Buckingham is one of the world’s foremost researchers on human performance. He is a former senior vice president at Gallup turned New York Times–best-selling author, having written First, Break All the Rules. In his new book, he draws on decades of research to show that the relationship between experiences and outcomes is not linear—only experiences so positive that people describe them as “love” actually drive loyalty, productivity, and advocacy.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses why love is categorically different from engagement, the five feelings that make up a loving experience, three disciplines leaders can use to design love into their organizations, and why common practices like outsourcing and large spans of control are fundamentally unloving.

Key topics discussed:

01:16 | Why love is categorically different from engagement or satisfaction

04:43 | The nonlinear relationship between experiences and outcomes

08:24 | How experiences drive behaviors that drive outcomes

12:34 | Designing love in: the five feelings and three disciplines

16:00 | Can love be designed into products, not just experiences?

19:13 | The three disciplines: walk the stage, equip the people, sequence the scenes

27:39 | Spans of control and the one-to-12 rule

30:17 | The limits of artificial experience–making

Additional inspirations from Marcus Buckingham:

• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (Gallup Press, 2016)

Pine is an internationally acclaimed author, known for having coined the term “experience economy” in the 1990s. He works as a speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 companies. In his new book, he suggests that most companies compete by improving what they sell, while missing what customers actually want: to become different people.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, Pine discusses the evolution of economic value creation, the North Star for transformation businesses, and how to scale from one to many transformation journeys.

Key topics discussed:

01:01 | The evolution of economic value creation

03:35 | How to get into the transformation business

10:35 | The North Star for transformation businesses

15:07 | Scaling beyond individual transformation journeys

16:46 | Different types of transformation journeys

20:37 | Making transformations last

24:12 | Taking the first step toward the transformation economy

Additional inspirations from B. Joseph Pine II:

1. The Experience Economy, With a New Preface by the Authors: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money, co-authored by James H. Gilmore (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019)

Prasad is a professor of Trade Policy and Economics at Cornell University, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. In his new book, he explores how globalization, international institutions, the rise of “middle power” countries, and technological innovations had the potential to promote shared prosperity—but instead are driving global instability.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the breakdown of the rule-based system, implications for trade policy in Europe and elsewhere, and the role AI plays in driving global instability.

Key topics discussed:

01:20 | The doom loop driving global instability

06:41 | The positive aspects of globalization and middle powers

12:02 | Implications for European trade policy

15:51 | The breakdown of the rule-based system

18:36 | The role of AI and other technologies in the doom loop

23:57 | Reasons for remaining optimistic

Additional inspirations from Eswar Prasad:

1. The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance (Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2023)

Gul is a writer and leading technology thinker, having served as the Lead for the Digital Transformation of Industries at the World Economic Forum. His book, which was nominated as a Financial Times best business book of 2025, he discusses why the United States remains at the world’s technological frontier, with only China being a true challenger.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, Global Leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he talks about how innovation ecosystems are converging, the role of statecraft in fostering innovation ecosystems, and the main forces that will shift the global innovation landscape in the coming decade.

Key topics discussed:

01:22 | Attributes of successful innovation ecosystems

06:57 | US vs. China talent pool

10:26 | What China gets right about innovation

13:20 | Why Europe lags behind on innovation

18:54 | The role of intentional statecraft in fostering innovation

23:31 | The convergence of innovation ecosystems around the globe

26:34 | Implications for businesses

28:56 | How the global innovation landscape will evolve in the next decade

Daniel Coyle is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, in which he explores how people and groups grow, perform, and flourish. He combines immersive field reporting with behavioral science to create practical frameworks for building skill, culture, and meaningful connection.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses his definition of flourishing, how to find moments of stillness in our turbulent world, and how leaders can balance efficiency with the disorder that fosters creativity.

Key topics discussed:

01:03 | The definition of flourishing

09:13 | Finding moments of reflection and stillness

16:41 | Crisis as a trigger for flourishing

19:52 | Messiness and creativity

26:39 | Balancing disorder and efficiency

29:40 | A starting point for leaders

Additional inspirations from Daniel Coyle:

1. The Culture Playbook: 60 Highly Effective Actions to Help Your Group Succeed (Random House Audio, 2022)
2. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (Bantam, 2018)
3. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. (Bantam, 2009)

Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. He codirects both the Reimagining the Economy Program at Harvard and the Economics for Inclusive Prosperity network.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the trilemma between democracy, prosperity, and sustainability, how hyper-globalization contributed to this struggle, and his proposed framework for resolving it.

Key topics discussed:

01:06 | The trilemma of democracy, prosperity, and sustainability

03:50 | The shortcomings of hyper-globalization

10:33 | Why manufacturing is no longer an escape from poverty

14:47 | Services as drivers of development

18:33 | The new framework of productivism

23:25 | The power of unilateral climate actions

27:26 | Implications for business leaders

Additional inspirations from Dani Rodrik:

1. Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy (Princeton University Press, 2017)
2. Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015)

Wales is the founder of Wikipedia. In his new book, he distills two decades of lessons from building one of the world’s most trusted collaborative projects. He argues that trust isn’t a soft virtue but a practical system—a set of design principles that allow people and organizations to cooperate effectively, solve problems honestly, and endure.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses whether Wikipedia could still be created today, how it can retain its trusted status in an age of polarization, and what we can learn from Wikipedia to rebuild trust within society.

Key topics discussed: 

01:02 | How to scale interpersonal trust

04:02 | The importance of assuming good faith

07:13 | Could Wikipedia still be created today?

09:06 | How Wikipedia can retain its trusted status in an age of polarization

10:30 | The impact of AI on trust

15:40 | How institutions can reclaim lost trust

18:01 | Reasons to remain optimistic about rebuilding societal trust

Gulati, a professor at Harvard Business School, is a leading organizational sociologist and management scholar. In his new book, he explores the science and psychology of courage—showing that bravery is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the difference between uncertainty and risk, strategies for building courage at the individual and corporate level, and why we shouldn’t be worried about boldness leading to excessive risk-taking.

Key topics discussed:

00:58 | The definition of courage

05:11 | Boldness and excessive risk-taking

06:34 | Strategies for building courage as an individual

14:51 | The power of sense-making

18:16 | Risk management systems

21:13 | How to build a culture of courage

31:40 | One thing executives should do differently

Additional inspirations from Ranjay Gulati:

• Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies (Harper Business, 2022)

Bird is the Wall Street editor at The Economist, where he leads coverage across the American financial industry and cohosts the magazine’s flagship podcast Money Talks. In his new book, he presents a bold new framework explaining how land exerts influence over the modern world, shaping housing, banking, and geopolitics.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, Bird discusses the history of land usage and ownership, how land is related to modern economic crises, and different governance models for land.

Key topics discussed: 

01:01 | What makes land unique, and why is it a trap?

04:58 | The history of land ownership

11:38 | The relation between land and economic crises

16:00 | The role of “superstar cities”

19:08 | How land could be governed

23:36 | Business implications of land

McKeown is a leading strategy thinker, coach to Fortune 100 companies, and an award-winning author. In his new book, he reveals how figures as different as Frida Kahlo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Simone Biles all relied on the same pattern of thinking to adapt to radically changing circumstances.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the difference between adaptability and resilience, and how to scale adaptability from one person to a team to an entire organization.

Key topics discussed: 

01:14 | The power of adaptive intelligence

03:03 | Adaptability vs. resilience

05:15 | The RUN loop: Recognize, understand, necessary action

09:08 | How to help others become more adaptable

11:57 | How to make your company more adaptable

16:19 | Applying the loop logic to innovation

23:56 | Real life stories of adaptability

29:23 | Bringing adaptability to life with illustrations

Additional inspirations from Max McKeown:

• The Strategy Book: How to Think and Act Strategically to Deliver Outstanding Results (FT Publishing International, 2024)

Cassidy is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. His new book blends biography, history, and economic analysis to reveal the roots of urgent debates the business world and society face today, as AI, climate change, and inequality are forcing us to reexamine the economic system.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, Cassidy discusses the main historical themes of capitalism critique, why the system continues to endure, how it is being, and what its future may be in the current context of assaults on the system from both the political left and right.

Key topics discussed: 

01:44 | The main themes of capitalism critique

04:17 | Why capitalism endures

09:15 | The paradox of state capitalism

14:21 | The misunderstood Luddites

19:09 | Trade tensions and global economic asymmetry

24:45 | The role of unpaid domestic labor in driving the capitalist system

28:50 | The most surprising insights in writing the book

31:33 | The future of capitalism

Additional inspirations from John Cassidy:

• Dot.Con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (Harper, 2022)
• How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities (Picador, 2010)

Wright is a neuroscientist who researches the brain, technology, and security at University College London; Georgetown University; and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, where he also advises the Pentagon. In his new book, he explores how each region of the brain is linked to a certain dimension of conflict—explaining why war seems inevitable, yet also why peace is possible.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses why neuroscience is a powerful lens to understand conflict, how it helps military leaders make decisions, and why we need to give AI a prefrontal cortex to ensure it makes wise decisions in conflict situations.

Key topics discussed: 

01:27 | Neuroscience as a lens to understand conflict

04:10 | The role of prediction error in the psychology of war

07:29 | The clash between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex

12:46 | How AI and its interaction with humans may influence the future of conflict

18:55 | How neuroscience insights help military leaders make decisions

22:13 | Training political and business leaders based on neuroscience insights

Spears and Geruso are both professors at the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on economic demography and development economics. In their new book, they explore the trend of falling birth rates, how it threatens human progress, and what actions may reverse this trend.

In their conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss projections for global depopulation, why advances in AI and robotics will not replace humans, why fewer people may not be good for the planet, and what the implications of all this are for business leaders.

Key topics discussed:

01:06 | Projected global population levels

06:11 | The impact of depopulation

11:00 | The potential for AI and robotics to replace humans

17:00 | The environmental implications of depopulation

21:24 | Potential solutions to falling birth rates

26:02 | Implications for business leaders

28:26 | Reasons to remain hopeful

Additional inspirations from Dean Spears:

• Air: Pollution, Climate Change and India's Choice Between Policy and Pretence (Harper Collins Publishers India, 2019)
• Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development and the Costs of Caste, co-authored by Diane Coffey (Harper Collins Publishers India, 2017)

Frey is the associate professor of AI & Work at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Future of Work program. In his new book, he explores how technological progress has unfolded throughout history, from the Qin Dynasty to Silicon Valley. He argues that progress is always fragile, resting on achieving a delicate balance between decentralized innovation and centralized scaling of new technologies.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses how to achieve institutional flexibility, the hurdles we must overcome to turn AI into progress, and what lessons history holds for business leaders looking to navigate the conundrum of innovating versus scaling.

Key topics discussed: 

01:15 | The fragility of progress

05:35 | The role of decentralization and centralization

11:24 | How to achieve institutional flexibility

17:29 | The hurdles to overcome for turning AI into progress

21:04 | How business leaders can navigate the conundrum of innovating vs. scaling

25:00 | Why progress might not yet end

Additional inspirations from Carl Benedikt Frey:

• The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation (Princeton University Press, 2019)

Stuart is the Leo Helzel Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. In his new book, he explores how social status shapes everything—from who we trust and what we value, to which ideas and innovations change the world and who gets credit for their success.

