Thought Sparks

Rita Gunther-McGrath
  • 4.8 (4)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

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 other Tuesday at 11am Eastern.

  1. Building Lasting Organizations with Rita McGrath and Dave Whorton

    2D AGO

    Building Lasting Organizations with Rita McGrath and Dave Whorton

    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    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

    1h 1m
  2. AI and Human Capabilities with Rita McGrath and Johan Roos

    MAR 31

    AI and Human Capabilities with Rita McGrath and Johan Roos

    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        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

    58 min
  3. The Future of Employment with Rita McGrath and Deborah Perry Piscione

    MAR 24

    The Future of Employment with Rita McGrath and Deborah Perry Piscione

    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?   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

    54 min
  4. AI and the Knowledge Economy with Rita McGrath and Sangeet Paul Choudary

    MAR 17

    AI and the Knowledge Economy with Rita McGrath and Sangeet Paul Choudary

    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?   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

    58 min
  5. The Psychology of High Performance with Rita McGrath and Christian Marcolli 

    MAR 10

    The Psychology of High Performance with Rita McGrath and Christian Marcolli 

    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

    55 min
  6. Rethinking Authenticity with Rita McGrath and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

    MAR 3

    Rethinking Authenticity with Rita McGrath and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

    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 Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology at University College London and an adjunct professor at Columbia University,  and the author of Don't Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (and What to Do Instead).    00:00 Introductions  01:06 Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?  02:54"Don't Be Yourself”: Why This Book, Now  05:21 Authenticity Versus Leadership, and Being the Leader the Situation Calls For  06:59 The Visibility of Authenticity   09:18 Power and Self Censorship from Jeff Pfeffer  11:04: The Four Mantras of Authenticity  11:30: Mantra 1: “Honesty”  14:18 Mantra 2: “Don’t Worry About What People Think”  15:45 Skill Building and Self Awareness, from Matt Beane  18:27 Mantra 3: “Always be True to Your Values”  21:42 The Overton Window and How Norms Shift  24:03: Herminia Ibarra’s Critique of the Authenticity Paradox  26:44 Mantra 4: “Bring Your Whole Self to Work”  27:57 Diversity and Belonging at Work  30:22 How Employee Engagement Fits Into the Authenticity Picture  32:27 How DEI Interventions Utilize Authenticity   34:36 The Return to Office: Why Senior Leadership Might Prefer In-Person Work  35:38: Chip Conley’s Learning to Love Midlife  36:37: Tech Bros, Solopreneurs, and Authenticity to an Extreme  38:27 Practical Alternatives: Your Right For Self Expression Versus Your Obligation to Others  41:22 The Self Complexity Framework and Office Politics  44:41 How to Interview: Honesty versus Employability  48:32 Gen Z: Developing Grit and Learning from Feedback  55:28 AI Paranoia and Adaptation  58:42: Gen AI as “Intellectual Fast Food”      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 other 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

    1h 1m
  7. Unlimited Leadership with Rita McGrath and Jose Marcilla

    FEB 24

    Unlimited Leadership with Rita McGrath and Jose Marcilla

    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 José Marcilla, President of Latin America and Canada (LACan) Region at Novartis, and author of “Unlimited Leadership”.     00:46: Why this Book, and The Crisis of Good Leadership  3:04: Jose’s Journey and Career Path  5:16: Burnout, and the Need for Leaders to Focus on What They Can Control  8:06: Humanism in Leadership: The “Hardware” and “Software” that Leaders Need  10:38: Explaining Tough Decisions to Your People  13:42: Novartis’ Transformation Strategy: The Intersection of Technological and Biomedical Revolutions  16:00: Building an Inspired, Curious, and Unbossed Culture at Novartis  18:01: Clarity and Simplicity in Corporate Strategy  19:50: The Next Best You: Are You Changing as Fast As The World Is?  22:59: Staying Grounded as a Senior Leader  25:40: Setting the Tone Around Innovation and Failure  28:16: How Leaders Can Repair Eroded Trust in 3 Ways  32:37: Amy Edmondson’s 3 Types of Failures  34:59: Leaders as Coaches: How Coaching Training Changed Jose’s Leadership  37:40: The Delayering Question: Bureaucracy Eats Culture for Breakfast   43:19: What Leaders Need to Unlearn  45:15: Advice for Gen Z: Going from a “Tetris” Mindset to a “Roblox” Mindset  50:27: The Importance of Mentorship      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 other 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

    52 min
  8. Defying Organizational Drift with Rita McGrath and Steve Goldbach & Geoff Tuff

    FEB 17

    Defying Organizational Drift with Rita McGrath and Steve Goldbach & Geoff Tuff

    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 Steven Goldbach and Geoff Tuff, authors of Hone: How Purposeful Leaders Defy Drift. They explore how leaders can align their organizations amid the “drift” that can accompany large transformations and other contexts of uncertainty.     8:52: Early Research: Beyond the “70-20-10" Innovation Portfolio  13:32: Strategy, Budgeting, Governance, and Career Advancement: Forces in Opposition  16:05: Detonate, Provoke, Hone: From Blowing Up the Playbook to Operationalizing a New One  20:46: The Difference Between Honing and Sharpening, from Chef Flannery Colton  25:41: Treat Change as the Normal Thing, Not the Weird Thing  27:36: What are Management Systems?: The Critical Fifth Box of the Choice Cascade  35:03: The Role of Visionary CEOs  38:00: A Guide to Human Behavioral Change, and Patience  42:40: Transformation and Innovation at Deloitte  48:00: Case Studies in Collaboration from Sony and the Mayo Clinic  51:49: Diseconomies of Scale, and the Risks of Being Too Big to Hone  59:00: Single-Person-Unicorns, and How Units of Value Creation Change  1:01:05: “We Don’t Have Eight Planets to Burn”: The Sustainability Question        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 other 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

    1h 3m
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

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 other Tuesday at 11am Eastern.

Information

  • Creator
    Rita Gunther-McGrath
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    136
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Rita Gunther-McGrath
  • Show Website
    Thought Sparks

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