NBBA: Curating the Business Conversation

Host Mitch Joel speaks with Phil Lind, Order of Canada recipient and the Vice-Chairman of Rogers Communications. The NBBA-finalist tells Mitch about the story behind his book, Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers, Canada's Foremost Entrepreneur. Phil takes Mitch back to the early days at Rogers, recounting some of his and the late Ted Rogers’ biggest wins and losses, as he worked alongside him to build one of the country’s most iconic media brands. 

Join the #NBBAward conversation and learn more about the 2019 finalists on Twitter.

Produced by Allie Graham for Church+State Podcasts.

Host Mitch Joel sits down with David Shoalts, The Globe and Mail’s longtime hockey columnist, and one of this year’s NBBA-finalists, about his book, Hockey Fight in Canada: The Big Media Faceoff Over the NHL. David takes Mitch behind the scenes to tell the story of the contentious, tug-of-war over the future of Hockey Night In Canada. Despite the CBC hosting the iconic show for over 60 years, in 2013, the NHL chose Rogers as its national broadcaster over both CBC and Bell Canada. The decision left many Canadians and media players, alike, scratching their heads. And when David’s reporting led some CBC employees to believe their leaders missed a chance to keep the lucrative program—a move that could have saved some of their jobs—their disappointment turned to outrage. But with Canadian teams failing to make the playoffs in the last two years, and Rogers’ attempts to revamp the show earning them costly blowback... did CBC really get the short end of the stick? Produced by Allie Graham for Church+State Podcasts.

Join the #NBBAward conversation and learn more about the 2019 finalists on Twitter.

Produced by Allie Graham for Church+State Podcasts.

Host Mitch Joel sits down with Howard Green, who’s best known as the founding anchor at Canada's Business News Network (BNN), where he hosted the flagship interview program, Headline with Howard Green. The two-time NBBA-finalist speaks with Mitch about his book, Railroader: The Unfiltered Genius and Controversy of Four-Time CEO Hunter Harrison. In his biography, Howard details the legacy of the larger-than-life railroad magnate, who pioneered precision scheduled railroading. But while Harrison transformed the industry from Memphis to Montreal, Howard says some saw him as a bully. They look at what the CEO’s antiquated approach to flipping an antiquated industry can tell us about turnarounds, and the state of corporate leadership in today’s era of #MeToo and #TimesUp. 

Join the #NBBAward conversation and learn more about the 2019 finalists on Twitter.

Produced by Allie Graham for Church+State Podcasts.

Host Mitch Joel speaks with Chris Clearfield, the co-author of this year’s award-winning book. Chris and András Tilcsik are the authors of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It. They put businesses’ biggest mistakes—and the systems that caused them—under the microscope, and look at the role complexity plays in fueling them. But Meltdown doesn’t point fingers: Chris and András pull apart these public missteps to troubleshoot solutions, in the hope that we can avoid repeating them. Chris speaks with Mitch about what he and András call ‘the paradox of progress’—the more modern and capable our systems are, the more vulnerable they are to unexpected meltdowns—and even to corruption and misconduct. But with our systems, and our lives, only getting more complicated, what can we do to avoid meltdowns? And when there’s so much complexity to point to, who’s really to blame when something goes wrong? 

Join the conversation and learn more about the 2019 finalists by tweeting with #NBBAward. 

Produced by Allie Graham for Church+State Podcasts.

In this episode, Mitch speaks with Donald Savoie, Order of Canada recipient and author of 45(!) books, including the NBBA-nominated Looking for Bootstraps: Economic Development in the Maritimes. Here Savoie speaks on the economic history and future of the region, including the push-pull relationship between locals and shale gas; the cultural secret to combating brain-drain among young Maritimers; why the conversations about national unity in Canada don’t often focus on Atlantic Canada and the ultimate value of an economic union within the Maritimes. Produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnson for Church + State.

In this episode, Mitch talks to James Darroch, co-author with Patricia Meredith, of Stumbling Giants: Transforming Canada’s Banks for the Information Age. James speaks on how Canada’s Big Six banks are scrambling to improve customer service in an age of digital immediacy; how when banks acquire fintechs to remember the importance of striking a balance between evolving the platform and retaining those who made it; and what the new digital wallets, like Apple Pay and Google pay, can learn from the original ATM boom. Produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnson for Church + State.

In this episode, Mitch Joel speaks with Chris Turner, author of The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands, about how the streets of Fort McMurray have become the front lines of a high-stakes collision between two conflicting world views – one, industrial triumph and the other, environmental stewardship in the age of climate change. And, importantly, what does this mean and how does this conflict affects the Indigenous population upon whose land this battle is occurring? How do we reconcile this disagreement? How is ‘fair’ defined and for whom? Turner talks about how he wanted to frame this global conflict through the eyes of those who live in it day-to-day and, crucially, what exactly will come next? Produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnson for Church + State.

Mitch Joel in conversation with Jennifer Riel who co-authored Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking along with Roger Martin.

They chat about the value of failing fast; why staying open to opposing, potentially uncomfortable perspectives may be the key to true integrative – and innovative - thinking; and, of course, how The Lego Movie does a good job of capturing the spirit of this book.

This is part of the 2018 National Business Book Award nominees podcast series.

Produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnson for Church + State.