Professor Ian McCarthy on the business of being counter-intuitive

The Human Risk Podcast

How can counter-intuitive thinking help us to make better business decisions? It’s something that Professor Ian McCarthy explores in his research.
Ian has been on the show before, talking about his research Into workplace bullshit. You can hear that episode here 🎧 👉 https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/professor-ian-mccarthy-on-workplace/
On this episode, we begin by catching up with Ian’s work on bullshit and find out why several large companies are getting his help to run bullshit audits.
We then explore the first of several counter-intuitive ideas.
If you’re a company and you own some intellectual property — your logo or brand imagery, for example — then conventional wisdom says that you should pursue anyone who tries to infringe your rights. But there are many situations where that might not actually be the best thing to do. Ian talks us through the idea of open branding.
You can read the research on that here:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0007681320300938?via%3Dihub
After that, we explore social media, and I get Ian’s thoughts on how companies and individuals might respond to it. Amongst other insights, Ian highlights how far from thinking of social media as a risk to be mitigated, there are counter-intuitive strategies available to companies who embrace it. Why might you, for example, want to use it to leak information that historically might have been considered trade secrets? You can learn more about that here: https://www.slideshare.net/IanMcCarthy/were-leaking-and-everythings-fine-how-and-why-companies-deliberately-leak-secrets-57447908?
Then we look at Ian’s field, and he explains why he’s a huge proponent of open academia. It’s another concept that involves overturning conventional wisdom.
To see more of Ian’s research, visit; https://sfu.academia.edu/IanMcCarthy
You can find him on social media:Twitter: https://twitter.com/Toffeemen68
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmccarthy1/
In our discussion, we refer to Led By Donkeys - https://www.ledbydonkeys.org/