Podcast
Cold Call
Hosted by HBR Presents / Brian Kenny · EN
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.
27episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Microsoft’s Path to Adopting and Scaling AI Across its Sales Organization
3w ago00:26:47Tap to summarizeIn 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 evolve its approach based on early deployment insights. The company had simultaneously developed autonomous sales agents capable of managing end-to-end customer interactions. Unlike Copilot, which acted as an assistant in the flow of work, Sales Agent could take action on its own: it was designed to automate the sales process under pre-specified constraints or guardrails. This innovation presented new and unique challenges. Harvard Business School Associate Professors Iav Bojinov and Shunyuan Zhang join Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions: The Deployment of Copilot and Agents.” They explore the company’s journey to successfully mobilizing AI adoption within the sales process, the challenges it faces integrating autonomous sales agents, and what it takes to get thousands of employees to fundamentally change how they work.
Transcribe →How a Family-Owned Greek Cement Company Evolved Its Leadership While Pivoting Its Product Portfolio
Apr 2800:34:31Tap to summarizeOver 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. After a global search the board does decide to appoint Marcel Cobuz—ex-LafargeHolcim executive with deep innovation experience—as TITAN’s first non-family CEO. Cobuz co-creates a four-pillar roadmap: sharpen the core cement portfolio, accelerate low-carbon products and aggregates, build a tech-driven innovation engine and empower country units while tightening performance accountability. Two years on, TITAN posts record revenues and profitability, green products reach 30% of output and a minority stake in TITAN America lists on the NYSE. Yet initiative overload strains the organization, raising the question: is Cobuz’s stretch agenda visionary or too much, too fast? Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim and TITAN former CEO Dimitri Papalexopoulos join Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “Transforming a Titan,” exploring digitalization, globalization, and succession planning of an established family business as well as how to accelerate low-carbon efforts in a carbon intensive industry.
Transcribe →The Challenges of Scaling a Technology for Social Good
Apr 1400:29:44Tap to summarizeIn 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. Against this backdrop, engineer Dr. Shannon Yee and his team faced a tough decision about SURT’s path to market: pilot the technology independently in a developing market, license it to appliance firms, or tailor it for government or military procurement. Each path entailed distinct strategic, operational, and ethical implications for how a technology designed to serve the world’s most underserved populations would scale. Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Maria Roche and SURT engineer Dr. Shannon Yee join Brian Kenny to discuss the case “Toilets for the Underserved: The SURT Commercialization Challenge” and the central question of how to launch and then scale a technology particularly important for underserved markets, but not a lucrative short term investment opportunity.
Transcribe →Should Wasabi Technologies Make the Move from Direct Sales to a Channel Strategy?
Mar 3100:27:48Tap to summarizeAfter 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: Was channel sales the right play for the burgeoning cloud storage provider? If so, how should it best be implemented? They also explore ideas connected to Shipley’s new book, Unlikely Entrepreneurs.
Transcribe →How Software Startup InsightSquared Wrestled with Creating an Optimal Sales and Marketing Strategy
Mar 1700:31:47Tap to summarizeSoftware 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. They explore the penultimate startup question of how to scale and point to the importance of implementing and communicating an effective sales and marketing strategy.
Transcribe →Why the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Opened Up to Customers about Credit Card Risks
Mar 300:25:02Tap to summarizeIn August 2017, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was looking for ways to differentiate itself from competing banks and was also trying to improve the financial well-being of its customers. One area where this was particularly relevant was in its bank-issued credit card business, where customers routinely selected cards that — although profitable for the bank — could be a poor fit for their needs. This led to low customer satisfaction scores, cancellations, and occasionally, financial distress. The bank decided to experiment: Rather than just presenting the strengths of its various credit card offerings, they proposed also promoting each credit card’s drawbacks. Being transparent with customers might help them 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.
Transcribe →Innovations in Olympic Speed Skating: When to Reveal a Novel Approach
Feb 1700:22:27Tap to summarizeThe 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 there possible upsides to imitation if it improved the entire sport? Should they share their techniques, and if so, when? Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Rebecca Karp joins Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “A Winning Strategy: Innovation in Olympic Speed Skating.” They explore whether and when to launch a novel idea, product, or service, and what are the consequences—good and bad—to being imitated.
Transcribe →If and How to Scale the Acquired Podcast
Feb 300:42:16Tap to summarizeFounded in 2015 by co-hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal as a hobby, the business podcast Acquired had become their full-time jobs by 2023, and they managed all aspects of the company. By telling in-depth stories of companies, the podcast had doubled its audience year over year, reaching one million listeners per episode. And they’d grown without a strict release schedule or relentless optimization. Still, they felt pressure to scale. They took 2025 to evaluate the podcast’s success to date while determining if, and how, it should change its well-established and revenue-generating processes. Because maintaining the balance of work, life, and family they’d achieved was an important priority too. 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.”
Transcribe →How Italian Luxury Brand Golden Goose Determined Its Next Phase of Growth
Jan 2000:26:18Tap to summarizeIn 2025, Golden Goose, the Italian luxury brand known for its handcrafted, distressed sneakers, was at a turning point. Under CEO Silvio Campara, the company had grown from cult favorite to global player, with $650 million in revenue and a loyal following. What should drive its next phase of growth? Should Golden Goose double down on its signature sneaker business, grow into a full lifestyle label with ready-to-wear and accessories, or expand into new international markets? Harvard Business School Professor Juan Alcacer and entrepreneur Alexandre Daillance discuss their co-authored case, “Golden Goose: Reshaping Luxury,” with host Brian Kenny. They explore how the company has challenged fashion norms by embracing imperfection, co-creating with customers, and rethinking what it means to scale a luxury business.
Transcribe →How Equitable Confronted Its Inertia After 160 Years in Business
Jan 600:34:42Tap to summarizeEquitable, a 163-year-old financial services firm, serves more than five million clients across three main lines of business: retirement planning, wealth management, and asset management. Spun out of French insurance giant AXA in a 2018 IPO, Equitable’s leadership team was excited to be out on its own but quickly realized that to overcome inertia and remain relevant, the company’s ways of working would need to change. In 2019, CEO Mark Pearson launched an effort known internally as New Ways of Working, or NWOW, aimed at helping the firm become faster, more accountable, and more adaptive in a highly competitive and regulated industry. Several years in, the effort sheds light on core leadership 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 “New WOW at Equitable: A New Way of Working.”
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