Thinkers & Ideas

In SuperAdaptability: How to Transcend in an Age of Overwhelm , Max McKeown argues that the key to thriving under uncertainty is adaptability—being able to change with your environment, again and again, getting better each time. McKeown is a leading strategy thinker, coach to Fortune 100 companies, and an award-winning author. In his new book, he reveals how figures as different as Frida Kahlo, Le...

In Capitalism and Its Critics: A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World , John Cassidy offers a multi-century history of global capitalism, told through the eyes of its dissenters. Cassidy is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. His new book blends biography, history, and economic analysis to reveal the roots of urgent debates the business world and society face today, as A...

In Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain , Nicholas Wright argues that war and competition are rooted in human biology—in our drives for survival, fairness, territory, and belonging. Wright is a neuroscientist who researches the brain, technology, and security at University College London; Georgetown University; and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washing...

In After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People , Dean Spears and Michael Geruso argue that the defining demographic risk of this century is global depopulation. Spears and Geruso are both professors at the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on economic demography and development economics. In their new book, they explore the trend of falling birth rates, how it threatens hu...

In How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations , Carl Benedikt Frey argues that progress, throughout history, has not just depended on technological innovations but also on the flexibility of our institutions. Frey is the associate professor of AI & Work at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Future of Work program. In his new book, he explores how technologic...

In Anointed: The Extraordinary Effects of Social Status in A Winner-Take-Most World , Toby Stuart dives deeply into the power that social status holds over us. Stuart is the Leo Helzel Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. In his new book, he explores how social status shapes everything—from who we trust and what we value, to which ideas and innovations...

In Reshuffle: Who Wins When AI Restacks the Knowledge Economy , Sangeet Paul Choudary explores common misconceptions about how AI will change work, organizations, and business ecosystems. Choudary is the founder and CEO of Platformation Labs and a senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. An expert on AI, platforms, and the economics of big tech, he has sold more than half a million...

In The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World , Hal Brands illuminates the historical patterns we must understand in order to better navigate the geopolitical rivalries of the present. Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is also a senior fellow at t...

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...

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...

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 Mar...

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...

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...

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...

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 acquisition...

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 Performa...

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 h...

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 Informa...

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 University of Oxford’s...

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 academic journals, writt...

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, and author of th...

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, including the&...

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 considers what can go...

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 worked in investm...

In Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future , Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley explore the intangible forces that make it hard to anticipate how new technologies create impact and what we can do about this challenge during the design process for new applications. Carter is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford – also known as...