New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

This podcast was first published in 2015. Since then our guest has founded Growthx, Lightjump Capital and SVG Partners. Will Bunker talked to Richard Lucas and Sam Cook. Will was the founder of One-and-Only.com (currently owned by Match.com). He is a successful entrepreneur and investor. Richard and Will chat about their philosophies around investing. They discuss the importance of surrounding yourself with people that can bring you new ideas and ventures. Finally, Sam and Will look into analyzing data and its use in predicting startup success. Will Bunker LinkedIn GrowthX Borrow my doggy Innovation Nest Open Coffee Krakow About your host - Richard LucasRichard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded, led and/or invested in more than 30 businesses, Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre-schools to leading business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here, watch is autobiographical TEDxTarnow talk here.Sam Cook was the co-host of the Project Kazimierz podcast from 2015-2017 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I talked to Shameen Prashantham about his book Gorillas Can Dance: Lessons from Microsoft and Other Corporations on Partnering with Startups (Wiley, 2021).In a nutshell, the distrust that must be overcome in business partnerships involving large companies and startups consists of Will they screw up? versus Will they screw us over? In other words, corporations harbor concerns about the competency and reliability of their startup partners. In turn, entrepreneurs worry that they will be taken advantage of, with their I.P. being co-opted or outright stolen. To establish trust rather than fear isn’t easy, as Dr. Prashantham acknowledges in this episode. A lot of stress can only be resolved by establishing how the partnership is a true win-win. At the same time, the person at the “bridge” on the corporation’s side must be at once an advocate, a diplomat and mentor, spanning boundaries within the corporation to bring multiple business units on-board to ensure the collaboration can succeed. All this and more gets covered in this episode, which concludes by exploring how the answer to what’s the “next China” may actually be China outside of its largest, showcase cities.Dr. Shameen Prasantham is Professor of International Business & Strategy and Associate Dean (MBA) at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai, China. His academic specialty is business partnerships that contribute to sustainable development goals.Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of nine books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His new book is Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. 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

As we venture into the New Year, many of us are striving to reach new goals and maintain resolutions. It’s easy to default to focusing solely on succeeding or attaining those goals, striving to feel the “high” that accompanies that success. But this kind of approach can unwittingly interfere with healthy and sustainable success.Brad Stulberg, author of The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds--Not Crushes--Your Soul (Portfolio, 2021), has dedicated his career to understanding and fostering a healthier, more sustainable model of success. An expert in organizational behavior and public health, Brad suggests that constantly striving for and focusing on reaching the peak is neither a healthy nor sustainable way to actually reach it. In this episode of POTC, Brad and Yael discuss healthier methods of feeling the “highs” that accompany success. Listen in to this episode where we redefine “peak performance”, get in touch with your “lows”, and discover tips that work to remain grounded as you journey towards success in 2022 and beyond!Yael Schonbrun is a licensed clinical psychologist who wears a number of professional hats: she a small private practice specializing in evidence-based relationship therapy, she’s an assistant professor at Brown University, and she writes for nonacademic audiences about working parenthood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you logged into Facebook recently? Searched for something on Google? Chosen a movie on Netflix? If so, you've probably been an unwitting participant in a variety of experiments—also known as randomized controlled trials—designed to test the impact of different online experiences. Once an esoteric tool for academic research, the randomized controlled trial has gone mainstream. No tech company worth its salt (or its share price) would dare make major changes to its platform without first running experiments to understand how they would influence user behavior. In The Power of Experiments: Decision Making in a Data-Driven World (MIT Press, 2021), Michael Luca and Max Bazerman explain the importance of experiments for decision-making in a data-driven world.Luca and Bazerman describe the central role experiments play in the tech sector, drawing lessons and best practices from the experiences of such companies as StubHub, Alibaba, and Uber. Successful experiments can save companies money—eBay, for example, discovered how to cut $50 million from its yearly advertising budget—or bring to light something previously ignored, as when Airbnb was forced to confront rampant discrimination by its hosts. Moving beyond tech, Luca and Bazerman consider experimenting for the social good—different ways that governments are using experiments to influence or “nudge” behavior ranging from voter apathy to school absenteeism. Experiments, they argue, are part of any leader's toolkit.In this show, Peter Lorentzen interviews economist Michael Luca about this new book on how organizations—including Google, StubHub, Airbnb, and Facebook—learn from experiments in a data-driven world.Michael Luca, a professor of business administration at Harvard University, is an expert on the design of online platforms and the use of data to inform managerial and policy decision-making.Host Peter Lorentzen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of San Francisco, where he leads a new digital economy-focused Master's program in Applied Economics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast was first published in 2016.Kimon went from selling T-shirts door to door to running a global translation services company, and (after this podcast was recorded) handing over the leadership to Veronique Ozkaya. Meet Kimon Fountoukidis, former CEO/Founder of the Argos Multilingual and PMR. Kimon moved to Poland 30 years ago. He became a successful entrepreneur with an innovative approach to doing business. Learn his story, his insights on how to do sales, why job automation is not a bad thing, why Krakow is a great place to live and work and much more.In March 2021, Kimon became a co-host with Richard Lucas of the NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast. Kimon and Richard are shareholders in Argos. PMR Argos Multilingual Enlaso Acquisition Chillistore Acquisition Venga Acquisition Donnelley Panorama Firm John Deere Unicode About your host Richard LucasRichard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded, led and/or invested in more than 30 businesses, Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre-schools to leading business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here, watch is autobiographical TEDxTarnow talk here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be (Princeton UP, 2021), Diane Coyle explores the enormous problems—but also opportunities—facing economics today if it is to respond effectively to these dizzying changes and help policymakers solve the world’s crises, from pandemic recovery and inequality to slow growth and the climate emergency. Mainstream economics, Coyle says, still assumes people are “cogs”—self-interested, calculating, independent agents interacting in defined contexts. But the digital economy is much more characterized by “monsters”—untethered, snowballing, and socially influenced unknowns. Coyle argues that economic policy is fundamentally normative, as any policy decision will imply political trade-offs. She argues for a more diverse methodological and conceptually inform analysis while reflecting on broader issues of today such as ethics and the challenges of the digital economy.This book has been recognized as the Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year 2021 and a CapX Book of the Year, 2021. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo is currently straddling between Newcastle and Mexico City. You can find him on twitter on issues related to business history of banking, fintech, payments and other mussings. Not always in that order. @BatizLazo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Katzman is one of the U.S.’s most innovative thinkers and successful educational entrepreneurs. He founded Princeton Review right after graduating from Princeton, and grew it into a public company. He then created 2U, that grew to be the leading firm in the Online Program Management (OPM) space by partnering with many of the nation’s leading universities to build online degrees, and now serves as CEO of Noodle, which has taken over from 2U as the leading OPM. In this episode, Katzman shares his perspective on 3 key issues in higher education today: 1) strategies that small private and regional public institutions can use to thrive in the coming “birth dearth”; 2) ways to address college affordability and rethink pricing; and 3) a new non-profit start-up he is forming to disrupt the college admissions process.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast was first published in 2018. Since then our guest Patrick Ney has become involved in a parenting startup “All about Parenting”, delivered a TEDxKazimierz talk which has been viewed more than 335,000 times, and is a regular host on PAP owned “The First News” channel.Patrick Ney is a British-born filmmaker and writer living in Poland. His films focus on Polish society and history. They have had more than 17,000,000 views to the end of 2018. He works as a digital marketer specialising in story-based digital sales funnels at James Cook Media. His specialisation is in producing short-form video content that works on Facebook.He is a popular media commentator on UK-Polish affairs. He also regularly appears as a guest in podcasts on digital marketing and LinkedIn. Brought up in the United Kingdom, Paddy moved to Poland in 2010. 