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Articles by Insead Knowledge
Decoding the Language of Conspiracy
From enduring rumours around Jeffrey Epstein’s death to beliefs that vaccines cause autism, conspiracy theories are a common part of the daily discourse, especially on online platforms like TikTok and Reddit. Typically dismissed as delusional or resulting from personality flaws, such theories are not a sign of poor judgement but actually an attempt to regain control at times of stress.
What Earnings Reveal That Cash Flow Hides
Should you judge a company’s performance by its earnings or cash flow? Cash flows are highly volatile and seasonal, while earnings are far smoother. That’s why accrual accounting – recording transactions when they occur, regardless of when money changes hands – can produce a clearer picture of financial performance. However, some recent studies have concluded that the timing role of accruals has largely disappeared.
Quantum’s Transistor Moment
In a webinar hosted by Andrew Shipilov, Professor of Strategy at INSEAD, Liam Goodman, Chief Technology Officer at FIDEMI, referred to 2025 as the "transistor moment" for quantum computing – a tipping point where years of incremental progress have quietly shifted the technology from experimental to strategic. Investment in the sector grew 50% year on year, with public funding across more than 30 countries already passing .
How Boards Adapt to Owner Dynamics
It’s a board’s responsibility to manage a company’s managers and ensure that they have the right strategy in place to achieve the goals of the firm, as set by its owners. If a board fails to fulfil this role, then it puts the firm at risk of activist takeovers to reestablish the original mission.
What "Creative Differences" Really Means
Two words appear in entertainment headlines more than almost any other excuse, but are they doing more harm than good? When a director exits a film "due to creative differences", everyone reads it the same way: something happened, and we're not meant to know what. Spencer Harrison, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, calls it the "aloha" of Hollywood, a phrase flexible enough to mean hello or goodbye, used precisely because its vagueness protects everyone involved.
Global Oil Crisis: Are We Nearing the Tipping Point?
The war in Iran that began on February 28 disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and triggered the largest single disruption to global oil markets in history. Washington and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire in April but the Strait remains effectively closed to commercial shipping, with just 10 vessels transiting per day against a pre-crisis baseline of 95.
Making AI Agents Work Inside Your Organisation
Although AI agents are often presented as autonomous systems capable of replacing human labour, Furr challenged the narrative of mass disruption. Drawing on research and historical parallels with earlier technological revolutions, he argued that technology tends to eliminate tasks rather than jobs, shifting roles towards more analytical, technical and creative activities. Where organisations are seeing the strongest results today is in internal processes.
How Much Is That Display in the Window?
Retailers have long known that window displays shape first impressions, but a new study by INSEAD’s Associate Professor of Marketing Abhishek Borahand his co-authors goes further. It shows that where products are physically positioned within a display shapes shoppers’ perception of product price, even when there is no price tag. The mechanism is simple: the direction in which a shopper is moving. The result: a measurable difference in willingness to pay.
How Stigma Affects Male Friendships
Much has been written about the “male loneliness epidemic” – a rise in social isolation and emotional disconnection among men. In the United States, the share of men without close friendships increased from 3 to 15 percentbetween 1990 and 2021. Men also tend to have less intimate and supportive friendships with other men than women have with other women.
Income Inequality: A Vicious Cycle?
Greater income inequality can decrease public support for raising the minimum wage. Income inequality between countries may have eased in recent decades, but the gap within nations continues to widen. Take France: Its poverty rate clocked 15.4 percent in 2023, the highest since records began in 1996. The gulf between the country’s richest and poorest also deepened, approaching levels not seen since the early 1970s.
When Nutrition Labels Work - and When They Don’t
7 At-a-glance nutrition labels on restaurant menus can promote healthier choices among middle-class consumers. But what about the rest? Imagine walking into a quick-service restaurant where every item – main, side, beverage and dessert – displays a simple colour-coded grade indicating its nutritional quality. Would this information make you order healthier food? This answer is less straightforward than you may think.
Why Leaders Need to Take Play Seriously
4 Play isn’t just for children; it’s a survival skill for creativity, resilience and innovation. We often imagine the lives of our palaeolithic ancestors as an unrelenting struggle, but the very existence of cave art suggests that at least some of them could focus on making meaning beyond necessity. So what drove them? Was it sacred ritual, primitive science or early performance art? It might have been something more fundamental: the simple human urge to play. Play is easily dismissed as frivolous.
Why Strategy Matters in the Age of AI
19 The rush to adopt AI risks putting technology before strategy. When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it marked AI’s leap from the preserve of technology giants and research scientists to a tool seemingly accessible to any organisation. The subsequent proliferation of advanced models, including lower-cost ones like DeepSeek, has only amplified expectations about AI’s transformative potential. Yet, this enthusiasm can be misplaced.
Why You Should Get Ruthless About Self-Care
15 A disciplined and comprehensive approach to care for your well-being. Gail is a bank executive who runs a team engaging in cross-functional projects across Europe. The 44-year-old is used to travelling – first train out in the morning, last flight back (getting home past midnight), then back in the office by 7am the next day. He’s cheery and supportive, never fails to pick up his bosses’ calls and is often the last to leave the office. He looks successful, but doesn’t feel it.
How to Make Your Donations Seem More Genuine
57 Breaking up a monetary donation into smaller amounts can reduce scepticism about your motives for giving. From Bill Gates to Warren Buffett to MacKenzie Scott, the world’s most prominent philanthropists often make headlines for their jaw-dropping donations. Gates, for example, has already given away more than US$100 billion of his wealth and has pledged to contribute another US$200 billion over the next two decades.
The Trap Behind AI Experimentation
73 Without clear links to customer value, most pilots fail to deliver. Disciplined focus can change that. A recent MIT study found that 95 percent of investments in generative AI have produced no measurable returns. It’s a sobering figure, especially for leaders who have spent months urging their teams to experiment with this new technology. If nearly all those pilots failed, should companies stop trying altogether? Or is the problem not with experimentation itself, but with the way it’s done?
Responsibility in the Age of Algorithms
29 From biotech and blockchain to crypto and chatbots, digital transformation is fundamentally reshaping every aspect of business. The area of corporate responsibility is no exception. These seismic technological shifts are now challenging previous boundaries when it comes to companies relationships with and responsibilities to their stakeholders.
When Machines Argue: AI Hive Minds and Strategic Decisions
32 What happens when you make AI models debate each other, and why the results might be better than what your strategy team could produce. Digital twins have become indispensable tools across industries. Powered by AI, these virtual constructs mirror physical systems in complex manufacturing facilities, supply chains and operational workflows.
Three Essentials for Making Better Choices
18 Decision analysis can only be effective if leaders have the bandwidth to act, are clear on purpose and fully understand their options. Making effective strategic decisions in today’s business world is difficult. It’s an environment that is messy, fast-moving and unpredictable: whether you’re entering a new market, responding to geopolitical shocks, pursuing innovation or trying to adopt a new technology like AI.
A Search for Daily Meaning: Building a Purpose-Driven Career
20 Know yourself and be proactive and versatile in order to create the career – and life – you want. In a rapidly shifting work landscape reshaped by technology and politics, one might think that finding purpose in our job has taken a backseat. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
How to Mine Better InnovationFrom the AI Gold Rush
189 Cultivate genuine innovation through experienced evaluation, strategic intent and mechanisms that reward novelty over replication. From the internet, smartphones to 3D printing, recent decades have ushered in general-purpose technology that increases efficiency and collapses the cost of routine tasks. The latest general-purpose technology – you guessed it, generative AI (GenAI) – has the potential to also extend the frontiers of creative search and innovation.
Family Offices and the Indian Opportunity
38 As traditional safe havens falter, India emerges as a compelling diversification play. The global macroeconomic order is becoming increasingly fragmented, shaped by geopolitical tensions, uneven growth across the West and inflationary overhangs. Against the backdrop of this new reality, Indian public equities have outperformed global benchmarks on a risk-adjusted basis, with the Nifty 50 delivering higher returns with lower volatility than major global indices.
The CEO’s AI To-Do List
29 Five things that CEOs need to take charge of – rather than delegate – for AI initiatives to succeed. Anyone who thinks that the Chief Technology Officer or Chief Information Officer should own AI adoption has it wrong: The direct, personal involvement of a company’s CEO is essential for any significant transformation to succeed. Yet, many CEOs have remained on the sidelines, unclear of what exactly they must do, or happy to leave things in the hands of specialists.
The World’s Most Talent Competitive Countries, 2025
20 The latest edition of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index unveils a new country at the top of the rankings, alongside insights on maintaining an edge in a rapidly evolving world. The ability to develop, attract and retain talent is crucial in today’s increasingly competitive landscape – one marked by rapid technological change, geopolitical uncertainty and deep societal transitions.
The Rise of the “Pod Shop”
How a new type of organisational structure may be reshaping whole sectors of the finance industry. In the wake of significant losses resulting from the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, Izzy Englander, head of hedge fund Millennium Partners, realised his firm needed to rethink its organisational structure to better protect it from such external shocks in the future.
The Power of Strategic Rivalry
21 Done right, referencing your arch-rival in marketing campaigns can drive engagement and sales. Samsung and Apple. Coca-Cola and Pepsi. McDonald’s and Burger King. These aren’t mere competitors but protagonists in ongoing sagas that consumers follow with genuine interest. Yet, conventional marketing wisdom warns companies to avoid mentioning competitors, especially in a negative light. Our research suggests this advice overlooks a powerful tool: the strategic use of rivalry narratives.
Will Our Institutions Keep Up With AI?
23 AI’s promise of faster growth hinges on how quickly competition policy, education and investment can adapt to the technology. Artificial intelligence could launch a new era of growth – but only if our institutions prove just as dynamic, says INSEAD Professor and Nobel laureate in Economics Philippe Aghion. That warning anchors “AI: Our Ambition for France”, the 2024 national report produced by an AI commission Aghion co-chaired for French President Emmanuel Macron.
Beyond ROI: The True Impact of Executive Coaching
24 A simple tool can track both the scale and substance of behavioural change spurred by good coaching. When Anna, the chief financial officer of a global manufacturing firm, completed a six-month coaching programme at INSEAD Executive Coaching (IEC), her CEO asked her a simple question: “So, what did we get out of it?” Anna was stumped. She felt different, more confident in delegating, calmer under pressure and more attuned to her team’s unspoken concerns. Her colleagues had noticed, too.
The Hidden Forces Driving the AI Boom
39 Extraction, power and the dark side of the race for AI dominance. Amid AI’s promise to improve efficiency, enable new innovations and supercharge corporate profits, there is a dark side to the technology that can’t be ignored. Water-guzzling data centres are reportedly causing pollution and water shortages in rural communities. Workers in emerging economies are paid less than US$2 an hour to sift through toxic content in order to make chatbots safe for public consumption.
AI Transformation Is Not About Tech
115 Why AI initiatives fail when leaders treat them like typical tech rollouts. In companies around the world, leaders are launching AI-first transformations using the playbooks they know. They create urgency, train staff and celebrate early wins. This, after all, is a model that‚Äôs worked in the past, such as during the digital transition. But this time, real adoption stalls. Employees nod along in meetings, complete the training ‚Äď and quietly return to old habits. Why?
The Authenticity Paradox for Minority Founders
74 Staying true to your roots can help your brand stand out – but is that always a good thing? Minority founders often face a paradox: the very authenticity that could differentiate their brand in a crowded marketplace might also limit its appeal. Although 86 percent of consumers say that authenticity influences their purchasing decisions, what happens when “being authentic” means being seen as too out-of-the-box to achieve mainstream success?
How Household Earnings Affect Children’s Mental Health
56 Children’s mental well-being can take a hit when their families experience a negative income shock. The Great Recession may be far behind us, but for some, the scars remain. Financial institutions were not the only ones who were hit hard during this period. In a large-scale study, we show that the profound and acute economic stress of the crisis affected the mental health of children – sometimes with lasting effects.
The Power of Deep Leadership Inquiry
41 Do your fixes to organisational challenges keep failing? The issue may lie in your approach. Here’s a familiar leadership puzzle: You implement new collaboration tools, restructure teams and launch performance improvement programmes. Six months later, the same challenges resurface. Sound familiar? Recently, when 135 small and medium enterprise (SME) leaders shared their biggest people-related challenges with us, an intriguing pattern emerged.
The Curious Comfort of Saying “No”
21 In systems where authority and accountability don’t always meet, “no” may be the safest word. In many organisations, especially complex or global firms, saying “no” is structurally safer than saying “yes”. If you approve a risky initiative and it fails, you might be blamed. But if you delay, defer or block it? There’s no immediate downside and you don’t carry the cost of inaction. Someone else – typically the business itself – is left holding the empty bag of missed opportunity.
Small Change, Big Rewards
25 A simple tweak in tiered pricing can raise revenue at no extra cost. We’ve all experienced different forms of multi-tier pricing in our daily lives: from an airline offering a range of differently priced economy class seats to a streaming service providing a choice of premium, deluxe or family subscriptions. As consumers, we’re used to choosing from a range of alternatives that offer different features at different costs, based on our needs and willingness to pay.
Can AI Help Build Smarter Humans?
In a special episode of the INSEAD Knowledge podcast, we shine a spotlight on a sister podcast series, The Age of Intelligence. Hosted by Theodoros Evgeniou, Professor of Technology and Business at INSEAD, and Tim Gordon, co-founder of Best Practice AI, the series features insightful conversations with notable guests from a range of different fields.
Navigating the Activist Landscape
872 How leaders can recognise, prepare for and react to external attacks on their firms. The purview of executives is growing ever wider. In the past their main focus was on employees, consumers, competitors, suppliers and other economic agents â the so-called market environment. Now, they also have to consider a growing non-market environment. This covers regulators, non-governmental organisations and even social movements.
What's Behind the Fourth-Quarter Earnings Dip?
932 Many companies consistently report lower earnings in the fourth fiscal quarter – a pattern that confounds both investors and analysts. Quarterly earnings reports are a vital tool to help investors track and evaluate the financial performance of publicly traded companies.
Will Trump Unite India and China?
47 There are no eternal allies or perpetual enemies. Only eternal and perpetual interests. Relations between India and China are rapidly thawing like the summer snow on their contentious Himalayan border. After five years of simmering tension since a deadly border clash, the two Asian powers have held high-level ministerial meetings over the past year, culminating in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in seven years this week.
How to Realise the Value of Being in the Office
2K Return-to-office supporters suggest that it leads to better performance ‚Äď but maximising the value is not as straightforward as it seems. The days of fully remote work appear to be well and truly over ‚Äď whether employees like it or not. From Meta to Morgan Stanley, many companies have called their staff back to the office upwards of three days a week, with some pushing for full five-day returns. A big reason cited for this shift?
Leading Between the Lines
45 In a polarised world, leaders need to make bridging divides a part of their narrative, says INSEAD’s Jennifer Petriglieri. If polarisation is a sign of the times, it’s hardly surprising that it exists in organisations. Research has shown that diversity in the workplace can lead to breakthroughs in organisational performance – but only if diversity if managed well, says Jennifer Petriglieri, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD*.
Have You Really Counted the Costs of GenAI?
43 It’s easy to chase productivity gains with generative AI. But are you also accounting for the value you may be giving up? Everywhere we turn, we hear about the transformative potential of generative AI. A flood of toolkits and opinion pieces promises faster work, fewer dull tasks and more time for high-value thinking. Social feeds are saturated with AI hacks for boosting productivity and automating anything that feels inefficient.
Become a Leader Who Sets Your Limits
69 Four practical steps to better boundaries at work. Clare was a high-performing project manager at a marketing firm. Known for being helpful and always saying “yes”, she often found herself working late, picking up extra tasks and answering emails on weekends. Over time, Clare felt drained and irritable. Her work-life balance had disappeared. So had her enthusiasm. One Monday morning, after yet another weekend lost to last-minute revisions from a colleague, Clare had had enough.
The Start-Up That Survived the "Kill Zone"
The “kill zone” refers to the space near a tech giant’s core business where start-ups risk being copied or crushed simply for getting too close. The giants’ shadow deprives young firms of sun. Investors and employees often shy away, spooked by what a dominant player could do to a fledgling business. But what if survival were possible?
INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship: The Mindset for Success
When people think about what makes a start-up work, they often focus on the idea, the market opportunity and scalability. But Ella Miron-Spektor, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, says another key predictor of success is how the founding team is built. In this episode of INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship, she shares her research on what separates resilient, innovative start-ups from those that stall. Teams that succeed use ahybrid formation strategy, says Miron-Spektor.
INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship: Ecosystem Strategies
"Entrepreneurship is a mindset,” says Chiara Spina, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD. “It can really transform small businesses, family-run companies, large corporations and even governments.” Spina knows a thing or two about nurturing start-ups, having worked with hundreds of founders, incubators, accelerators and governments in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship: Removing Barriers to Social Change
Kaisa Snellman, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, points to notable examples in practice, such as how Impossible Foods has made plant-based alternatives mainstream or how Zipline achieves social impact by using drones to deliver medical supplies to remote areas in Rwanda and Ghana. Entrepreneurship can also foster more flexible work opportunities and challenge traditional industry practices.
Impactful Communication for Leaders
Yap states that it starts with listening. In today’s globalised workplace, leaders must communicate effectively with diverse groups. Doing this well starts with understanding the context and culture of your audience, which has as much to do with listening, observing and reading the room as speaking. The key is to be able to adjust, adapt and sometimes “flow” around resistance. He gives his take on a seemingly valuable trait of good communicators: authenticity.
INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship: The Value of the Right Investment
In this INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship video, Zeisberger explains that entrepreneurs need to show early traction by demonstrating that their product solves a real-world problem, and has an audience willing to pay. They also need to be able to articulate the go-to-market strategy, as investors won’t have the same deep understanding as the founder who has lived the problem.
INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship: Becoming an Entrepreneur by Acquisition
In this INSEAD Explains Entrepreneurship video, Naumovska outlines ETA’s compelling proposition for those who want to run a business that already has a foundation in place. When entrepreneurs step into businesses with proven demand, as well as an established business model, cash flow and operations, the challenge shifts from survival to operational excellence, innovation and growth.
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