For decades, society has debated the core purpose of a firm: Does it exist primarily to serve shareholders, or should it primarily serve a broader group of stakeholders, including the general public good? In this episode, Joel sits down with Dr. Alexander Salter, Associate Professor of Economics in the Rawls College of Business at Texas … Continue reading Episode 8: The State of Shareholder Capitalism w/ Dr. Alexander Salter →

Goal setting is a challenge few companies master. One of the most common dysfunctions is this: Employees get maniacally focused on one goal, but then, when that goal is achieved, everything falls apart. In this episode, Joel speaks to two St. Edward’s University professors who have worked on this very problem: Dr. David Altounian, Associate … Continue reading Episode 7: When Goal Setting Backfires (and How to Avoid It) w/ Dr. David Altounian and Dr. Mary Dunn →

In his book Bring Your Brain to Work (Harvard Business Review Press), UT Austin professor Dr. Art Markman distills cognitive science and psychology into principles for success—in organizations and careers. As Markman likes to say, we all have a mind—but we don’t get an owner’s manual with it.  In this episode, Joel and Dr. Markman’s discuss how … Continue reading Episode 6: How Cognitive Science Can Lead to Organizational Success w/ Dr. Art Markman →

Today, there are over 8,000 digital marketing technologies on the market. The complexity of the landscape—plus daunting terms like AI and automation—makes some CEOs reluctant to dip their toes into the field at all. Good news: Dr. Debra Zahay-Blatz, Professor of Marketing at St. Edward’s University, is here to help. Pulling from both corporate and … Continue reading Episode 5: The Digital-Marketing Savvy CEO w/ Dr. Debra Zahay-Blatz →

In spring 2020, a huge chunk of the American workforce was abruptly shifted to a new paradigm: working from home. Dr. Leanne Atwater, C.T. Bauer Professor of Leadership and Management at University of Houston, surveyed these newly remote workers to find out how they felt about “WFH.” She generously told us what managers, CEOs, and … Continue reading Episode 4: The State of Remote Work w/ Dr. Leanne Atwater →

The word “unprecedented” has been invoked incessantly since the COVID-19 pandemic began. But this crisis does have precedent in history—precedents we can learn from. In this episode, we talked to Dr. Marianne Ward-Peradoza, an expert in economic history, about her view of the latest pandemic, including how it compares to crises like the Black Death … Continue reading Episode 3: The Economic History of Pandemics w/ Dr. Marianne Ward-Peradoza →

Dr. Elizabeth Keating is a linguistic anthropologist based at UT Austin and the author of Words Matter: Communicating Effectively in the New Global Office. In this episode, Dr. Keating helps us explore what CEOs should know about the tricky dynamics of cross-cultural business communication. Whether it’s a colleague in a different department or a partner … Continue reading Episode 2: Communicating Across Cultures w/ Dr. Elizabeth Keating →

Jeremy Horpedahl, PhD, is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas. Today, he joins Joel Trammell for a discussion of whether CEOs should be concerned about the United States’ skyrocketing national debt.  Publicly held debt in the US is now close to equaling GDP, a threshold that many have watched closely. … Continue reading Episode 1: Should We Care About the National Debt? w/ Jeremy Horpedahl →