May 23, 2020
For episode 97 we welcome Professor and author Rebecca
Henderson. Henderson is the John & Natty McArthur University
Professor at Harvard University, where she has a joint appointment
at the Harvard Business School in the General Management and
Strategy units. Professor Henderson is also a research
fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She spent the
first 21 years of her career at MIT, much of it as the Eastman
Kodak Professor of Management. Additionally, she teaches
'Reimagining Capitalism' in the HBS MBA Program and sits on the
boards of Amgen and of IDEXX Labs.
For today’s show we focus the discussion on the engine of
environmental change - the economy. Professor Henderson has
recently released the book “Reimagining Capitalism - In a World on
Fire” - which borrows from the name of a course she teaches at
Harvard Business School. As she explains, "I am
convinced that we have a secret weapon. I spent twenty years of my
life working with firms that were trying to transform themselves. I
learned that having the right strategy was important, and that
redesigning the organization was also critical. But mostly I
learned that these were necessary but not sufficient conditions.
The firms that mastered change were those that had a reason to do
so: the ones that had a purpose greater than simply maximizing
profits. People who believe that their work has a meaning beyond
themselves can accomplish amazing things, and we have the
opportunity to mobilize shared purpose at a global scale."
In our 45 minute discussion we cover stakeholder value vs.
shareholder value. We learn about the role that companies and
executives will have in environmental action and social
responsibility in the near future. Additionally, we discuss
food systems, regenerative natural resource management and how
politics gets woven into this recipe of change. For those fans of
water and environmental service marketplaces out there, hear
Professor Henderson's recommendation for sending a new price signal
through the novel notion of 'embodied water', and gain a deeper
understanding for how markets will evolve to integrate more of
these values into buy decisions.
Joining as co-host for the conversation is Dutch-American
Agricultural Economist, Renée Vassilos. Vassilos has spent
over fifteen years in the production agriculture space. Her
work experience includes time spent with the USDA, she’s started
her own consultancy to help investors and Agtech companies, and she
spent nearly a decade with John Deere; with much of that time in
Beijing. Last year, Renée joined The Nature Conservancy as
their Agriculture Innovation Director. She manages TNC’s
investments in early stage agtech companies that will support
regenerative agriculture production at scale.
We all seek new mechanisms to coax values through the supply chain
of food and its production. Tune in to ep. 97 to hear from an
expert about engaging with diverse stakeholders to partake in a new
economic system; a reimagined economic system that takes into
account a true cost of production by reaping the benefits for
product differentiation and decommoditization of these
values.