One of the perks of hosting a show like Read to Lead, of course, is the chance to sit down with some pretty incredible authors. And, sometimes, those same authors are lecturers at prestigious business schools.

In the past, I’ve had the chance for sit-downs with Dr. Richard Shell and Jonah Berger of the infamous Wharton Business School.

Today, we move across the continent to the other coast, as I chat with Robert Siegel, lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

His work there includes teaching graduate and Executive Education classes and doing extensive research on such companies as Google, Schwab, AB InBev, Stripe, and SurveyMonkey. He’s also a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firms XSeed Capital and Piva, and he sits on the boards of several startups.

His new book is called The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of the Digital and Physical.

Business leaders, according to Robert, are continually told they need to embrace digital disruption wholeheartedly to thrive in the 21st Century. Legacy companies, we’re told, are all doomed to fail unless they double down on the latest digital innovations, and disruptors are ordained to take over the world. Digital innovation is the answer to everything.

That’s not true, Robert says. Nothing in life or business is ever that simple. Wanna learn more?

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Robert and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

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In today’s episode, Robert and I chat about:

* Why he feels digital transformation is not the answer to everything* Examples of companies that have effectively blended the digital and the physical* The impact of the pandemic on the 10 competencies he outlines in the book* And lots more…

Order Robert’s Book

You can order your copy of The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Digital and Physical right now!

Consider Ordering My New Book Too!

Purchase a copy of my new book (written with Jesse Wisnewski) Read to Lead: The Simple Habit That Expands Your Influence and Boosts Your Career. There, you can also download the introduction and first chapter for free!

Robert in Action

Books Robert Recommends

Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove

395: How Leading Organizations Blend the Digital and Physical with Robert E. Siegel

Read to Lead Podcast