Outthinkers

Bill George is one of the most influential leadership thinkers of our time. A former CEO of Medtronic and long-time Harvard Business School professor, he’s served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Novartis, and the Mayo Clinic. His books including True North and True North: Emerging Leader Edition—have shaped how thousands of leaders approach purpose, values, and character.When performance pressure rises, it’s easy for leaders to drift from their values chasing quarterly metrics, external validation, and “style” over substance. Bill argues the opposite: sustainable performance springs from purpose, self-awareness, and a culture people believe in. We explore how to stay grounded as expectations, visibility, and success scale.You’ll learn how authentic leaders make the hard calls without becoming “nice at the expense of necessary,” choose metrics that drive meaning (not gaming), and build teams that keep you honest, learning, and aligned.In this episode we cover:•Authentic leadership: what it is and isn’t•Purpose-first strategy•The Medtronic metric: measuring outcomes people feel, not just inputs•Making tough people & portfolio decisions without losing your values•Building your leadership circle for honest feedback & growth•Short-term vs. long-term: preventing KPI gaming and hollow winsEpisode Timeline00:00 Introduction to Outthinkers Podcast00:35 Bill George on Medtronic's Impact01:40 Bill George's Leadership Journey05:00 Defining Strategy and Purpose10:32 Authentic Leadership Explained12:45 Challenges and Examples of Leadership16:04 Personal Growth and Leadership20:53 Developing Self-Awareness as a Leader22:15 Facing Crucibles: Overcoming Tough Times23:47 Exercises for Self-Discovery25:33 The Power of Small Groups27:32 Long-Standing Support Systems29:28 Assessing Leadership Values33:01 Effective Metrics for Leadership39:56 Engaging with Bill GeorgeAdditional Resources•Bill George — Website: https://www.billgeorge.org•LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamwgeorge/•Book: True North: Emerging Leader Edition•Book: True North•Kaihan Krippendorff: https://www.outthinker.comThank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Join Jon Levy, a behavioral scientist and author, as he delves into the secrets of high-performing teams. He explains that the smallest unit of performance is the team, debunking the myth that star players guarantee success. Discover the concept of 'glue players'—team-first multipliers who enhance performance. Levy emphasizes the importance of culture as an operating system and the power of clear communication patterns. Trust, not just individual traits, drives team effectiveness, and he provides strategies for making implicit skills explicit.

Christina Farr, an investor and former health-tech journalist, discusses the power of storytelling in business. She reveals how narratives can outperform data in attracting investors and customers. Christina introduces her SOAP framework—Surprise, Openness, Authenticity, and Pathos—designed to craft compelling messages. The conversation dives into classic narrative plots like the 'David vs. Goliath' story and shares real-world examples from Apple and Tesla. She emphasizes effective origin stories and the impact of storytelling on company culture and strategy.

