In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, speaks with Monica Nassif, an entrepreneur and founder of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, as well as author of “I Bottled My Mother: The Mrs. Meyer’s Story: Grit, Grime, and Growing a Business”.

[0:14] Monica Nassif: Entrepreneur, Career Changer, and Creator of Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day

[0:36] Monica's Background, From Nursing to Marketing

[2:42] The Eureka Moment: Reinventing Cleaning Products

[5:28] The Real Mrs. Meyer: How Monica’s Mother Inspired a Brand

[7:44] Savings, A Second Mortgage, and Credit Cards: When Entrepreneurs Go All In

[11:14] The Founding of Caldrea

[13:22] “Sawing Off The Branch” and Launching Mrs. Meyer's

[16:26] Building Mrs. Meyer's Retail Presence

[18:14] Growth Strategy and Lessons from Williams-Sonoma and Target

[28:12] Being an Entrepreneurial Working Mother

[35:37] The Decision to Sell

[39:21] The Acquisition Process: Vetting PE Firms and Choosing SC Johnson

[42:24] Life after the Sale

[44:15] The Book I Bottled My Mother — Part Love Letter to Monica's Mom, Part Startup Manual

[46:33] Lessons for Entrepreneurs

[52:38] On Resourcefulness: “Creativity Lies in Your Hands"

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In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, sits down with Teresa Amabile, Edsel Bryant Ford Professor, Emerita, at Harvard Business School, and co-author of the book Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, which draws on over 100 case studies of individuals’ experiences with retirement.

0:33: From “The Progress Principle” to “Retiring” — The Origin of the Research

11:13: Preparing for Retirement and What to Think About Before You Take the Step

15:16: The Research Methodology

20:07: The Four Tasks of Retiring

20:24: Task One: Making the Decision

26:17: Task Two: Detaching from Work

29:29: Task Three: Exploring and Experimenting

38:42: Task Four: Consolidating a Retirement Life

41:12: Identity in Retirement — Bridging and Building Anew

51:33: What Companies Should Do

57:18: What Does Work Mean Now, And Teresa’s Own Retirement

59:53: Where to Learn More

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In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, speaks with Vivienne Ming, theoretical neuroscientist and artificial intelligence expert, named one of “10 Women to Watch in Tech” by Inc. Magazine and one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2017, and author of the new book “Robot-Proof: When Machines Have all the Answers, Build Better People”.

00:45: Introductions

3:44: Vivienne's Personal Background – From the Farm to the Academy

13:45: Vivienne's Work Today – From Hiring Science to the Human Trust

18:30: What Actually Predicts Long-Term Life Success

23:04: How AI Is Changing Teams, Trust, and Cognition

28:01: The Core Distinction Between Well-Posed vs. Ill-Posed Problems

32:38: Deprofessionalization and the "Right" Questions About AI and Jobs

36:52: Three Types of Human-AI Collaborators : Automators, Validators, and Cyborgs

43:59: The Utopia/Dystopia Debate and What's Actually Worth Worrying About

51:29: Teaching in the Age of AI and The Case for Productive Friction

1:00:13: What You Still Need to Learn And Why Human Qualities Are Developable

1:05:44: Closing and Where to Learn More

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In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, speaks with Dave Whorton, Founder & CEO at Tugboat Institute, and co-author of Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last alongside Bo Burlingham, which gives practical advice and explanations of Evergreen companies: focused on long-term stability and steady growth, and leadership beyond personal wealth generation.

00:56: The HP Origin Story and Learning to See a Different Way

3:58: From Reluctant Venture Capitalist to the Evergreen Discovery

9:59: The Tugboat Metaphor

10:51: The Book's Approach to Learning in Real Time

14:44: Financial Transparency, Jack Stack, and the Great Game of Silicon Valley Business

18:01: The Wealth Trap and What Evergreen Leaders Model Instead

22:15: How Evergreen Leaders Approach Boards

25:30: People First: The First of the Seven P's

30:22: Perseverance and the Debt Question

30:45: Customer Intimacy Over Competition-Watching

37:10: Why Aren’t More Companies Like This?

40:02: The Scale and Diversity of the Evergreen World

49:00: Weighing up Venture and Evergreen

52:45: AI, Careers, and the Changing Unit of Value Creation

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In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, sits down with Johan Roos, Global Chief Academic Officer at Hult International Business School, co-creator of LEGO Serious Play, and author of Human Magic: Leading with Wisdom in an Age of Algorithms.

00:30: Introductions — A Long Friendship and a New Book

6:00: The Genesis of Human Magic — The Central Question

10:34: The History Behind the Idea, From 2012 to ChatGPT

17:58: The Five Cs: The Core of Human Magic

22:42: Algorithmic Citizenship vs. Professional Citizenship

28:24: The Junior Talent Problem and Unintended Consequences

35:50: AI in Business Schools and Lessons from Hult Business School

40:04: The Future of Business Schools and the MBA

44:08: Rethinking the Role of the Professor

50:35: What Human Magic Hopes to Accomplish

53:45: Science Fiction, Warning Signs, and "Your Choice"

55:06:What's Next for Johan Roos

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In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, sits down with Deborah Perry Piscione, co-author of the book “EMPLOYMENT IS DEAD: How Disruptive Technologies are Revolutionizing the Way we Work” and co-founder and Chief Future Officer of the Work3 Institute.

