When Walter Chrysler built his New York skyscraper in the early 1930s, his critics stated the building was a monument created for himself. The same comment could have been applied to John Jakob Raskob's justification for building The Empire State Building. In this book club-style conversation, John Coe and I dissect the book, The Birth of a Building. The author's book addresses how a book is conceived, financed, designed, and constructed. Unlike Chrysler and Raskob, this book starts with a purpose and a philosophy for any real estate undertaking. Our guest is John Coe, the podcast host of Ico ..read more

I've heard some startup founders say that every graduate should spend a year or two working in government before embarking on their chosen career path. For business students, I believe every new graduate should consider running or managing a restaurant for one to two years because of the people, financial, and entrepreneurial skills needed to keep the store afloat. I'm thrilled to have Ken McGarrie on the show to talk shop about his industry and his book, The Surprise Restaurant Manager. This conversation is especially geared toward those of us outside the food service industry, but those w ..read more

Not only is Neil Dahlstrom the author of the business historical narrative Tractor Wars, but he's also the Branded Properties and Heritage Manager at John Deere. Before that, he was Deere's Corporate History and Archives Manager. Neil admits he wanted to be Indiana Jones when he grew up and even worked in a museum in high school. During this conversation, we learn what a corporate archivist does, how to start a company archive, and how to start a career in this field ..read more

Derek Sivers was an accidental business founder. All he wanted to do was put his music online and sell it online before the dotcom bubble when PayPal did not exist yet. During one four-year period, his revenues jumped from $1 to $20 million while his staff count surged from 8 to 85. He eventually sold CD Baby for $22 million in 2008. Derek tells his founder's story in the book, Anything You Like. Since it's a book I recommend to every CFO, I invited Hannah Munro, the host of the CFO 4.0 podcast, to unpack this story full of ups and downs for this fascinating business founder. If you like bo ..read more

One of the best books we've read in 2023 is the story of Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley, who started a business of women freelance programmers in a male-dominated world in the 1960s based in London. The bookends of this remarkable story include an escape from the Holocaust from her homeland in Austria to her new adopted country in England, thanks to Kindertransport. While there are many business insights in Steve's book, Let It Go, she pulls back the curtain to reveal the many ups and downs in her family life, including the love, care, and hardship of raising a son who was profoundly autisti ..read more