Corporate change is notoriously difficult and often fails. One reason is that success is considered to depend only on how change is executed—that is, the quality of “change management.” We argue that change must instead be treated as a strategic problem, varying the approach to change depending on the type of challenge encountered and the internal characteristics of the company.

The language of business reveals the lingering legacy of “scientific management” from the early industrial era, which is ill-suited to modern corporate challenges. We propose imperatives for a new management agenda that emphasizes humanism over a narrow consideration of productive efficiency.

"Evolvable scripts" offer a flexible, concise alternative to traditional knowledge-sharing methods, empowering employees to adapt and innovate while keeping essential tasks clear and manageable.

Companies can easily get stuck in their mental models, science fiction can provide a spark for breaking the mold.

By creating a cycle of learning and forgetting, companies will be better able to adapt to changing environments, evading the mental entrapments of the past.

Key takeaways from the BCG Henderson Institute’s 2024 Science and Business Dinner, where participants discussed the challenges of regulating emerging technologies and proposed novel approaches.