HBR IdeaCast

By Harvard Business Review

Business

What's HBR IdeaCast about?

A weekly podcast featuring the leading thinkers in business and management from Harvard Business Review.

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The Innovation System Behin...

09.23.2021

Noubar Afeyan, cofounder and chair of Moderna Therapeutics and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, says that the breakthrough innovation behind the company’s Covid-19 vaccine came not as a stroke of luck, but from a repeatable process. He outlines a system called ...

HBR IdeaCast episodes:

09.23.2021 The Innovation System Behind Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Noubar Afeyan, cofounder and chair of Moderna Therapeutics and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, says that the breakthrough innovation behind the company’s Covid-19 vaccine came not as a stroke of luck, but from a repeatable process. He outlines a system called ...
09.14.2021 Can Big Tech Reform Itself? Mehran Sahami, a Stanford professor and former Google employee, wants to see a reset from the technology industry. For the past few decades, the world's technologists (many of whom become its corporate executives and venture capitalists) have been taught to ...
09.07.2021 Why Companies Need Returnship Programs (Back to Work, Better) Carol Fishman Cohen, human resource consultant and CEO of iRelaunch, says that extended career breaks have always been common. Now the pandemic has made them even more widespread. So, companies are increasingly considering formal back-to-work programs and “returnships.” That’s where ...
08.31.2021 How the Pandemic Changed Talent Management (Back to Work, Better) Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO and President of the Society for Human Resource Management, says that this is a reset moment for organizations that want to finally get human resources right. The crisis has taught leaders just how important it ...
08.26.2021 Best of IdeaCast: Saying No to More Work When the work keeps piling on, there comes a time when everyone needs to say no. But how do you do so without offending your coworkers or hurting your career? Former host Sarah Green Carmichael, and Karen Dillon, the author ...
08.24.2021 What We Still Need to Learn about AI in Marketing — and Beyond Eva Ascarza, professor at Harvard Business School, studies customer analytics and finds that many companies investing in artificial intelligence fail to improve their marketing decisions. Why is AI falling flat when it comes to this key lever for profit? She ...
08.17.2021 Rethinking Our Relationship with Work (Back to Work, Better) Emily Esfahani Smith, author of “The Power of Meaning,” has long studied how people find fulfillment. As the ongoing pandemic causes many of us to rethink how and why we do our jobs, she offers advice on how to find ...
08.10.2021 When Entrepreneurs Distort the Truth Kyle Jensen, associate dean at the Yale School of Management, has seen firsthand just how tempting it is for entrepreneurs to lie. As a startup founder himself, he says they have to be always "on" and ready to promote their ...
08.03.2021 Moving the Needle on DEI Shelly McNamara, head of equality and inclusion at Procter & Gamble, knows just how valuable it is to work at an inclusive company. Back in 2012, as a VP at P&G, she came out publicly as LGBTQ, and she's since ...
07.27.2021 Building Successful Hybrid Teams (Back to Work, Better) Tsedal Neeley, professor at Harvard Business School, has been studying remote work and global teams for years. In episode 732 early in the pandemic, she shared how managers could lead their teams while many team members worked from home. Now, ...
07.20.2021 Lessons in Innovation from Bowie, Beyoncé, and More Panos Panay, incoming co-president of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammys, and R. Michael Hendrix, partner at the innovation consultancy IDEO, argue that the music world offers myriad lessons for anyone looking to improve their performance at work. They ...
07.13.2021 Stop Networking, Start Connecting Susan McPherson, communications consultant, says many people feel strange reconnecting in person with colleagues after an extended period working in physical isolation. To help shake off the rust, she offers simple tips in a “Gather, Ask, Do” method. It's not ...
07.06.2021 Best Buy’s Hubert Joly on Walking the Talk of Stakeholder Capitalism Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, says that now is the time for companies to get serious about operating to benefit not just shareholders but also employees, customers and broader society. In the face of environmental crisis, ...
06.29.2021 Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay. Now What? (Back to Work, Better) Nicholas Bloom, economics professor at Stanford University, has been studying remote work and hybrid (a mix of remote and onsite) work for years. Then the pandemic made these modes widespread and lasting. He says as more organizations turn to hybrid ...
06.24.2021 The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 4 Suddenly powerless in Tokyo prison after his arrest, Carlos Ghosn plans an audacious escape and flees Japan while out on bail. Out of reach of Japanese authorities, the once celebrated CEO of Nissan and Renault defends his legacy as he ...
06.22.2021 What Anthropologists Can Teach Us About Work Culture Greg Urban, anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, used to study indigenous tribes in Brazil. Now he hangs out in break rooms and boardrooms analyzing how people interact — and create and change culture — in organizations. He shares lessons ...
06.17.2021 The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 3 A decade into Ghosn’s tenure, Nissan starts missing his goals for growth, profits, and electric vehicle sales. Then a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan and a self-made crisis at Renault in France test Ghosn’s leadership. Who is holding Ghosn ...
06.15.2021 Former Washington Post Top Editor on Leading Through Change Martin Baron, former executive editor of the Washington Post, managed the newsroom during a decade of incredible change and shifting views about the media and truth. Baron led his team through a tumultuous time, as they covered everything from the ...
06.10.2021 The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 2 After Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic turnaround at Nissan, profits soar and Ghosnmania sweeps Japan. But signs of trouble emerge as Ghosn takes over as the CEO of both Renault and Nissan in 2005. Then Ghosn’s high pay creates controversy in Japan ...
06.08.2021 What Business Leaders Need to Know About China Now Elsbeth Johnson, senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and Rana Mitter, professor of history at Oxford, argue that there's a lot about the Chinese political system and economy that business leaders from elsewhere in the world still misunderstand. ...
06.03.2021 The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 1 When Japan's most famous CEO is suddenly arrested, conflicts are revealed in the Renault-Nissan Alliance he led for two decades. Then Carlos Ghosn jumps bail by stowing away in a private jet to Lebanon. Ghosn's daring escape raises new questions ...
06.01.2021 How Leaders Can Encourage Imagination Martin Reeves, managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute, has looked at how companies reinvent themselves to achieve success. And he has found that an essential ingredient in that process is imagination. It’s something we cultivate ...
05.27.2021 CEO Series: Ursula Burns on Leading with Authenticity at Xerox Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, rose from humble beginnings to become the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. In this interview with HBR editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius, she talks candidly about the frequent challenges ...
05.25.2021 Why Smart People (Sometimes) Make Bad Decisions Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner and emeritus professor at Princeton University, and Olivier Sibony, professor of strategy at HEC, say that bias isn't the only thing that prevents people and organizations from making good choices. We’re also susceptible to something ...
05.20.2021 CEO Series: 23andMe’s Anne Wojcicki on Scientific Breakthroughs and Public Trust Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe, spent a decade in healthcare and biotechnology before launching the DNA testing and analysis company in 2006. Her goal was twofold: to help individuals learn more about their own genetics, enabling them to pursue more ...
05.18.2021 Understanding the Venture Capital Gender Gap Jenny Lefcourt, partner at Freestyle VC and cofounder of All Raise, says that even as a serial entrepreneur herself, she long underestimated how little venture capital funding goes to female startup founders compared to the money men get. She believes ...
05.13.2021 CEO Series: Mastercard’s Ajay Banga on Promoting Financial Inclusion Ajay Banga, the executive chairman and former CEO of Mastercard, has spearheaded a strategy focused on serving the previously unbanked via new technologies. During his 11-year tenure as president and chief executive, the company tripled revenues, increased net income six-fold, ...
05.11.2021 How To Talk Yourself Up (Without Turning People Off) Leslie John, associate professor at Harvard Business School, has done some deep research into the ways that people self-promote in their professional lives and identified what works and what doesn't. She says it is possible tout your own accomplishments without ...
05.06.2021 CEO Series: Mary Barra of General Motors on Committing to an Eco-Friendly Future Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors, says that electric vehicles are the future for the company and the automobile industry. GM has said it will phase out vehicles using internal combustion engines by 2035 and go carbon neutral ...
05.04.2021 How Tech Adoption Fuels China’s Innovation Boom Zak Dychtwald, founder of the advisory firm Young China Group, believes that the perception of China as a copycat and not an innovator is outdated. Instead, he argues the willingness of Chinese consumers to try new things is powering the ...
04.27.2021 Quit Overthinking Things Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, has spent years studying how people talk to themselves and the effect that this "chatter" has on our performance. From professional athletes to top students and senior executives, even the ...
04.20.2021 Streamlining Your Company’s Strategy Felix Oberholzer-Gee, professor at Harvard Business School, says many organizations spend so much energy on strategy that it overwhelms with conflicting priorities. Instead, he argues companies should simplify and focus on two value drivers: customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. By ...
04.13.2021 The Career Rules You Didn’t Learn at School Gorick Ng, career advisor at Harvard, tried to learn about the world of work at an early age, helping his mother search job listings and send out resumes. To launch his own career, he studied hard in school, secured an ...
04.06.2021 How the Creative Economy is Changing with Covid-19 Scott Belsky, chief product officer at Adobe, says that creative workers are a bigger part of the economy than ever, thanks to new technologies, more gig work, and shifting norms following the pandemic. He recommends that leaders at all companies ...
03.30.2021 Building a Company While Battling Depression Melissa Bernstein, cofounder of the toy company Melissa & Doug, spent decades hiding her struggles with depression even as she launched and led a booming business focused on bringing joy to children and raised six of her own. She finally ...
03.23.2021 The Competitive Advantage of an Offboarding Program Alison Dachner, management professor at John Carroll University, and Erin Makarius, management professor at the University of Akron, say that an organization can become more competitive by implementing a stronger offboarding process. Their research shows that similar to the way ...
03.16.2021 Workplace Design, Post-Pandemic (Back to Work, Better) Anne-Laure Fayard, associate professor at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, was studying the effects of workplace design on employees long before the Covid-19 crisis. Now, she says, the trend of flexible schedules and hybrid offices - where some people come ...
03.09.2021 New Recruiting Strategies for a Post-Covid World (Back to Work, Better) Lauren Smith, vice president at Gartner Research, says the pandemic is accelerating several key recruitment trends. She led a survey of thousands of job candidates and hiring managers that details the shift to virtual interviews, but also identifies other ongoing ...
03.02.2021 What Black Leaders Bring to the Table Chad Sanders, a former tech executive and entrepreneur, says that people of color, especially Black men like him, often feel the need to assimilate to white corporate culture. They learn to code switch and downplay their race. But Sanders realized ...
02.23.2021 How CEOs Can Drive Sales — or Kill Deals Christoph Senn, marketing professor at INSEAD, has spent years studying how top executives involve themselves in B2B sales. Some are very hands-off. Others make only social calls. Still others sit at the negotiating table. Outcomes vary widely. Senn explains the ...
02.16.2021 Bill Gates on How Business Leaders Can Fight Climate Change Bill Gates, philanthropist and founder of Microsoft, argues that, even as we work to end the global pandemic, we can't lose sight of another existential threat: climate change. He says that we need to take aggressive action to get to ...
02.09.2021 Taking on a Senior Leadership Role Remotely Muriel Wilkins, cofounder of the executive coaching firm Paravis Partners, says that starting a leadership role at a new company or via internal promotion is demanding. Doing so remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic is even more challenging. She says that ...
02.02.2021 How Many Managers Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb? Jennifer Aaker, a Stanford professor, and Naomi Bagdonas, an executive coach, say that, even in times of stress and crisis, leaders should use and encourage good humor and levity at work as a way of building employee morale and engagement. ...
01.26.2021 What Sets Family Businesses Apart Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer, cofounders of BanyanGlobal Family Business Advisors, say that a family-run company has more flexibility than its publicly-traded counterpart to build a legacy and grow sustainably for the long term. But making critical decisions when there ...
01.19.2021 Goodbye Bureaucracy, Hello Common Sense Martin Lindstrom, founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, says that many companies are still held back by doing things the way they've always done them, or failing to break down bureaucracy. For Lindstrom, it's not just about getting away from ...
01.12.2021 How Empathy Helps Bridge Generational Differences Mimi Nicklin, a business coach and executive, has seen many leaders blame poor performance and communication on generational differences. But she argues managers should spend less time forcing Millennial and Gen Z employees to conform to company culture and more ...
01.05.2021 What Kind of Networker Are You? Marissa King, professor at Yale School of Management, has studied the strengths and weaknesses of different types of social networks. She argues that most of us have a natural style of networking: we favor tight social circles, or brokering across ...
12.29.2020 Stop Micromanaging and Give People the Help They Really Need Colin Fisher, associate professor at University College London's School of Management, conducted in-depth studies at several companies to determine how managers can effectively help employees who need assistance without demoralizing them. He found that the most effective helpers were the ...
12.22.2020 Better Ways to Manage Up and Out Nashater Deu Solheim, a forensic psychologist and leadership coach, says many people struggle to gain influence with those in their organization who don't report directly to them. That has only become more difficult in virtual office settings. But she says ...
12.15.2020 Why Burnout Happens — and How Bosses Can Help Christina Maslach, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has been studying the causes of burnout, and its impact, for decades. She says that, in a year when everyone feels overwhelmed and exhausted, it's more important than ever ...

Older episodes

HBR IdeaCast

What's HBR IdeaCast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

HBR IdeaCast episodes:

The Innovation System Behind Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine

Can Big Tech Reform Itself?

Why Companies Need Returnship Programs (Back to Work, Better)

How the Pandemic Changed Talent Management (Back to Work, Better)

Best of IdeaCast: Saying No to More Work

What We Still Need to Learn about AI in Marketing — and Beyond

Rethinking Our Relationship with Work (Back to Work, Better)

When Entrepreneurs Distort the Truth

Moving the Needle on DEI

Building Successful Hybrid Teams (Back to Work, Better)

Lessons in Innovation from Bowie, Beyoncé, and More

Stop Networking, Start Connecting

Best Buy’s Hubert Joly on Walking the Talk of Stakeholder Capitalism

Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay. Now What? (Back to Work, Better)

The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 4

What Anthropologists Can Teach Us About Work Culture

The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 3

Former Washington Post Top Editor on Leading Through Change

The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 2

What Business Leaders Need to Know About China Now

The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 1

How Leaders Can Encourage Imagination

CEO Series: Ursula Burns on Leading with Authenticity at Xerox

Why Smart People (Sometimes) Make Bad Decisions

CEO Series: 23andMe’s Anne Wojcicki on Scientific Breakthroughs and Public Trust

Understanding the Venture Capital Gender Gap

CEO Series: Mastercard’s Ajay Banga on Promoting Financial Inclusion

How To Talk Yourself Up (Without Turning People Off)

CEO Series: Mary Barra of General Motors on Committing to an Eco-Friendly Future

How Tech Adoption Fuels China’s Innovation Boom

Quit Overthinking Things

Streamlining Your Company’s Strategy

The Career Rules You Didn’t Learn at School

How the Creative Economy is Changing with Covid-19

Building a Company While Battling Depression

The Competitive Advantage of an Offboarding Program

Workplace Design, Post-Pandemic (Back to Work, Better)

New Recruiting Strategies for a Post-Covid World (Back to Work, Better)

What Black Leaders Bring to the Table

How CEOs Can Drive Sales — or Kill Deals

Bill Gates on How Business Leaders Can Fight Climate Change

Taking on a Senior Leadership Role Remotely

How Many Managers Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb?

What Sets Family Businesses Apart

Goodbye Bureaucracy, Hello Common Sense

How Empathy Helps Bridge Generational Differences

What Kind of Networker Are You?

Stop Micromanaging and Give People the Help They Really Need

Better Ways to Manage Up and Out

Why Burnout Happens — and How Bosses Can Help

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