Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Luminary

From the creator of How I Built This, host Guy Raz invites you to listen in as he talks to leadership experts and the visionary leaders of some of the world's biggest brands. Along the way, you'll hear accounts of crisis, failure, turnaround, and triumph, as the leaders reveal their secrets on their way to the top. These are stories that didn't make it into their company bios, and valuable lessons for anyone trying to make it in business. read less

Our Editor's Take

Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz is a podcast for the curious about how brand leaders lead. Raz talks with founders and C-Suiters about how they got to where they are. Their stories are surprising-and inspiring.

Each episode starts with a characterizing sound bite from the featured guest. In one, Richard Graeter talks about his wife's pride and dedication to quality. Ambient background music complements Raz's enthusiastic cadence to create an enjoyable listening ambiance. Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz is an NPR production and features the public radio network's high quality.

Raz has experience and success in podcasting and beyond. Raz hosts a podcast called How I Built This, another entrepreneur-focused show. He also wrote a bestselling book of the same title, based on the podcast. Another show Raz hosts is The Great Creators with Guy Raz, about artistic inspiration. In addition, Raz hosts a music podcast called The Rewind. He is also the cofounder of a children's media company called Tinkercast. They produce educational podcasts.

Many of the stories on Wisdom From the Top begin with a question. What happens when everyone in a company is working past their capacity? How can someone help a company that is failing? How can one build an empathetic culture? Raz asks the questions that listeners want to know. He finds out how Dan Hesse helped Sprint by focusing on caring for customers.

There is an episode about how Beth Comstock went from wanting to be a doctor to becoming the first female vice chair of business innovations at GE. In another episode, Keith Krach shares why he kept working when he didn't need the money. H&R Block's Jeff Jones talks about what leadership in a crisis looks like. The podcast features many notable brands, like Perdue, Etsy, and Honeywell. Other guests have included CEOs Dan Schulman and David Novak. These leaders' insights are here to inspire listeners to work toward their entrepreneurial goals. Fans who like business podcasts may appreciate Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture

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Introducing Wisdom From The Top

Introducing Wisdom From The Top

From the creator of How I Built This, stories of crisis, failure, turnaround, and triumph from some of the greatest leaders in the world.

Episodes

How to Succeed Using Empathy: Maria Ross

How to Succeed Using Empathy: Maria Ross

When Maria Ross was trying to teach her son that empathy was a way to success, the world around them seemed to be sending the exact opposite message. So Ross took her years of experience as a management and brand consultant to make the case for empathy not as a moral imperative, but as a business strategy. It's an equation worth studying. Here, in her 2021 conversation with Guy Raz, she describes the way she turned her research into a book called The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success.

Don't Waste Your Failures: Erling Kagge

Don't Waste Your Failures: Erling Kagge

Explorer, writer, and publisher Erling Kagge came from a childhood enriched by an artistic household (the likes of Chet Baker and Eubie Blake once visited his home) and by ready access to nature. He was the first person to complete the Three Poles Challenge -- reaching the South Pole, the North Pole, and the top of Mt. Everest -- on foot. He talks about what a life of extreme exploration has taught him about silence and the value of failure.

Mastering Crisis is Everything: Jeff Jones of H&R Block, Uber, Target

Mastering Crisis is Everything: Jeff Jones of H&R Block, Uber, Target

Jeff Jones has had a few front row seats to crisis. From the 2013 Target data breach to a tumultuous period at Uber, he’s helped navigate companies out of some tough situations. So, when Jeff became the President and CEO of H&R Block in 2017, he was prepared. How a young man from West Virginia went from being an ad guy to heading one of the biggest tax preparation companies in the US during a global economic downturn and public health crisis (this conversation took place in 2020; the lessons to any business leader are timeless).

Back to Center: Target's Brian Cornell

Back to Center: Target's Brian Cornell

There was a devastating data breach, a failing foray into Canada, and they were losing US customers fast. In 2014, Target seriously needed a win—Brian Cornell was that win. He’d turned around plenty of other retailers like Safeway, Michael’s, and Sam’s Club, but this time he was thinking bigger. In this 2019 conversation: Playing the long game to make Target a brand that lasts.