In this special in-person conversation recorded at Adobe’s global headquarters, host Kaihan Krippendorff sits down with Malte Bernholz, Vice President of Strategy and Incubation at Adobe.Malte brings a unique lens, combining years of experience in consulting and technology leadership, to unpack what might be the most significant technological shift of our lifetime. Together, Kaihan and Malte explore:The macro forces and creative trends redefining industries in the age of AIWhy this moment rivals—and perhaps surpasses—the dot-com boom in its impactHow AI is both lowering the floor of creativity, making it easier for anyone to create, and raising the ceiling, expanding what’s possible for professionalsHow personalization at scale is transforming customer experiencesAnd what this means for the future of brands, creativity, and human originalityIt’s a conversation about courage, imagination, and leadership at the edge of technological change.And for the first time, you can watch this conversation as well as listen—check out the video version on Outthinker.com or YouTube.Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Mark Crowley is a longtime financial services leader who led consistently top-performing teams over a 25-year career. He’s the author of Lead From the Heart and the newly released The Power of Employee Well-being, a frequent contributor to Fast Company, and host of the Lead From the Heart podcast. In 2013, Mark was the first to publicize Gallup’s finding that only 30% of U.S. employees were engaged—helping ignite a decade-long debate about what truly drives performance.In this conversation, we explore why feelings and emotions—not dashboards—drive behavior, how the heart–brain connection shapes decisions at work, and why belonging outperforms “boss quality” as a predictor of retention. Mark connects lived leadership to research—from Oxford’s wellbeing–productivity link to HeartMath’s work on coherence—and shows how caring (not coddling) creates the conditions for sustained results.Whether you lead a business unit, a project team, or a transformation office, this episode will reframe how you raise performance by raising wellbeing—with specific, near-term moves any leader can make this week.In this episode we cover:Why traditional engagement efforts flatline—and why wellbeing is the more powerful lever for performanceThe Oxford evidence: how self-reported wellbeing maps directly to productivity in real workBelonging > boss quality as a driver of retention—and how leaders actually build itCaring vs. being nice: creating psychological and emotional safety without lowering the barA practical definition of strategy: know where you’re going, plan with rigor, pivot fast when reality disagreesEpisode Timeline:00:00 – Introduction01:10 – Guest introduction and the case for feelings over dashboards03:05 – “If you really know me…” and how Mark learned to lead from the heart06:45 – Managing differently: proof from 25 years of top-performing teams09:30 – Mark’s definition of strategy: plan hard, pivot faster12:20 – Why wellbeing (not satisfaction) sets the stage for peak performance15:10 – What wellbeing actually is—and why managers determine most of it18:05 – Up to 95% of behavior is emotion-driven: implications for leaders20:30 – Engagement stalled; the Oxford call-center study on wellbeing → productivity25:40 – Caring vs. nice; HeartMath and the science of coherence31:00 – Selecting and developing leaders who elevate others (not just individual stars)36:10 – Belonging as the #1 driver of retention—and how to create it39:20 – Where to start: know yourself, clarify values, design team-first systems42:15 – Reward the team first (then individuals) to eliminate zero-sum competition44:10 – How to keep learning from Mark + closeAdditional Resources:Website: https://markccrowley.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markccrowleyBooks: Lead From the Heart; The Power of Employee WellbeingPodcast: Lead From the HeartThank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Eddie Fishman is a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, adjunct professor of International & Public Affairs, and author of Choke Points: How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War. A former U.S. State Department strategist, he served on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and led Russia/Europe sanctions policy—bringing a rare, in-the-room perspective to how economic power really works.In this conversation, we trace how “choke points”—where one nation dominates and substitutes are scarce—have turned minerals, microchips, and money flows into the quiet weapons of great-power rivalry. Eddie unpacks the geo-economic “impossible trinity”—why you can’t maximize interdependence, economic security, and geopolitical calm all at once—and what that trade-off means for leaders making bets on AI, batteries, and supply chains.Whether you’re steering strategy, procurement, or policy, this episode will change how you spot fragile dependencies, anticipate where pressure will build next, and engage policymakers before the rules harden around you.In this episode we cover:Why a true “choke point” = dominance plus low substitutability The geo-economic impossible trinity and its implications for business strategyWhere the next choke points may emerge: AI compute, batteries/EVs, and the energy transitionThe firm’s role: don’t just adapt to policy—shape it (how to engage upstream, practically)Industrial policy realities: U.S. moves on rare earths and semis—benefits, risks, and tolerance for failureEpisode Timeline:00:00 – Cold open: rare earths and leverage02:00 – Guest introduction and Eddie’s background05:45 - Strategy as “winning tomorrow,” not just today07:02 - Defining choke points (dominance + substitution)11:20 - The “impossible trinity” explained with historical arcs27:05 - Should firms adapt or shape policy?30:05 - Emerging choke points: AI chips, batteries, EVs38:05 - U.S. industrial policy (MP Materials, Intel) and what comes nextAdditional Resources:Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726149/chokepoints-by-edward-fishman/X (Twitter): https://x.com/edwardfishman?lang=enLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-fishmanThank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

In this engaging discussion, Scott Anthony, a Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and expert on disruptive innovation, delves into how disruption has shaped human history. He draws parallels between historical events like the invention of gunpowder and modern innovations, emphasizing lessons for today's leaders. Scott reveals how understanding patterns of disruption can empower organizations rather than instill fear. He outlines the roles essential for fostering innovation and shares insights that encourage proactive decision-making in a rapidly changing world.

Adam Brotman, former Chief Digital Officer of Starbucks and co-CEO of J.Crew, dives into the mindset needed for AI-first leadership. He shares insights from his conversations with tech visionary Bill Gates, emphasizing AI as a tool for enhancing decision quality rather than just productivity. Brotman discusses the challenging 'middle era' of AI and how leaders must adapt their strategies. He stresses that authentic inspiration, not technical know-how, is vital for CEOs to drive meaningful AI transformation across their organizations.

Our guest today is Julia Austin—former senior leader at Akamai, VMware, and DigitalOcean, with decades of experience helping organizations make the leap from startup to scale. She’s also studied and guided countless founders as a professor at Harvard Business School. Julia now distills those lessons in her new book, After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup.In this conversation you’ll discover what separates ventures that thrive from those that stall. Every company begins with a spark, but too often innovators fall in love with ideas, overbuild too soon, or underestimate the hard realities of scaling and culture. Julia draws from experience spanning tech giants and countless startups to reveal how leaders can move from inspiration to momentum—and sustain innovation even as complexity grows.You’ll learn practical frameworks and stories for transforming early insights into long-term impact. Whether you’re a founder, strategist, or innovator inside an established business, this conversation offers tools for approaching discovery, scaling, and culture design.In this episode we cover:Four types of scrappy experiments every innovator should run: ethnographic, “be the bot,” Wizard of Oz, and low fidelity prototypesHow to know if there’s really a there there in your marketBalancing beachheads and total addressable markets while keeping unit economics in checkBuilding competitive advantages through team, domain expertise, and partnershipsHow to design org structures and cultures that reward experimentation and embrace productive failureEpisode Timeline:00:00 — Highlight from today’s episode 01:18 — Introducing Julia Austin and today’s topic 04:45 — “If you really know me…” Julia’s art background 06:30 — Julia’s definition of strategy as a “living, breathing map” 09:15 — Lessons from Akamai and VMware on scaling from startup to global enterprise 14:50 — The importance of discovery: why slowing down helps you go faster 21:05 — Four types of experiments: ethnographic, be the bot, Wizard of Oz, low fidelity 33:40 — Testing markets: TAM, beachheads, and unit economics 42:20 — Building competitive advantage beyond the idea 49:15 — Designing cultures that keep innovation alive at scale 55:45 — Why celebrating failure fuels long-term breakthroughs 01:02:10 — Julia’s book After the Idea and how to connect with herAdditional Resources:Book Website: https://www.aftertheideabook.com/ Julia Austin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaaustinThank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Martin Reeves is Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute and author of The Imagination Machine and his newest book, Like: The Button That Changed the World. A prolific strategist and researcher, Martin is known for uncovering practical lessons from unexpected places and helping leaders rethink innovation for the real world.In this conversation, we trace the surprising story of the “like” button—how a few lines of JavaScript, cultural quirks, and serendipitous accidents reshaped business models, advertising, and even human behavior. Martin reveals why most groundbreaking ideas don’t emerge from lone geniuses, but from messy communities, chance encounters, and recombinations of old ideas into something new.Whether you’re leading innovation at scale or just curious about the unintended consequences of technology, this episode will change how you think about creativity, feedback, and the ripple effects of small decisions.In this episode we cover:Why the “like” button is the ultimate case study in serendipitous innovationHow social signals scale beyond social media into CX, commerce, and B2B servicesThe role of culture, language, and naming in shaping adoption and meaningWhy second-order effects of innovation often matter more than first-order onesA practical lens for spotting and leveraging serendipity inside organizationsEpisode Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 02:00 – Guest Introduction 03:45 – Toaster Projects and Innovation06:13 - Origins of the Like Button08:25 - Cultural History of the Thumbs Up Gesture14:31 - Multiple Inventors and Facebook's Role34:27 - Inside the Code: How Likes Work36:11 - Future Implications of Like TechnologyAdditional Resources:Book Website: LikeBook.orgMartin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-reevesBook: Like: The Button That Changed the WorldThank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast