Is Business Broken?

More than 70 million Americans now do some form of freelance or gig work. For many, the appeal is flexibility: the freedom to choose when, where, and how much to work. But that flexibility sometimes comes with a cost.

Gig platforms give companies a workforce they can scale up and down with demand, while shifting more of the risk onto workers, who often lack the benefits and protections of traditional employees. In July, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that ride-hailing and delivery platforms were among the largest employers of workers receiving SNAP and Medicaid benefits in 11 states. So is gig work creating a fundamentally new way of working, or simply a new way for companies to organize labor?

In this episode, host Curt Nickisch explores that question and more with Gordon Burtch, professor of information systems at BU Questrom, and David Weil, professor of social policy and management at Brandeis University and former administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama administration.

Related readings:

Federal Social Safety Net Programs: Millions of Workers, Including Many Employed by Large Employers, Continue to Rely on Medicaid and SNAP

The Dangerous Myth of Flexibility - The American Prospect

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In the age of remote and hybrid work, one question has taken on new urgency: how do you measure productivity when you can’t see it?

From AI-powered engineering dashboards to internal chatbots that log every question an employee asks, companies now have more visibility into the workforce than ever before. These tools are often built with good intentions to help employees grow, collaborate better, and deliver more value. But when workers experience them as surveillance, even the best-designed product can backfire.

How are these technologies actually being used? What are the unintended consequences for trust and morale? What does responsible deployment look like?

In this episode, host Curt Nickisch unpacks these questions and more with Thomas Costa, Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security at the U.S. Government Accountability Office; Rhonda Morris, former Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Chevron; Kabrina K. Chang, professor of business law and ethics at BU Questrom; and George Champlin-Scharff, senior business agility and operating model consultant at Scrum Inc.
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We've watched companies wrap themselves in green branding, issue elaborate corporate sustainability reports, and promise a future where capitalism and conservation march hand in hand. But is corporate sustainability truly about saving the planet, or is it a substitute for accountability and regulation?

In the last episode of our three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, host Curt Nickisch unpacks the myths of market-driven solutions and the critical role of governance with conference co-organizers Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University, and Tom Lyon, professor of business, economics, and public policy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
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Individual companies don't operate in a vacuum. They're part of industries, supply chains, financial markets, and a much larger system. So in this bigger picture, how did the idea of corporate sustainability become so ubiquitous and powerful? How did we come to believe that companies could take on some of society's biggest environmental problems while still turning a profit?

In the second episode of our three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, host Curt Nickisch unpacks those questions with conference co-organizers Kenneth Pucker, professor of practice at Tufts University and former chief operating officer at Timberland, and Andy King, professor of strategy and innovation at BU Questrom.
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In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report confirming what many scientists already knew: that human activities are driving rapid, intensifying global warming. The science was clear, and there was momentum to act. But who should take the lead?

Beginning in the 1990s, a new answer emerged: corporations. If businesses were responsible for much of the world’s fossil fuel emissions, perhaps they could also be part of the solution. It seemed like a win-win: good for the planet, good for the business. Three decades later, corporate sustainability has profoundly shaped business education, investment, public policy, and academic research. But what if the idea itself has limitations?

In this three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, we take a closer look at the promise and pitfalls of corporate sustainability and ask what it would take to move beyond it. This series is a departure from our usual Is Business Broken? programming: rather than bringing together competing perspectives, we’re taking a deeper look at one particular critique of corporate sustainability.

In this first episode, host Curt Nickisch unpacks the idea of corporate sustainability and more with Auden Schendler, climate activist and author of two books, Terrible Beauty and Getting Green Done; and Andy King, professor of strategy and innovation at BU Questrom and a leading scholar of corporate environmental strategy, voluntary programs, and environmental regulation.
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