Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz

In 2012, Best Buy was in deep trouble—a crisis so severe that Forbes declared, “Why Best Buy is Going Out of Business.” By March, the company reported a staggering $1.7 billion loss, and by April, its CEO had stepped down amid scandal. Enter Hubert Joly, a leader whose career had shaped him into essentially an elite relief pitcher of the business world. Armed with calm focus and a knack for navigating adversity, Joly stepped up to the plate just as the future of big-box retail hung in the balance. In this classic 2019 episode, discover how Joly took the helm at Best Buy during one of the most tumultuous moments in its history.

"You can't analyze your way into something new," says today's guest. Over the course of a career spanning four decades, Roger Martin has been a management consultant, an influential business strategy thinker and author, as well as the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto. He advises CEOs of global companies such as Ford, Proctor & Gamble, and Lego. He is well known for developing and exploring the concept of "integrative thinking" in management problem solving and for troubling conventional management wisdom as he does in his book, A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness. In this episode, recorded in 2021, Martin challenges the relentless drive for efficiency and advocates for a re-think in approach.

When Arnold Donald took the helm at the Carnival Corporation, a public relations crisis of multiple layers threatened its future. Donald prioritized building a diverse and dynamic leadership team, appointing new heads for seven of the company's nine cruise lines, including more women and minorities. in this 2019 conversation, Donald shares his philosophy that "diversity of thinking is a business imperative and a powerful advantage," explaining how fresh perspectives lead to innovative ideas and drive growth. How his strategies helped him rebuild Carnival into one of the industry’s most valuable brands.

[A 'BEST OF' EPISODE] Combining business with social justice isn’t a path most companies choose, which is why Dan Schulman’s leadership as PayPal’s CEO captured so much attention. In 2016, he halted plans for an operations center in North Carolina in response to the state’s controversial “bathroom bill.” Schulman prioritizes an “employee-first” strategy, enhancing wages and benefits for PayPal employees. His leadership has demonstrated that activism doesn't takes anything away from the bottom line. In this 2020 conversation, Schulman reflects on the childhood that shaped his current values, and his journey from AT&T, Priceline, and eventually to CEO (now President) of PayPal.

[Encore release] 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 full value of leadership. In this conversation from 2020, the General reflects on the very specific lessons of leadership he learned, and evolved, throughout his time of military service.

An encore episode, exploring the unconventional leadership journey of Carl Bass, a self-described renegade and reluctant executive who took the reins at Autodesk during turbulent times. Facing the global economic crisis of 2008, Bass led with conviction, balancing bold decision-making with the uncertainty of an evolving market. At one point, convinced the company might fail, he risked his own money to introduce a groundbreaking new business model. How Bass's steady hand and innovative thinking not only helped Autodesk survive but transformed it into a 21st-century success story. This conversation took place in 2019.

[Encore episode] In the 1980s, Stephen R. Covey revolutionized leadership thinking with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, introducing a leadership style centered on empathy, listening, and collaboration—far from the traditional table-pounding, charismatic approach. In this episode, Guy sits down with Stephen M.R. Covey, Covey’s son, who has not only been instrumental in spreading his father’s influential teachings globally but has also become a respected leadership expert in his own right. Stephen shares insights from his own bestselling leadership books and reflects on the lasting impact of his father’s groundbreaking work.

Author, and business executive Beth Comstock says to Guy Raz in this classic 2021 interview "I'm about change." In college, she wanted to be a doctor, but organic chemistry wasn’t her strong suit, so she shifted to journalism. When journalism didn’t work out, she started working in publicity. So, when GE bought NBC in 1986 right as Beth was starting her career in advertising, she was ready to adapt again. She worked her way to becoming CMO of GE, helping grow revenue, devise a successful green energy program, and more. Then, when NBC began to explore their approach to digital media, Beth couldn't resist returning to the storied network, where a new frontier in media was opening up (for reference: this was around the time Google bought YouTube). While there she helped seed what would become Hulu. Around the time of the 2008 financial crisis, Beth returned to GE as the company's first female Vice Chair of Business Innovations, which was also around the time she penned the inspiring and candid book Imagine it Forward: Courage, Creative, and the Power of Change .

General David Petraeus is one of those leaders who rose through the ranks to become one of the most well-known military figures of our time. Growing up in the shadow of West Point, General Petraeus defied the odds in a career where becoming a four-star general is nearly as unlikely as being struck by lightning.Petraeus’s rise to prominence began in 2003, but it was in 2007, as the commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq, where he made his mark by leading the controversial but pivotal “surge.” He later commanded coalition forces in Afghanistan during one of the deadliest periods for U.S. troops, before transitioning to a new chapter as the Director of the CIA under President Obama.In this encore episode, General Petraeus shares his insights on leadership, revealing that the key to success lies in “getting the big ideas right,” refining them, and ensuring they’re communicated effectively across an entire organization.