The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Transformation Economy

In his book, The Cloud Revolution, Mark P. MIlls explains how the conventional wisdom on how technology will change the future is wrong and lays out a radically different and optimistic vision for what’s really coming. According to Mark, a convergence of technologies will instead drive an economic boom over the coming decade, one that historians will characterize as the “Roaring 2020s.” It will come not from any single big invention, but from the confluence of radical advances in three primary technology domains: microprocessors, materials, and machines.

Ron and Ed once again take the show on the road. For the third time, they are honored to appear at the Meeting of the Minds. Aside from taking questions from the attendees, they will have a conversation about an Harvard Business Review article from Joe Pine et al entitled, The “New You” Business. - https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-new-you-business

Inspired by A. J. Jacobs when he appeared on Russ Robert's great podcast EconTalk (and Curly from City Slickers), Ron and Ed have each been keeping a One Thing journal for the last few years. They first shared from this journal back in October 2021, but the time has come to share some more of their best One Things. If you tweet your one things, be sure to include #asktsoe and #OneThing.

Ed and Ron are honored to welcome Natasha Lance Rogoff to The Soul of Enterprise. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the timing appeared perfect to bring Sesame Street to millions of children living in the former Soviet Union. With the Muppets envisioned as ideal ambassadors of Western idealistic values, no one anticipated just how challenging and dangerous this would prove to be. In Muppets in Moscow, Natasha Lance Rogoff brings the story to life. Lance Rogoff, a young American television producer fluent in Russian, was chosen to lead a crew of hundreds of American and Russian artists, producers, educators, writers, and puppeteers to create the Russian adaptation. During the production, against the backdrop of bombings and the assassination of her Russian broadcast partners, Lance Rogoff and the team remained determined to bring laughter, learning, and a new way of seeing the world to children in Russia. In her book, she illuminates how cultural clashes colored nearly every aspect of the production, from the show’s educational framework to scriptwriting to the new Russian Muppets themselves, often pitting Sesame Street’s Western values against nearly four centuries of Russian thought. In spite of the challenges, the show would go on to become a major hit, airing for over a decade. Muppets in Moscow explores post-Soviet societal tensions that continue to thwart the Russian people’s efforts to create a better future for their country. More than just a story of a children’s show, it provides a valuable perspective of Russia’s people, their culture, and their complicated relationship with the West that remains more relevant than ever today.

Rock climbers call certain boulders “problems” and the toughest part “the crux.” Richard Rumelt, in his new book The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists, uses this term to describe a three-part strategic skill: 1) judgment about what is important and what’s secondary; 2) judgment about the difficulties of dealing with these issues; and 3) being able to focus. Join Ed and Ron as they discuss the essentials of strategy.

Ed and Ron are honored to have Dr. David D. Alfery on the show. He is the author of Saving Grace: What Patients Teach Their Doctors about Life, Death, and the Balance in Between. We loved this book, because it will resonate with any professional. From the Introduction: “Many individuals, of course, have professions in which they are privileged to interact with others and to profoundly affect their lives. I was fortunate to be one of them. For all good doctors, the kind you want looking after you, there is a transition where you go from thinking that the patient is there for you, to realizing that you are there for the patient. When you understand that it is an honor to be trusted with another person’s life, medicine becomes your profession rather than your job, and someone you take care of becomes a unique individual with needs rather than a patient with a number. Only then can you fully embrace the shared humanity that binds physicians to their patients.” And from the press release on the book: From the OR to the ICU, cardiac anesthesiologist Dr. David Alfery brings you into a hidden world of medicine. You will witness the exhilaration a physician feels when a life is miraculously saved, the terror when a life is on the line, the shock of an unexpected demise, the grace patients evidence when facing the end of life, the anguish one suffers when a family member is perilously close to dying, and much more. A book that shows what really goes on in acute care medical settings, Saving Grace will help you view your doctor—and your life—in a new light. Please join us for what will no doubt be a very moving and profound discussion.

Ron and Ed are overjoyed to bring back to The Soul of Enterprise Dr. Kimberlee Josephson, associate professor of business at Lebanon Valley College, to talk about some of her more recent work on reputation vs regulation, why work won't love you back, and an update on her thoughts about the ESG movement. If you have questions, please feel free to send them in to asktsoe@verasage.com.

Ed and Ron are honored to host Dr. Jay Baruch, author of Tornado of Life: A Doctor’s Journey through Constraints and Creativity in the ER. When a patient comes into the hospital with cardiac arrest or a compound fracture, doctors know what to do. The problem is evident, and the solution is practically algorithmic. Dr. Baruch contends that the biggest challenge and the biggest part of an ER doctor’s work is often caring for people who come in with not just problems with their body, but also social issues, emotional issues, and substance use issues—and oftentimes all of them at once. In Tornado of Life, we come to see that the toughest part of an emergency physician’s work isn’t the high-wattage drama, the mayhem and the blood, that is portrayed on television, but rather the actual getting to the heart of the patient’s story—and figuring out how to address it. Because they’re real, these stories often end without closure or solutions. Sometimes underlying causes aren’t found. Sometimes serious problems are missed. Some patients leave against doctor’s orders. Some are simply discharged into the night. A profoundly human book, Tornado of Life is poised to change the way we view doctors, illness, and the “emotional and moral contact sport” that is emergency medicine. Join us for what will be a profoundly human discussion.

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An annual favorite going back to 2015, Ron and Ed talked about the best books they read each year. Sometimes there is overlap, other times none. (I suspect overlap this year!) Let’s start with a quote: “One must always be careful of books, said Tessa, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.” ? Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel