Thinkers & Ideas

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Paul Polman was the CEO of Unilever from 2009 to 2019, the first from outside the company in its century-plus history, and has been described by the Financial Times as “a standout CEO of the past decade.” Today he works to accelerate action by business to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which he helped develop.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 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.

Loran Nordgren is Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His research explores the basic psychological processes that guide how we think and act.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 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.

Azeem Azhar is the creator of Exponential View, a global platform for in-depth tech analysis. He is a member of the WEF’s Global Futures Council, a contributor to publications including the Financial Times and the MIT Technology Review, and the host of HBR’s Exponential View podcast.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 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.

Christian Stadler is a Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School and a member of the Editorial Board of the Strategic Management Journal and Strategic Organization. Through his research, Christian primarily examines long-term corporate sustainability — how companies grow, adapt, and beat their competitors through learning, innovating, and diversifying.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 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.