Zeynep Ton
President, Good Jobs Institute and MIT Professor
My mission at MIT Sloan is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world... That's the material I get to teach – how can one not be passionate about that material?
Summary
This week on “Leadership Matters,” Alan was joined by author, advisor, and award-winning MIT professor, Zeynep Ton. Zeynep has merged her time in academia with her career as a business advisor to explore how organizations can design and manage their operations in ways that simultaneously satisfy employees, customers, shareholders, and stakeholders.
Zeynep holds nearly three decades of experience at the highest level of educational institutions in the United States, and her students have called her lectures “enchanting.” Between her teaching, advisory roles, and position as founder and president of Good Jobs Institute, Zeynep is helping companies to improve employee welfare, organizational performance, and customer satisfaction.
In their insightful discussion, Zeynep and Alan explore her strategies for leadership in both the classroom and the boardroom. They take a deep dive into strategies for aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders on how to employ “Good Jobs” strategies within their organizations. During her hour with Alan, Zeynep emphasizes the importance of dignity and respect in all workplaces, but especially those doing “essential” work.
Mentions & Resources in this Episode
Guest Bio
Zeynep Ton a native of Bursa, Turkey, came to the United States at 16 on a volleyball scholarship to Penn State University where she studied Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. While at Penn State, she won the Evan Pugh award in 1995, an achievement granted to the top-5 athletic scholars at the University.
Following graduation from Penn State, Ton entered Harvard Business School in 1997 and achieved a Doctorate in Business Administration in 2002. Shortly thereafter, she joined the teaching faculty at Harvard Business School where Zeynep was heralded for her skills and engaging teaching style. Students at Harvard Business School stated that Ton’s “enchanting” lectures had the ability to “enrapture” students in her content. She achieved the status of the World’s 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40 by Poets & Quants and one of CNN’s eight “on the rise professors in business”.
In 2012, Ton ended her time at Harvard Business School and entered a faculty position at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. In 2014, she authored her first book: The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits. The book’s messaging was so well-received by its audience, that executives began to contact Ton to implement her strategies into their companies. In 2017, Zeynep began the non-profit “Good Jobs Insitute” to work with organizations to incorporate “Good Job Strategies” into their workplaces on a regular basis. She currently still serves as the President of the organization.
Zeynep is active on social media and shares advice, strategies, and life experiences with her followers, covering everything from new book recommendations to life as a mother of four children. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and continues to work in education and operations strategy to improve the future of business for all key stakeholders.