It’s a holy grail for many businesses—the search for sustainable competitive advantage. But Chris Zook points out that it’s elusive for most companies. He notes that less than one in 10 companies even achieve a modest level of sustained and profitable growth over a 10-year period on average. Zook is the former head of Bain’s global strategy practice and coauthor of the book Repeatability: Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change . In this episode, he shares three key principles t...
Feb 05, 2025•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast For a long time in the restaurant industry, there were two types of dining experiences: fast food or table service. But Ron Shaich , founder and former chairman and CEO of Panera Bread, managed to create an entirely new category in between the two: fast casual. That innovative idea laid the groundwork for companies like Chipotle, Sweetgreen, and beyond. In this episode, Shaich breaks down his core strategies for successful innovation in the restaurant industry: pinpoint what your customers truly...
Jan 29, 2025•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Imagine this scenario: Your company’s executive team has just announced their new master plan for growing the business. Now it’s your job, as a mid-level manager, to put it into practice. So where do you start? In this episode, strategy consultant Andrea Belk Olson explains how to make the most of a plan that you may or may not agree with and that you may or may not have had any input into. She also has advice about the questions you should ask yourself before taking action, how to handle resist...
Jan 22, 2025•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast In June 2022, the first ever LIV Golf event teed off outside of London. Offering players larger prizes and more flexibility, LIV Golf aimed to disrupt the sport. In response, the PGA Tour suspended all players who participated in the LIV Golf event, escalating tensions between the two entities. This conflict culminated in LIV Golf filing an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Then, in a surprising turn of events, the two tours announced their merger in June 2023. University of Virginia assoc...
Jan 15, 2025•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the last half century, relationships between employers and their employees have evolved away from being rooted in long-term loyalty to a new paradigm of short-term alliances driven by uncertainty and competition. Entrepreneurs and coauthors Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh argue that the new world of work isn’t so different from the typical conditions that many entrepreneurs operate in. And if you’re a manager, you may need a new strategy to hire and retain top talent. Casnocha and Yeh, coauthors o...
Jan 08, 2025•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast The consulting firm McKinsey has helped its clients navigate disruption in a wide range of industries. But what can we learn from how McKinsey , itself , responded to disruption in the management consulting industry in the early aughts? In this episode, the originator of disruptive innovation, the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen , joined former McKinsey managing partner Dominic Barton to break down how the firm shifted its internal strategy to prioritize flexibility an...
Jan 01, 2025•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why did some companies thrive during the Covid-19 pandemic while others struggled? Keith Ferrazzi , founder of the consulting firm Ferrazzi Greenlight, surveyed more than 2,000 executives to learn how they changed their operations during the pandemic. The results show that some companies had already been cultivating a kind of extreme adaptability before the pandemic. That practice helped them come out on top. In this episode, Ferrazzi outlines the concrete steps organizations can take to cultiva...
Dec 25, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Glossier launched in 2014 as an e-commerce, direct-to-consumer makeup and skincare brand aimed at millennial women. From the start, Glossier’s founder Emily Weiss built a strong digital community around the brand. But after the company received its first major round of funding, Glossier was ready to scale up its marketing spending. The challenge: How to do that while also preserving the brand’s all-important authenticity? In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jill Avery explai...
Dec 18, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does it take to succeed as a business while doing well by your employees? Harvard Business School professor emeritus Michael Beer has studied companies who invest in building long-term social value, and he says they offer some key lessons for other firms. In this episode, he breaks down how these companies set their strategies for new products and services. As he explains: “One of the key disciplines they have is what we called forging a strategic identity. So what does that mean? It means ...
Dec 11, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Looking at business news over the past decade (including a few HBR articles), you might assume that just about every traditional company has fallen — or will soon fall — to competitors from the tech industry. But London Business School professor Julian Birkinshaw says that story of disruption and destruction is overblown. His research into Fortune 500 and Global 500 organizations shows that many industries haven’t been radically remade, despite the rise of a few tech giants like Amazon and Googl...
