New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

Robert Rosenkranz was described by Bill Bowder as “the most powerful titan on Wall Street you’ve probably never heard of." As CEO of Delphi Capital Management the value of its assets under management grew to U$20 billion, and its value grew 100 fold.While his book The Stoic Capitalist (Bloomsbury, 2025) – has the tag line “advice for the exceptionally ambitious” there are powerful lessons that anyone can take from his story.In the podcast, we hear about the power and impact of the negative role models his unemployed father and communist mother played, leading to intense financial stress Robert wanted to avoid in his own life.Robert shares many aspects of how a stoic philosophy guided him and can guide others.--The positive influence of his extensive reading of the biographies of those who succeeded--The important of regarding obstacles as opportunities for growth--The value of focussing on areas we have control over--The value of time--The importance of reason over emotion, without ignoring the importance and impact of emotions on decision making processes--When and how to take risk and go “all in”--How to interview people--The important of selecting the right partners in life and business--His own approach to philanthropy, including his work supporting research into Longevity, modern art, and the debate of ideas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The secret insights of economics, translated for the rest of us. Should I buy or rent? Do I ask for a promotion? Should I tell people I’m pregnant? What salary do I deserve? Should I just quit this job? Common anxieties about life are often grounded in economics. In an increasingly win-lose society, these economic decisions—where to work, where to live, even how to live—have a way of feeling fixed and mistakes terminal. Daryl Fairweather is no stranger to these dynamics. As the first Black woman to receive an economics PhD from the famed University of Chicago, she saw firsthand how concepts of behavioral economics and game theory were deployed in the real world—and in her own life—to great effect. Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work (U Chicago Press, 2025) combines Fairweather’s elite knowledge of these principles with her singular voice in describing how they can be harnessed. Her great talent, unique among economists, is her ability to articulate economic trends in a way that is not just informative, but also accounts for life’s other anxieties. In Hate the Game, Fairweather fixes her expertise and service on navigating the earliest economic inflection points of adult life: whether to go to college and for how long; partnering, having kids, both, or neither; getting, keeping, and changing jobs; and where to live and how to pay for it. She speaks in actionable terms about what the economy means for individual people, especially those who have the sneaking suspicion they’re losing out. Set against her own experiences and enriched with lessons from history, science, and pop culture, Fairweather instructs readers on how to use game theory and behavioral science to map out options and choose directions while offering readers a sense of control and agency in an economy where those things are increasingly rare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Kay's The Corporation in the 21st Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told about Business Is Wrong (Yale UP, 2025) is an accessible and entertaining reappraisal of what business is for and how it works. Full of history and written in a compelling narrative style, this book describes a shift in the underlying assumptions of the relationship between capital & labor. Kay describes how and why we have come to "love the product" as we also "hate the producer". Kay discusses areas of particular change such as the relationship between business & finance, the concept of the "hollow" corporation, what we mean when we say "growth", and the motivations and standards of industry leaders. Old ideas of owning the means of production are redundant as workers are increasingly the means of production. Capital is now often a disconnected service contracted from a specialized supplier, and businesses are run by professional managers whose main skill is exerting authority.Author recommended reading: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard RumeltHosted by Meghan Cochran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable (City Lights Books, 2025) is a groundbreaking investigation of factory farms and the unprecedented measures being taken to hide their impact -- on animals, public health, and the environment -- from the public.Hiding behind the little red barns that dot the landscape of rural America and decorate so many of the animal-based products we consume is a dangerous truth and a very real threat.Little Red Barns is the record of a harrowing journey that took investigative journalist Will Potter from factory farms to international climate summits, from congressional hearings to neo-Nazi fascist groups.As Potter uncovers the frightening truth about animal agriculture's role in accelerating climate collapse, he shows how the authoritarian measures being taken to maintain control over this key aspect of the global food supply chain are directly linked to the proliferation and empowerment of far-right militias.Writing in an engaging, personal style, he invites his reader to accompany him on the journey as he confronts a maelstrom of disturbing information, asking searching questions along the way about the role of a journalist and the impact of "bearing witness" in a world where we're bombarded with images, real and faked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I sat down with Tinatin Japaridze to explore how history shapes her work as a geopolitical risk analyst at the Eurasia Group. We discussed the role of historical context in forecasting geopolitical risks and how historical training fosters deep curiosity about the world. Tinatin shared her unconventional path to the field—one that took her from composing a Eurovision song to journalism, a regional studies MA at Columbia, and even New York's local politics. She reflected on balancing the personal and professional in her work and how these diverse experiences ultimately made her a stronger analyst. We also dove into her book Stalin’s Millennials (2022) and why talking to taxi drivers can be more insightful than you might think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To be successful you need to be Weird, Selfish, Shameless, Obsessed, Nosy, Manipulative, Brutal, Reckless, and Bossy. And that takes courage.As a former Google leader and top career coach who chased an attractive stranger off the subway and later married him, Jenny Wood knows her way around courage. In this book, Wood shatters conventional wisdom about achieving your goals. She gives you permission to ditch your fear and chase after what you want, unapologetically.Wood reclaims nine traits from their negative shackles and teaches you how to apply them in a savvy and sane way to supercharge your success, whether you’re trying to impress your new boss, snag a stretch promotion, or land a life-changing deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The word Leader often brings to mind the heroic image of a charismatic, confident, and persuasive person who seems to "know" what to do in an instinctual, gut-driven way.  In Decision Leadership: Empowering Others to Make Better Choices (Yale UP, 2022), Don A. Moore and Max H. Bazerman offer a well-researched and compelling corrective to this view. They describe organizations as decision factories in which effective leaders are not lone heroes, but decision architects who design situations and policies that enable those around them to make wise, ethical choices that are consistent both with their own interests and the organization's values. Built on a foundation of behavioral economics and decision science research, this book is full of real-life stories and concrete examples of the incentives, structures, and systems that can be used to guide negotiations and decision making. This approach avoids many of the common pit-falls of overconfidence and dependence on a few heroic figures, allowing strong leaders to have positive impact far beyond their limited individual range.  Authors recommended reading:  Negotiation: The Game Has Changed by Max H. Bazerman Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely by Don A. Moore Also by these authors:  Judgment in Managerial Decision Making by Max H. Bazerman and Don A. MooreHosted by Meghan Cochran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The workplace is forever facing new challenges. These challenges are also unique in the context of Southeast Asia. Effective team work and leadership are at the core of organisational success. Yet much remains under investigated in how we can best help organisations and their teams and leaders in navigating shifts in the business environment.To think about these issues in a Southeast Asian context, joining the podcast today is Dr Nate Zettna, a Lecturer in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney. He completed his PhD specialising in organisational behaviour and management at the University of Sydney Business School. His research examines various aspects of team effectiveness, including team leadership, frontline service teams, and team well-being and performance. Nate has conducted research and worked with international organisations in Thailand and Australia across many sectors including banking, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Library of Mistakes is a library located in Edinburgh, Scotland dedicated to financial and economic history. Russell Napier, the founder and keeper of the library is a professor at The Edinburgh Business School and investment manager. In this wide-ranging discussion, Russell discusses his work as a practitioner and a scholar of financial crises. He also discusses how and why he started a library, in addition to his writing on financial history.Professor Russell Napier is the author of The Solid Ground investment report for institutional investors and co-founder of the investment research portal ERIC- a business he now co-owns with D.C. Thomson.Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices