New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

Today I talked to Max Bazerman about his book Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop (Princeton UP, 2022).Remember Saturday Night Live’s satirical TV spot for Ivanka Trump’s perfume, Complicit? Talk about a timely topic. In what is Bazerman’s third book on ethics, the focus is on the people who surround an “evil” doer and enable or allow harmful behavior to occur. From the implosion of FTX under the funky leadership of Sam Bankman-Fried, to Elizabeth Holes at Theranos or Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers, there is always a large supporting cast of those who trade on privilege, defer to authority, or have their trust exploited. Indeed, in this interview Bazerman touches on seven different profiles in complicity that serve as a counterpoint to JFK’s book, Profiles in Courage. What solutions does Bazerman offer? Besides changing the culture of an institution or company, one particular way forward is to amass co-whistleblowers by creating “informal escrows” so that the victims of perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein don’t have to go it alone in raising what might politely be called “legitimate concerns.”Max Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Besides being the author of books like Blind Spots and Decision Leadership and an expert on the art of negotiations, he describes himself as a “gritty city kid from Pittsburgh.”Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His newest book is Emotionomics 2.0: The Emotional Dynamics Underlying Key Business Goals. To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Katherine Blunt, who writes about renewable energy and utilities for the Wall Street Journal, talks about her new book, California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. The book tells the fascinating story of how declining performance at an electrical utility eventually led to wildfires and staggering loss of human life. Blunt and Vinsel also talk about what this story means for the future of electricity utilities in the face of global climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Venkatesh Rao is a writer and consultant based in Los Angeles. The bulk of his consulting practice comprises 1:1 work with senior executives as a conversational sparring partner, to stress test and improve the rigor and quality of their ongoing thinking about their evolving challenges.The Art of Gig is a two-volume guide to the modern gig economy, with particular emphasis on independent consulting. It is intended to serve as a philosophical companion for a life of free agency and help you develop a sensibility of work attuned to both the poetry and practicalities of life beyond paychecks. The essays included in these volumes were originally published over two years in a weekly email newsletter. They have been carefully updated, sequenced, and structured for this compilation. This first volume, Foundations, comprises thirty-two essays that aim to help you develop a solid grasp of the fundamentals of surviving and thriving in the gig economy. Topics include: getting oriented, bootstrapping, managing perceptions, mental fitness, and sparring with executives.The second volume, Superstructures, covers themes that become salient once strong foundations are in place.You can find Venkatesh at ribbonfarm.com, venkateshrao.com, on Twitter @vgr, and on Substack at https://studio.ribbonfarm.com/. Joseph Fridman is a researcher, science communicator, media producer, and educational organizer. You can follow him on Twitter @joseph_fridman, or reach him at his website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Samantha Kleinberg, an associate professor of computer science at Stevens Institute of Technology, talks about a book she’s been writing on how we can (and can’t) use information to make better decisions with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. Kleinberg and Vinsel also talk about barriers to artificial intelligence getting dramatically better anytime soon, and why ideas, like “the singularity,” are mere fantasies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leidy, professor of engineering at the University of Virginia, talks about his book, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. As Klotz shows throughout the book, we pile on “to-dos” but don’t consider “stop-doings.” We create incentives for good behavior, but don’t get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated ones. Every day, across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: we don’t subtract. Klotz’s work sits at a fascinating intersection between engineering, design, and experimental psychology. His pioneering research shows us what is true whether we’re building Lego models, cities, or strategic plans: Our minds tend to add before taking away, and this is holding us back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimon and Richard speak with Cormac Russell, Managing Director at Nurture Development. Cormac focuses on helping institutions, NGOs, governmental organizations, and companies interested in improving their communities. The biggest issue that Cormac encounters in these organizations is a problem with disconnection. In this interview, Cormac discusses his work to overcome disconnection and bring people together.Before he began his work as a community organizer and developer, Cormac wanted to become a psychologist. He worked in childcare, helping kids with mental health issues. Many of the issues he saw that these kids faced became most prominent as they were transitioning from the hospital setting back into their local communities. Cormac realized that the old adage: “it takes a village” rang very true.Cormac soon discovered the work and ideas of John L. McKnight, co-founder of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University. John has since become a mentor and a co-author with Cormac, focusing on the core issues facing local communities. Their approach is bottom-up and people-centered with an emphasis on localism.Cormac was driven to