TRIUM Connects

Across the world, the rise of various forms of authoritarianism and ethno-nationalism seems to be on an ever upward trend. This creates huge uncertainties across multiple dimensions – personal, cultural, political, and not least of which in challenges business leaders face as they attempt to navigate across this uncertainty. 

All of this turmoil is, according to Larry Kramer - the Vice Chancellor and President of the London School of Economics - to be expected. Neo-liberalism, the once dominant political/economic paradigm, is no longer able to explain or order our understandings of our world. This triggers a search for, and creation of, alternatives. If, or until a different liberal paradigm emerges, we are destined to contend with illiberal, authoritarian and often ethno-national alternatives. In this podcast Larry and I discuss the fall of neo-liberalism and the emerging contours of what may come to replace it. 

How and when this new paradigm emerges and whether it will successfully defeat the existing alternatives is perhaps the most important question we will face in the next decade(s). 

Larry provides a thoughtful and provocative framework in which to understand these macro trends. Prior to being appointed to lead the LSE, Larry was the President of the Willam and Flora Hewlett Foundation for 12 years. With assets of over $14 billion, the Foundation is one of the largest sources of grants in the USA. Prior to his work at the Foundation, Larry was the Dean of the Stanford Law School and is a world expert in US Constitutional law and the role of judicial review within that system.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to discuss recent shifts in the US Supreme Court with such an expert, at the end of our conversation we discuss these developments as an example of the power of a paradigm shift - the rise of ‘originalism’ as a reaction to the state-led expansion of individual rights – to take on real world consequences. In this context, we discuss the Dobbs decision, the overturning of the Chevron defence and the emerging presidential immunity doctrine.

My discussion with Larry reminded me of how fortunate we are at TRIUM to have the LSE as a partner. The depth of analysis and understanding of the macro trends affecting the environment in which business operates continues to be a unique selling point of our EMBA. Enjoy the show!

Citations

Operation Mincemeat by Cummings, D. Hodgson N. and Roberts Z. at the New Diorama Theatre,London.

A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and adapted by Kip Williams, with Sarah Snook at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London.

Labatut B. (2024) The Maniac. Pushkin Press.

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Once in a while you come across a person who embodies, in their thoughts and deeds, a kind of archetype or ideal form of a role – the great artist, the wise philosopher, the genius physicist. Hervé Coyco, for me, is the archetype of the best of business leaders. In our conversation he shares some of the wisdom, humility and practices which have made him such a successful leader and impressive human being.

Hervé spent his whole corporate career at Michelin – 30 years - where he started as an entry level engineer and rose to be the President of the Passenger Car Division – at the time, a 60,000 employee, 8 billion Euro/year business unit – before finishing as the President of Michelin Asia-Pacific Operations. In this podcast, Hervé and I discuss what he learned during that time. This includes what he sees as the three styles of leadership needed to succeed in different situations: the jet airplane pilot, the skipper of a boat and the coach. Next we turn to the leadership challenge of hitting short term performance and efficiency goals while simultaneously preparing the organisation for the future. This leads on to a discussion of the role of empowerment and managing failure – when to accept failure, the need to adopt a ‘no surprises’ policy with your own boss, and the importance of ethical and value alignment.

For the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of working with Hervé in his role as Professor at HEC-Paris. We conclude our conversation here with Hervé ’s reflections on what he has learned from his role as a program director of customised executive education at HEC – both about the academy but also about how leaders in some organisations fall short in their roles.

I have learned so much from Hervé about ethical and learning based leadership, I wanted to share his insights with you! I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Citations

Covey, S.R. & Merrill, A.R. (1994) First Things First. Simon & Schuster.

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My guest for this episode is Laurence Lehmann-Ortega. Laurence is one of the world’s leading experts on how existing firms can create innovative new business models. In this episode we discuss the newest edition of her book, Re(Inventing) your Business Model: The Odyssey 3.14 Approach, co-authored with Helene Musikas and Jean March Schoettl. The book has also been adapted into a MOOC by Coursera. 

Like many of the best business schoolteachers, Laurence started her career in the consulting world before transitioning to academia, first at GSCM Montpellier and from 2010 at HEC Paris. At HEC she teaches strategy and business model innovation in the masters programs, the MBA, EMBA and in customised executive education programs. She has won multiple teaching awards at HEC. Laurence is also the Academic Director of the Masters in Strategic Management and our very own TRIUM EMBA program. In addition, she is the academic director on a number of large and complex programs in HEC’s custom executive education portfolio.  

In this episode we discuss the problems of alignment between business models’ value propositions and the existing firm’s value architecture; the challenge of trade offs across different values – profit, people and planet – when evaluating the contribution new business models will make to the firm’s goals; how to tell if a firm has a healthy innovation culture; the need for proper, scientific testing of innovation, and; the problem of applying ROI to innovation spending.  

We finish the discussion with a short conversation about the executive education industry. Laurence and I are both in the ‘supply side’ of this business. Here, we put ourselves on the ‘buy side’ and discuss what we would look for if we were making the decision to spend time and money on learning and development – both for the individual consumer and the corporate client. 

Laurence is one of the most talented teachers and academic directors I have ever met. I always look forward to our conversations because I walk away feeling like I’ve learned something. This conversation is no exception. I hope you enjoy!

Citations

Laurence Lehmann-Ortega, Hélène Musikas & Jean- Marc Schoettl (2023) (Ré)inventez votre Business Model - 3e éd.: Avec l'approche Odyssée 3.14. English version to be available in June 2024.

Gawande, Atul (2010) The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. Picador Paper. 

Cylien Gibert & Sihem BenMahmoud-Jouini (2020) Créez le prochain Uber et soyez rentables d’ici la fin de l’année : Les managers de labs d’innovation face aux contradictions entre mandat et gouvernance. Revue Française de Gestion.

Breaking Boundaries : The Science of Our Planet (2021) Netflix Series. Directed by Jonathan Clay.

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I am delighted to be joined by Suzy Welch for this episode. Suzy has had an amazing career! After graduating from Harvard, she became a crime beat reporter for the Miami Herald but after a short time was re-assigned to the business section – a change which would set the stage for the rest of her career. She then left journalism and went back to Harvard for her MBA. After graduating with honours, Suzy launched into a successful stint at Bain and Company as a consultant working with heavy manufacturing clients in the Midwest of the USA. 

Suzy left a successful career in consulting to return to journalism with a job at the Harvard Business Review, where she was eventually named editor-in-chief in 2001. At HBR she conceptualised and edited articles on topics as diverse as strategy, operations and organisational behaviour and penned her own on leadership, change and crisis management, the role of boards, the proper functioning of HR and career dynamics. 

With her late husband, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, Suzy co-authored two international best-selling books – Winning published in 2005 and The Real-Life MBA in 2015. An interesting little fact, during the promo tour for Winning, I interviewed Jack at the LSE at a TRIUM event! Suzy is also the sole author of the New York Times and Wallstreet Journal bestseller, 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea – which we discuss during this episode. Suzy has also been a regular contributor to the US television network CNBC and the popular program, the Today Show.

In addition to her writing and media work, amongst other projects, Suzy serves on the board of ANGI as well as being a senior advisor at the Brunswick Group.

And last, but not least, Suzy is currently a professor at NYU Stern School of Business, creating and teaching one of its most popular and impactful classes – ‘Becoming You: Crafting the Authentic Life You Want and Need.’ In this episode I talk to Suzy about the reasons she put this course together and the secrets to its success. 

Suzy Welch is a kind of force of nature with some important things to share which she has learned from a lifetime in leadership and around other leaders. I was delighted when she agreed to be on the show and I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Citations

Welch, S. (2009) 10-10-10: 10 Minutes, 10 Months, 10 Years: A Life-Transforming Idea. Scribner.

Welch, J. with Welch, S. (2005) Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book. HarperCollins.

