Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL Interviews the world's leading thinkers, and the people shaping the century.

In this interview I speak to one of the world’s foremost experts on social hierarchies, Toby E. Stuart. Professor Stuart is the Leo Helzel distinguished professor of business administration at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and author of Anointed: The Extraordinary Effects of Social Status in a Winner-Take-Most World. He is…

 

In this interview I speak to Captain L. David Marquet (U.S. Navy, Retired), a celebrated leadership visionary, bestselling author, and educator whose career-defining moment came during his command of the nuclear ballistic missile submarine USS Santa Fe (SSN‑763) from 1999 to 2001. We discuss his most important learnings on leadership, and how to build…

 

In this interview I speak to Martin Dubin, a clinical psychologist, serial entrepreneur, business coach, and adviser to C-suite executives and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. He founded several companies, including a multimillion-dollar health care company where he also served as CEO. A former coach at the Center for Creative Leadership and…

 

In this interview I speak to Rich Hagberg, Ph.D., often referred to as “Silicon Valley’s CEO Whisperer.” Richard is a trained psychologist who has spent the last 40 years of his career as an executive management coach for over 6,000 executives. Since 2009 he has worked with companies like Tinder, Twitter,…

 

In this interview I speak to Professor Harvey Whitehouse, one of the world’s foremost anthropologists- whose research focuses on the evolution of social complexity. Harvey is one of the founders of the cognitive science of religion and has spent decades studying how beliefs and rituals have shaped, and reshaped human…

 

Federico Faggin invented the technology which made the microprocessor possible His semiconductor memory technology was adopted by Intel, and the microprocessor revolution began. Federico went on to found a number of businesses- and was additionally responsible for the technology that makes the touchpads and touchscreens on our modern day devices…

 

In this interview I speak to the ‘Stoic Capitalist,’ Robert Rosenkranz, Chairman of Delphi Capital Management (an investment concern with more than $40 billion in assets under management) and the founder of a group of investment and private equity partnerships. Rising from working class origins to self-made billionaire and pioneer…

 

Explore an archive of more than 3,000 quotes.

Response to, and resolution of what lay behind the merciless attack, should theoretically still be for peaceful resolution in accordance with the UN Charter.

— Sir Geoffrey Nice KC
Prosecutor of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal

Innovation is a skill, a teachable skill, just like management. If you focus on a handful of key principles, you can effectively drive innovation in any type of business. Innovative companies are not afraid of failure – they're willing to take risks, fail forward, learn from missteps, pivot, and keep going.

— Reggie Fils-Aimé
Former President of Nintendo of America, led iconic console era

At the beginning I literally started a business out of passion. I loved fitness- it changed my life- it changed my schooling, education and taught me skills that changed my life for the better. I just wanted to be in fitness. When we started the business- whilst the first 6 months were difficult- it started to gain momentum and started to feel like a real opportunity. That's when I had to grab the business by the 'scruff of the neck' and drag it to where I thought it needed to be.

— Ben Francis
Founder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company

We are all strategists or game theorists at heart – it took several decades of people writing-down models and articles before we recognised what we know from playing poker; we don't know our opponent's hand.

— Christopher Blattman
Economist specializing in conflict, development, and poverty research

In the last 20 years I believe I have become a hybrid entrepreneur – believing in the power of technology and process, but also in the very deep humanistic point of view. I guess it's a weird mix of Italian with Silicon Valley.

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Long-form Interviews with the World's Leading Thinkers — Thought Economics


The Wisdom Series

Ten in-depth articles distilling insights from over 550 interviews with the world's leading thinkers, creators, and changemakers.

The Wisdom of Leadership The Wisdom of Entrepreneurship The Wisdom of Creativity The Wisdom of Technology The Wisdom of Meaning The Wisdom of the Mind The Wisdom of Justice The Wisdom of Science The Wisdom of Geopolitics The Wisdom of Health
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