Podcast · Business

Cold Call

by HBR Presents / Brian Kenny · English · Business

Cold Call distills Harvard Business School's legendary case studies into podcast form. Hosted by Brian Kenny, the podcast airs every two weeks and features Harvard Business School faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.

New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 29 min
Latest: 6 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026 · 51 min

Getting Your Boss to Buy into Your Strategy (from “Coaching Real Leaders”)

You have a strategy you believe in. But what happens when your boss doesn’t? “Cold Call” presents this bonus episode from the podcast “Coaching Real Leaders,” where host and executive coach Muriel Wilkins works with an ambitious leader whose plan to drive growth is at risk because she hasn’t been able to get the alignment she needs from her boss. They explore what’s behind the resistance and how she can approach the relationship, and the strategy, differently. The conversation illustrates a key challenge at the heart of strategy execution: getting the people who need to support your idea on…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E293 · 29 Sep 2026 · 28 min

Considering the Future of the BBC and Its Funding Model

With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment. Harvard Business School senior lecturer Henry McGee and host Brian Kenny discuss the case, “The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization,” and the different structures an institution like the BBC could have in order to operate in a financially sound and culturally impactful way.
E292 · 22 Sep 2026 · 26 min

Dare to Be Bad at Something (from Fixable)

Sometimes the only way to win is by finding the courage to lose. Cold Call presents a special episode from TED’s Fixable podcast. In it, the show’s hosts, Leadership Coach Anne Morriss and Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei, challenge leaders to “dare to be bad” in order to free up capacity to excel at more important things. They share insight on the power of a strategic “no,” the value of ruthless prioritization, and how Steve Jobs and Apple delivered breakthrough innovation by strategically underperforming. Frances also explains why you can’t always trust your own instincts,…
E291 · 15 Sep 2026 · 31 min

How GEO Is Changing the Role of Brand Manager

AthenaHQ, a startup that helps brands monitor, protect, and optimize their visibility across conversational AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini was founded in 2025. Co-founded by Andrew Yan, the company built a platform that enables major consumer brands, B2B software companies, and marketing agencies to track their share of voice, correct factual errors in AI responses, and manage their reputation across generative answer engines. In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Julian De Freitas and AthenaHQ co-founder and CEO Andrew Yan join host Brian Kenny to discuss…
E290 · 1 Sep 2026 · 32 min

Best of Cold Call: The Bumpy Road to Expanding a Fleet of Electric School Buses

How do you scale innovation in a fragmented system you don’t fully control? That is the challenge Highland Electric Fleets faced as it worked to replace diesel school buses with electric vehicles across the United States. In this episode from 2025, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Highland Electric founder and CEO Duncan McIntyre join host Brian Kenny to discuss the Harvard Business School case, “'The Wheels on the Bus' Go Electric: Highland Electric Fleets and Partners,” and what it takes to scale a climate solution while sustaining momentum and coordinating across…
E289 · 18 Aug 2026 · 24 min

Can an AI-Powered Scribe Curb Physician Burnout?

In 2024, Mass General Brigham, the largest health system in Massachusetts, piloted an AI-powered, ambient note-taking and transcription program among a subset of clinicians to address increasing rates of staff burnout and turnover -- largely driven by the administrative burden of clinical documentation in the electronic health records (EHR). Early results showed promising reductions in clinician burnout, intention to leave, and increased physician efficiency. But concerns about the technology, including the generation of inaccurate notes with errors or hallucinations made physicians…
E288 · 4 Aug 2026 · 24 min

Why Metaphysic AI Looked to Hollywood for a Digital Rights Model

Founded in 2021, AI generative video company Metaphysic first rose to fame through viral deepfake videos. It achieved a significant milestone with "Here," the first major film to use AI for de-aging actors, including Tom Hanks. The company had two revenue streams: high-end content creation for Hollywood studios and a platform allowing individuals to own and control their digital likeness thanks to the entertainment industry’s “separated rights” framework. However, as AI increasingly codified expertise across other sectors, such protections do not extend; employers own workplace data by…
E287 · 21 Jul 2026 · 27 min

How a Museum Marketing Team Used AI to Bring People Closer to Art

In 2025, Harvard Art Museums considered using generative AI in a marketing campaign to increase visitor engagement and membership. Looking to boost attendance and appeal to a younger audience base, and facing intensified competition for leisure time, the Museums’ marketing team explored animating a canonical artwork using AI-generated avatars as part of a digital campaign. While the approach promised novelty and attention, it raised internal concerns about brand authenticity, interpretive authority, donor relations, and reputational risk. Harvard Business School Associate Professor Julian De…
E286 · 7 Jul 2026 · 30 min

Are We Entering a New Age of Creativity with the Help of AI?

