Jessica Apotheker, chief marketing officer of BCG and BCGX, and Akbar Hamid, co-founder of People of Crypto Lab, explain how the metaverse can combine the best of the physical and virtual worlds to create a seamless immersive experience—or amplify what’s wrong in the physical world.   This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

AI is evolving daily, challenging businesses to adjust and adapt. Vladimir Lukic, global leader of BCG’s Tech & Digital Advantage practice, demystifies what companies need to get right when implementing AI. A shift in mindset can go a long way toward unlocking AI’s potential.   This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Leaders frequently talk about purpose and vision. Too often, these concepts get stuck at the top and do not cascade down throughout the organization. BCG’s David Ritter explains how organizations can unlock latent productivity and creativity by connecting purpose and vision to the day-to-day work of teams.    This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Customers are demanding speed and convenience in their interactions with companies. Technology, especially artificial intelligence, is often better at meeting customer needs than humans. Karen Lellouche Tordjman, leader of BCG’s customer experience work, explains how companies can combine technology and humans to create the most compelling customer journeys and touchpoints.    This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

The post–World War II order of free markets, democratic government, and global institutions is breaking apart, argues Nikolaus Lang, who leads BCG’s Global Advantage practice. With the future uncertain, companies should prepare for a range of scenarios that likely involve greater uncertainty and less global trade.   This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Sylvain Duranton helps companies build AI-enabled businesses. As the the global leader of BCG X, he has a front row seat to the generative AI revolution. He discusses the industries likely to face the most disruption, the future of work, and how generative AI can help solve challenges in climate and health. His advice to companies unsure how to get started? Pick a difference-making opportunity; invest adequately; upskill your people; and rethink processes to accommodate generative AI.  (Read...

CEOs generally face either economic uncertainty (the Great Recession) or great change (the digital-driven era preceding the pandemic). Today’s leaders are facing both at the same time, explains Rich Lesser, BCG’s chair. While uncertainty requires resilience, change requires evolution. It’s hard to do both. Nonetheless, Lesser sees great potential with the advances in AI but also physical technologies such as synthetic biology. He shares insights from his own discussions with CEOs as well as...

Companies and banks have often pursued social goals such as financial inclusion as an obligation rather than a business opportunity. Douglas Beal, who leads BCG’s client work with financial institutions on sustainable finance and investing, argues that doing good is also good business. Companies and banks can build profitable, sustainable social business and improve their bottom lines.   This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable -...

Financial crime has become big business. The United Nations estimates that 2%–5% of global GDP is laundering every year. If businesses—all businesses, not just banks—are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem, argues BCG’s Hanjo Seibert. Over the past ten years, half of all fines levied in financial crime cases have been regular businesses. Beyond satisfying their legal obligations, businesses can reap other benefits, such as more intimate knowledge of their customers and...

In Indonesia, consumers began mixing together several orders of McDonald’s soft serve ice cream into a dessert mashup. Videos of this quirky development quickly went viral, and the trend spread to Thailand. Rather than worry about losing control over its carefully crafted image, McDonald’s encouraged the activity by creating an online video ad campaign around their customers’ videos. Welcome to the crazy world of shoppertainment, which BCG projects will grow into a $1 trillion market in Asia...

Nadjia Yousif, BCG’s chief diversity officer, explains how an inclusive workforce creates happier employees who are more likely to stay—and she has the numbers to back her up. Executives and leadership extol the virtues of teamwork. Inclusion is just that—the feeling of being part of something larger than yourself. Nadjia Yousif says that if people feel included, they will be happy, feel a greater sense of well-being, and stick around. This is not fluffy conjecture but a core finding of a BCG...

James Lowry has devoted most of his professional life trying to bring corporations and minority communities closer together. While Lowry views many of the corporate diversity efforts in the 1960s and 1970s as charity, he says companies are finally starting to create business-driven initiatives supported with resources and leadership commitment. Lowry talks about how corporations and communities alike benefit from supplier diversity, leadership diversity, financial inclusion, racial equity,...

Artificial intelligence has generated both business rewards and reputational risk for companies. Consumers and customers have legitimate concerns over the use of AI in business. The best way to address those concerns, says Steven Mills, the chief AI ethics officer for BCG X, is to develop responsible AI principles that set forth how organizations will and will not deploy AI—and what they will do when they fall short of these principles. By working closely with employees, consumers, and...

In 2011, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously declared that “software is eating the world,” meaning it would disrupt traditional industries. Alex Koster, who leads BCG’s automotive technology and software business, explains just how fundamentally software is altering an industry, whose main product, the car, has changed relatively little in 100 years. In self-driving vehicles, for example, the cabin will offer an immersive experience for riders. Besides the consumer experience, the...

Three decades after the development of the commercial Internet, nearly half the world’s 8 billion people do not have access to high-speed Internet. For Vaishali Rastogi, BCG’s global leader of its technology, media, and telecommunications practice, closing this gap is an economic, social, and moral imperative. It’s also personal, a reflection of her broader interest in inclusion. For the past 30 years Vaishali has trailblazed a professional career in Asia as a woman, and she now works in...

Over the past 20 years, assets under management of financial firms have nearly quadrupled to more than $110 trillion, powered by the growth in equity values. Dean Frankle—who leads BCG’s asset and wealth management in Western Europe, South America, and Africa—foresees a more textured and nuanced future for the industry. Alternative asset classes, such as toll roads and other infrastructure, could account for up to half of the industry’s revenue. Passive investing will continue its growth as...

Linear thinking is valuable when the environment is relatively stable and familiar. But in uncertain economic times, executives also need to think expansively about the future, analyzing a range of potential scenarios. Alan Iny discusses how executives can prepare for uncertainty rather than be overwhelmed by it. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

COP27, the global climate conference in Egypt, represented a mix of accomplishments and frustrations. Wealthy nations agreed to establish a fund to help pay for the loss and damage that their emissions have imposed on poor countries in Africa and elsewhere. And yet the current levels of emissions from the North remain stubbornly high, and will continue to affect nations in the South. Several members of BCG’s COP27 delegation discuss what the conference means for Africa—the need for resilient...

We often hear that the climate transition must also be a just transition. But how can we make that happen when, for example, coal remains both the largest source of energy in the world and a source of steady income for miners in many countries? Keshlan Mudaly, a BCG principal in Johannesburg, South Africa, unpacks the many tradeoffs and dilemmas that confront public and private leaders in their quest to lower carbon emissions. This podcast uses the following third-party services for...

It’s 2050 and we’re exploring how the world radically reduced carbon emissions and saved itself from climate catastrophe. What have our cities done to accommodate massive population growth? And how do businesses, governments, researchers and everyday people work together to build sustainable supply chains, agricultural practices and transportation infrastructure? This is Climate Vision 2050, a new podcast series from BCG. In an exclusive peek at episode 1, energy islands around the world...

How well will the world adapt to ever more extreme climate events? To date most government and business leaders are focusing on climate mitigation at the expense of climate adaptation. Charmian Caines, a senior partner at BCG, argues that they must do both. They should build scenarios assessing the economic, social, and natural damage of rising temperatures and develop financial and operational plans to combat rising sea levels, raging fires, and other extreme weather events. This podcast...

Corporate values are more important than ever. Should companies boycott countries with values they do not share? Kushal Khandhar, global Pride@BCG manager, argues it often makes sense for companies with LGBTQ+–friendly policies to continue to work in queer-unfriendly countries. Companies can be “embassies of values,” says Khandar who has worked in conservative countries whose governments outlaw his sexuality. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable -...

Inflation is higher than it’s been in a generation, but policy makers still have room to maneuver. Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, BCG’s global chief economist, is concerned about inflation but not yet willing to say the world is in a new era of constantly spiraling prices and collapsing asset prices. Central banks and policy makers still have the tools to control potential contagion. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Are companies looking for talent in all the wrong places? Only 10% of jobs are filled by internal lateral candidates. Companies need better ways to find internal candidates especially those who work in a different part of the organization or have latent skills, explain BCG's Nithya Vaduganathan and Gloat's Brian Hershey. Internal talent marketplaces, which are sort of dating apps matching employees to jobs, are one promising option for companies to pursue. This podcast uses the following...

Are traditional companies, long derided for being sluggish and stuck in the past, about to undergo a renaissance? Patrick Forth, of BCG’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice, talks about the exciting future for incumbents that succeed at digital transformation. Unfortunately, only one-third of digital transformations are successful. What separates the winners from the losers? After years of studying digital transformations, Forth has identified the six factors that can elevate...