Suneel Gupta is redefining our understanding of work, ambition, and well-being. He is a tech entrepreneur, visiting scholar at Harvard, and has been featured in NYT, CNBC and TED. He researches and promotes how ancient wisdom, reimagined for modern times, can help us replace the relentless pursuit of success with a balanced and joyous life. In this interview, I speak to Suneel Gupta. We talk about how ancient philosophies have relevance in today’s world, and why we need to redefine our work, ambition and well-being.

Thought Economics

Professor Andy Galpin is a tenured full Professor at California State University, Fullerton. He is the Co-Director of the Center for Sport Performance and Founder/Director of the Biochemistry and Molecular Exercise Physiology Laboratory. He is a Human Performance scientist with a PhD in Human Bioenergetics and over 100 peer-reviewed publications and presentations. Dr. Galpin has worked with elite athletes (including All-Star, All-Pro, MVP, Cy Young, Olympic Gold medalists, Major winners, World titlist/ contenders, etc.) across the UFC, MLB, NBA, PGA, NFL, Boxing, Olympics, and Military/Special Forces, and more. He is also a Co-founder of Absolute Rest, BioMolecular Athlete, and RAPID Health & Performance. In this interview, I speak to Professor Andy Galpin, one of the world’s foremost experts on human health & performance. We discuss the key components of health & fitness for those in high performance careers.

Thought Economics

Professor Mike Berners-Lee is one of the world’s foremost experts on climate, carbon foot-printing and sustainability. He is the founder of Small World Consulting, an associate company of Lancaster University, which is a world leader in the field of supply chain carbon metrics and management. Small World works with organisations of all sizes and sectors, from the world’s largest tech giants to SMEs. Mike is a professor at Lancaster University, where his research includes sustainable food systems and carbon metrics. He has made numerous speaking, radio and television broadcast appearances to promote public awareness of sustainability and climate change issues, and most notably appeared in Climate Change: The Facts alongside Sir David Attenborough. He is the author of three acclaimed books. His 2019 book, There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years is a practical and holistic tour of the 21st century’s biggest challenges, laced throughout with practical guidance for individuals, businesses and politicians. On his first book, How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything, Bill Bryson wrote “I can’t think of the last time I read a book that was more fascinating, and useful and enjoyable all at the same time”. A fully updated version of this book was published in Summer 2020. His book, The Burning Question, co-written with Duncan Clark, explores the big picture on climate change and the underlying global dynamics, asking what mix of politics, economics, psychology and technology are really required to deal with the problem. Al Gore described it as “Fascinating, important and highly recommended”. In this interview, I speak to Professor Mike Berners-Lee, one of the world’s foremost experts on climate, carbon foot-printing and sustainability. We discuss the fundamentals of carbon foot-printing, why we need to measure carbon equivalents, the reality of carbon offsetting and how we can effectively decarbonise our world.  

Thought Economics

Dr. Stan Tatkin, is a PsyD, MFT, clinician, researcher, and developer of the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy® (PACT), best-selling author of his most recent book, In Each Other’s Care. And the relationship must have book, Wired for Love and More than 1.7 million people have tuned in to Dr. Tatkin’s TEDx talk. Dr. Tatkin and his wife, Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, PhD, created the PACT Institute in 2010 to train mental health professionals to successfully integrate a psychobiological approach in their clinical practices. Dr. Tatkin is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. He is on the board of directors of Lifespan Learning Institute and serves as a founding member on Relationships First, a nonprofit organization founded by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt. In this interview, I speak to Dr. Stan Tatkin, one of the world’s foremost experts in relationships. We discuss what it takes to make relationships work and the common reasons they don’t. We also learn some of the most important factors he has seen, through decades of clinical practice and research, for why the most resilient relationships stand the test of time.

Thought Economics

Apollo Tyres Ltd. is one of the world’s largest family businesses. Founded in 1972, Apollo now has over 19,000 employees, serving 100 countries. Neeraj Kanwar is the grandson of founder, Ranuaq Singh. He became MD in 2009 (in his mid-thirties) and has led the growth of Apollo from revenues of US$450 million to over US$3 billion; Apollo is on track to reach US$5bn in revenues by 2026. Neeraj continues to work closely with his father, Onkar Kanwar, who is the company chairman. In this interview, I speak to Neeraj Kanwar, Vice-Chairman & MD of Apollo Tyres and his Father, Onkar Kanwar, Chairman of Apollo Tyres. We discuss the complexities, challenges and opportunities of running one of the world’s largest family businesses including effective succession planning, leadership, culture and change.