In March 2024, The Atlantic announced a strategic content and product partnership with artificial intelligence giant OpenAI. OpenAI would license The Atlantic’s content to train its models and respond to user queries, while The Atlantic would receive a fee, privileged access to OpenAI’s technology, and “premium” positioning within the tech giant. The Atlantic’s journalists, however, were incensed, concerned that partnering with OpenAI was “a devil’s bargain.” Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire owner of The Atlantic, had to consider what was in the magazine’s best financial interest and…
E285 · 23 Jun 2026 · 37 min

How School of Rock Created Structure in Order to Scale with Agility and Creativity

In the summer of 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before Rob Price became CEO in 2017, School of Rock’s nonconformist culture led to variability in teaching styles, educational outcomes, and risks for copyright violations. One of Price’s major initiatives to aid better standardization was the Method App which provided a structure to empower and guide work at the school branches, featuring nearly 100 show programs and 1,000 copyright-compliant song choices tagged with the associated skill levels, musical…
E284 · 9 Jun 2026 · 33 min

The Founder Mindset: Tim Ferriss on Experiments, Risk, and Freedom

What does it take to be a founder? In this episode of The Founder Mindset, produced by Harvard Business School Foundry and hosted by Senior Lecturer Reza Satchu, Satchu sits down with writer, podcaster, and investor Tim Ferriss to discuss his blueprint for nimble decision-making and actionable success.
E283 · 26 May 2026 · 27 min

How Strong Teams Leverage Different Personality Types

Harvard Business School Professor Len Schlesinger and TypeCoach President Rob Toomey join Brian Kenny to discuss the two mini cases, Night Two in Hanoi: Team Dynamics Under Pressure and Day 6 in Buenos Aires: Fatto Bene. They explore MBA students’ journeys through the first-year FIELD Global Capstone course and how the TypeCoach personality classications taught them how to recognize and work across cognitive differences, ultimately improving team dynamics and their final project outcome.
E282 · 12 May 2026 · 27 min

Microsoft’s Path to Adopting and Scaling AI Across its Sales Organization

In early 2024, six months after the highly anticipated launch of Microsoft Copilot across the 62,000-person Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) organization—one of the world’s largest sales organizations—the initial excitement had not yet materialized into widespread adoption and transformation. But, two years after initiating their AI transformation journey, the organization’s daily active usage of AI tools had reached over 60% and monthly active usage over 98%, significantly altering how sales professionals approached their work. The path to adoption had required Microsoft to…
E281 · 28 Apr 2026 · 35 min

How a Family-Owned Greek Cement Company Evolved Its Leadership While Pivoting Its Product Portfolio

Over 26 years at the helm, Dimitri Papalexopoulos, fourth-generation CEO of TITAN Cement, has turned the company from a domestic player into an internationally diversified group and championed an AI-driven productivity leap, even while steering the company through multiple economic crises. As TITAN prepared for its next phase of growth, Papalexopoulos faced the consequential decision of whether to continue leading the company, promote a trusted insider, or become the first in the company’s history to recommend to the board appoint a non-family CEO. Harvard Business School Professor George…
E280 · 14 Apr 2026 · 30 min

The Challenges of Scaling a Technology for Social Good

In 2021, a breakthrough in sanitation technology – developed under the Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet” challenge – stood ready for commercialization. The Single User Reinvented Toilet (SURT) offered an off-grid, self-contained system capable of processing waste, generating water, and reducing environmental impact. Turning this technical success into a viable product, however, meant confronting intertwined challenges around behavior change, infrastructure compatibility, financing models, and stakeholder incentives. Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Maria Roche and SURT…
E279 · 31 Mar 2026 · 28 min

Should Wasabi Technologies Make the Move from Direct Sales to a Channel Strategy?

After launching Wasabi Technologies, a successful cloud storage company, founder and CEO David Friend was ready to scale the venture rapidly. The company had focused primarily on direct sales, but an opportunity to pivot toward channel sales was on the horizon. However, making this pivot would mean changing its sales, marketing, and staffing strategies dramatically, and effectively veering the company away from its already successful course. Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Lou Shipley joins Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “Wasabi Technologies” and the questions Friend wrestled with:…
E278 · 17 Mar 2026 · 32 min

How Software Startup InsightSquared Wrestled with Creating an Optimal Sales and Marketing Strategy

Software startup InsightSquared had recently hit $2 million in revenue and secured an $8 million round of venture capital. However, the founders disagreed on the path ahead, specifically on the sales and marketing plan. Should they focus on a sales-centric approach to growth or a marketing-centric one? Which strategy was optimal for their venture’s next phase of growth? Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Mark Roberge joins Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan” and ideas related to his new book, The Science of Scaling.
E277 · 3 Mar 2026 · 25 min

Why the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Opened Up to Customers about Credit Card Risks

A bank’s decision to experiment with being more transparent with about credit card drawbacks might help customers make better choices, but would those choices come at the expense of bank performance? Harvard Business School Professor Leslie John joins Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation” and ideas related to her new book, Revealing: The Underrated Power of Oversharing. They explore the benefits and potential drawbacks to the bank “oversharing” information with customers.
E276 · 17 Feb 2026 · 22 min

Innovations in Olympic Speed Skating: When to Reveal a Novel Approach

The U.S. Men’s Olympic speed skating team devised a new approach to the team pursuit event following their disappointing performance in the 2018 Winter Olympics. The team saw promising initial results from their innovations, but they faced a decision about whether to reveal their new techniques. The U.S. Team’s strategy was easily imitated if competitors witnessed it in a race, but it was a risk not to test it in competition before the Olympics. And, were here possible upsides to imitation if it improved the entire sport? Should they share their techniques, and if so, when? Harvard Business…
E275 · 3 Feb 2026 · 42 min

If and How to Scale the Acquired Podcast

By 2025, the business podcast Acquired was getting one million listeners per episode, having doubled the audience year over since Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal started it in 2015. And they’d grown without a strict release schedule or relentless optimization. Still, they felt pressure to scale—without throwing off their work-life balance. How did they determine a way forward? They join Harvard Business School Professor Shane Greenstein and host Brian Kenny to discuss the case “The Acquired Podcast: Scaling the Mic.”
E274 · 20 Jan 2026 · 26 min

How Italian Luxury Brand Golden Goose Determined Its Next Phase of Growth

In 2025, Golden Goose, the Italian brand known for its handcrafted, distressed sneakers, was at a crossroads. CEO Silvio Campara had grown the label from a cult favorite into a $650 million global force, but sustaining that growth raised tough questions: Should the company double down on sneakers, expand into ready-to-wear and accessories, or push into emerging international markets? Harvard Business School Professor Juan Alcacer and entrepreneur Alexandre Daillance co-wrote the case “Golden Goose: Reshaping Luxury.” They join host Brian Kenny to explore how the brand has upended traditional…
E273 · 6 Jan 2026 · 35 min

How Equitable Confronted Its Inertia After 160 Years in Business

In 2019, Equitable’s CEO, Mark Pearson, set out to change how the 163-year-old financial services firm gets work done. He wanted the firm to speed up decision-making and empower employees through a flatter hierarchy, agile teams, and more opportunities to lead. Most divisions thrived under the new model. Others clung to old habits. Several years in, the effort sheds light on core questions: What does true cultural change look like? What makes it last? And how do leaders bring skeptics along? Harvard Business School Professor Das Narayandas joins Pearson and COO Jeff Hurd to discuss the case…
E272 · 23 Dec 2025 · 37 min

Climate Rising: Extending Apparel Lifespan with ThredUp

In this special holiday crossover episode from Harvard Business School’s Climate Rising podcast, Professor Mike Toffel talks with ThredUp CEO James Reinhart about the company’s mission to extend the life of apparel and reduce waste through resale. As thrifting becomes more popular and circular business models gain traction, Reinhart explains why ThredUp built a national logistics and tech platform, how it collaborates with big brands, and the growing role of AI and automation in the industry.
E271 · 9 Dec 2025 · 28 min

