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</style>In this episode of Here@Haas, Michele and Vance kick off a new faculty series with one of Haas’ most celebrated educators: Distinguished Teaching Fellow Greg LaBlanc. Known for his dynamic classes on strategy, game theory, and behavioral finance, and for his influential podcast, unSILOed, Greg shares how an early Montessori education shaped his interdisciplinary curiosity, the unconventional academic path that led him to Berkeley, and why he believes the future belongs to those who can integrate ideas across fields.
Together, they explore innovation, entrepreneurship, competitive moats in the AI era, the role of proprietary data, and why enduring success often requires “fixing things before they break.” Greg also discusses character as life’s true project, the importance of long-term learning, and the deep alumni connections that enrich his life far beyond the classroom.
This episode offers insights for anyone considering strategy, disruption, and building a meaningful career in a rapidly changing world.
Episode Quotes:
If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway!
I see Haas as ambassadors for this vision. We go out into the world and populate these companies with this unique view of the importance of innovation, the importance of rethinking. I mean, why is questioning the status quo the first of our defining principles? It’s because if you don’t question the status quo, status quo will crush you. And so one of the things that I always like to say is an implicit slogan of Haasies is if it ain’t broke, fix it anyway. It is gonna be broke if you don’t do anything. And so being capable of anticipating the future, of being open to being wrong, being open to continuous reinvention, that’s what I love about being here.
On what he is most proud of in his life
It has nothing to do with worldly accomplishments. It has to do with character development. So, not to say that I’ve got this wonderful, great character. I mean, there’s tons of room for improvement, but I think at the end of the day, the only thing that you have control over in your life is your character: the way you act, the way you think, the way you behave, the way you treat other people, and your approach to the world.
On playing the long game
There are people who just think they have forever to do stuff, and then there are other folks who think that they have to do everything right away. And so I would say play the long game. Understand that you might live fairly long period of time and, you know, you might not. Right? And so, learn like you’re gonna live forever, really focus on learning without any necessarily obvious reason to think that what you’re learning is gonna be immediately valuable. You’ll find that things that you learn at one point in your life turn out to be much valuable later in life, oftentimes in unexpected ways. So, focus on learning with a long-term perspective.
Why good MBAs are good generalists
To be a good generalist is to have this very active mental switchboard that sends you off in all sorts of directions, makes connections that other people don’t see, thinks analogously, and sometimes metaphorically, right? Scientists often think in very linear, very structured ways. Start with small building blocks, work up to more sophisticated things. I think the superpower of a good MBA is that you don’t limit yourself to that way of thinking, but that you have all these combinations, these neural combinations that send you in different directions.
Show Links
- Greg LaBlanc – LinkedIn
- unSILOed Podcast