Thinkers & Ideas

Ram Charan is a world-renowned business advisor, author, and speaker who has spent the past 40 years working with many of the top companies, CEOs, and boards.

Ram has authored over 30 books since 1998 that have sold over 4 million copies in more than a dozen languages. His recent book, Rethinking Competitive Advantage, explains the source of digital giants’ competitive advantage and describes the path for other companies to develop their own.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Ram provides an overview of how leaders — of both traditional and digital companies— can increase their chances of success in the digital age. He proposes 6 rules which redefine the precepts of competition.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Philippe Aghion is professor of economics at the London School of Economics and Collège de France and INSEAD, and formerly of Harvard University.

He joins BCG Global Chief Economist Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak in conversation to discuss his new book The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations, a broad take on the different variants of capitalism and their shortcomings. Among other things, the conversation zooms in on the trade-off between innovation/growth and social protection and what could be done to balance these more effectively. Prof. Aghion makes the case that capitalism can both be innovative and inclusive if the right policies are pursued.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Olivier Sibony is a Professor at HEC Paris and an Associate Fellow of Saïd Business School in Oxford University.

Together with Daniel Kahneman and Cass R. Sunstein he recently published a new book, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, which focuses on the scatter inherent in decision making.

Learn more about how noise differs from bias, how it arises, and how it can be reduced through what the authors call decision-making hygiene.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Sibony discusses how noise differs from bias, how noise happens, and gives practical suggestions for how to reduce noise across industries and use cases.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Kenneth Cukier is a New York Times bestselling author on technology and business, a journalist at The Economist, and an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

Francis de Véricourt is a Professor of Management Science and the Director of the Center for Decisions, Models and Data at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin.

Together with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, they recently published a new book, Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil.

In Framers, the authors outline how to use the unique human capability of framing to generate new options and structure decision-making effectively.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Cukier and de Véricourt discuss framing‘s unexploited potential, how it can enhance decision making in uncertain times, and how we can better educate ourselves to become better framers.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen, an impact investment fund that has partnered to build more than 100 social enterprises that bring basic services like affordable education, health care, clean water, energy, and sanitation to more than 300 million people across Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States.

In her latest book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World, published in May 2020, she explains that continued technological advancement and market solutions won’t solve the defining problems of our time (inequality and climate change). She calls for a moral revolution to reimagine and reform technology, politics, and business.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses insights from her new book, including on moral imagination, and patient capital.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Dambisa Moyo is an economist and best-selling author who focuses on macroeconomics and global affairs. She currently serves on the boards of Chevron Corporation and the 3M Company. Previously, she was a board member of Barclays, Barrick Gold, and Seagate Technology, and worked at Goldman Sachs and at the World Bank.

Her new book, How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World, builds on her experience as a board member of global companies. She argues that today’s boards have three main tasks: shaping the company strategy, selecting leaders (in particular the CEO), and safeguarding the company’s culture, ethics, and values.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses insights from her new book, the boards’ role in strategy, and how boards can and should support C-suite leaders while providing oversight for the company.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

In the absence of excessive regulation or anti-competitive practices, industries are observed to evolve toward an optimal market structure called the Rule of Three. This entails that a market with three full-line generalist firms that are volume-driven and with numerous successful small specialists that are margin-driven. In their new book, The Global Rule of Three, Can Uslay, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Rutgers Business School; Jagdish Sheth, Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University; Raj Sisodia is Professor of Global Business at Babson College argue that even after industries globalize, the Rule of Three prevails.

When a market expands from local to regional or from regional to national or from national to global, there are usually shakeouts and mergers in the industry and only three volume-driven players survive as regional, national, or global players. Often,  one company is from each of the three major economic zones of the world: North America, Western Europe, and the Asia — Pacific region.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Insitute, the authors discuss insights from their new book, and also reflect on Bruce Henderson’s original thinking on The Rule of Three and Four.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Charles Goodhart is professor emeritus of monetary economics at the London School of Economics. Charles was a member of the monetary policy committee at the Bank of England between ’97 and 2002 and is a fellow of the British Academy.

Manoj Pradhan is the founder of Talking Heads Macro, an independent macro research firm, a former MD in Morgan Stanley’s global macro team, and previously an academic.

The book, The Great Demographic Reversal: Ageing Societies, Waning Inequality, and an Inflation Revival, provides a thought-provoking narrative to the drivers of and outlook for inflation. They conclude that the benign inflation environment of the past three decades was made easy by accommodative global demographics and that the turn in demography will present a much more challenging environment for policy makers going forward.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Kevin Roose is an award-winning technology columnist for The New York Times, and the New York Times bestselling author of three books: Futureproof, Young Money, and The Unlikely Disciple. He writes and speaks regularly on many topics, including automation and A.I., social media, disinformation and cybersecurity, and digital wellness.

His most recent book, Futureproof, focuses on the question, how can we be happy, successful humans in a world that is increasingly built by and for machines?

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute he discusses insights from the book, strategies to cope with the increasing roboticization of society, and learnings about how previous technological revolutions have changed our lives and our humanity, for better and worse.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.

Raphael Amit, Professor of Management at the Wharton School, and Christoph Zott, Professor of Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School, have co-published extensively on all aspects of business model innovation strategy. Their new book, Business Model Innovation Strategy: Transformational Concepts and Tools for Entrepreneurial Leaders, is a guide on business model design for leaders.

In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute the authors argue that business model innovation does not replace traditional strategy, but instead complements it by providing new opportunities to disrupt the market or reinvigorate an established firm, by creating an advantaged system of activities.

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About the BCG Henderson Institute

The 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.