New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

New Books Network

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork

  1. 4D AGO

    Nick Coutts - Portugal’s Leading Fitness/Health Centre Entrepreneur

    In this episode of Richard Lucas on Entrepreneurship and Leadership, Richard speaks with Nick Coutts — a visionary entrepreneur who reshaped Portugal’s fitness landscape and continues to push the boundaries of innovation and excellence. With over 27 years in the industry, from expanding Holmes Place across Europe to founding Fitness Hut — Portugal’s largest low‑cost gym chain — Nick brings a deep understanding of what drives customer loyalty and business success. He believes great fitness businesses are built not just on equipment or branding, but on people. Every Fitness Hut manager has hands‑on experience as a fitness coach, ensuring real insight into what members need and how to deliver it. Nick shares how attention to detail — from gym cleanliness to staff engagement — defines the member experience. In his view, every “hello” from staff counts, and every ignored client is a missed opportunity. He also stresses the power of a well‑executed pre‑sales strategy: generating momentum and revenue before opening the doors is the key to sustainable growth. Looking ahead, Nick reveals plans for a new disruptive gym model in Portugal — affordable, convenient, and committed to a people‑first culture and how he plans to open 30/year & exit @ 100… leaving “meat on the bone” for the buyer to continue growing towards the 300 capacity that’s identified His approach is a reminder that true leadership means investing in talent, empowering teams, and never losing sight of the customer. Links Nick’s Linkedin Holmes Place Fitness Hub exit to Viva Gym Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 25m
  2. 6D AGO

    Bryan Caplan's Case Against Education

    Today I’m speaking with economist Bryan Caplan about education and b******t, with a particular focus on his book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (Princeton University Press, 2018). In our modern economy, possessing a college degree feels like a necessity for professional advancement. The age of good jobs for college dropouts is largely gone as more people spend more time in the classroom, writing papers, taking tests, and, of course, goofing off. On the one hand, policymakers celebrate the additional degrees attained by more people. Surely a more educated society means a more intelligent and productive one. It’s no secret that college grads make more money than dropouts, and high school grads make more than those who didn’t complete 12th grade. Why is this the case? Does more education truly endow students with the skills necessary to succeed in the working world, or does education merely serve to certify that an individual has the intelligence and people skills needed to succeed? If the primary value of education is to signal conformity to employers’ expectations, then education as we know it is a waste of time, energy, and money. Degrees range in practicality, but most—like economics—hardly spend time teaching the kinds of skills that translate to the jobs most graduates actually take. As Bryan puts it, “As far as I can tell, the only marketable skill I teach is how to be an economics professor.” The world certainly needs some economics professors, but the sentiment behind the point reflects an undeniable dirty little secret. Professors, by and large, teach students about their favorite subjects, not skills for career success. For years, I’ve trumpeted the line that the purpose of higher education is not to teach skills but rather to teach students how to think. The Case Against Education deflates this argument with statistics and great humor. As the type of student who loved taking Russian literature, political philosophy, and economic history, I’m thrilled to speak with Bryan Caplan about b******t and education. Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 hr
  3. MAR 4

    Jeremy Sosabowski: Community Leader and Entrepreneur

    In this episode, Jeremy Sosabowski, CEO and co‑founder of AlgoDynamix, reveals how his company is reinventing market forecasting through behavioral analytics rather than traditional fundamentals or news. By decoding real‑time transactional order flow, AlgoDynamix predicts price movements (hours or days in advance) based on what traders are actually doing — a fresh, practical edge for smaller hedge funds, family offices and HNWI (High Net Worth Individuals) seeking ultimate actionable trading insights. Jeremy shares how the company continues to expand and refine its business model and how they have built a scalable platform capable of handling complex, multi‑asset portfolios. He also dives into Cambridge’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, highlighting how networking, community engagement, and thematic WhatsApp groups have created unexpected opportunities and collaborations. The episode is packed with insights for innovators, investors, and curious listeners. If you want to hear how behavioral science meets financial returns — and how an entrepreneur builds momentum through community — this conversation is absolutely worth your time. Links: CUE Cambridge University Entrepreneurs AlgoDyamix Jeremy Sosabowski Linkedin Richard Lucas TEDxTarnow on “Opportunity Readiness” Jeremy Sosabowski at CAMentrepreneurs Open Coffee Cambridge OptiSynx clock project About Jeremy Sosabowski CEO, AlgoDynamix: Dr. Jeremy Sosabowski is Co-founder & CEO at AlgoDynamix, an AI-based financial price forecasting analytics company. Their products are used by asset managers, including CTAs, hedge funds, and family offices. Jeremy has over a decade of business and technology commercialisation experience. His previous roles include CTO at an instrumentation company (technology acquired) and data analyst within the online transaction space. His 'IP portfolio' includes several granted patents and more than 10 peer-reviewed publications. Jeremy has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in engineering and signal processing including an Engineering Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    52 min
  4. FEB 25