In his conversation with Adam Job, Senior Director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the cumulative effects of social status, whereby small initial differences can snowball into outsize effects. He also outlines why the social status system persists despite a prevailing distrust in elites—and how AI may yet be poised to change the system.

Key topics discussed: 

01:44 | The importance of social status

05:15 | The role of anointment in modern times

13:23 | The cumulative effects of social status

19:18 | Why the social status system persists

21:23 | How AI may change the role of social status

24:45 | The downsides of high social status, and how to deal with them

Choudary is the founder and CEO of Platformation Labs and a senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. An expert on AI, platforms, and the economics of big tech, he has sold more than half a million books on these topics. In his latest work, he explores how new forms of coordination—rather than automation and augmentation—are the true superpower of AI.

In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses how AI will supercharge coordination, move us towards a more modular, on-demand economy, and how companies can account for all of this in their strategies.

Key topics discussed: 

01:31 | How AI will impact jobs

04:38 | Assessing the value of jobs

09:25 | AI’s power to supercharge coordination

14:23 | Unlocking “coordination without consensus”

19:00 | Moving towards a modular, on-demand economy

25:56 | Crafting a strategy for the age of AI

Additional inspirations from Sangeet Choudary:

• Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You, co-authored by Geoffrey G. Parker and Marshall W. Van Alstyne (W. W. Norton & Company, 2016)
• Platform Scale: How an Emerging Business Model Helps Startups Build Large Empires with Minimum Investment (Platform Thinking Labs, 2015)

Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. In his new book, he traces the arc from World War I to today’s rivalries between the United States and China, and between NATO and Russia.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses why the 20th and 21st centuries are the Eurasian (rather than the American) Era, how today’s rivalries among great powers differ from those of the past, and what global business must pay attention to in navigating current geopolitical tensions.

Key topics discussed: 

01:28 | The 20th and 21st centuries as the Eurasian era

05:32 | The “historic achievement” of the Cold War

08:34 | How today’s rivalries among great powers are different

13:14 | The future of Eurasia

15:59 | How global businesses can operate in a polarized geopolitical world

20:13 | Reasons to be optimistic vs. pessimistic about the future

Additional inspirations from Hal Brands:

• Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, co-authored by Michael Beckley (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022)
• The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order, co-authored by Charles Edel (Yale University Press, 2019)
• The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today (Yale University Press, 2019)
• What Good Is Grand Strategy?: Power and Purpose in American Statecraft from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush (Cornell University Press, 2014)

Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She is also the director of the Productivity Institute, a fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and a member of the UK’s Competition Commission. Drawing on her deep expertise, she proposes an alternative framework for measuring productivity that enables better policymaking.

In her conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses the shortcomings of GDP—such as a lack of accounting for immaterial goods or natural capital, alternative measures of progress, and how corporate leaders should rethink their approach to measurement.

Key topics discussed: 

01:32 | The shortcomings of GDP as a measure of productivity

09:14 | The issues of inflated GDP statements

11:12 | Alternative measures of productivity and progress

13:47 | A time-based approach to measuring productivity

16:39 | How productivity measurement works in practice

18:57 | Implications for corporate leaders

Additional inspirations from Diane Coyle:

• Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be (Princeton University Press, 2021)
• GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History (Princeton University Press, 2015)
• The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters (Princeton University Press, 2009)
• Sex, Drugs and Economics: An Unconventional Intro to Economics (Texere, 2002)

Fishman is a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and an adjunct professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia. Previously, he served at the US State Department, leading work on economic sanctions. In his new book, he examines how governments—particularly the US’s—are increasingly using financial tools, regulatory measures, and targeted sanctions to shape international relations, secure strategic advantages, and resolve conflicts.

In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the history of sanctions, how the US came to wield them so powerfully, how diplomatic back channels are navigated in applying them—and what is important for making them effective in enforcing the desired governance changes.

Key topics discussed: 

02:05 | The history of chokepoints and US dominance over them

08:45 | The role of businesses in economic diplomacy

12:17 | Navigating diplomatic back channels

15:32 | The role of technology and export controls

19:45 | Oil price caps as an innovation in sanctions design

23:10 | The effectiveness of sanctions in enforcing governance changes

27:44 | On the origins of this book

Additional inspirations from Edward Fishman:

• Foreign Affairs: How Trump Could Dethrone the Dollar (April 8, 2025)

Evers is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, where he has edited bestselling and award-winning books on high performance, creativity, innovation, digital disruption, marketing, and strategy.

In discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, they cover the scale and longevity of Swift's success, the strategic moves and innovations that have driven her rise and staying power, her ability to reinvent herself and connect with fans in new ways, and lessons for strategists and companies.

Weinzierl is the Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and founder of the Economics of Space project at HBS. Rosseau is an Orbital Launch strategy manager at the American space technology company Blue Origin. Together, they provide in-depth academic and practitioner perspectives on the space economy.

In their conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss the central governance vs. market-driven models of the space economy, the geopolitics of space, and whether the first trillionaire will be an asteroid miner.

Key topics discussed: 

02:03 | The three phases of the space economy

05:28 | Central governance vs. market-driven model of the space economy

08:23 | Geopolitics of space

11:33 | The market structure of the space economy (on Earth)

17:14 | Space junk

21:03 | Asteroid mining

23:47 | How to make space interesting again

One of the UK’s leading economists, Kay is a fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. He was the first dean of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and has held chairs at London Business School, the University of Oxford, and the London School of Economics and director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Kay discusses the essence of the modern corporation, the changing relationship of capital and labour, the gap between the our historic concept of the corporation and the current reality and the forces that have and will further shape the corporation including sustainability, geopolitics, and technology.

Key topics discussed: 

01:56 | The essence of a 21st century corporation

05:53 | The changing roles of workers and capital

12:26 | Limits to corporate scale

16:00 | Forces that will shape the future of corporations sustainability, geopolitics, technology

21:50 | The impact of AI on the nature of the corporation

24:12 | Implications for managers

Additional inspirations from John Kay:

• Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making Beyond the Numbers (W.W. Norton & Company, 2020)
• The Long and the Short of It: A guide to finance and investment for normally intelligent people who aren’t in the industry (IPS - Profile Books, 2016)
• Other People's Money: The Real Business of Finance (PublicAffairs, 2015)
• Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly (Profile Books GB, 2011)

A renowned expert on innovation, entrepreneurship, and finance, Bhidé is a professor of Health Policy at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, as well as a professor emeritus of Business at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Bhidé discusses the important distinction between repeated and unique events, the relationship between uncertainty and imagination, how corporations can use persuasive narratives and social routes to navigate the future, and whether AI will help or hinder these practices.

Key topics discussed:

01:16 | The definition of uncertainty

04:49 | The relation between uncertainty and imagination

09:32 | The power of corporate routines

15:57 | The changing nature of uncertainty

17:25 | How AI impacts uncertainty

21:02 | Corporate implications

22:38 | Implications for business education

Additional inspirations from Amar Bhidé:

• A Call for Judgment: Sensible Finance for a Dynamic Economy (Oxford University Press, 2010)
• The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World (Princeton University Press, 2008)
• The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses (Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Flourishing in an Uncertain World: How Entrepreneurs Overcome Doubts and Disagreements (The Kansas City Public Library Lecture, 2025)

Lev, professor emeritus of Accounting and Finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business and Gu, professor of Accounting and Law at the State University of New York, have analyzed more than 40,000 acquisitions over the past four decades. This has not only allowed them to understand the reasons why 75% of deals fail but also to develop a scorecard that can help decision-makers assess the likelihood of acquisition success ex ante.

In their conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Lev and Gu discuss how to measure acquisition success, how to curb overconfidence on the side of the acquirer, and key lessons for CEOs seeking inorganic growth.

Key topics discussed:

[02:45] How mergers and acquisitions have changed

[05:00] Judging the success or failure of acquisitions

[08:16] Drivers of acquisition failure

[14:41] Patterns of successful acquisitions

[17:27] Overconfidence and its causes

[19:51] Managerial implications

Matz is the David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, where she also serves as co-director of the Center for Advanced Technology and Human Performance. Using her background in psychology and computer science, Matz investigates the intricate connections between our digital and real lives and how these are shaped by technology.

In her conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Matz discusses the power of psychological profiling, highlights the harms as well as benefits of the personalization it enables, and outlines implications for businesses and regulators, including the possibility of entirely new business models.

Key topics discussed: 

[01:10] Power of psychological profiling

[05:05] Scale and impact of big data–based psychological profiling

[09:06] Benefits and harms of personalization

[16:05] Challenges of regulating profiling and personalization

[17:57] Ramifications of the AI-driven content revolution

[23:20] Implications for businesses

[28:37] How to manage your data footprint

Additional inspirations from Sandra Matz: 

• Psychological Targeting: What Your Digital Footprints Reveal About You (TED Talk, 2019)

Davies is an economist, writer, and former investment banker known for his insightful analysis of finance, corporate governance, and decision-making systems. He has written extensively on topics such as financial fraud, accountability in organizations, and the intersections of economics and management. His latest book combines cybernetics theory and real-world examples to explain how decisions are increasingly made not by accountable individuals, but by systems.

In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Davies describes the pathologies of failing decision-making systems, explains why we tend not to learn from past mistakes, and outlines why he worries that AI might not improve our capability to make decisions unless we carefully redesign decision systems to tap its potential.

Key topics discussed: 

01:03 | Unintended outcomes generated by decision-making systems

07:08 | What we can learn from the theory of cybernetics

09:49 | Pathologies of failing information systems

11:49 | Why we make the same mistakes again and again

14:41 | How AI may impact decision-making

16:39 | Steps toward improving our decision-making systems

Additional inspirations from Dan Davies:

• The Brompton: Engineering for Change, co-authored by William Butler-Adams (The Experiment, 2022)
• Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World (Scribner, 2021)
• Back of Mind (Substack)

Kapoor was included in TIME’s inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in AI. As a researcher at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy, he examines the societal impacts of AI, with a focus on reproducibility, transparency, and accountability in AI systems. In his new book, he cuts through the hype to help readers discriminate between legitimate and bogus claims for AI technologies and applications.

In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chair of the BCG Henderson Institute, Kapoor discusses historical patterns of technology hype, differentiates between the powers and limitations of predictive versus generative AI, and outlines how managers can balance healthy skepticism with embracing the potential of new technologies.

Key topics discussed: 

01:05 | Examples of AI “snake oil”

04:42 | Historical patterns of technology hypeand how AI is different

07:26 | Capabilities and exaggerations of predictive AI

11:42 | Powers and limitations of generative AI

17:11 | Drivers of inflated expectations

20:18 | Implications for regulation

23:26 | How managers can balance scepticism and embracing new tech

24:58 | Future of AI research

Additional inspirations from Sayash Kapoor:

• AI Snake Oil (Substack)
• A Checklist of Eighteen Pitfalls in AI Journalism (UNESCO article, 2022)

Ramanna, a professor of Business and Public Policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, specializes in business-government relations and corporate accountability.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Ramanna discusses the three causes of outrage (fear of the future, past injustices, and ideologies of othering), common instincts that mislead leaders, and his five-step framework for navigating the age of outrage.

Key topics discussed: 

01:08 | Managing in the age of outrage

4:21 | Three causes of outrage: fear of the future, past injustices, and ideologies of othering

5:48 | The five-step framework for navigating the age of outrage

19:04 | Instincts which mislead companies into taking the wrong stance or making the wrong analysis

20:45 | The impact of “temperate leadership” and leadership attributes

25:22 | Key factors impacting the age of outrage

Additional inspirations from Karthik Ramanna:

• Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology, and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy (The University of Chicago Press, 2015)

Damodaran is a professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Known as “the Dean of Valuation,” he has published extensively in academic journals, written many books for students and practitioners, and remains the world’s foremost expert on the subject of corporate valuation. In his latest book, he outlines how corporations age, describes the characteristics of each stage of their life cycle, and discusses implications for managers and investors.

In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Damodaran outlines how to determine where in the life cycle your company is at, what leadership skills and behaviors are required at each stage, and how the distribution of life cycle stages has changed over recent decades.

Key topics discussed: 

00:56 | The stages of the corporate life cycle

02:21 | How to determine your stage in the life cycle

03:36 | The importance of acting your age

10:06 | Balancing capital allocation across the portfolio

11:27 | Leadership skills for different stages in the life cycle

16:56 | Creating value at any stage of the life cycle

20:21 | How the distribution of life cycle “shapes” is changing

22:58 | The art of communicating complex ideas in simple ways

Additional inspirations from Aswath Damodaran:

• Applied Corporate Finance (Wiley, 2014)
• Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset (Wiley, 2012)
• Musings on Markets  (Blog)

Rossman was previously an executive at Amazon, responsible for launching their Marketplace business. Now, he is the managing partner of Rossman Partners, advising leading enterprises on large-scale change, and author of the best-selling books The Amazon Way and Think Like Amazon. In his latest book, he examines why high-stakes change efforts fail and how to frame and manage them more effectively. Companies need to think in terms of “big bets,” which will require executives to adopt the right mindset, tactical steps, and leadership habits.

In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Rossman explains why we need to work in prose, not in PowerPoint; how to think big, while betting small; and how to make the critical decisions to “continue, pivot, or kill” a project.

Key topics discussed: 

01:19 | What makes a “big bet”

04:10 | Thinking in outcomes

06:49 | Prose over PowerPoint

12:51 | Thinking big, but betting small

16:21 | Thinking in systems

19:21 | How to decide to “continue, pivot, or kill” – and avoid confusion

22:45 | Where “big bet” thinking can be applied

Additional inspirations from John Rossman:

• The Amazon Way: Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles (Clyde Hill Publishing, 2021)
• Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader (McGraw Hill, 2019)

Jackson, an emeritus professor of management systems and former dean of the University of Hull Business School, has also served as president of several prominent systems thinking organizations, including the UK Systems Society, the International Federation for Systems Research, and the International Society for the Systems Sciences. His most significant contribution to the field is his development of Critical Systems Thinking (CST), which emphasizes the combined use of different systems approaches to deal with the complexity that leaders face.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Jackson introduces the EPIC process (Explore, Produce, Intervene, and Check), a four-stage, sequential framework to help leaders deploy systems methodologies. Their discussion includes how different systems perspectives can be combined, how theory informs interventions, how organizations are embracing system thinking, barriers to adoption, and the relevance of systems thinking to today’s business environment.

Key topics discussed:

2:40 | What systems thinking can offer the traditional MBA toolkit

5:20 | Systems thinking in contemporary business scenarios

6:37 | The EPIC process: Explore, Produce, Intervene, and Check

16:52 | Characteristic tools of systems thinking

17:34 | The five lenses of systems thinking

21:54 | Advancing the agenda of systems thinking

Additional inspirations from Michael C. Jackson:

• Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers (John Wiley & Sons, 2023)
• Systems Approaches to Management (Springer, 2000)
• Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity (Wiley, 2019)
• Creative Problem Solving: Total Systems Intervention (Wiley, 1991)

Enter Nick Bostrom, who previously authored the 2014 bestseller Superintelligence about the dangers of AI, and now considers what can go right with AI in his new book Deep Utopia. Bostrom was formerly a professor at Oxford University, and currently principal researcher of the Macrostrategy Research Initiative.

In this episode, he joins Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, Chief Economist of BCG, who is skeptical of AI narratives and thinks technology’s economic impact has long-lagged expectations. They discuss different takes on the likely size and speed of AI’s impact on the macroeconomy, and why they disagree about the prospect of tech-driven mass unemployment. Bostrom also explains key themes from Deep Utopia, including stages of utopia, “shallow and deep” redundancy, implications for policy, as well as the unique rhetorical style of the book.

Key topics discussed: 

01:45 | Is tech jumping ahead or behind schedule?

03:24 | Is Deep Utopia really a book about AI or about philosophy?

04:39 | Technological unemployment: Real or fallacious

10:54 | Taxonomy of utopia

13:59 | What about public policy, such as UBI?

15:47 | Concept of shallow and deep redundancy

18:50 | Concept of “interestingness”

21:07 | Rhetorical style of book

23:29 | AI regulation and policy

Additional inspirations from Nick Bostrom:

• Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Magnani teaches international economics at LUISS University in Rome and Università Cattolica in Milan. Previously, he was a senior research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and worked in investment banking for two decades. In his new book, he discusses the history of internationalization and the benefits that modern globalization has brought—as well as the drawbacks that have become increasingly apparent.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Magnani discusses the causes of the increasing global disconnect—beyond U.S.-China tensions. He also lays out four scenarios for how globalization may play out, as well as practical tips for how executives can prepare for these different futures in a time of deep uncertainty.

Key topics discussed: 

01:19 | The great disconnect

04:13 | The benefits and downsides of modern globalization

07:21 | Future scenarios for globalization

13:28 | What the history of internationalization reveals about where we are heading

15:25 | Implications of AI for globalization

16:33 | How globalization or de-globalization might play out in practice

21:10 | Implications for businesses

Additional inspirations from Marco Magnani:

• Making the Global Economy Work for Everyone: Lessons of Sustainability from the Tech Revolution and the Pandemic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)
• Creating Economic Growth: Lessons for Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)

Carter is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford – also known as the Stanford d.school. Doorley is a Creative Director at the d.school, having previously worked in the film industry for more than a decade.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss how designers, technologists, and corporate leaders can more effectively harness transformative technologies like AI and artificial biology by giving more weight to non-technical factors like emotions, perceptions, imagination, and serendipity.

Key topics discussed: 

01:23 | The problem of runaway design

03:16 | The forces that make technology impact unpredictable

09:17 | The role of emotions in design

11:59 | Why we are not thinking about unpredictability in designing technologies

15:17 | Potential solutions to new design problems

22:22 | Applying these solutions to AI

24:20 | Implications for businesses

Additional inspirations from Scott Doorley: 

• Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration (Wiley, 2011)

Additional inspirations from Carissa Carter:

• The Secret Language of Maps: How to Tell Visual Stories with Data (Ten Speed Press, 2022)

Sunstein has long been at the forefront of behavioral economics. He is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and served as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration. He has authored numerous best sellers, such as Nudge and The World According to Star Wars. In his new book, he explores the roles played by skill, luck, and social processes in the achievement of fame and success—based on recent research on informational cascades, reputation cascades, network effects, and group polarization.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Sunstein discusses how a better understanding of these mechanisms can help businesses make better decisions in marketing, talent management, and innovation - and why the greatest composer of all time may not be J S Bach, but rather Taylor Swift.

Key topics discussed: 

03:18 | How to prove whether or not fame is driven by merit

06:08 | The importance of quality and skill to fame

09:33 | Enduring vs. transient fame

11:36 | The greatest composers of all time: Bach vs. Taylor Swift

14:44 | Social factors driving fame

19:54 | The role of group polarization and network effects

28:48 | Implications for businesses: Marketing, talent, innovation

33:19 | The art of manipulating information cascades

Additional inspirations from Cass Sunstein:

• Thinkers & Ideas: Look Again with Cass Sunstein
• Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There; with Tali Sharot (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2024)
• Nudge; with Richard Thaler (Penguin Books, 2021)
• Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment; with Daniel Kahneman, and Olivier Sibony (Random House Audio, 2021)
• The World According to Star Wars (Dey Street Books, 2016)

Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he also leads the unit for negotiation, organization, and markets. A well known and respected researcher on behavioral economics and well-being, his new book demonstrates the power of small acts—and how a subtle shift of turning habits into rituals can add purpose and pleasure to life.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Norton discusses how we can use rituals deliberately and effectively in our life and work, why it is important that rituals evolve over time, and how COVID changed our rituals as individuals and as teams.

Key topics discussed: 

00:52 | Ritual vs. habit

03:39 | The power (and pitfalls) of rituals

07:08 | Deliberately using rituals (in private life and the workplace)

13:41 | The importance of evolving rituals

18:22 | How COVID changed our rituals

21:20 | How CEOs can harness the power of rituals

Additional inspirations from Michael Norton: 

• Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending co-authored by Elizabeth Dunn (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
• How to Buy Happiness (TED Talk, 2012)

Homkes teaches business strategy at the London Business School, is on the faculty of Duke Corporate Education, and consults major companies on strategy. She has developed a framework for leading through uncertainty based on three principles: setting up the firm for continuity through shocks (survive), making strategic choices for growth as the situation changes (reset), and ensuring implementation of the new business model (thrive).

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Homkes discusses how to thrive under uncertainty and how her framework applies in the context of the AI revolution.

Key topics discussed: 

02:11 | How uncertainty affects strategy

03:40 | The survive, reset, thrive framework

05:20 | How to survive a shock

09:20 | How to reset for a new environment

14:42 | How to execute so you can thrive in the long term

19:12 | The creative vs. competitive aspects of strategy

24:11 | How algorithms and AI will affect strategy and the strategy process

27:49 | Applying this framework in your personal life

Rita McGrath is a professor of management at Columbia Business School, and has been ranked among the top 10 management thinkers globally by Thinkers50 for years. Gary Shteyngart, a professor of writing at Columbia University is also a New York Times bestselling author of science fiction novels. Esther Dyson, founder of Wellville, is an investor, writer, and expert on all things tech, space, and health.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss their complementary perspectives on the future. They also divulge their methods for making predictions, providing valuable hints for how business leaders can use similar approaches to shape their perspectives and strategies.

