Alex Edmans

Professor of Finance, London Business School

Contents

TED/TEDx Talks

Gresham Lectures

I’m currently serving as the Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College (part-time, running alongside my LBS post). Gresham’s mission is to provide free lectures to the public, similar to how Michael Faraday gave free lectures on science.

For 2020-1, my lecture series is on The Psychology of Finance. The motivation for this series was that traditional models assume rational economic men/women – people take all relevant information into account, and process it rationally. These lectures will take human behaviour into account show how psychological biases can distort the financial decisions made by investors, CEOs and citizens. They will also explain how we can be on the lookout for these biases and harness this awareness to improve our own decision making. I aim for them to be accessible to all ages and professions – in particular to audiences who might not typically be interested in finance and economics. For example, we’ll cover how World Cup football results can drive the stock market, why simply changing the name of a stock can cause its price to soar, and how gyms dupe us into buying memberships that we rarely use. Think of a cross between “Freakonomics” and a TED talk but applied to every financial decision:

  1. The Psychology of the Stock Market – Tuesday 22 September 2020 (video, transcript)
  2. Hidden Investment Opportunities – Tuesday 27 October 2020 (video, transcript)
  3. The Mistakes Investors Make – Tuesday 8 December 2020 (video, transcript)
  4. The Mistakes CEOs Make – Tuesday 16 March 2021 (video, transcript)
  5. How Companies Profit From Our Mistakes – Tuesday 11 May 2021 (video, transcript)
  6. Nudging Society to Better Decisions – Tuesday 8 June 2021 (video, transcript)

(The transcript is not a word-for-word transcript but summarises the main takeaways in a concise manner).

For 2021-2 (my final year), my lecture series will be on The Principles of Finance. Its mission is to make basic financial skills freely accessible and promote financial literacy. The topics are below:

  1. How to Save and Invest – Tuesday 21 September 2021
  2. How the Financial System Works – Tuesday 26 October 2021
  3. How to Make Financial Decisions – Tuesday 18 January 2022
  4. How to Measure and Manage Risk – Thursday 24 February 2022
  5. How to Value a Stock – Tuesday 17 May 2022
  6. How to Finance a Company – Tuesday 7 June 2022

For 2019-20, I gave six lectures on Business Skills for the 21st Century. The motivation for this series was that there are critical skills in business that are rarely taught at university or business school. The lecture titles are below:

  1. Time Management in the Digital Age – Wednesday 2 October 2019 (video, transcript)
    – Featured on ABC radio
  2. Finding Purpose in Your Career – Wednesday 4 December 2019 (video, transcript)
  3. Public Speaking Without Fear – Wednesday 22 January 2020 (video, transcript)
    – Featured on ABC radio; ABC’s summary of talk
  4. Mental and Physical Wellness – Wednesday 4 March 2020 (video, transcript)
  5. Critical Thinking – Wednesday 22 April 2020 (video, transcript)
    – Featured on ABC radio
  6. The Growth Mindset and the Abundance Mentality – Wednesday 3 June 2020 (video, transcript)

I gave two one-off lectures outside of my offiical 2019-20 series:

  1. How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit – Monday 30 March 2020 (video)
  2. Leadership Lessons From Lockdown – Wednesday 24 June 2020 (video, transcript)

For 2018-9, my lecture series was on How Business Can Better Serve Society. The lecture titles are below; they were primarily adapted from my new book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit.

  1. Purposeful Business: The Evidence and the Implementation – Wednesday 3 October 2018 (video, transcript)
  2. Executive Pay: What’s Right, What’s Wrong and What Could Be Fixed? – Wednesday 12 December 2018 (video, transcript)
  3. Reforming Corporate Governance – Wednesday 23 January 2019 (video, transcript)
  4. The Stewardship Role of Investors – Wednesday 6 March 2019 (video, transcript)
  5. Does Finance Benefit Society? – Wednesday 24 April 2019 (video, transcript)
  6. Do Mergers and Acquisitions Create or Destroy Value? – Wednesday 5 June 2019 (video, transcript)

MBA Lectures

Below is a list of lectures on personal leadership that I gave to LBS or Wharton MBA students which are publicly available on YouTube.

The Exploring Life, LBS MBA 2017 Graduation Speech. On the importance of (1) Stepping into other people’s shoes, (2) Living unoffended, and (3) Privileged MBA graduates having the responsibility to stand out and reshape culture.

Fulfilling Careers and Full Lives, end of final LBS Corporate Finance lecture. Talk on career choice and personal leadership.

Wharton MBA 2014 Graduation Speech. Talk on how to ensure the lessons learned during an MBA stay with you post-MBA.

Take Every Opportunity. 3-minute social experiment on the importance of boldness and being proactive.

Leadership Through Freedom. Talk on serving others, time management, dealing with external challenges, and living boldly. Accompanying slides, accompanying quotes

Dealing With Failure and Dealing With Success. 10-minute talk on how to stay grounded during highs and lows.

Finding Fulfillment, a talk co-sponsored by Wharton Finance Club, Wharton Investment Management Club, and Wharton Christian Fellowhip, on career choice and time management. Accompanying slides.

Time Management and Prioritization, “60 second” talk at Cluster Supper.

Welcome to Wharton MBA Class of 2014.

Keynote Address to the Wharton MBA Class of 2011, Wharton Welcome Weekend.

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