HBR IdeaCast

Companies often build products for wealthy markets first and then try to adapt them for the rest of the world. But according to Dartmouth Tuck professor Vijay Govindarajan and MIT professor Amos Winter, designing for the toughest constraints first—whether that's affordability, portability, or limited infrastructure—can lead to products that perform better everywhere. They explain how leaders can identify high-impact opportunities, uncover customer needs through deep field research, and design solutions that balance performance with cost. They also discuss why organizational mindset—not technology—is often the biggest obstacle to global innovation, and where AI can (and can't) accelerate the design process. Together they wrote the book Global by Design: How to Create Innovations That Scale, Travel, and Transform.

In an era of constant disruption, successful turnarounds require more than a new strategy—they demand a new culture. Dan Schulman, former CEO of PayPal, came out of retirement to tackle the challenge of taking over the helm of Verizon as it entered the AI age. He explains how they needed to put customers—not engineering—at the center of the business, how he reshaped company culture, and what it really took to prepare employees for an AI-native future. He explains why leaders need to embrace change, invest in reskilling, and balance optimism about AI with honesty about the disruption it will bring.

What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur in today's uncertain world? How do you balance risk, decision-making, and curiosity? We’re sharing an episode from The Founder Mindset with Reza Satchu, the new podcast from Harvard Business School Foundry about what it truly takes to be a founder now. Hosted by Harvard Business School senior lecturer Reza Satchu, the show features intimate conversations with some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, including Reese Witherspoon, Kevin O’Leary, Galen Weston, and more. Satchu himself has built multiple high-profile companies and mentored thousands of students and founders as they start and scale ventures, and he pushes his guests to break down exactly how they commit, decide, and build for impact.

In this episode, Tim Ferriss—entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, and host of one of the world’s most influential podcasts—reflects on experimentation, calibrated risk-taking, decision-making under uncertainty, and why curiosity and learning have shaped nearly every chapter of his career.

Listen to more episodes of The Founder Mindset with Reza Satchu, follow the podcast here: https://play.megaphone.fm/zbmkcqmbqhymul1logpega

To compete in business anywhere today, leaders at all levels need to learn about the culture and mindset that sets Chinese businesses apart. Stanford research fellow Dan Wang argues that they've built an edge that goes well beyond lower labor costs or government subsidies. He explains how dense manufacturing ecosystems, relentless internal competition, deep process knowledge, and an engineering-first mindset have helped these companies become global leaders; what those in the United States and Europe can learn from them; and where they still fall behind. Wang is author of the book Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future.

Most leaders are asking the same question about AI: Will it make their teams more productive—or slowly erode the very skills they're trying to build? In this special episode, as part of the recent HBR Leadership Summit 2026, University of Pennsylvania's Angela Duckworth says her long-standing research on grit—and the fact the most successful people aren't simply persistent, they stay committed to long-term goals while adapting their tactics as the world changes—is more relevant than ever in the age of generative AI. Rather than replacing human capability, she explains, AI can become a powerful coach that accelerates learning, if people treat it as something to learn from, not simply something that does the work for them. Duckworth’s new book is Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best.