Episode 010: Zia Zaman: Pulling the Goalie in High-Risk Decisions

Welcome to another episode of The Thinking Leader podcast, brought to you by Red Team Thinking. In this episode, Bryce Hoffman talks with Zia Zaman, CEO and innovator, about the use of mathematics to make better decisions in times of high risk in an increasingly uncertain world – where everyone's affected.

Zia Zaman is the CEO of Soteria, previously served as the CIO for MetLife, the CEO of LumenLab, and led the marketing strategy for FAST which culminated in a $1.2 billion acquisition by Microsoft. Zia has spoken at WEF Davos, IIF, Global Summit for Women, Milken, InsurTech Connect, and UN Women. He currently sits on the Board of the Energy Market Authority of Singapore.

Top 10 Takeaways:

01:37 The amount of uncertainty leaders are facing today is only increasing

02:11 Every job function has become a more data-driven function

05:06 A metaphor from ice hockey – “Pulling the goalie”

07:13 The Poisson model vs. the Markov model

14:35 Patrick Roy vs. Viktor Tikhonov

17:00 Malcolm Gladwell and the “Pull the goalie” concept

22:00 The Asness-Brown Model

24:53 Applying this approach to investment strategy

25:39 “Pulling the goalie” in business

32:52 “Pulling the goalie” in public health

Mentioned in this episode: