MIT

The Mentors Radio, Interview

Nobel Laureate Bengt Holmström Shares How His AI “Colleague” Charlie Improves Scholarship and Life

In this episode of THE MENTORS RADIO, host Dan Hesse talks with Bengt Holmström, the Emeritus Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics at MIT, to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of receiving the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions to contract theory.

His research has advanced the understanding of incentives, organizations, corporate governance, and financial liquidity. Bengt is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford and before MIT, he held faculty appointments at Yale and Northwestern.

Dr. Holmstrom explains why factors that are hard to measure usually drive better behavior in incentive plans than those that are easy to measure.  He mentors his students that asking the right questions is far more important than answering questions. A self-described “AI optimist,” he considers the AI companion he has created, Charlie, clever and life-enriching.

Read more and listen to the full episode on TheMentorsRadioShow.com or through the podcast player below.

RADIO BROADCAST & STREAMING AUDIO

Listen Live at 1 pm PST each Saturday on the SALEM Radio Network (860 The Answer, San Francisco), and worldwide on iHeartRadio & TuneIn Radio.

This episode and past shows can also be found on your favorite PODCAST platform, like Apple, Spotify, or Tune-In, or at THEMENTORSRADIO.com.

The Mentors Radio, Interview, Podcast

Good Leaders Get Their Hands Dirty, with Guest Mentors Nelson Repenning and Don Keiffer

In this episode of THE MENTORS RADIO, Host Dan Hesse talks with MIT Professors Nelson Repenning and Don Keiffer to discuss their new book, There Has Got to Be a Better Way- How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work, describing Dynamic Work Design. 

Work design is the primary reason work often fails to get done well, and why leaders need to thoroughly know the business and get involved with the front line to be effective and respected. Nelson is the Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center and the Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Nelson received the International System Dynamics Society’s Jay Wright Forrester Award, which recognizes the best work in the field in the previous five years and he received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He was recently recognized by Poets and Quants as one of the country’s top instructors in executive education.

Read the full article and listen to the episode on TheMentorsRadioShow.com or through the podcast player below.

RADIO BROADCAST & STREAMING AUDIO

Listen Live at 1 pm PST each Saturday on the SALEM Radio Network (860 The Answer, San Francisco), and worldwide on iHeartRadio & TuneIn Radio.

This episode and past shows can also be found on your favorite PODCAST platform, like Apple, Spotify, or Tune-In, or at THEMENTORSRADIO.com.

Podcast, Interview, The Mentors Radio

Where You Are is Not Who You Are, an Interview with Ursula Burns

In this episode of THE MENTORS RADIO, Dan talks with Ursula Burns, Chairwoman of Teneo and founding partner of private equity company Integrum Holdings. But Ursula is best known for serving as Chairwoman and CEO of Xerox during a 36-year-career there, where she became the first black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

In addition, Ursula serves on several private company boards, while also providing leadership counsel to several community, educational and non-profit organizations including the Ford Foundation, the MIT Corporation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Mayo Clinic, among others. President Obama appointed her to lead the White House national program on STEM and she served as Chair of the President’s Export Council. Since February 2022, Ursula Burns has served as Vice Chair of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness.

Listen to the full episode on TheMentorsRadioShow.com or through the podcast player below.

RADIO BROADCAST & STREAMING AUDIO

Listen Live at 1 pm PST each Saturday on the SALEM Radio Network (860 The Answer, San Francisco), and worldwide on iHeartRadio & TuneIn Radio.

This episode and past shows can also be found on your favorite PODCAST platform, like Apple, Tune-In, or Spotify, or at www.THEMENTORSRADIO.com.