help start Nurture Development, which focused on community development from the inside out. He has grown the company today to the point where it now has a footprint in 36 countries.In his current work, Cormac argues that organizations operating in a particular area should pay attention to more than just its straightforward objective. For example, he discusses how police departments tasked with arresting people should also care about the root causes that lead to crime in the first place. If the goal of a police department is to produce less crime, it should redirect some of its resources toward community-building instead of just boosting enforcement.Cormac emphasizes that many problems faced by organizations are not ones of leadership. Rather, there are not enough people who are focused on connecting or convening those in the broader community. With more people out there whose role it is to connect, the job of the leaders is made much easier. Connectors, like Cormac, offer a more local and granular perspective than a typical leader who is focused on a birds-eye-view of any issue.Cormac makes a case for “thinking like a social movement” while “behaving like an entrepreneur.” He gives the example of a neighborhood in Birmingham, UK. Cormac worked with locals from the neighborhood to embark on a listening campaign to hear directly from the people. In the course of the listening campaign, they found 93 people in the neighborhood who were identified as connectors. These connectors were then brought together and given access to training and community-development materials to help them directly address the problems they saw themselves. Cormac discusses other examples in the interview of how to bring together communities using a bottom-up and inside-out approach. He is not your standard entrepreneur focused on the bottom line. Rather, Cormac uses entrepreneurial tools to address social issues. The ultimate measure of success is in the long-term growth and development of the community.Cormac Russell is a social explorer, an author and a much sought-after speaker. He is the Founding Director of Nurture Development and a member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, at DePaul University, Chicago.Find links to past episodes here.About our Hosts:Kimon FountoukidisRichard Lucas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As I slowly settle into 2023 — reflecting on the blur that was 2022 — I can’t help but think about the complex problems (aka big messes!) we face at every turn: from increasingly devastating manifestations of the climate emergency, to the ubiquitous homelessness crisis, to the perplexing challenge of accessing a family physician in prosperous regions such as British Columbia, Canada. At the same time I am buoyed by the promise of Systems Thinking. Systems practices can take many forms and have the potential to inform — and guide us through — sensible, comprehensive and creative problem-solving.Here on this channel, we have explored some of the origins of systems and cybernetics by talking to knowledgeable experts from across the globe. Today’s systems thinkers and practitioners are building upon a rich tradition, and are activating systems lineages in incredibly interesting ways. I’ve recently been drawn to works that highlight the application of systems — especially those with intriguing connections to other disciplines. The book that is the subject of this episode does just that by exploring the intersection of systems and design thinking. Design Journeys for Complex Systems: Practice Tools for Systemic Design (Bis Publishers, 2022) is a designer's handbook to learn systemic design tools to engage stakeholder groups in collaborative design to address complex societal systems.Authors Peter Jones and Kristel Van Ael describe how systemic design uses systems thinking and service design to address large-scale societal contexts and complex socio-technical systems. These are contexts characterized by social and technological complexity, high uncertainty, and often problematic outcomes. They describe the function of design as “system sensemaking” and using a tour guide metaphor, the book trains people's mindsets and provides tools for dealing with hyper complexity, to enable understanding of systemic problems, and to build capacity to collaborate in teams to produce action proposals.A little bit about the authors of Design Journeys for Complex Systems:Dr. Peter Jones teaches systemic design and health service design in the MDes programs at Toronto’s OCAD University, is a co-founder of the Systemic Design Association. Kristel Van Ael is a business partner at Namahn, a humanity-centered design agency based in Brussels, and is lead author of the Service Design and Systemic Design toolkits.It was a pleasure to talk to Peter and Kristel. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Disruption resulting from the proliferation of AI is coming. The authors of the bestselling Prediction Machines describe what you can do to prepare. Banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, medical technology, retail. Artificial intelligence (AI) has made its way into many industries around the world. But the truth is, it has just begun its odyssey toward cheaper, better, and faster predictions to drive strategic business decisions--powering and accelerating business. When prediction is taken to the max, industries transform. The disruption that comes with such transformation is yet to be felt--but it is coming. How do businesses prepare? In Prediction Machines, eminent economists Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb explained the simple yet game-changing economics of AI. Now, in Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence (HBR Press, 2022), they go further to reveal AI as a prediction technology directly impacting decision-making and to teach businesses how to identify disruptive opportunities and threats resulting from AI. Their exhaustive study of new developments in artificial intelligence and the past history of how technologies have disrupted industries highlights the striking phase we are now in: after witnessing the power of this new technology and before its widespread adoption--what they call "the Between Times." While there continue to be important opportunities for businesses, there are also threats of disruption. As prediction machines improve, old ways of doing things will be upended. Also, the process by which AI filters into the many systems involved in application is very uneven. That process will have winners and losers. How can businesses leverage, or protect, their positions? Filled with illuminating insights, rich examples, and practical advice, Power and Prediction is the must-read guide for any business leader or policy maker on how to make the coming AI disruptions work for you rather than against you.Interviewee Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Avi is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab and the CDL Rapid Screening Consortium, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute and the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Avi’s research focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy.He has published academic articles in marketing, statistics, law, management, medicine, political science, refugee studies, physics, computing, and economics. Avi is a former Senior Editor at Marketing Science. His work on online advertising won the INFORMS Society of Marketing Science Long Term Impact Award. He testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on competition and privacy in digital advertising. His work has been referenced in White House reports, European Commission documents, the New York Times, the Economist, and elsewhere.Peter Lorentzen is economics professor at the University of San Francisco. He heads USF's Applied Economics Master's program, which focuses on the digital economy. His research is mainly on China's political economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Devon Powers, a professor of advertising, media, and communication at Temple University, talks about her book, On Trend: The Business of Forecasting the Future with Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel. Powers’ book examines the world of futurists, cool hunters, and forecasters who sell people advice about tomorrow. Powers and Vinsel discuss about how we should think about the influence of such individuals, given that their predictions are often misleading and inaccurate. They also talk how the making of futures can become more just and inclusive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Richard and Kimon speak with Rudradeb Mitra, CEO and founder of Omdena. He was born in India, moving to England as an adult to complete a master's degree at Cambridge. He worked as an AI researcher and then at a start-up before realizing that making money was not his primary goal in life.Rudradeb saw that there were many issues in the AI community and tech world, including biases in hiring and general social networking problems. As he explains, when a company is looking to hire, they focus on certain characteristics, backgrounds, and experiences that may overlook plenty of smart and talented engineers.The main idea behind Omdena was to create a collaborative platform where AI researchers and engineers could crowdsource problem-solving and demonstrate their skills. In nearly four years of operation, Omdena has run over 320 projects with 120 start-ups and non-profit organizations. More than 10,000 people from 105 countries have worked on these projects, participating in local Omdena chapters in over 60 countries. Every month, around 2,000 people apply to work on approximately 20-25 new projects .Omdena helps pair people to particular programs, keeps track of the best performers, and then helps the top-tier talent find paid work. When a person first signs up for Omdena, they are first given access to educational resources and projects that will help them learn. After completion, they can begin participating in new projects. Success in these projects will then lead to paid work projects with start-ups.Omdena is unlike many organizations, and it is perhaps best to think of it as a mix between a business and a school. Many people who are members are using it as a resource to gain practical experience, the type of education that is not often emphasized at universities. This practice work is usually to support non-profits or other charitable projects. Outcomes from these projects can then be used to get paid work for a large, for-profit company or a start-up.Throughout the interview, Rudradeb talks about the ideas, both philosophical and practical, that have influenced him in his endeavors. At the end of the interview, he describes the importance of focus, building a strong and unified culture, and travel.Rudradeb Mitra is founder and CEO of Omdena.Omdena is a collaborative platform with over 10,000 data scientists, data engineers, and domain experts from 105 countries. Large development organizations (non-corporations) like the UN, UNHCR, WRI, World Energy Council, and the World Food Program, as well as impact startups from 60+ countries have worked with Omdena.Find links to past episodes here.About our Hosts:Kimon Fountoukidis:Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. He founded both companies in the mid-90s with zero capital, and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. He is passionate about sharing his success with others and working entrepreneurs of all kinds to help them achieve their goals. Listen to his story here. Kimon's on Twitter here.Richard Lucas:Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who has founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network.Richard has been a TEDx event organiser for years, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels. He was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991, where he continues to invest in promising companies and helps other entrepreneurs realise their dreams. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here. Richard is on Twitter here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices