“The way I think about trying to anticipate and shape the AI future requires us to take a step back and ask ourselves first, ‘What does this technology do? What does it enable?’” reflects Amir Goldberg, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “That’s very different from asking ourselves, ‘How is the technology implemented?’” From locating the origins of innovation to identifying hidden barriers blocking new ideas, Goldberg presents a framework for harnessi...
May 28, 2025•27 min•Ep. 34
Neil Malhotra , the Edith M. Cornell professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, aims to identify the nature of our tumultuous political moment in his work. In this episode, Malhotra explores rising distrust, shifting political identities, and what these changes mean for individuals — and businesses. Plus, the billion-dollar question: “Is Trump creating a movement that is separate from himself or is it identified with himself?” Malhotra asks. “It remains to be seen.” ...
May 14, 2025•30 min•Ep. 33
Sridhar Narayanan , a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, studies how small businesses operate and why they’re so important, especially in the developing world. “Modernizing small businesses will have a profound impact on economies worldwide in many ways,” he says. In this episode of If/Then , Narayanan explains why so many retailers still rely on cash, how modernization can boost revenue, and what these patterns reveal about credit access, trust in institutions, and ...
Apr 30, 2025•26 min•Ep. 32
Only a third of the global population is financially literate. Why? Because most of us don’t learn the basics of personal finance in school — or elsewhere. Treating financial literacy as an afterthought can have serious consequences, from personal calamities to economic crises, according to Annamaria Lusardi , a professor of finance and the director of the Initiative for Financial Decision-Making at Stanford Graduate School of Business. On this episode of If/Then , Lusardi makes the ...
Apr 16, 2025•28 min•Ep. 31
Susan Athey , the Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business and founding director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab, studies the impact of technological innovations on workers, businesses, and society. Will the world’s economies successfully adapt to a future defined by artificial intelligence? On this episode, Athey shares what the stories of 22,000 laid-off workers in Sweden can tell us about who recovers from economic turmoil, how small design change...
Apr 02, 2025•25 min•Ep. 30
Brian Lowery , the Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the author of Selfless: The Social Creation of You , argues that identity is about much more than external characteristics, family history, or the collection of experiences that compose the chronology of our lives. In fact, Lowery argues, our identities are constantly being formed, shifted, and even co-created — by the people around us. In this episode, Lowery break...
Mar 19, 2025•26 min•Ep. 28
What’s one of the most powerful forces behind technological breakthroughs, business strategy, and job creation? The tax code. Rebecca Lester , an associate professor of accounting and one of three inaugural Botha-Chan Faculty Scholars at Stanford Graduate School of Business, studies how subtle tax incentives can trigger monumental business decisions, determining how companies invest, grow, and innovate. These incentives don’t just shape corporate strategy — they ripple across industries, economi...
Mar 05, 2025•25 min•Ep. 27
The pen may be mightier than the sword — but the dollar beats them both. Economic leverage has long shaped the world order, and today global powers use financial networks, trade policies, and sanctions as tools of persuasion — or coercion. In this episode, Matteo Maggiori , the Moghadam Family Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business, outlines why he believes the U.S. dollar remains the world’s financial backbone, why China wants to create an alternative, and how global...
Feb 19, 2025•26 min•Ep. 26
“The ultimate price of a bad system falls on the public,” says Anat Admati , the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of The Bankers’ New Clothes . “The Constitution did a lot to constrain the government, but the government has failed to constrain institutions in the private sector.” Simply put, Admati says the real problem isn’t just profit-hungry corporations, it’s the systems that let bad actors get away with it. From the opi...
Feb 12, 2025•25 min•Ep. 25
Is burnout simply the cost of doing business? What responsibility do employers have for the health and well-being of their workers? Jeffrey Pfeffer , the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of Dying for a Paycheck and 7 Rules of Power , says that the connection between workplace stress and negative health outcomes is as strong as the link between smoking and cancer — and may contribute to as many as 120,000 deaths annually in t...
