Insight Unpacked: Recent Episodes
Kellogg School of Management
Healthcare: it’s a giant industry with a noble cause—supporting human health. But here in America, it’s expensive and unwieldy, and has inspired decades of (mostly) failed reform attempts. How did we get here? And can we do better?
Welcome to Insight Unpacked, where we delve into complex business topics and emerge with insights from Kellogg School faculty. For our second season, we untangle the often-competing incentives that motivate the major players in the system, from hospital networks and doctors to insurers and big pharma. We even turn the stethoscope on ourselves, the patients.
In the fifth—and final—episode of "Insight Unpacked: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?" we consider how AI and the human spirit could get us to net zero.
America passed its biggest-ever climate bill … only to reverse course three years later. In the fourth episode of "Insight Unpacked: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?" experts discuss why policy solutions struggle to stick.
A few years ago, the stock market was wild about green tech and ESG funds. And then it wasn't. We look at why in the third episode of "Insight Unpacked: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?"
They say they want to do better. In the second episode of "Insight Unpacked: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?" we look at an oil company, a tech giant, and an Italian energy provider to explore why net-zero pledges have barely moved the needle.
Saving the planet is going to take more than net-zero pledges and shopping green. In the first episode of our series, "Insight Unpacked: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?" we take the current temperature of the climate fight.
Introducing Insight Unpacked, Season 3: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?
In the last decade, we've seen powerful people and organizations take on the issue of climate change — making big pledges to reduce their carbon emissions by adapting their fleets, retrofitting their offices, or going paperless.
And yet global emissions are still at or near record highs. So what gives?
In this five-episode season, we're asking: If climate change is already reshaping our environment, is there anything that companies, investors, policymakers, technologists, and ordinary people can do to turn things around? And are we even capable of doing that?
There's reason for hope. But our work is certainly cut out for us.
In this bonus episode of our series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” a healthcare economist must make critical decisions with partial information.
Also: Do you have advice on how to be a good healthcare consumer? Any lessons you learned the hard way? Professor David Dranove wants to hear from you. Send him an email at d-dranove@kellogg.northwestern.edu, and write "shopping for healthcare" in the subject line.
In the final episode of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we travel overseas, and through our own backyard, in search of a way forward.
On this episode, we hear from Kellogg faculty members Craig Garthwaite, Amanda Starc, and David Dranove. We also talk to Murray Ross, vice president of Kaiser Permanente's Institute for Health Policy and Government Relations.
Visit the episode page for supplementary materials.
What will we pay for the next groundbreaking drug? In episode 4 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we explore the trade-off at the heart of pharmaceutical innovation.
On this episode, we hear from Kellogg faculty members Amanda Starc and Craig Garthwaite, as well as Boston University School of Law’s Kevin Outterson.
Visit the episode page for supplementary materials.
In episode 3 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we explain how insurance companies became everybody’s favorite villain.
On this episode, we talk to Kellogg faculty members Craig Garthwaite, David Dranove, and Paul Campbell, alongside Wharton School professor Robert Lawton Burns.
Visit the episode page for supplementary materials.
We rely on doctors to keep us healthy. In episode 2 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we learn at what cost.
On this episode, we talk to Kellogg professors Craig Garthwaite, David Dranove, and clinical associate professor Paul Campbell about the role doctors play in the expense and complexity of the American healthcare system.
Visit the episode page for supplementary materials.
In episode 1 of our 5-episode series, “Insight Unpacked: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives,” we investigate how hospital systems got so big—and what that means for our health and our pocketbooks.
On this episode, we talk to Kellogg professors Craig Garthwaite and David Dranove, and Wharton School professor Robert Lawton Burns. Dranove and Burns co-wrote the book Big Med: Megaproviders and the High Cost of Health Care in America.
Visit the episode page for supplementary materials.
Introducing Insight Unpacked, Season 2: American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives
If you lived in the nineteenth century, and you got sick, it was bad news. Simple urinary tract infections were deadly. Appendicitis killed you. And Syphilis might leave you without a nose.
Thanks to modern medicine, this is pretty unimaginable today. And if you live in the United States, you know that we pay handsomely for the privilege. But why do we pay more than any other country?
Welcome to Insight Unpacked—the series where our faculty break down a complex business topic. And boy do we have one for you this season: American healthcare and its web of misaligned incentives.
And we’re gonna get really familiar with the things that motivate this system’s biggest players. Those players? Hospital systems, doctors, health-insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and patients.
So subscribe to Insight Unpacked, or check your feed at The Insightful Leader. Episodes drop on Mondays starting June 24.
Luxury is dominated by older brands. So what happens when newer entrants try to break through? In the second of two bonus episodes, we show what can go right—and wrong.
So opulent! So exclusive! In the first of two bonus episodes, we explore everything that helps brands like Ferrari and Manolo Blahnik scream luxury.
In the fifth and final episode of our series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we look at how to measure your brand’s health–and what you should do if you don’t like what you learn.
Kellogg professors Julie Hennessy, Jennifer Cutler, Jim Lecinski, and Tim Calkins will explain how to use tools like Twitter to understand how customers feel about your brand, and what happened when Old Spice and Lego started to target surprising new audiences. Finally, we’ll learn how Kellogg professors feel about Insight’s new brand.
In episode 4 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” professor Mohan Sawhney discusses the importance of transmedia brand storytelling–and how to do it right.
Every brand has a story to tell. But consumers only have so much time, energy, and attention. You will need to find a story that cuts through our collective “story fatigue” and find creative ways to deploy it.
In episode 3 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we discuss the associations you want customers to make with your brand, and how to use design to make it happen.
On this episode, Kellogg professor Bobby Calder looks at how great brands define themselves, how stale brands revitalize themselves, and why you should use all your senses when creating a brand image. Channel your inner artist, because it’s design time! We discuss clever multimedia campaigns and explore how soundmarks and audio branding can open the door to new brand associations.
In episode 2 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we dig into the importance of finding the right name for your brand. With apologies to Shakespeare, a rose by any other name wouldn’t smell as sweet.
On this episode, Kellogg professors Paul Earle and Tim Calkins offer advice on where you might look for naming inspiration, what great names convey, and when you should go with something fun and funky versus simple and straightforward. Plus: an NFL franchise with a bad name, a podcast with a great name, and the single naming rule that trumps them all.
In episode 1 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we reveal the key questions you should answer before you start to craft your brand. Because if you can’t articulate your brand’s value to yourself, you won’t stand a chance of convincing customers.
On this episode, Kellogg professors Tim Calkins and Alice Tybout discuss brand purpose, point of difference, and the McDonald’s McLean burger.
Introducing Insight Unpacked Season 1: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them.
These days, it’s easy to build a brand. But if you want your brand to stand out, you will need to build an extraordinary brand.
Whether you need to build that special brand from scratch, or you’re hoping to reinvigorate an existing brand… on Insight Unpacked our faculty will help you figure out how to stand out from the crowd...
You’ll hear how to make sure your brand is hitting the right mark...
And you’ll learn how to use storytelling to bring your brand to life in the digital world.
We’ll also take you behind the scenes as we build a brand of our own. So subscribe to Insight Unpacked, or check your feed at The Insightful Leader. Episodes drop on Mondays starting August 15.