9/10 Gen Z & Millennials prioritise purpose and well-being, yet 70% of employees feel disengaged. Frank Brueck explains why it’s not your fault if you feel exhausted and empty coming from work. 

Frank Brueck, PhD, is the creator of Imperial Business School’s Financial Times award-winning Executive Sustainability Leadership course and the author of Ikigai for Leaders and Organisations. Using his own assessment framework, he measures multinational companies’ culture and has worked with thousands of leaders to help them unlock meaning, well-being, and sustainability in the workplace. 

Together, we talk about:

• What are 4 questions you must answer to discover your Ikigai 
• What is the business case for purpose and happiness? Learn about the breakthrough study that proved that well-being boosts productivity  
• Why less than 1% of companies achieve business Ikigai
• What a huge bank's value assessment reveals about what’s broken with corporate culture 
• The surprising science of why meditation makes the brain sustainable 

00:00 Teaser: The Emptiness Of Modern Work 

01:21 Meet Ikigai Author Frank Brueck 

03:23 Discovering Ikigai In The Blue Zones 

05:38 The Disengagement Crisis Draining 70% Of Workers 

07:21 The 4 Questions You Need to Answer

08:04 Where Does The World Actually Start? 

10:30 The "Bermuda Triangle" Trapping Top Graduates 

12:30 How To Pursue Purpose Despite Economic Pressure 

14:50 How To Assess Your Leadership Type 

16:55 Oxford Study: Why Wellbeing Causes Productivity 

18:05 Why Purpose Makes Companies More Innovative 

19:21 Can Companies Actually Achieve Ikigai? 

21:37 This Financial Institution's Leadership Team Was Shocked 

23:58 Why Company Culture Is Fundamentally Disconnected 

26:21 The Power Of Meditation To Foster Sustainability 

28:36 How Self-Transcendence Changes Everything 

30:56 How Meditation Physically Alters The Brain 

31:54 The Antidote To The Corporate Hamster Wheel 

34:33 The Unfortunate Truth About Corporate Change 

36:40 How To Assess Your Company’s Culture

37:19 Frank’s Breakthrough Wish For Humankind

👨‍💻 FOLLOW THE GUEST: Frank Brueck (Leadership Lab Lead at the Leonardo Centre on Business for Society)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-brueck-3966415/ 

Website & Ikigai Assessment: http://ikigai-cooperation.com

Ikigai for Leaders and Organizations: The Way to Individual and Collective Purpose and Meaning https://www.amazon.co.uk/IKIGAI-Leaders-Organisations-Individual-Collective/dp/171660530X 

🎙️ CONNECT WITH THE HOST: Noah Maurer  (PhD Student at Imperial Business School at the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noah_ehw/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-maurer/

📑 Sources and Studies Mentioned 

• Deloitte: 2025 Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/issues/work/genz-millennial-survey.html 
• Forbes: 69% Of Workers Are Disengaged In The AI Era. A CEO Explains Why https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwells/2026/05/01/69-of-workers-are-disengaged-in-the-ai-era-a-ceo-explains-why/ 
• Wellbeing-Productivity Study: Does employee happiness have an impact on productivity? https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4766 
• Purpose-Performance Study: The contingent relationship between purpose and profits. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/stsc.2023.0194