Steve Forbes: What's Ahead

Kenneth Frazier wanted to be Thurgood Marshall when he grew up. A beneficiary of Brown v. Board of Education, Frazier attended the best schools in Philadelphia and went on to earn his law degree from Harvard. In perhaps a surprising move, Frazier stepped into the role of CEO at Merck & Co. so he could preserve and extend human life on a larger scale. In this live recording from the Forbes Healthcare Summit, Frazier receives the first-ever Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award for Healthcare and talks to Steve about the sense of purpose and moral philosophy behind his leadership at Merck.

“Dignity is so much more important to the human spirit than wealth.” As founder and CEO of Acumen, Jacqueline Novogratz has developed a revolutionary, human-centered investment philosophy to promote small businesses and help the poor in developing nations. She calls it “patient capital,” and for good reason: besides creating new products or services, Acumen-backed entrepreneurs often have to create the markets and infrastructures to go with them—and that takes time. In this second installment of her conversation with Steve Forbes, Jacqueline explains her “patient capital” philosophy and tells some of the inspirational success stories Acumen has achieved with it.

As a wide-eyed young banker-turned-philanthropist, Jacqueline Novogratz learned that good intentions can sometimes get you poisoned. She’s documented this and other hard-won lessons in her best-selling book The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World. She’s also put those lessons into action as the founder and CEO of Acumen—a non-profit venture capital fund that seeks to alleviate global poverty through entrepreneurial approaches. In this episode of What’s Ahead, Jacqueline talks to Steve about her thrilling, heart-wrenching, and vitally important work.

In this second installment of our two-part series featuring Dr. Oz, we’ll learn more about how to lead happy and healthy lives in 2020 and beyond. Breaking down barriers between people and their health, “America’s Doctor” shares his signature views on nutrition, traditional medicine, government regulation, and family—including how his wife helped make him the phenomenon he is today. 

Need help keeping your New Year’s Resolution? Dr. Oz has you covered. An accomplished cardiothoracic surgeon and host of The Dr. Oz Show—now in its 11th season—Mehmet Oz has saved thousands of lives and helped countless Americans take charge of their own health and wellbeing. In this first installment of a special two-part series, “America’s Doctor” opens up about his family, his personal and spiritual beliefs, and his signature views on how we can all get healthier in 2020.

“If dementia were a country, it would be the ninth largest country on the planet,” says Dr. Gregory Petsko, noted Alzheimer’s researcher and biochemist at Harvard Medical School. With the already high number of U.S. Alzheimer’s patients expected to more than double by 2050, Petsko is leading the charge against the epidemic with outside-of-the-box research methods, hoping to find ways to prevent the disease and ease the “colossal burden” of its treatment—which amounts to $290 billion a year and immeasurable emotional distress for families. In this episode of What’s Ahead, Petsko shares fascinating insights from his work, promising new directions for dementia research, and crucial ideas for future sources of support.

“Why do we need hospitals?” “Where are all the women in healthcare leadership?” Innovara founder, president, and CEO Barri Blauvelt may have driven her professors crazy with questions she says a two-year-old would ask, but her approach has led to some profound discoveries—notably, the link between ethnicity and certain types of cancer. In this episode of What’s Ahead, Barri talks with Steve about her remarkable career, the ground-breaking research she’s conducted around the globe, how to get more women into leadership positions, and her perspective on how millennials might fix America’s ‘hopeless’ healthcare system.  

Universities used to be bastions of free speech and diverse opinions, but not so anymore say filmmakers Justin Folk and Owen William Brennan. In their new documentary No Safe Spaces, they examine the recent trend of college students protesting controversial speakers and getting them banned from their campuses. Should we be proud of these young people for speaking out and demonstrating? Or should we be worried that their rigorous ideology poses a threat to first amendment rights? In this episode of What’s Ahead, Folk and Brennan discuss how their film seeks to answer these questions.

In this second installment of our two-part series featuring Bernard Tyson, the late chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente shares his insights about the importance of “high touch” in the future of healthcare. A powerful storyteller, Tyson opens up about his personal experience with a compassionate nurse and his views on how healthcare can help enhance the playing field for success.

The healthcare industry lost one of its most visionary leaders with the sudden, untimely passing of Bernard Tyson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente. Named by Time magazine in 2017 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Tyson had been implementing far-reaching reforms that were profoundly and positively changing the nature, quality and accessibility of healthcare for all. In this special, two-part series, Bernard talked to Steve shortly before his death about his pathbreaking programs that hold such promise for this critical area of our lives.

A box full of ignored ideas? An esteemed Fed Chairman schmoozed into folly? These are just some of the provocative stories found in Great Society: A New History, the latest work from former Forbes contributor and NYT bestselling author Amity Shlaes. Reexamining the turbulent era of the 1960’s and 70’s in America, Shlaes considers the long-lasting effects of LBJ’s “War on Poverty,” portraying it as a well-meaning yet misguided reform movement with unintended consequences we’re still experiencing today. 

2019 marks exactly 150 years since Leland Stanford hammered in the Golden Spike, tying together America’s east and west coasts through the transcontinental railroad. Since those glory days, though, rail companies been fraught with obstacles—resistance from landowners, regulation from Washington, and competition from the trucking industry. But good news is on the horizon. According to Lance Fritz, chairman, president, and CEO of the venerable Union Pacific Railroad, trains are now speeding back to their rightful place in the U.S. economy, powered by cutting edge technology.

