Cold Call

Hosted by HBR Presents / Brian Kenny

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293

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Cold Call distills Harvard Business School's legendary case studies into podcast form. Hosted by Brian Kenny, the podcast airs every two weeks and features Harvard Business School faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.

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August 18, 2026Episode 28924 min

Can an AI-Powered Scribe Curb Physician Burnout?

In 2024, Mass General Brigham, the largest health system in Massachusetts, piloted an AI-powered, ambient note-taking and transcription program among a subset of clinicians to address increasing rates of staff burnout and turnover -- largely driven by the administrative burden of clinical documentation in the electronic health records (EHR). Early results showed promising reductions in clinician burnout, intention to leave, and increased physician efficiency. But concerns about the technology, including the generation of inaccurate notes with errors or hallucinations made physicians resistant to learn and adopt it into their workflows. Harvard Business School Associate Professor Susanna Gallani and host Brian Kenny discuss the challenges leadership at the health care organization anticipated as they considered scaling the AI technology responsibly in the case: The AI Scribe: Enhancing Physician Presence and Curbing Burnout at Mass General Brigham

August 4, 2026Episode 28824 min

Why Metaphysic AI Looked to Hollywood for a Digital Rights Model

Founded in 2021, AI generative video company Metaphysic first rose to fame through viral deepfake videos. It achieved a significant milestone with "Here," the first major film to use AI for de-aging actors, including Tom Hanks. The company had two revenue streams: high-end content creation for Hollywood studios and a platform allowing individuals to own and control their digital likeness thanks to the entertainment industry’s “separated rights” framework. However, as AI increasingly codified expertise across other sectors, such protections do not extend; employers own workplace data by default. In such environments, when an individual's expertise can be digitally captured, replicated, and monetized, questions remain about who can capture value and the pivotal role of claiming data rights in complex multi-party negotiations. Harvard Business School Associate Professor Zoe Cullen and host Brian Kenny explore the tensions between individual rights and commercial applications of AI in the case, Metaphysic AI: Rethinking the Value of Human Expertise.

July 21, 2026Episode 28726 min

How a Museum Marketing Team Used AI to Bring People Closer to Art

In 2025, Harvard Art Museums considered using generative AI in a marketing campaign to increase visitor engagement and membership. Looking to boost attendance and appeal to a younger audience base, and facing intensified competition for leisure time, the Museums’ marketing team explored animating a canonical artwork using AI-generated avatars as part of a digital campaign. While the approach promised novelty and attention, it raised internal concerns about brand authenticity, interpretive authority, donor relations, and reputational risk. Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Julian De Freitas and Harvard Art Museums Director of Marketing John Connolly join host Brian Kenny to discuss the case, Harvard Art Museums: When Art Meets Artificial Intelligence. They explore tensions between innovation and brand stewardship in cultural marketing, organizational barriers to new technology adoption, and the strategic use of emerging technologies in brand management.

July 7, 2026Episode 28629 min

Are We Entering a New Age of Creativity with the Help of AI?

In March 2024, The Atlantic announced a strategic content and product partnership with artificial intelligence giant OpenAI. OpenAI would license The Atlantic’s content to train its models and respond to user queries, while The Atlantic would receive a fee, privileged access to OpenAI’s technology, and “premium” positioning within the tech giant. The Atlantic’s journalists, however, were incensed, concerned that partnering with OpenAI was “a devil’s bargain.” Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire owner of The Atlantic, had to consider what was in the magazine’s best financial interest and what impact a continued partnership could have on the magazine’s journalism—and more broadly on the ideas landscape as a whole. Was Jobs undermining The Atlantic’s reputation, or was she bringing a new business model to bear on an industry facing major headwinds? Harvard Business School Professor Caroline Elkins joins host Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “The Atlantic and OpenAI.” They explore the question, “Is AI creative?” and how the answer affects not only journalism as we know it, but considerations for whether we can harness AI to enter an age of increased creativity for humankind.

