The Innovation Show

The Age of Heretics Part 2 with Art Kleiner


Listen Later

Part 2 in this wonderful series When postwar American business was a vast sea of gray flannel suits and tasteful ties, a few unorthodox individuals were not so quietly shifting the paradigm toward the breezier, Google-ier work-place of today. These change agents include a raft of idealistic social scientists as well as nonacademics, like labor organizer Saul Alinsky, who pioneered the use of shareholder activism to open Kodak's doors to more African Americans. Alinsky, who was literally willing to smash dishes to get attention, was the embodiment of the activist principle that behaving badly is sometimes necessary because, in the words of the civil-rights anthem, "The nice ways always fail." Today's guest uses religious terms to title each of the chapters of his book— "Monastics," "Pelagians,""Mystics," and so forth. At first that seems an odd choice for a study of modern corporations and other secular institutions. But he is insightful to do so. Like the heretic whose rejection of religious orthodoxy might send him to the pyre, our guest's organizational heretic "is someone who sees a truth that contradicts the conventional wisdom of the institution to which he or she belongs—and who remains loyal to both entities, to the institution and the new truth." The person who is willing to make a great sacrifice to change an institution he or she loves is a hero as well as a heretic because, our guest writes, "the future of industrial society depends on our ability to transcend the destructive management of the past, and build a better kind of business." We welcome the author of "The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management" and the earlier subtitle was Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change, Art Kleiner.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Innovation ShowBy The Innovation Show

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

52 ratings


More shows like The Innovation Show

View all
The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

378 Listeners

The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish

The Knowledge Project

2,705 Listeners

Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak

Coaching for Leaders

1,458 Listeners

The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

The a16z Show

1,091 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

161 Listeners

Creative Confidence Podcast by IDEO U

Creative Confidence Podcast

127 Listeners

Worklife with Adam Grant by TED

Worklife with Adam Grant

9,162 Listeners

Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

Inside the Strategy Room

174 Listeners

Nudge by Phill Agnew

Nudge

179 Listeners

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway by Vox Media Podcast Network

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

5,564 Listeners

Deep Questions with Cal Newport by Cal Newport

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

1,326 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

516 Listeners

ReThinking by TED

ReThinking

635 Listeners

HBR On Leadership by Harvard Business Review

HBR On Leadership

162 Listeners

Prof G Markets by Vox Media Podcast Network

Prof G Markets

1,426 Listeners