Jack Ma failed his exams. But that didn’t stop him from founding Alibaba Group, one of the largest e-commerce conglomerates in the world. Having empowered millions of entrepreneurs through Alipay – an online payment platform that has boasted more users than PayPal – Ma is now stepping away from his role as CEO to enter the world of philanthropy. In this live recording from the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore, listen in as Steve talks to Ma about entrepreneurship, inclusivity, and fighting with Jet Li.

The “second son” of a German manufacturing family, Hubertus Mühlhäuser has made a name for himself in his own right as the CEO of CNH Industrial, the second-largest agricultural manufacturer on the planet. A global citizen who speaks four languages, Mühlhäuser has lived and worked in China, Argentina, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. In this episode, Mühlhäuser shares his global perspective on pressing matters such as climate change and international trade, offers a peek into the exciting world of agricultural technology, and explains his views on creativity and collaboration in the workplace.

According to Qualcomm CEO and self-proclaimed "gadget person" Steven Mollenkopf, there was a time when industry professionals doubted whether consumers would really use their mobile devices for anything other than placing phone calls. How wrong they were. These days we’re in the fourth generation of cellular broadband technology (4G), and the demand to stream video, use GPS and listen to podcasts on our smartphones grows higher every day. In this episode of What’s Ahead, join Steve as he talks to Mollenkopf about 5G—an expansion of data capabilities that could change how we interact with everything from our cars to our doctors.Also, Steve looks to the week ahead with a focus on the US/China trade dispute, the Canadian elections, the Syria catastrophe, continued talk of a Trump Impeachment, the anticipated Barr report -- and lots of financial numbers that help to understand the state of the American economy. For Steve’s Read of the Week, he recommends three articles. They are: Joe Biden Isn’t Go

Disreputable. To the suspicious skeptics, that’s the word that described Charles Schwab’s idea of a discounted brokerage firm during the firm’s nascent days. Ironic, considering Schwab’s goal then (and now) was to help individuals do a better job of investing in order to be a part of what Schwab calls “the great growth of America.” In Schwab’s conversation with Steve, hear some of the stories featured in his recently published book, Invested: Changing Forever The Way Americans Invest, about the many personal and professional stumbling blocks he navigated along his path to incredible success building The Charles Schwab Corporation, one of the largest brokerage firms in the U.S. Steve also looks at the week ahead and speaks to a bunch of economic numbers, the upcoming democratic debate on Tuesday, October 15th, the travesty of Turkey’s abandonment of the Kurds and more on the trade deal with China and the China-NBA controversy. Steve’s “Reads of the Week” consist of two articles and a google sear

For Melinda Gates, there’s never been a more critical time to call the world to action to break down system barriers for women. In her recent book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, Gates shares enlightening data and personal stories from her work around the globe where she’s seen first-hand the power in challenging the status quo and dismantling pervasive gender inequities to advance society. Steve sat down with Melinda at The Executives’ Club of Chicago earlier this year to discuss why investing in women unlocks opportunity for all, her own struggles in finding her voice and achieving equality at home, as well as her lessons learned to incite lasting change. 

First, Steve addresses impeachment, Israel’s election, Iran’s pain caused by financial sanctions, Brexit and what’s up with the Federal reserve pumping money into banks? Then, in part two of this series, Blackstone Group Cofounder & CEO Stephen Schwarzman discusses the firm’s growth into a global behemoth including a paradigm-shifting investment deal made with China — the first time the country ever invested in a private company. The self-made billionaire also details the prescient call he almost didn’t make to the Treasury Secretary on the brink of the 2008 financial crisis. Also, hear about his philanthropic work through the Schwarzman Scholarship, akin to the Rhodes Scholarship, which brings an international cohort of students to Beijing. This is the final episode in a two-part conversation.Last, Steve’s “Read of the Week” consists of three articles: “Trump’s Fight With The ‘Globalists’” by Daniel Henninger, “Realities Of The Current Trade War” by Frank Hollenbeck and “The Limits Of Clean Energy”

First up, Steve shares his thoughts on a bunch of economic numbers coming out including residential housing prices, consumer confidence index and durable goods numbers. He also speaks to the upcoming United Nations meeting and the United Kingdom Supreme Court.Then, with a personal net worth of over $18 billion dollars, venerable Wall Street titan and Blackstone Group Cofounder, Chair and CEO, Steve Schwarzman, has become the world’s most powerful financial leader. This hard-fought success is documented in his new book, What It Takes: Lessons In The Pursuit Of Excellence which details Schwarzman’s remarkable journey from not knowing the difference between a stock and a bond at his first Wall Street job to leading an investment firm that controls companies worth over $500 billion. One of the key takeaways? The person at the top of any organization should always be eager to learn—and to teach. Which is why he has created a uniquely successful culture at Blackstone aim

First up, Steve shares his thoughts on the central banks and trade.Next, born to a struggling family in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Sol Trujillo, chairman of the Latino Donor Collaborative, has achieved great success. Across his career, he’s headed up major telecommunications companies in the U.S. and around the world. Trujillo points out the Latino community is starting more new businesses than any other group in this country and has incomes rising faster than the national average. As he tells Steve on the latest episode of “What’s Ahead,” Trujillo points out the economic growth potential for the Latino community and details the common-sense reforms that Trujillo says are needed in our immigration system to unlock the true potential of this community for the benefit of us all.Lastly, Steve's "Reads of the Week" are two pieces. The first is by Burton Folsom, "How The Myth Of The Robber Barons Began And Why It Persists" and the second is by Steve, himself, "Pelosi's 'Medicare For All' Strategy Looks A lot Like A Big Wo