June 23, 2026Episode 28537 min

How School of Rock Created Structure in Order to Scale with Agility and Creativity

In the summer of 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before Rob Price became CEO in 2017, School of Rock’s nonconformist culture led to variability in teaching styles, educational outcomes, and risks for copyright violations. One of Price’s major initiatives to aid better standardization was the Method App which provided a structure to empower and guide work at the school branches, featuring nearly 100 show programs and 1,000 copyright-compliant song choices tagged with the associated skill levels, musical concepts, and corresponding show programs. When the app launched in 2019, it struggled to gain traction. Some franchisees felt the functionality was flawed; others worried that the app threatened their pedagogical independence. Harvard Business School Professors Tatiana Sandino and Jeffrey Rayport joined host Brian Kenny and School of Rock leaders Stacey Ryan, President, and Rob Price, Former CEO for a live taping of Cold Call on the HBS campus. They discussed the case, “School of Rock: Tuning into Structured Empowerment,” and explored how they chose to drive adoption of the Method App across its franchisees without reigniting tensions with the corporate office.

June 9, 2026Episode 28432 min

The Founder Mindset: Tim Ferriss on Experiments, Risk, and Freedom

What does it take to be a founder? In this episode of The Founder Mindset, produced by Harvard Business School Foundry and hosted by Senior Lecturer Reza Satchu, Satchu sits down with writer, podcaster, and investor Tim Ferriss to discuss his blueprint for nimble decision-making and actionable success.

May 26, 2026Episode 28326 min

How Strong Teams Leverage Different Personality Types

Harvard Business School Professor Len Schlesinger and TypeCoach President Rob Toomey join Brian Kenny to discuss the two mini cases, Night Two in Hanoi: Team Dynamics Under Pressure and Day 6 in Buenos Aires: Fatto Bene. They explore MBA students’ journeys through the first-year FIELD Global Capstone course and how the TypeCoach personality classications taught them how to recognize and work across cognitive differences, ultimately improving team dynamics and their final project outcome.

May 12, 2026Episode 28226 min

Microsoft’s Path to Adopting and Scaling AI Across its Sales Organization

In early 2024, six months after the highly anticipated launch of Microsoft Copilot across the 62,000-person Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) organization—one of the world’s largest sales organizations—the initial excitement had not yet materialized into widespread adoption and transformation. But, two years after initiating their AI transformation journey, the organization’s daily active usage of AI tools had reached over 60% and monthly active usage over 98%, significantly altering how sales professionals approached their work. The path to adoption had required Microsoft to evolve its approach based on early deployment insights. Harvard Business School Associate Professors Iav Bojinov and Shunyuan Zhang join Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions: The Deployment of Copilot and Agents.” They explore the company’s journey to successfully mobilizing AI adoption within the sales process, the challenges it faces integrating autonomous sales agents, what it takes to get thousands of employees to fundamentally change how they work.

April 28, 2026Episode 28134 min

How a Family-Owned Greek Cement Company Evolved Its Leadership While Pivoting Its Product Portfolio

Over 26 years at the helm, Dimitri Papalexopoulos, fourth-generation CEO of TITAN Cement, has turned the company from a domestic player into an internationally diversified group and championed an AI-driven productivity leap, even while steering the company through multiple economic crises. As TITAN prepared for its next phase of growth, Papalexopoulos faced the consequential decision of whether to continue leading the company, promote a trusted insider, or become the first in the company’s history to recommend to the board appoint a non-family CEO. Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim and TITAN former CEO Dimitri Papalexopoulos join Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “Transforming a Titan,” exploring digitalization, globalization, and succession planning of an established family business as well as how to accelerate low-carbon efforts in a carbon intensive industry.

April 14, 2026Episode 28029 min

The Challenges of Scaling a Technology for Social Good

In 2021, a breakthrough in sanitation technology – developed under the Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet” challenge – stood ready for commercialization. The Single User Reinvented Toilet (SURT) offered an off-grid, self-contained system capable of processing waste, generating water, and reducing environmental impact. Turning this technical success into a viable product, however, meant confronting intertwined challenges around behavior change, infrastructure compatibility, financing models, and stakeholder incentives. Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Maria Roche and SURT engineer Dr. Shannon Yee join Brian Kenny to discuss the case “Toilets for the Underserved: The SURT Commercialization Challenge” and the central question of how to launch and then scale a technology particularly important for underserved markets, but not a lucrative short term investment opportunity.