Is Business Broken?

Conversations about the role of business in society, brought to you by the Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets & Society at BU Questrom School of Business.

Is Business Broken? is a business podcast hosted by Questrom School of Business, with 40 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Questrom School of Business hosts Is Business Broken?, a business show with 40 episodes published.

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  Is Business Broken?

  Beyond Corporate Sustainability: Can the Free Market Be Environmentally Responsible?

  Sep 24, 202627 min

  We've watched companies wrap themselves in green branding, issue elaborate corporate sustainability reports, and promise a future where capitalism and conservation march hand in hand. But is corporate sustainability truly about saving the planet, or is it a substitute for accountability and regulation? In the last episode of our three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, host Curt Nickisch unpacks the myths of market-driven solutions and the critical role of governance with conference co-organizers Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University, and Tom Lyon, professor of business, economics, and public policy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Is Business Broken?

  Beyond Corporate Sustainability: When Did Sustainability Become Sustainability Inc?

  Sep 17, 202625 min

  Individual companies don't operate in a vacuum. They're part of industries, supply chains, financial markets, and a much larger system. So in this bigger picture, how did the idea of corporate sustainability become so ubiquitous and powerful? How did we come to believe that companies could take on some of society's biggest environmental problems while still turning a profit?  In the second episode of our three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, host Curt Nickisch unpacks those questions with conference co-organizers Kenneth Pucker, professor of practice at Tufts University and former chief operating officer at Timberland, and Andy King, professor of strategy and innovation at BU Questrom.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Is Business Broken?

  Beyond Corporate Sustainability: Can Corporations Solve Climate Change?

  Sep 10, 202626 min

  In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report confirming what many scientists already knew:  that human activities are driving rapid, intensifying global warming. The science was clear, and there was momentum to act. But who should take the lead? Beginning in the 1990s, a new answer emerged: corporations. If businesses were responsible for much of the world’s fossil fuel emissions, perhaps they could also be part of the solution. It seemed like a win-win: good for the planet, good for the business. Three decades later, corporate sustainability has profoundly shaped business education, investment, public policy, and academic research. But what if the idea itself has limitations? In this three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, we take a closer look at the promise and pitfalls of corporate sustainability and ask what it would take to move beyond it. This series is a departure from our usual Is Business Broken? programming: rather than bringing together competing perspectives, we’re taking a deeper look at one particular critique of corporate sustainability. In this first episode, host Curt Nickisch unpacks the idea of corporate sustainability and more with Auden Schendler, climate activist and author of two books, Terrible Beauty and Getting Green Done; and Andy King, professor of strategy and innovation at BU Questrom and a leading scholar of corporate environmental strategy, voluntary programs, and environmental regulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Is Business Broken?

  What transforms an idea into an economy?

  Jun 25, 202631 min

  Where does innovation begin? What are the critical factors driving innovation today and tomorrow? And what happens when federal funding gets shaky, the IPO market stalls, and political uncertainty rattles an entire industry? A century and a half after Boston University Professor Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, questions around the innovation economy are more urgent than ever. At a live show, recorded at the WBUR Festival in Boston, host Curt Nickisch sits down to explore these questions with Dr. Melissa Gilliam, President of Boston University; Kendalle Burlin O'Connell, CEO & President, MassBio, and Elizabeth Jurinka, Operating Director, Healthcare Policy, Vistria PRG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Is Business Broken?

  Does the Future of Sustainability Lie in the Shipping Industry?

  Apr 23, 202624 minS0

  <p>Ocean shipping carries close to 90% of global trade, and it accounts for about 3% of global emissions. The International Maritime Organization has set ambitious targets to reduce those by 20% by 2030, by 70% by 2040, and reach net zero by 2050.</p> <p>Ships are expensive and pay for themselves over decades, and the technology for green fuels is still developing. What are you supposed to do if you're a shipping company? Do you invest early and take on the risk? Do you drag your feet? And why should we be thinking about the shipping industry in the first place?</p> <p>Host Curt...

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