How You Win by Failing: Sarah Robb O’Hagan

How You Win by Failing: Sarah Robb O’Hagan

Sarah Robb O'Hagan is brutally honest about the many, many times she messed up on the way to transforming Gatorade. She was a rabble-rouser at Virgin, which ended with her getting fired. She took a job at Atari, even though she hated video games. How those disasters made her into the right executive to pull Gatorade out of double-digit declines.

Jacqueline Novogratz (Acumen): When to Listen, When to Lead

Jacqueline Novogratz (Acumen): When to Listen, When to Lead

When the COO of Chase Bank told Jacqueline Novogratz that she had the potential for a high level career at Chase, she knew she had to quit her job. She continued to use the skills she learned from investment banking, and used them to change the way the world sees capitalism and philanthropy. Today Acumen has delivered more than 100 million dollars in loans, grants, and investments to projects and businesses that help low income people around the world. It's little wonder that as a child Jacqueline Novogratz was drawn to the stories of saints--or, rather, "narratives about women who directed their own lives," as she tells Guy Raz in this conversation from 2020 (reprised, fittingly, during a month that honors the power and history of women).

Channel Confidence: BET's Debra Lee

Channel Confidence: BET's Debra Lee

Black Entertainment Television launched in 1980--at a time when MTV didn't play Hip hop or "urban music. Not only did BET fill a vital programming void, it was the first Black-owned business traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and it helped make the first Black Billionaire in the US (Bob Johnson). Debra Lee, a young Harvard-educated lawyer drawn to the company’s mission, was recruited by Johnson early on, eventually taking his place as CEO. Lee was pivotal in turning the small, revolutionary cable station into an industry staple. In honor of the 55th NAACP Image Awards, which air on BET, listen to this excellent 2019 conversation with Lee about what she learned in her 30+-year tenure at BET Networks.

The Hardest Decisions, ft. Leena Nair

The Hardest Decisions, ft. Leena Nair

Growing up in a small town in India, Leena Nair overheard her mother say it was too bad Leena was born a girl, because it meant her smarts and talents would go to waste. But Nair went on to join Hindustan Unilever, becoming the first female manager to work on a factory floor, the first woman to serve on the management committee, and the youngest-ever executive director. She has since gone on to the role of CEO at Chanel. When Guy Raz had this conversation with Nair in 2020 she was Unilever’s Chief Human Resource Officer, overseeing the company’s 170,000-plus global workforce during the COVID-19 crisis - a crisis that she said has been one of the greatest challenge of her career.

Take Risks, Break Barriers: Shellye Archambeau

Take Risks, Break Barriers: Shellye Archambeau

Shellye Archambeau knew as a teenager she wanted to grow up and become a CEO. But when Shellye started as an undergraduate at the Wharton School of Business in 1980, there were just two female CEOs of large corporations, and none of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies were Black. Despite the lack of representation, Shellye became the first Black woman to lead a division of IBM overseas. She broke barriers and took risks leading to a successful career with leadership positions at Blockbuster, Zaplet and MetricStream. In this 2022 conversation with Guy Raz, Shellye discusses her book Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms, and details both her singular approach to leadership and her advice for taking ownership of one’s career.

Amex Change Agent: Kenneth Chenault

Amex Change Agent: Kenneth Chenault

When a mentor, and now friend, told Kenneth Chenault during a hiring process at American Express that he was "looking for catalytic agents of change," it struck a deep chord--because it's exactly what Chenault wanted to be. Kenneth Chenault learned early on to only worry about the things he could control; this helped him when life—and business at American Express—threw unpredictable events his way. In this 2020 interview, he tells Guy how he broke barriers as the company’s first African American CEO and helped turn AmEx from a traveler’s check company into a credit card powerhouse.

The Gospel of Slow Growth, ft. Jason Fried

The Gospel of Slow Growth, ft. Jason Fried

Jason Fried, the CEO and co-founder of 37signals (maker of Basecamp) doesn’t want you to come to meetings. He insists that you work no more than 40 hours a week; 36 in the summer. He doesn’t really want you coming to the office either…and this approach has helped make Basecamp hugely successful. In this episode, Fried describes how he’s built an institution by bucking a lot of conventional wisdom.

