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Thinkers & Ideas

Thinkers & Ideas

BCG Institute 155 Episodes Oct 13, 2026

Thinkers & Ideas features inspiring conversations with leading thinkers on influential topics in business, technology, economics, and science. Hosted by Nikolaus Lang and Adam Job, the podcast offers deep insights from BCG's Institute. Listeners can also subscribe to the BCG Institute Insights newsletter for more ideas and inspiration.

Episodes

AI Native with Kai-Fu Lee
AI Native with Kai-Fu Lee Oct 13, 2026 32:57 In AI Native: The Mandate to Transform Your Company, Kai-Fu Lee argues that real competitive advantage from AI does not come from buying access to the most powerful model, but from rebuilding the company itself around AI. Lee is the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, the founder and CEO of 01.AI, the former president of Google China, and the bestselling author of AI Superpowers. In his new b
The CEO with Nitin Nohria
The CEO with Nitin Nohria Sep 29, 2026 31:31 In The CEO: The Role, the Reality, the Responsibility, Nitin Nohria argues that the CEO’s real work is not making the big decisions personally but building the conditions under which thousands of good decisions get made by everyone else. Nohria is the former dean of Harvard Business School, where he is currently the George F. Baker Professor of Administration, and for nearly 30 years he has run th
How Great Things Happen with George Newman
How Great Things Happen with George Newman Sep 16, 2026 32:08 In How Great Ideas Happen: The Hidden Steps Behind Breakthrough Success, George Newman argues that great ideas are not conjured from within but discovered outside of us, already present in the world, and that finding them is a methodical search anyone can run rather than a flash of genius reserved for a gifted few.Newman is a cognitive scientist and psychologist, and an associate professor of orga
Manage the Machine with Paula Goldman
Manage the Machine with Paula Goldman Sep 1, 2026 29:56 In Manage the Machine: How to Harness Human-AI Collaboration at Work, Paula Goldman argues that AI has crossed over from being a tool to being a partner, and that the companies that win will not be the ones automating the most or the fastest, but the ones that deliberately design around where humans still need to lead.Goldman is the first-ever chief ethical and humane use officer at Salesforce, wh
Global by Design with Vijay Govindarajan
Global by Design with Vijay Govindarajan Aug 18, 2026 29:23 In Global by Design: How to Create Innovations That Scale, Travel, and Transform, Vijay Govindarajan argues that the most powerful innovations are designed from the ground up for emerging markets like rural China or India, and then travel back to disrupt wealthy ones. Govindarajan is the Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business and one of the world’s foremost exp
Blue Ocean Strategy with Renée Mauborgne
Blue Ocean Strategy with Renée Mauborgne Aug 4, 2026 30:42 In Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, Renée Mauborgne argues that lasting growth does not come from winning market share in crowded existing industries, but from creating entirely new market space that no one is competing in yet. Mauborgne is a professor of strategy at INSEAD and co-director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.
From the Archive: Making Sense of Chaos with Doyne Farmer
From the Archive: Making Sense of Chaos with Doyne Farmer Jul 21, 2026 31:16 As uncertainty continues to define the business landscape, we’re revisiting our conversation with economist and complexity scientist Doyne Farmer on why conventional forecasting often falls short in a world shaped by interconnected, dynamic systems. Drawing on decades of research, he explains how complexity science offers a more realistic way to think about prediction, risk, and decision-making—an
Crisis Engineering with Matthew Weaver and Mikey Dickerson
Crisis Engineering with Matthew Weaver and Mikey Dickerson Jul 7, 2026 43:10 In Crisis Engineering: Time-Tested Tools for Turning Chaos Into Clarity, Matthew Weaver and Mikey Dickerson argue that organizational crises are not problems to be survived but are rare windows in which rapid, directed transformation becomes possible within days rather than years.Weaver was a founding Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) at Google and later established the Defense Digital Service at th
The Irrational Decision with Ben Recht
The Irrational Decision with Ben Recht Jun 23, 2026 26:45 In The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us, Benjamin Recht argues that the optimization and mathematical rationality we apply to every corner of modern life—from dieting to hiring to strategy—often fails when encountering the messy realities of life.Recht is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley. In his new book, he traces how a
AI Needs You with Verity Harding
AI Needs You with Verity Harding Jun 9, 2026 37:54 In AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own, Verity Harding argues that AI governance is too important to be left to technologists alone—and that the rest of us need to join the conversation to shape this technology’s future.Harding is the director of the AI and Geopolitics Project at the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and the founder of Formatio
Incorruptible with Eric Ries
Incorruptible with Eric Ries May 26, 2026 36:15 In 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 ne
Inside the Box with David Epstein
Inside the Box with David Epstein May 13, 2026 30:16 In 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 re

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