Episode 349: Alison Taylor of NY Stern School of Business - Corporate Responsibility and Doing the Right thing in a Turbulent World

Alison Taylor is Clinical Professor at the NY Stern School of Business – her Linkedin profile describes her as having “lots of other hats and even more opinions”. She is the author of “Higher Ground – How Business can do the right thing in a Turbulent World”, and has a successful Substack as well as being a member of multiple governance oriented boards such as the FT Moral Money Advisory Board as well as holding senior advisor roles at KKR and Unilever. 

Our conversation starts out with her career journey, in which before joining the academic world she had such intriguing roles as a fraud and corruption investigator in the US and the Middle East. We discuss how this framed her mindset entering the corporate world, and then the pathway that led her to Stern School of Business.

Moving then to the central theme of corporate governance and corporate responsibility we discuss what it means to do the "right" thing, and some of the challenges that performative responsibility has led to. We speak about the prime importance of leadership and culture, and Alison emphasizes the need to focus on group behavior and predictable actions rather than individual morality. The importance of authenticity is noted as well as the need for credible and defensible approaches to diversity and sustainability.

Alison notes the trend of thinking becoming a luxury good and the need for offline, in-person events to foster critical judgment and EQ and we discuss the impact that AI will have on all of that.Finally we discuss Alison's recent launch on Substack and the reception that that kind of engagement has received compared to Linked In.

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Evanston Capital and Alvine Capital. For over 20 years Evanston Capital has had a key focus in identifying early-stage investment managers it believes are capable of generating long-term, value-added returns in complex, innovative strategy areas. Alvine Capital is a specialist investment manager and placement boutique with a particular focus on alternative assets with significant presence in London and Stockholm.