3 Great Business Podcasts For Business Leaders And Builders

Many top business podcasts focus on how to start a company, an entrepreneurship journey, or a successful founder (sometimes billionaire) story. Unsurprisingly, personal stories of challenges and growth are compelling, especially for aspiring entrepreneurs. However, learning from the successes and failures of mature companies is applicable and valuable for every type of business leader. Prominent, household-name corporations have experienced significant transactions, hardships, and growth spurts not captured by one founder’s experience alone. Here are three great podcasts focusing on business strategies, vicissitudes, milestone transactions, and decisions that sculpted and shaped the large corporations we know today.

Acquired

Acquired podcast deep dives into one household name company per episode, and at 3-4 hours per episode, they are “better described as conversational audiobooks than podcasts.” Examples of companies covered include LVMH, Costco, Visa, Nike, Porsche, and most recently, Novo Nordisk of the Ozempic fame. Some episodes also feature the companies’ CEOs/Founders, such as Jensen Huang of NVIDIA or Dara Khosrowshahi of Uber. Based on their internal data, 40% of the audience of this content are executives at the C-Suite or VP level. This statistic reflects the in-depth and knowledgeable business-oriented content of the show. Each episode delves into a company’s origins and describes the twists and turns that led to its current state.

Business Wars

The description of this podcast says it all: “Business Wars reveals the stories of the battles waged behind closed doors through reimagined conversations and clever sound design, putting you in the shoes of the dealmakers, execs, and stakeholders. Every rich and powerful company has a jaw-dropping story you’ve never heard, from hostile takeovers to boardroom backstabbing to turncoats who betrayed their mentor to start a rival company.”

Successful businesses are ultimately managed by humans who take their victories very seriously. This podcast explores the behind-the-scenes events of famous corporations’ rivalries that consumers may have only glimpsed. Some of the rivalries discussed include Marvel vs. DC, Hearst vs. Pulitzer, Southwest vs. American, and Ferrari vs. Lamborghini, among others. With 87 seasons, 539 episodes, and counting, you will have plenty of business drama to binge on and learn from.

Business Breakdowns

This podcast explores familiar companies’ operational considerations, competitive landscape, and stakeholders, whose business model and operations may appear obvious. Take, for instance, the episode on Patek Philippe, the watchmaker. The episode delves into the company’s founding story, primary and secondary market strategies, market sizing, dealer landscape, and M&A trends in the luxury market that impact Patek Philippe’s future outlook. Another example is FedEx —despite the familiarity of the company’s model (i.e., delivery as service) to most consumers, the episode delves into the impact of wage inflation on the business, drivers of margin differences between its service lines, railroad expansion, and competition with Amazon.

You will better understand the company’s strategy, business model, marketing, and vertical and horizontal industry stakeholders—valuable or interesting information for entrepreneurs or aspiring leaders in the industry, or even a consumer of the product.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.