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Today's Business Leaders' Hiring Attitudes | Wharton Prof. Peter Cappelli —the Ripple Effect Podcast

July 25, 2023 / 00:35

This episode discusses the evolution of company leadership, focusing on the rise of engineers in executive roles and their approach to optimization. Key topics include the impact of data science on management strategies and the trend towards minimizing employment costs.

The conversation highlights how modern leaders differ from previous generations, emphasizing their engineering backgrounds and the assumptions they bring about human behavior. The discussion touches on the tools available for optimization and the implications for workforce management.

Listeners will gain insights into the changing landscape of corporate leadership and the priorities that shape decision-making in today's companies.

TLDR

Modern company leaders are often engineers focused on optimizing costs and minimizing employment.

Episode

0:35
00:00:00
the people who get to run companies now are different in systematic ways than they were a generation or two ago
00:00:07
they're much more likely to be Engineers who come to these tasks with assumptions
00:00:13
about human behavior but also goals about optimization the data science world has given them lots of tools to
00:00:20
optimize but optimize you got to optimize on something and generally they optimize on minimizing the number of
00:00:27
employees and employment costs foreign [Music]

Episode Highlights

  • The Shift in Leadership
    Today's company leaders are predominantly Engineers with new assumptions about human behavior.
    “They're much more likely to be Engineers.”
    @ 00m 07s
    July 25, 2023
  • The Optimization Dilemma
    Modern leaders focus on minimizing employment costs, raising questions about workforce sustainability.
    “Optimize on something, and generally they optimize on minimizing the number of employees.”
    @ 00m 24s
    July 25, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • They're much more likely to be Engineers.
    Today's Business Leaders' Hiring Attitudes | Wharton Prof. Peter Cappelli —the Ripple Effect Podcast
  • Optimize on something, and generally they optimize on minimizing the number of employees.
    Today's Business Leaders' Hiring Attitudes | Wharton Prof. Peter Cappelli —the Ripple Effect Podcast

Key Moments

  • Engineer Dominance00:07
  • Cost-Cutting Focus00:24
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