Dan Ariely,
Behavoral Economist
bestselling author, Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality

The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty

in conversation with Joanna Pearlstein,
Research Editor, WIRED magazine 

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

PURCHASE TICKETS: $20 includes breakfast, $40 also includes Ariely’s book

 Behavioral economist Dan Ariely — with his game-changing New York Times bestsellers Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality – established himself as the go-to authority when it comes to understanding how irrational behavior shapes every part of our lives in surprisingly predictable ways. (See his TED Talk in 2011)

His research into better decision-making has shown him that from healthcare to the stock market, our instincts often lead us astray. What is the best way for doctors to minimize a patient’s pain? How do bonuses affect CEO performance? Ariely’s experiments into human behavior reveal answers that are always surprising and insightful.

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, with appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, The Medical School, and the Department of Economics. Ariely’s work has been featured widely in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Boston Globe among others. He is a regular contributor to Marketplace on public radio and has also made numerous appearances on CNN, CBS, and NPR.

Ariely has long been fascinated with dishonesty and cheating, and now he explores these timely topics in his latest book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves. With his unique blend of intellectual curiosity, groundbreaking research, and down-to-earth appeal, Ariely investigates why we cheat, what causes our dishonest behavior, and how we can curb and limit it.

As he points out, cheaters are everywhere and constantly in the headlines, whether it’s the politician embroiled in an extramarital affair, the superstar athlete testing positive for banned performance enhancers, or the Ponzi schemer busted for stealing billions. In fact, from rounding up billable hours, recommending unnecessary medical treatments, and charging hidden fees, to defaulting on mortgages, claiming higher losses on insurance, and fudging golf scores, many businesses and individuals will cheat when the opportunity arises.

According to Ariely, the rational forces that we think drive our dishonest behavior don’t, and the irrational forces that we think don’t drive our dishonest behavior often do. Drawing from a wide-ranging series of experiments and his own insightful observations, Ariely discovers that, despite popular belief, dishonesty is not often an outcome of a deliberate cost–benefit analysis. Instead, we are likely to be guided away from honesty by hidden influences such as conflicts of interest, depletion, creativity, witnessing the dishonest acts of others, caring about our colleagues, and revenge.

Joanna Pearlstein is Wired magazine’s senior editor for research.  She manages the publication’s fact-checking department and edits the Re:Wired and Release Notes sections. She oversees Wired’s fact-checking process, coordinates research resources, and works closely with the company’s corporate counsel on the legal review of stories. Before joining Wired in 2003, Pearlstein was news editor and editorial research manager at Red Herring magazine. She’s been covering the technology industry for nearly two decades. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Oakland Tribune, and Macworld. 

David Rothkopf is the internationally acclaimed author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making , and Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, hailed by The New York Times as “the definitive history of the National Security Council.” His upcoming book,  Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government—and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead is on the tug of war between public and private power worldwide and its consequences.

Here are some recent mentions of Rothkopf and his new book.

–  in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, March 1
– 5 Myths about Big Govermnent vs. Big Business (CBS MarketWatch, March 8)
– Rights and Returns, (The Financial Times, March 9)
 

He’ll be in conversation with Judy Olian, Dean, UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Ticket info here. $20 includes continental breakfast.

Stengel, former Global Marketing Officer at P&G, is author of GROW: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies.

Here are some recent hits in the news featuring Jim Stengel and his new book…

– Marketing Leader Jim Stengel on the One Things Businesses Need To Grow, Fast Company, Jan 18, 2012
– Interview in Forbes, Jan 5, 2012 (with video)
– Pampers — Baby Steps to Movement Marketing, Business 2 Community, Jan 29, 2012
– How Well-Defined is Your Brand’s Ideal, Advertising Age,  Jan 16, 2012
– There’s a Method to Top Companies’ Growth Strategies, Investor’s Business Daily, Jan 25, 2012
– How to Beat the S&P 500 by 400%, Motley Fool, Jan 5, 2012

Stengel speaks at TED later this month and we are pleased to be hosting him discussing his recently released book, GROW:  How GROW: How Ideals Power Growthand Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies.

We caught up with him for a few questions before our event.  And also we share with you a video of Stengel discussing ads in the upcoming Super Bowl.

Peter H. Diamandis,
Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation,
co-founder and Chairman of Singularity University,
and the founder of more than a dozen high tech companies

ABUNDANCE: Why the Future Will Be Much Better Than You Think

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

TICKETS: $20 includes Continental Breakfast, $40 also includes Diamandis’ book

Peter H. Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, co-founder and Chairman of Singularity University and the founder of more than a dozen high tech companies. Diamandis has degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational (501c3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, thereby inspiring the formation of new industries and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck due to existing failures or a commonly held belief that a solution is not possible. The Foundation addresses the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. It motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital.

As the world’s population expands past seven billion, pessimists paint an ever bleaker picture of a resource scarce future where the gap between rich and poor will grow increasingly large.  Arguing that quite the opposite is true, in his book, ABUNDANCE: Why the Future Will Be Much Better Than You Think, Diamandis has a boldly contrarian and optimistic outlook for today’s cynical times. Tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler declare that “humanity is now entering a period of radical transformation where technology has the potential to significantly raise the basic standard of living for every man, woman and child on the planet. Within a generation, we will be able to provide goods and services that were once reserved for the wealthy few to any and all who need them…Abundance for all is actually within our grasp.”

Three current forces, the authors argue, are leading our world toward abundance:

– A Do-It-Yourself (DIY) revolution of backyard tinkerers who are often outdoing governments with high-impact innovations in neuroscience, biology, genetics and robotics: Burt Rutan flew into space. Craig Venter beat the US government in the race to sequence the human genome.

– The second force is new sources of money from wealthy techno-philanthropists who are dedicating their fortunes to solving grand, abundance-related challenges. Bill Gates is crusading against malaria; Mark Zuckerberg is working to re-invent education; while Pierre and Pam Omidyar are focused on bringing electricity to developing world.

– Lastly, there are the poorest of the poor, the so-called “bottom billion,” who have finally been plugged into the global economy by the internet, micro-finance, and wireless communication.

Acting together, these three forces amplified by exponentially growing technologies, are transforming the unthinkable into the now actually possible: clean water, nutritious food, affordable housing, personalized education, top-tier medical care, and ubiquitous energy for all.

Diamandis establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism. Examining human need by category—water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom—Diamandis and Kotler introduce dozens of innovators making great strides in each area: Larry Page, Steven Hawking, Dean Kamen, Daniel Kahneman, Elon Musk, Bill Joy, Stewart Brand, Jeff Skoll, Ray Kurzweil, Ratan Tata, Eric Schmidt, Matt Ridley, Craig Venter, among many, many others. The grand challenge of our times can now be met.

His co-author, Steven Kotler, is an author and journalist. His books include A Small Furry Prayer, West of Jesus and The Angle Quickest for Flight. His articles have appeared in more than 60 publications including The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Discover, GQ, and National Geographic.

What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

Michael Sandel,
Harvard Professor, and bestselling author, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? 

in conversation with Richard Waters,
West Coast Editor, The Financial Times 

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

PURCHASE TICKETS: $20 includes breakfast, $40 also includes Sandel’s book

Michael Sandel in the news…
- In the Wall Street Journal (April 20), In Economists We Trust
- In The Huffington Post (April 24):  Does the Invisible Hand Really Know Best
- In Fortune (April 20): One Nation, Ruled by Money
- In Vanity Fair (May 2012): Market Philosopher
- Newsweek (4/16): What Money Can’t Buy: Michael Sandel on Market Moralism Run Amok
- Huffington Post (4/13): Michael J. Sandel Warns Market Society Risks America’s Soul
- The Atlantic (April 2012): What Isn’t for Sale (book excerpt)

Michael Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University. Sandel’s legendary ‘Justice’ course is one of the most popular and influential at Harvard. In 2007, Harvard made Sandel’s course available to alumni around the world through webstreaming and podcasting. Over 5,000 participants signed up, and Harvard Clubs from Mexico to Australia organized local discussion groups in connection with the course. In May 2007, Sandel delivered a series of lectures at major universities in China and he has been a visiting professor at the Sorbonne, Paris. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. Sandel is the author of many books and has previously written for the Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic and the New York Times. He was the 2009 BBC Reith Lecturer.  His most recent book is the New York Times bestseller Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?

Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs?  What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for- profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay?

In What Money Can’t Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes up one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Isn’t there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong? What are the moral limits of markets?

In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life—medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues that we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society.

In Justice, an international bestseller, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our every- day lives. Now, in What Money Can’t Buy, he provokes a debate that’s been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?

Richard Waters is the West Coast Editor for the The Financial Times.  Before moving to the West Coast, Waters was based in the FT’s New York office for nine years. His roles there included Wall Street reporter, New York bureau chief, and the FT’s first information industries editor, overseeing global coverage of technology, telecommunications and media.

Waters previously worked at the FT in London where he held a number of positions, including editor of international capital markets, securities industry correspondent and accountancy and taxation correspondent.

Before working for the FT, Waters worked as a reporter and editor for several financial magazines. He also worked for two years at Lloyd’s Bank International and lived in Chile, also working as a teacher.  Waters appears regularly on the BBC, CNBC, MSNBC, CNNfn and NPR.

David Westin, President & CEO, NewsRight;
and former President, ABC News

in conversation with Willow Bay,
Senior Editor, The Huffington Post

Inside the Television News Business

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

PURCHASE TICKETS: $20 includes breakfast, $40 also includes Westin’s book

David Westin is President and CEO of NewsRight, an online content-tracking and licensing company. The company tracks original content using encoded hidden data which sends back to the registry information on where the content is being used.  He is the former president of ABC News (from March 6, 1997 through December 3, 2010). He was responsible for all aspects of ABC News’ television broadcasts, including World News with Diane Sawyer, Nightline, Good Morning America, 20/20, Primetime, This Week with Christiane Amanpour, and World News Now, and ABC News Radio. During his tenure, ABC News received eleven George Foster Peabody Awards, 13 Alfred I DuPont Awards, five George Polk Awards, more than 40 News and Documentary Emmys, and more than 40 Edward R. Murrow Awards.

In March 1997, when David Westin became president of ABC News, TV journalism was in the throes of rebirth: cable networks were proliferating, the Internet was emerging as a viable medium for journalists, and the Big Three were losing the cultural dominance they’d known for decades. More intriguingly, post–cold war America was enjoying an era of peace and prosperity. “It looked like all the really important news was behind us,” Westin writes.

It wasn’t, of course, and for the next thirteen years he presided over ABC News for some of the most important, thrilling, fraught, and perplexing events in its history. Exit Interview is a behind-the-scenes look at his tenure and the major news that marked it. Neither an apologia nor a critique, the book instead addresses basic questions about journalists today—what they do and why they do it—from the point of view of someone who was there.

With touchstones from the recent past—President Clinton’s impeachment, the contentious 2000 election, and the war in Iraq, among others—Westin takes us inside the chaos of the newsroom, where what looks clear and certain from the outside is often mired in conflict and urgency. From his baptism by fire after Princess Diana’s death to the epochal events of 9/11, he explores the uncertainty inherent to his job, and its central question: Is it possible for journalists to be both good at their jobs and people of good moral character?

7:45am  Continental Breakfast
8:15-9:15am  Forum

David Rothkopf,
President and CEO, Garten Rothkopf,
CEO/Editor-at-Large, The Foreign Policy Group.
Visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
bestselling author, Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making

in conversation with David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times columnist

 Big Business v. Big Government:
The battle that will define the future of America and capitalism

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

TICKETS: $20 includes breakfast; $40 also includes Rothkopf’s book

David Rothkopf is the internationally acclaimed author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making , and Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, hailed by The New York Times as “the definitive history of the National Security Council.” His upcoming book,  Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government—and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead is on the tug of war between public and private power worldwide and its consequences.

