About the show

What does it mean to be a strategic owner? How might it matter if something is owned in the public market or, by a founder or family? What about the time horizon, and what does it mean to say you are invested for the long term? Beyond a single business’ success, do the patterns of ownership of businesses across the country make a difference in the ways these businesses run, whether mom-and-pop shops or multi-national corporations?

These hidden patterns of ownership are an invisible current with implications on the products we buy, the companies we work at, and the communities we live in. This podcast, “The Owner’s Box” is about telling that story.

Episodes

  • Episode 7: Ownership and Invention with Jamie Siminoff

    January 16th, 2025  |  Season 2  |  35 mins 36 secs
    ring; doorbot; amazon; inventor; shark tank; entrepreneurship; la bell missouri

    Today’s episode, gets inside the mind of an inventor, and seeing how that work applies to community development in a small town in rural Missouri.

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    Tactics from the Owner's Box: Navigating the Complexity of Partnership

    January 2nd, 2025  |  Season 2  |  6 mins 21 secs
    entrepreneurship, fraiche wine group, jeremy king, partnership, romance

    Whether in starting a kid's venture, or taking the leap into entrepreneurship, this story is about about what it means to partner with someone in a venture. How do you pick the right person? When is that partnership life-giving, and supportive of the business, and what is it strategically complex or even destructive? In today's tactics from "The Owner's Box" -- we are going to revisit a few voices from Season 1 to learn how they approached partnership, and what it might mean for your own venture.

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    S2: E2: Scooping for Success with Richard Graeter of Graeter's Ice Cream

    December 19th, 2024  |  Season 2  |  38 mins 6 secs

    Today on the owner’s box, we are going to hear how the iconic Cincinnati ice cream brand came to be. Importantly, we are going to explore how the incentives and design choices of Richard Graeter and his family shape what is possible for their brand and the industry as a whole.

  • Tactics from the Owner's Box: A Cabin in the Woods

    December 3rd, 2024  |  Season 2  |  7 mins 17 secs
    business, cottage, family, real estate, wall street journal

    A few weeks back, Peter Grant from the Wall Street Journal reached out with a question. How do families with real estate approach this investment differently than a fund? For Grant, the Wall Street Journal commercial real estate writer, his focus was on commercial real estate in New York. He had started to note something unusual in this space -- those families who had long committed to never sell were doing... just in fact that.

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    S2:E1: Main Street's Tidal Wave of Ownership Transition

    November 19th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  37 mins 59 secs
    business, economics, esop, family-owned, ownership, policy, private equity, small business

    In the first episode of our second season of The Owner's Box -- we look at transitions of business ownership. What shifts as ownership changes hands, and how should policymakers navigate the so-called silver tsunami of baby boomers transitioning their businesses in one way or another.

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    Episode 6: All That We Bring to the Table with Cindi Bigelow

    August 27th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  43 mins 52 secs
    bigelow tea, family business, female, leadership, tea

    For those of you playing along at home.... while this season has highlighted a number of different voices, there is at least one that is characteristically missing -- that of a female owner taking over leadership of their family business. Our discussion with Carolyn Kindle at St. Louis CITY SC hit on pieces of this work, but this was in the context of starting something new -- a soccer club in the MLS. There is something different about stewarding something that already exists. How do you lead that well? What does it mean to own something from a deep understanding of who you are. And so with that, we queue up, Cindi Bigelow of Bigelow Tea.

  • Tactics from the Owner's Box: The Discipline of Long-Run Ownership

    August 9th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  6 mins 34 secs
    business, discipline, long-run, marathon, owner-operator, patience; brent beshore

    In the space of ownership, the vision of building, scaling, and selling has become a shared mantra of success in the world of business schools formed in the shadow of Silicon Valley. But to suggest all businesses must follow this path is like assuming all runners need to be marathoners. Let’s put this in context by focusing our attention on the owner-operator. How does one approach an attempt to own something for the long run? How does one prepare to steward a legacy throughout the inevitable and yet unexpected changes coming down the pipe?

  • Episode 5: Brothers in the Vineyard: Growing Fraiche Wine Group

    July 26th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  49 mins 16 secs
    fraiche wine group, hospitality, vineyard, wine

    Welcome to Episode Five of the Owner’s Box by WashU Olin’s Koch Center for Family Enterprise. This week, we learn from Michael and John Kennedy on how they have worked together as siblings and a broader family to build out Fraiche Wine Group.

  • Tactics from the Owner's Box: The Four Critical Questions of Ownership

    July 11th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  7 mins 1 sec

    In today’s tactics from the Owner’s Box, we introduce the four critical questions for strategic owners – questions of What, How, When, and perhaps most importantly, Why.

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    Episode 4: Creativity and Continuity with Stuart Weitzman

    June 27th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  28 mins 55 secs
    business, creativity, designer shoes, fashion

    The brand is a celebrity favorite no matter the occasion. Lorde. Gigi Hadid, Jessica Alba, Blake Lively, Selena Gomez, the list goes on. Today's episode looks at how Stuart Weitzman built his company and what we can learn about owner strategy from the various twists and turns of his brand's evolution over time. This is ultimately Stuart Weitzman's gift to us. There is hard won wisdom gained by an entrepreneur who has gone through all these different shifts in and around the owner's box.

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    Tactics from the Owner's Box: The Psychology of Legacy

    June 13th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  5 mins 53 secs

    Today on “Tactics from The Owner’s Box,” we explore the meaning of legacy and how it plays into the design of a business and philanthropy over time.

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    Episode 3: The Beautiful Game

    May 30th, 2024  |  Season 1  |  34 mins 17 secs
    economic development, philanthropy, soccer, story

    Today we discuss how a multi-generational family enterprise has brought soccer back to St. Louis, and their hopes and plan to make an impact far beyond the pitch.