5 TED Talks To Watch If You're Headed To Business School

By Francine Fluetsch on April 27, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

Are you thinking about going to business school soon? What a wonderful adventure you have ahead! There will be tough moments, moments where you want to rip your hair out and question what you are doing, but we’ve all been there. If you need some motivation to keep you headed towards your dream, or just want to get pumped for business school, why not give these five TED talks a watch? They are all pretty short but with powerful messages.

1) Economic growth has stalled. Let’s fix it

Capitalism isn’t creating the growth we need, so what are we going to do about it? Obviously economic growth is a slippery subject, and everyone has ideas about how to make it work in the favor of actually growing, but this talk goes into why it’s not working as it is, and how corruption is sprouting because of it. Maybe this will inspire you to think outside the box, to foster new ways that we can make economic growth possible without all the backlash and corruption that’s there now.

This isn’t going to be solved overnight, and might take even longer since people can never agree on this matter, but maybe you’ll come up with a way, through business school, that you can feasibly fix the problem without angering people so they’ll see that you have the right idea?

2) Two reasons companies fail, and how to avoid them

There are many directions to go with your business degree, one of which would be starting or managing your own company, a feat that is both intimidating and incredibly desired. This talk might come in handy if you want to head down that path and learn how to keep your company growing and avoid it failing — super simple, right?

Business strategist Knut Haanaes stresses that being innovative after becoming successful is the making of a great business. Through school you will learn techniques that are essential for a business to thrive and function, and the talk goes into perfecting those strategies as well as looking into new ideas, and figuring out how to blend the two to make it work best for your company. If you only do what’s new, or you only do the same old, your company is bound to fail, or so Haanaes says, so the key really is to strike this balance and stay out of the danger zone.

3) The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed

What? Did you read that correctly? Yes, start-ups really can thrive, and Bill Gross might just have the reason as to why. He himself has founded many start-ups, so he’s not new to the trade, and he decided to see why some companies succeed while others failed, so he started gathering data. These were the five factors he considered: ideas, team, business model, funding and timing.

He found that the number one thing that either made the company or broke it, was the timing. Isn’t that insane? You could have mass amounts of funding, but if you launch too early or too late, it could sink. Don’t believe me? Listen to the expert explain his findings in this short video.

4) How to run a company with (almost) no rules

No rules at work? That could never actually work, could it? Well, it sure seems to be working for Brazilian CEO Ricardo Semler. He practices a radical form of corporate democracy, which makes it so a job doesn’t control his employees. They have freedom in things like vacation days, which they don’t have to report! So many people are bogged down by work, hating life, missing out on family events, but this version of democracy in the workplace promotes a balance between work and play, and makes the employee feel important. Don’t think this could work? Tell me what you think after finishing the video.

5) Got a meeting? Take a walk

This Ted talk was super great because it points to a major problem that all of us are guilty of: we sit way too much! This factor alone is detrimental to our health, but as Nilofer Merchant explains in the video, we often have to choose between taking care of our health, or our obligations. If you are going to be working in an office, you have to sit for about eight hours right? Wrong. Merchant is changing her life by having walking meetings, where instead of meeting at a coffee shop or in an office setting, she will invite people to meet with her as they walk somewhere. She claims that not only is this going to be great for everyone’s health, it also promotes a different kind of thinking, because you get to be outside and in a different environment. Hey, why not invest in a Fitbit and then challenge your work friends as you all walk and talk in meetings?

A new flow of ideas and a healthier life style? Sounds pretty good to me.

I hope you find these talks inspirational! There are definitely many more where they came from, so explore and see what catches your eye.

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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