Thinkers & Ideas

Jan 21 2025 121 ep. 27 mins 105

Thinkers & Ideas Podcast artwork

Inspiring and thought-provoking conversations with leading thinkers about influential ideas on business, technology, economics, and science. Hosted by Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, and Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, Global Chief Economist of BCG. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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The M&A Failure Trap, with Baruch Lev and Feng Gu

Jan 21 2025 26 mins

In The M&A Failure Trap: Why Most Mergers and Acquisitions Fail and How the Few Succeed, Baruch Lev and Feng Gu provide a wealth of evidence on the success and failure factors of acquisitions.Lev, professor emeritus of Accounting and Finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business and Gu, professor of Accounting and Law at the State University of New York, have analyzed more than 4

Mindmasters with Sandra Matz

Jan 07 2025 31 mins

In Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior, Sandra Matz explores what our digital footprints reveal about us and how these insights are used to influence our daily decisions.Matz is the David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, where she also serves as co-director of the Center for Advanced Technology and

The Unaccountability Machine with Dan Davies

Dec 17 2024 27 mins

In The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions and How the World Lost Its Mind, Dan Davies examines why companies and governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims they do not want.Davies is an economist, writer, and former investment banker known for his insightful analysis of finance, corporate governance, and decision-making

AI Snake Oil with Sayash Kapoor

Dec 03 2024 27 mins

In AI Snake Oil: What AI Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference, Sayash Kapoor and his co-author Arvind Narayanan provide an essential understanding of how AI works and why some applications remain fundamentally beyond its capabilities.Kapoor was included in TIME’s inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in AI. As a researcher at Princeton University’

The Age of Outrage with Karthik Ramanna

Nov 12 2024 32 mins

In The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World, Karthik Ramanna provides a framework for leaders to navigate outrage—the intense, polarized reactions to perceived social injustices, political stances, and misaligned corporate actions—by addressing root causes, engaging stakeholders, and building resilience.Ramanna, a professor of Business and Public Policy at the Unive

The Corporate Life Cycle with Aswath Damodaran

Oct 29 2024 25 mins

In The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications, Aswath Damodaran presents the corporate life cycle as a universal key for demystifying business finance, strategy and company valuation.Damodaran is a professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Known as “the Dean of Valuation,” he has published extensively in academ

Big Bet Leadership with John Rossman

Oct 15 2024 28 mins

In Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era, John Rossman provides a playbook for becoming an innovation and transformation winner.Rossman was previously an executive at Amazon, responsible for launching their Marketplace business. Now, he is the managing partner of Rossman Partners, advising leading enterprises on large-scale change, an

Critical Systems Thinking with Michael C. Jackson

Oct 01 2024 30 mins

In Critical Systems Thinking: A Practitioner's Guide, Michael C. Jackson emphasizes the need for integrating diverse systems methodologies to navigate complexity and uncertainty.Jackson, an emeritus professor of management systems and former dean of the University of Hull Business School, has also served as president of several prominent systems thinking organizations, in

Deep Utopia with Nick Bostrom

Sep 18 2024 26 mins

There is no shortage of technologists touting the promise of AI, but the frontier of AI fervor is a noted philosopher who thinks the economy could double every few months—and that space colonization by self-replicating machines may not be hundreds of years away.Enter Nick Bostrom, who previously authored the 2014 bestseller Superintelligence about the dangers of AI, and now consi

The Great Disconnect with Marco Magnani

Sep 04 2024 27 mins

In The Great Disconnect: Hopes and Fears After the Excess of Globalization, Marco Magnani explores the factors that are driving the crisis of globalization we are currently experiencing.Magnani teaches international economics at LUISS University in Rome and Università Cattolica in Milan. Previously, he was a senior research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and wo