“People who eat healthily don’t have that much more willpower. They have just engineered their environment to avoid having to resist temptation.”Pierre Chandon, Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, challenges the idea that healthy eating is a matter of self-control. On the INSEAD Knowledge podcast, he explains how our surroundings – what we see, where we are and how food is framed – play a far greater role in shaping what we eat.Chandon explains that there are four ways food products claim to be healthy. Some brands say it’s because they have improved the nutritional properties of the food. They use labels like “enriched” if they have added “good” vitamins and minerals or “diet” if they have removed “bad” sugar and fat. These are the traditional, nutrition-based ways to be healthy.Other food products claim to be healthy “by nature”. These brands claim they have preserved the food's natural characteristics by either not adding anything “bad” (these includes claims such as “clean” or “free from” additives or hormones) or by not removing anything “good” (these includes claims such as “whole” or “organic”).“Consumers are less and less interested in the nutritional approach,” says Chandon. Rather, they now favour foods that are healthy by nature.In a series of studies with his co-author Maria Langlois, he found that nature itself can nudge people towards better choices. When participants walked in a park rather than through city streets, they picked fruit over unhealthy snacks. Even just looking at pictures of green landscapes had a similar effect. “A natural view makes people more willing to trade off taste and diet for natural healthy food,” he says.He also points to a disconnect between how brands talk about health and what consumers actually want. For instance, his research with Romain Cadario shows that in France, labels on cereal packages align with local preferences. However, in the United States, companies miss key signals. “It’s not enough to say I’m healthy,” he says. “You have to be healthy in the right way.”
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Tailoring Strategy to Local Needs
Companies looking to succeed in emerging markets must listen to local needs and tailor their proposition accordingly.That’s the message from Affiliate Professor of Strategy Lite Nartey and digital financial services expert Bruno Akpaka in this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, which examines how mobile payments system Mobile Money was successfully introduced in Ghana.Akpaka, who oversaw the launch of Mobile Money in 2009 as mobile telecom firm MTN’s general manager for Western Central Africa, explains how the company took the time to speak to all stakeholders involved. Alongside banks and regulators, the MTN sent representatives out to speak directly with market traders and their customers, many of whom had never previously had access to financial services.This led MTN to eschew the traditional banking route in favour of a distribution model that brought the service to unbanked consumers through a network of agents. This allowed the company to customise their proposition and develop a product that met the needs of local consumers, offering them convenience, security and simplicity.What started out as a project with financial inclusion goals, has since evolved into a comprehensive financial system. By the end of 2024, Mobile Money had more than 17.2 million users in Ghana – approximately half the total population.While such a tailored approach might seem obvious, Professor Nartey highlights how many global firms still try to apply strategies from developed markets without fully understanding local contexts. As the Mobile Money case shows, each market has its own challenges – and requires its own tailored solution.
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Why Business Scandals Keep Happening
What’s common across the Boeing 737 MAX debacle, the 1MDB financial scandal and America’s opioid crisis? They are all illustrations of how business leaders, in pursuit of performance, neglected and undermined progress – specifically fairness, well-being and sustainability.With each such scandal, trust in business frays. While one may blame specific firms and leaders, too much is amiss in modern business to solely blame the actors, says INSEAD Professor of Strategy and Management Subi Rangan in this podcast. Business theory and business education also warrant careful scrutiny and correction.
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The Value Of Shared Dreams
Can dreaming really help solve waking problems? And could a specific form of dream analysis help an organisation better achieve shared goals and objectives? In this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, Susan Long, Emeritus Professor at the National Institute of Organization Dynamics Australia and Michael Jarrett, Professor of Management at INSEAD offer their perspective on the value of social dreaming for firms.The roots of social dreaming can be traced back to World War II, and German journalist, Charlotte Beradt's documentation of dreams during the Nazi era. Inspired by her findings, British psychoanalyst Gordon Lawrence developed the concept of social dreaming as a structured method for exploring the unconscious dynamics operating within contemporary social groups.This method moves beyond the traditional view of dreams as purely personal experiences. While individual dreams often address personal wishes and daily events, social dreaming suggests that groups of people, interconnected within a social system, also collectively dream about issues, desires and problems relevant to the group as a whole.The conversation goes on to explore the practicalities of running a social dreaming session – from the importance of the Matrix to the role of the host in leading the group through the dream reflection dialogue.Citing real life examples, Long and Jarrett explain how they have both used social dreaming to work with firms to identify and address the unconscious concerns and emotions that influence behaviour and decision-making. In this way, social dreaming can offer deeper insights into shared concerns. This allows for improved communication, collaboration and a more comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics at play within groups.Further reading:The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation, Charlotte Beradt.Introduction to Social Dreaming: Transforming Thinking, W. Gordon Lawrence.Social Dreaming: Philosophy, Research, Theory and Practice, Susan Long and Julian Manley (eds.).
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Putting Customers at the Heart of Your Business
For the longest time, businesses have embraced a “product selling” playbook. Typically, this means having a supplier with a product to sell and a customer to persuade to purchase that product based on the price and perceived value.However, in an increasingly challenging business environment where disruption is the norm, such a transactional approach is no longer fit for purpose. In this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, Christoph Senn, Adjunct Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, and Mehak Gandhi, Head of Research at Valuecreator, discuss an alternative approach to working with your customers, one that involves a deeper partnership and a greater understanding of their client's needs. An approach they've outlined in their new book, Triple Fit Strategy: How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships and Boost Growth. You can access more tools about the framework and get further information about the book here.
Faculty thought leaders from INSEAD, The Business School for the World speak frankly about the most pressing challenges facing today's firms and managers.
Portugal