Thought Economics

Uri Levine is a passionate entrepreneur, a 2x ‘unicorn’ builder (Duocorn), and the author of the book Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution – A Handbook for Entrepreneurs. He is co-founder of Waze, the world’s largest community-based driving traffic and navigation app, which Google acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013, and former investor and board member in Moovit, ‘Waze of public transportation, which Intel acquired for $1 Billion in 2020. Levine’s vision is building startups that are doing good and doing well, focusing on solving problems and hence changing the world for the better. He has been in the high-tech business for the last 40 years, more than half of them in the startup scene, and has seen everything ranging from failure, to moderate success, and big success. In this interview I speak to Uri Levine (Co-Founder of Waze) who has built 2x ‘unicorn’ companies with values exceeding $1bn. We discuss the realities of entrepreneurship, what it takes to build some of the world’s most successful technology companies, and why we need to fall in love with problems, not solutions.

Thought Economics

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective composed of researchers, investigators, and citizen journalists, all united by a shared fervour for open-source research. Established in 2014, the collective has blazed a trail in the realm of open-source research methods, investigating a vast array of topics of public interest. The subjects they have probed into span from the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine to police brutality in Colombia and the unlawful wildlife trade in the UAE. Their meticulous research frequently finds mention in international media and has been quoted by numerous courts and investigative missions. In this interview, I speak to Eliot Higgins, the Founder & Creative Director of Bellingcat. Eliot was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Global Thinkers in 2019 and one of Politico Europe’s top 28 most influential people in Europe in the “Disrupters” category in 2021. He was also awarded the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award for excellence in journalism in 2015. In 2022, he was awarded the Swedish based Monismanien Prize for freedom of speech. He is the author of ‘We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People‘ (paperback -2022), a Sunday Times best seller.

Thought Economics

Girish Mathrubootham is a renowned figure in the global tech industry, an entrepreneur who has rewritten India’s startup narrative through his determination, innovation, and entrepreneurial acumen. As the CEO of Freshworks, he has propelled the company to new heights, carving a niche in a domain that was previously dominated by established industry giants. A visionary, he set his sights beyond just commercial success, co-founding SaaSBOOMi and Together Fund. These ventures reflect Girish’s commitment to leveraging technology and resources to help the burgeoning start-up ecosystem in India, illuminating a path for countless budding entrepreneurs. But Girish’s influence extends beyond the realm of tech and start-ups. His philanthropic initiatives paint the portrait of a leader who believes in giving back to society. His passion for nurturing talent is manifested in FC Madras, a testament to his belief in India’s potential on the global stage. Establishing this football club was a deliberate act of providing young Indian athletes the infrastructure, support, and opportunity they need to excel in their field. His life’s mission, as he succinctly puts it, is to “create world champions from India,” a purpose that unifies his roles in entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and sport. In this interview, I speak to philanthropist & entrepreneur, Girish Mathrubootham. We discuss his journey as an entrepreneur leading Freshworks from start-up to $Multi-Billion IPO, what it takes to lead scale-up global businesses, and the power of philanthropy to create change.

Thought Economics

In this interview I speak to Ajaz Ahmed, Founder & CEO of AKQA, a design & innovation agency who now employee over 7,000 people in 50 countries – and work with more than half of the Fortune 500 top 20 companies. Ajaz has co-authored and written three books about business, creativity, scaling and technology: Velocity (2012), Limitless (2015), and Defeat (2019). Ajaz has also been involved in philanthropy since the start of AKQA for over two decades, and launched ajaz.org which has made over 15 grants since it was launched in August 2021. In addition to his own charitable organisation, Ajaz sits on the board of Mission 44 (founded by Sir Lewis Hamilton: empowering young people from underserved groups to succeed), Elton John AIDS Foundation (founded by Sir Elton John & David Furnish, funding frontline partners preventing infections, fighting stigma and providing treatment) and Virgin Unite (founded by Sir Richard Branson, uniting people & entrepreneurial ideas to change the world). In this interview, I speak to Ajaz Ahmed MBE on what it takes to build a global creative business, the power of creative industries as a force for good, and his learnings from working with some of the world’s greatest brands.

Thought Economics

Start-ups rarely survive their second birthday. Even established firms in the UK and the US average a life of only fifteen years. So how can your company build and sustain success for decades to come?  Professor Alex Hill has conducted thirteen years of groundbreaking research into a clutch of organisations that have outperformed their peers for over 100 years – from NASA to the New Zealand All Blacks, from Eton College and the Royal College of Art to the Royal Marines and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In his new book, Centennials, Professor Hill shares the twelve traits that have set these organisations apart for over a century, from the way they analyse success and failure to their approach to finding the best people and the brightest new ideas. In so doing, he identifies the strategies and habits that you can employ in your company to create a strong, stable core and ensure the same long-term prosperity while remaining dynamic. In short, he shows you how to build a promising enterprise into an enduring, great organisation. In this interview, I speak to Professor Alex Hill, Director of The Centre for High Performance (a collaboration between senior faculty at the Universities of Kingston, Duke CE, London Business School and Oxford). We discuss how some of the world’s longest living companies have endured, and how we can do the same.  

Thought Economics

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