My Video Reviews

Introduction

"The Business of Innovation," hosted by Maria Bartiromo, was a (supposedly) cutting-edge series of videos that aired from 2007 to 2009 that examined various issues from the business world through detailed analysis and discussion with business leaders and visionaries.

I believe there were 3 seasons with 4-5 videos for each season. I only watched the following 5 videos from Season 2 on Hulu.

• Episode 1: "The Human Element"
• Episode 2: "Innovate or Die"
• Episode 3: "Redefining Innovation"
• Episode 4: "The Responsibility Revolution"
• Episode 5: "The Execution Plan"

My Opinion

These videos are worthless. The whole show is filled with advice that is way too general and obvious (e.g. "The way to innovate is to listen to your employees"). The content of the show is what you would expect if a CEO gave a speech to a bunch of high school kids. Because the subjects covered on the show (such as innovation, motivation, creativity) are very abstract topics, the superficial coverage of these topics is especially harmful because abstract skills (as opposed to "hard skills" like accounting) are usually the ones that people think are the easiest to master - when it is actually the opposite that is true. Motivating people is a lot harder than learning debits and credits. Additionally, abstract topics the kind topics where generalized advice doesn't have much value.

Despite the fact that the show pretends to give in-depth analysis of the topics covered, the style and tone of the show is the complete opposite of this. The show is overly upbeat and quick, like a cheap infomercial. You know when CNBC shows a quick interview clip where some guru snappily teaches you in 10 seconds how to build a billion-dollar business? Well, it's like that - except it lasts an hour. This style is especially annoying since the tone of the rest of the CNBCs content is so overly serious - CNBC anchors constantly act as if every minor economic report will define the economic future of the country. This bi-polar style is a little disorientating.

CNBCs videos as a whole are not that great. I have seen a couple that were worthwhile, but these are a complete waste of time.