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.

Listen again. After becoming the CEO of PepsiCo in 2006, Indra Nooyi became the first woman and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company. From Chennai, India, to Yale's School of Management, Nooyi worked her way up from The Boston Consulting Group, Motorola, and ASEA Brown Boveri before eventually landing at PepsiCo, overseeing the global operation of its countless drinks, snacks, and restaurants. Nooyi's new memoir My Life in Full details her legendary career, exploring her extraordinary personal journey and the demands of being one of the most powerful women on the planet. Originally released Oct, 2021See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Listen again. As a child growing up in Ibadan, Nigeria, Dara Treseder was often told to get her head out of the clouds. But her mother encouraged her to dream big and to follow her ambition if it would lead her to contentment. For Treseder, that meant moving across the world to attend both Harvard and Stanford, and chasing a deeply-held desire to make a positive impact on the world. Her career in marketing began with stints at Apple and Goldman Sachs, then, in 2020, she became SVP, Head of Global Marketing and Communications at Peloton. Today, she is one of the most influential marketing leaders of her generation. Originally released Oct, 2021.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Joe Keohane is a longtime journalist and editor who believes that talking to strangers can not only help people feel happier and more empathetic, but can actually make the world a better place. In his first book, The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting In A Suspicious World, Joe talks to psychologists, anthropologists and plenty of strangers to prove it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After one of the most deadly disasters in the history of space flight, Ellen Ochoa was a leader in NASA's recovery. She fixed the technical things that went wrong, but the most critical changes, she says, were human. Why she thinks it's important to make sure that naysayers always have a voice, and how to encourage employees to do something very difficult: disagree with the boss. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ken Coleman calls himself "America's Career Coach." In his syndicated call-in show, and in books like The Proximity Principle and One Question, Coleman helps people think about what kind of work they would find meaningful, and how they can connect with people that will help get them into that work. Coleman came about the knowledge he imparts honestly: he spent about a decade working different jobs before he found his real calling in broadcasting. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 2012, to say there was a crisis at Best Buy — is an understatement. In January, Forbes published an article with the headline: WHY BEST BUY IS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. And then, in March, the company reported a loss of $1.7 billion dollars. In April, the CEO resigned because of an "inappropriate relationship" with an employee. Hubert Joly stepped in, determined to fix Best Buy, and he started by valuing the people who work there. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stacey Vanek Smith has reported on business and the economy for over 15 years now, first for public radio's "Marketplace," and now as the host of Planet Money's daily podcast "The Indicator." Over that time, she's seen the same barriers blocking advancement for women in the workplace again and again. Recently, she's started to recognize that a lot of tools to move past those barriers can be found in the work of Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. Vanek Smith lays out these solutions in her new book, Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan Holiday is one of his generation's most influential thinkers. Many people - from rappers to NFL quarterbacks to corporate CEOS and entrepreneurs - credit his writing for introducing them to the teachings of the stoic philosophers. Holiday's books like The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and Stillness Is The Key aren't just popular, they're also respected by historians and scholars. But, he wasn't always a successful writer. Holiday started his career as a marketer — which became the topic of his first book. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sarah Robb O'Hagan is brutally honest about the many, many times she messed up on the way to transforming Gatorade. She was a rabble-rouser at Virgin, which ended with her getting fired. She took a job at Atari, even though she hated video games. How those disasters made her into the right executive to pull Gatorade out of double-digit declines. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After becoming the CEO of PepsiCo in 2006, Indra Nooyi became the first woman and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company. From Chennai, India, to Yale's School of Management, Nooyi worked her way up from The Boston Consulting Group, Motorola, and ASEA Brown Boveri before eventually landing at PepsiCo, overseeing the global operation of its countless drinks, snacks, and restaurants. Nooyi's new memoir My Life in Full details her legendary career, exploring her extraordinary personal journey and the demands of being one of the most powerful women on the planet. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As a child growing up in Ibadan, Nigeria, Dara Treseder was often told to get her head out of the clouds. But her mother encouraged her to dream big and to follow her ambition if it would lead her to contentment. For Treseder, that meant moving across the world to attend both Harvard and Stanford, and chasing a deeply-held desire to make a positive impact on the world. Her career in marketing began with stints at Apple and Goldman Sachs, then, in 2020, she became SVP, Head of Global Marketing and Communications at Peloton. Today, she is one of the most influential marketing leaders of her generation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's not an understatement to say that Jim Collins is one of the most influential business writers in modern history. Collins, however, thinks of himself more as a researcher than an author. Each of his books, which includes Good to Great, Built to Last, and his newest BE 2.0, requires five or six years of crunching data before the writing can begin. But what's even more remarkable about Collins is his own background, and how he built a career out of making unorthodox choices. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For years, it was a secret: the family that owned LEGO was actually losing money on the company. The man who built the company back up into one of the biggest toymakers in the world, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, reveals his controversial plan that led LEGO back to profitability. It leaned on something that has always been LEGO's strength: the creativity and passion of the children and adults who love to play with Legos. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From the creator of How I Built This, stories of crisis, failure, turnaround, and triumph from some of the greatest leaders 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.