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A weekly podcast featuring the leading thinkers in business and management.

PublishesWeeklyEpisodes651Founded20 years ago
Number of ListenersCategories
BusinessEntrepreneurshipManagement

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Artwork for HBR IdeaCast

Latest Episodes

Meetings are one of the biggest drains on time, energy, and morale at work, yet most managers are never actually taught how to run them well. Paul English, cofounder of Kayak, argues that organizations underestimate just how costly bad meetings can b... more

What does it take to manage a complex global institution when change is constant and resources are scarce? For Kelly T. Clements, Deputy High Commissioner at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), it’s about building resilient teams, partnering across sector... more

Why do so many organizations lose their way as they grow? Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author, says that corruption inside companies rarely begins with bad people or dramatic scandals. More often, it emerges slowly, through broken incentives, unchecke... more

Why do we replay cryptic emails, small workplace slights, and past business decisions over and over in our heads? Science journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa has looked deep into the research and discovered the hidden brain mechanisms that get us into ... more

Key Facts

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Accepts Sponsors
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Find out how many people listen to this podcast per episode and each month.

Similar Podcasts

People also subscribe to these shows.

HBR On Leadership
HBR On LeadershipHarvard Business Review
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The McKinsey Podcast
The McKinsey PodcastMcKinsey & Company
Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques
Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication TechniquesMatt Abrahams, Think Fast Talk Smart
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Recent Guests

Eric Ries
Author of The Lean Startup and Incorruptible; discusses how and why good companies go bad and how great companies stay great
Author, Incorruptible; The Lean Startup
Episode: What Leads Companies to Betray Their Own Principles
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
Journalist and author of Mind Drama, The Science of Rumination and How to Outwit Your Inner Defeatist
Author
Episode: How to Break Free of Negative Thought Spirals
Julia Dhar
Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group; Co-Author of How Change Really Works
Boston Consulting Group
Episode: The Leadership Skills That Make Transformation Stick
Nilofer Merchant
Former Apple executive, corporate consultant, and author of Our Best Work
Author; Former Apple executive
Episode: New Skills to Navigate Continuous Change
Charles Duhigg
Author of Supercommunicators
Author, Supercommunicators
Episode: Why Your Team Won’t Speak Up (And How to Fix It)
Ron Friedman
Psychologist and author of How to Build a Superteam That Keeps Getting Better; author of Superteams
Harvard Business Review, author of Superteams
Episode: What Sets Superteams Apart from the Rest
Marcus Buckingham
Author and researcher featured in the episode
Harvard Business Review
Episode: To Gain Customer—and Employee—Loyalty, Go Beyond Good Enough
Stefan Volk
Professor at the University of Sydney Business School
University of Sydney Business School
Episode: The Case for Designing Work Around Circadian Rhythms
Andy McAfee
Principal research scientist at MIT and co-founder and co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy at Sloan
MIT
Episode: Strategy Summit 2026: Who’s Going to Succeed with AI?

Hosts

Adi Ignatius
Host of HBR IdeaCast
Alison Beard
Co-host of HBR IdeaCast and interviewer

Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars from 4.9k ratings
  • Interactive listener

    All episodes

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Cardinals#1953
    United Statesa month ago
  • Partisan

    Claiming Wikipedia is a credible source is a non sequitur. They only allow leftist ideologues to edit now. Most editors suffer from Trump derangement syndrome. Let Trump say something and web pages will immediately change in a partisan attempt to discredit what he just said.

    Apple Podcasts
    1
    This Ken
    United States7 months ago
  • Shifting into a new horizon? This is the podcast for you

    HBR IdeaCast delivers insightful conversations with industry leaders and experts - worth the listen, covering leadership, strategy, and innovation.

    Perfect for any professional seeking actionable takeaways and fresh perspectives on modern business challenges. This is one podcast you don’t want to miss.

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    lavhill
    United Statesa year ago
  • Missed the boat again

    DEI episode missed the mark. Again. Good intentions don’t translate into results, nor fairness. So frustrating.

    Apple Podcasts
    1
    F500 Exec
    United Statesa year ago
  • Pseudoscience

    Largely pseudoscientific “social science” offering little-to-no utility outside the classroom.

    Apple Podcasts
    2
    hugefitzpatrick
    Australiaa year ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Listeners value actionable frameworks and real-world examples from big brands.
Guest mix is strong but some episodes feel overly academic for practitioners.
Thoughtful, research-backed leadership insights with practical takeaways.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

What Leads Companies to Betray Their Own Principles
Q: What Costco does that's different and could be replicated?
Costco maintains a consistent, mission-aligned approach by resisting price betrayals, engaging in careful governance, and relying on a fortress-like structure that protects its long-term promises and trust with customers.
What Leads Companies to Betray Their Own Principles
Q: So what's going on here?
The discussion centers on how companies drift from their founding mission due to systemic pressures like quarterly reporting, and how governance can shield, embed, and sustain that mission over time.
How to Break Free of Negative Thought Spirals
Q: What is the MIST framework and how does it help?
MIST helps by breaking the loop through Mental Imagery, Interior Emotion, Somatic Sensations, and tying it together, making the experience concrete and actionable.
How to Break Free of Negative Thought Spirals
Q: How do you define rumination and its impact on work life?
Rumination is self-reinforcing, self-criticizing thinking that keeps looping and draining mental energy, which reduces creativity, focus, and collaboration at work.
The Leadership Skills That Make Transformation Stick
Q: So what do you mean by failure in this context, and how do you measure it?
Failure is either not delivering shareholder value within the planned period or not achieving the change objectives, and it often stems from a lack of upstream work on how change is executed and adopted by people.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

Listeners per Episode
Gender Skew
Location
Interests
Professions
Age Range
Household Income
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Frequently Asked Questions About HBR IdeaCast

What is HBR IdeaCast about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show features in-depth conversations with leading thinkers in business, management, and strategy. Episodes frequently explore organizational change, leadership psychology, team dynamics, strategy, and the impact of AI on work and decision-making. Guests range from professors and researchers to industry practitioners and business leaders, offering frameworks, actionable tactics, and real-world case studies. A standout pattern is translating academic research into practical takeaways for leaders aiming to improve culture, innovation, and performance at scale; some episodes emphasize cadence, safety, and stakeholder value, while others dissect customer experience and loyalty. Listeners can expect rigorous analysis balanced with tangible s... more

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How many listeners does HBR IdeaCast get?

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How many subscribers and views does HBR IdeaCast have?

To see how many followers or subscribers HBR IdeaCast has on Spotify and other platforms such as Castbox and Podcast Addict, simply upgrade your account. You'll also find viewership figures for their YouTube channel if they have one.

Which podcasts are similar to HBR IdeaCast?

These podcasts share a similar audience with HBR IdeaCast:

1. HBR On Leadership
2. Coaching Real Leaders
3. The McKinsey Podcast
4. Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques
5. Inside the Strategy Room

How many episodes of HBR IdeaCast are there?

HBR IdeaCast launched 20 years ago and published 651 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

How do I contact HBR IdeaCast?

Our systems regularly scour the web to find email addresses and social media links for this podcast. We scanned the web and collated all of the contact information that we could find in our podcast database. But in the unlikely event that you can't find what you're looking for, our concierge service lets you request our research team to source better contacts for you.

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What guests have appeared on HBR IdeaCast?

Recent guests on HBR IdeaCast include:

1. Eric Ries
2. Donna Jackson Nakazawa
3. Julia Dhar
4. Nilofer Merchant
5. Charles Duhigg
6. Ron Friedman
7. Marcus Buckingham
8. Stefan Volk

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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