Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz

In 2001, Campbell's Soup was in freefall: the company's value had halved and employee engagement was at an all time low. Doug Conant knew he could salvage the iconic company, but first, things were going to have to get worse. How he used self-taught leadership, diversity, and inclusion to energize his employees and save Campbell's. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marvin Ellison took the tough jobs nobody wanted, and it got him from retail security guard all the way to CEO of two Fortune 500s. Now, when things are precarious, companies like JC Penny and Lowe's call him in. Marvin Ellison says that limiting failure limits success. Find out exactly what he means in this episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jon Acuff is the author of seven best-selling books and the host of the podcast "All It Takes Is A Goal", becoming widely known for his humorous approach to leadership and Christianity. Son of a Baptist minister, Jon worked as a copywriter throughout his twenties, but in 2008 his blog "Stuff Christians Like" caught the attention of personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, who helped Jon launch a new career as an author and speaker. His latest self-help book, released in April 2021, is titled Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mark King has a reputation for turning businesses around by moving fast on innovative, and sometimes expensive, endeavors. Before his current tenure as CEO of Taco Bell, Mark served as president for Adidas' long-stagnant North American division, reinvigorating the brand with major athletic sponsorships and a deal with Kanye West. From 2003 to 2014, King was CEO of TaylorMade, which under his leadership became the most profitable golf company in the world. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How Ajay Banga runs one of the world's largest companies with an unusual leadership philosophy... something he calls "the decency quotient." And how he turned Mastercard from a credit card company into a company that's known for technology and innovation and data and analytics and A.I. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Throughout his life, Chad Sanders found himself having to navigate white culture; at school, in the tech industry, and eventually in his career in entertainment. He learned to cope with the frustration of having to do that by writing, and he wrote his first screenplay at a cafe just across the street from Spike Lee's studio in Brooklyn—where he would run into Spike himself. Chad would come to realize that though his experiences related to racial inequity left him with real trauma, they also equipped him and other Black leaders with certain entrepreneurial skills. Chad writes about these skills in the book Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

General Stanley McChrystal was born into a military family: three generations of men in his family were officers in the armed forces. He followed the family tradition and eventually rose up the ranks to become a General in the Army. While serving as the commander of Allied Forces in Afghanistan in 2010, he was forced to resign after he was quoted making disparaging remarks about President Obama. It was in the wake of this moment that General McChrystal learned the value of leadership. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kenneth Chenault learned early on to only worry about the things he could control, this helped him when life—and business at American Express—threw unpredictable events his way. He broke barriers as the company's first African American CEO and helped turn AmEx from a traveler's check company into a credit card powerhouse. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

David Epstein is a science writer and investigative reporter. His articles have spanned a wide range of topics from crime and violence to athletes using steroids to the intersection of science and the Olympics. And, he's the author of The Sports Gene and Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. But, before all of that, David studied geology and ran on Columbia University's track team as a walk-on. David went from star athlete to discovering that having a wide range of interests leads to more successful outcomes — in sports and in life. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Growing up in a small town in India, Leena Nair overheard her mother say it was too bad her daughter was born a girl, because it meant her smarts and talents would go to waste. But Nair went on to join Hindustan Unilever, becoming the first female manager to work on a factory floor, the first woman to serve on the management committee, and the youngest-ever executive director. As Unilever's Chief Human Resource Officer, she oversaw the company's 170,000-plus global workforce during the COVID-19 crisis - which Nair says was the greatest challenge of her career. From factory floor to the Global Chief Executive Officer of Chanel, becoming a "serial glass ceiling breaker." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.