Leaders Unplugged is real talk with the impactful. Candid, honest, actionable – and fresh from behind the scenes. Presented by IMD in collaboration with Remote Daily. Hosted by IMD’s president, David Bach and Felix Zeltner.
Leaders Unplugged
Claim This Podcastby IMD
21 episodes
Updated Daily
Accepts GuestsHas SponsorsLocation 🇨🇭
44
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality59
Social0
YouTube76
Engagement0
Podcast Overview
Leaders Unplugged is real talk with the impactful. Candid, honest, actionable – and fresh from behind the scenes. Presented by IMD in collaboration with Remote Daily. Hosted by IMD’s president, David Bach and Felix Zeltner.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
3/21/2025
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44
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality59
Social0
YouTube76
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7
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excellent
Episode Length
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Recent Episodes
June 11, 2026
Florence Gaub on reading the future: War, weak signals, & wild scenarios
<p>Leaders are drowning in crises, yet Florence Gaub argues their real competitive edge lies in how they imagine the future. In this episode of Leaders Unplugged with David Bach, the NATO Defense College research director, futurist and military strategist explains why “strategic foresight is the gym for the mind,” how weak signals from distant places, online communities and emerging technologies can reveal tomorrow’s shocks, and why reducing surprise buys organizations their most precious asset: time. </p><p><br>Gaub dissects the Strait of Hormuz, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and China’s climate strategy to show how wishful thinking at the highest levels can cripple even the most sophisticated governments – and what executives must do differently.</p><p>Gaub insists that “all companies above a certain size today will be affected by geopolitics” and that every leadership team should build an annual discipline of horizon scanning and scenario work. She argues that whoever “finds the right answers to climate change first” will define the next global power hierarchy, that science fiction is a good indicator for future conflicts, and shares answers to a deceptively simple question: “What future would you be willing to fight for?”</p><p><br>Our guest</p><p><strong>Florence Gaub </strong>is a Franco-German political scientist, military strategist, and futurist. She is Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defense College in Rome. Before joining NATO in her current role in 2023 (she also worked at NATO from 2009-2013), she was Deputy Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris and served as a foresight adviser within the EU system. Her books include <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-future/">The Future: A User’s Guide</a>, and Szenario, a current nominee for for the German non-fiction award. She is also the co-host of the Munich Security Conference podcast <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5GghlDp7DBGSUdWQmV1suJ?si=fe452159d4d14fe6">The Art of Diplomacy</a>. </p><p><br></p><p><br>Resources mentioned in this episode</p><ol><li>Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders<br><a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691210230/fears-of-a-setting-sun">https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691210230/fears-of-a-setting-sun</a></li><li>New Scientist<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/">https://www.newscientist.com/</a></li><li>NATO Archives:<br><a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified.htm">https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified.htm<br></a>NATO-Russia Founding Act, 1997:<a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm"> https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm</a></li><li>2018 US National Defense Strategy<br><a href="https://media.defense.gov/2020/May/18/2002302061/-1/-1/1/2018-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY-SUMMARY.PDF">https://media.defense.gov/2020/May/18/2002302061/-1/-1/1/2018-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY-SUMMARY.PDF</a></li><li>2022 US National Security Strategy<br><a href="https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf">https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf</a></li><li>The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War — Mark Galeotti<br><a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270419/the-weaponisation-of-everything/">https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270419/the-weaponisation-of-everything/</a></li><li>Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund<br><a href="https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness-book/">https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness-book/</a></li><li>NATO 2099 <br><a href="https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-the-science-fiction-anthology/">https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-the-science-fiction-anthology/<br></a><a href="https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-a-graphic-novel/">https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-a-graphic-novel/</a></li><li>Florence Gaub and Roderick Parkes: “Is Europe Too Soft to Fight?”<br><a href="https://warontherocks.com/is-europe-too-soft-to-fight/">https://warontherocks.com/is-europe-too-soft-to-fight/</a></li></ol><p>Enjoyed this conversation? 🔔 Subscribe to Leaders Unplugged for candid conversations with the impactful:</p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leaders-unplugged/id1803572933">Apple</a> | <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3yNFN82NfiTcNwaV0E8FNm?si=ecaa98951ffe44b0">Spotify</a> | <a href="https://youtu.be/gxmiCp7cpko?si=g0qAwPbb3WptvGgD">YouTube</a></p><p><br>Connect with IMD:</p><p>Follow IMD on Instagram: @imdbusinessschool <br>Follow IMD on LinkedIn: @imd-business-school <br>Follow IMD on BlueSky: @imdbusinessschool.bsky.social<br>Follow IMD on Facebook: @imdbschool </p><p>Follow IMD on Substack: https://substack.com/@ibyimd </p><p><br></p>
