TED Business

Nicholas Stern: The state of the climate — and what we might do about it

How can we begin to address the global, insidious problem of climate change — a problem that’s too big for any one country to solve? Economist Nicholas Stern lays out a plan, presented to the UN’s Climate Summit in 2014, showing how the world’s countries can work together on climate…

1 Oct 2014 16 min

Lorrie Faith Cranor: What’s wrong with your pa$$w0rd?

Lorrie Faith Cranor studied thousands of real passwords to figure out the surprising, very common mistakes that users — and secured sites — make to compromise security. And how, you may ask, did she study thousands of real passwords without compromising the security of any users? That's a story in…

10 Jul 2014 17 min

Simon Sinek: Why good leaders make you feel safe

What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it's someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety — especially in an uneven economy — means taking on big responsibility.

20 May 2014 11 min

William Black: How to rob a bank (from the inside, that is)

William Black is a former bank regulator who's seen firsthand how banking systems can be used to commit fraud — and how "liar's loans" and other tricky tactics led to the 2008 US banking crisis that threatened the international economy. In this engaging talk, Black, now an academic, reveals the…

19 May 2014 18 min

Charmian Gooch: My wish: To launch a new era of openness in business

Anonymous companies protect corrupt individuals – from notorious drug cartel leaders to nefarious arms dealers – behind a shroud of mystery that makes it almost impossible to find and hold them responsible. But anti-corruption activist Charmian Gooch hopes to change all that. At TED2014, she shares her brave TED Prize…

25 Mar 2014 16 min

Christopher Soghoian: Government surveillance — this is just the beginning

Privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian sees the landscape of government surveillance shifting beneath our feet, as an industry grows to support monitoring programs. Through private companies, he says, governments are buying technology with the capacity to break into computers, steal documents and monitor activity — without detection. This TED Fellow gives…

17 Mar 2014 8 min

Philip Evans: How data will transform business

What does the future of business look like? In an informative talk, Philip Evans gives a quick primer on two long-standing theories in strategy — and explains why he thinks they are essentially invalid. (Listen for the absorbing tale of a surveillance program named Nora which was so useful it…

5 Mar 2014 17 min

Annette Heuser: The 3 agencies with the power to make or break economies

The way we rate national economies is all wrong, says rating agency reformer Annette Heuser. With mysterious and obscure methods, three private US-based credit rating agencies wield immense power over national economies across the globe, and the outcomes can be catastrophic. But what if there was another way? In this…

4 Mar 2014 9 min

Roselinde Torres: What it takes to be a great leader

There are many leadership programs available today, from 1-day workshops to corporate training programs. But chances are, these won't really help. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to…

24 Feb 2014 9 min

Chris McKnett: The investment logic for sustainability

Sustainability is pretty clearly one of the world's most important goals; but what groups can really make environmental progress in leaps and bounds? Chris McKnett makes the case that it's large institutional investors. He shows how strong financial data isn't enough, and reveals why investors need to look at a…

17 Feb 2014 12 min

Yves Morieux: As work gets more complex, 6 rules to simplify

Why do people feel so miserable and disengaged at work? Because today's businesses are increasingly and dizzyingly complex -- and traditional pillars of management are obsolete, says Yves Morieux. So, he says, it falls to individual employees to navigate the rabbit's warren of interdependencies. In this energetic talk, Morieux offers…

27 Jan 2014 12 min

Harish Manwani: Profit’s not always the point

You might not expect the chief operating officer of a major global corporation to look too far beyond either the balance sheet or the bottom line. But Harish Manwani, COO of Unilever, makes a passionate argument that doing so to include value, purpose and sustainability in top-level decision-making is not…

14 Jan 2014 7 min

Roger Stein: A bold new way to fund drug research

Believe it or not, about 20 years' worth of potentially life-saving drugs are sitting in labs right now, untested. Why? Because they can't get the funding to go to trials; the financial risk is too high. Roger Stein is a finance guy, and he thinks deeply about mitigating risk. He…

9 Jan 2014 11 min

Toni Griffin: A new vision for rebuilding Detroit

Once the powerhouse of America's industrial might, Detroit is more recently known in the popular imagination as a fabulous ruin, crumbling and bankrupt. But city planner Toni Griffin asks us to look again -- and to imagine an entrepreneurial future for the city's 700,000 residents.

17 Dec 2013 11 min

Toby Eccles: Invest in social change

Here's a stat worth knowing: In the UK, 63% of men who finish short-term prison sentences are back inside within a year for another crime. Helping them stay outside involves job training, classes, therapy. And it would pay off handsomely -- but the government can't find the funds. Toby Eccles…

4 Dec 2013 10 min

Robin Nagle: What I discovered in New York City trash

New York City residents produce 11,000 tons of garbage every day. Every day! This astonishing statistic is just one of the reasons Robin Nagle started a research project with the city's Department of Sanitation. She walked the routes, operated mechanical brooms, even drove a garbage truck herself--all so she could…

6 Nov 2013 7 min

Mariana Mazzucato: Government -- investor, risk-taker, innovator

Why doesn’t the government just get out of the way and let the private sector -- the “real revolutionaries” -- innovate? It’s rhetoric you hear everywhere, and Mariana Mazzucato wants to dispel it. In an energetic talk, she shows how the state -- which many see as a slow, hunkering…

1 Nov 2013 14 min

Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work

Work-life balance, says Nigel Marsh, is too important to be left in the hands of your employer. Marsh lays out an ideal day balanced between family time, personal time and productivity -- and offers some stirring encouragement to make it happen. (Filmed at TEDxSydney.)

31 Oct 2013 13 min

Alessandro Acquisti: Why privacy matters

The line between public and private has blurred in the past decade, both online and in real life, and Alessandro Acquisti is here to explain what this means and why it matters. In this thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares details of recent and ongoing research -- including a project…

21 Oct 2013 15 min

Michael Sandel: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life

In the past three decades, says Michael Sandel, the US has drifted from a market economy to a market society; it's fair to say that an American's experience of shared civic life depends on how much money they have. (Three key examples: access to education, access to justice, political influence.)…

10 Oct 2013 14 min