Eric Ries - How Great Companies Stay Great S8 | E12

Eric Ries - How Great Companies Stay Great S8 | E12

From Radical Candor: Communication at Work by Kim Scott, Jason Rosoff & Amy Sandler

April 29, 2026 · 1h 2m · Season 8 · Episode 12

About this episode

Kim interviews Eric Ries about his book on how companies can maintain their integrity and success over time.

While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her in the past two years. In this episode she’s speaking with Eric Ries about his new book, Incorruptible, Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great. All too often, founders start a company and hire an incredible team dedicated to building a company that will solve an important problem and leave the world better off. Then they get a taste of success and life is good. But all too often, the bankers and lawyers swoop in and the demands to “maximize shareholder value” set in. More often than not, the company succumbs to the gravitational pull of mediocrity–or worse. Compromises are made, rationalizations abound, and after a while people start to wonder “how did this happen?!” Eric has thought deeply about how to structure companies so that they can remain true to their purpose and achieve great financial results. In his interview with Kim, he shares his extensive research on companies, both contemporary and some many decades old, who have been able to make this work. Background on Eric Ries: Over the last two decades, Eric Ries’s ideas…

People in this episode

Host: Kim Scott

Guest: Eric Ries

Topics covered

  • company culture
  • leadership
  • innovation
  • business strategy
  • financial success

Keywords

  • Eric Ries
  • Incorruptible
  • Lean Startup
  • company culture
  • business strategy
  • financial results
  • innovation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Lean Startup, New York Times

Books & works: Incorruptible, Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great

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