Welch, J. & Welch, S. (2018) The Real-Life MBA: The No-Nonsense Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team and Growing your Career. Harper Thorsons.

Cunk on Earth (2022) Television Show starring Diane Morgon and produced by Charlie Brooker.

Succession (2018-2013) Television show produced by HBO Entertainment.

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Occasionally you read a book that changes the way you think about a topic or a place. The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism by Keyu Jin is just such a book and it was great to have her join me on TRIUM Connects. We discuss the consequences (both intended an unintended) of the one child policy, the combination of strong political centralisation and economic decentralisation, the ‘mayor economy’ and the combination of a super powerful yet agile state, able to act much more quickly than more democratically constrained actors. 

Jin argues that to understand all of this, you need to read China in the original – that is, as much as possible, not through the lens of Western, capitalistic assumptions about economic development but to see it for what it does, within its own terms. 

Jin is a great guide for this journey – she was born in China, educated in the USA (BA, Masters and PHD from Harvard) and now lives in London.  She is an associate professor of economics at the LSE where her research focusses on global trade imbalances, global asset prices and China's economic growth model.  Jin has also advised and consulted for the World Bank, the IMF and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

The book ends with a discussion of the current challenges facing China. Jin argues that the reforms and policies which created the tremendous economic development over such a comparative short time must now change if China is to avoid its own version of the middle income trap. Whether China is able to do so will, in no small measure, shape the kind of world we will all live in.

 Jin’s background, insight and deep knowledge shine through in the book and in our conversation. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Citations

Keyu Jin (2023) The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism. Viking Press.

Swerling J. and Burrows A. Guys and Dolls – First performed in 1950.

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I am guessing that most of you have heard about Chinese firms and government’s large involvement and investment in Africa. For example, as part of a strategy to secure the resources needed to play a leading role in the economy of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, China has purchased mining rights, mined, and built refineries for rare earth elements in multiple locations in Africa. 

But did you know that the annual amount of traded goods between China and Latin America, as well as foreign direct investment is about twice as much as between China and Africa? If we look at Chinese development loans, Latin America has received more in loans than Africa.

It has been clear for more than a century that to understand Latin America you must understand the involvement and intervention of the United States in the military, economic and social history of the region. It is now impossible to understand Latin American economies and politics without an understanding of the growing role of China. Looked at through the lens of US/China competition and conflict, this is a major development. Historically, the USA has reacted forcefully to what it saw as ‘interference’ in the America’s by other countries – will that continue or will the recent neglect/disinterest of the US to LA continue, creating more space/opportunity for even greater Chinese influence?

To help us understand these issues and others, I am delighted to be joined in this episode by Professor Chris Alden of the London School of Economics (and a regular contributor to TRIUM). Chris is Deputy Head of the International Relations Department, the Director of LSE IDEAS, and a Research Associate with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Chris’s newest book (co-authored with Alvaro Mendez) China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics was published earlier this year.  

Before this book, Chris has written or co-authored of numerous books, including Apartheid’s Last Stand – the Rise and Fall of the South African Security State (Palgrave 1996), Mozambique and the Construction of the New African State (Palgrave 2003), China in Africa (Zed Books 2007)  Land, Liberation and Compromise in Southern Africa (Palgrave/Macmillan 2009) The South and World Politics (Palgrave 2010),

Chris is one of the world’s leading experts of Chinese involvement in the global south and it was a real pleasure to sit down with him for a wonderful discussion of his latest work. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Citations:

Podcast – China and the Global South hosted by Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden and produced by The China-Global South Project (CGSP).

Alden, C. & Mendez, A. (2023) China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics. Bloomsbury Academic

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In 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis, 25 US banks failed. Their combined asset value was equal to $526 billion (adjusted for inflation). In the first 5 months of 2023, three banks have failed with a total asset value of $532 billion. Let that sink in – we are in uncharted territory. What is happening and why? Why do we see a kind of slow-motion contagion effect? Will more banks fail? Has the US government practically removed the limit on deposits insured through the FDIC? What does the current situation tell us about the health of the banking sector and the regulatory framework meant to prevent such problems – in the US and around the world? 

In this episode I’m joined by Jean Edouard Colliard to discuss what the current crisis tells us about how and why regulatory regimes succeed and/or fail. Jean Edouard is Associate Professor of Finance at HEC Paris, which he joined in 2014.  Before joining HEC, he worked for two years as an economist in the Research department of the European Central Bank. He is a co-holder of the research chair "Analytics for Future Banking" (HEC Paris - Natixis - Polytechnique).

Jean-Edouard is also a member of the Finance Theory Group and a Research Affiliate of CEPR and SUERF. He received the "Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance" Award of IEF / Foundation SCOR 2022, the "Young Researcher in Economics" Award of Foundation Banque de France in 2017, the Eurofidai-BEDOFIH Data Award 2017, the "Young Researcher Award" 2015 of AMF (the French Securities Markets Authority), and the 1st SUERF/Unicredit & Universities Foundation Research Prize 2013.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!

Citations

Palmer, A. (2017) Too Like the Lightning: Book 1 of the Terra Ignota Series. Head of Zues Publishing.

Calomiris, C.W. & Haber, S.H. (2014) Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of the Banking Crises and Scarce Credit: The Princeton Economic History of the Western World: 50.

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Upwards Influence – The Art and Science of Being Heard

Over the last several decades, more and more leadership research has highlighted the need for leaders to create an environment where disparate and diverse opinions and approaches are elicited and incorporated into decision making. If leaders can manage that, they can more easily avoid premature consensus and narrative fallacies, thereby improving performance.

Much of this research addresses the ‘demand’ side of the equation – how can/should leaders create environments whereby people feel that they have a permission structure to contribute to – or even openly question and contradict – a leader’s position? 

However, this leaves the ‘supply side’ of the equation open. That is, how do we instil in people the self-belief and confidence to make themselves heard and seen? What behaviours are most likely to increase junior members’ impact on decisions? 

In this episode we discuss the challenges of ‘upwards influence’. That is, what are the challenges we face when we seek to influence people with more power than we have.

My guest is Connson Chou Locke – someone who has made these supply side questions a centre piece of her life’s work. In 2021, in a distillation of more than 30 years of experience, she wrote a book addressing these issues entitled, Making Your Voice Heard: How to Own Your Space, Access Your Inner Power and Become Influential.

Connson is a Professorial Lecturer of Management at the LSE, where she has won multiple teaching awards for her classes on Leadership, Organisational Behaviour, and Negotiation and Decision Making. Prior to entering academia, Connson was a Regional Training and Development Manager for the Boston Consulting Group, responsible for training and development across 10 offices throughout the Asia Pacific region. She has a PhD from Berkley and did her undergraduate work at Harvard. 

In our conversation we discuss the role of confidence in perceived expertise, how power and influence can only be defined in the context in which they occur, how being influential is often the end point of long and carefully executed preparatory strategy, how women face specific challenges from agentic models of leadership and how to strategically think of cultural lenses when interacting with individuals.

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Enders G. (2017) Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ. London: Scribe UK.

Locke, C.C. (2021) Making your Voice Heard: How to Own Your Space, Access Your Inner Power and Become Influential. London: Endeavor Publishing.

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Explanations of individual’s political affiliations which do not take non-material into account are fatally flawed. We simply cannot explain or predict people’s political behaviour without thinking about how support for individuals/parties are affected by, and shape people’s identities, felt exclusion/inclusion, legitimacy, and recognition.

However, when it comes to trying to explain how states will behave in the international system, our theories mostly ignore these factors. Traditionally, scholars have focused on how particular actions are driven by states’ perceptions of their own material interests (or at least their elites). In that context, if/when a state will undermine, challenge, ignore or support the current international order is simply a matter of exploring the costs/benefits it perceives will flow from a specific action.

