Boss Class from The Economist

How did two old, unpopular men end up running for the world's most demanding job? It’s the question John Prideaux, The Economist’s US editor, gets asked the most. And the answer lies in the peculiar politics of the baby boomers. 

Since 1992, every American president bar one has been a white man born in the 1940s. That run looks likely to span 36 years - not far off the age of the median American. This cohort was born with aces in their pockets. Their parents defeated Nazism and won the cold war. They hit the jobs market at an unmatched period of wealth creation. They have benefitted from giant leaps in technology, and in racial and gender equality. 

And yet, their last act in politics sees the two main parties accusing each other of wrecking American democracy. As the boomers near the end of their political journey, John Prideaux sets out to make sense of their inheritance and their legacy. 

Launching July 2024.

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Narendra Modi is one of the most popular politicians on the planet. India’s prime minister is eyeing a third term atop the world’s biggest democracy. 

A tea-seller’s son, Mr Modi began life an outsider and the man behind the political phenomenon remains hard to fathom. India has become an economic powerhouse during his ten years in charge. But he’s also the frontman for a chauvinistic Hindu nationalist dogma. 

Can Mr Modi continue to balance both parts of his agenda and finish the job of turning India into a superpower? The Economist’s Avantika Chilkoti finds out what makes him tick. 

Launching June 2024.

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The careers of many CEOs are built on overconfidence and a few lucky breaks. But to be a successful leader, Daniel Kahneman suggests maintaining a healthy suspicion of your own intuition. The Nobel-prize-winning behavioural scientist prescribes a “structured process” for making the right decisions.

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The Economist's Andrew Palmer asks Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO of Stripe and author of "Scaling People", about her systems and strategies for good management.

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In 2017 Emma Walmsley became the most powerful woman in corporate Britain. The boss of the drugmaker GSK says leadership is about clearly communicating the what, why and how of your company, and aligning your employees’ incentives accordingly. 

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On the cover of his latest book, Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI, Reid Hoffman credits GPT-4 as a co-author. The tech investor tells our Bartleby columnist Andrew Palmer that artificial-intelligence tools offer a solution to the “blank-page problem” and will soon become a core competence for knowledge workers. 

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The Economist’s Andrew Palmer seeks advice on managing your cognitive load, your career path and the changes that generative AI could bring. He gets tips from Cal Newport, an author and professor of computer science, on how to carve out time away from email; from Jeffery Pfeffer, of Stanford Graduate School of Business, on how to accumulate power; and from Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn's co-founder, on how to get ready for the era of AI.

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The Economist's Andrew Palmer asks how companies motivate employees to do their best work. He hears from Patty McCord, Netflix’s former head of HR, and Zeynep Ton, author of "The Case for Good Jobs". Sir John Timpson, a British retail boss, preaches the virtues of "upside down management". And Andrew learns how to write a good purpose statement.

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What if all the meetings in your calendar disappeared overnight? Tia Silas, Chief HR Officer of Shopify, an e-commerce firm, tells Andrew Palmer what happened when they tried just that. Claire Hughes-Johnson, a former COO of Stripe, offers a practical guide to running meetings. And we eavesdrop on the weekly meeting at The Economist, with lessons from Zanny Minton Beddoes, our editor-in-chief, on how she encourages constructive debate.

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Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of Wise, one of the world’s biggest fintech firms, gives advice on forming and running teams. Andrew Palmer learns the secrets of teamwork in Afghanistan, Mumbai and Silicon Valley; and Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School explains how to foster psychological safety.

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