Feb 05, 2025•27 min•Ep. 24
Can the workplace be as harmful as smoking? Is it possible for governments and corporations to rebuild trust once they’ve lost it? How are nations wielding financial power to shape global politics? On Season Two of If/Then , Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty tackle big questions about business, leadership, and society, providing innovative, research-based insights to help you navigate rapidly changing times. Join your host, senior editor Kevin Cool, for conversations that will challen...
Jan 15, 2025•2 min•Ep. 24
Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA, believes leadership is about more than making decisions—it’s about empowering others to reason through ambiguity and drive transformative change. In this bonus episode of If/Then , Huang sits down with Stanford GSB student Shantam Jain, MBA ’24, on Stanford GSB’s View From The Top podcast, to discuss his journey from an ambitious engineer to the leader of one of the most innovative companies in the world. Huang reflects on the lessons learned dur...
Dec 27, 2024•58 min•Ep. 23
Behind every lesson lies a journey of discovery. In this special episode of If/Then , we step into the classrooms of Stanford Graduate School of Business to uncover the human stories driving extraordinary insights. Christian Wheeler, professor of marketing at Stanford GSB, challenges our fear of failure, reframing it as the sharp edge where growth truly happens. “Be comfortable being uncomfortable,” he says, urging leaders to embrace the anxiety of pushing limits to unlock their peak potential. ...
Dec 11, 2024•13 min•Ep. 22
As leaders rise and hierarchies shift, Stanford GSB organizational behavior professor Deborah Gruenfeld , guest in season one of If/Then , reminds us that power is not just about authority—it’s about presence. In this special feed drop from Pfeffer on Power , Gruenfeld, author of Acting With Power , revisits topics featured in her If/Then episode, exploring how body language and mindset can shape perceptions of influence. “We’re all playing roles,” she explains, whether as CEOs, professors, or p...
Nov 20, 2024•30 min•Ep. 21
In this episode of If/Then , we're diving into insights from three GSB experts featured on Think Fast, Talk Smart . Join us as professor of organizational behavior Michele Gelfand explains her "tight and loose" cultural framework, revealing how societal structures impact everything from crime rates to creativity. We also hear from marketing professor Jonathan Levav, who explores decision fatigue in judicial settings, shedding light on how mental depletion influences choices. Finally, marketing p...
Nov 06, 2024•14 min•Ep. 20
Artificial intelligence could fundamentally transform democracy for better or worse. In this bonus episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society , Professor Andrew B. Hall of Stanford Graduate School of Business explores AI's potential to disrupt our electoral system. With the 2024 presidential election approaching, Hall warns that AI-generated misinformation could sway voters and erode trust in democratic processes. Yet he also sees AI's potential to solve political challenges. If we want t...
Oct 16, 2024•16 min•Ep. 19
One underappreciated fact about the explosion in genetic databases, like consumer sites that provide information about ancestry and health, is that they unlock valuable insights not only into an individual’s past and future, but also for that individual’s entire family. This raises serious concerns about privacy for people who have never submitted their genetic information for analysis, yet share much the same code as one who did. This week on If/Then , we’re sharing an interview from The Future...
Oct 09, 2024•28 min•Ep. 18
This special episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society explores the personal stories behind Stanford GSB faculty's groundbreaking research. Discover how individual experiences shape scholarly inquiry. Baba Shiv, professor of marketing, examines decision-making and the brain's liking and wanting systems. His self-proclaimed "irrational" nature led him to question whether good decisions are based on reason or emotion. Mohammad Akbarpour, professor of economics, found his passion in market ...
Sep 25, 2024•9 min•Ep. 17
Behavioral economist and Professor of Marketing Baba Shiv works with entrepreneurs on how to build a risk-tolerant mindset. A mindset, Shiv believes, that is crucial in times of crisis. While we take a break and prepare for season two of If/Then, we're sharing an episode of Grit & Growth , a podcast from our partners at Stanford Seed. Here, Baba explains two types of mindsets: a fear of failure or a risk-averse mindset (type one) and a fear of missing out on opportunities mindset (type two)....