Rothkopf is President and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm specializing in transformational trends especially those associated with energy choice and climate change, emerging markets and global risk. He is also CEO and Editor-at-Large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy Magazine. He is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he chairs the Carnegie Economic Strategy Roundtable. He was formerly chief executive of Intellibridge Corporation, managing director of Kissinger Associates and U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Policy in the Clinton administration.

Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, Rothkopf was co-founder, chairman and chief executive of International Media Partners, Inc., which published CEO Magazine, and Emerging Marketsnewspaper, and organized the CEO Institutes. Previously, Rothkopf served as a senior executive and editor at Institutional Investor, Inc. and served in a similar capacity at Financial World magazine.

Rothkopf has also taught international affairs and national security studies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, has lectured widely and is the author of over 150 articles for leading publications worldwide.

David Lazarus is an award-winning business columnist for the Los Angeles Times, focusing on consumer affairs. He also appears daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5, provides regular commentary for American Public Media’s Marketplace programs and is a frequent guest host on KPCC

He previously worked as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and has written for a variety of news services and magazines, including Fortune, Newsweek and National Geographic. He is the author of two books about Japan.

Scott Turow, bestselling author
(Presumed Innocent, Innocent)
 and President, The Authors Guild

in conversation with Carolyn Kellogg, Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times (Jacket Copy)

A Conversation on the Book Publishing Industry

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

PURCHASE TICKETS; $20, $40 includes Turow’s book (Innocent)

Scott Turow is a writer and attorney.  He is president of the Authors Guild, the nation’s largest membership organization of professional writers. The Authors Guild has been the nation’s leading advocate for writers’ interests in effective copyright protection, fair contracts and free expression.

He is the author of nine best-selling works of fiction, including his first novel Presumed Innocent (1987) and its sequel, Innocent (May 4, 2010). His works of non-fiction include One L (1977) about his experience as a law student, and Ultimate Punishment (2003), a reflection on the death penalty. He frequently contributes essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as The New York Times,Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy and The Atlantic. Mr. Turow’s books have won a number of literary awards, including the Heartland Prize in 2003 for Reversible Errors, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 2004 for Ultimate Punishment and Time Magazine‘s Best Work of Fiction, 1999 for Personal Injuries. His books have been translated into more than 25 languages, sold more than 25 million copies world-wide and have been adapted into a full length film and two television miniseries.

Mr. Turow continues to work as an attorney. He has been a partner in the Chicago office of an international firm, SNR Denton (formerly Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal), since 1986, concentrating on white collar criminal defense while also devoting a substantial amount of time to pro bono matters.

Scott Turow was born in Chicago in 1949. He graduated with high honors from Amherst College in 1970. He was Edith Mirrielees Fellow at Stanford University Creative Writing Center from 1970 – 1972. From 1972 – 1975, Mr. Turow taught Creative Writing at Stanford as E. H. Jones Lecturer. In 1975, he entered Harvard Law School and graduated with honors in 1978. From 1978 – 1986, he was an Assistant United States Attorney in Chicago and served as lead counsel in a number of prosecutions related to corruption in the legal profession connected to Operation Greylord, a federal investigation of corruption into the Illinois judiciary.

Mr. Turow has been active in a number of charitable causes including organizations that promote literacy, education and legal rights. In 1997 – 1998, he served as president of the Authors Guild, the nation’s largest membership organization of professional writers and is presently serving as President once again. He is also a Trustee of Amherst College.

Mr. Turow has been appointed to a number of public bodies. He was the first Chair of Illinois’ Executive Ethics Commission. He served as one of the fourteen members of the Commission appointed in March, 2000, by Illinois Governor George Ryan to consider reform of the capital punishment system.

Carolyn Kellogg, an LA Times staff writer, writes Jacket Copy, the paper’s book blog. She is on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, has an MFA in fiction, teaches at UCLA Extension and has been heard on NPR.

