Nilofer Merchant: Got a meeting? Take a walk

Nilofer Merchant suggests a small idea that just might have a big impact on your life and health: Next time you have a one-on-one meeting, make it into a "walking meeting" — and let ideas flow while you walk and talk.

Nilofer Merchant has been helping to grow businesses -- from Fortune 500s to web startups -- for 20 years. She’s worked for major companies (like Apple and Autodesk) and early web startups (remember Golive?). Logitech, Symantec, HP, Yahoo, VMWare, and many others have turned to her guidance to develop new product strategies, enter new markets, defend against competitors and optimize revenue.

Today she serves on boards for both public and private companies, and writes books about collaboration, like The New How: Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy, and openness -- check out her recent ebook 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra, chosen by Fast Company as one of the Best Business Books of 2012. She also writes for HBR, including the personal and brave essay about a previous attempt on the TED stage: "What I Learned from My TED Talk."

How to build a business that lasts 100 years

If you want to build a business that lasts, there may be no better place to look for inspiration than your own immune system. Join strategist Martin Reeves as he shares startling statistics about shrinking corporate life spans and explains how executives can apply six principles from living organisms to build resilient businesses that flourish in the face of change.

Martin Reeves is the Director of the BCG Henderson Institute, BCG's think tank for new ideas in strategy and management, and a Senior Partner based in New York City.

Reeves has been with the firm for 26 years and focuses on strategy, dividing his time between the Institute and client strategy work across sectors. He is author of a new book on strategy, Your Strategy Needs a Strategy, which deals with choosing and executing the right approach in today's complex and dynamic business environment, as well as numerous articles in Harvard Business Review and other publications.

Are Great Leaders Born Or Made?

There are certain qualities that many leaders have in common. Are these qualities learned or are they inherited? What makes a leader great?

Analyze the Billionaires of a Society to Gauge Its Economic Health | Ruchir Sharma

Billionaires: what have they done for us lately? Well, some of them have developed the tech you're reading this on (scoring good points), but others have gamed the system and nepotismed their way to the bank (bad, bad billionaires). Sharma's latest book is "The Rise and Fall of Nations

The lottery of life

We tend to look patronisingly at people convinced they might win the lottery. But we often harbour equally misguided hopes for our romantic and professional lives.

Success at school vs Success in life

"We want to do well at school for an obvious reason: because – as we’re often told – it’s the primary route to doing well at life. 

Few of us are in love with the A grades themselves – we want them because we’re understandably interested in one day having a fulfilling career, a pleasant house and the respect of others.

But, sometimes, more often than seems entirely reassuring, something confusing occurs: we come across people who triumphed at school – but flunked at life. And vice versa…”

Increase Your Productivity by Mastering Singular Focus and Mindful Meditation | Emma Seppälä

Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., is the science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, the founder of the popular news site FulfillmentDaily.com, and a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today. Her work has appeared in Scientific American Mind, The Huffington Post, and Spirituality & Health. Seppälä holds degrees from Yale, Columbia, and Stanford. Her book is The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success. More at www.emmaseppala.com.