Thinkers & Ideas cover image

Thinkers & Ideas

Latest episodes

undefined
May 17, 2022 • 31min

The Long Game with Dorie Clark

Dorie Clark teaches executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. She is the author of 5 books including Entrepreneurial You and Reinventing You. Clark has been named one of top 50 business thinkers by Thinkers50.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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
May 3, 2022 • 34min

A New Way to Think with Roger L. Martin

Roger L. Martin is a Professor Emeritus of Strategic Management and former Dean at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He is a trusted strategic adviser to the CEOs of many global companies. Roger has consistently been featured in the Thinkers50 list, where he was named the world’s number one management thinker in 2017. He has authored 12 books, including When More is Not Better in which he discusses how growing inequality in American society poses a threat to democratic capitalism (listen to our interview about the book with Roger here).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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Apr 26, 2022 • 30min

Redesigning Work with Lynda Gratton

Lynda Gratton is a Professor of Management Practice at London Business School and the CEO and founder of HSM advisory. Lynda has authored over ten books, including The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity co-authored together with Andrew J. Scott.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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Apr 8, 2022 • 25min

Be Logical - Be Creative - Be Critical with Luc de Brabandere

Luc de Brabandere is a Senior Advisor at BCG, a BCG Henderson Institute Alumni Fellow, co-founder of CartoonBase, and an invited Professor at The Brussels Solvay School and ETH Zurich. He is the co-author of Thinking in New Boxes, which offers a new paradigm for business creativity.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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Mar 31, 2022 • 30min

The Voltage Effect with John A. List

John A. List is a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and Chief Economist at Walmart. List is co-author of The Why Axis, a fellow of The Econometric Society, and an editor of the Journal of Political Economy.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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Mar 9, 2022 • 28min

Moonshot with Dr. Albert Bourla

Dr. Albert Bourla is Chairman and CEO of Pfizer Inc., and author of Moonshot: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible, a new book that chronicles how Pfizer achieved what many believed to be impossible: the creation of a high efficacy, safe, and producible at-scale mRNA vaccine within a tenth of the expected time.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, andExternally 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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Feb 22, 2022 • 33min

Corporate Explorer with Andy Binns and Charles O'Reilly

Andrew Binns and Charles O’Reilly are co-founders of Change Logic, a Boston-based strategic advisory firm. Charles is a Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of multiple other books on business management.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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Feb 8, 2022 • 28min

Deep Purpose with Ranjay Gulati

Ranjay Gulati is an organizational scholar and professor of business at Harvard Business School.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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Dec 9, 2021 • 30min

Winning the Right Game with Ron Adner

Ron Adner is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Ron previously authored the book The Wide Lens: What Successful Innovators See that Others Miss.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 InstituteThe 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.
undefined
Nov 23, 2021 • 29min

Rule of the Robots with Martin Ford

Martin Ford is an entrepreneur, futurist, and author of multiple books, including the New York Times bestseller Rise of the Robots.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 InstituteThe 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.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode