Monash business school launches new podcast

Monash Business School’s new podcast series, Thought Capital, promises to delve into the business and economic ideas of its experts and explain how this impacts our lives.

Thought Capital host, Michael Pascoe – renowned financial commentator – interviews leading academic experts about their fascinating research and discusses their ideas in plain language, reaching out to a broader audience.

The aim of Thought Capital is to showcase the breadth and depth of research at Monash Business School. It aims to be a part of policy debates in society, to deepen knowledge and increase understanding of topics not often covered by the mainstream media.

Monash Business School approached Michael Pascoe to be Thought Capital host as he is one of Australia’s most experienced finance and economics commentators, with a career spanning broadcast, print and digital journalism.

His experience includes the Australian Financial Review, the Nine and Seven networks and 10 years as a contributing editor to Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age websites.  He is now contributing editor at the New Daily.

The ten-episode series delves into topics you won’t necessarily read about in the business pages. What’s the link between Big Data and election-rigging? How can you identify the true ‘key players’ in an economic meltdown? Is there a ‘tax paradise’ and can you live there? 

Episode 1 – Opting in – How to even up the gender balance 

Kicking off the series, Michael tackles a timely topic – women in leadership – and uncovers some truly innovative research that could just help even up the gender balance in boardrooms across Australia, and beyond.

Professor Lata Gangadharan talks about her research, revealing that a real-world experiment she conducted shows that the gender gap between women and men in executive positions disappears when, instead of people having to ‘opt-in’ to apply for a senior job, they are automatically considered unless they ‘opt-out’.

Michael Pascoe interviews one of Australia’s most accomplished female leaders – Monash University President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardner AO who talks candidly about women’s slow progress:

“It really has been a much slower journey in terms of improving outcomes for women or getting greater gender equality in our society than I at all imagined when I was an undergraduate student…I took one of the first subjects offered on this particular topic many decades ago while I was an undergraduate, and I don’t think I expected then at age 19, or whatever I was, that it would actually be as slow as it’s been.”

Episode 2: What China loves – How to reap success in the lucrative Chinese market.

For many years, the gigantic, growing Chinese consumer market has glimmered on the horizon like a giant gold mine for western companies. But while many have been successful doing business in China, a great many more have not.

The cultural differences, language barriers, contrasting customs can be daunting to conquer, not to mention a different legal and political system.

Guiding listeners through the Chinese business environment and what Australians need to know to prosper in the Chinese market is Professor Hean Tat Keh from Monash Business School’s Department of Marketing.

In this episode, they discuss: What more than “guanxi” do foreign business people need to make it in China? What do the Chinese consumers of tomorrow want and how is the digital economy changing trade?

Professor Hean Tat Keh says ‘The Chinese take a long time to get to know a person. They want to understand how you operate, you as a person before they are willing to conduct the business deal with you.’

Episode 3: The Art of the Deal – What Trump teaches us about leadership.

In the third episode of Thought Capital host Michael Pascoe talks to Professor and Deputy Dean Richard Hall about why Trump is a leader of our time and what we can learn about leadership from the American president.

Trump has a particular leadership style. Someone who spent his career teaching, analysing and researching different kinds of leadership is Monash Professor and Deputy Dean, Richard Hall.

Professor Richard Hall asks “How do we understand the Trump phenomenon? I think we understand that through the prism of the deal, and he can do a better deal than the other guy. And that’s the way in which you need to understand everything that Trump does.”

“I think that Trump is fascinating when it comes to the question of leadership style. I don’t know how deliberate it is, but certainly if we think about it, there’s elements of populism, a heavy dose of charisma, a capacity to identify in an emotional way, certainly with his supporters, to generate strong emotional reactions is really quite distinctive.“