Podcast
Thinkers & Ideas
Hosted by BCG Henderson Institute · EN
Inspiring and thought-provoking conversations with leading thinkers about influential ideas on business, technology, economics, and science. Hosted by Nikolaus Lang and Adam Job.
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20episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Incorruptible with Eric Ries
1w ago00:36:15Tap to summarizeIn Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, Eric Ries argues that mission-driven companies face an invisible pressure that pushes them toward short-termism and conformity, no matter the intentions of their stakeholders.Ries is the best-selling author of The Lean Startup, founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, and advisor to startups around the globe. In his new book, he traces a recurring pattern across two centuries of business: principled founders build something exceptional, only to watch it be corrupted—not by greedy individuals, but by systemic forces baked into how capitalism is structured.In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, Ries discusses how corporate corruption starts, why shareholder primacy became the norm, the concept of financial gravity, and the structural protections companies can put in place to defend their mission.Key topics discussed: 01:09 | How corporate corruption starts03:50 | The rise of shareholder primacy08:18 | Why mission-driven companies outperform but don’t dominate11:06 | Are private equity and activist investors always destructive?15:31 | Financial gravity: the invisible force that pulls companies off course19:31 | Structural defenses: purpose, coherence, and integrity27:06 | Can mature companies still be corrupted or still protect themselves?31:14 | What Eric Ries would add to The Lean Startup if he couldAdditional inspirations from Eric Ries:The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (Crown Currency, 2011)
Transcribe →Inside the Box with David Epstein
3w ago00:30:16Tap to summarizeIn Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better, David Epstein argues that constraints—not freedom—are what drive creativity, clarity, and focus.Epstein is a number one New York Times–best-selling author, known for Range and The Sports Gene. In his new book, he draws on psychology, economics, and case studies from NASA to Pixar to Dr. Seuss to show that our brains default to the path of least resistance—and that blocking that path is the only reliable way to force genuinely new thinking.In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses why freedom is the enemy of creativity, how leaders can set constraints that unlock rather than stifle their teams, why creativity is not the same as originality, and how Herbert Simon’s idea of “satisficing” can improve both decisions and well-being.Key topics discussed: 01:03 | Why constraints drive creativity and freedom doesn’t04:06 | What kinds of constraints to use and when they backfire09:30 | Constraints in innovation vs. execution13:08 | How to set constraints that maximize creativity without killing autonomy16:34 | Why creativity is not the same as novelty or originality19:29 | “Preregistering hypotheses” and how it applies to business23:19 | Herbert Simon’s “satisficing”: choosing good enough over endless optimization26:13 | How Epstein applies constraints in his own life and writing processAdditional inspirations from David Epstein:Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (Riverhead Books, 2019)The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance (Portfolio, 2014)
Transcribe →Genius at Scale with Linda A. Hill
Apr 2800:34:42Tap to summarizeIn Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation, Linda A. Hill argues that innovation fails not because companies lack ideas, but because they struggle to scale those ideas across the enterprise—and that the solution lies not in structure or processes, but in leadership.Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative, and one of the top ten management thinkers in the world as ranked by Thinkers50. In her new book, co-authored with Emily Tedards and Jason Wild, she draws on deep case studies of organizations from Mastercard to Pfizer to Pixar to show that scaling innovation requires three distinct but complementary leadership roles: architects, bridgers, and catalysts.In her conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses why innovation labs alone don’t work, the ABCs of innovation leadership, how to build a culture of creative abrasion, and why even senior leaders need coaching to get innovation right.Key topics discussed: 01:28 | Why innovation fails at the point of scaling, not ideation03:59 | The ABCs of innovation leadership: architects, bridgers, catalysts06:29 | Getting metrics and incentives right for innovation10:42 | What bridgers do and why organizations don’t have enough of them14:33 | Is innovation leadership a team sport or a solo act?18:48 | How to know which role you’re best suited to and how to learn the others24:04 | How incumbent leaders can create urgency without being the new CEOAdditional inspirations from Linda A. Hill:Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014)Article: Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale, co-authored by Emily Tedards and Jason Wild (March–April 2026 issue of Harvard Business Review)
Transcribe →Design Love In, with Marcus Buckingham
Apr 1400:35:38Tap to summarizeIn Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business, Marcus Buckingham argues that love—not engagement, satisfaction, or motivation—is the only feeling that reliably changes the behavior of employees and customers, and that it can be deliberately designed into business.Buckingham is one of the world’s foremost researchers on human performance. He is a former senior vice president at Gallup turned New York Times–best-selling author, having written First, Break All the Rules. In his new book, he draws on decades of research to show that the relationship between experiences and outcomes is not linear—only experiences so positive that people describe them as “love” actually drive loyalty, productivity, and advocacy.In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses why love is categorically different from engagement, the five feelings that make up a loving experience, three disciplines leaders can use to design love into their organizations, and why common practices like outsourcing and large spans of control are fundamentally unloving.Key topics discussed: 01:16 | Why love is categorically different from engagement or satisfaction04:43 | The nonlinear relationship between experiences and outcomes08:24 | How experiences drive behaviors that drive outcomes12:34 | Designing love in: the five feelings and three disciplines16:00 | Can love be designed into products, not just experiences?19:13 | The three disciplines: walk the stage, equip the people, sequence the scenes27:39 | Spans of control and the one-to-12 rule30:17 | The limits of artificial experience–makingAdditional inspirations from Marcus Buckingham:First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (Gallup Press, 2016)
Transcribe →BHI Presents: Winning the Rest of the 20s
Mar 3100:27:22Tap to summarizeIn this special episode, Rich Lesser, BCG’s global chair, and Martin Reeves, former chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, reflect on the shocks and surprises that shaped the first half of the decade and what they reveal about the future. They explore the traits leaders need today: building trust, staying geopolitically aware, and adopting AI in a people-centered way.
Transcribe →The Transformation Economy with B. Joseph Pine II
Mar 1700:28:04Tap to summarizeIn The Transformation Economy: Guiding Customers to Achieve Their Aspirations, B. Joseph Pine II argues that an economic shift is underway, in which transformations—not commodities, goods, services, or experiences—will become the highest form of value creation.Pine is an internationally acclaimed author, known for having coined the term “experience economy” in the 1990s. He works as a speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 companies. In his new book, he suggests that most companies compete by improving what they sell, while missing what customers actually want: to become different people.In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, Pine discusses the evolution of economic value creation, the North Star for transformation businesses, and how to scale from one to many transformation journeys.Key topics discussed: 01:01 | The evolution of economic value creation03:35 | How to get into the transformation business10:35 | The North Star for transformation businesses15:07 | Scaling beyond individual transformation journeys16:46 | Different types of transformation journeys20:37 | Making transformations last24:12 | Taking the first step toward the transformation economyAdditional inspirations from B. Joseph Pine II:The Experience Economy, With a New Preface by the Authors: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money, co-authored by James H. Gilmore (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019)
Transcribe →The Doom Loop with Eswar Prasad
Mar 300:28:49Tap to summarizeIn The Doom Loop: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling into Disorder, Eswar Prasad argues that we are caught in a destructive feedback loop between economics, domestic politics, and geopolitics.Prasad is a professor of Trade Policy and Economics at Cornell University, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. In his new book, he explores how globalization, international institutions, the rise of “middle power” countries, and technological innovations had the potential to promote shared prosperity—but instead are driving global instability.In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the breakdown of the rule-based system, implications for trade policy in Europe and elsewhere, and the role AI plays in driving global instability.Key topics discussed: 01:20 | The doom loop driving global instability06:41 | The positive aspects of globalization and middle powers12:02 | Implications for European trade policy15:51 | The breakdown of the rule-based system18:36 | The role of AI and other technologies in the doom loop23:57 | Reasons for remaining optimisticAdditional inspirations from Eswar Prasad:The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance (Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2023)
Transcribe →The New Geography of Innovation with Mehran Gul
Feb 1700:33:35Tap to summarizeIn The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies, Mehran Gul examines how innovation works in different countries around the globe—diving deep into the ecosystems that produce great technology companies.Gul is a writer and leading technology thinker, having served as the Lead for the Digital Transformation of Industries at the World Economic Forum. His book, which was nominated as a Financial Times best business book of 2025, he discusses why the United States remains at the world’s technological frontier, with only China being a true challenger.In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, Global Leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he talks about how innovation ecosystems are converging, the role of statecraft in fostering innovation ecosystems, and the main forces that will shift the global innovation landscape in the coming decade.Key topics discussed: 01:22 | Attributes of successful innovation ecosystems06:57 | US vs. China talent pool10:26 | What China gets right about innovation13:20 | Why Europe lags behind on innovation18:54 | The role of intentional statecraft in fostering innovation23:31 | The convergence of innovation ecosystems around the globe26:34 | Implications for businesses28:56 | How the global innovation landscape will evolve in the next decade
Transcribe →Flourish with Daniel Coyle
Feb 300:31:51Tap to summarizeIn Flourish: The Transformative Power of Creating Community, Daniel Coyle investigates the ecosystems in which humans do their best work—from sports teams, to the boardroom, and our daily lives.Daniel Coyle is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, in which he explores how people and groups grow, perform, and flourish. He combines immersive field reporting with behavioral science to create practical frameworks for building skill, culture, and meaningful connection.In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses his definition of flourishing, how to find moments of stillness in our turbulent world, and how leaders can balance efficiency with the disorder that fosters creativity.Key topics discussed: 01:03 | The definition of flourishing09:13 | Finding moments of reflection and stillness16:41 | Crisis as a trigger for flourishing19:52 | Messiness and creativity26:39 | Balancing disorder and efficiency29:40 | A starting point for leadersAdditional inspirations from Daniel Coyle:The Culture Playbook: 60 Highly Effective Actions to Help Your Group Succeed (Random House Audio, 2022)The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (Bantam, 2018)The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. (Bantam, 2009)
Transcribe →Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World with Dani Rodrik
Jan 2000:30:58Tap to summarizeIn Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World: A New Economics for the Middle Class, the Global Poor, and Our Climate, Dani Rodrik proposes new modes of cooperation and policy experimentation to address our greatest global challenges.Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. He codirects both the Reimagining the Economy Program at Harvard and the Economics for Inclusive Prosperity network.In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the trilemma between democracy, prosperity, and sustainability, how hyper-globalization contributed to this struggle, and his proposed framework for resolving it.Key topics discussed: 01:06 | The trilemma of democracy, prosperity, and sustainability03:50 | The shortcomings of hyper-globalization10:33 | Why manufacturing is no longer an escape from poverty14:47 | Services as drivers of development18:33 | The new framework of productivism23:25 | The power of unilateral climate actions27:26 | Implications for business leadersAdditional inspirations from Dani Rodrik:Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy (Princeton University Press, 2017)Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015)
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