HBR IdeaCast
Episodes
LinkedIn’s CEO on Hiring Strategies and the Skills That Matter Most (from The New World of Work)
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The New World of Work video series, host and HBR Editor in Chief Adi Ignatius explores how top-tier executives see the future and how their compani...
Ron Howard on Collaborative Leadership and Career Longevity
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, actor-producer-director Ron Howard has made popular and critically acclaimed movies while also maintaining a reputation for being one of ...
Why Some Start-Ups Fail to Scale
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Managing rapid growth is a huge challenge for young businesses. Even start-ups with glowing reviews and skyrocketing sales can fail. That’s because ...
You’ve Made Some DEI Progress. Don’t Stop Now
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few years, organizations around the world have invested in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives with varying results. But to ach...
The Growing “Do Good” Economy
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From corporate social responsibility to ESG to “doing well by doing good,” an increasing number of organizations are pursuing positive social impa...
Let’s Protect Our Frontline Workers from Rude Customers
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From videos of drunk and disorderly airline passengers to stories of hospital visitors angrily refusing to wear masks, customer-facing work seems to h...
What We Still Misunderstand About Mentorship and Sponsorship
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Companies offer sponsorship programs to help a more diverse group of high performers and future leaders advance. But the efforts can often misfire. He...
Grit Is Good. But Quitting Can Be, Too.
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From politics to sports to business, we tend to glorify those who persevere, show grit, never give up. But former professional poker player and consul...
How Women (and Everyone) Can Form Deeper Bonds to Fight Bias at Work
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The number of women—especially women of color—in leadership ranks at the world’s largest companies remains desperately small. Tina Opie, associa...
4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Emotional Intelligence
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1990s, publishers told science journalist Daniel Goleman not to use the word “emotion” in a business book. The popular conception was...
What Leaders Need to Know About a Looming Recession – and Other Global Threats
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nouriel Roubini, professor emeritus at NYU’s Stern School of Business, says that a confluence of trends – from skyrocketing public and private deb...
4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Shareholder Value
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The idea that maximizing shareholder value takes legal and practical precedence above all else first came to prominence in the 1970s. The person who a...
NASA’s Science Head on Leading Space Missions with Risk of Spectacular Failure
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, the U.S. space agency NASA launched a spacecraft toward a pair of asteroids more than 11 million kilometers away. The target? The smaller of ...
4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Disruptive Innovation
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1980s, Clayton Christensen cofounded a startup that took over a market niche from DuPont and Alcoa. That experience left Christensen puzzled. H...
What Kara Swisher Has Learned From Decades Covering Tech
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
No industry has had more impact than technology over the past few decades. Tech companies have changed the way we live, work, and interact with each o...
4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Scientific Management
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1878, a machinist at a Pennsylvania steelworks noticed that his crew was producing much less than he thought they could. With stopwatches and time-...
To Improve AI Outcomes, Think About the Entire System
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence technology has been advancing, and businesses have been putting it into action. But too many companies are just gathering a bu...
Introducing 4 Business Ideas That Changed the World
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Influential business and management ideas have tremendous influence over us. Like it or not, they shape how organizations are run and how people aroun...
Advice from the CEO of an All-Remote Company
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most organizations have now accepted that the days of all their knowledge workers coming into the office full time are over. So what's next? Sid Sijb...
It’s Time to Fine-Tune Performance Management
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Measuring a broad set of standards across the organization seems like a fair way to judge employees’ performance year over year. But Heidi Gardner, ...
Rolling Stone’s Jann Wenner on Cultivating Creative Talent
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rolling Stone launched in 1967 with a mission to not only redefine music journalism but also chronicle important societal changes. Under the leadershi...
Work-Life Supports That Truly Help Your Organization
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Work-life support programs have long been known to lower turnover and raise employee loyalty. But new research shows they also have a positive effect ...
What Business Leaders Should Know Now About the Metaverse
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It might still seem like a buzzword, or something that only matters to tech CEOs. But Matthew Ball, CEO of Epyllion and the former global head of stra...
