Deep Purpose Harvard Business School Prof. Ranjay Gulati

Research has repeatedly shown that we are hard-wired to worry. Whether we worry about our own survival, our family and friends, or our future, it can seem like we spend much of our lives fixated on what could go wrong. In this episode, Helena Foulkes discusses how taking courage can be as simple as asking what could go right – a philosophy that has taken her from the helm of CVS Pharmacy and Hudson’s Bay Company to the campaign trail for governorship of Rhode Island.

In our increasingly virtual world, it can feel like many of our lives take place remotely. When Josh Silverman took the helm at Etsy in 2017, however, he went against this technological grain, helping to usher in a new, distinctly human-centered purpose at the e-commerce company: “Keep Commerce Human.” In this episode spanning the course of his career, Silverman recounts the difficult choices he has made in keeping people at the center of business – and what following that ethos has meant for his personal and professional life.

Despite the decades of progress women have made in the workplace, they remain
underrepresented in leadership positions at companies across the globe. Leena
Nair, CEO of Chanel, is working to change that. Reflecting on her journey from
rural India to London, Leena discusses how she developed the confidence
necessary to usher Chanel into the future – one led by (many more) women.

Few CEOs can claim that they started in entry-level positions at the
companies they now lead. Penny Pennington is one of those few, rising from
financial advisor to CEO and Managing Partner at Edward Jones. In this episode,
Pennington reflects on how Edward Jones’ purpose – “to partner for positive
impact” – motivated her personal and professional life and, nowadays, how she
has been working to realize that sense of purpose for Edward Jones’ employees,
clients, and the communities in which they live.

As a veteran leader in the healthcare sector, José (Joe) E. Almeida, Chairman, President & CEO of Baxter, has made a lot of tough decisions. He led the successful turnaround of the Illinois-based multinational by calling on leadership lessons he gained from his family in Brazil. Almeida says courage is not the absence of fear, but the determination to press on when times are difficult.

What’s really in a payment? During his career at Mastercard,
Michael Miebach has strived to understand how payment solutions make a
difference in people’s lives, even before his appointment as CEO. In this
episode, Miebach explains how he thinks through powering the economy in an
increasingly digital (if uncertain) world and the leadership required to do so.