Business

Focus is critical when you are building a business. The whole NFT industry is moving incredibly quickly. What happens in a month in the crypto-world, may take a couple of years in other industries.

Co-Founder and CEO of OpenSea, leading NFT marketplace platform

You could take a sword from one game and move it to another. In the events industry, you can imagine having event tickets operating as these collectible, persistent, immutable objects you can carry between markets, with different benefits… potentially even being redeemable against real-world assets.

Co-Founder and CEO of OpenSea, leading NFT marketplace platform

Today, American capital markets are a detriment for competitiveness. The private markets are doing well, but we need a new way forward for competitiveness that works better for companies and the people.

Management theorist & former Dean of Rotman School of Business

The only way to innovate is to follow Aristotle's prescription. To create a future that is different to the past is to imagine possibilities and choose the one for which the most compelling argument can be made, not the one for which there is the most data. If companies want to innovate, they need to realise that data analytics is killing innovation yet is lauded and used increasingly.

Management theorist & former Dean of Rotman School of Business

The biggest mistake is thinking that some people at the top make strategy, while everybody else executes it. It feels intractable at this point, it's so ingrained in our way of thinking. You don't want people who sit there faithfully executing strategy, you want people who lead their part of the organisation and who engage in good communication.

Management theorist & former Dean of Rotman School of Business

If those assets are not being productively converted into goods and services that make the world a better place, it's a missed opportunity. Over the past half-century, we've standardised on a 'way' to do things – and that's clearly flawed but continues. We need managers and leaders to up their game if we're going to hope to tackle the environmental, inequality and other crises we face.

Management theorist & former Dean of Rotman School of Business

We must stand up and say that a business model based on secretly tracking us in order to find, and exploit, weaknesses in our attention is not acceptable. It's immoral.

Journalist and author known for books on addiction and depression

I'm not about legacy, I sweat the small stuff and don't think too much about the big picture. I don't have big lofty goals, I just have goals I can execute, and sometimes experiments I run.

Reality TV Star & Founder of Skinnygirl Cocktails Brand

You don't have to choose a business that's going to drown you, be a treadmill, or suck you underneath. You can start slow, make a bit of money and then double down. You don't have to risk it all at the beginning. Start slow… make a bit of money… make a bit more… then you're playing with the house's money.

Reality TV Star & Founder of Skinnygirl Cocktails Brand

People get stuck in the plan… the program… what they need to pack for the journey… my view? Just get in the goddam car and get driving. Things will go wrong… plans may go half-cocked… you're not an idiot, you're not going to burn money… just be smart and get driving.

Reality TV Star & Founder of Skinnygirl Cocktails Brand

The fruit of addiction to success is redefining yourself in terms of one activity. When you take that away, there's a deep loss of identity. To the striver, that addiction is success. It activates the same neurobiology and dopamine pathways as alcohol or drugs.

Social Scientist & Author on Happiness, Meaning, and Conservative Values

The world is lying to you. It tells you that in 10,000 hours you can become excellent at what you do and that your strength will never wane. That is a complete, utter, falsehood. At some point, the greatness that came to define who 'you' are will wane.

Social Scientist & Author on Happiness, Meaning, and Conservative Values

The real important fact is that consumers would rather choose a sustainable product or service from a transformed business over others. The young people are going to have to live in that future, and they are not part of the solution because they are not at the decision table and hence are increasingly voting with their money.

Most leaders are running human organisations, not financial organisations. This means they need to understand how to motivate, inspire and organise people first rather than capital first. This requires a set of skills that traditionally have not been taught in business schools.

Editor of Fortune Magazine & Wall Street Journal columnist

Today, information is omnidirectional – you have to respond to it immediately- and you have to empower people, in the field, to make decisions, or you will fail. Leaders today are far less involved with telling people what to do, and much more involved with setting goals and providing guardrails.

Editor of Fortune Magazine & Wall Street Journal columnist

Social media has decreased distance and that means that we are just as passionately bothered about things on the other side of the world, as we are things in our home town. Social media transparency has had, and is having, a huge impact on stakeholder visibility.

Editor of Fortune Magazine & Wall Street Journal columnist