The Best TED Talks By B-School Professors

5) Rotman School of Management’s Don Tapscott: “FOUR PRINCIPLES FOR THE OPEN WORLD”

Is this information new? 2

It’s a grand overview of several important ideas — collaboration, transparency, the digital age  — but if you read the news regularly, it’s probably nothing new.

Is the presentation engaging? 5

It’s worth watching for the anecdotes. One story about his neighbor, a banker who became a gold miner, includes this line: “Do I have any gold? And if so, where is it?” On top of that, in spite of the fact that Tapscott is apparently wealthy enough to live next to a gold miner, his talk about trust and integrity seems to come from the heart.

Is this spicier than a class presentation? 4

It’s less of a presentation and more of a call to arms (in a purely metaphorical sense).

Does it leave viewers with practical takeaways? 1

The lack of takeaways was a letdown. Maybe I’m missing something, but footage of starlings set to classical music didn’t tell me how to make my way in Tapscott’s brave new world.