’re in any field. 
• Reasons why a break from school might be a good idea.
• A look into Dr. Finn’s research into the brain’s activity fingerprint, including what might cause it.
• The goals of Dr. Finn’s research and possible implications of mapping individuals’ brain functional organization. 

Quotes from the show:

• “To have real responsibility, to have the confidence of the people around you, you have to earn it but you also have to take it… you spend all your time becoming the expert-- and it’s not easy to do that-- and sometimes you forgot, or don’t even know, that you have to actually advocate for yourself.” — Syd Finkelstein [11:13]
• “I think I didn’t appreciate just how much of a scientist’s job is writing-- writing papers, writing grants, and the further you get the more and more it’s about communicating the science rather than actually doing the science.” — Emily Finn [21:57]
• “My articles [for the newspaper at MIT] about neuroscience, I think, were actually the worst because I was the least able to put myself in the shoes of someone who didn’t have any background on the topic, whereas when I would go interview the physicist or the geologist or astronomy people, I could just say, hey talk to me like I’m a five-year-old, I don’t know anything about this.” — Emily Finn [22:50]
• “You don’t have to be at breakneck speed. In fact, there are many disadvantages to it.” — Syd Finkelstein [25:10]
• “I’ve never met anybody that took a few years off and said, wow I really wish I had gotten my MD two years earlier once they’re mid-career. On the contrary, having that life experience and flailing a little bit-- not in the bad sense of the word-- but giving yourself a chance to kind of experience things and make sure what you’re choosing is right.” — Emily Finn [26:20]
• “As we’re sort of getting to the point where we’re building up these databases, because really what you need is a ton of data from lots and lots of individuals… the challenge is to find the signal in that noise, and all of these things are messy and complicated and there’s no single factor that is going to be driving everything. We’re making progress, but it’s still early days.” — Emily Finn [37:24]
• “Genetics can account for a lot, all of the epigenetic phenomenon, life experiences, and the different things that people encounter and experiences they seek out are also going to leave a fingerprint so to speak that’s not necessary encoded in the DNA itself but that’s present in brain functional organization.” — Emily Finn [40:12]
• “People’s brains will, in some ways, synchronize. So when two people watch the same movie or listen to the same story, you see a lot of synchrony in terms of how brains are processing that experience, but in other ways, you also see idiosyncrasies, so different people have different reactions at different moments or to different features.” — Emily Finn [47:09]
• On privacy: “The press coverage of the first fingerprinting essay was kind of unsettling in some ways, and it’s understandable. In a lot of ways this brings up concerns, and a lot of the reporters were kind of interested in how this could be used against us?” — Emily Finn [55:16]

Resources Mentioned

The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Emily Finn

Website: https://esfinn.github.io/ 

Twitter: @esfinn

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)