The future is adidas (or Nike. Or maybe Reebok)

The latest issue of Harvard Business Review contains its annual list of breakthrough ideas for 2008. These include things that we've been hearing about for some time (peer-to-peer networks, employing Gen Y-ers) to those that could perhaps seem like old ideas rebadged (these days top executives need to understand the opposition, which is not the same as the competition, no siree) and the odd snapshot of a frightening future (MRI lie detectors and their potential workplace uses).

But the one that got my attention was a vision of the board meeting of the future that had executives in tracksuits walking on treadmills while discussing corporate mergers and whatnot. The idea is that physical activity improves brain activity and therefore workplace performance, not that seeing your CEO in lycra is enough to scare anyone into productivity.