Banking on Information · 2025-11-17 · 16 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
45 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
DJ Peterson brings a political scientist's rigor to advising CEOs and financial services leaders navigating complex global relationships. Rather than providing PR-polished talking points, Peterson acts as a trusted brain or knowledge coach, helping executives understand context before meetings with presidents, prime ministers, and dignitaries - from President Modi's infrastructure agenda to the risk of discussing diversity with Putin. His clients - typically traveling executives in financial services managing global relationships - benefit from structured research that elevates their personal brand while avoiding costly diplomatic missteps. Peterson emphasizes that understanding the political drivers of economic policy (Fed decisions, tariffs, WTO rules) and social trends (inequality, polarization) is essential for business strategy. He dismisses 10-year forecasts as useless in today's environment, instead advocating for a two-to-three-year horizon given AI disruption and political volatility under Trump. His core thesis: broaden your data horizon, challenge your assumptions with independent advisors, and ask why questions rather than accepting mainstream economic thinking that has consistently missed the mark since the pandemic.
DJ Peterson helps executives understand the host country's policy priorities and economic agenda - for example, Prime Minister Modi's focus on innovation, employment, and infrastructure - so they can position their company's value beyond product pitches and connect as global business leaders rather than just vendors.
Peterson coached a CEO client to avoid discussing the company's diversity agenda with President Putin, as such issues were not aligned with Putin's interests and would damage the relationship.
AI is evolving too rapidly, Trump's policies are reshaping multiple environments faster than predicted, and the information landscape is too unstable to forecast meaningfully beyond two to three years.
They focus exclusively on their company's business performance and talking points rather than demonstrating knowledge of the broader political, economic, and social context that matters to their counterpart.
Economists have consistently gotten inflation and employment forecasts wrong, leading business leaders to rely on flawed mainstream economic thinking rather than integrating political drivers and policy changes into their strategy.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode contains some useful concepts (expanding data horizons, political-economic linkages, the loneliness of executive decision-making) but relies heavily on anecdotes and general framings rather than novel, actionable insights. Most claims are intuitive rather than non-obvious - that leaders need broader context, should avoid missteps with foreign counterparts, and should seek trusted advisors. There is substantial throat-clearing and repetition without densely packed ideas.
You can't understand the US economy and the trajectory of the US economy and where it's going if you really don't understand the political pressures or the drivers on the system.
they're able to connect and really shape the world. So it's closing deals, but at a much higher level.
Peterson recycles familiar frameworks - the importance of curiosity, broader contextual thinking, understanding political economy, avoiding PR mishaps. The observation that economists have been wrong since the pandemic and that tech companies can't ignore government is topical but not particularly contrarian or first-principles. The CEO brain/sparring partner model is a repackaging of executive coaching.
mainstream economic thinking around inflation, around unemployment, or employment, has been really off base, certainly since the pandemic.
a leader of a global business
Peterson is the president of Longview Global Advisors with RAND Corporation training, so he has relevant credentials. However, the transcript reveals him primarily as a consultant and advisor rather than a C-suite operator or someone who has built/scaled a major business. His credibility rests on advising CEOs rather than being one, which is competent but one level removed from the highest caliber of guest for a B2B audience.
I was trained at the Rand Corporation. And the Rand Corporation was the original think tank.
I typically work with CEOs and presidents of global firms
The episode is sparse on concrete data, named examples, and metrics. Peterson references a client meeting with 'President Putin' and diversity agenda anecdotes, a financial services client with transaction trends, and a blog-post collaboration, but provides no numbers, timelines, financial outcomes, or verifiable specifics. Claims about AI transformation, economists being wrong, and political drivers are asserted without data backing.
I had a CEO client who had us sit down with President Putin. And he was going to talk about the company's diversity agenda.
he would just sit down with me for an hour every month
Rutger asks decent setup questions and offers some reflective statements, but rarely pushes back, challenges claims, or digs into contradictions. When Peterson says he can't forecast 10 years, Rutger accepts the frame rather than probing why 3-year horizons are more useful for strategy. There are no sharp follow-ups on specifics, no productive disagreement, and the interviewer largely validates Peterson's worldview rather than testing it.
Now, when that goes well, what's the feedback that they give you?
Yeah. There you go. Yeah. So you're a brain to your clients, you're a sparring partner
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
DJ Peterson shares insights on the importance of curiosity, independent thinking, and political context for global executives, emphasizing the real-time challenges in navigating today’s rapidly changing world and how trusted advisory can shape impactful leadership decisions. Key Words: Curiosity, Independent thinking, Political context, Global business, Trusted advisor, Futures thinking, Economic policy Seven takeaways Curiosity and independent research drive DJ Peterson’s approach to global advisory. Business leaders benefit from understanding political and social factors affecting their operations. The ability to offer independent advice is essential for executives who feel isolated at the top. Global CEOs require real-time, context-driven viewpoints for impactful decision-making. A trusted advisor challenges and organizes ideas, boosting leaders' confidence and storytelling. Navigating political and economic shifts requires broad horizons and scenario planning. Preparing for the future means continually expanding one's perspective and welcoming robust challenges.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Rutger Van Faassen (00:01.383) Hello and welcome to another episode of Banking on Information. Today, my guest is DJ Peterson, who is president of Longview Global Advisors. Welcome to the podcast, DJ.
DJ Peterson (00:14.776) Thanks, Rutger, great to be with you. Rutger Van Faassen (00:17.661) Now, I ask the same question every time, so I'm gonna ask it to you too.
DJ, why do you do what you do? DJ Peterson (00:26.062) Well, at core, I'm a political scientist, and I'm curious about the world. So I've always wanted to have an independent view of what is going on in the world and why.
So for instance, I was in college in the early 80s, the depths of the Cold War. There was all this stuff going on with the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan was in office in the United States. And I was thinking about, where did I want to go to study abroad?
And people were going to France and England and Italy. And I saw this poster about the Soviet Union. And I'm like, I want to go there. I want to understand the Soviet Union.
I want to have my own independent view. So I learned Russian and went and studied in Moscow, one of a handful of American students that could actually go to the Soviet Union and study. And what I learned was, by being there was, It wasn't the greatest power in the world. wasn't that, you know, the economy was crumbling.
And also people were like Americans in many ways and getting on with their lives. So this idea of just forming my own independent view, objective, that is based in facts and research and knowledge. I'm a researcher. I love to dig into the data.
And then bring that to clients. And I typically work with CEOs and presidents of global firms who have to understand the world. And they often don't have the time. And I service their brain.
And They come to me with great questions. I'm going to France. I'm meeting the president of France. I'm speaking on innovation.
What do I need to know? I'm going to Russia. I'm meeting the president of China. I'm going to be in a room with CEOs.
What should I say? So really just great questions that are also in a way very personal. And I just love digging in to this connection between the personal, the business, and the world. just, every day I wake up and I have a new question, a new challenge to address.
DJ Peterson (02:50.456) whether it's from a client or whether it's from a global leader. Rutger Van Faassen (02:54.737) Yeah.
So your why is actually why you are curious about why that's very, that's very interesting. Right. DJ Peterson (02:58.798) Thank you for saying that.
You're the first person to actually phrased it that way. But yes, that is really my core. I love it. I love it.
Rutger Van Faassen (03:09.713) Yeah. You ask a lot of why questions and then help other people answer those questions. So what does that look like when you talk to people that you talk to the people you work with?
So you help them answer questions, but explain a little bit more how that works. DJ Peterson (03:25.078) Yes, so first of all, my clients in financial services, they tend to travel the world. They have clients all over the world.
They're meeting with regulators around the world. They're meeting with their people around the world. They're meeting with policymakers and political leaders. They're speaking at Davos, at conferences.
They're on CNBC. They're being interviewed. And they're always being asked, well, What's your point of view on the government change, the collapse of the government in France, last week, the resignation of the prime minister in Japan? If you go to Japan and you're a business leader, the Japanese business community is going to ask you, what do you think about the United States?
Help us understand the United States. What's your point of view on US-China relations? What's your point of view on South Korea? the Pacific region.
And what business leaders are typically trained to do is talk about the business. They've got PR teams that give them, know, help them get on the media. They get in front of the media. They help them hammer the questions about the company.
But oftentimes we work with leaders who are curious, who are interested, who want to be seen not just as a leader you know, of a spreadsheet or quarterly report, but a leader of a global business. And so I've had one client say, I'm their brain. I've had another one call me their knowledge coach. So if they're speaking, we help them understand the context in what they're speaking, not just give them talking points, but if you're at Davos next year, what is the gestalt?
What is the mood in the room? What are other people going to be saying? What if you're meeting the Prime Minister of India? You can say you're the best company in the world and you've got the best products, but Prime Minister Modi wants to know what you're going to do for India and what are you going to do for his policy agenda?
Innovation, employing people in small towns and his infrastructure build out. What are you going to bring to India? And that requires a DJ Peterson (05:51.618) bigger view.
So I say we help executives talk about the world, not just the business. And it can be travel or media related or events related. Rutger Van Faassen (06:01.766) Yeah, now that sounds sounds very, very interesting and very inspiring, right, to talk to all these heads of industry about how they should talk to other people about global global issues.
Now, when that goes well, what's the feedback that they give you? Once they've spoken to you, you've coached them, you've had a conversation, they actually go off and meet with a president or another dignitary, and then they come back and it went well. What did they say to you? DJ Peterson (06:12.
982) Yes. DJ Peterson (06:28.075) Well, they connected. They actually had a positive impact, and a positive impact that, again, just goes beyond making a good business pitch.
If you think about some of the top leaders in finance and banking, they have a broader view, and they're able to connect and really shape the world. So it's closing deals, but at a much higher level. It's also about, frankly, avoiding mistakes. Don't talk about this.
Avoid this issue. This was years ago, but I had a CEO client who had us sit down with President Putin. And he was going to talk about the company's diversity agenda. And I'm like, do not talk about that with Putin.
He does not want to hear about diversity. He said, thank you very much for telling me that. A lot of times in a company, especially a big company, CEOs are up there at the top by themselves. They don't have people coaching them or challenging them.
I have one client as a CEO, and he just wants to get on the phone and trial his ideas. He says, I'm seeing this, I'm seeing that. And he has nobody in the firm to really test these ideas or anybody to challenge him. And so he just wants to talk and he's like, did I get this right?
Did I get this right? So another example, have a client financial services and real estate. He's seeing transactions all the time. He's seeing interesting trends in media, in sports, in urban development, in back to work issues.
And he wasn't able to really, he just didn't have the ability, the time or the people to help him put together. And so he would just sit down with me for an hour every month and I'd say, what are you seeing? What's capturing your attention? And he would just go on and then I would bring in research and data, including from his own firm that backed this up, outside data, and we created a blog post.
DJ Peterson (08:48.499) And that really elevated his brand, which also elevated the brand of the company. It also served like he could then do a speaking event. He could just rattle off.
His whole thinking was structured. And he had the confidence to talk about these bigger issues when he was speaking to the media or speaking in public or speaking in front of his own people in the firm. And it just became for him much more natural, and he was just confident that he could take all these anecdotes and put it together and tell a really powerful story. And he called me his brain.
He said nobody else could do this in the firm for him. Rutger Van Faassen (09:26.524) Yeah. There you go.
Yeah. So you're a brain to your clients, you're a sparring partner, you help them what to say and what not to say. That sounds really helpful. And I could see that it could be quite lonely at the top, right?
That there aren't a lot of people that they can have that conversation with. So great to hear that you do that. DJ Peterson (09:42.414) Yeah, yeah.
I was trained at the Rand Corporation. And the Rand Corporation was the original think tank. The firm was data-driven, independent, and objective. And I feel like I bring those skills now as kind of like a private or personal think tank to business leaders.
Rutger Van Faassen (10:02.362) Yeah. No, that is amazing. Now I like to do this thing called futures thinking and who better to do this with?
I'm quite excited about this. So futures thinking, we don't know what the future is going to bring. We don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow, but we can think about what a possible future could look like. in the exercise, we always try to sort of say, what could a road look like 10 years from now?
So I'd love to hear your thoughts on what could a possible future look like. DJ Peterson (10:07.713) Yes. DJ Peterson (10:30.
207) OK, so again, one of the things I do is I like to of frame things. And then you can take the information and run with it. And what I'm going to say is you can't think out 10 years. I am sorry.
In this world, in my world of politics, society, economics, technology, when I see 10-year forecasts, I'm just like, it's not useful. It's not helpful. And I'll tell you why. Rutger Van Faassen (10:35.
345) Mm-hmm. DJ Peterson (11:00.501) In my world, right, in research, analysis, data, you've got AI. And Our business is changing so fast.
And what I do, I can't even tell you how people like me, researchers, are going to be working in two to three years. I can give you some ideas, and there are ideas out there. But I think right now, a two to three year horizon is realistic. I'll give you another reason why.
Rutger Van Faassen (11:04.838) Yep. Yep. DJ Peterson (11:30.
519) We have Donald Trump in office. He's got a three plus year horizon. He is so changing the business environment, the economic environment, the social environment, the political environment in the United States, let alone with the rest of the world. And so right now, what I am focused on and what I see my clients needing is really like help us with the now.
and then a few years out. So to answer your question, think, first of all, AI really is going to change radically. And it's not just this issue of augmenting. Right now, AI, with me and my team, we use it to really speed up our work.
OK, and that's the big debate. Is it an augmenter? Or is it actually transformational? And I would argue, certainly in 10 years, I'm probably going to be a bot.
And you're going to have a rich conversation with a machine. So I can't even possibly imagine what my business looks like other than talking to a machine. Just imagine I'm an avatar. It's very much Star Trek, and you're talking to the computer and you're having a very human connection.
So that's one. The second is, which I think is the same today, is this idea of information overload. What data can you trust? That you're going to need help sifting.
that you're going to steal the information piece Because of the proliferation of AI and technology and data and literally words. You're still going to need the ability like a trusted advisor. Now whether that's a human or a machine, we'll see. But certainly in the next two to three years, really shaping an opinion around the world, around data, having somebody you can trust, I think is going to be really important.
One of the things I'm seeing right now, and I think this is very important for banking, is that economic thinking. DJ Peterson (13:57.077) mainstream economic thinking around inflation, around unemployment, or employment, has been really off base, certainly since the pandemic. Economists have been constantly getting it wrong.
At the same time, you have Donald Trump and other populists really challenging economic kind of you know, the basis of kind of core fundamental economics, market economics. So you see this around the Fed, like, let's change the rules and we'll see what happens with the economy. So I think really understanding the impact of politics on economics and actually things that are very, very, you know, lack of a better word, off base or, you know, fake news. Really navigating that is going to be so important in the coming two to three years.
I can't even tell you what the information environment is going to be like in 10 years. Rutger Van Faassen (14:59.996) All right, right. Now, given that future that you see us going to, what can we do today to get ready for that?
How do we get ready for that possible future? DJ Peterson (15:14.144) Great question. So one is, think, is literally to open your mind.
And I think part of this is expanding your horizon of data points. So again, I go back to the political. You can't understand the US economy and the trajectory of the US economy and where it's going if you really don't understand the political pressures or the drivers on the system. All right, again, this gets to very core institutions like Fed policy or data collection, right, in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But it also gets to things like the role of Congress in setting tariffs and setting economic policy. right? We're going down a track which is very different from the past. What are the role of institutions such as the World Trade Organization, or if you're in the health arena, the World Health Organization or the FDA, you really have to understand the policy environment to understand where your business is going or where the market is going.
So I say expand the horizon. I would also include things like social trends. One of the things that is so driving the political environment in the United States. Obviously, one is social media polarization.
We've heard about that. But a lot of that is also economic inequality and the grassroots. And businesses and business leaders can be floating above in the cloud, so to speak, and thinking, you know, this was the technology arena. Tech companies thought they could just be in the cloud and be stateless.
And it's like, no. Rutger Van Faassen (16:44.774) Yep. Yep.
Rutger Van Faassen (16:48.774) Mm-hmm. Yeah. DJ Peterson (17:06.
284) China has a, the government in Beijing has a very strong opinion about what you can and can't do. That's happening now in the United States, it's certainly happening in Europe. So understanding the politics of your business, understanding the social drivers and of course understanding the technology and innovation drivers. That's what I would suggest.
Broaden your horizon, get a wider point of view. Broader scenarios, more extremes. right? Rutger Van Faassen (17:30.
022) Yeah. Right. DJ Peterson (17:32.692) more extreme scenarios.
Put that into your thinking and your planning. Rutger Van Faassen (17:34.416) Yeah. Yeah.
So broaden your horizon, make sure that you have different data sets and potentially have a trusted advisor that you can spar with, right? That can actually help you think through that. Yeah. DJ Peterson (17:44.
224) Yes, challenge you. You know, a good board does this. A good board of directors does this. But a lot of boards don't.
They're team players. And to have your own independent, what you might call kitchen cabinet, advisors that you can call or talk to in an informal private basis to shape kind of your understanding of the world. And be curious. And ask the why.
Ask the why, Rutger. Rutger Van Faassen (17:53.372) All right. Yep.
Rutger Van Faassen (18:08.476) That's That's it. That's it. And that's probably the perfect place to wrap this up on.
Thank you very much, DJ, for being on the podcast. DJ Peterson (18:12.426) goes back to that important question. DJ Peterson (18:21.
982) I enjoy it and I enjoy your work, Rutger Thank you very much. Rutger Van Faassen (18:25.447) Perfect. And until next time, choose to be curious.
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