Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz

When Maria Ross was trying to teach her son that empathy was a way to success, the world around them seemed to be sending the exact opposite message. So Ross took her years of experience as a management and brand consultant to make the case for empathy not as a moral imperative, but as a business strategy. It's an equation worth studying. Here, in her 2021 conversation with Guy Raz, she describes the way she turned her research into a book called The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success.

Explorer, writer, and publisher Erling Kagge came from a childhood enriched by an artistic household (the likes of Chet Baker and Eubie Blake once visited his home) and by ready access to nature. He was the first person to complete the Three Poles Challenge -- reaching the South Pole, the North Pole, and the top of Mt. Everest -- on foot. He talks about what a life of extreme exploration has taught him about silence and the value of failure.

Jeff Jones has had a few front row seats to crisis. From the 2013 Target data breach to a tumultuous period at Uber, he’s helped navigate companies out of some tough situations. So, when Jeff became the President and CEO of H&R Block in 2017, he was prepared. How a young man from West Virginia went from being an ad guy to heading one of the biggest tax preparation companies in the US during a global economic downturn and public health crisis (this conversation took place in 2020; the lessons to any business leader are timeless).

There was a devastating data breach, a failing foray into Canada, and they were losing US customers fast. In 2014, Target seriously needed a win—Brian Cornell was that win. He’d turned around plenty of other retailers like Safeway, Michael’s, and Sam’s Club, but this time he was thinking bigger. In this 2019 conversation: Playing the long game to make Target a brand that lasts.

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. 

When the COO of Chase Bank told Jacqueline Novogratz that she had the potential for a high level career at Chase, she knew she had to quit her job. She continued to use the skills she learned from investment banking, and used them to change the way the world sees capitalism and philanthropy. Today Acumen has delivered more than 100 million dollars in loans, grants, and investments to projects and businesses that help low income people around the world. It's little wonder that as a child Jacqueline Novogratz was drawn to the stories of saints--or, rather, "narratives about women who directed their own lives," as she tells Guy Raz in this conversation from 2020 (reprised, fittingly, during a month that honors the power and history of women).

Black Entertainment Television launched in 1980--at a time when MTV didn't play Hip hop or "urban music. Not only did BET fill a vital programming void, it was the first Black-owned business traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and it helped make the first Black Billionaire in the US (Bob Johnson). Debra Lee, a young Harvard-educated lawyer drawn to the company’s mission, was recruited by Johnson early on, eventually taking his place as CEO. Lee was pivotal in turning the small, revolutionary cable station into an industry staple. In honor of the 55th NAACP Image Awards, which air on BET, listen to this excellent 2019 conversation with Lee about what she learned in her 30+-year tenure at BET Networks.

Growing up in a small town in India, Leena Nair overheard her mother say it was too bad Leena 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. She has since gone on to the role of CEO at Chanel. When Guy Raz had this conversation with Nair in 2020 she was Unilever’s Chief Human Resource Officer, overseeing the company’s 170,000-plus global workforce during the COVID-19 crisis - a crisis that she said has been one of the greatest challenge of her career.

Shellye Archambeau knew as a teenager she wanted to grow up and become a CEO. But when Shellye started as an undergraduate at the Wharton School of Business in 1980, there were just two female CEOs of large corporations, and none of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies were Black. Despite the lack of representation, Shellye became the first Black woman to lead a division of IBM overseas. She broke barriers and took risks leading to a successful career with leadership positions at Blockbuster, Zaplet and MetricStream. In this 2022 conversation with Guy Raz, Shellye discusses her book Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms, and details both her singular approach to leadership and her advice for taking ownership of one’s career.