Key topics discussed: 

02:06 | Revisiting past predictions about the future

05:08 | The digital age

08:16 | Social media and a technology-centred society

12:47 | Methods for sensing the future”

17:23 | Harnessing the power of science fiction

22:31 | Using metaphors

24:41 | Bringing together these future-sensing methods

31:07 | Predictions about what is coming next

Additional inspirations from Rita McGrath, Gary Shteyngart, and Esther Dyson:

• Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen By Rita McGrath(Harper Business, 2019)
• Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel By Gary Shteyngart (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2011)
• Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age By Esther Dyson (Broadway, 1997)

Sunstein has long been at the forefront of behavioral economics. He is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and served as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration. He has authored numerous best sellers, such as Nudge and The World According to Star Wars., In his new book, he explores the effects of habituation—ceasing to notice the familiar.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Sunstein discusses the perils of habituation and how to see the unseen. He also identifies ways that company leaders can strategically avoid habituation to ensure their organizations do not get stuck in mental models that limit adaptability to new trends and challenges.

Key topics discussed: 

01:09 | How habituation works

04:25 | What dishabituation is

08:18 | How to see the unseen

13:51 | How corporations should think about (dis-)habituation

22:08 | Breaking free from a mental model

24:21 | Personal strategies for dishabituation

Additional inspirations from Cass Sunstein:

• Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment; co-authored by Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony (Little Brown Spark, 2021)
• The World According to Star Wars (Dey Street Books, 2016)
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness; co-authored by Richard Thaler (Penguin Books, 2009)

Ramakrishnan leads a group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. For his research on the structure and function of ribosomes, he won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. From 2015 to 2020, he served as president of the Royal Society. In his new book, Ramakrishnan explains the mechanisms of aging and their potential impacts on life expectancy, health span, and lifespan.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Ramakrishnan discusses the likely social, economic, and ethical implications of increasing longevity as well as the specific efforts researchers are making to prolong healthy life—and how close they are to achieving a breakthrough. He shines a light on a set of technologies which could be every bit as impactful as artificial intelligence, which therefore also deserve our attention.

Key topics discussed: 

02:28 | Life expectancy vs. health span vs. maximum lifespan

08:21 | Mechanisms of aging

13:25 | Potential interventions for promoting longevity

18:27 | How close are we to a longevity breakthrough?

24:02 | Societal and ethical implications

28:48 | The art of communicating complex idea

Additional inspirations from Venki Ramakrishnan:

• The Most Promising Ways to Stop Ageing (New Scientist Interview, 2024)
• The Story of Deciphering the Ribosome (The Royal Society Talk, 2020)
• Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome (Basic Books, 2018)

Farmer, a complex systems scientist at the University of Oxford and the Santa Fe Institute, argues that with technological advances in data science and computing, we are now able to apply complex systems thinking to build models that more accurately capture reality and enable us to make better predictions about the economy.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Farmer discusses the limitations of standard models of economics as well as the consequences of such limitations. He proposes an alternative based on complex systems thinking and agent-based modeling—and describes how it can be applied in various fields, including business.

Key topics discussed: 

01:42 | Limitations of the standard model of economics

04:44 | How complex systems thinking works

09:01 | Consequences of using inadequate economic models

12:44 | Agent-based modeling as a powerful alternative

19:02 | Leveraging alternative modeling techniques in business

24:59 | How CEOs can start embracing complexity thinking

Mollick is a professor of management at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. In his new book, he discusses the profound impacts AI will have on business and education, using many examples of AI in action. His book challenges us to utilize AI’s enormous power without losing our human identity, to learn from it without being misled, and to harness its gifts to create a better human future.

Together with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Mollick discusses how to train people to use AI effectively, whether AI will substitute or complement workers, and how businesses can move beyond a short-term efficiency gains perspective to generate value with AI in the long term.

 Key topics discussed: 

02:27 | The four rules for living with AI

09:04 | Educating people to use AI effectively

10:47 | What experiments reveal about where AI adds (and destroys) value at work

12:45 | Substituting (vs. complementing) workers with AI

14:14 | Generating value with AI in the long-term

17:10 | Bringing about the social change in organizations alongside the tech change

20:48 | AI regulation

27:18 | How AI will transform education

Additional inspirations from Ethan Mollick:

• One Useful Thing (Substack)
• The Unicorn’s Shadow: Combating the Dangerous Myths That Hold Back Startups, Founders, and Investors (Wharton School Press, 2020)
• Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business - Co-authored by David Edery (FT Press, 2008)

Gigerenzer is director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam, director emeritus of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, and an expert on human decision-making. He argues that intuition is a form of unconscious intelligence shaped experience and evolution in dealing with uncertain and dynamic situations—situations for which logic and algorithms are often ill-fitted. As leaders deal with uncertainty and complexity and embrace new AI technologies, they must not forget the power of intuition.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Gigerenzer explores the power of intuition, when to use it in business, and how to cultivate and employ it.

Key topics discussed: 

01:23 | Difference between intuition and rationality

04:49 | Role of heuristics

06:29 | Why intuition is often looked down upon

08:06 | Power of intuition

15:21 | How to use intuition in business

18:45 | Distinguishing right intuition from wrong intuition

25:12 | Considering how AI use intuition

Additional inspirations from Gerd Gigerenzer:

• How to Stay Smart in a Smart World: Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms (The MIT Press, 2022)
• Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious (Penguin Books, 2008)
• Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You (Simon & Schuster, 2003)

Rathi is a senior reporter for Bloomberg News, focusing on climate and energy. He also hosts the weekly Zero podcast, in which he talks to the people leading the fight for a zero-emissions future. In his new book, Rathi argues that the best way to cut carbon pollution is by harnessing capitalism. Combating climate change requires a combination of smart policies, financing, technological innovations, and leadership—without killing markets or competition.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Rathi discusses the essence of climate capitalism, how to scale up individual success stories, and how to navigate the challenging political context.

 Key topics discussed: 

02:09 | Definition of climate capitalism

07:19 | Success stories: Chinese EVs, Orsted

11:31 | The need to combine tech, policies, and finance

12:52 | How to scale case studies to big solutions

16:24 | Navigating a polarized political context

18:45 | Making climate solutions profitable

24:06 | Where CEOs should start

Saito is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo and a recipient of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science prize, which is awarded to the top scholar in Japan under the age of 45. His book, published previously in Japan, became an unexpected bestseller, shipping more than half a million copies to date.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Saito discusses the arguments for fundamental economic system change, explores the feasibility of less radical alternatives, and assesses implications for business leaders. The book’s propositions will likely seem very radical to many of our business listeners—but as Saito notes, sometimes utopian ideas can be a stimulus for generating new thinking for complex intractable topics like climate change.

Key topics discussed: 

01:50 | Defining the problem and the need for system-level change

06:21 | The relation between capitalism and technological progress

08:41 | Exploring alternative, less radical solutions

13:32 | The need for a new measurement of economic and social progress

17:08 | The feasibility of a transition to a new system

21:41 | Implications for business leaders

25:35 | Reasons to remain hopeful

Taylor, a clinical associate professor at NYU Stern, has spent decades advising large multinational companies on risk, corruption, sustainability, and organizational culture. In her new book, she combines her experience with vivid case studies to guide companies toward reaching what she describes as the “higher ground”—a space where companies can act ethically and achieve long-term strategic advantage.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Taylor discusses why good governance is now more important than ever, how leaders can navigate a polarized political landscape, and how businesses can build trust.

Key topics discussed: 

02:44 | The rising importance of internal governance

06:10 | Common traps of internal governance

07:55 | Best practices for deploying purpose

10:53 | Businesses taking political stances

14:58 | Importance of trust and traps in pursuing it

17:12 | Solutions for businesses to pursue

24:15 | How to apply these lessons in your own work

Sutton is an expert on organizational psychology at Stanford University and a best-selling author. His latest book is a culmination of a seven-year research effort on how effective organizations function without driving employees and customers crazy.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Sutton explores what friction is, where it comes from, and its effects - both positive and negative. They discuss the practical steps leaders and employees can take to remove and add friction in the right places. They also discuss broader implications, like whether the nature and consequences of friction will change in a world increasingly characterized by machine-machine and machine-human, rather than only human-human interactions.

Key topics discussed:

00:54 | What is organizational friction

04:30 | The negative consequences of friction

08:42 | What does good friction look like?

14:14 | How to remove friction

17:22 | What creates friction

19:11 | Removing friction and creating problems

22:04 | Is friction less problematic in a world of AI?

25:26 | How can ideas about friction be applied in academia?

Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queens’ College Cambridge University, was previously the chair of President Obama’s Global Development Council, a Deputy Director at the International Monetary Fund, and CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO.

Michael Spence, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Philip H. Knight Professor and dean, emeritus, at Stanford Graduate School of Business, was awarded the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Together with Martin Reeves, the Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, El-Erian and Spence discuss new approaches to thinking about growth, economic management, and managing a global order, as well as how leaders could unlock the full potential of technologies that could drive growth, and ensure that the benefits of technological advancements, like AI, are widely distributed to avoid exacerbating national tensions.

Key topics discussed: 

01:59 | Defining permacrisis

08:58 | The essence of how we need to think differently about growth and value

10:32 | Unlocking the full potential of technologies that could drive growth

14:09 | How to ensure that the benefits of technological advancements, like AI, are widely distributed to avoid exacerbating national tensions

19:40 | Anticipating or managing similar crises (COVID-19) in the future

25:15 | Reforming multilateral institutions

Li is one of the world’s foremost experts on AI and was named by Time magazine as one of the top 25 most influential thinkers in AI in 2023. She previously served as Google’s chief AI and machine learning scientist.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Li discusses critical inflection points in the history of AI, emerging AI technologies businesses must be aware of, and what implications AI will have for competitive advantage.

Key topics discussed: 

01:19 | Is our education system fit for the future?

07:13 | What were the key milestones in the history of AI?

11:48 | Which emerging AI technologies do businesses need to be aware of?

13:38 | How should we be thinking about ethical issues surrounding AI?

20:39 | How will AI transform business? Where will it create competitive advantage?

Jay Barney, a professor of strategic management and the Pierre Lassonde Chair of Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, is one of the world’s leading strategists and the father of so-called resource-based competition.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Barney explores the connections between the realms of strategy and culture—discussing the power of stories to change culture and support a new strategy, and identifying the key characteristics of great stories and story-making, such as being authentic and putting the leader at the heart of the narrative.

Key topics discussed: 

01:10 | How do you define culture and why do we sometimes need to change it?

03:31 | What are some examples of successful culture change?

08:01 | What are the key characteristics of culture-changing stories?

16:33 | How do leaders navigate social/political “culture wars” in their own culture?

22:20 | Are stories and culture change something that can be shaped or are they emergent?

25:40 | How do stories and culture change apply to a business school setting?

McAfee is an expert on how technological progress changes the world, being named to both the Thinkers50 list of top management thinkers and the Politico 50 group of people transforming American politics. In his new book, he outlines how the giants of Silicon Valley found success not just because they are at the center of the digital technology revolution, but also because they are revolutionizing the way business is done—what McAfee describes as the “geek way.”.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, McAfee explores the core tenets of a corporate culture that embraces the “geek way” and explains why it works, drawing on insights from the science of cultural evolution. They also discuss how traditional, non-tech firms can embrace this new culture and operating system.

Key topics discussed:

02:12 | What are the core tenets of the “geek way”?

08:55 | How could these tenets be applied to any businesses?

11:31 | How can we overcome the limitations of the “geek way” (e.g., negative corporate culture aspects, retaining culture as a firm grows)?

15:05 | Is the “geek way” unique to American firms? What can we learn from the Chinese tech sector?

17:46 | What is the role of strategy in a “geek way” company?

20:11 | How might the “geek way” culture change in the future, given new challenges (e.g., elevated costs of capital)?

23:01 | What are the first steps a CEO should take to establish the “geek way” in their firm?

Additional inspirations from Andrew McAfee:

• More From Less: How we Finally Stopped Using Up The World - And What Happens Next (Simon & Schuster UK, 2019)
• Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future (Brilliance Audio, 2017)
• The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (Brilliance Audio, 2014)
• Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy (Digital Frontier Press, 2012)

Ferguson is an expert on leadership, an experienced leader in the private and public sectors, and a longtime advocate of gender equity. In her new book, she identifies the key attributes of a “head and heart” leader, providing people with the tools to reflect on and adapt their own approach to each situation. She combines vivid stories and extensive research to inspire her readers to become better, more authentic, modern leaders.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Ferguson discusses the evolution of leadership thinking, what makes a “head and heart” leader, and how leaders can improve their effectiveness and adaptability. They also reflect on how leadership, and particularly the “heart” attributes, will be more crucial than ever with the rise of AI in the workplace.

Key topics discussed:

02:36 | How has thinking on leadership evolved?

06:05 | What are the attributes of a “head and heart” leader?

08:25 | How can you improve your “head and heart” leadership attributes?

18:24 | Are leaders aging, and is there a need to make space for younger talents?

20:05 | How might AI change the art of leadership?

Additional inspirations from Dr. Kirstin Ferguson:

• Certain Uncertainty: Leading with Agility and Resilience in an Unpredictable World (Wiley, 2023)
• Women Kind: Unlocking the Power of Women Supporting Women (Murdoch Books, 2019)
• Got a Minute? (Weekly column, The Sydney Morning Herald)

Bungay Stanier, founder of coaching firm Box of Crayons, is a world-renowned thought leader on coaching and author of the best-selling coaching book, The Coaching Habit. In his most recent book, he focuses on relationship-building, providing readers with processes and principles, as well as exercises and ample practical advice to sharpen their skills.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Bungay Stanier discusses how to build the “best possible relationship” and how to maintain and repair it over time. Moreover, they assess how to create a corporate culture conducive to these relationships, and how to make these relationships work in a hybrid or remote setting.

Key topics discussed:

01:22 | How to make difficult relationships more workable

03:39 | Definition of a “best possible relationship” and how to build it

05:54 | How to have a keystone conversation

12:26 | The impact of corporate culture and different personality types

15:44 | How to maintain and repair relationships

20:42 | The implications of hybrid and remote work

22:31 | How leaders can apply these lessons in their organizations

Prior to his current role, Shah was the Administrator of USAID and a Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He successfully led many transformative change efforts around the globe – including advancing the immunization of children, fighting against hunger and energy poverty, and providing relief for humanitarian disasters.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Shah discusses insights from his new book, including a mindset he sees crucial to making change possible, the need for public-private partnerships, and the role of businesses in addressing social and environmental issues. The conversation also touches on the importance of continuous experimentation, the involvement of younger leaders in change projects, and the challenges of planning in complex and unpredictable situations.

Gneezy, the Epstein/Atkinson Chair in Management Leadership at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management, is one of the world’s leading experts in behavioral economics, and his insights have become a staple in courses around the world. He teaches managers how to be incentive-smart—how to avoid mixed signals and design incentives that are simple, effective, and ethical.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Gneezy discusses how incentives work, and how we can apply them in the workplace to change habits and spark innovation—he explains why, counterintuitively, successful organizations and initiatives may actually have a greater need to examine their incentives than unsuccessful ones.

Key topics discussed:

01:11 | How incentives send signals

02:08 | Incentives in the workplace

09:14 | Incentivizing innovation

12:29 | Understanding the use and limitation of incentives

18:22 | Changing habits

Suleyman is a renowned thought leader on this topic, having co-founded Inflection AI and DeepMind, and having served as VP of AI product management and AI policy at Google.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Suleyman discusses the threats and opportunities posed by AI and synthetic biology, whether and how they will confer competitive advantage, and how governments and companies can collaborate to contain their negative effects while ensuring that society reaps their benefits.

Key topics discussed:

01:28 | The threats of the coming wave of technologies

06:43 | A modern Turing Test for AI

10:14 | The competitive advantage conferred by AI

15:25 | The benefits and limitations of AI

18:34 | Containing the next wave of technologies

22:09 | Potential regulatory interventions

23:46 | Motivations for writing the book

Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and the author of seven books, including The Fearless Organization, which has been translated into more than 15 languages. She was ranked number one on the 2021 Thinkers50 list, a ranking of the world’s most influential management thinkers.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Edmondson discusses the distinctions that can help us separate good failure from bad, strategies to decrease the cost of learning, as well as practical actions for leaders to establish a culture where intelligent failure is predominant.

Key topics discussed: 

1:13 | The distinction between failing well and failing badly

9:36 | How to avoid the "illusion of knowing" and mistaking a mental model for a fact

12:02 | Institutional and leadership-level moves to create an environment where intelligent failure is predominant

18:27 | How to decrease the cost of learning

19:42 | Can AI help to analyze the potential for failure or identify learnable lessons and failure patterns?

Guillén, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the world’s foremost experts on global megatrends. In his most recent book, he focuses on the combination of rapid technological progress, increasing life as well as health spans, and declining fertility rates—which, together, are creating a society in which arbitrary definitions of generations, based on chronological age, are no longer appropriate.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Guillén discusses the shortcomings of the sequential model of life and what the new, post-generational society will look like. He also highlights implications for businesses, which will need to adapt their marketing practices to changing patterns in consumption and harness the benefits of intergenerational collaboration in their workforces.

Key topics discussed: 

01:51 | The sequential model of life and its shortcomings

04:17 | The post-generational society and the trends creating it

07:31 | Implications for corporations

14:13 | How CEOs can prepare for a society of perennials

17:14 | Implications for academic institutions

Johnson, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, takes us through a millennium of technological progress to show how the gains from advancements such as the agricultural and early industrial revolutions tended to benefit a narrow segment of interests. While technology can enable the kind of equitable growth that is heralded by techno-optimists, this requires an environment that mitigates the natural power imbalance between workers and owners of technology through regulation, labor organizations, and an active civic society. As we stand on the brink of a new wave of innovation from AI, it’s critical that we learn from the history of economic progress to ensure that this time, the gains are shared broadly in society.

In this episode of our Thinkers & Ideas podcast, Johnson joins BCG Henderson Institute Chairman Martin Reeves to discuss the incentives for corporate leaders to create technology directed at equitable growth, the potential impact of AI on society, and the effectiveness of government policies aimed at fostering shared prosperity.

Key topics discussed: 

01:19 | Motivation for the book

02:03 | Progress and shared prosperity

07:29 | Effectiveness of redistribution

09:43 | Directing innovation toward social good

16:42 | The impact of AI

20:39 | Role of corporate leaders and investors in directing technology

Madsbjerg was co-founder and senior partner of consulting firm, ReD Associates and was previously a professor of applied humanities at the New School for Social Research in New York City. He works at the intersection of business and the humanities, guiding firms to develop powerful strategies anchored in human perception.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Madsbjerg discusses how we can learn to observe the world properly—letting go of oversimplifying assumptions and biases—and how this will help firms unlock insights about their customers far beyond the reach of traditional market research.

Key topics discussed: 

[01:25] How to observe properly

[06:57] How “total observation” can unlock new insights

[13:14] Distractions of modern life and how to tackle them

[18:14] Difference between traditional market research and “total observation”

[21:30] How to change how we observe things in the corporate context

Berger, an associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School, is an expert on change, social influence, and word-of-mouth communication. Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Berger discusses how we can use the language of agency and identity to incite action, how to best balance concreteness and abstraction, and how to harness the power of emotions—drawing on decades of experimental research.

He also speculates how large language models will change the production and deployment of language. The book is a broad and practical guide to how we can use language more effectively.

Key topics discussed: 

01:07 | The power of language and six types of magic words

03:57 | Leveraging the language of agency and identity to spark action

06:58 | Balancing concreteness and abstraction

10:53 | Harnessing the power of emotions

13:27 | Limitations of magic words and the importance of authenticity

17:41 | The role of ChatGPT and other large language models

21:00 | Using magic words in your personal and professional life

Ton, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and president and co-founder of the Good Jobs Institute, has long been an advocate of investing in employees. Traditional bad jobs systems—characterized by low pay, high turnover, and poor operational execution—harm customer satisfaction and undermine a company’s ability to differentiate, innovate, and adapt. In a good jobs system, she explains, leaders unlock a virtuous cycle of employee engagement, which improves operational performance and will ultimately benefit employees, customers, and shareholders.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Ton discusses various aspects of the good jobs system—how it works, how to implement it, how to measure the value of good jobs, and what good jobs mean in an age in which labor is under threat of substitution by AI.

Key topics discussed: 

01:06 | The business value of good jobs

03:54 | What makes the good jobs system work?

12:21 | Data and metrics

17:10 | AI and labor substitution

20:29 | Good jobs beyond the frontline

24:48 | How to implement the good jobs system

Sir Partha Dasgupta is the Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Cambridge. He is widely regarded as the world's most influential expert on development economics and ecological economics, and is the author of The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review (2021).

Simon Levin is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University and a recipient of the National Medal of Science, for his international leadership and critical contributions to environmental science and ecology.

Georg Kell is the founding Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative, and Chairman of Arabesque Partners.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss the importance of ecosystem services to our well-being and the impacts of human activity on biodiversity. Moreover, they discuss inclusive wealth and other measures that can be used to change incentive structures and track our progress on sustainability issues. Finally, they point out what businesses and governments must do to increase awareness and engagement on biodiversity matters.

Key topics discussed: 

02:28 | How are humans impacting nature, specifically biodiversity?

04:08 | The distinction between natural goods and natural services

07:02 | Is biodiversity and the natural impact issue on the radar screens of business?

09:03 | Are we at a point of no return? How would we know if we are?

10:50 | Do we in fact look after biodiversity by looking after the climate?

12:42 | Inclusive wealth vs. GDP

18:18 | How can governments and companies begin to act on the problem of the encroachment on natural systems?

26:41 | What can we learn from our limited successes on massive collective action problems and how we might practically orchestrate this agenda?

Flyvbjerg, the first BT Professor of Major Programme Management at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and VKR Professor of Major Program Management at the IT University of Copenhagen, is the world’s foremost expert on megaproject management—a subject on which he has published prolifically.

He recently joined Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, to discuss the patterns and drivers of the failure of big projects, as well as potential solutions that can help executives overcome these dramatic odds. For example, cognitive biases, particularly at the C-suite level, cause leaders to act too spontaneously—when they would be better off acting fast only after first thinking slowly and deliberately. They explore not only conventional project success but also how the thinking can be applied more broadly – from personal projects to climate change.

Key topics discussed: 

01:16 | The Iron Law of megaprojects

04:03 | Patterns of failure

09:02 | Solutions (think slow but act fast, think from right to left, reference class forecasting)

17:28 | Continuous vs. episodic change

20:47 | Tackling climate change: a megaproject?

23:03 | Impact of technology

25:46 | Practical recommendations

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Mauborgne discusses the rising importance of non-disruptive creation given increased sensitivity to the social impact of business. She explains the differences between non-disruptive creation, disruptive creation, and blue ocean strategy and provides tools for companies to identify and unlock non-disruptive opportunities.

Mauborgne, a professor of strategy at INSEAD, is also the co-author of the influential Blue Ocean Strategy and has been recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the World’s Most Influential Management Thinkers.

Key topics discussed: 

00:53 | What is non-disruptive creation (NDC)

08:27 | How companies can identify and invent NDCs

16:01 | The role of disruptive creation

21:08 | Challenges and capabilities needed for NDC

23:53 | AI and NDC

26:22 | Renee on coining NDC

Cross, the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., has studied the underlying networks of effective organizations and the collaborative practices of high performers for more than 20 years. Dillon is a former editor of Harvard Business Review and the author of such books as How Will You Measure Your Life? and Competing Against Luck.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss the microstresses that drain capacity, deplete emotional reserves, and challenge identity. Although these pressures are impossible to eliminate, there are strategies—building resilience, leading a healthy life, and finding purpose—that can mitigate the impact, enabling people to reshape their interpersonal interactions and live more satisfied lives.

Company leaders, the authors argue, should also be aware of microstress triggers hiding in plain sight: the burdens levied by our agile, collaborative way of working that can have damaging ripple effects.

Key topics discussed:

01:11 | The gravity of microstress

07:29 | Types of microstress

12:26 | Solutions to microstress

19:04 | Microstress in organizations

25:35 | Positive aspects of microstress

29:14 | Where to start with countering microstress

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Iyengar is the S. T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and an expert on decision-making and choice. Drawing on advances in brain science, she argues that creativity is not mysterious, but is instead quite similar to analytical thinking.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Iyengar discusses her six-step methodology to help people unlock their ability to create useful new ideas, illustrating this with many examples from business.

Key topics discussed:

• 00:58 | What neuroscience says about innovation
• 07:43 | A six-step method for ideation
• 19:22 | Limitations of the method
• 24:21 | The role of groups and technology
• 28:51 | Implementing the method at your company

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Wolf, who in 2000 was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) “for services to financial journalism,” is the author of several earlier books on global economics. Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss the fragile marriage of liberal democracy and market capitalism. They are twin ideologies—both based on the belief in human agency and the rule of law. But when wealth leads to political power or political power to wealth, the system breaks down. We are seeing this play out in keystone liberal democracies struggling to contain populism, and in authoritarian regimes that are gaining momentum.

The struggle with populism, in particular, can be traced to three developments: the emergence of societal rifts around questions of identity, the decline of the economic and political position of the working class, and the rise of the financial and tech sector as the new elite. Essential to the restoration of liberal democracy, Wolf and Reeves note, is the imperative to improve economic and political institutions such that opportunity, security, and dignity are available to all.

Key topics discussed:

• 00:58 | The fragile marriage of liberal democracy and market capitalism
• 04:08 | Evidence for a global democratic recession
• 11:01 | The forces behind democratic decline
• 15:30 | The agenda for restoring democratic capitalism
• 19:22 | The key role of business leaders

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Kell is Chairman of the tech company Arabesque, which uses AI and data to assess sustainability performance and guide investments. He is also founder of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. Rasche is a professor of business in society and Associate Dean of Copenhagen Business School. Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss the bleeding edge of sustainability thinking.

ESG investment, Kell and Rasche explain, should be viewed through three lenses as they relate to technology. First, technological innovations, such as chemical recycling for plastics, shape firms’ ESG performance. Second, technological developments enable investors to assess ESG performance more accurately (for example, the use of blockchain tech to enhance supply chain transparency). Finally, the ESG investment agenda itself is influenced by technology; consider that Bitcoin mining creates significant emissions. Based on this three-lens framework, Kell and Rasche explain how technology can be a critical part of the sustainability solution.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In her book Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source, law professor Kathryn Judge examines the changing role of intermediaries in the economy.

Judge, an expert on banking, financial markets, and regulation, is the Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Intellectual Life at Columbia Law School. Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Judge discusses both the positive and negative impacts of intermediaries in the economy.

She explains that although they have undoubtedly created new value, in some cases middlemen have become entrenched over time, leading to market distortions and new sources of fragility. While markets have started to self-correct, regulators will also have a crucial role to play. Judge proposes a balanced way forward, emphasizing the possibilities of direct exchange.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ram Charan is a business consultant, author, and CEO advisor who has had more than 40 years of experience advising executives and boards of top companies around the world. Ram has authored 30 books and sold over 4 million copies globally.

In his latest book, Leading Through Inflation: And Recession and Stagflation, Ram provides hands-on guidance for business leaders to navigate inflation. He explains how leaders are challenged in doing and emphasizes the importance of taking a macro-view, looking forward, understanding inflations drivers, looking at particulars for a business or industry, managing cash flow, and taking preemptive action.

In discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Ram explores not only how to manage inflation but how this relates to leading through crisis and choosing the right talent to do so.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Gerd Gigerenzer is director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam and director emeritus of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute and is an expert on human decision making. Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the uses and limits of AI, the cost-benefit of using technology, and how we can do to better equip ourselves as individuals and societies to deal with this.

In particular, he argues that shaping the context for using AI or improving the skills of users may often yield greater returns than improving the technology itself. He proposes that using AI without doing either of these things can cause the atrophy of skills, create ambiguity around truthfulness, and foster unhealthy reliance. He proposes various practical strategies for making ourselves smarter in an increasingly algorithmic world.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this special episode of Thinkers & Ideas, Adi discusses Harvard Business Review at 100, which highlights the 30 articles that helped popularize some of the best and most enduring business ideas.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Adi shares his unique perspective on the origin of big ideas, as well as the trends and technologies that underlie them. They also discuss the evolution of HBR’s content curation, accessibility, market exposure, and commitment to its mission over time.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Jennifer Clawson is a Partner and Director in BCG’s Madrid office and a global head of the firm’s Center for Value in Health Care. She has worked in both private- and public-sector organizations to create new value-based business models to improve health outcomes.

In their new book, Patient Priority: Solve Health Care's Value Crisis by Measuring and Delivering Outcomes That Matter to Patients co-authored with Josh Kellar, Managing Director and Partner in BCG’s Chicago office, Stefan and Jennifer discuss based on their decades of experience in the healthcare industry some of the bright spots of progress and innovation in our journey towards value-based healthcare, while laying out an ambitious and compelling path for the journey still ahead.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss a value and outcome-based approach to healthcare, explaining how value in healthcare needs to include both the outcomes that matter to patient groups and the resources needed to deliver those outcomes. They also opine on the approach as a template for addressing other complex organizational challenges.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his new book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, Will shares his personal memoir and manifesto, outlining his business management philosophy on the art of service.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Will discusses how to be intentional in the pursuit of relationships with both the people you work with and those you serve, and the impact of digging deeper to explore new creative approaches that turn ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his book How the Future Works. Leading Flexible Teams to do the Best Work of Their Lives, co-authored by Sheela Subramanian and Helen Kupp, he points out that the way we worked in pre-pandemic times is no longer effective and the concept of nine-to-five, five-days-a-week, in-office work environments does not resonate with most employees today, or with the requirements of our knowledge-based economy.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Brian discusses ways leaders can optimize for better outcomes by extending the more flexible approach we take towards different customers and applying this model to individual employees within their company. By doing so, leaders can make work more productive, fairer, more attractive to employees, and even a source of competitive advantage.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his new book, Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift up The World, George describes how incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into business have come from being seen as a trade-off to a compliment, with some companies now viewing it as a key driver of economic value.

In discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, George describes key trends that have contributed to this shift in perception and behavior, outlining how companies, investors, and employees can use these societal trends to drive impactful change in their businesses, their investments, and their lives.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In 2018, together with Ajay Agrawal and Avi Goldfarb, he published Prediction Machines, an exploration of how basic tools from economics provide clarity about the AI revolution and a basis for action by leaders.

The trio’s latest book, “Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence” explains the economics of A.I. through the lens of decision systems.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Joshua discusses how the transformational potential of A.I. is only unlocked if decision systems are reconsidered holistically, mirroring the pattern observed in previous technological revolutions like the application of steam power, electricity, or digital communication.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Mike discusses a central theme in his new book, the art of starting something from nothing. The conversation touches on the importance of iterative experimentation, treating financial performance as an oblique goal, and knowing when to let go and abandon ideas when they are no longer working. They also discuss the necessity and challenges of cultivating entrepreneurialism within large established companies.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Perry Klebahn is an adjunct professor and Director of Executive Education at Stanford’s d.school. Previously he served as COO for Patagonia and CEO of Timbuk2.

In their new book, IDEAFLOW: The Only Business Metric That Matters, Jeremy and Perry explain that creativity is not reserved for a select few, but can be developed like any other skill and applied to any problem.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Jeremy and Perry discuss the concept of “ideaflow”, which can be described as the rate at which one is able to generate ideas. They share various techniques for leaders to master and implement a culture of ideaflow, such as setting up metrics that communicate to their teams that they value creativity, creating evaluation and selection techniques to move ideas forward, and deploying diversity.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his latest book, The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems, Mohan discusses how companies must adapt their competitive strategies to capture the value from data, suggesting that the context of competitive strategy has shifted from industries to digital ecosystems.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Mohan explains the concept of digital myopia, referring to the inability of modern-day firms to envision the full scope of value that digital technologies can offer. Together, they evaluate the success factors of famous tech giants and how legacy companies can effectively compete with them.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Join Rita McGrath and Roger L. Martin as they debate whether competitive advantage is more or less sustainable today, whether it has shifted in nature and whether it will shift prospectively. In addition to defending their own positions, they discuss how two very different views of competition can be reconciled. They also offer thoughts for open questions in strategy which merit further consideration.

Rita McGrath is a Professor of Strategy at Columbia Business School and the Founder of Valize, a company focused on helping organizations to build lasting innovation capabilities and long-term growth. She has been consistently named one of the world’s top 10 management thinkers in the Thinkers 50 ranking. Rita’s latest book, Seeing Around Corners is a guide to anticipating and capitalizing on disruptive inflection points shaping the marketplace — you can listen to our conversation with her about the book here.

Roger L. Martin is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a trusted strategy advisor to CEOs of worldwide companies including Procter & Gamble, Lego, and Ford. In 2017, Roger was named the number one management thinker by Thinkers 50. His most recent book, A New Way to Think — which he discussed with us on the show earlier this year — challenges leaders to rethink dominant mental models by revisiting misconceptions and pitfalls in the application of common frameworks and ideas.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In their new book, The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown, Nathan and Susannah introduce a positive outlook on uncertainty, and how all possibility and success arise from uncertain situations.

