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HBR IdeaCast

HBR IdeaCast

Written by: Harvard Business Review
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 A weekly podcast featuring the leading thinkers in business and management.Copyright 2026 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • What Customers Really Value–and Why Leaders Keep Getting It Wrong

    What Customers Really Value–and Why Leaders Keep Getting It Wrong
    Nov 10 2026
    Good leaders believe they understand customer priorities. They invest heavily in data, direct conversations, and really knowing their industry. But according to Vikas Mittal, a professor of marketing at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, leaders are missing a key step. Without a science-driven strategy, businesses don’t understand what matters most to their customers or what to prioritize to create the most value for the company. Mittal spent seven years studying 72 businesses, and he has lots of advice on how companies can get better at understanding the data that they have at hand. Plus, how to win over leaders who rely too heavily on intuition when the most impactful answers lie in the science. Mittal is the author of the article, “Do You Know What Your Customers Value?”
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    28 mins
  • How AI Is Changing Communication: Weighing Efficiency with Efficacy

    How AI Is Changing Communication: Weighing Efficiency with Efficacy
    Sep 24 2026
    AI is rapidly changing how top leaders communicate with employees, customers, boards, and each other. In episode 2 of a special four-part series on how AI is changing leadership, we explore how executives can use AI to improve communication without outsourcing the thinking, judgment, and empathy that make it effective. Stanford professor Matt Abrahams and Zapier CEO Wade Foster discuss how leaders are using AI to synthesize information, structure ideas, prepare for difficult conversations, and rehearse for high-stakes moments. They also explain why leaders should be wary of letting AI write everything for them, how overreliance on AI can create a “comprehension gap,” and why preserving a distinctive human voice may become even more important as AI-generated communication becomes ubiquitous. Abrahams is the author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter and host of the podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart. Foster is the cofounder and CEO of Zapier, a software automation company.
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    34 mins
  • What Retail Legend Ron Johnson Learned from Apple’s Success and JCPenney’s Failure

    What Retail Legend Ron Johnson Learned from Apple’s Success and JCPenney’s Failure
    Sep 29 2026
    How do you know when to trust your previous experience in a transformation environment, and how do you know when to listen, observe, and adapt? Ron Johnson helped create the Apple Store and transform Target into a design-forward retailer. But when he brought his approach to JCPenney, his transformation failed. He explains why leaders shouldn't rely too heavily on data when they're trying to create something that hasn't been done before, how Steve Jobs used patience and diverse perspectives to drive innovation, and why great customer experiences depend on empowering employees to solve problems one customer at a time. Johnson also reflects on his experience at JCPenney, where he moved too quickly and underestimated how deeply employees and other stakeholders were invested in the company's existing way of doing business. He shares what he would do differently today—and why listening may be one of the most important skills a leader can develop. Johnson is the author of Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius.
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    33 mins
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This one is a continuation of the article by the Prof. in the cast. i found the podcast more interesting over the article.

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