Out of Office – Details, episodes & analysis

Reality TV stars are freezing their eggs on camera. Lawmakers in DC are debating federal protection for IVF. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in slick startups that market fertility treatments for all. But this rapid growth has revealed cracks in the system. Misconception, a new series from Bloomberg’s Prognosis, follows reporter Kristen V. Brown on her own intimate journey as she uncovers the business of fertility. Along the way, she finds a fractured industry — a profit-driven field of medicine that thrives on dueling messages of hope and fear as people gamble everything for a chance at a baby.

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Sandro Pierri had no clue what mutual funds were when he first ventured into the world of finance. Today, the boy who grew up in a small Italian village sits at the helm of BNP Paribas Asset Management, overseeing half a trillion euros. He credits people always taking a bet on him early on in his career, and he wants to pay it forward. In this episode, Pierri reflects on his career, lessons from his mistakes, and what he really thinks of the ESG “gold rush.”

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Dropbox is best-known for its service that lets consumers easily sync files between computers. At least, that's how began 15 years ago. Today, it's a publicly-traded company worth more than $8 billion at the time of recording, with consumers and enterprise clients paying for cloud-storage in quantities that makes it one of the biggest competitors to Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple's iCloud, Box, and many more besides. Its CEO Drew Houston learned many lessons over that decade-and-a-half, some from his parents, many from the Covid-19 pandemic, and at least one from the late Steve Jobs. How has that informed where he's taking the company next?

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Marc Lore founded two e-commerce startups and sold them for $550 million and $3.3 billion before spending the last five years running Walmart’s online business. Since announcing his departure from Walmart in January, Lore has been on a tear: He bought a stake in an NBA basketball team, launched an upscale food delivery business, and started a venture capital firm that’s invested in everything from a nuclear fusion energy startup to a new “stock market” for professional athletes. But all that pales compared to his passion project: A five-million-person, from-the-ground-up city called Telosa that can serve both as a showcase for new technologies and a new form of private-public governance. Can he make all of it work?   

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Catherine Powell draws on her tenure at Disney - and now Airbnb - to explain how vulnerability translates into courage. The head of hosting at the rental giant talks candidly about how that's shaped the way she leads and the gift of a high-powered girlfriends club. And she shares her fun fact: she’s given birth in 3 different languages.

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Jim Rogers grew up poor in a town so small that his phone number consisted of one digit: 5. He was desperate to see the world. He gave himself a deadline: he would make a million by the age of 35. He did it at 37 and then went on to visit more than a hundred countries. The veteran investor shares his life story, discusses the experiences that shaped him, and explains why he’s sticking to his investment advice: if you want to be successful, be boring.

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“You are not aggressive enough.” That’s the feedback banker Lavanya Chari was given early in her career. Over the years, she learned that being empathetic does not mean being weak. And if you lead with empathy, you can still crush it at work. HSBC’s Global Head of Investments and Wealth Solutions opens up about learning to bring her whole self to work. Unapologetically so. 

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When Patrick Spence joined Research in Motion, few people had heard of the company. That was before it became a global sensation as the maker of BlackBerry. Remember the BlackBerry? Well, the device faded away but working at RIM had a profound impact on Spence, who then went on to join yet another unknown company called Sonos. Today, he’s the CEO of the well-known audio brand and Spence talks about the lessons learned at RIM, about innovation and disruption, taking on tech giants – and reveals what’s on his playlist. 

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A legend in the tech industry, the former CISCO CEO reveals why a chat with a young girl at a work function turned out to be a pivotal moment in his professional and personal life. In this candid and informal chat, John talks about disruption, dyslexia and why he’s always motivated to do the right thing. 

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Jim Weber has been the chief executive of Brooks Running since 2001. In his newly released book, “Running With Purpose,” Weber talks about how he turned a company that was on the brink of bankruptcy into a billion-dollar consumer brand.

On this episode of Out of Office, Weber talks business, leadership, and how his battle with cancer—which left him unable to run—has shaped his personal story. 

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