Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Cold Call
BusinessManagementMarketingEntrepreneurship

Cold Call

HBR Presents / Brian Kenny

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.

Play
Open in
  • 23 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 29 min
  • English

Episodes 23

NewestOldestLongest
All3Unplayed3In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • #271
    Dec 9, 2025 · 27 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, inclusion, and attracting top talent in a volatile industry.

  • #270
    Nov 25, 2025 · 26 min

    BrandBastion Mixes AI and Human Judgment to Build Trust at Scale

    Jenny Wolfram founded BrandBastion in 2013 after noticing that many companies’ social media pages were teeming with spam, hostile messages, and unanswered comments—all of which chipped away at customer trust. She built an AI-powered platform, supported by human moderation, to help brands manage comment sections at scale, respond quickly to customers, and protect their reputation. Wolfram joins the company’s Head of Operations and Finance, Vesa Rikkinen, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Julian De Freitas, and host Brian Kenny to discuss the HBS case “BrandBastion: Managing Online Brand Communities.” They explore key decisions brands face, including when to step in and respond to customers online, and how to make the case for investing in moderation.

  • #269
    Nov 11, 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 Business School professor George Serafeim joins host Brian Kenny to discuss the questions raised by the case, Apollo Global Management, and explore what Apollo’s transformation reveals about business-model innovation and risk management in today’s rapidly evolving private markets ecosystem, and what it means to be a modern investment firm.

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes