Ideas change everything

How to build a business that lasts 100 years

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Martin Reeves |

TED@BCG Paris

• May 2016

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.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

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.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

About the speaker

Imagination advocate

See speaker profile

Martin Reeves is chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute (BHI), BCG's think tank for new ideas in strategy and management.

Learn more

Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach

Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes and Janmejaya Sinha | Harvard Business Review Press (2015)

Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes and Janmejaya Sinha - *Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach*

Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the Commons

Simon Levin | Basic Books (1999)

Simon Levin - *Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the Commons*

"When Resilience Is More Important Than Efficiency"

As business becomes more complex and interconnected, leaders should focus on designing robust systems rather than only maximizing static efficiency. (Martin Reeves and Raj Varadarajan)

About TED Institute

Every year, TED works with a group of select companies and foundations to identify internal ideators, inventors, connectors, and creators. Drawing on the same rigorous regimen that has prepared speakers for the TED main stage, TED Institute works closely with each partner, overseeing curation and providing intensive one-on-one talk development to sharpen and fine tune ideas. The culmination is an event produced, recorded, and hosted by TED, generating a growing library of valuable TED Talks that can spur innovation and transform organizations.

Read more about the TED Institute