The Thought Leader Interview: Dr. Thomas Frieden
strategy+business|Autumn 2020
The former director of the CDC and current head of Resolve to Save Lives explains why public health is the route to economic health.
DANIEL GROSS
The Thought Leader Interview: Dr. Thomas Frieden

Dr. Thomas Frieden has spearheaded efforts to improve public health for more than three decades. Few executives have more experience in lead-ing large public health bureaucracies as they confront epidemics. After earning degrees in medicine and public health from Columbia University, he served as assistant commissioner of health and director of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Tuberculosis Control, where his effort to combat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis became an international model. As health commissioner for New York City from 2002 to 2009, he implemented many of then mayor Michael Bloomberg’s far-reaching efforts to reduce smoking and combat diabetes and obesity. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he directed from 2009 to 2017, he managed the successful response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Since 2017, Frieden has run Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit backed by philanthropists including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies that aims to save 100 million lives by fighting cardiovascular disease and epidemics. In an interview with strategy+business editor-in-chief Daniel Gross, Frieden discussed effective strategies for combating the virus and how all leaders can adapt some best practices from epidemiology to make their operations more resilient to unexpected threats.

S+B: Epidemiology has really come to the fore in the past few months, as it has become evident that our global systems can’t run effectively in the age of coronavirus. It strikes me that epidemiologists have a lot to teach people who are leading organizations — not just how to think about COVID-19, but also how to think about other systemic and viral types of problems that can infect their networks and ecosystems. What are the components of an effective public health strategy?

Denne historien er fra Autumn 2020-utgaven av strategy+business.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra Autumn 2020-utgaven av strategy+business.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA STRATEGY+BUSINESSSe alt
Transforming information into insight
strategy+business

Transforming information into insight

Focus on six organizational elements to build a world-class data and insights capability.

time-read
8 mins  |
Winter 2020
THE URGENT NEED FOR SOPHISTICATED LEADERSHIP
strategy+business

THE URGENT NEED FOR SOPHISTICATED LEADERSHIP

The pandemic has highlighted a series of paradoxes inherent to the work of leaders. What comes next will depend on how well leaders face up to them.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Winter 2020
The road to successful change is lined with trade-offs
strategy+business

The road to successful change is lined with trade-offs

Rather than trying to convince people your change initiative is the right one, invite them to talk openly about what it might take to implement it: the good, the bad, and the frustrating.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Winter 2020
Sustaining productivity virtually
strategy+business

Sustaining productivity virtually

Maintaining productivity levels among remote employees is an enduring challenge. Here are five ways to help businesses and employees thrive while people work at home.

time-read
7 mins  |
Winter 2020
FORWARD TO normal
strategy+business

FORWARD TO normal

Entertainment and media companies are building business models that are resilient to the enduring changes in consumer behavior ushered in by COVID-19.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Winter 2020
How leaders can promote racial justice in the workplace
strategy+business

How leaders can promote racial justice in the workplace

Embrace four principles to turn today’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives into sustained progress.

time-read
9 mins  |
Winter 2020
CREATING THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
strategy+business

CREATING THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE

In a remodeled world, it is vital for companies to reinvent ways of working.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Winter 2020
Consumer companies must take leaps, not steps
strategy+business

Consumer companies must take leaps, not steps

As shoppers show how quickly they can adapt to external shocks, retailers will need to radically reconfigure their business models.

time-read
7 mins  |
Winter 2020
Businesses can fast-track innovation to help during a crisis
strategy+business

Businesses can fast-track innovation to help during a crisis

“Unrealistic” timelines can actually work. Here’s how.

time-read
5 mins  |
Winter 2020
Agility and experience management work better together
strategy+business

Agility and experience management work better together

Many companies achieve early wins with separate transformational efforts, then stall. But if combined and enhanced using “return on experience,” or ROX, measures, these two programs can unlock each other’s potential.

time-read
7 mins  |
Winter 2020