June 4, 2026
Jake Sullivan on power, industrial strategy, and the new global order
<p><br>What does it mean to lead in a world where the United States — the anchor of the post-war order — has become "the biggest disruptor in the world"? </p><p>In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, IMD's David Bach sits down with Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor to President Biden, for a frank, wide-ranging conversation on the forces reshaping global business, geopolitics, and the social compact. From the collapse of allied trust to Iran's newly proven ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, this is the geopolitical briefing every senior executive needs.</p><p>Sullivan argues that Trump "does not believe that allies are assets — he thinks they are liabilities," that the Iran war was "entirely a war of choice, an elective war," and that the era of assuming innovation dominance without industrial strength is over: "The United States has to concern itself with being able to build." </p><p>On AI and the future of work, he warns that we need "fundamentally new answers" to the question of "where does the human fit in, in an age of exploding technology?" — and that no political leader has yet emerged to deliver them. </p><p><br>Our guest:</p><p><strong>Jake Sullivan</strong> served as National Security Advisor to President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, helping shape U.S. responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, strategic competition with China, the wars in the Middle East, and the growing intersection of technology and geopolitics. A longtime adviser to both Biden and Hillary Clinton, Sullivan was also one of the architects of the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration and a leading voice behind the idea of a “foreign policy for the middle class.”</p><p>Today, he is the inaugural Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at Harvard Kennedy School, a faculty affiliate at Harvard’s Belfer Center, a Senior Fellow at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, and co-host of the foreign policy podcast “The Long Game” alongside his former deputy Jon Finer. </p><p>Harvard Kennedy School faculty profile: <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/jake-sullivan">https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/jake-sullivan</a> </p><p>X: @jakejsullivan </p><p><br></p><p><br>Resources</p><ul><li>Jake Sullivan, “The Tech High Ground,” *Foreign Affairs: <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/tech-high-ground-jake-sullivan">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/tech-high-ground-jake-sullivan</a></li><li>Kurt M. Campbell and Rush Doshi, “Underestimating China”: <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/underestimating-china">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/underestimating-china</a> </li><li>The Long Game with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer:<br><a href="https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/the-long-game">https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/the-long-game</a></li><li>Dan Wang, “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future”:<br><a href="https://danwang.co/breakneck/">https://danwang.co/breakneck/</a> </li></ul>
May 13, 2026
Can Kati ter Horst prove Europe can still make things?
<p><br><strong>What does leadership look like when free trade is no longer a given?</strong></p><p>Outokumpu CEO Kati ter Horst leads one of Europe’s most strategically important industrial companies at a moment when the old assumptions of globalization are breaking down.</p><p>In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, she joins IMD President David Bach to discuss tariffs, subsidized overcapacity, green steel, AI, critical minerals, and why Europe’s industrial future is now inseparable from geopolitics.</p><p>Her message is blunt, practical, and deeply relevant for CEOs: “I don’t think that will happen” when asked about a return to free trade; “Europe can compete”; and “you have to protect your time.”</p><p><br>Our guest:<br><strong>Kati ter Horst</strong> is President and CEO of Outokumpu, the Helsinki-based global leader in sustainable stainless steel. She has been in the role since October 2024, after nearly a decade on the company’s board. Before Outokumpu, she held senior leadership roles at Stora Enso and Aliaxis, gaining deep experience in manufacturing, sustainability, and large-scale transformation. </p>
21 total episodes available
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