Inside Coinbase’s Mission-First, Remote-First Bet

In 2020, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made two bold organizational moves: going fully remote and banning political discussion at work. These decisions, aimed at reinforcing a mission-first culture, were supported by a written, codified approach to company values and a hiring philosophy designed to attract talent aligned with that mission. In this episode, Chief People Officer L.J. Brock joins case author and HBS professor Charles Wang and host Brian Kenny to discuss how Coinbase’s strategy, explored in the case “Mission First at Coinbase,” raises critical questions about focus,…
E270 · 25 Nov 2025 · 27 min

BrandBastion Mixes AI and Human Judgment to Build Trust at Scale

Jenny Wolfram founded BrandBastion to help companies manage the risks of social media by combining AI with human moderation. She joins HBS professor Julian De Freitas and BrandBastion’s Head of Operations and Finance, Vesa Rikkinen, to discuss how this hybrid model builds trust without ballooning costs.
E269 · 11 Nov 2025 · 29 min

Apollo Global Management’s Business Model Transformation

Apollo Global Management has transformed itself from a traditional private equity giant into an insurance-fueled credit powerhouse—thanks to its acquisition of life annuity issuer Athene. CEO Marc Rowan makes a bold bet that an asset-heavy model, which is backed by hundreds of billions in long-term insurance liabilities, can drive repeatable, superior returns and propel Apollo’s assets under management to $1.5 trillion. However, public markets award Apollo a multitude on its earnings that is far lower than asset-light peers like Blackstone, which highlights important trade-offs. Harvard…
E268 · 28 Oct 2025 · 36 min

Inside India’s Energy Transition: Tata Power’s Net Zero Strategy

Tata Power stood at the forefront of India’s energy transition. The firm’s long history was deeply intertwined with the country's development. As Mumbai’s power needs increased, Tata Power built out thermal assets across India, and while thermal power generation remained Tata Power’s mainstay, the firm slowly started diversifying. In 2020, Tata Power boldly announced a commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, concurrent with a complete phase-down of thermal capacity. It later brought this commitment forward to 2045. To prepare for declining revenues from thermal power generation, Tata Power…
E267 · 14 Oct 2025 · 50 min

Tim Ferriss at a Career Crossroads: How Should He Shape His Next Chapter?

In April 2024, writer, podcaster, and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss—known for his hugely popular podcast “The Tim Ferriss Show” and NYT-bestselling books like The 4-Hour Workweek—found himself at a crossroads. Although his podcast was generating millions annually, he questioned the sustainability of podcasting and his own competitive advantage given the increasingly saturated market and the advent of AI tools and video-centric formats. He faced a difficult choice: innovate from within his proven format, pivot to entirely new ventures—possibly in film, premium consumer products, or venture…
E266 · 30 Sep 2025 · 21 min

How Dollar Tree Plans to Thrive Despite Breaking the Buck

For 35 years, Dollar Tree, a discount retail chain selling general merchandise, had held its fixed price point steady, charging $1.00 for its ever-changing assortment of household items, food, stationery, books, seasonal items, gifts, toys, and clothing. That changed in late 2021, when the company announced that Dollar Tree was raising prices on all goods to $1.25. Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jill Avery joins host Brian Kenny to discuss whether the retail chain could remain relevant to its price sensitive shoppers through smart marketing, pricing, and branding strategies in the…
E265 · 16 Sep 2025 · 27 min

How Lyft’s CEO Got the Company Moving Again

In the winter of 2023, Lyft was facing declining market share and financial pressures. Enter new CEO David Risher, who took the helm amid low morale and limited resources. His challenge: reignite innovation, refocus the culture, and find new ways to stand out in an industry dominated by Uber. Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati joins host Brian Kenny to discuss the case “Lyft 2023: Roads to Growth and Differentiation.” They explore how Risher led during a strategic crossroads, making bold decisions, putting the customer front and center, and shaking loose old habits. Gulati also…

About Cold Call

Cold Call is a English business podcast from HBR Presents / Brian Kenny. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: HBR Presents / Brian Kenny
Language: English
Category: Business
New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 29 min
Latest episode: 6 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1156646189

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