John Chambers

Cisco is hardly a startup anymore but they’re in the business of bringing startups into the fold. The trick to that, according to John Chambers, is to have a culture that accepts outside people and ideas. It’s a healthy mindset that extends beyond mergers and acquisitions and is one of the many things he talks about on the podcast today and in his new book Connecting the Dots.

John Chambers, chairman emeritus at Cisco, served as the company’s CEO for more than two decades. He has worked closely with government leaders from around the world, serving on committees for two U.S. presidents and earning the first-ever Clinton Global Citizen Award as well as the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. He is also the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures, where he helps disruptive startups to scale and lead market transitions.

Standard Podcast [ 34:24 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Chip Conley

After decades of working Chip Conley started all over again. Hired as an advisor at Airbnb he eventually became something of an intern to the young CEO. He’s written a new book Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder which reframes how to approach work for older workers, both as a keeper of wisdom and as a digital immigrant.

Bestselling author and hospitality entrepreneur Chip Conley is Strategic Advisor at Airbnb. At age 26, he founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality and turned it into the second largest boutique hotel brand in the world. After selling his company in 2010, he joined Airbnb, and as head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, helped turn it into the world’s largest hospitality brand. Conley has received hospitality’s highest honor, the Pioneer Award. He serves on the boards of the Burning Man Project and the Esalen Institute and is the author of Peak and the New York Times bestseller Emotional Equations. He holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University.

Standard Podcast [ 19:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson has updated his classic book Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal with a new chapter taking into account our relationship with digital technology. He joins us to talk about disrupting new markets and how to couple digital with business models.

Mark W. Johnson cofounded the strategy and innovation management consultancy Innosight with Clayton M. Christensen in 2000 (it was acquired by the Huron Consulting Group in 2017). A coauthor of Dual Transformation: How to Reposition Today’s Business While Creating the Future (2017), he has written and cowritten numerous articles, including the McKinsey Award–winning “Reinventing Your Business Model” in Harvard Business Review.

Standard Podcast [ 24:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Alex Rosenblat

If you’ve ever taken an Uber you know that you give your driver a rating at the end of your journey. You probably know that their job depends on how good their average score is. But do you know how high that score has to be before they are essentially fired? And did you know the drivers can rate you too? Alex Rosenblat, author of the new book Uberland: How Algorithms are Rewriting the Rules of Work, joins us to go behind the scenes on what your drivers are dealing with and the difficult choices they often have to make.

Alex Rosenblat is a technology ethnographer and the author of Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work, forthcoming with the University of California Press in October 2018. A researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute, she holds a master’s degree in sociology from Queen’s University and a bachelor of arts degree in history from McGill University. Alex’s writing has appeared in media outlets such as the New York Times, the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, Slate, and Fast Company. Her research has received attention worldwide, and has been covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, MIT Technology Review, WIRED, New Scientist, and the Guardian. Among the scholarly and professional publications in which her prize-winning work has been published are the International Journal of Communication and the Columbia Law Review.

Standard Podcast [ 22:38 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ken Kocienda

The story of Apple’s success with the iPhone is that they didn’t make a product people wanted, they made a product people didn’t even know they needed yet but very soon had to have it. Today we’re talking to Ken Kocienda, the creator of auto-correct on your iPhone, about what it was about Apple that put them so far ahead of the competition.

Ken Kocienda was a software engineer and designer at Apple for over fifteen years. After graduating from Yale with a degree in history, he fixed motorcycles in Arizona, worked in the editorial library of a newspaper in New York, taught English in Japan, and made fine art photographs in all those places. Eventually, he discovered the internet, taught himself computer programming, and made his way through a succession of dot-com-era startups, before landing at Apple in 2001, where he worked on the software teams that created the Safari web browser, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Ken is the author of Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs. 

Standard Podcast [ 22:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ash Seddeek

AMA Faculty member and author Ash Seddeek joins us to review some of FranklinCovey’s 7 Habits and share some of the things he’s learned from his years as an executive coach and trainer.

Ash Seddeek is a business success and leadership coach, speaker and author. Ash has worked for fortune 500 companies such as Deloitte Consulting, Kaiser Permanente, Oracle, BroadVision, and Cisco Systems on leadership development, strategic account manager sales training and strategic content for large scale corporate communications experiences such as Cisco Global Sales Experience and the Partner Summit with combined 25000 annual attendees.

Standard Podcast [ 22:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Dan Schawbel

The last time Dan Schawbel was here he talked about the wonders of technology. Now he’s returned to tell you to back off of your screens. In his new book Back to Human he argues we’re suffering from a loss of human connection, it’s time to get out there face to face and connect with our coworkers, friends, and family once again.

Standard Podcast [ 23:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Drew Dudley

The understanding of what it takes to be a leader is both overly broad and too specific. We focus on lone, mythical, usually white, male figures and discount the leadership abilities inherent in all of us. Drew Dudley, author of the new book This is Day One, joins us to share his definition of a leader and how we can start acting like one today.

Drew Dudley’s TEDx talk “Everyday Leadership” has been viewed close to five million times and praised by Time, Business Insider, and Inc. magazine. Dudley is the founder of Day One Leadership, where he works with individuals and organizations around the world to unlock their leadership potential.

Standard Podcast [ 27:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Charlie Harary

We’re constantly trying to make changes that don’t align with our brains. We make New Years resolutions and try to keep up with the news and watch movies about people achieving great things while not doing much ourselves. Carlie Harary, author of Unlocking Greatness, joins us to talk about ways we can relax more while still becoming the kind of person we dream we could be.

Charlie Harary is an executive at a global asset management company based in New York. He is a clinical professor at the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University and hosts the radio shows The Charlie Harary Show and the Unlocking Greatness podcast. Harary is a sought-after corporate speaker for subjects ranging from business success to effective communications to personal growth.

Standard Podcast [ 28:16 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download