People WANT to believe (w/ Bethany McLean)

Explicit content warning

06/10/19 • 59 min

On today's show, Chris sits down with Bethany McLean for a wide-ranging interview, spanning growing up on the Iron Range in Minnesota, to her career as a business writer and how her time in the heady days of business magazines built her skepticism of the corporate world, and led her to be one of the premier chroniclers of corporate malfeasance.
Then, we hear Just One Thing about a company who's helping their employees achieve that ever-elusive work-life balance.
Chris also talks villains, both on the screen and in the boardroom.
Read Bethany at Vanity Fair, watch her on CNBC, or go buy her books.
Bethany McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. She is also a columnist at Yahoo Finance and a contributor to CNBC. Her two books are the The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron and All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. She lives in Chicago. She has also written two mini books, Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the US Mortgage Giants and Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World.

Writer, Host: Chris Thierfelder
Producers: Sarah and Max Warman
Art: Jennie Jacobs
Music: Kevin MacLeod
IG: @mondaypod
LinkedIn: A Case of the Mondays
Site: A Case of the Mondays
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Previous Episode

Biology is Technology (w/ Ryan Bethancourt)

Today, Chris sits down with Ryan Bethencourt, CEO of Wild Earth Inc, to talk about science fiction, biohacking, the birth of biotech and disrupting one of the oldest industries on the planet. Chris also talks grill etiquette, retreats, and tells you to eat a GMO salad.
You can follow Ryan on Twitter and Instagram at @RyanBethencourt; Wild Earth can be found at @wildearthpets
For more cutting edge biotech companies, check out Indiebio, the biotech accelerator that Ryan co-founded.
If you want to get inspired by some science fiction, here's a list to start working your way through.
From HBR: Making Empathy Central to Your Company Culture
From Inc: United's Latest Disaster
From Med News Today: More Evidence You Should Eat Better
Finally, Ryan referenced Ethan Perlstein, another person you might want to follow in this space. Check him on Twitter at: @eperlste

Next Episode

You Don't Get Innovation For Free (w/ Gary Pisano)

Today, we kick off Innovation Week! Chris sits down with Gary Pisano, professor at Harvard Business School, and author of over 100 scholarly articles on innovation and business management. His most recent book, Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation is a look at how large enterprises can leverage their scale to become transformational innovators.

Chris also talks about pitching consulting services (it’s hard, and he doesn’t like it), how innovation can take a lot of forms that we don’t notice, and how one company is finally reckoning with its terrible past.
Read more of Professor Pisano’s scholarly work (referenced in the interview):

Dynamic Capabilities (1997), Restoring American Competitiveness (2009), Innovation Strategy (2015), Hard Truths (2019)

Buy a copy of Creative Construction here.

The Ten Types of Innovation can be found here.

From the NY Times: Nazis Killed her Father. Then She Fell in Love With One

Follow us on social media! You can find A Case of the Mondays on Facebook, Instagram (@mondaypod), Twitter (@mondaypod1), and LinkedIn.

More about Professor Pisano:

Gary Pisano is the Harry Figgie Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School where he currently serves as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development (promotions and tenure). He joined the Harvard faculty in 1988 after completing a Ph.D. at the University of California Berkeley.

Over the course of his career, Pisano has explored fundamental questions about how organizations innovate, learn, compete, and grow. His research and consulting experience has spanned a broad range of industries including aerospace, automobiles, apparel, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, entertainment, financial services, health care, restaurants, semiconductors, software, specialty chemicals, and web services.

At Harvard, Pisano has taught MBA, executive, and doctoral courses, and has mentored a number of doctoral students. He has created and currently teaches a new MBA electric course “Managing Growth” based on his current research on the drivers and impediments to organizational scaling and growth. He is also the co-creator and co-chair of a new executive program called “Driving Profitable Growth”.

In addition to his academic research and teaching, Pisano serves as an advisor to senior leaders at leading companies around the world and has been a director of both public and private company boards. He currently serves on the board of directors of Axcella Health and Celixir.