In this episode, Vesna is joined by Lars Strannegård , President of the Stockholm School of Economics, for a profound conversation on education, leadership, and the critical role of art and empathy in shaping the future of business and society. Lars shares his formative experiences living abroad, highlighting how cultural exposure and the lack of it shaped his perspective on inclusion and the importance of creative expression. He discusses the vision for SSE, emphasizing the need for students to...
Jun 25, 2025•44 min•Season 2Ep. 156
In this episode, Vesna welcomes Dr. Peter Senge , renowned MIT Sloan lecturer and pioneer of systems thinking, to the Corporate Unplugged Podcast. Peter explores why true change requires a shift in how we see interdependence, not just in business but in society at large. Drawing from decades of work with organizations and indigenous communities, he explains how deep, sustainable transformation starts with cultural and institutional shifts—far beyond quick fixes or policy tweaks. Peter shares pra...
Apr 23, 2025•56 min•Season 2Ep. 155
Robert Edward Grant, a modern polymath, inventor, author, and visionary entrepreneur, joins Vesna on Corporate Unplugged to explore the profound intersections of love, leadership, and multidimensional thinking. With over 80 patents and contributions spanning fields like cryptography, geometry, and healthcare, Robert shares his unique journey of bridging science, spirituality, and innovation. In this episode, Robert reflects on how love drives his purpose and how self-awareness and judgment-free ...
Mar 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 154
In this episode of Corporate Unplugged , Vesna Lucca speaks with Thierry Malleret, economist, author, and founder of Summit of Minds. Thierry shares his unique perspective on leadership, sustainability, and the urgent need for businesses to embrace stakeholder capitalism. Drawing from his diverse career—including years at the World Economic Forum—Thierry reflects on the challenges and opportunities shaping our world today. “Without nature, there is no economy,” Thierry emphasizes, underscoring t...
Feb 04, 2025•41 min•Season 2Ep. 153
In this episode of Corporate Unplugged, Vesna explores new worlds with Jesh de Rox, cultural anthropologist and founder of h OURS . They explore the transformative potential of AI in enhancing human connection and creativity. Jesh shares his journey from being a renowned photographer to a visionary leader in social technology, emphasizing the importance of nurturing environments that foster human growth. Jesh discusses his shift from seeing himself as a healer to a gardener, focusing on creating...
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 152
In this episode Vesna sits down with Dr. Renée Lertzman, a renowned psychologist and strategist, to explore the intricacies of creating genuine engagement within organizations. Renée shares her insights on leveraging psychology to drive transformative change and how leaders can foster resilience in the face of volatility. She emphasizes the importance of intrinsic motivation, highlighting key drivers like mastery, purpose, autonomy, connection, and belonging. This challenges traditional approach...
Dec 17, 2024•41 min•Season 2Ep. 151
Thomas Davin is the Global Innovation Director at UNICEF. With over two decades of experience in international development and humanitarian work, in this episode of Corporate Unplugged Thomas shares his insights on leveraging innovation to address global challenges affecting children. He emphasizes the critical role of young people as active contributors to climate innovation and highlights UNICEF's efforts to empower youth through initiatives like climate accelerators, which support young innov...
Dec 03, 2024•33 min•Season 2Ep. 150
" Everything vibrates. So every cell of your body right now is vibrating and has its own frequency ." In this episode of the Corporate Unplugged podcast, Vesna ventures into sound with renowned multi-instrumentalist, and multimedia producer Laura Inserra. Laura shares her personal insights as a ‘Sound Alchemist’ on the vibrational essence of the universe and the profound healing power of music. Laura explains how music can entrain the body's natural frequencies, releasing stagnant energies and e...
Nov 12, 2024•49 min•Season 2Ep. 149
Phoebe Tickell is a renegade scientist, systems thinker, and social entrepreneur that sums her work up as an ‘‘imagination activist’. In this episode, Vesna and Phoebe discuss the critical role of creativity and perception in shaping the world around us. We delve into the challenges of fostering imagination and creativity within organizations, highlighting the need for psychological safety, non-hierarchical work environments, and interventions that integrate art and creativity into leadership an...
Oct 29, 2024•41 min•Season 2Ep. 148
New Zealand born business philosopher and entrepreneur, Christopher Evatt, was raised with the understanding that we should leave everybody and everything better than when we found it, and we should work for the good of the whole. But the problem is, we humans have been labouring under an illusion of separation, both individually and collectively. We’re all connected, says Christopher, our society, companies, organisations, the planet; we’re all one living system. In this episode of Corporate Un...
