Columbia Bizcast

In honor of Veterans Day, Bizcast is revisiting conversations we had with three CBS alumni, all former service members. All three are working to support veterans in their transition to civilian life. EMBA graduate Brooke Jones-Chinetti '18 served in the Army for nearly ten years, which included a tour of duty in Iraq. After her commitment, Jones-Chinetti worked for JPMorgan Chase's Office of Veter...

On this edition of Bizcast, we welcome the new dean of Columbia Business School, Costis Maglaras, to the podcast. In our conversation, Dean Maglaras shares his vision for the School, the opportunity to innovate the curriculum, and the transformational potential of the School's move to Manhattanville in two years. Maglaras also talks about his plans for enrichment and other learning opportunities f...

On this episode of Bizcast, we revisit our conversation with Impact America Fund founder Kesha Cash '10. Named  one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People for 2018, Kesha told us about a point in her career when she needed to reconcile that she was "living two lives."   Cash grew up in a low-income family, first in rural South Carolina, then in Orange County, California. After graduating from...

On this episode of Columbia Bizcast, we're invited to dine with the Polarization Project. Recent EMBA graduates Brianna O'Brien Lowndes '19, Charlie Kreitler '19, and Emmett Lamb '19 founded this discussion series, in which a faculty expert lectures on a global issue and students engage in a lively debate afterwards. At the dinner we attended, the group hosted Professor of Professional Practice Br...

Leadership lessons from Jon Snow, Ned Stark, and Professor Bruce Craven. Professor Craven's book, Win or Die: Leadership Secrets from Game of Thrones, offers a trove of leadership lessons for managing groups and implementing change. In this episode of Columbia Bizcast, Bruce Craven, a professor in the Business School's Executive Education program and director of the School's Advanced Management Pr...

"Whatever the big social problem is, I'd like to believe that business people are leading that charge and not just waiting for politics," Hubbard says in his second appearance on the podcast. With the US government recently emerging from a record-long shutdown, Dean Glenn Hubbard can sound as exasperated as the next person with what he describes as a "feckless" political system. Which is why resil...

What makes an idea go viral, a song become a hit, or a startup turn into a stock-listed powerhouse? It often happens, according to Assistant Professor Michael Mauskapf, because of an optimal mix of oldness and newness. Be it a Billboard No. 1 or a blockbuster business idea, the concept catches on because it's similar enough to be recognizable but different enough to be edgy. "If your goal is comme...

Developing a successful organizational strategy isn't easy, especially in an unpredictable business climate. Navigating a shifting landscape requires leaders to abandon pre-conceived notions and think differently, according to Rita Gunther McGrath, a professor in the Business School's Executive Education program. A globally recognized expert on innovation and growth strategy, McGrath argues that t...

"Engage," says the president and CEO of education nonprofit organization Children's Aid. "Don't sit on the sidelines." Child homelessness is at a record high in New York City, with one in 10 students in public schools living in temporary housing. Phoebe Boyer '93 is on the front-line working to prevent these children from falling through society's cracks. As president and CEO of Children's Aid, on...

Any hospital patient basically wants two things: to get well and to get out. Jing Dong is helping that happen faster. An assistant professor in the division of Decision, Risk, and Operations, Dong is at the forefront of research into improving hospitals' operational and procedural efficiencies, from lowering admittance wait-times to speeding up discharges. "I still see a lot of exciting things to...

Through the startup Iluméxico, this graduate is bringing solar power to Mexicans who live off the grid. One in seven people worldwide lacks access to electricity, including some 3 million people in Manuel Wiechers' home country of Mexico. But he's slowly changing that. Through his startup Iluméxico, Wiechers has installed 13,000 solar power systems servicing 58,000 people in the deepest recesses o...

The startup Eat Offbeat turns refugees into chefs who share their homeland's cuisines. It all began with a food craving. A native of Lebanon, Wissam Kahi '04 had been living in New York City for more than a decade when he and his sister, Manal Kahi SIPA '15, discovered a gaping hole in the US food market: the hummus was sub-par. Using their Syrian grandmother's recipe, they made their own hummus,...

