In The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters , Dame Diane Coyle argues that traditional measures like GDP no longer capture economic realities. 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 be...
May 06, 2025•23 min
In Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare , Edward Fishman argues that the nature of international power has fundamentally shifted from military might to economic statecraft. 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—particu...
Apr 22, 2025•35 min
In There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift , Kevin Evers examines the singer-songwriter's remarkable career success from a business strategy perspective. 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 s...
Apr 08, 2025•25 min
In Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier , Matthew C. Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau discuss the discuss the history, the present, and the future of the space economy. 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 practiti...
Mar 04, 2025•31 min
In The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business Is Wrong , John Kay provides a novel perspective on the evolution of the contemporary corporation. 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 ...
Feb 18, 2025•28 min
In Uncertainty and Enterprise: Venturing Beyond the Known , Amar Bhidé revisits and modernizes the concept of Knightian uncertainty. Introduced more than 100 years ago, the concept offers great potential for better understanding corporate decision-making. 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 D...
Feb 04, 2025•26 min
In The M&A Failure Trap: Why Most Mergers and Acquisitions Fail and How the Few Succeed, Baruch Lev and Feng Gu provide a wealth of evidence on the success and failure factors of acquisitions. 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 de...
Jan 21, 2025•26 min
In Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior , Sandra Matz explores what our digital footprints reveal about us and how these insights are used to influence our daily decisions. 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 connec...
Jan 07, 2025•31 min
In The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions and How the World Lost Its Mind , Dan Davies examines why companies and governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims they do not want. 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 i...
Dec 17, 2024•28 min
In AI Snake Oil: What AI Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference , Sayash Kapoor and his co-author Arvind Narayanan provide an essential understanding of how AI works and why some applications remain fundamentally beyond its capabilities. 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, tra...
Dec 03, 2024•28 min
In The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World , Karthik Ramanna provides a framework for leaders to navigate outrage—the intense, polarized reactions to perceived social injustices, political stances, and misaligned corporate actions—by addressing root causes, engaging stakeholders, and building resilience. 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 accounta...
Nov 12, 2024•32 min
In The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications , Aswath Damodaran presents the corporate life cycle as a universal key for demystifying business finance, strategy and company valuation. 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...
Oct 29, 2024•26 min
In Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era , John Rossman provides a playbook for becoming an innovation and transformation winner. 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...
Oct 15, 2024•29 min
In Critical Systems Thinking: A Practitioner's Guide , Michael C. Jackson emphasizes the need for integrating diverse systems methodologies to navigate complexity and uncertainty. 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 ...
Oct 01, 2024•30 min
There is no shortage of technologists touting the promise of AI, but the frontier of AI fervor is a noted philosopher who thinks the economy could double every few months—and that space colonization by self-replicating machines may not be hundreds of years away. 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, a...
Sep 18, 2024•26 min
In The Great Disconnect: Hopes and Fears After the Excess of Globalization , Marco Magnani explores the factors that are driving the crisis of globalization we are currently experiencing. 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 t...
Sep 04, 2024•28 min
In Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future , Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley explore the intangible forces that make it hard to anticipate how new technologies create impact and what we can do about this challenge during the design process for new applications. 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 ...
Aug 06, 2024•28 min
In How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be , Cass Sunstein reveals why some individuals become celebrities—and others don’t. 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 Worl...
Jul 23, 2024•41 min
In The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions , Michael Norton explores how the little things we do can create big impact. 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 turni...
Jul 09, 2024•26 min
In Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times , Rebecca Homkes guides leaders on how to turn uncertainty into opportunity. 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...
Jun 25, 2024•31 min
At the BCG Henderson Institute, we aim to bring forward-looking leaders the ideas and inspirations that will shape their next game. To honor this mission—and celebrate the 100th episode of our Thinkers & Ideas podcast—we welcomed three leading futurists to discuss the evolution of business and society. 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 ...
Jun 11, 2024•38 min
In Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There , Cass Sunstein , together with his co-author Tali Sharot, discusses the importance of reevaluating the familiar to discover new insights. 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...
May 14, 2024•31 min
In Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality , Venki Ramakrishnan explores the current research on and prospects for human longevity. 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 potenti...
Apr 30, 2024•32 min
In Making Sense of Chaos: A better economics for a better world , J. Doyne Farmer challenges traditional economic models, which rely on simplistic assumptions and fail to provide accurate predictions. 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 pred...
Apr 16, 2024•30 min
In Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI , Ethan Mollick explains how to engage with AI as a co-worker, a co-teacher, and a coach. 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 losin...
Apr 02, 2024•32 min
In The Intelligence of Intuition , Gerd Gigerenzer challenges a commonly held view of intuition—namely, that it is somehow inferior to logical rationality. 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 evolu...
Mar 26, 2024•31 min
In Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions , Akshat Rathi tells the stories of people around the world who are building impactful solutions to tackle climate change. 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 cli...
Mar 12, 2024•30 min
In Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto , Kohei Saito explores the relationship between capitalism and the climate crisis. He argues, controversially, that to have any chance of achieving true sustainability, we must move to a system which deemphasizes growth, adopts different metrics of progress, expands the commons, and places value on goods and services which are not currently considered as part of the economy, like caregiving and nature. Saito is an associate professor of philosophy at the Univ...
Feb 27, 2024•29 min
In Higher Ground: How Businesses Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World , Alison Taylor explores how companies can navigate the complexity of modern business ethics. 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 ...
Feb 13, 2024•28 min
In The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder , Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao share insights on friction—the forces that make it harder, slower, more complicated, or even impossible to get things done in organizations. 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 an...
Jan 30, 2024•29 min
