Stay ConnectedInspiring 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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In The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, Dame Diane Coyle argues that traditional measures like GDP no longer capture economic realities.
Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She is also the director of the Productivity Institute, a fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and a member of the UK’s Competition Commission. Drawing on her deep expertise, she proposes an alternative framework for measuring productivity that enables better policymaking.
In her conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, she discusses the shortcomings of GDP—such as a lack of accounting for immaterial goods or natural capital, alternative measures of progress, and how corporate leaders should rethink their approach to measurement.
Key topics discussed:
01:32 | The shortcomings of GDP as a measure of productivity
09:14 | The issues of inflated GDP statements
11:12 | Alternative measures of productivity and progress
13:47 | A time-based approach to measuring productivity
16:39 | How productivity measurement works in practice
18:57 | Implications for corporate leaders
Additional inspirations from Diane Coyle:
In Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, Edward Fishman argues that the nature of international power has fundamentally shifted from military might to economic statecraft.
Fishman is a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and an adjunct professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia. Previously, he served at the US State Department, leading work on economic sanctions. In his new book, he examines how governments—particularly the US’s—are increasingly using financial tools, regulatory measures, and targeted sanctions to shape international relations, secure strategic advantages, and resolve conflicts.
In his conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses the history of sanctions, how the US came to wield them so powerfully, how diplomatic back channels are navigated in applying them—and what is important for making them effective in enforcing the desired governance changes.
Key topics discussed:
02:05 | The history of chokepoints and US dominance over them
08:45 | The role of businesses in economic diplomacy
12:17 | Navigating diplomatic back channels
15:32 | The role of technology and export controls
19:45 | Oil price caps as an innovation in sanctions design
23:10 | The effectiveness of sanctions in enforcing governance changes
27:44 | On the origins of this book
Additional inspirations from Edward Fishman:
In There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift, Kevin Evers examines the singer-songwriter's remarkable career success from a business strategy perspective.
Evers is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, where he has edited bestselling and award-winning books on high performance, creativity, innovation, digital disruption, marketing, and strategy.
In discussion with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, they cover the scale and longevity of Swift's success, the strategic moves and innovations that have driven her rise and staying power, her ability to reinvent herself and connect with fans in new ways, and lessons for strategists and companies.
In Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier, Matthew C. Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau discuss the discuss the history, the present, and the future of the space economy.
Weinzierl is the Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and founder of the Economics of Space project at HBS. Rosseau is an Orbital Launch strategy manager at the American space technology company Blue Origin. Together, they provide in-depth academic and practitioner perspectives on the space economy.
In their conversation with Nikolaus Lang, global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute, they discuss the central governance vs. market-driven models of the space economy, the geopolitics of space, and whether the first trillionaire will be an asteroid miner.
Key topics discussed:
02:03 | The three phases of the space economy
05:28 | Central governance vs. market-driven model of the space economy
08:23 | Geopolitics of space
11:33 | The market structure of the space economy (on Earth)
17:14 | Space junk
21:03 | Asteroid mining
23:47 | How to make space interesting again
In The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business Is Wrong, John Kay provides a novel perspective on the evolution of the contemporary corporation.
One of the UK’s leading economists, Kay is a fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. He was the first dean of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and has held chairs at London Business School, the University of Oxford, and the London School of Economics and director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Kay discusses the essence of the modern corporation, the changing relationship of capital and labour, the gap between the our historic concept of the corporation and the current reality and the forces that have and will further shape the corporation including sustainability, geopolitics, and technology.
Key topics discussed:
01:56 | The essence of a 21st century corporation
05:53 | The changing roles of workers and capital
12:26 | Limits to corporate scale
16:00 | Forces that will shape the future of corporations sustainability, geopolitics, technology
21:50 | The impact of AI on the nature of the corporation
24:12 | Implications for managers
Additional inspirations from John Kay:
In Uncertainty and Enterprise: Venturing Beyond the Known, Amar Bhidé revisits and modernizes the concept of Knightian uncertainty. Introduced more than 100 years ago, the concept offers great potential for better understanding corporate decision-making.
A renowned expert on innovation, entrepreneurship, and finance, Bhidé is a professor of Health Policy at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, as well as a professor emeritus of Business at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Bhidé discusses the important distinction between repeated and unique events, the relationship between uncertainty and imagination, how corporations can use persuasive narratives and social routes to navigate the future, and whether AI will help or hinder these practices.
Key topics discussed:
01:16 | The definition of uncertainty
04:49 | The relation between uncertainty and imagination
09:32 | The power of corporate routines
15:57 | The changing nature of uncertainty
17:25 | How AI impacts uncertainty
21:02 | Corporate implications
22:38 | Implications for business education
Additional inspirations from Amar Bhidé:
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 40,000 acquisitions over the past four decades. This has not only allowed them to understand the reasons why 75% of deals fail but also to develop a scorecard that can help decision-makers assess the likelihood of acquisition success ex ante.
In their conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Lev and Gu discuss how to measure acquisition success, how to curb overconfidence on the side of the acquirer, and key lessons for CEOs seeking inorganic growth.
Key topics discussed:
[02:45] How mergers and acquisitions have changed
[05:00] Judging the success or failure of acquisitions
[08:16] Drivers of acquisition failure
[14:41] Patterns of successful acquisitions
[17:27] Overconfidence and its causes
[19:51] Managerial implications
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 Human Performance. Using her background in psychology and computer science, Matz investigates the intricate connections between our digital and real lives and how these are shaped by technology.
In her conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Matz discusses the power of psychological profiling, highlights the harms as well as benefits of the personalization it enables, and outlines implications for businesses and regulators, including the possibility of entirely new business models.
Key topics discussed:
[01:10] Power of psychological profiling
[05:05] Scale and impact of big data–based psychological profiling
[09:06] Benefits and harms of personalization
[16:05] Challenges of regulating profiling and personalization
[17:57] Ramifications of the AI-driven content revolution
[23:20] Implications for businesses
[28:37] How to manage your data footprint
Additional inspirations from Sandra Matz:
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 systems. He has written extensively on topics such as financial fraud, accountability in organizations, and the intersections of economics and management. His latest book combines cybernetics theory and real-world examples to explain how decisions are increasingly made not by accountable individuals, but by systems.
In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, Davies describes the pathologies of failing decision-making systems, explains why we tend not to learn from past mistakes, and outlines why he worries that AI might not improve our capability to make decisions unless we carefully redesign decision systems to tap its potential.
Key topics discussed:
01:03 | Unintended outcomes generated by decision-making systems
07:08 | What we can learn from the theory of cybernetics
09:49 | Pathologies of failing information systems
11:49 | Why we make the same mistakes again and again
14:41 | How AI may impact decision-making
16:39 | Steps toward improving our decision-making systems
Additional inspirations from Dan Davies:
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’s Center for Information Technology Policy, he examines the societal impacts of AI, with a focus on reproducibility, transparency, and accountability in AI systems. In his new book, he cuts through the hype to help readers discriminate between legitimate and bogus claims for AI technologies and applications.
In his conversation with Martin Reeves, chair of the BCG Henderson Institute, Kapoor discusses historical patterns of technology hype, differentiates between the powers and limitations of predictive versus generative AI, and outlines how managers can balance healthy skepticism with embracing the potential of new technologies.
Key topics discussed:
01:05 | Examples of AI “snake oil”
04:42 | Historical patterns of technology hypeand how AI is different
07:26 | Capabilities and exaggerations of predictive AI
11:42 | Powers and limitations of generative AI
17:11 | Drivers of inflated expectations
20:18 | Implications for regulation
23:26 | How managers can balance scepticism and embracing new tech
24:58 | Future of AI research
Additional inspirations from Sayash Kapoor:
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