The Improbable Professor: Don Hambrick on Setbacks, Strategy, and Second Chances

In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C Suite strategist, business founder and best selling author, welcomes Don Hambrick, Evan Pugh Professor and the Smeal Chaired Professor of Management at Pennsylvania State University and author of The Improbable Professor.     0:00  Introduction & Welcome  0:29  Welcoming Don Hambrick  2:00  Does the Academy of Management Really Matter?  4:30  Don's Landmark Research: CEO Hubris, Tenure & Strategy  10:08  Learning the Craft of Teaching at Columbia  11:29  Writing The Improbable Professor  15:43  Don's Early Life & Parents  19:56  Family Relationships & Discovering His Daughter  24:48  The Path to Becoming a Professor  28:10  The Evolution of Strategy as a Field  35:30  Porter's Five Forces & Industry Analysis  39:09  The Value of a PhD  44:20  The Future of Business Schools  52:06  Reflections on the Book & Resilience  54:00  Closing & The Concorde Story    Listen to more Thought Sparks Podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts  and Spotify.   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thought sparks/id1546758719  https://open.spotify.com/show/0xmTsYXMgTeielwZ0dGTSU    Watch Thought Sparks episodes on YouTube.   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcyXT8iJkTSciUMe0me3L7Q    Follow Rita on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Blue Sky.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritamcgrath/  https://x.com/rgmcgrath  https://bsky.app/profile/rgmcgrath.bsky.social    Connect with Rita on TikTok and Instagram.  https://www.tiktok.com/@rgmcgrath  https://www.instagram.com/ritamcgrath.hub/    Sign up for her Thought Sparks Newsletter on Substack.    https://thoughtsparks.substack.com/    Learn more about Rita, her books, and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com.