MBA/SD & Columbia Business School Alumni Mixer

Author of Employee Advantage and Why Really Putting Your People First Pays Off

Join fellow Columbia and MBA/SD alumni for an evening of ideas, connection, and collaboration on the Mezzanine (upstairs). Will start off with time for networking and then shift into presentation mode and then back to networking. There will be complementary hors d'oevres and our own cash bar set-up.

Stephan Meier is the James P. Gorman Professor of Business and Chair of the Management Division at Columbia Business School. A behavioral economist by training (PhD, University of Zurich), he previously served as a senior economist at the Boston Fed. His research sits at the intersection of behavioral economics, strategy, and the future of work. In The Employee Advantage (PublicAffairs/Hachette, 2024), Meier argues that firms should apply the same rigor and toolkit used for customer-centricity to their employee experience—and that doing so can boost profitability, innovation, and talent attraction/retention.

• Why “employees first” pays off. Evidence and cases showing that treating employees as value creators (not just costs) improves customer outcomes and financial performance.
• Repurposing customer tools for employees. Using segmentation, journey mapping, feedback loops, and experimentation—essentially translating CX playbooks into EX playbooks.
• From slogans to systems. Practical steps for building an employee-centric operating model: leadership behaviors, incentives, measurement, and governance. (He frames this as a roadmap for a human-centric workplace.)
• Language and metrics leaders use. Findings that companies talk ~10× more about customers than employees on earnings calls—and how reframing the narrative changes decisions. F
• Competing for talent in a post-pandemic world. Why EX is now a strategic differentiator and how to redesign work to raise engagement and innovation.
• Customer-centric vs. employee-centric mindsets. His central message: the same discipline that once created customer advantage can create an employee advantage.

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Host or Publisher Center for Growth Leadership