Why Companies Decide to Sell on Amazon—or Not
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's a dilemma facing more and more brands: should you sell your goods on Amazon? It's the most visited e-commerce platform in the U.S. and the domina...
Strategies for Dealing with Difficult Coworkers
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Work is challenging for lots of reasons, but most of us have probably come to realize that what makes or break a professional experience is people - a...
Decisions Don’t Have to Be Either-Or
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Making business decisions often means choosing one path over another. And psychology research shows that our brains are wired to make either-or choice...
Is Cynicism Ruining Your Organization?
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Around the world, we've become increasingly cynical about other people, public institutions, and corporations. In Edelman's 2022 Trust Barometer, near...
The Case for Embracing Uncertainty
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For many of us, uncertainty is nerve-wracking. However, many of our best achievements and meaningful experiences come from a trying time of ambiguity....
How the Unionization Trend is Changing Workplace Dynamics
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For years, union membership has been shrinking in the United States and many other countries. But recently we've seen a resurgence, with employees in ...
Red Flags You Won’t See on a CEO’s Resume
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For a long time, we have believed that strong corporate governance is enough to prevent CEO malfeasance. However, new research shows that the lifestyl...
Sad, Mad, Anxious? How to Work Through Your ‘Big Feelings’
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When things aren't going well -- in our own lives, our community, our country, or the world -- it's hard to be productive at work. Most of us also shy...
Open Digital Platforms to Spur Innovation
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the novel coronavirus surfaced in Wuhan in 2019, Chinese officials called for mobile isolation wards. Haier Group partnered with suppliers to desig...
A Debate Champion on How to Have More Productive Disagreements at Work
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In an ideal world, professional conflicts are settled with thoughtful discussion and collaborative decision-making. But that’s not usually how it wo...
Fighting Bias and Inequality at the Team Level
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the investments made in the last few years, many companies are falling short of their diversity, equity, and inclusion aims. Some firms have f...
The Pros and Cons of Our “Middleman Economy”
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kathryn Judge, a finance professor at Columbia Law School, is troubled by the rise of intermediary platforms between products and services and the cus...
Immigration, Upward Mobility, and the U.S. Economy
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In eras past, the United States welcomed immigrant laborers to build and support the country's infrastructure and innovators and entrepreneurs to adva...
Leadership Lessons from a Republican Governor in a Blue State
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Underperforming state agencies, a natural disaster, and a pandemic are among the many challenges that faced Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and h...
How Government and Business Can Tackle Big Global Crises Together
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It feels like a moment of panic for many. While there were some success stories in how public and private sector leaders managed the global pandemic, ...
Comedian Sarah Cooper On Bringing Humor to Any Career
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's a cliche, but they say it's best to write what you know. That was the case for comedian Sarah Cooper, who rose to viral social media fame in the ...
3 Strategies for Dealing with Procrastination
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We’re all prone to procrastinate. We feel guilty about it. And yet, we still do it. Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist and author, says bre...
Find Joy in Any Job: How Do I Get My Team to Love Work?
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Not everyone likes everything about their job all the time. But we know from research that people who are energized by at least parts of their work pe...
Let’s Redefine the Role of Manager
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most managers today are overwhelmed. Thanks to rapid technological change, flattening hierarchies, agile work, and new attitudes about talent, they ha...
Find Joy in Any Job: How Do I Improve the Role I Have?
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of us are feeling unhappy and disengaged at work – and that started long before the pandemic. A big part of the problem, says Marcus Buckingha...
How Understanding Your Family Dynamics Can Improve Work
19 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Deborah Ancona, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, and Dennis Perkins, CEO of The Syncretics Group, have researched how family dynamics pl...
Find Joy in Any Job: What Do I Really Love To Do?
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when 41% of us are considering quitting our jobs, it’s time for us to understand why and what we can do about it. In this special series ...
How Political Polarization Is Changing Work
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Politics has traditionally been a taboo topic to discuss on the job. But as people get more vocal about their views -- on everything from from climate...
Find Joy in Any Job: Why Am I Unhappy at Work?
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There’s been much talk about the Great Resignation and what’s driving it. The pandemic has exacerbated a long-term problem: many of us struggle to...
Working with Colleagues: Should You Collaborate or Compete?
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Randall Peterson, founding director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School, studies coworker dynamics. He says lately, the idea of head...
Filmmaker Ken Burns on Lessons in Innovation and Collaboration
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the acclaimed documentarian releases a new two-part PBS series about Ben Franklin, he describes how the U.S. founding father transformed himself fr...
Breaking Free of the Cult of Productivity
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Madeleine Dore, an author and podcast host, offers a cure for “productivity guilt.” That’s the cycle of dejection she says many of us suffer fro...
DEI Isn’t Enough; Companies Need Anti-Racist Leadership
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few years in the United States, we’ve seen some horrific examples of racism seize the public consciousness. Amid all these tragedies –...
You’re Overlooking a Source of Diversity: Age
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Megan Gerhardt, management professor at Miami University, studies the impact of generational conflict on organizations. She says too many leaders see ...
Regrets Are Inevitable. Start Learning From Them.
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"No regrets" might be a popular modern-day mantra, but it's virtually impossible to live your life without wishing you could do certain things over. S...
Why Some Companies Thrived During the Pandemic
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Keith Ferrazzi, founder of the consulting firm Ferrazzi Greenlight, led a survey of more than 2,000 executives to study how they reengineered operatio...
Inside Companies that Get the Purpose-Profit Balance Right
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Purpose has become a corporate buzzword over the past decade. Leaders are embracing the idea that companies can’t just do well financially; they als...
The Positives—and Perils—of Storytelling
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Gottschall, a distinguished fellow at Washington & Jefferson College, has researched storytelling and its unique power to inspire. But as he ...
Need a Reset? Try This One Quick Meditation Session (Bonus)
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You've probably heard about the benefits of mindfulness and how meditation can help you achieve it. But you still can't find the inclination to start ...
No, Tech Start-ups Aren’t Taking Over the World
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Looking at business news and stock market coverage over the past decade (including a few HBR articles), you'd think that just about every traditional,...
Why Companies Should Stop Political Spending Now
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court changed the rules on how businesses could donate to political campaigns. Since then, hundreds of millions of corp...
How Companies Reckon with Past Wrongdoing
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Federman, assistant professor at the University of Baltimore, studies how companies handle their historical misdeeds and what that means for emp...
To Get Ahead, You Need Both Ambition and Humility
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We know that great leadership takes not just intelligence and drive but also the ability to get along well with and learn from others. The key, says A...
We’re Bad at Measuring Inequality—Here’s Why That Matters
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stefanie Stantcheva, economist at Harvard University, founded the Social Economics Lab to study inequality, our feelings about it, and how policies in...
Best of IdeaCast: What Sets Successful People Apart
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Heidi Grant, a motivational psychologist, has studied successful people and what makes them tick. In this classic episode, she and former host Sarah G...
There Still Aren’t Enough “Good Jobs”
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Companies around the world are struggling to fill open positions, while millions of unemployed people look for work. What's going on? Zeynep Ton, prof...
Gaslighting at Work—and What to Do About It
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mita Mallick, head of inclusion, equity, and impact at the firm Carta, says gaslighting at the office is more common than many people realize. That's ...
How to Use All Your Vacation — And Really Unplug
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When was the last time you really took a sustained break from work? No emails. No calls. No taking care of that one little thing. For most of us —...
One Way to Fight the Great Resignation? Re-recruit Your Current Employees
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Debbie Cohen and Kate Roeske-Zummer, cofounders of HumanityWorks, are sounding an alarm bell for employee retention. Record numbers of people are quit...
Why the Highest Paying Jobs So Rarely Go to Women
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Companies pay disproportionately high salaries to CEOs and other high-powered professionals willing to live and breathe their jobs, on-call 24/7, read...
In a New Role? Here’s How to Hit the Ground Running
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rob Cross, management professor at Babson College, says people are changing jobs more than ever and too often falling short when they do. Surveys show...
The Future of Work Is Projects—So You’ve Got to Get Them Right
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Companies of every size in every industry and part of the world are basing more of their work around projects. And yet research shows that nearly two-...
Anti-Bias Policies That Really Work in Customer Service
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alexandra Feldberg and Tami Kim, assistant professors at Harvard Business School and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, respectivel...
Find Focus in a Chaotic World
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you're feeling distracted, mentally fogged, and unable to pay attention to (or focus on if attention is in hed) the task at hand, you're not alone....
Algorithms Won’t Solve All Your Pricing Problems
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Marco Bertini, marketing professor at Esade Business School, says more and more companies are turning to pricing algorithms to maximize profits. But m...
Tech’s Exponential Growth – and How to Solve the Problems It’s Created
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Technological development is happening faster than ever and changing our lives in fundamental ways. The companies behind all these new gadgets and ser...
First He Saved Unilever. Now He Wants to Save Capitalism.
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, led a dazzling career in consumer goods, from Procter & Gamble to Nestlé to the British multinational. His exper...
How to Make Strategic Career Decisions, Even in a Crisis (Back to Work, Better)
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to work, it's easy to focus on the near term: the next meeting, project, promotion. The global pandemic pushed many of us even further i...
The Innovation System Behind Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Noubar Afeyan, cofounder and chair of Moderna Therapeutics and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, says that the breakthrough innovation behind the company’...
Can Big Tech Reform Itself?
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Why Companies Need Returnship Programs (Back to Work, Better)
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Carol Fishman Cohen, human resource consultant and CEO of iRelaunch, says that extended career breaks have always been common. Now the pandemic has ma...
How the Pandemic Changed Talent Management (Back to Work, Better)
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Best of IdeaCast: Saying No to More Work
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
What We Still Need to Learn about AI in Marketing — and Beyond
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Eva Ascarza, professor at Harvard Business School, studies customer analytics and finds that many companies investing in artificial intelligence fail ...
Rethinking Our Relationship with Work (Back to Work, Better)
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
When Entrepreneurs Distort the Truth
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 founde...
Moving the Needle on DEI
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Building Successful Hybrid Teams (Back to Work, Better)
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tsedal Neeley, professor at Harvard Business School, has been studying remote work and global teams for years. In episode 732 early in the pandemic, s...
Lessons in Innovation from Bowie, Beyoncé, and More
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Panos Panay, incoming co-president of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammys, and R. Michael Hendrix, partner at the innovation consultancy...
Stop Networking, Start Connecting
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Susan McPherson, communications consultant, says many people feel strange reconnecting in person with colleagues after an extended period working in p...
Best Buy’s Hubert Joly on Walking the Talk of Stakeholder Capitalism
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 sharehold...
Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay. Now What? (Back to Work, Better)
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 4
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Japanes...
What Anthropologists Can Teach Us About Work Culture
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Greg Urban, anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, used to study indigenous tribes in Brazil. Now he hangs out in break rooms and boardroom...
The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 3
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A decade into Ghosn’s tenure, Nissan starts missing his goals for growth, profits, and electric vehicle sales. Then a devastating earthquake and tsu...
Former Washington Post Top Editor on Leading Through Change
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Baron, former executive editor of the Washington Post, managed the newsroom during a decade of incredible change and shifting views about the m...
The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 2
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
What Business Leaders Need to Know About China Now
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 abou...
The Rise and Fall of Carlos Ghosn: Part 1
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 jum...
How Leaders Can Encourage Imagination
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Reeves, managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute, has looked at how companies reinvent themselve...
CEO Series: Ursula Burns on Leading with Authenticity at Xerox
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 inter...
Why Smart People (Sometimes) Make Bad Decisions
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner and emeritus professor at Princeton University, and Olivier Sibony, professor of strategy at HEC, say that bias is...