Lead Más: Taco Bell's Mark King

Lead Más: Taco Bell's Mark King

On taking what you learn shaking up one industry and applying it to an entirely different industry: Mark King has a reputation for turning businesses around by moving fast on innovative, and sometimes expensive, endeavors. Before his current tenure as CEO of Taco Bell, Mark served as president for Adidas’ long-stagnant North American division, reinvigorating the brand with major athletic sponsorships and a deal with Kanye West. From 2003 to 2014, King was CEO of TaylorMade, which under his leadership became the most profitable golf company in the world.

Finding Work with Meaning, ft Ken Coleman

Finding Work with Meaning, ft Ken Coleman

Ken Coleman calls himself “America’s Career Coach.” In his syndicated call-in show, and in books like The Proximity Principle and One Question, Coleman helps people think about what kind of work they would find meaningful, and how they can connect with people that will help get them into that work. Coleman came about the knowledge he imparts honestly: he spent about a decade working different jobs before he found his real calling in broadcasting. In this encore episode, he poses a simple question: what do you wonder about doing? Learn more about why that question is so powerful.

How to Build Confidence via Strangers, ft. Joe Keohane

How to Build Confidence via Strangers, ft. Joe Keohane

Joe Keohane is a longtime journalist and editor who believes that talking to strangers can not only help people feel happier and more empathetic, but can actually make the world a better place. In his first book, The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting In A Suspicious World, Joe talks to psychologists, anthropologists and plenty of strangers to prove it. In this encore episode, Guy and Joe explore why the lost art of connecting is now so important for our personal and professional well-being.

Why Generalists Succeed: David Epstein

Why Generalists Succeed: David Epstein

David Epstein is a science writer and investigative reporter. His articles have spanned a wide range of topics, from crime and violence, to athletes using steroids, to the intersection of science and the Olympics. And, he’s the author of the books The Sports Gene and Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. But, before all of that, David studied geology and ran on Columbia University’s track team as a walk-on. In this encore episode, follow the thread: David went from star athlete to discovering that having a wide range of interests leads to more successful outcomes -- in sports and in life.

Tiny Habits, Big Rewards: BJ Fogg

Tiny Habits, Big Rewards: BJ Fogg

What does it take for a person to change? BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, says the key to behavior change isn’t what we’ve always been taught. In Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything Fogg draws upon true experiments--from his lab and his life--to outline a system anyone can use to create good habits or unravel the bad. In this episode, originally published in 2021: the invaluable lessons about making change through design and celebration.

Machiavelli for Women: Stacey Vanek Smith

Machiavelli for Women: Stacey Vanek Smith

Stacey Vanek Smith has reported on business and the economy for over 15 years now, first for public radio’s “Marketplace,” and as the host of Planet Money’s daily podcast “The Indicator.” Over that time, she’s seen the same barriers blocking advancement for women in the workplace again and again. Recently, she’s started to recognize that a lot of tools to move past those barriers can be found in the work of Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. Vanek Smith lays out these solutions in her book, Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace.

Black Magic: Chad Sanders on Black Leadership

Black Magic: Chad Sanders on Black Leadership

Throughout his life, Chad Sanders found himself having to navigate white culture; at school, in the tech industry, and eventually in his career in entertainment. He learned to cope with the frustration of having to do that by writing, and he wrote his first screenplay at a cafe just across the street from Spike Lee’s studio in Brooklyn—where he would run into Spike himself. Chad would come to realize that though his experiences related to racial inequity left him with real trauma, they also equipped him and other Black leaders with certain entrepreneurial skills. Chad writes about these skills in the book Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph.

No Animals Were Harmed: American Humane CEO Robin Ganzert

No Animals Were Harmed: American Humane CEO Robin Ganzert

Episode description not available.

To Win, Tell a Story: Foot Locker w/ Ken Hicks

To Win, Tell a Story: Foot Locker w/ Ken Hicks

When Ken Hicks became CEO of Foot Locker in 2009 the company didn’t have a leg to stand on: the economy was in a recession, sales were down almost a billion dollars, and the brand was widely expected to collapse along with indoor shopping malls themselves. How Hicks used a commitment to better storytelling to help Foot Locker get back on the right foot.