Why would a pro golfer want an MBA? On this episode of Columbia Bizcast, Anna Rawson '15 talks about her road to the Business School after winning a national golf championship at the University of Southern California and playing three years on the LPGA Tour. She combined her prowess on the pitch and her management skills learned from Columbia to transition to the business side of sports as marketi...

"Good speeches, as a rule, generally push a single idea," says the former speechwriter for the Obama Administration. When the Democratic National Committee needed a volunteer speechwriter in 2012, Ryan Jacobs '19 was quick to put up his hand. The gig soon turned into a full-time job as a speechwriter within the Obama Administration. "I was an incredibly minor, minor, minor character in this admini...

For a Broadway performer, a vocal cord injury can be devastating. For Halle Morse '20, who starred in the mega-hit Mamma Mia!, a battle with pseudocysts was motivation to reassess her career and pursue a Columbia MBA with the goal of leading a nationally recognized theater. "To produce at such a high level requires a lot more intimate knowledge of the business world," says Morse, who attended the...

Growing up in a low-income household in Orange County had a big impact on the life work of Kesha Cash '10; she recalls using food stamps to buy groceries and scavenging for spare change from the couch cushions to make ends meet. Fast-forward to Columbia Business School, where she concentrated on social impact investing: upon graduating, she founded the minority-focused initiative Jalia Ventures, a...

Not many people can say their life was changed by a whale. Years before even thinking about Columbia Business School, Clare Murray '17 was on a family whale-watching trip when she bumped into the chief financial officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time, Murray was an undergraduate majoring in art history. But the chance encounter pushed her in a new direction. "It was really memorabl...

In a graduation-themed episode, Matt Wilson '18 discusses his journey to and through Columbia Business School: as a New Jersey kid who loved the creative freedom of punk rock to working in counter-terrorism and homeland security after 9/11, and then finding his path in Business School by going off script. "There is no template for how your career and how your life is supposed to go," Wilson says....

Brooke Jones-Chinetti '18 served in the military for six years with two deployments to the Middle East. In 2016, she started Your Sequel to bridge the gap between female veterans and industry leaders. She is currently Director Of Operations at Werk.co. In this episode, Jones-Chinetti talks about the importance of selfless leadership, the responsibility of having a platform, and looks back at her t...

Professor Sandra Matz explores how companies can turn customer's personal data into a value proposition. As a Management Professor, Matz studies human behavior at the intersection of big data and social psychology. Her research has shown how just one click on Facebook can help marketers create psychological profiles and how money can buy us happiness. While Facebook has reported that "malicious ac...

For Ethan Brown '08, the journey to disrupting the meat industry began with his childhood, which he split between an urban life in Washington, DC and his family's Holstein cattle farm in rural Maryland. The connection to animals and the food system informed his innovative idea. After a successful career in clean technology, Brown began to feel disconnected from his upbringing. "It started to reall...

April Tam Smith '10 is laser-focused on social impact – whether it's through business or her personal commitment to giving back. It's transformed the way she defines ROI. She is the co-owner of P.S. Kitchen, a plant-based restaurant in New York City that focuses on the three branches of sustainability – economic, environmental, and social. For her demonstrated leadership and commitment to social e...

In part two, Professor Hitendra Wadhwa and Fahad Ahmed '17 discuss the the five pillars of personal leadership.

Professor Hitendra Wadhwa's Personal Leadership & Success is Columbia Business School's most popular leadership elective. It's easy to see why. Blending his cultural heritage and experiences in business, psychology, mathematics, with Eastern mystical traditions, Wadhwa investigates how business leaders – and everyone – can best reach their potential.

When Stephanie Palmeri graduated from Columbia Business School in 2011, she took a leap of faith. With no job and two suitcases, she left New York City for Silicon Valley, crashing on the couches of fellow CBS grads. "As someone who didn't have a network [in the Valley]…it was scary, but I did it," Palmeri says. Palmeri, now a partner at Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), sat down with Why CBS...