In this episode, my guest is Charles Koch. Charles G. Koch is chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held American companies. During his tenure with the company, the estimated value has grown from $21 million to more than $100 billion. Charles has published several books detailing his business philosophy: The Science of Success, Good Profit, and Believe in People.

As an influential philanthropist, he supports education, a community of organizations addressing persistent poverty, and public-policy research focused on developing effective solutions to societal problems. He has founded numerous organizations, including Stand Together and the Cato Institute. He holds two master’s degrees in nuclear and chemical engineering from MIT and lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his wife, Liz.

In this episode, I talk to Charles Koch about his bottom-up approach to social change. Charles recognizes that each individual has a gift; schools and organizations should cultivate these unique strengths instead of trying to force people into molds. Charles asserts that institutions can create more meaningful value this way, by truly believing in people. We also touch on the topics of multiple intelligences, self-actualization, education, innovation, and philanthropy.

Website: charleskoch.com

Twitter: @KochIndustries

Topics

04:02 Multiple intelligence theories

07:44 Finding consistent principles of human progress

10:08 Transforming Koch Industries

14:38 Virtuous Cycles of Mutual Benefit

20:07 Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World

23:51 Empowering contribution-motivated individuals

31:27 Supervisors as self-actualization coaches

37:16 From partisanship to partnership

42:35 Charles’ vision for a self-actualizing society

44:18 Eupsychian Management by Maslow

47:50 Frederick Douglass and Viktok Frankl

51:41 #GiveTogetherNow 

53:00 A society that rewards synergy