At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure (Summer Repeat)

Founded in 2010, Supercell was a Finland-based mobile gaming company that had developed and launched five global hit mobile games. The company’s early philosophy was that it could produce hits by designing the company to appeal to top talent: Developers worked in small, autonomous groups called cells with little oversight. The formula was an initial success but the streak of hit games eventually ended. By 2023, CEO Ilkka Paananen and the company’s leadership team decided to restructure the company but wondered if they could still attract top talent despite its shift to more traditional ways of managing the business. Senior Lecturer Jeffrey Rayport and host Brian Kenny discuss the case, “Supercell 2.0: Clash of Plans,” and the question at its crux: What would it take to restore the company's winning streak?

You have a strategy you believe in. But what happens when your boss doesn’t? “Cold Call” presents this bonus episode from the podcast “Coaching Real Leaders,” where host and executive coach Muriel Wilkins works with an ambitious leader whose plan to drive growth is at risk because she hasn’t been able to get the alignment she needs from her boss. They explore what’s behind the resistance and how she can approach the relationship, and the strategy, differently. The conversation illustrates a key challenge at the heart of strategy execution: getting the people who need to support your idea on board.

With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment. Harvard Business School senior lecturer Henry McGee and host Brian Kenny discuss the case, “The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization,” and the different structures an institution like the BBC could have in order to operate in a financially sound and culturally impactful way.

Sometimes the only way to win is by finding the courage to lose. Cold Call presents a special episode from TED’s Fixable podcast. In it, the show’s hosts, Leadership Coach Anne Morriss and Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei, challenge leaders to “dare to be bad” in order to free up capacity to excel at more important things. They share insight on the power of a strategic “no,” the value of ruthless prioritization, and how Steve Jobs and Apple delivered breakthrough innovation by strategically underperforming. Frances also explains why you can’t always trust your own instincts, and Anne reflects on the lessons she learned in her early days of parenting.

AthenaHQ, a startup that helps brands monitor, protect, and optimize their visibility across conversational AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini was founded in 2025. Co-founded by Andrew Yan, the company built a platform that enables major consumer brands, B2B software companies, and marketing agencies to track their share of voice, correct factual errors in AI responses, and manage their reputation across generative answer engines. In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Julian De Freitas and AthenaHQ co-founder and CEO Andrew Yan join host Brian Kenny to discuss the case “AthenaHQ: Building Brands for AI Search,” exploring how marketers are navigating the new world of generative engine optimization (GEO), the so-called “dark funnel” of customer engagement, and the need for brand managers to optimize for brand sentiment and accuracy not just search rankings.