Nathan and Susannah discuss with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, their toolkit for productively managing uncertainty, “the uncertainty first aid cross”. They outline four distinct stages — reframe, prime, do and sustain — and number tools for each. Toward the end of their discussion, they touch upon the similarities and connections between harnessing individual and institutional uncertainty, as well as how the authors have applied their approaches in their own careers.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his latest book Everday Superhero: How You Can Inspire Everyone and Create Real Change at Work, a graphic novel co-authored with Gary Zamchick, Tony tells the story of a change champion, Mae B, a middle manager faced with a heroic challenge, hampered by an ineffective traditional approach to change.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Tony discusses how Mae B’s enlightened approach to leadership is a parable for the change challenges that organizations face today.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Albrecht and Arnaud share insights from the book, address both the technical and people side of problem-solving, and provide concrete ways to adopt an evidence-based approach while managing key stakeholders.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his latest book, Tomorrow’s Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business, Alan discusses the history and future of corporate capitalism, suggesting that a variety of social, political, technological, and environmental forces are fundamentally reshaping the accountabilities of businesses beyond profit generation.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Alan discusses key insights from his new book including: the progress and challenges he sees on various aspects of stakeholder capitalism; the evolution of ESG reporting; issues and approaches to collective action problems such as climate change; and the trend towards business becoming more human.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In her latest book The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World Clark explains how almost anything is attainable through small, methodical steps taken day by day. She urges her readers to optimize for interesting, as a first step in discovering one’s passion, suggesting that if one keeps optimizing their choices for things that feel interesting, it begins to carve a path to reaching something purposeful.

Clark suggests three core arguments to achieve long term success and purpose, including creating white space; the act of opening ones mind to new opportunities, focus where it counts; the ability to decided which goals are the right ones, and, lastly, keeping the faith; the act of deploying strategic patience and sustaining effort in the face of adversity.

Joining Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Clark dives deeper into the challenges of long-term thinking and finding one’s purpose through everyday steps forward.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his latest book, A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness, Roger challenges us to rethink many dominant mental models, revisiting common misconceptions and pitfalls in the application of common frameworks and ideas. He urges leaders to continuously develop their own ideas to lead and reinvent the future and explores fourteen management topics from this perspective.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Roger delves into the intricacies of human ingenuity, change, competitive advantage, and the importance of building organizations that recognize the uniqueness of talented individuals.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In her new book, Redesigning Work: How to Transform Your Organization and Make Hybrid Work for Everyone, Lynda discusses how to deliberately redesign work taking into account not only the specifics of each job, and the new possibilities for flexibility around time and place but also a range of other technological, social and ethical factors. She introduces a powerful framework for matching the needs of each type of work, by considering four productivity modes: energy, focus, coordination, and collaboration.

Based on her experience supporting companies around the world, Lynda suggests three groups that play an integral role in redesigning work: leaders in their narrative and role modeling, line managers in working and building accountabilities, and the employees themselves.

Together with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Lynda dives deeper into how to embrace the historic inflexion point we currently find ourselves at, to redesign work for better employee satisfaction and retention, better customer engagement, and higher productivity.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his most recent book, Be Logical, Be Creative, Be Critical: The Art of Thinking in a Digital World, together with Lina Benmehrez, Brabandere deals with the role of thinking in business and provides a rich analysis of how digital technologies are affecting our thinking processes.

Building on his knowledge and experience as a corporate philosopher, Brabandere suggests that firms should focus on creatively reinventing themselves with new tools, rather than using current digital tools to optimize existing processes or systems.

In a discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Brabandere explores the implications of logic, critical thinking, and creativity in business today.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His new book, The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale, focuses on the necessity of scaling ideas and the things that help and get in the way of doing this.

List argues the only ideas worth pursuing are the ones with the potential to make a significant impact on human lives — and translating an idea into widespread impact requires scalability: the capacity to grow and expand in a robust and sustainable way.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, List discusses the art of scaling, “voltage amplifiers”, “voltage drops” and gives advice on avoiding false positives, knowing when to quit an idea, not being deceived by averages, and the importance of behavioral economics in business.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Dr. Bourla discusses the critical enablers of Pfizer’s success, both:

• Internally at Pfizer’s mass mobilization effort that enabled the world’s largest pharmaceutical company to act as a nimble startup: complete with bold and risky decisions making, rejection of bureaucracy, and challenging corporate norms at every step of the process, and
• Externally at how Pfizer navigated a charged political environment and complicated web of international bodies to collaborate with partners to develop and deliver the vaccines.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

They partnered with Michael Tushman, Professor at Harvard Business School, to coalesce their decades of collective experience in innovation and corporate transformation to create the Corporate Explorer: How Corporations can Beat Startups at the Innovation Game.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Andy and Charles discuss insights from the new book.

While large corporations have relationships, assets, and capabilities to leverage at an advantage over startups, they must overcome impediments to innovation such as bureaucracy, a bend towards efficiency, and risk aversion. The book serves as a philosophical and tactical playbook to help large established corporations overcome these obstacles through all three stages of innovation: from ideation, and incubation, to scaling. The authors aim to encourage more managers to follow the path to become a Corporate Explorer and for more senior leadership teams to give them the strategic, financial, and organizational support they need.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His latest book, Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies shares the stories of companies that pursue what he calls a “deep purpose”. Ranjay studied the actions, cultures, and leadership companies pursuing purpose — where they succeed and where they fall short, to help other leaders in “walking the razor’s edge” to achieve both commercial value and social good through purpose.

Ranjay calls for a reform of business, built around the idea that companies can and should use purpose not only to achieve social good but to help achieve greater commercial performance through clarity of direction and inspiration and engagement of employees.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Ranjay discusses insights from the new book.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His new book, Winning the Right Game: How to Disrupt, Defend, and Deliver in a Changing World, is a handbook on how leaders and companies can succeed in an era of ecosystem-based disruption.

Adner views his book not as a replacement for traditional competitive strategies, but a necessary supplement for leaders who need to both compete in traditional industries as well as emergent cross-industry ecosystems.

In a discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Adner shares insights from the book, using several vivid company examples.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

He recently published a sequel, Rule of the Robots, in which he claims that the best way to understand the impact of artificial intelligence on the economy and society is to see it as a utility analogous to electricity — in fact, “the electricity of intelligence.”

In Ford’s view, while general AI is unlikely to be achieved in the near term, AI will still widespread disruptive effects as an “explosion of specific applications” reach every aspect of social and economic life.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Ford describes how that disruption will occur and how we will need to manage and regulate it, in order that the benefits outweigh the costs to society.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Andrew Winston is one of the world’s most widely read writers and leading thinkers on sustainable business. His books on sustainability strategy, have sold more than 150,000 copies in seven languages.

Together they just published a new book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, which outlines a framework to help leaders build net positive companies that profit by contributing more to the world than they use or take.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, the authors share insights from the book, discuss key takeaways of the recent COP26 meeting, and explore how can CEOs drive collective action addressing massive challenges and profound shifts that threaten humanity and biodiversity, building thriving businesses as a result.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

David Schonthal is Clinical Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Kellogg, as well as Faculty Director of Kellogg’s Zell Fellows Program, a selective venture accelerator program designed to help student entrepreneurs successfully launch or acquire new businesses.

Their new book, The Human Element, focuses on how to get people to say yes to a new idea or innovation. Many believe that the best (and perhaps only) way to convince people to embrace a new idea is to heighten the appeal of the idea itself. However, the authors argue, this neglects the other half of the equation — the psychological “Frictions” that oppose change.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Insitute, the authors share insights from the book, explore the causes of frictions, and provide guidance on how we can identify and overcome them.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His new book, The Exponential Age, explores how the emergence and exponential advancement of key technologies have led us to a new era of human society and economic organization — the “Exponential Age”.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Azhar discusses insights from his new book, the prospects for business in the new age, job transformation, and how technology can help us to tackle the greatest challenge we face, climate change.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Together with Julia Hautz, Kurt Matzler, Stephan Friedrich von den Eichen, he recently published Open Strategy, a persuasive call to action for companies to “open up” their strategy process to people outside the C-suite — whether they are external customers, internal employees, or complete bystanders.

The authors argue that history is flooded with examples of companies, governments, and individuals who faced problems that could have been solved with openness — the book analyzes these examples to warrant the overall premise of opening up strategy.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Christian discusses insights from the book and how open strategy can be used in all three elements of the strategic design process (ideation, formulation, execution).

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Since March 2020, many of us have been operating in crisis mode; quick pivots, learning new policies, and processes on the fly, working from home while juggling family priorities all under the mental fog of chronic stress. Burnout is real and it has increased significantly since the pandemic struck.

Jennifer’s new book, The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It, attempts to explain burnout and provide the strategies to navigate these challenging times.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Jennifer explores the causes and implications of burnout, the responsibilities of both the employee and the employer in identifying and preventing burnout, and tangible solutions to combat it — helping leaders to distinguish between good intentions and effective policies.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His new book, AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, co-authored with Chen Qiufan, is a literary call-and-response: Qiufan calls to Lee with one fictional chapter on the future of AI, and Lee responds to Qiufan with a supporting, nonfictional analysis of those futures. Each chapter deals with the applications of a different technology and explores the human dilemmas which arise as a result. This novel approach not only educates, engages, and entertains readers but also encourages to think ahead on the moves we need to takes as companies and societies in order to maximize benefits and minimize negative consequences.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Insitute, Lee shares his thinking and predictions on artificial intelligence’s potential applications, its social impact, and also the regulations required to tame it.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Her new book, The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It, co-authored with Shalene Gupta, is an exploration of the changing nature of trust. The book leverages interdisciplinary research, alongside key business case studies, to help elaborate on the four components of trust: competence, motives, means, and impact.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Sucher explains how companies, build, lose, and regain trust in today’s world, and suggests concrete steps for leaders to assess and enhance trust.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In a conversation with Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, BCG’s global chief economist, Garten argues that the “Nixon Shock” was the right decision, and that the US is experiencing many similar pressures today, and that — while calling a turning point is difficult — the global monetary order may be nearing one.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

He recently co-authored a book, Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise, that provides an overview of the success factors for family businesses, based on his experience as a family business advisor.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Lachenauer argues that family businesses can represent both the best and worst forms of capitalism, outlines what separates the best from the worst, and describes the steps needed to build enduring family businesses.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The rapid changes brought on by Covid-19 were unprecedented but remote work (and the concerns that accompany it) are not new. In her new book, Remote Work Revolution, Neeley provides evidence-based answers to these pressing concerns as well as practical guidance for internalizing and applying best practices.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Neeley introduces a trust palette and a “trust curve” to understand which types of trust are particularly challenging in a remote setting and how they develop over time, and explains how agile teams can (perhaps surprisingly) still thrive in a remote setting.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ram has authored over 30 books since 1998 that have sold over 4 million copies in more than a dozen languages. His recent book, Rethinking Competitive Advantage, explains the source of digital giants’ competitive advantage and describes the path for other companies to develop their own.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Ram provides an overview of how leaders — of both traditional and digital companies— can increase their chances of success in the digital age. He proposes 6 rules which redefine the precepts of competition.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

He joins BCG Global Chief Economist Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak in conversation to discuss his new book The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations, a broad take on the different variants of capitalism and their shortcomings. Among other things, the conversation zooms in on the trade-off between innovation/growth and social protection and what could be done to balance these more effectively. Prof. Aghion makes the case that capitalism can both be innovative and inclusive if the right policies are pursued.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Together with Daniel Kahneman and Cass R. Sunstein he recently published a new book, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, which focuses on the scatter inherent in decision making.

