Episode

#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
listen on Spotify
2:06:24
Published: Sun Aug 11 2019
Description

“When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will.” — Charles Koch, quoting Frédéric BastiatThis episode will no doubt surprise people, and my guest came to me through channels I wouldn't have expected.---Charles Koch received a bachelor’s degree in general engineering and two master’s degrees, in nuclear and chemical engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is chairman of the board and CEO of Koch Industries Inc., a position he has held since 1967. He is renowned for growing Koch Industries from a company worth $21 million in the early 1960s to one with revenues estimated as high as $110 billion by Forbes. It’s one of the largest privately held companies in the world, and by revenue, it’s larger than both Boeing and Disney. He has transformed the business into a diverse group of companies that employ nearly 130,000 people—making everything from Dixie cups to components in your cell phone. Charles credits the success of Koch Industries to applying proven principles of social and scientific progress, which led to the development and implementation of his Market-Based Management® (MBM®) business philosophy. He describes MBM and its applications in two of his books, The Science of Success and Good Profit.Charles is now using those principles in philanthropy, as the founder of Stand Together, to tackle some of the biggest challenges in the U.S. Stand Together is partnering with thousands of social entrepreneurs to help them improve their effectiveness and scale at tackling poverty, improving K-12 education, bringing justice to our criminal justice system, and more.This episode is brought to you by ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN is an app you run on your computer or mobile device that easily secures your Internet connection, hides your public IP address, and lets you bypass regional restrictions on content. ExpressVPN is consistently rated the fastest VPN service on the market, and it's incredibly simple to use. Just download the app, tap one button, and you're connected to a secure VPN server. Visit my special link ExpressVPN.com/TIM, and you'll get an extra three months of ExpressVPN protection for free!This episode is also brought to you by ShipStation. Do you sell stuff online? Then you know what a pain the shipping process is. ShipStation was created to make your life easier -- whether you're selling on eBay, Amazon, Shopify, or over 100 other popular selling channels. ShipStation lets you access all of your orders from one simple dashboard, it works with all of the major shipping carriers, locally and globally, including FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Tim Ferriss Show listeners get to try ShipStation free for 60 days by using promo code TIM. There's no risk and you can start your free trial without even entering your credit card info. Just visit ShipStation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage, and type in TIM!***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chapters
In this episode, Tim talks about the power of doing the opposite and how it can lead to success.
00:00 - 00:32 (00:32)
listen on Spotify
Strategy
Summary

In this episode, Tim talks about the power of doing the opposite and how it can lead to success. They also discuss some of their personal experiences with this strategy.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
ShipStation offers discounted shipping costs and works with major shipping carriers globally.
00:32 - 04:47 (04:15)
listen on Spotify
ShipStation
Summary

ShipStation offers discounted shipping costs and works with major shipping carriers globally. Listeners of The Tim Ferriss Show can try ShipStation for free for 60 days using the promo code Tim.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
This transcript highlights Charles Koch's contributions to social entrepreneurship and the Stand Together Foundation's efforts to partner with social entrepreneurs to improve their effectiveness and scale in tackling social problems.
04:47 - 13:06 (08:19)
listen on Spotify
Charles Koch
Summary

This transcript highlights Charles Koch's contributions to social entrepreneurship and the Stand Together Foundation's efforts to partner with social entrepreneurs to improve their effectiveness and scale in tackling social problems.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker shares his experience of learning the value of work at a young age and how it shaped his approach to finding opportunities that create value for others.
13:06 - 21:03 (07:57)
listen on Spotify
Work, Partnership
Summary

The speaker shares his experience of learning the value of work at a young age and how it shaped his approach to finding opportunities that create value for others. He also talks about the importance of partnering with people who have skills that he lacks.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The founder of Koch Industries, Charles Koch, discusses the influence books have had on his life and the discovery that people can work together peacefully under generalized rules of just conduct in his book, Good Profit.
21:03 - 28:53 (07:50)
listen on Spotify
Business
Summary

The founder of Koch Industries, Charles Koch, discusses the influence books have had on his life and the discovery that people can work together peacefully under generalized rules of just conduct in his book, Good Profit.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Companies should view their businesses as laboratories of innovation and finding new opportunities.
28:53 - 37:43 (08:50)
listen on Spotify
Innovation
Summary

