All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions

As leaders, how do we know when we've made a mistake? Is it as simple as evaluating whether the outcome was good or bad? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making better decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss how risk/reward calculations can help define what is a mistake and what isn't.

To talk more in depth about this topic, and how owning up to a mistake plays out inside an investment firm, the hosts interview Hadley Mullin. Mullin is a senior partner at TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm with approximately $10 billion in assets under management. At her firm, decisions are made collectively – and accountability is shared. "It's not a blame game," Mullin says. "Not focusing on whose deal this is, but referring to it as 'our deal,' makes us better positioned to do an unbiased postmortem."

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Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

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Competitive markets don’t produce the same level of prosperity for everyone, but economist John Cochrane thinks they give us something more important — incentives.

In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts Jules van Binsbergen and Jonathan Berk are joined by John Cochrane, a prominent free-market economist and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

According to Cochrane, competition gives us the incentives to work, serve the needs of others, and innovate. A system with incentives, he says, “is the only one where we all don't end up worse.”

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

More About the Guest:

John Cochrane at the Hoover Institute

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How can investors play a part in accomplishing social change? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts Jules van Binsbergen and Jonathan Berk explore what strategies are available to the social-minded investor.

When it comes to what’s good for business and what’s good for society, van Binsbergen says, “People really would like to have it both ways.” But as he and Berk explain, it is unlikely that they can.

The Impact of Impact Investing working paper referenced in this episode. Read more about the pitfalls and promises of ESG on Stanford GSB's website.

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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In this episode, hosts Jules van Binsbergen and Jonathan Berk discuss the complexities of the corporate income tax with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who argues for retaining the tax.

Summers explains why taxing corporations is one of the most effective tools the federal government has in making sure the wealthy pay their fair share. Might there be room for improvement? Yes, Summers says, but don’t abolish it. “Before we are critical of that tax, we better make awfully sure that we have a superior alternative.”

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"The reason people disagree is because they're striving toward a different goal," says mathematician and Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann. In this episode of All Else Equal, Aumann sits down with finance professors and podcast hosts Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen.

"If there's a disagreement in the room at the end of a discussion, someone in the room is making a mistake," says Berk.

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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When it comes to investments, value sometimes resides in unlikely places. Pete Briger, CEO of Fortress Investment Group, specializes in buying bad debt and spinning it into gold.

In this episode of All Else Equal, Briger, who dubs himself a “garbage collector,” describes how he makes decisions and why being prepared to act quickly and decisively is crucial for success.

In a market bristling with competitors, “the competitive edge you get may be expressed in the context of days,” Briger says.

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Picking stocks is a famously difficult exercise, not for the faint of heart. So how do investment professionals make decisions about which stocks to buy?

In this episode of All Else Equal, professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen interview Cliff Asness, cofounder and chief investment officer at AQR Capital Management, about his decision-making strategy. Fundamentally, Asness says, success depends on the ability to “withstand pain” when your investments perform poorly and the confidence to trust your judgment.

“Everybody talks about the long term, but actually being long-term is a superpower in investing if you can do it,” Asness says.

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Personnel decisions can be some of the toughest a manager will make. What are the attributes you should look for when building a team?

In this episode of All Else Equal, professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen interview former NBA general manager Billy King about how he approached player evaluation. Statistics are an important measure of performance, but King says he also tried to assess how individual players made the players around them better.

King invokes the philosophy of his mentor, Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who taught the power of teamwork. Punching a wall with five separate fingers would have little effect, “but if you make those fingers into a fist, you’re going to have a better impact,” King says.

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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When the scientific method began to be applied widely hundreds of years ago, innovation bloomed. Today, those same principles inform business leaders who rely on data analysis to set and shape direction.

In this inaugural episode of All Else Equal, professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen speak with Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat about how to — and how not to — use data to make decisions.

“It’s too easy to just anchor on a set of numbers,” Porat says. “Most important is to look at the trends over time, then break it down to the sensitivity analysis — what are the key variables that will drive behavior one way or another?

“Coming with just a flat set of data is not constructive because obviously the world in which we live is not static.”

Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual

Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisions

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Join finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen in a conversation with prominent business leaders about common flaws in the decision making process and what to do about them.

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