0:22: Welcome and Introduction to “Employment is Dead”

1:39: The Core Thesis: Why Employment as We Know It Is Ending

6:18 The Destruction of Jobs: AI, Humanoids, and Physical Work

14:18: Carlota Perez’s Theory of Economic Transitions

17:54: The Work3 Institute: Advising Organizations Through the Shift

20:32: Education: What K–12 and Universities Must Become

27:23 Alpha Schools and New Models for Learning

31:00 Economics, Purpose, and the Meaning Crisis

37:40 Humanoids, AI Relationships, and Human Identity

42:49 Optimism, Pessimism, and Where We Stand

50:11 What Leaders and Organizations Should Do Now

52:15 Where to Learn More

Want to learn more about Rita’s ideas and hear more of her conversations with business leaders and innovators?

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In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, welcomes Sangeet Paul Choudary– expert on platform economics and network effects, and the recipient of the 2025 Thinkers50 Strategy Award – to discuss his new book Reshuffle.

0:00 - Intro & Teaser

0:31 - Welcome & Guest Introduction (Sangeet Choudary, author of "Reshuffle")

1:49 - The Maginot Line Analogy: Why We're Solving the Wrong Problem with AI

4:07 - AI's Automation Lens vs. the Coordination Lens

5:02 - AI's Real Impact: Changing How the Economy Connects

7:15 - What Inspired the Book "Reshuffle"

9:40 - The Shipping Container Analogy: Lessons for AI

11:21 - From Port Automation to Systemic Transformation

13:04 - How AI Makes Tacit & Unstructured Knowledge Usable

15:35 - AI's Impact on Jobs & Roles: What Really Disappears

17:51 - Coordination as AI's Magical Property

18:27 - What AI Means for Strategy

19:08 - From Operational Uncertainty to Structural Uncertainty

19:51 - Industry Boundaries Are Collapsing

21:46 - The New Way to Win: Reshaping the Playing Field

26:51 - The TikTok Example: Intelligence-First vs. Social Graph

29:34 - Shein & AI-Driven Fast Fashion

33:45 - Sephora: AI as a Consumer Decision-Making Assistant

36:13 - Solution Providers vs. Tool Providers (Two Strategic Roles)

41:55 - What Will Happen to Consulting?

44:22 - New Business Models: Rentable, Recombinable & Scalable (Mr. Beast Burgers)

48:30 - Sangeet's Next Book: "Unfair Advantage"

51:01 - The Dynamics of Transition: From Petroleum Age to Digital

53:00 - Apple's Masterclass in Value Migration (iPod → iPhone)

57:37 - Closing Remarks & Farewell

New episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast are released every Tuesday at 11am Eastern.

Want to learn more about Rita’s ideas and hear more of her conversations with business leaders and innovators?

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Learn more about Rita, her books and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com

In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, welcomes Christian Marcolli, a performance psychologist who works with elite athletes and executives on how to achieve and sustain high performance, and the author of “Winning Match: Leadership for Game Changers”

00:27 Introductions and Novartis’ Culture Leadership Advisory Board

2:19: From Professional Soccer Player to Psychology PhD Candidate

8:37: Working with Roger Federer

10:05: Creating Frameworks that Nurture Talent

12:55: The 4 Traits of a Potential Game Changer

14:32: The Role of Generosity in Leadership

17:03: Leadership Sparring: How Leaders Get Feedback as Organizations Flatten

23:35: The Five Practices for Performance Improvement

29:42: Examples from NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang and Airbnb’s Brian Cheskey

33:36: Case Study in Performance Improvement

36:59: How Leaders Foster the Development of Potential

38:49: The Hidden Talents That Leaders Miss

42:20: Examples from Elite Athletes: How Mindset Boosts Performance

47:33: How to Find a Leadership Sparring Partner

48:59: Why Peer-to-Peer Leadership Support is Indispensable

52:03: Takeaways to Implement Right Away

Thought Sparks are the brainchild of Rita McGrath. They are insightful actions, strategic ideas, actionable suggestions and innovative approaches that help organizations and leaders master the future with less fear and more confidence.

New episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast are released every Tuesday at 11am Eastern.

Want to learn more about Rita’s ideas and hear more of her conversations with business leaders and innovators?

Listen to more Thought Sparks Podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Watch Thought Sparks episodes on YouTube.

Follow Rita on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Blue Sky.

Connect with Rita on TikTok.

Sign up for her Thought Sparks Newsletter on Substack.

Learn more about Rita, her books and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com