Dec 04, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re a fast-growing company in an emerging economy, you need a strategy for competing in your home market in the short term. But you also need a longer-term strategy that will help you grow beyond that initial market. John Jullens says the challenge is building both strategies simultaneously. Jullens is a longtime management consultant who specializes in corporate and business unit strategy. He explains why so many companies in emerging markets make the mistake of focusing on execution and ...
Nov 27, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Khan Academy, the online global education nonprofit, launched in 2006 when founder Sal Khan created a few videos to help his cousin with her math homework. After a decade of growth brought Khan Academy’s user base to more than 15 million monthly visitors, Khan knew he needed expert help to formulate and lead a strategy for the organization’s future growth. He hired Ginny Lee from Intuit to serve as Khan Academy’s COO and president. Her mandate was to redefine the organization’s priorities, creat...
Nov 20, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Leadership transitions are challenging for both organizations and the leaders who must directly navigate them. But Michael Watkins says they’re also a time of incredible opportunity — especially for those leaders who understand how to handle this crucial period. Watkins is a professor of leadership and organizational change at IMD Business School. He shares a framework for selecting a transition strategy that best matches the situation you’re facing — whether you’re building a new operation from...
Nov 13, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1992, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. signed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the global business landscape began transforming. Pankaj Ghemawat , a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, studies how companies have adjusted their strategies to that disruptive change — from rethinking their supply chains to learning to navigate unpredictable trade policy environments. He discusses how companies can plan for an evolving world of multi-country international supply chains and...
Nov 06, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Disruptive innovation has proven to be such a powerful idea that the word “innovation” is often equated with the broader idea of market disruption. But that’s not always the case. INSEAD strategy professor Renée Mauborgne says there is a way to create new markets without destroying jobs, companies, and communities. She calls this idea: “nondisruptive creation.” Mauborgne explains how some entrepreneurs and companies have been able to grow billion-dollar businesses by creating new markets rather ...
Oct 30, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Enel, Italy’s state-owned power company founded in 1962, was one of Europe’s largest coal users and polluters. Now it is recognized as a leader in renewable energy services and has integrated sustainability into its business model and operations. In this episode, former Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Kramer explains how Enel made that enormous strategic change — from its long-range planning to how it tackled the dreaded “innovator’s dilemma.” Kramer studied the company’s transforma...
Oct 23, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Creating value is table stakes for any business. But is your organization also capturing the value you create? IMD professor Stefan Michel says that many businesses don’t actually know how. “Many companies spend a lot of time on innovating, in a sense that they create more value for customers,” he argues. “What they often miss is to think about how to capture that value.” Michel studies marketing and strategy at the Switzerland-based business school. Through his research, he created a framework ...
Oct 16, 2024•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Climate change is causing severe weather, dangerously elevated temperatures, and water shortages around the world. Meanwhile, firms are struggling to reduce their carbon emissions while adapting their operations to these new conditions. To address both challenges at once, Harvard Business School professors Forest Reinhardt and Michael Toffel have proposed an unconventional path forward: learning from the climate change strategies of the U.S. Navy. They argue that the Navy’s scientific and sober ...
Oct 09, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you know the difference between accurate forecasting and effective forecasting? Technology forecaster Paul Saffo says accurate forecasting is nearly impossible to do. But if you aim for effective forecasting, he notes, then at least you’re considering the full range of reasonable possibilities for the future, rather than jumping to one conclusion and preparing only for that outcome. “If you head straight towards accurate forecasting, you may end up in a much worse situation by overlooking thi...
Oct 02, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast AptDeco, a peer-to-peer marketplace for used furniture, launched in New York City in 2014. Despite its complexity and high costs, the company grew quickly. Co-founders Reham Fagiri and Kalam Dennis considered several different options for scaling the business—from expanding into new markets to rebranding with a sustainability focus. In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Ayelet Israeli and AptDeco co-founder Kalam Dennis discuss the path to scaling that AptDeco ultimately c...
Sep 25, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Some managers develop strategy by focusing on problems in the present, and that’s especially true during a crisis. But Mark Johnson , co-founder of the innovation consulting firm Innosight, argues that leaders should imagine the future and then work backward to build their organization for that new reality. In this episode, he outlines the practical steps managers can take to look beyond the typical short-term planning horizon and help their teams grasp future opportunities. Johnson also shares ...
Sep 18, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is your company’s existing growth formula finally reaching its limit? Bain & Company partner Chris Zook says you may need to redefine your core business if you want to power new growth. Zook was co-head of Bain’s Global Strategy practice for 20 years. He’s also a best-selling business author. In this episode, he shares three warning signs that indicate your core business needs to be redefined, and he explains how to approach that transformation. In particular, he focuses on how to uncover wh...
Sep 11, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many people aspire to entrepreneurship. But Bill Aulet , who has advised founders for decades, warns that it remains a high-risk endeavor. In this episode, he outlines concrete steps anyone can take to get a new venture off the ground — including intrapreneurs within large organizations. He also breaks down some of the important trends he’s seeing in entrepreneurship, like the increasing commoditization of products and lower barriers to entry, due to technology. Aulet is a professor of entrepren...
Sep 04, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Super Bowl isn’t just American football’s championship game. It’s also one of the world’s biggest stages for brand messaging. In 2024, the average 30-second Super Bowl ad cost $7 million —and that doesn’t even include production costs. So how do brand managers know if they’re getting a good return on that huge investment? In this episode, Bentley University assistant professor of marketing Shelle Santana discusses the evolution of corporate branding, using lessons from classic Super Bowl ads...
Aug 28, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Online influencers are an increasingly important way for companies to find new customers and drive sales. But if you’re a marketer hoping to target consumers, it’s important to understand how the social media industry works. In this episode, Emily Hund , a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, explains that influencers grew out of Great Recession-era job cuts that forced people in creative fields to innovate. She offers advice for brands developing influencer marketing strategies. You’ll...
Aug 21, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast More and more companies are turning to pricing algorithms to maximize profits. But many are unaware of a big downside. Marco Bertini , a marketing professor at Esade Business School in Barcelona, says constant price shifts can actually hurt the perception of your brand and its products. He warns that employing AI and machine learning without considering human psychology can damage your relationship with customers. In this episode, he outlines steps you can take to avoid these pitfalls, including...
Aug 14, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2010, Japan’s largest e-commerce platform Rakuten was rapidly expanding into global markets when CEO Hiroshi Mikitani made a surprising announcement: Rakuten’s internal language would be changing to English. That meant that all meetings, emails, and other communications would have to be conducted in English. The company’s employees had two years to become proficient in the language or be demoted. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley discusses her case, “ Language a...
Aug 07, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Managing rapid growth is a huge challenge for young businesses. Even start-ups with glowing reviews and skyrocketing sales can fail . That’s because new ventures and corporate initiatives alike must sustain profitability at scale, according to Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeffrey Rayport . He has researched some of the biggest stumbling blocks to long-lasting success and he explains how to successfully transition out of the start-up phase. Rayport argues that success has a lot to do w...
Jul 31, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast What do LEGO, GoPro, and CarMax have in common? Wharton professor David Robertson says they all have a similar strategy for growth that involves building families of complementary innovations around a core product or service. It’s an approach to innovation that’s neither disruptive nor incremental, but rather somewhere in the middle. And Robertson argues it’s a strategy that any company, no matter the industry, should consider. In this episode, you’ll learn how to use customer feedback to identi...
Jul 24, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s an idea that’s a non-starter at many organizations: collaborating with a competitor. But Yale School of Management professor Barry Nalebuff says leaders who refuse to consider teaming up with other companies—even when there are clear mutual benefits—may be leaving value on the table. In this episode, you’ll learn how companies like Apple, Ford, Google, and others have analyzed and capitalized on what Nalebuff calls “co-opetition” opportunities. You’ll also learn how to think strategically a...
Jul 17, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
