Thinkers50 Podcast: Sydney Finkelstein and Super Bosses

In this week’s Thinkers50 Podcast, Sydney Finkelstein starts off by telling us a few stories about incredible people who have led and developed great talent. The first example is Larry Ellison, of Oracle, whose top senior executives have eventually become CEOs and leaders of other great companies. Syd brings up Chez Panisse and Alice Waters, an iconic restaurant and restauranteur who has trained a number of amazing chefs. What about jazz? The greatest jazz players of the last 15-20 years all have one thing in common: they were all in the band of Miles Davis.

There’s a pattern: there is one person that has had an outsized influence in the development of talent in their industries. Syd calls them “super bosses”, people who help and continue to generate talent from one generation to another.

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