HBR IdeaCast
Harvard Business Review
249 episodes
A weekly podcast featuring the leading thinkers in business and management.
Episodes page 1 of 5
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Staying Principled in a Time of Uncertainty
How do you lead through a crisis, build an innovative company, and prepare an organization for long-term success? For Kenneth Chenault, former CEO of American Express and current chairman at General Catalyst, effective…
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When You Feel Envy, Turn It Into Something Productive
Envy can damage workplace relationships, fuel unhealthy competition, and leave employees feeling stuck. But it can also reveal what people want from their careers—and offer leaders an opportunity to turn rivalry into…
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Why Great Teams Don’t Need to Like Each Other
What makes a great team? It might have less to do with whether colleagues like one another and more to do with whether they’re aligned on a shared purpose. Organizational psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant…
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How AI Is Changing Strategy: Rethinking What Your Business Is Designed to Do
AI is advancing so quickly that companies can’t afford to treat it as simply another productivity tool; it is fundamentally reshaping strategy. In this final episode of our special four-part series on how AI is…
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Optimism Is Now an Essential Leadership Skill
Optimism isn’t about ignoring problems or pretending everything will work out. It’s about acknowledging challenges while believing that your actions can still make a difference. Psychologist and researcher Michelle…
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How AI Is Changing Innovation: Why Speed Alone Isn’t a Strategy
AI is making it faster and cheaper than ever to turn ideas into prototypes, products, and businesses—but that abundance creates new challenges for leaders. In episode 3 of a special four-part series on how AI is…
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What Retail Legend Ron Johnson Learned from Apple’s Success and JCPenney’s Failure
How do you know when to trust your previous experience in a transformation environment, and how do you know when to listen, observe, and adapt? Ron Johnson helped create the Apple Store and transform Target into a…
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How AI Is Changing Communication: Weighing Efficiency with Efficacy
AI is rapidly changing how top leaders communicate with employees, customers, boards, and each other. In episode 2 of a special four-part series on how AI is changing leadership, we explore how executives can use AI to…
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What New CEOs Get Wrong About the Job
Becoming CEO can look like the culmination of a career. But the skills that help someone rise to the top job aren’t necessarily the ones that make them successful once they get there. Nitin Nohria, former dean of…
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How AI Is Changing Talent, Not Just Tasks: Rethinking Where Human Judgment Matters Most
The decisions leaders must make about AI today go far beyond what platforms to invest in: AI is changing organizational culture and leadership for good. In episode 1 of a special four-part series on how AI is changing…
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What It Takes to Make Progress When the Future Feels Out of Control
When the future feels increasingly out of our control, how can leaders and organizations make progress? University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the study of optimism, resilience, and human…
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A Leading Restaurateur on What It Takes to Scale a Winning Culture
When a company is small, maintaining a strong culture can feel relatively easy. But as organizations grow, layers of management, geographic distance, and pressure for efficiency can make it much harder to preserve what…
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Are Great Leaders Truly Great—or Just Lucky?
How much does a leader actually matter to an organization’s success? We tend to credit CEOs, founders, and other powerful figures with shaping the institutions they lead, but historian Jared Diamond argues that we…
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How People Without Formal Power Gain Influence
In today’s increasingly decentralized workplaces, leaders often need to get things done without having direct authority over the people they depend on. So how can you influence colleagues, clients, vendors, and even…
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Living and Working in the Age of Longevity
People are living longer, healthier lives than ever before. But many of our assumptions about executive careers—from climbing the corporate ladder to retiring at 65—haven’t caught up. London Business School professor…
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The Innovation Strategy Most Companies Miss
Companies often build products for wealthy markets first and then try to adapt them for the rest of the world. But according to Dartmouth Tuck professor Vijay Govindarajan and MIT professor Amos Winter, designing for…
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Why Great Turnarounds Start with Culture, Not Strategy
In an era of constant disruption, successful turnarounds require more than a new strategy—they demand a new culture. Dan Schulman, former CEO of PayPal, came out of retirement to tackle the challenge of taking over the…
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Introducing The Founder Mindset: Tim Ferriss on Experiments, Risk, and Freedom
What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur in today’s uncertain world? How do you balance risk, decision-making, and curiosity? We’re sharing an episode from The Founder Mindset with Reza Satchu, the new podcast…
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What Makes Chinese Companies So Competitive?
To compete in business anywhere today, leaders at all levels need to learn about the culture and mindset that sets Chinese businesses apart. Stanford research fellow Dan Wang argues that they’ve built an edge that goes…
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Leadership Summit 2026: Inspiring Grit and Growth Amid Unprecedented Change
Most leaders are asking the same question about AI: Will it make their teams more productive—or slowly erode the very skills they’re trying to build? In this special episode, as part of the recent HBR Leadership Summit…
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Why Great Leaders Need More Than Good Judgment
What if the key to success in today’s business world wasn’t about making difficult decisions quickly—but about broadening the scope through which you make decisions? Leaders Alliance CEO Cornelia Choe and executive…
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Leadership Summit 2026: AT&T CEO John Stankey on Developing Technology and Talent in the AI Era
How do you reinvigorate a legacy company without losing what made it great? In this special episode, as part of the recent HBR Leadership Summit 2026, AT&T CEO John Stankey shares how he refocused AT&T’s strategy on…
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The New Rules for Becoming an Enterprise Leader
What does it take to succeed in an enterprise-level leadership role today? Michael Watkins, professor at IMD and author of the book The First 90 Days, says that the leap from functional or business line manager to a…
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Leadership Summit 2026: Honest Company CEO Carla Vernón on Leading with Focus in Turbulent Times
How do you take a young, purpose-led company to the next level? In this special episode, as part of the recent HBR Leadership Summit 2026, The Honest Company CEO Carla Vernón shares how she leveraged the powerful…
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How Leaders Can Use AI to Solve Real Business Problems
Many organizations are investing heavily in AI, but too few are asking the most important question: What problem are we actually trying to solve? Journalist and author Josh Tyrangiel argues that successful AI adoption…
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Leadership Summit 2026: Mattel’s CEO on Driving Consumer Engagement and Cultural Impact
How do you reinvent an 80-year-old company without losing what made it successful in the first place? In this special episode, as part of the recent HBR Leadership Summit 2026, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz explains how he…
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How Top World Cup, NBA, and NFL Coaches Make Better Decisions Under Pressure
When the stakes are high and the clock is ticking, how do great leaders make the right call? Sports performance consultant Alan McCall and sports scientist Johann Bilsborough say that leaders can improve…
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Creating Products with Curiosity, Humility, and Play
Most leaders know they need to innovate, but many take a strong instinct and hold too tightly to an idea, rather than testing, experimenting, and playing to find the best solution. Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, argues…
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The Right Way to Manage Rule Breakers
Most leaders assume that when employees break rules, punishment is the answer. But according to researcher Michael Gill, associate professor at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, that mindset overlooks a…
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We All Hate Meetings—Here’s How to Make Them Work
Meetings are one of the biggest drains on time, energy, and morale at work, yet most managers are never actually taught how to run them well. Paul English, cofounder of Kayak, argues that organizations underestimate…
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Reinventing an Organization to Do More with Less
What does it take to manage a complex global institution when change is constant and resources are scarce? For Kelly T. Clements, Deputy High Commissioner at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), it’s about building resilient…
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What Leads Companies to Betray Their Own Principles
Why do so many organizations lose their way as they grow? Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author, says that corruption inside companies rarely begins with bad people or dramatic scandals. More often, it emerges slowly,…
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How to Break Free of Negative Thought Spirals
Why do we replay cryptic emails, small workplace slights, and past business decisions over and over in our heads? Science journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa has looked deep into the research and discovered the hidden…
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The Leadership Skills That Make Transformation Stick
Why do so many organizational change efforts stall or flat out fail? Julia Dhar, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group, says the problem often isn’t strategy, it’s behavior. Leaders spend enormous…
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New Skills to Navigate Continuous Change
What if the biggest barrier to change isn’t resistance—but the way we’ve been taught to lead? Nilofer Merchant, an author and leadership expert, says a number of habits are holding organizations of all sizes back. She…
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Why Your Team Won’t Speak Up (And How to Fix It)
Many senior leaders say they want an organization filled with psychological safety and candor, but they often act in ways that are counterproductive to that goal. Charles Duhigg, an author and researcher, has looked…
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What Sets Superteams Apart from the Rest
A small percentage of teams perform exceptionally well and have fun while doing it. And the secret to their success isn't innate talent. It's the way they work together. Ron Friedman, psychologist and the founder of…
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To Gain Customer—and Employee—Loyalty, Go Beyond Good Enough
Companies that spend their energy on incremental improvements to products, services, and even employee experience might just be spinning their wheels. Author Marcus Buckingham argues that data show that the only way to…
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The Case for Designing Work Around Circadian Rhythms
Are you a morning type, a night owl, or somewhere in between? And what about the people on your team? When do they feel most energized and productive? Stefan Volk, professor of management at the University of Sydney…
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Strategy Summit 2026: Who’s Going to Succeed with AI?
Artificial intelligence is advancing quickly, but its real impact on productivity, jobs, and competitive advantage is still uncertain. In this four-part special series, we'll share conversations from the recent HBR…
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Building a Sustainability Strategy Around Customers
For sustainability to be a core part of your business model, you might need to rethink how and why you incorporate sustainable policies and products. That's according to IMD Business School professor Goutam…
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Strategy Summit 2026: Inventive Strategy and the ‘Unbossed’ Organization
As AI takes hold of the business world, is long-term competitive advantage a thing of the past? In this four-part special series, we'll share conversations from the recent HBR Strategy Summit to help you get ahead. In…
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Learn to Disagree More Effectively
Disagreement is essential to better decisions—but most of us either avoid it or handle it poorly. Julia Minson is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and she's spent years studying…
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The Shifting Relationship Between Business and the U.S. Government
As the Trump administration continues to reshape the U.S. and global business landscape, many have been left wondering why CEOs and other business leaders aren't vocalizing their views. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is a…
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Strategy Summit 2026: Why AI Transformation Needs a Human Touch
AI needs to be central to any organization's strategy today, but many are still not implementing the technology in the most effective ways. In this four-part special series, we'll share conversations from the recent…
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The Hidden Causes of AI Workslop—and How to Fix Them
As organizations and their employees ramp up their generative AI experimentation, leaders are facing a new problem: the rise of AI-generated "workslop," which seems okay on the surface but doesn't actually pass muster…
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The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation
The ability of an organization to innovate over and over again, for the long term, depends on leadership structure, culture, and systems. That's according to Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, who has spent…
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Assuming the Best About Others is Hard—But Necessary
Are you guilty of bracing for the worst when it comes to your clients, colleagues, and bosses? Amer Kaissi, professor at Trinity University, explains why bringing that negative mindset to work will quietly undermine…
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With Rise of Agents, We Are Entering the World of Identic AI
What if the AI you integrate into your organization isn't just about efficiency or creating digital assistants, but completely changes how you work? Longtime digital trend watcher Don Tapscott says the next wave of…
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What You Must Deliver to Win Customers Today
What if your customers aren't looking for better products and services, but for a way for themselves to become better? While the experience economy remains important, Strategic Horizons cofounder B. Joseph Pine II…
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