Aug 30, 2024•31 min•Ep. 16
It can be tempting to think one thing causes another because they happen in succession, but there’s a lot to unwrap in the idea of causality. This week, If/Then is featuring an episode from the podcast All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions. Listen as hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen explain the difference between correlation and causality, and examine cases where it is tempting to assume one thing caused another. Their guest for this episode, Guido Imbens, is...
Aug 07, 2024•29 min•Ep. 15
To wrap up the first season of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society, we invited Senior Associate Dean Jesper B. Sørensen into the studio to talk about the importance of research at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He shares insights on what motivates faculty to study what they do and how it impacts practitioners across industries. “One of the challenges of being a great researcher is that you need to move away again from this kind of day-to-da...
Jul 25, 2024•17 min•Ep. 14
While our team starts working on our second season, we'll still be sharing insights, bonus content, behind-the-scenes audio, and "class takeaways" from Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty throughout the summer. Stay Tuned! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jul 10, 2024•30 sec•Ep. 14
Getting to elect our leaders is certainly a privilege. Yet, even in a representative democracy, the choice that citizens have is often only as good as the candidates they have to choose from. That’s why Professor Andrew B. Hall, The Davies Family Professor of Political Economy, wonders: How do we get society’s best and brightest to participate in politics? As a political economist at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, Hall has spent years stu...
Jun 26, 2024•30 min•Ep. 13
If we want to get fair outcomes, then we need to build fairness into algorithms. Whether you’re looking for a job, a house, or a romantic partner, there’s an app for that. But as people increasingly turn to digital platforms in search of opportunity, Daniela Saban says it’s time we took a critical look at the role of algorithms, the invisible matchmakers operating behind our screens. Saban is an Associate Professor of Operations, Information & Technology at Stanford Graduate School of Busine...
Jun 12, 2024•24 min•Ep. 12
Unless you’re a CPA or own a large business, it might be hard to see the relevance of accounting. While it’s true that the average person doesn’t necessarily need to be able to read a corporate balance sheet, Professor Ed deHaan says a deeper understanding of accounting — a greater fluency in the “language of business” — can help everyone get a grip on their finances and make more empowered decisions for their lives. deHaan is a professor of accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business . I...
May 29, 2024•27 min•Ep. 11
If we create good institutions, then we can live up to our good intentions. Knowing and articulating our values is essential. But when the metaphorical Siren’s song fills the air, is knowing our values enough to ensure that we live by them? According to Ken Shotts, a professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, having stated values is just expressing aims not necessarily actualizing them through concrete policies and practices. “We need those binding institutions to he...
May 15, 2024•24 min•Ep. 10
Whether or not robots can feel is a question that, at least for now, might be better left to the philosophers. But what’s becoming increasingly clear, says Associate Professor Szu-chi Huang , is that robots do have the capacity to make us feel. In this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society , Huang delves into the effect that robots can have not just on our emotions, but on our behavior. Huang’s research shows that when people witness people helping others, they’re inspired to d...
May 01, 2024•29 min•Ep. 9
Digital currency — whether privately-developed or government-issued — seems like an inevitability to Stanford Graduate School of Business finance professor Darrell Duffie. “Virtually all countries are exploring a central bank digital currency for potential use,” he says. An expert on banking, financial market infrastructure, and fintech payments, Duffie is interested in how central bank digital currencies (CBDC) could revolutionize economies around the world. The shift to a digital version of a ...
Apr 17, 2024•19 min•Ep. 8
A dollar is a dollar, right? While most conventional economic theories view money as an objective store of value, Mohammad Akbarpour says this misses a subtle but important fact: different people value money differently. Many economists assume that the price someone is willing to pay for a good or service is equivalent to the utility they get from it. But Akbarpour, an associate professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, isn’t convinced. “Different people have different marg...
Apr 03, 2024•25 min•Ep. 7
If we want to make better decisions, then we need to think more like an artist. Rationality is often seen as the gold standard when it comes to making decisions, but Professor Baba Shiv prompts us to consider: “Is a good decision based on reason? Or is it based on emotion?” Shiv is the Sanwa Bank, Limited, Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business . Throughout his career, he’s researched how brain structures related to emotion and motivation affect the choices we make. “Emot...
Mar 20, 2024•24 min•Ep. 6
