Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson

As much as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best and worst in human behavior, it has also brought out the best and worst in business behavior. This virtual series seeks to learn from the ethical successes and failures of business during the pandemic to guide the future promise and purpose of business. 

Series facilitators, Christopher Michaelson and Harry Van Buren III, the Barbara and David A. Koch Endowed Chair of Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business, convene nationally recognized thought leaders from business, medicine, academia, and civil society to explore ethical challenges that faced and continue to face business. 

In part three of this series, Michaelson and Van Buren are joined by Joanne Ciulla, Professor and Director of the Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers Business School, and Doug Lepisto, Associate Professor of Management and Co-Director of the Center for Principled Leadership and Business Strategy at Western Michigan University Haworth College of Business, to discuss how to distinguish essential from non-essential workers in an intersected global economy as well as how businesses should attract and retain workers during and after the Great Resignation. 

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

As much as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best and worst in human behavior, it has also brought out the best and worst in business behavior. This virtual series seeks to learn from the ethical successes and failures of business during the pandemic to guide the future promise and purpose of business

Series facilitators, Christopher Michaelson and Harry Van Buren III, the Barbara and David A. Koch Endowed Chair of Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business, convene nationally recognized thought leaders from business, medicine, academia, and civil society to explore ethical challenges that faced and continue to face business. 

In part two of this series, Michaelson and Van Buren are joined by MayKao Y. Hang, University of St. Thomas Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Founding Dean Morrison Family College of Health, to discuss how businesses can support or harm public health as well as better understand the tensions healthcare businesses face simultaneously advancing profitability and increasing access to care. 

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

As much as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best and worst in human behavior, it has also brought out the best and worst in business behavior. This discussion series seeks to learn from the ethical successes and failures of business during the pandemic to guide the future promise and purpose of business. 

Series facilitators, Christopher Michaelson and Harry Van Buren III, the Barbara and David A. Koch Endowed Chair of Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business, convene nationally recognized thought leaders from business, medicine, academia, and civil society to explore ethical challenges that faced and continue to face business. 

In part one of this series, Michaelson and Van Buren are joined by Alison Taylor, Executive Director Ethical Systems at NYU Stern School of Business, and Ed Freeman, University of Virgina Darden School of Business Elis & Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration, and Academic Director of the Institute for Business in Society, to discuss profit and price-gouging during the pandemic and to what extent the cost of doing business has been externalized onto stakeholders.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

Work in Progress with Christopher Michaelson, discusses every working person’s work in progress, namely, our quest to be fully human in a working world that all too often makes us feel like machines, in which we often don’t even have time to think, and that, in the words of Studs Terkel, too often feels like “a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”

Our ninth podcast episode airs with host Michaelson discussing the meaning and purpose of work with Hubert Joly, who not only has written a book that he published in 2021 called The Heart of Business, but who has also had to practice what he preaches in an executive career that culminated in being the CEO of consumer electronics retailer Best Buy from 2012 through 2019. Joly’s work at Best Buy and elsewhere earned him numerous "best CEO" accolades and put the company at the top of Barron’s "most sustainable companies" list. 

With special thanks for the support of the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

The Melrose Twin Cities Principled Leadership Award was established in 2021 to honor Ken Melrose, namesake of the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership and fervent champion of ethics and servant leadership as well as promote an aspirational vision of responsible and responsive leadership in practice.

The three inaugural awardees represent differing areas of ongoing service in a professional setting yet share a common commitment to purposefully and positively impacting the Twin Cities community. The awardees’ individual unique areas of focus help further illuminate business’s role in society not only as an economic driver but as a creator and enduring mechanism with the power to ensure a just, equitable, healthy society. Listen and learn more about each worthy awardee, their incredible passion and service to the common good.

The inaugural awardees are (in no particular order, simply listed by order of their interviews on the podcast):

Minnesota Frontline Healthcare Workers, accepting the award on behalf of the workers is Caroline Njau, Senior Vice President Patient Care Services & Chief Nursing Officer at Children's Minnesota.

Omar Williams, Chair, 3M Employee Resource Network: Black Leadership Advancement Coalition (3M BLAC); 3M Area Business Leader: Precision Grinding & Finishing, US & Canada.

Galon Miller, CEO of Cyber Intelligence Cyber Security, LLC; Founder and Executive Director of Cyber Warrior Foundation, Inc.; Consultant for Project Got Your Back; & Partnership with Eagle Group of Minnesota Veterans.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

Work in Progress with Christopher Michaelson, discusses every working person’s work in progress, namely, our quest to be fully human in a working world that all too often makes us feel like machines, in which we often don’t even have time to think, and that, in the words of Studs Terkel, too often feels like “a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”

Our seventh podcast episode airs with host Michaelson and two guests: Artistic Director for the Minneapolis-based Guthrie Theater, Joe Haj, and playwright, Lavina Jadhwani, adaptor for the Guthrie's 47th annual A Christmas Carol play. 