Using this framework, many scholars and commentators now believe that conflict between the ‘West’ and China is inevitable. China, or any ascending power, will increasingly see it in their material interest to exert their increasing power to challenge an international political order – an order which it did not have a hand in creating and that it sees as being purposely designed to entrench the powers of and enrich the founders of the order. The powerful states which benefit from the existing order, will struggle to accommodate the new power into the old structure, leading to an increasing chance of conflict.

My guest for this episode is Dr Rohan Mukherjee. Rohan thinks that this type of analysis misses a key factor in determining state behaviour – perceived recognition, increases and decreases in a state’s status. Like in domestic politics, explanations which ignore these elements will fail in its predictions. In his excellent new book, Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions, he argues that whether rising powers cooperate with, challenge, or try to reform, an international order depends on the extent to which its core institutions facilitate symbolic equality with the great-power club.

Rohan is in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. Prior to joining the LSE, he was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He received his PhD from Princeton and holds a Masters in Public Administration from its School of Public and International Affairs. He is also a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at MIT’s Security Studies Program, and a non-resident Visiting Fellow at the UN’s University of Tokyo.

Rohan is a thoughtful and creative scholar, and it was a great pleasure to explore how his approach can be applied to understand that the behaviour of China, India, the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where we should expect cooperation, reform or conflict in the international political order, and many other elements in our world today. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!

Citations

Everet, P. (2022) The Trees. Influx Press.

The Expanse TV show produced by the Syfy Network (Series 1-3) and Amazon (Series 4-6) based on novels by James Corey

Lucy Dacus, musician. See Lucy Dacus

Mukherjee, R. (2022) Ascending Order: Rising Powers and Politics of Status in International Institutions (Cambridge Studies in International Relations). Cambridge University Press.

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Search Amazon for the word ‘innovation’ in its ‘Business, Finance & Accounting’ book section, and you will find more than 60,000 volumes. The trick is finding stuff worth reading in this deep and wide ocean of material. The new book, Ideaflow: Why Creative Businesses Win, by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn is just such a book. I welcomed Jeremy to this episode of TRIUM Connects to discuss the book as well as his general views on creativity and innovation. 

In the book, Jeremy and Perry argue that we shouldn’t think of innovation as an event, a workshop, a sprint or a hackathon…but rather as a more general capability that can be learnt and is relevant to everyone. Their core principle is that you need ideas to solve problems – in contrast to completing tasks where you just need to get on with the work. But, instead of obsessing over quality, successful innovators focus on the generation of many ideas. Volume is key. Once you have a sufficient volume, then you run quick and cheap experiments to gather more information, revise and test again. 

Jeremy knows what he is talking about. He is one of the world's leading experts in innovation. As the Director of Executive Education at Stanford's renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka "the d.school"). His courses [K1] have been experienced by nearly a million students of innovation worldwide. He advises corporate leaders on how to embed[K2]  the methods and mindsets of design thinking into their organizations, and works with professionals to cultivate a robust personal creative practice. He also co-hosts the "Stanford Masters of Creativity," program where Jeremy shines the spotlight on exemplars of creative practice across disciplinary boundaries.

What makes Ideaflow a great book, and what I really enjoyed in my conversation with Jeremy, is the concrete, actionable innovation practices described and the fact that they are backed up by solid research and evidence. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Cited Work

McKeown, Greg (2015) Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Virgin Books.

Koestler, A. (2014) The Act of Creation. One 70 Press.

Lotto, B. (2017) Deviate: The Creative Power of Transforming your Perception. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Lucas, B.J. & Nordgren, L.F. (2020) ‘The creative cliff illusion,’ Psychological and Cognitive Sciences: Volume 117 (33), pp 19830-19836.

Mackinnon, D. W. (1962). The personality correlates of creativity: A study of American architects. In G. Nielson (Ed.), Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of

Applied Psychology. Vol. 2. Personality research (pp. 11–39). Munksgaard.

Randolph, M. (2021) That will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life on an Idea. Endeavour.

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