In my own small way I’m trying to be a responsible citizen in the world and lessen my impact. I recycle and compost, I rarely drive a car, I think about things like my carbon footprint.
Ron Dembo does too, but he does it in a much bigger and bolder way. He’s the founder and CEO of Zerofootprint, a not for profit organization that combines brilliant financial engineering, brilliant environmental engineering and really snappy business intelligence to create products and services that help organizations and individuals significantly reduce their environmental footprint. Before that Ron was the founder of Algorithmics, one of the largest enterprise risk management software companies in the world,which he started after time worked at Goldman Sacks and as a professor of economics at Yale University.
My favourite part of the interview is when Ron starts talking about the deadening effect of routine – just listen to the moment he knew he had to leave academia – and its inspiring to see how he not just manages but embraces the ambiguity that doing Great Work generates.
- In this interview, we also talk about how TED.com inspired him to start ZeroFootprint
- How the move from cavalry to tanks provides a powerful metaphor for finding Great Work
- And the way to use ‘hedging’ in what Ron calls “a stochastic world”
Listen to my interview with Ron Dembo here
Marshall Goldsmith has been acclaimed by many organizations and institutions as one of the great thinkers in business and in HR. His 2007 book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There was a New York Times bestseller and the Wall Street Journal’s number one business book in 2007, and his most recent book Succession looks like it will have the same level of success. I’m constantly struck by his generosity of spirit as well as his wisdom, and he demonstrates both in this interview.
