INSEAD Knowledge Podcast

Leadership has two faces -- there's the glamorous side that happens in the spotlight, and the less obvious work that goes on behind the scenes. Both are crucial, but leadership literature has increasingly stressed the public face at the expense of the more technocratic one. To borrow terminology from seminal organisational theorist James March, it focuses on the poetry of leadership and often negl...

Luk Van Wassenhove, INSEAD Emeritus Professor of Technology and Operations Management, is one of the world's foremost researchers on business and sustainability. Long before the phrase "circular economy" was widely known, he was partnering with companies to reduce waste in their supply chains. In addition, he has decades of experience helping NGOs improve their delivery of services in some of the...

Even before COVID-19, supply chains were under constant threat from global disruptive events. Demand volatility caused by climate change, trade wars, pandemics, political unrest, etc. stir chaos in the market, as we saw with the waves of panic buying that swept the world along with the coronavirus. Supermarket shelves stripped of toilet paper and other essentials are only the most recent manifesta...

A lot of us are out of our comfort zones right now, both physically and psychologically. While this is an unsettling place to be, it can also lead to more out-of-the-box thinking and breakthrough ideas. In other words, the exceptional conditions of this crisis may help foster the new ideas we need to surmount it. Prof. Li Huang joins us to discuss her extensive research into creativity, recommendi...

In this Special Edition of the INSEAD Knowledge podcast, our editors sit down with three INSEAD faculty thought leaders working at the cutting edge of public health research. First, Prashant Yadav discusses how medical supply chains are falling short of keeping us safe, the potentially dire consequences in cases of global emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic, and the "social innovators" pois...

Can you do good without being a "do-gooder"? INSEAD strategy professor Jasjit Singh argues that you don't need to quit your job and join an NGO to have a beneficial impact on the world. But doing the most good may not mean painting houses in your off-hours or running marathons for charity. Increasingly, businesses are pursuing both social impact and profits -- sometimes in the same sweet spot, oth...

When it comes to innovation, people often confuse product with process. Creating game-changing products and services (or any novel and useful business solution) requires creative approaches that aren't part of the standard managerial skill-set. Manuel Sosa, INSEAD Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management, joins us to discuss how close-knit collaborations between managers and des...

Jennifer Petriglieri, author of the new book Couples That Work: How to Thrive in Love and at Work, has interviewed more than 100 dual-career couples on their triumphs and tensions. The key to long-term happiness, she says, is for partners to communicate about deeper issues, rather than getting hung up on practicalities. But what happens if couples discover they may not be on the same page? Read mo...