John Hagel III is one of the foremost thought leaders in business and consulting today. He has attended Wesleyan University, Oxford University, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School. His career has included the Boston Consulting Group, Sequoia Group, Atari, McKinsey & Co., 12 Entrepreneuring Inc., and Deloitte Touche USA. Mr. Hagel has written seven books, most recently including The Power of Pull: How Small Moves Smartly Made Can Set Big Things in Motion, articles in Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and more, and has been honored with numerous awards.

On the show, Mr. Hagel introduced the mission of the Center for the Edge, and discussed the concept of explorers in detail. These explorers are individuals with (1) a long-term commitment to a particular domain, in terms of knowing and contributing to it, (2) a disposition towards questing for new challenges as a means of getting to the next level, and (3) a constant effort to connect to relevant people. The challenge for business, Hagel says, is to cultivate the sort of environment in which explorers can thrive and help the business grow. This is non-traditional, and not easy for companies to do. Citing multiple examples, Hagel talked about how a lot of companies do not allow a particularly passionate workplace, how managers can help explorers bring their passion to the real problems the company faces, and how to select teams for passion that will help develop exploration.