{"podcast":{"title":"Cold Call","slug":"cold-call-634317","podcast_index_feed_id":634317,"rss_url":"http://feeds.harvardbusiness.org/harvardbusiness/cold-call","website_url":"https://hbr.org/podcasts/cold-call","image_url":"https://hbr.org/resources/images/podcasts/1400-cold-call-lg.jpg","author":"HBR Presents / Brian Kenny (podcasts@hbr.org)","episode_count":287,"summary":"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.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-call-634317"},"episode":{"title":"How Equitable Confronted Its Inertia After 160 Years in Business","slug":"how-equitable-confronted-its-inertia-after-160-years-in-business","published_at":"2026-01-06T11:10:41+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-call-634317/how-equitable-confronted-its-inertia-after-160-years-in-business","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-call-634317","url":"https://hbr.org/podcast/2026/01/how-equitable-confronted-its-inertia-after-160-years-in-business","audio_url":"https://audio.hbr.org/cold-call/20260105141237-HowEquitableConfrontedItsInertiaAfter160YearsinBusiness.mp3","summary":"In 2019, Equitable’s CEO, Mark Pearson, set out to change how the 163-year-old financial services firm gets work done. He wanted the firm to speed up decision-making and empower employees through a flatter hierarchy, agile teams, and more opportunities to lead. Most divisions thrived under the new model. Others clung to old habits. Several years in, the effort sheds light on core questions: What does true cultural change look like? What makes it last? And how do leaders bring skeptics along? Harvard Business School Professor Das Narayandas joins Pearson and COO Jeff Hurd to discuss the case “New WOW at Equitable: A New Way of Working.”","meta_description":"In 2019, Equitable’s CEO, Mark Pearson, set out to change how the 163-year-old financial services firm gets work done. He wanted the firm to speed up deci…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2082,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cold-call-634317/episodes/how-equitable-confronted-its-inertia-after-160-years-in-business/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-call-634317/how-equitable-confronted-its-inertia-after-160-years-in-business.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}