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Faculty thought leaders from INSEAD, The Business School for the World speak frankly about the most pressing challenges facing today's firms and managers.
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29 MAY 2025 · Companies looking to succeed in emerging markets must listen to local needs and tailor their proposition accordingly.
That’s the message from Affiliate Professor of Strategy Lite Nartey and digital financial services expert Bruno Akpaka in this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, which examines how mobile payments system Mobile Money was successfully introduced in Ghana.
Akpaka, who oversaw the launch of Mobile Money in 2009 as mobile telecom firm MTN’s general manager for Western Central Africa, explains how the company took the time to speak to all stakeholders involved. Alongside banks and regulators, the MTN sent representatives out to speak directly with market traders and their customers, many of whom had never previously had access to financial services.
This led MTN to eschew the traditional banking route in favour of a distribution model that brought the service to unbanked consumers through a network of agents. This allowed the company to customise their proposition and develop a product that met the needs of local consumers, offering them convenience, security and simplicity.
What started out as a project with financial inclusion goals, has since evolved into a comprehensive financial system. By the end of 2024, Mobile Money had more than https://techafricanews.com/2025/03/03/mtn-ghana-reports-strong-growth-with-34-5-revenue-increase-in-2024/ in Ghana – approximately half the total population.
While such a tailored approach might seem obvious, Professor Nartey highlights how many global firms still try to apply strategies from developed markets without fully understanding local contexts. As the Mobile Money case shows, each market has its own challenges – and requires its own tailored solution.
30 APR 2025 · What’s common across the Boeing 737 MAX debacle, the 1MDB financial scandal and America’s opioid crisis? They are all illustrations of how business leaders, in pursuit of performance, neglected and undermined progress – specifically fairness, well-being and sustainability.
With each such scandal, trust in business frays. While one may blame specific firms and leaders, too much is amiss in modern business to solely blame the actors, says INSEAD Professor of Strategy and Management Subi Rangan in this podcast. Business theory and business education also warrant careful scrutiny and correction.
26 MAR 2025 · Can dreaming really help solve waking problems? And could a specific form of dream analysis help an organisation better achieve shared goals and objectives? In this https://knowledge.insead.edu/ podcast, Susan Long, Emeritus Professor at the National Institute of Organization Dynamics Australia and Michael Jarrett, Professor of Management at INSEAD offer their perspective on the value of social dreaming for firms.
The roots of social dreaming can be traced back to World War II, and German journalist, Charlotte Beradt's documentation of dreams during the Nazi era. Inspired by her findings, British psychoanalyst Gordon Lawrence developed the concept of social dreaming as a structured method for exploring the unconscious dynamics operating within contemporary social groups.
This method moves beyond the traditional view of dreams as purely personal experiences. While individual dreams often address personal wishes and daily events, social dreaming suggests that groups of people, interconnected within a social system, also collectively dream about issues, desires and problems relevant to the group as a whole.
The conversation goes on to explore the practicalities of running a social dreaming session – from the importance of the Matrix to the role of the host in leading the group through the dream reflection dialogue.
Citing real life examples, Long and Jarrett explain how they have both used social dreaming to work with firms to identify and address the unconscious concerns and emotions that influence behaviour and decision-making. In this way, social dreaming can offer deeper insights into shared concerns. This allows for improved communication, collaboration and a more comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics at play within groups.
Further reading:
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243511/the-third-reich-of-dreams?srsltid=AfmBOootIS_xyT4dPNYbcTfozaYBcfdnZtxlA0453dhtmbIHZDbWYD06, Charlotte Beradt.
https://www.routledge.com/Introduction-to-Social-Dreaming-Transforming-Thinking/Lawrence/p/book/9781855753426?srsltid=AfmBOor2ZGHkSEupkpKF9OuqguSAlHZ0-rO3WfuVHNoHjMkTjSXnZGst, W. Gordon Lawrence.
https://www.routledge.com/Social-Dreaming-Philosophy-Research-Theory-and-Practice/Long-Manley/p/book/9781138327351?srsltid=AfmBOorpl_LRzxOGfsUxhHasTwkm_8xdZ1FK8B42FeQfKZ1OgvsNNwTZ, Susan Long and Julian Manley (eds.).
19 FEB 2025 · For the longest time, businesses have embraced a “product selling” playbook. Typically, this means having a supplier with a product to sell and a customer to persuade to purchase that product based on the price and perceived value.
However, in an increasingly challenging business environment where disruption is the norm, such a transactional approach is no longer fit for purpose. In this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, Christoph Senn, Adjunct Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, and Mehak Gandhi, Head of Research at Valuecreator, discuss an alternative approach to working with your customers, one that involves a deeper partnership and a greater understanding of their client's needs. An approach they've outlined in their https://www.insead.edu/news/insead-book-details-new-strategy-putting-customers-heart-your-business, Triple Fit Strategy: How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships and Boost Growth.
You can access more tools about the framework and get further information about the book https://www.amazon.com/Triple-Fit-Strategy-Customer-Relationships/dp/1647827140.
23 JAN 2025 · In a dynamic business environment, leaders often need to implement new strategic initiatives – from new business models to new technologies or workflows. But change is never easy. The success of new initiatives depends on whether leaders win the support of actors within the organisation.
In other words, it is a matter of influence. In this podcast with https://knowledge.insead.edu/author/vibha-gaba, the Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership at INSEAD, discusses the forces at play when leaders try to drive change. To build support for their strategic initiatives, leaders must understand how support and resistance spread within the organisation's networks.
17 DEC 2024 · Despite millions retiring annually, the topic remains taboo for many employers and employees. Every year, millions leave the workforce, yet discussions about this common rite of passage are often avoided.
This INSEAD Knowledge podcast features Graham Ward, Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Isabel Lebbe, Partner in the Investment Management practice of Arendt & Medernach, discussing the often-neglected issue of retirement.
Drawing on years of research in this field, the pair highlight the significant impact that retirement can have on both individuals and the organisations they leave behind. They point out that retirement should not merely be seen an event but is, in fact, a complex process that requires careful consideration and planning from both sides.
Ward and Lebbe argue that with an ageing population, changing demographics also mean firms need to stop viewing retirement as an end. Instead, they must view it as a valuable opportunity to maintain relationships and leverage the experience of retiring employees to ensure a positive experience for all involved.
Read more: https://knowledge.insead.edu/career/talk-about-making-good-exit
26 NOV 2024 · Rigid hierarchical team designs seem to have fallen out of favour with many contemporary organisations. But making the switch to a decentralised approach, where authority is more evenly distributed between team members instead of concentrated among a few senior leaders, is by no means easy.
In this podcast, Michael Y. Lee, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, explains the difficulties of dismantling organisational hierarchies. He unpacks the reasons why firms can fail in their bids to jettison hierarchies and suggests two key practices they can adopt to set themselves up for success.
30 SEP 2024 · Everyone loves a good story. But storytelling is way more powerful when leaders employ it effectively, according to Manfred Kets de Vries, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organisational Change at INSEAD and the Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus.
In this podcast, Kets de Vries, who authored the book Storytelling for Leaders, discusses the power of storytelling and how leaders can employ storytelling effectively. More importantly, he explains how storytelling can create tipping points – not only to change others but leaders themselves.
30 JUL 2024 · The world is becoming more interconnected. Digital platforms and social media are giving us a greater “voice” and more ways to group, which can increase the chances of disagreeing with one another. Unsurprisingly, we are seeing great polarisation and conflicts in many parts of the world.
In this podcast, INSEAD professors and the co-founders of INSEAD’s https://www.insead.edu/negotiation-and-conflict-management-collaborative (NCMC), https://www.insead.edu/faculty/horacio-falcao, https://www.insead.edu/faculty/roderick-swaab and https://www.insead.edu/faculty/eric-luis-uhlmann, explain why negotiation and conflict management are ever more important in these times. They discuss what it means to go beyond just a one-time “win”, and the need for more constructive dialogues and sustainable negotiation strategies.
Developing negotiation skills will not only increase tolerance, but also help people transform disagreement into opportunities to work together and create value – in other words, expanding the pie instead of trying to expand their share of a “fixed pie”. Ultimately, if we learn to interact with others with a win-win mindset, we can build a more humane world – one negotiation at a time.
25 JUN 2024 · Today’s uncertain and disrupted world has had a major impact on how firms do business. It has led to a gradual strategic shift from the era of “bigger is better” and a narrow fixation on increased sales growth to a more nuanced, broader vision of corporate value growth.
In this podcast, https://www.insead.edu/faculty/jean-claude-larreche?_ref=finder, an Emeritus Professor of Marketing and the Alfred H. Heineken Chaired Professor of Marketing, Emeritus, builds on the themes of his new book https://www.amazon.com/Value-Creation-Selling-Effectiveness-Satisfaction/dp/1394158580 to explore this transformation further, examining the reasons behind the shift and what it specifically means for the role of salespeople within firms.
Faculty thought leaders from INSEAD, The Business School for the World speak frankly about the most pressing challenges facing today's firms and managers.
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| Author | INSEAD Knowledge |
| Organization | INSEAD Knowledge |
| Categories | Business |
| Website | - |
| insead.knowledge@insead.edu |
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