Michaelson, Haj and Jadhwani discuss the beloved Charles Dickens' story, A Christmas Carol, exploring the play's deeper themes of social and economic justice thoughtfully scripted and packaged in this holiday classic.  

With special thanks for the support of the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

As the nation approaches the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the podcast features a multipart series that includes interviews with survivors of the terrorist attacks exploring the question, ‘What can the lives that were tragically lost during the 9/11 attacks still teach us about living and working meaningfully?’”

This series includes conversations with Fred Price, an executive from investment firm Piper Sandler, which lost 66 people on 9/11; representatives of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Jackie Zins and Stacy Pervall; and, with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas of Babson College, with whom Michaelson has collaborated on research about meaningful work.

In part three of this series, Christopher Michaelson and former representatives of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, attorneys Jackie Zins and Stacy Pervall, discuss the extremely difficult work of monetizing a human life.

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) provides compensation to individuals (or a personal representative of a deceased individual) who were present at the World Trade Center or the surrounding New York City Exposure Area; the Pentagon crash site; and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site, at some point between September 11, 2001, and May 30, 2002, and who have since been diagnosed with a 9/11-related illness.  The VCF is not limited to first responders.  Compensation is also available to those who worked or volunteered in construction, clean-up, and debris removal; as well as people who lived, worked, or went to school in the exposure zone.   

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

As the nation approaches the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the podcast features a multipart series that includes interviews with survivors of the terrorist attacks exploring the question, ‘What can the lives that were tragically lost during the 9/11 attacks still teach us about living and working meaningfully?’”

This series includes conversations with Fred Price, an executive from investment firm Piper Sandler, which lost 66 people on 9/11; representatives of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Jackie Zins and Stacy Pervall; and, with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas of Babson College, with whom Michaelson has collaborated on research about meaningful work.

In part two of this series, Christopher Michaelson speaks with Fred Price,  managing director in the financial services group at Piper Sandler. Price was a managing principal and a founding principal of Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., as well as a member of the firm's executive committee when the World Trade Center was attacked on 9/11.  He has been extensively involved in the firm's capital markets activities and provides senior oversight to the firm's client support services and other business affairs.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

As the nation approaches the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the podcast features a multipart series that includes interviews with survivors of the terrorist attacks exploring the question, ‘What can the lives that were tragically lost during the 9/11 attacks still teach us about living and working meaningfully?’”

This series includes conversations with Fred Price, an executive from investment firm Piper Sandler, which lost 66 people on 9/11; representatives of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Jackie Zins and Stacy Pervall; and, with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas of Babson College, with whom Michaelson has collaborated on research about meaningful work.

In part one of this series, Christopher Michaelson has a discussion with academic colleague and research collaborator, Jennifer Tosti-Kharas. Tosti-Kharas is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Babson College. She teaches organizational behavior and leadership in the undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs. Prior to joining Babson, she was an Assistant Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. Jen earned her Ph.D. in Management with an emphasis on Organizational Behavior from New York University's Stern School of Business, and her B.S. in Economics with concentrations in Management and Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Jen's research explores career development, with a focus on meaningful work and work as a calling.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti

Work in Progress with Christopher Michaelson, discusses every working person’s work in progress, namely, our quest to be fully human in a working world that all too often makes us feel like machines, in which we often don’t even have time to think, and that, in the words of Studs Terkel, too often feels like “a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”

Our third podcast episode airs with host Michaelson and two guests: Playwright, novelist, screenwriter, Pulitzer Prize winner, and the author of Homeland Elegies, Ayad Akhtar as well as the reviewer of Homeland Elegies, Associate Professor of Ethics and Executive Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics in Financial Services at The American College of Financial Services, Azish Filabi, JD. 

Michaelson, Akhtar and Filabi discuss Akhtar's recent book, Homeland Elegies, exploring the role capitalism played - and continues to play - in simultaneously building and crushing lives in the name of the American dream. 

This book review has also been published in The Journal of Business Ethics (JBE) to answer two questions: "Is this book worth reading?" and "What ideas or questions will this book illuminate for anyone with interest in business ethics?" 

To advance dialogue between scholars and the public about business ethics and society, this review will be free to access at JBE for a period of 8 weeks, ending September 30, 2021.

With special thanks for the support of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics in Financial Services at the American College of Financial Services and the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.
  • Produced by Britt Cruz
  • Engineered by Tom Forliti