Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson is still a believer in markets. But six years after her the publication of her landmark book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, she’ll be the first to admit that her faith in human nature has taken a beating. A major thesis of the book was that CEOs and companies didn’t have to choose between profit and purpose. And she had the receipts—chapters filled with stories about companies that were doing well for shareholders and doing good for the public at the same time. Fast forward to 2026, when her title metaphor has become reality. The world is literally on fire: from wildfires in Canada and Europe that threaten air quality and food supplies to burning refineries in Russia and burning tankers in the Strait of Hormuz driving fuel prices and inflation worldwide. Now Henderson is working on ways to address the polycrisis, the terms she uses for how inequality, polarization, and climate change are feeding one another. We’ll talk about how people can still make a difference, but also about structural fixes. And how private capital, short-term investor pressure, and weak governance undermined even the best intentions of so many companies and CEOs. It’s a conversation about capitalism, governance, power, money, and humanity.
About our Guest:
Rebecca Henderson is one of 25 University Professors at Harvard, a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of both the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also has more than twenty-five years of major public board experience. Her research explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy. Her publications include Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors (University of Chicago Press), Leading Sustainable Change: An Organizational Perspective (Oxford University Press) and Political Economy and Justice (University of Chicago Press). She is also the author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire which was shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey 2020 Business Book of the Year Award.
Books mentioned in this podcast:
“Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire,” Rebecca Henderson
“Why Nations Fail,” Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
“The Big Myth,” Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
“Incorruptible,” Eric Ries