Be Happy. Be Audacious

What does Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt have to say about prison reform? Quite a lot, it turns out. In HBR’s 2012 List of Audacious Ideas, he offers an intriguing proposal to address America’s disgraceful rates of incarceration and recidivism: Let the profit motive incentivize private businesses to own the problem. Schmidt’s is one of 13 bold ideas for addressing seemingly intractable problems, from how we reward CEOs to how we think about dying. The Yale economist Robert Shiller, for example, outlines a way to solve the debt crisis by selling citizens shares of GDP. The venture capitalists Bruce Gibney and Ken Howery argue that VCs have a special role to play in a healthy society: making huge bets of a kind we haven’t seen in some time. As Scott Berinato, the HBR editor who skillfully guided this project, writes in the introduction: “Now is the time for audacity, not austerity.” This is also a time at HBR to reflect on the notion of happiness. It’s a concept that has gained currency in recent years, as a goal for corporations and nations alike, and it has generated a lot of discussion. But to what end? In a series of articles, we try to determine the true value of all this talk about happiness. Are “happy” workforces in fact more productive? Could “well-being” ever serve as a meaningful measure of a nation’s economy, like GDP? The authors who explore these issues help to explain both how individuals can cultivate a sense of well-being and what companies can do to create and sustain happy teams. Each HBR Spotlight package is illustrated with the work of a fine artist. This month it’s one of my favorite painters, Yue Minjun. Those who know contemporary Chinese art will immediately recognize Yue’s signature work: colorful yet jarring images of effusively smiling people, signifying that a smile can have many meanings. Steve Jobs famously summed up his philosophy by quoting from The Whole Earth Catalog: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” In that spirit, here’s HBR’s wish for our readers in 2012: “Be happy. Be audacious.” Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief

Be Happy. Be Audacious

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