A wealth of business strategies and ideas on HBR IdeaCast

🎧 Part of Harvard Business Review’s podcast roster, HBR IdeaCast shines a light on some of today’s most innovative leaders and thinkers. Hosted by HBR’s editor of 16 years Adi Ignatius and executive editor Alison Beard, the podcast offers listeners an inside look at the thinking, decisions, and people behind major business moves and valuable trends.

What to expect: IdeaCast has been around long enough to rack up more than 1k episodes, meaning there’s no shortage of topics to choose from. Running around 30 minutes, give or take, each episode sees the hosts sit down with a notable business figure — AT&T’s John Stankey, best-selling author Tim Ferriss, and Mattel’s Ynon Kreiz to name a few — an academic, or a field expert, diving straight into questions about their latest ventures, takes on current trends, and hard-earned advice.

Inside Verizon’s headline-making turnaround: One recent episode invites Verizon’s newly minted CEO Dan Schulman, former CEO of PayPal, to discuss his return from retirement and mission to turn the telecom giant around as it faces a significant market decline. Schulman explains his focus on putting customers and growth at the center of Verizon’s recovery, a process that has included laying off around 13k employees and rolling out a strict program that prioritizes the company’s inner culture over strategy. He also discusses his vision for an AI-forward Verizon and his approach to building an AI-native company.

What we liked: The episode stays tightly focused, without veering into tangents or side conversations — just simple, straightforward Q&A. The hosts take a backseat for most of the episode, stepping in only to keep the conversation moving with questions and leaving plenty of space for the guests to comfortably tell their own stories and deliver their own insights and advice.

Our verdict: Business-centered podcasts are a dime a dozen, but HBR’s academic and analytical edge is clear in the way it structures its episodes, frames its questions, and selects its guests and topics. At around 30 minutes, HBR IdeaCast’s episodes make for an easy commute listen or a quick dose of insight when you’re feeling stuck in a business strategy or a leadership rut.

WHERE TO LISTEN- You can tune in on Apple Podcasts | Anghami | Spotify.