Learn more about how noise differs from bias, how it arises, and how it can be reduced through what the authors call decision-making hygiene.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Sibony discusses how noise differs from bias, how noise happens, and gives practical suggestions for how to reduce noise across industries and use cases.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Francis de Véricourt is a Professor of Management Science and the Director of the Center for Decisions, Models and Data at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin.

Together with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, they recently published a new book, Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil.

In Framers, the authors outline how to use the unique human capability of framing to generate new options and structure decision-making effectively.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Cukier and de Véricourt discuss framing‘s unexploited potential, how it can enhance decision making in uncertain times, and how we can better educate ourselves to become better framers.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In her latest book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World, published in May 2020, she explains that continued technological advancement and market solutions won’t solve the defining problems of our time (inequality and climate change). She calls for a moral revolution to reimagine and reform technology, politics, and business.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses insights from her new book, including on moral imagination, and patient capital.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Her new book, How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World, builds on her experience as a board member of global companies. She argues that today’s boards have three main tasks: shaping the company strategy, selecting leaders (in particular the CEO), and safeguarding the company’s culture, ethics, and values.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses insights from her new book, the boards’ role in strategy, and how boards can and should support C-suite leaders while providing oversight for the company.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

When a market expands from local to regional or from regional to national or from national to global, there are usually shakeouts and mergers in the industry and only three volume-driven players survive as regional, national, or global players. Often,  one company is from each of the three major economic zones of the world: North America, Western Europe, and the Asia — Pacific region.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Insitute, the authors discuss insights from their new book, and also reflect on Bruce Henderson’s original thinking on The Rule of Three and Four.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Manoj Pradhan is the founder of Talking Heads Macro, an independent macro research firm, a former MD in Morgan Stanley’s global macro team, and previously an academic.

The book, The Great Demographic Reversal: Ageing Societies, Waning Inequality, and an Inflation Revival, provides a thought-provoking narrative to the drivers of and outlook for inflation. They conclude that the benign inflation environment of the past three decades was made easy by accommodative global demographics and that the turn in demography will present a much more challenging environment for policy makers going forward.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His most recent book, Futureproof, focuses on the question, how can we be happy, successful humans in a world that is increasingly built by and for machines?

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute he discusses insights from the book, strategies to cope with the increasing roboticization of society, and learnings about how previous technological revolutions have changed our lives and our humanity, for better and worse.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute the authors argue that business model innovation does not replace traditional strategy, but instead complements it by providing new opportunities to disrupt the market or reinvigorate an established firm, by creating an advantaged system of activities.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Her latest book The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World that’s Pulling Apart focuses on how loneliness has become a defining condition of the twenty-first century. Even before the pandemic, loneliness had become more pervasive and widespread than ever before.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute she argues that loneliness is not merely a mental health crisis — it is a physical crisis, an economic crisis, and a political crisis that has profound implications on individuals and businesses.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We preface this podcast with a ‘spoiler alert’ as this novel is different from the more formal economics works we usually discuss on this podcast, and we wish to give the listener the chance to opt-out and read the book first if they wish. We greatly enjoyed the read and even if we don’t see eye to eye on much of the economics in this novel, we found the indulgence of literature a valuable endeavor to make more tangible some of the human aspects of economics — including the fear of collapse.

***

Lionel Shriver is the author of several prize-winning novels including the best-seller We Need To Talk About Kevin (2003) and A Perfectly Good Family (1996). Her novels typically tackle difficult societal problems. She is also a contributing journalist to publications such as The Economist and The New York Times.

She joins BCG Chief Economist Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak in conversation to discuss her book, The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047, a riveting and dystopian take on the destructive potential of national debt, currency crisis, and inflation as experienced by one fictional family across several generations and socio-economic circumstances. They discuss the novel, why economic dystopian novels are rare, and the way in which the novel can make the fears of economic collapse come alive.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His new book, 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything, outlines eight interlocking trends that together will reshape society as we know it by 2030.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Guillén discusses these trends and the steps companies and leaders need to take in order to remain competitive in the future.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In her new book, The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World, she explores how societal shifts in recent decades have upended the traditional rules of business, calling into question the business’s purpose and its role in society and offering new rules for how to make businesses successful in their new social contexts.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Samuelson discusses insights from her new book and emphasizes the role of business education in changing the business ecosystem for the better.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In a conversation with Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, BCG Chief Economist, Professor Pietronero discusses using the tools of physics to forecast long-term economic growth, the value and limitations of imposing the rigor of natural science on economics, and why he thinks that the study of nations’ “economic complexity”, a quantification of comparative advantage, is a better predictor of long-term economic growth than existing methods.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Sameer Hasija, Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD recently discussed insights from the new book with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In A World Without Work Susskind argues that technology will lead to structural technological unemployment sooner than many economists believe. This will pose a societal distribution challenge as labor markets will be a less effective way of distributing society’s income. The book makes concrete policy proposals to confront inequality and other challenges resulting from technology’s impact. In a conversation with Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, BCG Chief Economist, Susskind discusses the drivers of technological unemployment, monopoly power, universal basic income, the future role of the state, as well as the personal implications for future generations.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his new book, Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making Beyond the Numbers, co-authored with Mervyn King, he argues that models have only limited value in guiding business decision making. In a numerical world, decision making should be guided by developing and critically challenging reference narratives, to figure out “what’s going on here?”.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Kay discusses insights from his new book, epidemiology, the accuracy and applicability of models, and what leaders can do to break with prediction addiction.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Kell, along with Herman Bril and Andreas Rasche, are the co-editors of Sustainable Investing: A path to a new horizon, a unique combination of perspectives from academics and practitioners on how corporate sustainability and sustainable investing are converging and driving change in markets.

In a discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Kell discusses the role of the corporate world and finance in making progress on sustainability, and shares his thoughts on how COVID-19 has impacted how we think about long-term challenges and resilience.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his new book, Janus Strategy, he argues that organizations can accomplish strategies that seek to reach competing goals.

Traditional strategy wisdom suggests that there are two generic strategies — differentiation and cost leadership. It is assumed to be impossible to combine both for a prolonged period of time, and those who try succeed only temporarily (in new markets that aren’t competitive yet) or fail at both. However, some organizations prove that it is possible to be a sustained cost leader whilst being differentiated or to explore while exploiting. Janus Strategy uses case studies to explore the six factors that make this possible.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Heracleous explains the mindset and moves leaders need to make their organization a Janus organization.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In his new book, Outside the Box, he argues that a fourth phase of globalization is underway, which will no longer be defined by cost optimization through shipping physical goods. Instead, the fourth globalization is about the spreading of ideas and services trade. In a conversation with Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, BCG Chief Economist, he discusses the likely impact of this shift on inequality, inflation, the trade-off between efficiency and resilience, and the U.S.-China decoupling.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In her new book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, she argues why and how we need to reimage capitalism if we want to solve today’s big issues. In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses the need to abandon the shareholder value maximization, and instead focus on how we can create balanced capitalism between businesses, governments, and civil society supported by the law and free media.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His latest book, The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design, co-authored with University of Pennsylvania colleague Aaron Roth, explores the interplay between societal values and the expanding role of algorithms in our everyday lives. In a discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Professor Kearns discusses how algorithms work, where and why they fall short, design choices to consider to overcome these challenges, accountability, and why algorithms should be on the CEOs’ agenda.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

His new book, What’s Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve focuses on how leaders can solve the right problems. In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Wedell-Wedellsborg says that 85% of companies he surveyed for his book don’t consider themselves to be good at framing problems correctly. The good news: according to his research, you can learn how to get better at solving the right problems.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this podcast with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses insights from her forthcoming book, Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future. Heffernan argues that the future is inherently unpredictable and, as such, we really need to stop force-fitting models for prediction onto business strategy and elsewhere, as doing so only provides us with a false sense of certainty and security.

Instead, she argues, the right approach is to embrace uncertainty and use scenario planning, experimentation, and imagination. She discusses several domains (art, military intelligence, “cathedral” projects like CERN) where acceptance of uncertainty and using creative approaches has led to great success.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this podcast with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses insights from his new book, When More is Not Better, which analyzes the growing inequality in American society as a threat to the democratic-capitalism underpinning its historical success. Martin posits that treating the economy as a machine and over-emphasizing efficiency drives this inequal distribution of the spoils of growth. The book advocates the alternative metaphor of the economy as a complex adaptive system that encourages a new set of behaviors from business executives, politicians, educators and citizens - which could sustain democratic capitalism.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses insights from his new book, The Ages of Globalization, which describes the dynamics of globalization across history and how it has influenced and has been influenced by economy, culture, geography and technology.

In particular he describes the opportunities and challenges of the current digital age, and discusses possible solutions, including the social role and contribution of corporations.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Gary Hamel discusses why companies need to tackle bureaucracy's shortcomings and shares examples of vanguard firms which have managed to make steps towards realizing the principles of humanocracy.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter: @BCGHenderson

He is the coauthor of a new book, Ecosystem Edge, which focuses on how to start and manage ecosystems. In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses insights from the book, including ecosystem strategy and innovation.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Osterwalder is coauthor of a new book, The Invincible Company, which decodes how some of the world’s leading companies have built superior business models and reinvented themselves, and the lessons that other organizations can learn. In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Osterwalder discusses insights from the book, including innovation strategy, organization, and how to balance exploration and exploitation.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Knudstorp discussed changes that are emerging in customer behavior, such as a significant increase in online sales channels, and LEGO’s efforts to increase its technology investments. He also spoke about the importance of “entertaining the inconceivable”—using imagination to think about not only what could go wrong but also to uncover new opportunities.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, economics, technology, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter: @BCGHenderson

Marco Alverà, Chief Executive Officer of Snam, one of the world's leading energy infrastructure companies, recently sat down virtually with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, to discuss Snam's response to the crisis.

Alverà discussed Snam's crisis management measures, as well as opportunities he and his team have identified amid the uncertainty, and his thoughts on how the world might look different after the pandemic.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s strategy think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter: @BCGHenderson

Karim discusses how artificial intelligence is changing how we think about competition and company business models with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute. Listen to their conversation in this episode of the BCG Henderson Institute podcast.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's strategy think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on Twitter: @BCGHenderson

Listen to Rita and Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, discussing Rita's new book and also her reflections on Clay Christensen in this episode of the BCG Henderson Institute podcast.

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's strategy think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on Twitter: @BCGHenderson

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s strategy think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, follow us on Twitter: @BCGHenderson

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s strategy think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, follow us on Twitter: @BCGHenderson

***

About the BCG Henderson Institute

The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group’s strategy think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, follow us on Twitter: @BCGHenderson