A Case Study in Corporate Fear with Taras Wayner

When I began studying the root causes of business failure early in my career, I believed that faulty cognitive limitations were the primary drivers of poor decisions, ultimately leading to business failure. Taras Wayner is the producer and host of a new podcast called A Case Study in Corporate Fear, where he addresses one of the central emotions in the affective mindset: fear. During this conversation, we learn how fear impacted decisions at Yahoo!, Atari, and Jaguar.

Episode Highlights

1. The way Mark found out about A Case Study in Corporate Fear
2. The origin story of Taras Wayner and learning what a Chief Creative Officer is
3. Mad Men mostly got it right on the marketing and advertising pitches
4. The reason Bernie Marcus at Home Depot had his key people read The Big Store
5. A story of decision failure at Yahoo!
6. Yahoo! designed its experience to keep you on its site. Google created its customer experience to get you on your way.
7. The Peanut Butter Manifesto
8. Atari and “The first one through the wall gets the most bloodied.”
9. The way Jaguar got destroyed through its brand design
10. New Coke and the antidote to fear: humility vs. arrogance
11. Where Taras gets his podcast ideas
12. Resulting and fear-based behaviors
13. The role of Red Teaming to conquer fear

Books Mentioned

• Any book on fintech (Mark recommends The Money Hackers)
• Almost Perfect
• Thinking in Bets
• The Logic of Failure
• American Icon
• Creativity, Inc.
• The War of Art

Episode Pairings