In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, speaks with Dave Whorton, Founder & CEO at Tugboat Institute, and co-author of Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last alongside Bo Burlingham, which gives practical advice and explanations of Evergreen companies: focused on long-term stability and steady growth, and leadership beyond personal wealth generation. 

00:56: The HP Origin Story and Learning to See a Different Way 

3:58: From Reluctant Venture Capitalist to the Evergreen Discovery 

9:59: The Tugboat Metaphor 

10:51: The Book's Approach to Learning in Real Time 

14:44: Financial Transparency, Jack Stack, and the Great Game of Silicon Valley Business 

18:01: The Wealth Trap and What Evergreen Leaders Model Instead 

22:15: How Evergreen Leaders Approach Boards 

25:30: People First: The First of the Seven P's 

30:22: Perseverance and the Debt Question 

30:45: Customer Intimacy Over Competition-Watching 

37:10: Why Aren’t More Companies Like This?  

40:02: The Scale and Diversity of the Evergreen World 

49:00: Weighing up Venture and Evergreen 

52:45: AI, Careers, and the Changing Unit of Value Creation 

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Learn more about Rita, her books and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com