Jeff Maggioncalda and Coursera: The Future of Learning

The Sydcast

Episode Summary:

Recently, Syd launched a set of four online courses on the Coursera platform – the Strategic Leadership “specialization” – getting a first-hand view of how education has shifted from traditional classroom to digital media. Since the Sydcast is all about learning, it seems appropriate for the first episode of Season 4 to kick off with the CEO of that digital education company, Jeff Maggioncalda. Not only is Coursera the biggest online education start-up with over 100 million learners around the world, but the company is also creating a complex ecosystem where traditional suppliers of learning – universities – are as much business partners as they are competitors. On this episode of The Sydcast, the story of a CEO in the booming yet quickly morphing education sector that is looking to change how each of us learns.

Sydney Finkelstein

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Jeff Maggioncalda

Jeff Maggioncalda joined Coursera as CEO in June 2017 and since then helped the company grow to over 100 million learners and 7,000+ institutions, served by high-quality learning content from 250+ of the world’s top universities and industry educators. He previously served for 18 years as the founding CEO at Financial Engines Inc, a company co-founded by economist and Nobel Prize winner William Sharpe. Financial Engines grew rapidly under Jeff's leadership, providing high-quality online investment advice that has helped millions of people save and prepare for retirement. Jeff has also worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and Cornerstone Research and continues to serve as a Director of Silicon Valley Bank, Inc. He holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor's degree in Economics and English from Stanford University. In his free time, Jeff is a lifelong learner and proud dad, and enjoys studying music theory and spending time with his wife and three daughters.

Insights from this Episode

• What is Coursera
• How Coursera was founded
• Why Coursera is a rapid changer enabler
• Technology and globalization relationship with Coursera
• Success factors of Coursera
• What’s the general population of Coursera learners
• How did Jeff end up being the CEO of Coursera
• Sydney’s course on Coursera
• What advantages does this “era of resignation” has brought to Coursera
• How do academic institutions use Coursera
• How does Coursera as an organization manage failure
• What does Jeff think most of the time about as a CEO
• What does Jeff think about CEOs addressing social issues in the public eye
• How does Coursera help their workers to balance their time
• What advice would Jeff give to his younger self

Quotes from the Show:

• “I thought everybody knew Coursera, its a hundred million people that are learners in Coursera but turns out that’s not the case”- Sydney Finkelstein in “The Sydcast” [08:25]
• “[About Coursera] We are certainly facilitating a very different and more accessible way of learning than only being able to go on a four-year on-campus program ”- Jeff Maggioncalda in “The Sydcast” [10:45]
• “I teach certain things that I want more people to access so the fact that Coursera came out of universities but it was really the entrepreneurship of professors”- Jeff Maggioncalda in “The Sydcast” [14:10]
• “The exclusive audience of great teachers was the people sitting in the classrooms, it doesn’t have to be that way”- Jeff Maggioncalda in “The Sydcast” [23:21]
• “We’re now in the world of the so-called “great resignation” and what really means is like reconsideration of our lives”- Sydney Finkelstein in “The Sydcast” [32:06]
• “[About entrepreneurship] Even if it's something that the student wants, even if it is less expensive, even if it is higher quality, it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna have a successful business”- Jeff Maggioncalda in “The Sydcast” [39:37]
• “[About Coursera’s culture] It's that combination of loving to learn and translating learning into impact”- Jeff Maggioncalda in “The Sydcast” [42:54]
• “I think what good investors celebrate is rapid learning and often you can’t learn unless you fail”- Jeff Maggioncalda in “The Sydcast” [44:01]
• “What we haven’t yet completely figured out … is how do we want to redeploy strategically the way we use physical space to run our company, to attract people, to engage employees ”- Jeff Maggioncalda in “The Sydcast” [56:54]

Stay Connected:

Sydney Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Jeff Maggioncalda

Coursera: Strategic Leadership: Impact, Change, and Decision-Making Specialization

LinkedIn: Jeff Maggioncalda

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This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.