'There's so much going on in Poland,' he says, 'it's this cauldron of dynamism, hard work and opportunity. Living here has changed me, and it's my purpose in life to help Poles to develop as well.'Links Michael Moran - A Country in the Moon 'A man who favours the rational, pragmatic and imperial temperament of the conqueror will not find much to sustain him in Polish history. But the rhapsodic temperament, the lover of charm and hospitality, the brave and reckless in life the imaginative observer, the advocate of freedom will surely be satisfied. the lover of horses, and horsemen, the patriot who treasures honour and fidelity above all, the romantic who favours the heroic gesture over the consequence, the burning emotion over the achievement, sincerity of intention over regularity of thought - such as these will mine a rich seam' Czym jest Polska? 2 million views (in Polish) Czym bedzie Polska? 5.6 million views (in Polish) Talk at a Polish High School  (in Polish) Witold Pilecki film Maximilian Kolbe - porazka! Beef and Dairy Network podcast About your host Richard LucasRichard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded, led and/or invested in more than 30 businesses, Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre-schools to leading business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here, watch is autobiographical TEDxTarnow talk here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One in four American workers says their workplace is a "dictatorship." Yet that number almost certainly would be higher if we recognized employers for what they are-private governments with sweeping authoritarian power over our lives. Many employers minutely regulate workers' speech, clothing, and manners on the job, and employers often extend their authority to the off-duty lives of workers, who can be fired for their political speech, recreational activities, diet, and almost anything else employers care to govern. In Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) (Princeton UP, 2019), Elizabeth Anderson examines why, despite all this, we continue to talk as if free markets make workers free, and she proposes a better way to think about the workplace, opening up space for discovering how workers can enjoy real freedom.Elizabeth Anderson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan and specializes in political philosophy, ethics, and feminist philosophy. She is the author of The Imperative of Integration, and Value in Ethics and Economics.Tom Discenna is Professor of Communication at Oakland University whose work examines issues of academic labor and communicative labor more broadly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode I spoke to Professor Peter Cappelli about his new book The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented experiment that reshaped white-collar work and turned remote work into a kind of "new normal." Now comes the hard part.Many employees want to continue that normal and keep working remotely, and most at least want the ability to work occasionally from home. But for employers, the benefits of employees working from home or hybrid approaches are not so obvious. What should both groups do?In a prescient new book, Cappelli lays out the facts in an effort to provide both employees and employers with a vision of their futures. Cappelli unveils the surprising tradeoffs both may have to accept to get what they want. Cappelli illustrates the challenges we face in drawing lessons from the pandemic and deciding what to do moving forward. Do we allow some workers to be permanently remote? Do we let others choose when to work from home? Do we get rid of their offices? What else has to change, depending on the approach we choose?His research reveals there is no consensus among business leaders. Even the most high-profile and forward-thinking companies are taking divergent approaches:Facebook, Twitter, and other tech companies say many employees can work remotely on a permanent basis. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and others say it is important for everyone to come back to the office.Ford is redoing its office space so that most employees can work from home at least part of the time, and GM is planning to let local managers work out arrangements on an ad-hoc basis. As Cappelli examines, earlier research on other types of remote work, including telecommuting offers some guidance as to what to expect when some people will be in the office and others work at home, and also what happened when employers tried to take back offices. Neither worked as expected.In a call to action for both employers and employees, Cappelli explores how we should think about the choices going forward as well as who wins and who loses. As he implores, we have to choose soon.Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at The Wharton School of Business and Director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources. He teaches awesome sounding courses like How to be the boss and Managing and motivating. Some of his areas of research are human resource practices, public policy related to employment, talent, and performance management. He publishes in journals like theAcademy of Management Journal and Harvard Business Review and op-eds in many magazines like The New Yorker or the Atlantic magazine.Paula De La Cruz-Fernandez is a consultant, historian, and digital editor. Editor New Books Network en español. Edita CEO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices