Rita McGrath, Author at Rita McGrath

The customer service revolt: how bad support is building a grievance empire on social media

Photo by Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash Content originally published by Fast Company My recent experience with CVS is a case in point. I went in for some basics and was […]

For years, employers treated degrees as a proxy for competence. Technology just called their bluff

Photo by Ethan Gowans on Unsplash Content originally published by Fast Company A recent Washington Post investigation described something called “degree hacking”—students racing through accredited online bachelor’s and master’s programs […]

Why people can’t build wealth on wages alone, and what to do about it

Photo by Negative Space Content originally published by Fast Company. As Jennifer Harris, director of the Economy and Society Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, has recently pointed […]

What John Galliano going to Zara tells us about fashion—and everything else

Image by flickr. Contenty originally published by Fast Company. Fashion, it turns out, is a leading indicator. Long before mainstream business commentary catches up to a structural shift in the […]

Our attitude toward kids and social media has shifted dramatically. Here’s what that can teach us about change

Photo by iStock Content originally published by Fast Company. When social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published The Anxious Generation in March 2024, his core proposal—that children should be kept off social […]

The drone delivery business has a ground problem

Photo by rawpixel Content originally published by Fast Company For more than a decade, the story of drone delivery was about improving the technology and getting federal permission for the […]

What the Tilly Norwood moment should teach us

Photo by LA Times Content originally published by Fast Company From July 14 to November 9, 2023, the American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, representing 160,000 people, went on strike over a […]

Apocalypse or golden opportunity? Why the AI Freakout Might Be Useful

Photo by Aqua Cloud Content originally published by Fast Company I was profoundly struck by the Wall Street Journal’s reporting from Amrith Ramkumar, Angel Au-Yeung and Lindsay Ellis on the […]

Sneak peek: your meetings are the worst product your company ships

Dear Subscribers, As ever, subscribers get an early heads up when a Thought Sparks Podcast interview is released. If your meetings were a product, would you ever ship them? My […]

Sneak Peek: Rory Sutherland and the Galápagos Islands of Human Behavior

Dear Subscribers, Here’s this week’s sneak peek at a podcast that will drop tomorrow. My guest this week is Rory Sutherland. He’s an advertising legend, the president emeritus of Ogilvy […]

Sneak peek: The CEO who wasn’t told what his new owners wanted him to do!

Dear friends, Imagine this. You have presided over a long, sad stretch of corporate “meh.” #5 in your category. Unbeloved by your parent organization. Spurned by every potential acquirer, even […]

A Sneak Peek for My Substack Subscribers: Charlene Li on Winning with AI

Dear subscribers, There are some guests who I suspect are being a little careful about what they think. Charlene Li is not one of them! Charlene — fellow Silicon Guilder, […]

Meet The CEO Who Used My Research to Turbocharge his Company’s Success

Every academic secretly wonders whether the work goes anywhere. You publish, you get the citations, you hope. And then, once in a while, the universe hands you a full-circle moment. […]

Reframing Corruption as Making Money Without Adding Value

Most of you know Eric Ries from The Lean Startup and his other books, and maybe from his efforts to create the Long Term Stock Exchange. He helped launch a […]

A sneak peek at my conversation with Jennifer Moss: Why are we actually here?

Why are so many people — talented, accomplished people — quietly checking out of work? And what can leaders actually do about it? This week’s guest on the Thought Sparks […]

Farewell to the Sloan Management Review: Now What for Management Ideas?

The news landed quietly, tucked into a letter from MIT Sloan’s dean to colleagues: after 67 years, the MIT Sloan Management Review is shutting down. Future insights, the letter explained, […]

?? Tomorrow on Thought Sparks: A Not-so-Quiet Management Revolution – and if you hate budgeting, you’re going to love this!

Quick, when I say “annual budget,” what emotions does that invoke? All too often it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of dread and disinterest. In most companies, it’s pretty dysfunctional. But […]