HBR IdeaCast
Episodes
Global Workers Are Ready for Retraining
07 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph Fuller, professor at Harvard Business School, says that the story we hear about workers being afraid for the future of their jobs might not be ...
HBR Presents: Cold Call
02 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard Business School's Brian Kenny is joined by professors to distill the school's legendary case studies into podcast form, giving listeners impor...
How China Is Upending Western Marketing Practices
30 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kimberly Whitler, assistant professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, believes the days of transplanting well-worn Western ma...
What Managers Get Wrong About Feedback
23 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Marcus Buckingham, head of people and performance research at the ADP Research Institute, and Ashley Goodall, senior vice president of leadership and ...
HBR Presents: Exponential View with Azeem Azhar
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Entrepreneur, investor, and podcast host Azeem Azhar looks at some of the biggest issues at the intersection of technology and society, with a focus t...
Avoiding the Expertise Trap
16 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sydney Finkelstein, professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, says that being the most knowledgeable and experienced person on yo...
HBR Presents: After Hours
11 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard Business School professors and hosts Youngme Moon, Mihir Desai, and Felix Oberholzer-Gee discuss news at the crossroads of business and cultur...
Why People — and Companies — Need Purpose
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas Pearce, clinical associate professor at Kellogg School of Management, says too many companies and individuals go about their daily business w...
The Right Way to Get Your First 1,000 Customers
02 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Thales Teixeira, associate professor at Harvard Business School, believes many startups fail precisely because they try to emulate successful disrupti...
Why U.S. Working Moms Are So Stressed – And What To Do About It
26 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Caitlyn Collins, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis, conducted interviews with mothers in four countries -- the United States, Italy,...
A Theoretical Physicist (and Entrepreneur) on Why Companies Stop Innovating
19 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Safi Bahcall, a former biotech CEO, began his career as a theoretical physicist before joining the business world. He compares the moment that innovat...
Why Are We Still Promoting Incompetent Men?
12 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a psychologist and chief talent scientist at ManpowerGroup, says we're not picking leaders in the right way. While we should ...
Make Customers Happier with Operational Transparency
05 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ryan Buell, associate professor at Harvard Business School, says the never-ending quest for operational efficiency is having unintended consequences. ...
Fixing Tech’s Gender Gap
26 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, is on a mission to get more young women into computer science. She says the problem isn't lack of interest....
How Innovative Companies Help Frontier Markets Grow
19 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Efosa Ojomo, global prosperity lead at the Clayton Christensen Institute, argues that international aid is not the best way to develop poor countries,...
How to Cope With a Mid-Career Crisis
12 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kieran Setiya, a philosophy professor at MIT, says many people experience a mid-career crisis. Some have regrets about paths not taken or serious prof...
Why Business Jargon Isn’t All Bad
05 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Curzan, English professor at the University of Michigan, studies the evolution of language. While many of us roll our eyes at bizspeak — from s...
Use Your Money to Buy Happier Time
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ashley Whillans, professor at Harvard Business School, researches time-money trade-offs. She argues more people would be happier if they spent more of...
Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Amy Edmondson, professor at Harvard Business School, first identified the concept of psychological safety in work teams in 1999. Since then, she has o...
How Retirement Changes Your Identity
15 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Teresa Amabile, professor at Harvard Business School, is approaching her own retirement by researching how ending your work career affects your sense ...
The Harsh Reality of Innovative Companies
08 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gary Pisano, professor at Harvard Business School, studies innovation at companies large and small. He says there’s too much focus on the positive, ...
How One Google Engineer Turned Tragedy into a Moonshot
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mo Gawdat, founder of One Billion Happy and former Chief Business Officer at Google's X, spent years working in technological innovation. At Google's ...
Improving Civility in the Workplace
26 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Krista Tippett, host of "On Being," believes we are in the middle of a big shift in the workplace. For a long time, she says, we were taught to keep a...
How One CEO Creates Joy at Work
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations, says it took him years to learn what really mattered at work and how to create that kind of workplace cult...
Why It’s So Hard to Sell New Products
11 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Steenburgh, a marketing professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, was inspired by his early career at Xerox to discove...
The Right Way to Solve Complex Business Problems
04 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Corey Phelps, a strategy professor at McGill University, says great problem solvers are hard to find. Even seasoned professionals at the highest level...
Speak Out Successfully
27 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
James Detert, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, studies acts of courage in the workplace. His most surprising findi...
How Your Identity Changes When You Change Jobs
20 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Herminia Ibarra, a professor at the London Business School, argues that job transitions — even exciting ones that you've chosen — can come with al...
Why Management History Needs to Reckon with Slavery
13 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Caitlin Rosenthal, assistant professor of history at UC Berkeley, argues there are strong parallels between the accounting practices used by slavehold...
Avoiding Miscommunication in a Digital World
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Morgan, a communications expert and speaking coach, says that while email, texting, and Slack might seem like they make communication easier, the...
Stop Initiative Overload
30 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rose Hollister and Michael Watkins, consultants at Genesis Advisers, argue that many companies today are taking on too many initiatives. Each manager ...
When Men Mentor Women
23 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
David Smith, associate professor of sociology at the U.S. Naval War College, and Brad Johnson, professor of psychology at the United States Naval Acad...
John Kerry on Leadership, Compromise, and Change
16 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
John Kerry, former U.S. Secretary of State, shares management and leadership lessons from his long career in public service. He discusses how to win p...
The Power of Curiosity
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Francesca Gino, a professor at Harvard Business School, shares a compelling business case for curiosity. Her research shows allowing employees to exer...
How Companies Can Tap Into Talent Clusters
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Kerr, a professor at Harvard Business School, studies the increasing importance of talent clusters in our age of rapid technological advances. He...
A Hollywood Executive On Negotiation, Talent, and Risk
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Ovitz, a cofounder of Creative Artists Agency and former president of The Walt Disney Company, says there are many parallels between the movie an...
How Companies Get Creativity Right (and Wrong)
18 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Beth Comstock, the first female vice chair at General Electric, thinks companies large and small often approach innovation the wrong way. They either ...
How Alibaba Is Leading Digital Innovation in China
11 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ming Zeng, the chief strategy officer at Alibaba, talks about how the China-based e-commerce company was able to create the biggest online shopping si...
The Science Behind Sleep and High Performance
04 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Marc Effron, president of the Talent Strategy Group, looked at the scientific literature behind high performance at work and identified eight steps we...
Understanding Digital Strategy
28 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sunil Gupta, a professor at Harvard Business School, argues that many companies are still doing digital strategy wrong. Their leaders think of "going ...
Managing Someone Who’s Too Collaborative
21 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rebecca Shambaugh, a leadership coach, says being too collaborative can actually hold you back at work. Instead of showing how well you build consensu...
Networking Myths Dispelled
14 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
David Burkus, a professor at Oral Roberts University and author of the book “Friend of a Friend,” explains common misconceptions about networking....
Designing AI to Make Decisions
10 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kathryn Hume, VP of integrate.ai, discusses the current boundaries between artificially intelligent machines, and humans. While the power of A.I. can ...
Why Opening Up at Work Is Harder for Minorities
07 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Katherine Phillips, a professor at Columbia Business School, discusses research showing that African-Americans are often reluctant to tell their white...
Learning from GE’s Stumbles
31 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Roger Martin, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, offers two main reasons General Electric has lost its competit...
Turning Purpose Into Performance
24 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Gerry Anderson, the CEO of DTE Energy, and Robert Quinn and Anjan Thakor, professors at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and the...
The 2 Types of Respect Leaders Must Show
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kristie Rogers, an assistant professor of management at Marquette University, has identified a free and abundant resource most leaders aren’t giving...
How Some Companies Beat the Competition… For Centuries
10 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Howard Yu, Lego Professor of Management and Innovation at IMD Business School in Switzerland, discusses how the industrial cluster in the Swiss city o...
Architect Daniel Libeskind on Working Unconventionally
03 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Libeskind, a former academic turned architect and urban designer, discusses his unorthodox career path and repeat success at high-profile, emot...
When India Killed Off Cash Overnight
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of global business at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, analyzes the economic impact of India’s unprecedented d...
Getting People to Help You
19 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Heidi Grant, a social psychologist, explains the right ways and wrong ways to ask colleagues for help. She says people are much more likely to lend us...
How to Become More Self-Aware
12 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist and executive coach, talks about why we all should be working on self-awareness. Few people are truly sel...
Bill Clinton and James Patterson on Collaboration and Cybersecurity
05 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and author James Patterson discuss their new novel, The President is Missing, in which a fictional president fights...
Ask Better Questions
29 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Leslie K. John and Alison Wood Brooks, professors at Harvard Business School, say people in business can be more successful by asking more and better ...
How AI Is Making Prediction Cheaper
22 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Avi Goldfarb, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, explains the economics of machine learning, a branch of artifi...
Dual-Career Couples Are Forcing Firms to Rethink Talent Management
15 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Petriglieri, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, asks company leaders to consider whether they really need to reloca...
Choosing a Strategy for Your Startup
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joshua Gans, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, advises against trying to commercialize a new technology or pro...
Use Learning to Engage Your Team
01 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Whitney Johnson, an executive coach, argues that on-the-job learning is the key to keeping people motivated. When managers understand that, and unders...
Why Technical Experts Make Great Leaders
24 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Amanda Goodall, a senior lecturer at Cass Business School in London, argues that the best leaders are technical experts, not general managers. She dis...
How AI Can Improve How We Work
17 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Daugherty and James Wilson, senior technology leaders at Accenture, argue that robots and smarter computers aren't coming for our jobs. They talk...
You May Be a Workaholic If
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nancy Rothbard, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, draws a distinction between workaholism and working lo...
Make Work Engaging Again
03 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Cable, a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, explains why people often lose their enthusiasm for their work and how le...
Why CEOs Are Taking a Stand
27 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Professors Michael Toffel, of Harvard Business School, and Aaron Chatterji, of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, discuss the emerging phenomenon of C...
Leading with Less Ego
21 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, of the global consulting firm Potential Project, make their case for mindfulness, selflessness, and compassion ...
McKinsey’s Head on Why Corporate Sustainability Efforts Are Falling Short
13 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dominic Barton, the global managing partner of McKinsey&Company, discusses the firm’s sustainability efforts. He talks about the wake-up call he got...
Harvard’s President on Leading During a Time of Change
07 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Drew Gilpin Faust, the president of Harvard University, talks about leading the institution through a decade of change, from the financial crisis to t...
Make Tools Like Slack Work for Your Company
27 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Paul Leonardi, a management professor at UC Santa Barbara, talk about the potential that ap...
The CEO of Merck on Race, Leadership, and High Drug Prices
19 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of North America, discusses his upbringing and how it influences his leade...
The Future of MBA Education
14 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Scott DeRue, the dean of University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, says the old model of business school education is gone. It's no longer goo...
Introducing Dear HBR:
09 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What should you do when you become the boss? HBR's new advice podcast Dear HBR: has the answers. In this bonus episode, Dear HBR: co-hosts Alison Bear...
Does Your Firm See You as a High Potential?
06 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jay Conger, a leadership professor at Claremont McKenna College, goes behind the scenes to show how you can get on, and stay on, your company's fast t...
Women at Work: Make Yourself Heard
30 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode, HBR IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael introduces Harvard Business Review’s new podcast “Women at Work,” about women’...
Controlling Your Emotions During a Negotiation
23 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Moshe Cohen, a senior lecturer at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, says you can't take the emotion out of a negotiation. After all, ne...
For Better Customer Service, Offer Options, Not Apologies
16 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jagdip Singh, a professor of marketing at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, explains his research team’s new ...
Why Leaders Should Make a Habit of Teaching
09 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, encourages leaders to approach their direct reports...
Hiring the Best People
02 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Patty McCord, Netflix’s former Chief Talent Officer, sees hiring as constant matchmaking. Building a team of people that gets amazing work done, she...
Breaking Down the New U.S. Corporate Tax Law
26 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mihir Desai, a professor of finance at Harvard Business School, breaks down the brand-new U.S. tax law. He says it will affect everything from how cor...
Making Unlimited Vacation Time Work
20 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Aron Ain, the CEO of Kronos Incorporated, explains why unlimited vacation can be in the best interests of employees and the organization. He describes...
How Technology Tests Our Trust
12 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Botsman, the author of “Who Can You Trust?", talks about how trust works, whether in relation to robots, companies, or other people. Technolo...
Box’s CEO on Pivoting to the Enterprise Market
05 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Aaron Levie, the CEO of Box, reflects on the cloud storage company’s entry into the enterprise market. He was skeptical about pivoting away from con...
Why More CEOs Should Be Hired from Within
28 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior adviser at the global executive search firm Egon Zehnder, makes the case for finding a company’s next CEO inside...
Dow Chemical’s CEO on Running an Environmentally Friendly Multinational
21 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemical, discusses the 120-year-old company’s ambitious sustainability agenda. He says an environmentally driven bus...
When ‘Best Practices’ Backfire
14 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Freek Vermeulen, an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School, argues that too many companies are following s...
The Hardscrabble Business of Chinese Manufacturing in Africa
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Irene Yuan Sun, a consultant at McKinsey, explains why so many Chinese entrepreneurs are setting up factories in Africa. She describes what it’s lik...
Astronaut Scott Kelly on Working in Space
31 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Kelly, a retired U.S. astronaut, spent 520 days in space over four missions. Working in outer space is a lot like working on earth, but with dif...
2017’s Top-Performing CEO on Getting Product Right
24 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Pablo Isla, the CEO of Inditex, is No. 1 on Harvard Business Review’s list of “The Best-Performing CEOs in the World 2017.” He opens up about hi...
Everyday People Who Led Momentous Change
19 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Nancy Koehn, a Harvard Business School historian, tells the life stories of three influential leaders: the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the pacifi...
So, You Want to Join a Startup
12 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jeff Bussgang, a venture capitalist who teaches entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, knows from personal experience and having funded many sta...
How Successful Solopreneurs Make Money
05 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Dorie Clark, a marketing strategy consultant, answers a burning question: how do people make money off of what they know? She outlines the options for...
Microsoft’s CEO on Rediscovering the Company’s Soul
28 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s third CEO, opens up about his effort to refresh the culture of the company and renew its focus on the future. He reflects...
Transcending Either-Or Decision Making
21 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Riel, an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, presents a model way to solve problems: integrative thinking. It’s taking th...
Find Your Happy Place at Work
14 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Annie McKee, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book “How to Be Happy at Work,” tells the story of her journey to...
How to Fix “Team Creep”
08 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Mortensen, an associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, discusses the research on "multiteaming"—when employees work not only a...
Why Everyone Should See Themselves as a Leader
31 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Sue Ashford, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, breaks down her decades of research on leadership—who achieves i...
Basic Competence Can Be a Strategy
24 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Raffaella Sadun, a professor at Harvard Business School, explains why seemingly common-sensical management practices are so hard to implement. After s...
How the U.S. Navy is Responding to Climate Change
18 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Forest Reinhardt and Michael Toffel, Harvard Business School professors, talk about how a giant, global enterprise that operates and owns assets at se...
When to Listen to a Dire Warning
10 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism adviser to U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, has made a career of investigating disaster warnin...
When Startups Scrapped the Business Plan
03 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Blank, entrepreneurship lecturer at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Columbia, talks about his experience of coming to Silicon Valley and building com...
Build Your Portfolio Career
27 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Kabir Sehgal, a corporate strategist, Grammy-winning producer, investment banker, bestselling author, and military reserve officer, talks about buildi...
How AI Is Already Changing Business
20 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School professor, explains how rapid advances in machine learning are presenting new opportunities for businesses. He bre...