Lancefield on the Line
Are you looking to taking your leadership to the next level? Perhaps you’re in a new role, in charge of a big initiative, or looking to move roles. You’ve come to the right place for strategies, tips, lessons distilled from the world's leading management thinkers, entrepreneurs, executives and academics.
Lancefield on the Line
Dan Gross: Leading a life of ambition
What can a banker who built one of the biggest financial empires in the world and was a major philanthropist teach us about strategic leadership? A lot, in fact.
I talk to Dan Gross, the author of a biography on Edmond J. Safra called ‘A banker’s life’. It’s a fascinating counter to many of the practices we hear and see – for better or worse – in modern day life.
Safra was incredibly ambitious, looking to build wealth, nurture his community, and build bridges across the world. We hear about his approach to:
- Entrepreneurship, starting at a very young age.
- Developing relationships across different cultures in three continents.
- Putting purpose at the centre of his business and life.
- Working out the customers he wanted to serve, and the risks he wanted to take (or not).
- Work-life integration.
- Succession planning.
Safra treated his business as a family. And led a dynamic, colourful life, professionally and personally.
About Dan:
Dan Gross is one of the most widely-read writers on finance, economics, and business history. Over the past three decades, he has reported from more than 30 countries, covering everything from the dotcom boom and the rise of China to the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. He worked as a reporter at The New Republic and Bloomberg News, wrote the “Economic View” column in The New York Times, and served as Slate’s “Moneybox” columnist.
Gross is a bestselling author of eight books, including Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time; Generations of Corning; Dumb Money: How America’s Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation; and Better, Stronger, Faster: The Myth of American Decline and the Rise of a New Economy.
His great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Aleppo and Damascus.
Resources:
- Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-gross-ba46a02/
- ‘A banker’s journey’ book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bankers-Journey-Edmond-Global-Financial/dp/1635767857
My resources:
Sign up to one of my courses (https://bit.ly/3QHvlYm).
Sign up to my Strategic Leader newsletter (http://bit.ly/36WRpri) for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel (http://bit.ly/3cFGk1k) where you can watch the conversation.
If you’re looking to work with me, check out my:
- Services (https://bit.ly/3QFOn1A) to C-Suite execs, entrepreneurs and professionals.
- Profile (https://bit.ly/3JUzrZk).
- Writing (https://bit.ly/3JTYnAi).
- Posts on LinkedIn (https://bit.ly/2Z2PexP).