Jim Stengel, marketing thought leader
and former Global Marketing Officer at Procter & Gamble

in conversation with Judy Olian, Dean, UCLA Anderson School of Management

GROW: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies

The City Club on Bunker Hill
333 S. Grand Avenue, 54th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

PURCHASE TICKETS:  $20

SHORT VIDEO WITH JIM STENGEL

JIM STENGEL is the former Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble, where he had organizational responsibility for nearly 7,000 people. He has been named multiple times by Advertising Age as the number one “Power Player” in marketing and recognized as Grand Marketer of the Year by Brandweek magazine in 2005; in September 2011, he was named to the Fortune Executive Dream Team. He is currently President/CEO of The Jim Stengel Company, LLC, and adjunct Professor of Marketing at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is on the Board of Directors for AOL and the Motorola Mobility Board and serves as an Advisor for MarketShare, an industry-leading marketing analytics firm. Stengel appears regularly in the media, including Kudlow, the Wall Street Journal, Adweek, etc.

Based on data from an unprecedented ten-year study, the award-winning business guru and reveals the top 50 brands—and why the businesses that center their strategy on fundamental human values achieve growth triple the competition.Can ideals really be the ultimate growth driver that can grow a business beyond the competition?

In GROW: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies, Stengel parses the findings of  the most significant research of recent years on why some businesses grow, but most don’t. Collaborating with leading research firm Millward Brown Optimor and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Stengel’s global ten year growth study of more than 50,000 brands reveals that those who center their business on the ideal of improving people’s lives have a growth triple that of competitors in their categories. Moreover, an investment in the “Stengel 50,” the top 50 businesses in the growth study, would have been 400 percent more profitable than an investment in the S&P 500.He explains how to unleash the hidden power of ideals in every part of your business, how to track the benefits quantitatively to top- and bottom-line growth, and qualitatively to increasing employee morale and productivity and increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy for your business.

Stengel shares the results of “deep dive” observational visits and interviews with senior executives at a variety of category-leading businesses, including Method, Discovery Communications, Pampers, Innocent, Jack Daniel’s, Zappos, Visa, Motorola Solutions. At each of these companies, executives share directly the role ideals play in their long-term strategies, their business models, and their daily leadership practices.Grow is based not only on empirical research but also the latest findings of neuroscience. Stengel and his team were thus able to investigate what goes on in the “black box” of the consumer’s mind and discovered a direct link between financial performance and the association of a business with fundamental human values. The results of the study yielded four profound findings:

* Ideals drive the performance of the highest growth businesses

* Ideals of the highest growth businesses center in one of five areas of fundamental human value–eliciting joy, enabling connection, inspiring exploration, evoking pride, and impacting society

* The highest growth businesses are run by business artists—leaders whose primary medium is brand ideal. Business artists excel in practices that constitute an operating system for generating and sustaining high growth

Whether a business is in the Fortune 500 or a new venture, whether you are in senior management or beginning your career, getting started on an inspiring ideal is the foundation for changing the narrative of business. The reasons why the narrative of business must change are right in front of us—frenetic business cycles and a winner-take-all mentality have turned “value” into no more than a ticker symbol. Increasing transparency strips oversize marketing campaigns of their power to obscure or cancel out bad behavior. Perhaps the most important is that we have a generation of young people who are three times more likely to work for a company that does something they care about.A movement is building, a profound shift to shared growth and prosperity based on ideals of improving people’s lives. How and why it is imperative to be part of this new narrative is a question that occupies the center of this book and to which Jim Stengel provides the ultimate persuasive answer: the growth and profit of every business depends upon getting it right.

Judy D. Olian, is Dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management and is the John E. Anderson Chair in Management. During her leadership, UCLA Anderson has substantially expanded its faculty and programs, grown its students body, initiated a diverse set of global immersion courses, and developed targeted partnerships around the globe. Dean Olian leads a school that annually provides management education to over 1,900 students enrolled in MBA, Executive MBA, Fully-Employed MBA, Masters of Financial Engineering and doctoral programs, and to more than 2,000 professionals through executive education programs.

She served as chair of AACSB International, the premier global organization of business school deans, and chaired two industry-wide commissions addressing the future of management education.Prior to UCLA Anderson, she was dean of the Smeal College at Penn State, and professor and senior associate dean at the Robert H. Smith School at the University of Maryland.  She has consulted with global corporations and taught executives around the world.