If/Then
How do we lead with purpose, make better decisions, and navigate an uncertain future? On If/Then, Stanford GSB faculty break down cutting-edge research on leadership, strategy, and more, exploring enduring questions and the forces reshaping business and society today, from AI to geopolitics. Hosted by senior editor Kevin Cool.
Episodes
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 S...
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 t...
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 c...
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...
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 fina...
“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 corporati...
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 an...
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 ...
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 innovativ...
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 ...
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’...
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, sheddin...
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. Ye...
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 w...
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 ...
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 (...
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 assum...
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 res...
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!
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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...
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