Rick Ruback
speaker
94 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Rick Ruback’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
And so I've been very struck being inside of Harvard as a faculty member, how challenging it can often be to deliver both of those, because as a student, you experience the faculty just in their capacity as teachers, and you don't see that there's this huge other component to their careers.
Do you agree, Royce? I do agree with you, Rick. I would add to the list that these are very smart people. And often when they're dealing with a problem, It's because you could go either way on that problem. And they call for a second set of ears that they trust to listen to this.
And more often than not, if you force them to make a decision, they would make the same decision you're making, but they just need to hear someone else who kind of understands business and they trust saying, yes, that's sensible. So I think there's a bit of that. Before they jump, they want to get a confirmation from us.
Why would you do such a stupid thing? This is a really interesting thought because I never considered this. When they suspect they're wrong, they call you. And when they suspect they're right, they call me.
First or second case we teach each year is a case called Nashton Partners. And it's about two HBS students who actually graduated a few years before we started the program. So before there was any entrepreneurship through acquisition teaching, before it was a thing, they cottoned on to it. And they did a laborious search and they bought a small...
municipal extermination company that had great revenue qualities. And it took a few years to figure out how to crack the code. Once they cracked the code, it led them to seven years of fantastic growth, both organic, but also acquisitions. And they sold it for a huge price. And it's kind of a template journey of how
People who were never in the municipal extermination business figure out a business, how they find a company that has the qualities you want to find in these businesses, why they can do a job that the owner before couldn't do. It's sort of a way of shining a light on this and saying, there are many forms this can take, but this is a good picture to remember when you think about ETA.
And I just love that case because it explains the journey we're going to take them on, which is a great place in my heart. We've been teaching it since, I think, 2008.
Yeah, I don't think it's a low status thing. If I were to think about the people who choose to go into large enterprises, the things they would say are important to them. I used to believe they're not rational. And if they only listen to the preachers, Rick and Royce for long enough- But what I've come to realize is they have a bunch of values that are sensible- And different. And different.
Thank you, Rick. That's exactly right. And those would be, in no particular order, they want to work in an enterprise that have lots of resources so they can do the polished work that they've been trained to do and they get satisfied by.
They want to be surrounded by coworkers, colleagues who are like them, highly educated, who show up at work wanting to be the best they can be because work is a social activity. They want to be part of something larger than themselves, not limited to, but including a great brand name. They want to be part of the team that brings Coca-Cola to China.
And so these are things that are really important. And if you say, well, wouldn't you rather be more independent and not have a boss? And they'd say, sure, of course, but I want these other things more. And I think that's the people who look at this path and say, it just isn't a fit with me.
I'm looking forward to that.
This was really great. It was as fun this time as it was 10 years ago.
Showing 81–94 of 94 · page 5 of 5
← Previous