    Ilana Gershon, "The Pandemic Workplace: How We Learned to Be Citizens in the Office" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

    A provocative book arguing that the workplace is where we learn to live democratically. In The Pandemic Workplace: How We Learned to Be Citizens in the Office (U Chicago Press, 2024) anthropologist Ilana Gershon turns her attention to the US workplace and how it changed—and changed us—during the pandemic. She argues that the unprecedented organizational challenges of the pandemic forced us to radically reexamine our attitudes about work and to think more deeply about how values clash in the workplace. These changes also led us as workers to engage more with the contracts that bind us as we rethought when and how we allow others to tell us what to do. Based on over two hundred interviews, Gershon’s book reveals how negotiating these tensions during the pandemic made the workplace into a laboratory for democratic living—the key place where Americans are learning how to develop effective political strategies and think about the common good. Exploring the explicit and unspoken ways we are governed (and govern others) at work, this accessible book shows how the workplace teaches us to be democratic citizens. Our guest Ilana Gershon is a US focused anthropologist with broad interests in political and legal anthropology, linguistic and media anthropology, science and technology studies, and the anthropology of work She is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair of Anthropology and the Co-Director of the Program in Science and Technology Studies at Rice University. I am joined in this episode by my co-producer Julie Smith, a Master's student in the Department of Communication at Oakland University.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    46 min
  5. FEB 20

    Raiford Guins, "King PONG: How Atari Bounced Across Markets to Make Millions" (MIT Press, 2026)

    PONG is one of the longest- and most consistently circulating video games. Released in 1972, it remains at our fingertips as Android or iOS app, hosted at freepong.org and the Internet Archive, and even released as A Tiny Game of Pong for the Apple Watch. Despite its simplicity and ubiquity, Atari’s PONG encapsulates far more than the history of a video game and an iconic game company. King PONG: How Atari Bounced Across Markets to Make Millions (MIT Press, 2026) is the first book dedicated to an unassuming game that changed the world. Through the prisms of product positioning, market development, and category creation, Professor Raiford Guins answers the question of why Atari’s inaugural product succeeded and why it endures.The author of Game After and Atari Design, and an excavator of the “Atari landfill” in New Mexico, Professor Guins brings us a unique history that reconsiders the launch of Atari’s PONG through the lens of the company’s business practices. He follows the young Silicon Valley startup from its early days of positioning its new product within the existing coin-op amusement industry to its establishment of a consumer industry for home video games—a story of remarkable market development innovation. Written with a passion for video games and a historian’s insight, the book animates the business exploits of one of the fastest growing and most influential companies ever. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 15m
  6. FEB 9

    Robert E. Siegel, "The Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today's Companies" (Random House, 2025)

    Since the start of this century, businesses have confronted a series of extreme and constant disruptions, including technological upheavals, a pandemic, and a global financial crisis. As a result, today’s leaders, from startup founders to the managers of global giants, face unprecedented pressures from their bosses, investors, customers, peers, suppliers, and employees. For many, it’s a recipe for disaster.Part of the problem is that these challenges, while acutely felt, are rarely articulated in a way that makes them graspable and actionable. Robert E. Siegel has witnessed the impact of these cross-pressures from different perspectives. As a lecturer in management at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, an operator, a venture capitalist, and a consultant, he sees countless teams of managers, at all sorts of companies, struggling to lead their companies into the future.Featuring exclusive lessons drawn from inside the business world, including from the CEOs of Accenture, Mubadala, Kering, Wells Fargo, and Box, The Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today's Companies (Random House, 2025) is the essential guidebook that teaches readers “systems leadership,” Siegel’s holistic framework that helps leaders understand and master five key dimensions where they are likely to feel contradictory pressures:• Priorities: The need to succeed at both execution and innovation• People: The need to project both strength and empathy• Sphere of influence: The need to focus both internally and externally• Geography: The need to think both locally and globally• Purpose: The need to pursue both ambition and statesmanship Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 8m

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork