Thinkers & Ideas

Marc Levinson is an independent economist and historian. He is the author of The Box (2006) and several other books, a former finance and economics editor of The Economist, a former senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former sell-side analyst. His work has focused on trade, finance, globalization, and business.

In his new book, Outside the Box, he argues that a fourth phase of globalization is underway, which will no longer be defined by cost optimization through shipping physical goods. Instead, the fourth globalization is about the spreading of ideas and services trade. In a conversation with Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, BCG Chief Economist, he discusses the likely impact of this shift on inequality, inflation, the trade-off between efficiency and resilience, and the U.S.-China decoupling.

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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.

Rebecca Henderson is an economist, a professor at Harvard Business School, a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a fellow of both the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an expert on innovation and organizational change, a board member of Idexx Laboratories and of CERES.

In her new book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, she argues why and how we need to reimage capitalism if we want to solve today’s big issues. In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses the need to abandon the shareholder value maximization, and instead focus on how we can create balanced capitalism between businesses, governments, and civil society supported by the law and free media.

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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.

Michael Kearns is Professor and the National Center Chair in the Computer and Information Science department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has secondary appointments in Economics and the Wharton School. He has published widely in machine learning, artificial intelligence, algorithmic game theory, and quantitative finance.

His latest book, The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design, co-authored with University of Pennsylvania colleague Aaron Roth, explores the interplay between societal values and the expanding role of algorithms in our everyday lives. In a discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Professor Kearns discusses how algorithms work, where and why they fall short, design choices to consider to overcome these challenges, accountability, and why algorithms should be on the CEOs’ agenda.

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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.

Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is a Harvard Business Press author and an expert on innovation and problem-solving. His first book, “Innovation as Usual”, coauthored with Paddy Miller, was translated into five languages and got Thomas recognized as a “Top 20 International Thinker” by HR Magazine.

His new book, What’s Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve focuses on how leaders can solve the right problems. In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Wedell-Wedellsborg says that 85% of companies he surveyed for his book don’t consider themselves to be good at framing problems correctly. The good news: according to his research, you can learn how to get better at solving the right problems.

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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.

Margaret Heffernan is a Texas-born, Cambridge educated author, former media CEO, award-winning journalist, and BBC documentary maker whose TED Talks have been viewed more than twelve million times. Her six previous books include Willful Blindness, which was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times.

In this podcast with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses insights from her forthcoming book, Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future. Heffernan argues that the future is inherently unpredictable and, as such, we really need to stop force-fitting models for prediction onto business strategy and elsewhere, as doing so only provides us with a false sense of certainty and security.

Instead, she argues, the right approach is to embrace uncertainty and use scenario planning, experimentation, and imagination. She discusses several domains (art, military intelligence, “cathedral” projects like CERN) where acceptance of uncertainty and using creative approaches has led to great success.

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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.

Roger L. Martin is Professor Emeritus of Strategic Management, at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, where he served as Dean (1998–2013) and as Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute (2013–2019). In 2017 Thinkers50 named him the world's #1 management thinker.

In this podcast with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses insights from his new book, When More is Not Better, which analyzes the growing inequality in American society as a threat to the democratic-capitalism underpinning its historical success. Martin posits that treating the economy as a machine and over-emphasizing efficiency drives this inequal distribution of the spoils of growth. The book advocates the alternative metaphor of the economy as a complex adaptive system that encourages a new set of behaviors from business executives, politicians, educators and citizens - which could sustain democratic capitalism.

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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. 

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a Professor of economics and Director of Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty.

In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses insights from his new book, The Ages of Globalization, which describes the dynamics of globalization across history and how it has influenced and has been influenced by economy, culture, geography and technology.

In particular he describes the opportunities and challenges of the current digital age, and discusses possible solutions, including the social role and contribution of corporations.

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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.

Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini's forthcoming book, Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, highlights bureaucracy's social, economic and strategic shortcomings and proposes 'humanocracy' as an alternative management model.

In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Gary Hamel discusses why companies need to tackle bureaucracy's shortcomings and shares examples of vanguard firms which have managed to make steps towards realizing the principles of humanocracy.

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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: @BCGHenderson

Peter J. Williamson is Professor of International Management at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School and Fellow of Jesus College.

He is the coauthor of a new book, Ecosystem Edge, which focuses on how to start and manage ecosystems. In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses insights from the book, including ecosystem strategy and innovation.

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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.

Alex Osterwalder is an author, entrepreneur, and leading thinker on business strategy and innovation. He is the co-founder of Strategyzer and creator of the Business Model Canvas, a tool for designing and mapping business models.

Osterwalder is coauthor of a new book, The Invincible Company, which decodes how some of the world’s leading companies have built superior business models and reinvented themselves, and the lessons that other organizations can learn. In this discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Osterwalder discusses insights from the book, including innovation strategy, organization, and how to balance exploration and exploitation.

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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.