Gross, a serial entrepreneur, says there’s a reason most startups fail: It’s not the right time for them to exist.
Gross analyzed 200 companies (he helped start 100 of them through his company Idealab) and found that the most successful were all started at a point when there was a genuine need for their product or services. In fact, he says in his talk, timing accounted for 42% of the difference between success and failure.
Other factors — like your team and your business model — matter a lot. But Gross advises entrepreneurs to think hard about whether it’s exactly the right moment to launch their business.
“The best way to really assess timing is to really look at whether consumers are really ready for what you have to offer them,” he says. “And to be really, really honest about it, not be in denial about any results that you see.”

This unconventional talk is given by an Israeli symphony orchestra conductor turned business consultant. Talgam outlines what organizational leaders can learn from conductors, namely that you don’t tell your team members what to do so much as create the conditions that allow the team to lead itself.
In other words, your role as a leader is to enable your employees (or musicians) to shine.
“You have the story of the orchestra as a professional body. You have the story of the audience as a community. … You have the stories of the individuals in the orchestra and in the audience. … And all those stories are being heard at the same time. This is the true experience of a live concert.”
By treating your employees as partners rather than true subordinates, you create harmony among your team and give it a better chance of success.”

Hill is a management professor who studies the factors that lead to innovation. In her talk, she says that the key is being able to celebrate differences and generate what she calls a “marketplace of ideas.” It’s not about brainstorming and suspending judgment — instead, it’s about having constructive debates.
Hill highlights Pixar as an example of a company that has refined its creative process. At Pixar, “they have developed a rather patient and more inclusive decision-making process that allows for both/and solutions to arise and not simply either/or solutions.”
The leader of an innovative organization must create a space where even the lowest-ranking employees feel compelled to share their ideas. That way, everyone’s strengths combine to create works of collective genius.

If you’ve ever left the office after a full day at work and realized you got precisely nothing done, you can probably identify with Fried’s argument.
According to Fried, the author of “Rework,” modern offices just aren’t conducive to optimal performance. That’s because we’re constantly getting distracted — by our boss checking in on us, by pointless meetings, by coworkers with urgent requests, etc.
“You don’t have a work day anymore,” Fried says in his talk. “You have work moments. It’s like the front door of the office is like a Cuisinart, and you walk in and your day is shredded to bits, because you have 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there.”
To remedy this problem, Fried advises organizations to implement half-days (or more) of complete silence, during which employees can work uninterrupted. Moreover, he recommends doing away with most meetings entirely so that people have time to actually think.