Columbia Bizcast

Vasiliki Petrou founded and now leads the Unilever Prestige division; this last year has offered that division invaluable knowledge and expertise. In this week's episode, she reviews some of what she's learned about her already-strong commitment to running a mission-driven brand portfolio. She discusses the nature of prestige retail marketing; the future of brick and mortar; and her team's unwaver...

Like every other industry, the field of impact investing underwent significant change over the last year. This episode investigates some of the new possibilities that this change has opened. Maggie Loo, CBS class of '05 and Bridges Fund Management partner, discusses how the definition of "returns" may need to be reevaluated, how environmental regulations will transform corporate decision making, a...

What happened? What went wrong? Those are simple questions to ask when a company experiences difficulty. In Professor Kathryn Harrigan's Turnaround Management class, students examine case studies to uncover the often complex reasons why a firm got in trouble and to help plot a way back. On this episode of Bizcast, Harrigan, the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Business Leadership, tells us the story o...

We start our new season of Bizcast with a conversation about the challenges of entrepreneurship. Class of 2021 members Pritika Gupta, Gareth Pembroke, and Samuel Hong are co-presidents of the Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO), a community of students who offer each other support on their entrepreneurial journeys and a network that will continue after graduation.  CEO also plans a number of...

What is it like for a journalist to cover the final days of a political campaign, right before an election? Bizcast visits with two MBA students who have had this experience first-hand. Alexis Levinson '21, a former reporter for Buzzfeed, and Knight-Bagehot Fellow Hannah Levintova '21, who writes for Mother Jones, give us their perspective on the differences between covering local and national pol...

On this special episode of Bizcast, we're presenting a conversation between Bernstein Center Faculty Director Modupe Akinola and former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, who is now the senior advisor to the Obama Foundation. Ms. Jarrett shares some of the formative experiences in her life: her childhood in Iran, England, and Chicago; her calling to public service; and her...

As one of the world's leading experts on diversity in business environments, the late Professor Katherine Phillips left a remarkable legacy of scholarship and inspiration. For Mariah Celestine '20 and Camira Powell '20, the most meaningful way to honor Professor Phillips was to continue the important work of making CBS a more inclusive institution that will empower future leaders to advocate for d...

On June 26, Gita Johar, Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion spoke with Erika Irish Brown '98, the Chief Diversity Officer at Goldman Sachs, about the firm's internal response to the global protest and reckoning on anti-Black racism in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. In their conversation, Brown shared some of the practical, actionable steps she's put into place at Goldman Sac...

Bizcast is continuing our conversation with Management Professor Dan Wang about the connections between protests and business. Part one examined the skills and leadership abilities protest organizers have in common with CEOs. In this part, Wang explains the relationship that exists between businesses and consumers is analogous to protest movements responding to emerging societal trends. Wang discu...

In light of the conversation started by the Black Lives Matter movement, we're starting a series of special edition podcasts focusing on how pro-equity social changes are affecting industries. For the first episode, we're going to look at the nature of protest itself. On the surface, it might seem that planning an effective protest and running a successful business might not have much in common. B...

The COVID-19 pandemic presented the already volatile world of brands with a tough new challenge: How does a brand stay viable, but ensure that it is sensitive to the new financial and societal realities of the "new normal?" On this episode of Bizcast, marketing Professor Elizabeth Friedman and Matthew Quint, the director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership, offer insights on ways companies co...

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the business world and the daily lives of millions have undergone massive disruptions in a short amount of time. The reality of this new normal is what Professor Rita McGrath would define as an inflection point – an external change that causes the underlying assumptions of a business to adjust dramatically in response. On this episode of Bizcast, McGrath, t...

Overall, Dean Emeritus Glenn Hubbard has been pleased with the government response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, noting the speed with which Congress and the administration passed the CARES Act. On this episode of Bizcast, however, Hubbard, the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics and faculty director of the Chazen Institute for Global Business, offers a c...

According to a recent Department of Commerce report, retail sales slumped by 8.7 percent in March, as states issued stay-at-home orders and stores closed throughout the nation.  Mark Cohen, the director of retail studies, explains on the latest episode of Bizcast that the retail sector should be prepared for even more dismal numbers in the coming months. "There's an enormous amount of business bei...

Like many of his classmates, Dr. Faheem Ahmed started the spring semester, primed to put the finishing touches on his MBA. But after COVID-19 began to spread, he relocated to his home in London to complete his degree remotely and work on the frontline of the crisis. In this special episode of Bizcast, Ahmed -- who has a medical degree from King's College London and a master's degree in health syst...

Jacquie Henderson '17 works in strategy and operations for a seven hospital health system that serves communities in New York's Hudson Valley and in Western Connecticut. When the virus hit, her responsibilities quickly shifted. In this episode, Henderson talks about how her CBS experience helped her set up freestanding testing sites and "uptrain" the staff to take on new tasks and assignments. She...

We're pivoting Bizcast. Starting with this episode, we'll be covering the business impacts of COVID-19 from multiple perspectives. Our first guest is Tommy Hendrix '17, who discusses his current work searching gray markets for personal protective equipment to redistribute to healthcare workers. He details how his military and business school backgrounds inform his task, and offers his thoughts on...

This month, the School welcomed its inaugural group of undergraduate seniors and non-professional Master's students into the new Deferred Enrollment Program. The program allows accepted students to defer their MBA or EMBA start date for between two to five years, while they are gaining experience in the workforce. On this episode of Bizcast, we visit with CBS Admissions officers Emily French Thoma...

In our second episode featuring the School's UK-based graduates, we visit with Lee Georgs '03, the Chief Operating Officer of Corporate for the investment consultancy Redington and co-President of the London alumni club. Georgs has held positions with some of the world's most prestigious investment banks, including Citibank, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse. Her career path has not been a straight line...

For the next few months, Bizcast will be bringing you stories and interviews from our recent UK visit, where we met with members of the CBS Alumni Club of London.  We start our journey across the pond with Shai Weiss '97, who was named CEO of Virgin Atlantic in January 2019. Weiss offers a behind-the-scenes look at the brand's unique mission to make Virgin the world's most loved travel company. He...

In 2018, at the urging of students and faculty, the Business School formed two committees to study issues surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the CBS community. In this episode, Gita Johar, Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business, tells us about the positive results of the committees' work: a renewed and keener focus on DEI at...

On this episode of Bizcast we're back in the classroom to learn about Analytics in Action, an innovative masterclass that brings together MBA and engineering students with representatives from companies such as Viacom and Citigroup to solve real business problems in real time.    Now in its third year, Analytics in Action reflects Dean Costis Maglaras's initiative to bring together a diverse set o...

Listen in to some revelations about secrets with Michael Slepian, the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics. Professor Slepian researches the effect of secret-keeping on our personal and professional lives. According to his findings, being the lone bearer of a secret not only heightens emotions such as inauthenticity and loneliness, but can also feel physically bu...

In which we kick back and chat with former Rockette and current CBS student, Kristin Jantzie, '21. Jantzie opens up about the discipline it took to sustain her 13-year run as a member of the world-famous dance troupe. She details lessons from her time with the troupe that are serving her here at CBS, and tells us how business school is preparing her for the next stage of her career.        

First, we speak with Eat Offbeat, the New York-based catering company founded by Wissam Kahi '04 and his sister Manal Kahi, SIPA '15. Eat Offbeat hires refugees and trains them to prepare cuisine from their native countries. Next, we check in with April Tam Smith '10 who, in addition to her day job on Wall Street, opened P.S. Kitchen. This Times Square vegan restaurant donates 100 percent of its p...