Decades, i have been an investor. The highest calling of mankind, ive often thought, was private equity. [laughter] and then i started interviewing. While i watch your interview, i know how to do some interviews. Ive learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. Jeff i asked him how much he wanted. He said 250. I said, fine. I didnt negotiate with him. I did no due diligence. David i have something i would like to sell. And how they stay there. You dont feel inadequate now because being only the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right . [laughter] vasant narashimhan is the ceo of novartis, a major swissbased Pharmaceutical Company. Born in the United States to indian parents, he was educated at Harvard Medical School but chose not to Practice Medicine. He chose to go into the pharmaceutical industry and is leading the transformation of novartis to one of the most important pharmaceutical companies in the world. I had a chance to sit down with him in new yor
Over much of the past three decades, i have been an investor. The highest calling of mankind, ive often thought, was private equity. [laughter] and then i started interviewing. I watched your interviews, so i know how to do some interviews. Ive learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. Jeff i asked him how much he wanted. He said 250. I said, fine. I didnt negotiate with him. I did no due diligence. David i have something i would like to sell. [laughter] and how they stay there. You dont feel inadequate now because being only the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right . [laughter] vasant narashimhan is the ceo of novartis, a major swissbased pharmaceutical company. Born in the United States to indian parents, he was educated at Harvard Medical School but chose not to Practice Medicine. Instead, he chose to go into the pharmaceutical industry and is now leading the transformation of novartis to one of the most important pharmaceutical companies in the w
David this is, uh, my kitchen table, and its also my filing system. Over much of the past three decades, i have been an investor. The highest calling of mankind, ive often thought, was private equity. [laughter] and then i started interviewing. I watched your interviews, so i know how to do some interviews. Ive learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. Jeff i asked him how much he wanted. He said 250. I said, fine. I didnt negotiate with him. I did no due diligence. David i have something i would like to sell. [laughter] and how they stay there. You dont feel inadequate now because being only the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right . [laughter] vasant narashimhan is the ceo of novartis, a major swissbased Pharmaceutical Company. Born in the United States to indian parents, he was educated at Harvard Medical School but chose not to Practice Medicine. Instead, he chose to go into the pharmaceutical industry and is now leading the transformation of nov
stephen cave, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a great pleasure. you believe that our human awareness of our own mortality is absolutely central to the human story. why? well, all creatures strive to live on, to keep going. they wouldn t be around us any more if they didn t. the mouse that didn t care about surviving wouldn t pass on its genes. so we come from a long line of creatures that are determined to keep going. but we have these big brains, that s part of our survival mechanism, if you like, that allow us to see the future, to generalise. and we re conscious of ourselves as individuals, and that means we re conscious of our own deaths. and of all the billions of creatures on earth, very few creatures have to live with that terrible awareness that, one day, all of their efforts will come to nothing. and so, if we look back through human history, what we see is humanity struggling to make sense of this. some of the earliest archaeological evidence we f
of our own mortality is absolutely central to the human story. why? well, all creatures strive to live on, to keep going. they wouldn t be around us any more if they didn t. the mouse that didn t care about surviving wouldn t pass on its genes. so we come from a long line of creatures that are determined to keep going. but we have these big brains, that s part of our survival mechanism, if you like, that allow us to see the future, to generalise. and we re conscious of ourselves as individuals, and that means we re conscious of our own deaths. and of all the billions of creatures on earth, very few creatures have to live with that terrible awareness that, one day, all of their efforts will come to nothing. and so, if we look back through human history, what we see is humanity struggling to make sense of this. some of the earliest archaeological evidence we find of human development is grave goods, for example, suggesting people very early believed in an afterlife. the oldest