Companies should view their businesses as laboratories of innovation and finding new opportunities. To encourage internal knowledge sharing, incentives should be built and mechanisms developed to foster company-wide sharing.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Creating value for all constituencies, particularly those who reward a business for the value it creates for them, is the key to sustained wealth without the negative societal repercussions of cronyism and protectionism.
37:43 - 47:50 (10:07)
listen on Spotify
Business
Summary

Creating value for all constituencies, particularly those who reward a business for the value it creates for them, is the key to sustained wealth without the negative societal repercussions of cronyism and protectionism. This is the concept of good profit.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker discusses how privately held companies have more flexibility in following the principles of human flourishing and apply them to their business practices compared to publicly traded companies.
47:50 - 55:23 (07:33)
listen on Spotify
Private Companies
Summary

The speaker discusses how privately held companies have more flexibility in following the principles of human flourishing and apply them to their business practices compared to publicly traded companies. Despite imperfections, following these basic principles guides their company towards success.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
In order to drive creative destruction internally, individuals and society need to constantly improve products, technology, and ways of thinking.
55:23 - 1:04:15 (08:52)
listen on Spotify
Creative Destruction
Summary

In order to drive creative destruction internally, individuals and society need to constantly improve products, technology, and ways of thinking. Real education should be three-dimensional, in which an individual considers personal growth, societal contributions, and a vision for a better state.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The guest on the podcast discusses his experience in criminal justice reform and how it has influenced his approach to policy changes that benefit the country long-term, rather than just helping politicians get reelected.
1:04:16 - 1:17:10 (12:54)
listen on Spotify
Criminal Justice Reform
Summary

The guest on the podcast discusses his experience in criminal justice reform and how it has influenced his approach to policy changes that benefit the country long-term, rather than just helping politicians get reelected.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Charles Koch discusses the principles behind Youth Entrepreneurs and why he believes helping individuals discover their own potential and develop valuable skills is the key to improving society.
1:17:10 - 1:29:54 (12:44)
listen on Spotify
Youth Entrepreneurs
Summary

Charles Koch discusses the principles behind Youth Entrepreneurs and why he believes helping individuals discover their own potential and develop valuable skills is the key to improving society.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The podcast discusses the balance between advancing humanity through incentives and rules that lead to the betterment of society versus controlling it by enforcing a philosophical theory of those in power.
1:29:54 - 1:39:39 (09:45)
listen on Spotify
Society
Summary

The podcast discusses the balance between advancing humanity through incentives and rules that lead to the betterment of society versus controlling it by enforcing a philosophical theory of those in power. The speaker also identifies safety issues as one of the biggest failures in this balance.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The focus needs to be on finding policies that will reduce manmade CO2 emissions and not make people's lives worse.
1:39:39 - 1:48:41 (09:02)
listen on Spotify
CO2 emissions
Summary

The focus needs to be on finding policies that will reduce manmade CO2 emissions and not make people's lives worse. Innovative solutions are needed to cause China to adopt them and have them reduce emissions rather than increase them.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker talks about family connections in the chemical engineering industry and mentions how his father got his degree from MIT in chemical engineering practice.
1:48:41 - 1:56:26 (07:45)
listen on Spotify
Chemical Engineering
Summary

The speaker talks about family connections in the chemical engineering industry and mentions how his father got his degree from MIT in chemical engineering practice.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
In this podcast episode, the guest shares the principles and abilities needed to find common ground, even with those you may disagree with on 95-99% of issues.
1:56:26 - 2:03:29 (07:03)
listen on Spotify
Common Ground, Problem Solving
Summary

In this podcast episode, the guest shares the principles and abilities needed to find common ground, even with those you may disagree with on 95-99% of issues. No ship-related product advertisement was found in the given text.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Protect your online privacy and personal data from being stolen with ExpressVPN, which is especially useful for travelers and remote workers.
2:03:29 - 2:06:14 (02:45)
listen on Spotify
ExpressVPN
Summary

Protect your online privacy and personal data from being stolen with ExpressVPN, which is especially useful for travelers and remote workers. Get an extra three months of protection for free by signing up through the link expressvpn.com/tim.

Episode
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show