123. How to make good ideas great and great ideas scale with John A. List

American economist and author John A. List joins us to discuss his new book, ‘The Voltage Effect: How to make good ideas great and great ideas scale’. John is the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. His research includes over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and several published textbooks.

He has also worked both in government and the private sector as chief economist for Uber, Lyft, and now Walmart. His book argues that scaling is subject to the so-called ‘Anna Karenina principle’–meaning that even if one factor is wrong, the entire endeavor will fail.

In this conversation with Yuval Atsmon, a senior partner in our London office, John explores ways in which business leaders can assess whether an idea has the power–or ‘the voltage’ to use his phrase–to successfully scale.

You can learn more about John’s book here: https://www.thevoltageeffect.com/

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