Feb 27, 2024•44 min•Season 2Ep. 147
Don’t stress about where you are in life, says Eda Çarmıklı, a proud utopian and firm believer, that it’s never too late to become what you might have been. You're going to get to where you need to be, or perhaps you’re already there. Just open your eyes and trust that life will bring you the right people, the right communities, and the right collaborations, when you’re ready. Eda’s the co-founder of the global collaborative platform, Joint Idea; lifelong laboratory growth program Life Works Lab...
Feb 13, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 146
We all depend on Planet Earth for life and yet as a species, our collective actions are having devastating impacts such as a loss of biodiversity and climate change, among other things. It’s literally the definition of insanity, says Lisen Schultz, Associate Professor in Sustainability Science, Deputy Director for the Stockholm Resilience Center, University of Stockholm, Director of Education, and the Programme Director for the center's executive programme in resilience thinking. We humans aren’...
Jan 30, 2024•41 min•Season 2Ep. 145
There is a real pressure to solve the climate crisis and the myriad other environmental and social issues by breaking them down into their constituent parts, to solve them individually. But, says Nora Bateson, award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, and President of the International Bateson Institute, this approach is the biggest challenge we need to overcome. We live in a complex, interdependent world, and to find new solutions we need to relearn how we think, feel and navigate, we need ...
Dec 26, 2023•38 min•Season 2Ep. 144
Right now, says Nipun Mehta, founder of Service Space, an incubator of gift economy projects that inspire people to be the change they wish to see, the world needs a little more kindness. And yes, with so many challenges happening globally, it might feel like such an insignificant act isn’t going to affect anything but says Nipun, that’s how history changes. 25 years ago, in Silicon Valley, Nipun started Service Space as an experiment with friends. Today it’s a global ecosystem with around 1.5 m...
Dec 12, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 143
Sometimes a physical ailment isn't physical, says Neha Sangwan, MD and CEO and founder of Intuitive Intelligence. In fact, stress causes or exacerbates more than 80% of illnesses, so rather than simply treating the physical injuries, we need to be asking people what's at the root of their stress. In this episode of Corporate Unplugged, Neha explains why her passion is teaching people how to communicate with themselves, and with each other, to navigate their emotions, manage their energy, to lear...
Sep 12, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 142
Capitalism has served us well in many ways, says Manish Bhardwaj, CEO and founder of Innovators in Health, but it has also exacerbated injustice and inequality worldwide. So, how can we address the problems at the heart of this? How can we design more just systems? By having moral clarity. In this episode of Corporate Unplugged, Manish explains we first need to understand why there is injustice in the world, before we can find a solution. A lot of our failures today, says Manish, are failures of...
Aug 01, 2023•39 min•Season 2Ep. 141
A lot of people believe the problems we're facing on a global scale are related to tech, says Nichol Bradford, pioneer, innovator, investor and thought leader at the intersection of technology and human transformation. But the truth is, much of what we’re struggling with just boils down to a lack of belonging. “We craft these visions of the future where people can't see themselves in it, they can't see that they belong to it.” In this episode of Corporate Unplugged, Nichol discusses the future o...
Jul 18, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 140
Do you bring your whole self to work? Are you encouraged to bring your authentic self to work? Or do you feel you need to leave parts of you at the door? If you’re a leader, do your followers bring their whole selves to work? Because, says Gianpiero Petriglieri, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, and one of the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world, if we’re not bringing our whole selves into the workplace, we’re absent from the very place where so many of us spend s...
Jul 04, 2023•35 min•Season 2Ep. 139
Do you really trust your people? Do your people trust you as a leader? Is your company a trustworthy stakeholder for society and the planet as a whole? And if not, why not? The answer, says Stefan Beiten, Founder and Managing Partner of Argo Ventures, always lies with your people, you need to learn to connect with them. Stefan is an out-of-the-box thinker and serial entrepreneur, investor, company builder, and opportunity finder from Berlin. Best known for producing the global phenomena, Earth, ...
Jun 20, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 138
How often are you moved to tears in a day? How often do you experience things that make you really feel deeply? This is what drives Richard Hsu, as he tirelessly redesigns systems and connects dots, as he develops humanistic balanced projects and places. The world has had a collective awakening. People are fast realising life is too short to waste on dirty, profit making projects. They want purpose, they want good reasons to invest their time in something. Which is why now is a really good time ...
Jun 07, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 137
Filippo Dal Fiore is an unconventional social scientist, corporate advisor and university professor of sustainable business. Having moved back and forth from academia to the frontline of highly conscious companies, Filippo has developed a new paradigm vision for the university of the future, where science is done with a heart and a new human-centred civilisation can be built from the ground up. On today’s podcast: Bridging the gap between the academic and business world Why academia needs to cha...
Dec 13, 2022•50 min•Season 2Ep. 136
John Fullerton is an unconventional economist, impact investor, writer and founder of Capital Institute. In this episode of Corporate Unplugged he discusses regenerative economics, and the universal patterns and principles that will shape the new economy. But first, why after a 20 year career on Wall Street where he was the Managing Director of JP Morgan, did he choose to walk away with no plan? On today’s podcast: Why we need to pause before we act The darkside of the Green Revolution Competiti...
Sep 06, 2022•45 min•Season 2Ep. 135
If you had an idea for a potentially multi-billion dollar business, would you have the courage to make it free for the entire world to use? Because that’s exactly what Matt Mullenweg, CEO and founder of WordPress did. After many twists and turns, today the company has nearly 2,000 employees and a valuation of $7 billion. And WordPress powers more than 40% of the websites on the internet. So why did Matt decide to go against the status quo and make his platform free for all users? And why, almost...
Aug 16, 2022•36 min•Season 2Ep. 134
How can art awaken people's desire for change and support them in creating the future they wish for? Jayce Pei Yu Lee is a graphic facilitator and visual catalyst based in Taipei, Taiwan. Jayce is big at heart, small in size and organic in spirit. She is an artist, a scribe and a maverick storyteller through her whimsical brush marks. She is a core team member of The Value Web and of The Presencing Institute led by MIT professor Otto Scharmer. She also drives the visual practice movement in the ...
Aug 02, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 133
Having abandoned a career in the petroleum industry to pursue a vocation defending the environment and defending future generations, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Ali Al Nuaimi is affectionately known around the world as the Green Sheikh. So what does it take to transform a nation from polluter to protector, and why, as a member of one of the ruling royal families in the oil rich United Arab Emirates, has he chosen the rather unlikely vocation as environmental campaigner? Find out in this episode! You c...
Jul 12, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 132
Otto Scharmer is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-founder of the Presencing Institute. In 2015, he co-founded the MITx U.lab, and in 2020, the GAIA journey (Global Activation of Intention and Action). GAIA has activated a vibrant worldwide ecosystem of transformational change involving more than 200,000 users from 185 countries. And if you haven't read his books yet, we recommend The Essentials of Theory U, and also Leading from the Emerging Future: from ecosystems ...
May 02, 2022•42 min•Season 2Ep. 57
Shelley Paxton is an author, speaker and movement maker. Think Brene Brown with a dash of rebel. As former Chief Marketing Officer of Harley Davidson, Shelley found herself at the top of the proverbial mountain feeling success-empty instead of success-full. And that awakening led her on a profound sabbatical journey that became her mission, her business and best selling book. Today, she's leading a REBELution with a B to rewrite the script of success and liberate one billion souls. In this podca...
Apr 18, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 55
Sasja Beslik is an international financial expert known for promoting financial sustainability across the world. He has been ranked the world's most influential person within green finance. Sasja is a true sustainability pioneer who has with passion taken on several leading roles in the world of finance: as head of responsible investments, as corporate governance, as CEO, and as head of sustainable finance. And today he's leading the sustainability work at the biggest Danish commercial pension c...
Mar 28, 2022•41 min•Season 2Ep. 54
Charles Eisenstein is a writer, speaker and the author of several books including The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible . His work covers a wide range of topics such as history of human civilization, economics, spirituality, and also the ecology movement, all topics which leaders today need to understand to evolve their companies. In this podcast: Why success doesn’t have to be goal driven Our education system doesn’t create leaders How to use business as a force for change The mo...
Mar 15, 2022•33 min•Season 2Ep. 53
William Ury has a passion for helping people, organisations and societies get to seemingly impossible yes’s - i.e. agreements that work for everyone. He's trained as a social anthropologist, he’s worked as a mediator and negotiation advisor in many of the world's toughest conflicts from the Cold War to the Middle East. And he is co-author of ‘Getting To Yes’, a 15 million copy bestseller translated into over 35 languages, and author of the award winning ‘Getting to Yes With Yourself’. He co-foun...
Dec 21, 2021•51 min•Season 2Ep. 52
