GOOD READING ON  THE NET

How to Create a Positive Working Culture

Authors: Sweta Sharma
Training Magazine,  November 5, 2021

“A positive work environment improves team spirit, employee satisfaction and productivity, and the profitability of the firm.”

10 Strategies  for Creating “Purple Cow” Newsletters?

Authors: Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts
Training Magazine,  November 17, 2021

“”Purple cow” newsletters speak your readers’ language and provide epic content. Here’s how to create purple cow newsletters.”

The Cultural Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in the Enterprise

Authors: Sam Ransbotham et al.
MITSloan Management Review, November 2, 2021

“The 2021 MIT SMR-BCG report identifies a wide range of AI-related cultural benefits at both the team and organizational levels. Whether it’s reconsidering business assumptions or empowering teams, managing the dynamics across culture, AI use, and organizational effectiveness is critical to increasing AI’s value to an organization. This report offers a detailed analysis of a dynamic between culture, AI use, and organizational effectiveness.”

The Progressive Roots of Managerial Science

Authors: Stephen Cummings and Todd Bridgman
MITSloan Management Review, November 15, 2021

“New research highlights that sustainable management is a fundamental business practice, not just a modern trend.”

Memorable vs. annoying: How consumers experience ads on digital platforms

Authors: Sayantani Mazumder et al.
Deloitte Insight, November 4, 2021

“Consumer sentiment toward ads across digital delivery channels varies—from memorable to annoying—with clear generational nuances. What does it mean for content providers, platforms, and advertisers? ”

Authors: Ken Taylor and Michelle Eggleston Schwartz
Training Industry Magazine, November 19, 2021

“Learning leaders have risen to the challenges facing their organizations over the past few years, helping leaders manage long-term change and ambiguity and providing employees with new and renewed skills. With so much in flux, it’s essential to pause, reflect and reevaluate existing processes and tools to ensure they are delivering value to the business.”

6 Tips to Measure the Productivity of Your Remote Employees

Authors: Hazel Raoult
Training Industry Magazine, November 19, 2021

“In these uncertain times, companies and individuals are compelled to accept that change is the only constant. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses adapted their core processes to stay afloat and moved their entire workforce online.”

Why the climate crisis is the “economic opportunity of our lifetimes”

Authors: Sam Forsdick
Raconteur, November 9, 2021

“He might be one of the world’s richest men, but John Doerr is doubling down on investing in clean tech to tackle the climate crisis”

4 Strategies to Help You Becoming a Transformational Leader

Authors: Chloe Kuhlman
Training Industry Magazine, November 18, 2021

“In “Leadership,” released in 1978, historian James MacGregor Burns wrote, “Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.” “

One Person, Many Needs: How Customer Centricity Has Changed

Knowledge@Wharton, November 15, 2021

“It’s no longer good enough for companies to cater to the needs of many different customers. If businesses really want to build loyalty and lasting value, they must figure out the different needs within a single customer.”

Innovation Is Everyone’s Business

Authors: Ben M. Bensaou
Insead Knowledge, November 9, 2021

“Offering employees the tools and motivation to create ideas is the key to an innovative organisation.”

Embrace Complexity Through Behavioral Planning

Authors: Ruth Schmidt, Katelyn Stenger
Behavioral Scientist, November 9, 2021

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

How to Ensure Your Learning and Development Efforts Adapt to Hybrid Work

Authors: Bob Biglin
Training Magazine,  October 14, 2021

“To make the most of hybrid work, organizations must reimagine their approach to learning and development in support of their teams.”

Are Teams Better Than Individuals at Getting the Work Done?

Authors: Duncan Watts
Knowledge@Wharton, October 12, 2021

“A new study from Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions Duncan Watts digs into the question of whether it’s better for employees to work in teams or alone — and the answer may be surprising for managers trying to figure out the best way to assign tasks.”

The Collective Intelligence of Remote Teams

Authors: Christopher Riedl, Thomas W. Malone, and Anita W. Woolley
MITSloan Management Review, October 19, 2021

“Research shows that it’s not where we work that matters the most — it’s how the work is done and who is doing it.”

How to predict disruption when there’s no such thing as normal

Authors: Eric J. McNulty
Strategy+Business,  October 4, 2021

“Enhanced perception and thinking about risk in new ways can help leaders navigate tumultuous times.”

A transactional approach to power

Authors: Theodore Kinni
Strategy+Business,  October 13, 2021

“Focusing on resources, not people, can help leaders avoid power’s worst pitfalls.”

Authors: Sean Fleming
World Economic Forum, October 12, 2021

“The pace of change in the technology sector has always been brisk. As much as 10 years worth of growth in e-commerce may have been compressed into just three months in late 2019, according to McKinsey & Company, which predicts that we’ll experience more technological progress in the coming decade than we did in the preceding 100 years put together. ”

How online ptatforms must respond to a new era of Internet governance

Authors: Francois Candelon, Theos Evgeniou, Louis-Victor de Franssu
World Economic Forum, October 21, 2021

“Governments across the world have started designing new frameworks to regulate online platforms.
The coming era of regulated internet governance will require tech companies to adapt and develop new risk-management processes and tools.
Ultimately, complying with the new regulations will require a shift towards a culture of responsibility.”

How decentralized systems can help rebuilding local communities

Authors: Alex Pentland, Patrick Davies
World Economic Forum, October 20, 2021

“Since the 1980s, IT systems and cost-cutting led to the collapse of community social structures and the centralization of banking, hospitals and more.
Cutting-edge technology has changed the equation, making local management of data and resources as efficient as central management.
Local institutions can now be rebuilt and local communities can again manage themselves.”

Building the Intelligent Creative Engine

Authors: Christine Cutten et al.
Deloitte, October 19, 2021

“As data becomes more important to customer strategies, marketers are gravitating toward hiring people with more analytical skills. How do new marketing talent strategies enable this shift—while retaining the creative part?”

Book Review: Performance-Based Lesson Mapping

Authors: Bill Brandon
Learning Solutions, October 15, 2021

“Performance-Based Lesson Mapping is Guy Wallace’s 17th book on the design of training and performance support. Like all of his previous works, this is a very practical book written for those in the fields of instructional system design or learning experience design: people who want to know what to do and how to do it successfully. His methods scale from small projects to large, and are similar to design thinking and Agile.”

Performance Reviews Need a Brand New P&L

Authors: Chengyi Lin
Insead Knowledge, October 19, 2021

“Is your firm’s performance review process helping or hindering progress for your high potentials?”

How customer success overcome scepticism to become a foundational function

Authors: Sue Nabeth Moore
MyCustomer, October 18, 2021

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

Government data management for the digital age

Authors: Axel Domeyer, Solveigh Hieronimus, Julia Klier, and Thomas Weber
McKinsey and Company,  September 20, 2021

“Public institutions can make more of their data resources. Five actions can help them modernize their data infrastructures and unlock significant value across state, economy, and society. “

The Imperative for Sustainable AI Systems

Authors: Abhishek Gupta
The Gradient, September 18, 2021

“AI systems are compute-intensive: the AI lifecycle often requires long-running training jobs, hyperparameter searches, inference jobs, and other costly computations. They also require massive amounts of data that might be moved over the wire, and require specialized hardware to operate effectively, especially large-scale AI systems.”

Investing in Strategic Leadership

Camille Fournier, interviewed by Chris Clearfield
MITSloan Management Review, September 21, 2021

“How seeking out the business value in technology can be an engineering leader’s superpower.”

Business digs deep for sustainability

Authors: Daniel Gross
Strategy+Business,  September 7, 2021

“Changes in the business climate—and the climate—can cause leaders to rethink the ways in which value is created and lost. In July, Patti Poppe, CEO of California utility PG&E, said that the company is undertaking a US$20 billion capital-intensive effort to bury 10,000 miles of power lines. Why? Doing so would help cut the risk of wildfires, which have ravaged the company’s service areas, and are becoming more common and dangerous due to drought and climate change. “We know that we have long argued that undergrounding was too expensive,” she said. “This is where we say it’s too expensive not to underground. Lives are on the line.”

Manufacturing process innovation for industrials

Authors: Ryan Fletcher, Mohit Jaju, Abhijit Mahindroo, Daniel Mongrain, Benjamin Plum, and Mark Sawaya.
McKinsey and Company,  September 16, 2021

“Industrial manufacturing levels in the United States have been falling for decades, but process innovation is gaining steam and could reinvigorate this struggling sector. ”

We all want to be good – then life happens

Authors: Stephanie Lin
Insead Knowledge, September 13, 2021

“Starting with the best of intentions, people overestimate their ability to follow through.”

Why business must take corporate digital responsibility

Authors: MaryLou Costa
Raconteur, September 22, 2021

How 4IR is enabling policy-making for a more sustainable and agile future
Authors: Stefanie M. Falconi, Rebecca King
World Economic Forum, September 15, 2021

“Emerging technologies, such as distributed ledger, biotech and data science, enable governments to design the right policies to ensure a sustainable future.
Application of 4IR technologies must be coupled with agile governance to ensure challenges, such as privacy and data consistency, are managed in an agile way.
Together, the application of 4IR and agile governance can equip governments to “turn the tide” so businesses and the public can transition to a more sustainable future.”

There is a way to invest profitable – and help save the world
Authors: Runa Alam
World Economic Forum, September 23, 2021

“These enormous challenges – the subject of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Agenda – won’t be met by little wins. Or with small change.
But does that mean we cannot strive for this “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”? No, it certainly does not.”

How 4IR is enabling policy-making for a more sustainable and agile future

What’s the future of the office

Peter Cappelli interviewd by Bret LoGiurato
Knowledge@Wharton, September 21, 2021

“Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli is the author of the new book, The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face. Cappelli, who has for decades studied the forces shaping and changing the workplace, says the choices employees and employers must make about the future of work could be among the most important they face.”

10 Things Your Corporate Culture Needs to Get Right

Authors: Donald Sull, Charles Sull
MITSloan Management Review, September 16, 2021

“Knowing what elements of culture matter most to employees can help leaders foster engagement as they transition to a new reality that will include more remote and hybrid work.”

Neuroscience is changing the way we can use VR in learning

Authors: Bill Brandon
Learning Solutions, September 17, 2021

“”Learning by doing” is perhaps the oldest model for effective learning experiences, but we are only beginning to find out how it works. There is an expectation that optimizing learning experiences by using virtual reality technology will facilitate transfer from one training modality to another (games and simulations) and to the job.”

The Economic Risk of Pandexit

Authors: Howard Davies
Project Syndacate, September 13, 2021

“Although everyone hopes that Pandexit, or the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, will come soon, the economic benefits will not be unalloyed. One plausible downside scenario is that current price pressures intensify and inflation rises further, eventually requiring a monetary response.”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

Can Companies Build on Their Digital Surge?

Authors: Arun Arora, Daniel Glaser, Nicolas Jabs, and Tom Youldon
McKinsey and Company,  August 10, 2021

“Many businesses have boosted digital sales in the pandemic, but it will take a new commitment to speed to keep up with the digital leaders.”

The Digital Twin Opportunity

Authors: Pushkar P. Apte and Costas J. Spanos
MITSloan Management Review, August 11, 2021

“Developments in enabling technology are opening up more use cases for virtual models of real-world objects.”

Strategy as a Way of Life

Authors: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi
MITSloan Management Review, August 12, 2021

“Businesses must root strategy in moral purpose to thrive in a complex, rapidly changing world.”

Five Ways to Avoid the Pitfalls of Binary Decisions

Authors: Eric J. McNulty
Strategy+Business,  August 23, 2021

“Before you decide, check how the question is framed to ensure you have all the information you need and have considered all your options.”

How do you measure authenticity?

Authors: Marianne Eloise
Raconteur, August 10, 2021

“Any brand that publicly supports a progressive cause had better be able to back up its words with actions. Gen-Zers in particular are highly sensitive to hypocritical virtue-signalling.”

The Essence of Agility and Resilience after Covid

Authors: Peter B. Zemsky
Insead Knowledge, August 16, 2021

“Navigating unprecedented levels of uncertainty takes a careful combination of technology and talent.”

Star Trek Versus Imperialist Doctrine

Authors: Yanis Varoufakis
Project Syndacate, August 23, 2021

3 ways to disrupt education and help bridge the skill gap

Authors: B Kalyan Kumar
World Economic Forum, August 17, 2021

“After setting climate targets, countries and companies will need to quantify, reduce and monitor their emissions.
This process can be complex, time-consuming and prone to errors, especially for novices.
The right technology can simplify this process and make it more efficient, transparent and effective.
Here are three ways technology – particularly AIoT – can help.”

What we know and what we don’t know about universal basic income

Authors: John Crowley,  Iulia Sevciuc
World Economic Forum, August 12, 2021

“The debate on UBI is often polarized and rooted in selective data. To allow for informed policy, an open conversation needs to be had on what we actually know and what we are missing. Trials show how UBI performs in both stable and volatile settings.”

How to Integrated Microlearning into Learning Ecosystems

Authors: Bill Brandon
Learning Solutions, August 13, 2021

“In spite of excellent guides such as Microlearning: Short and Sweet by Karl Kapp and Robyn Defelice, many practitioners continue to misunderstand the idea of microlearning and have difficulty applying it in their work. In this article, I will recap some key points and offer a suggestion that will further help you implement microlearning in your instructional designs.”

Employee Wellness in e Post-Pandemic World

Authors: Lisa Dodman
Training Industry, August 23, 2021

“The Covid-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to turn crisis into positive change for many organizations. Around the world, people have experienced the pandemic in different ways. One thing remote working has given us is a better sense of people’s lives outside work, and the realities and challenges they are dealing with.”

Training Just in Time. Leverage Innovative Technologies for Personalized Learning in the Flow of Work

Authors: Chris Shuster and Swami Chandrasekaran
Training Industry, August 11, 2021

“With business needs shifting rapidly, new technologies disrupting the status quo, and traditional ways of working and learning quickly nearing extinction, learners need access to information in their time of need to keep pace. On top of that, with the overwhelming amount of information and technologies available, finding relevant training on demand can be a challenge.”

Systems for Machine Learning

Authors: Kabir Nagrecha
The Gradient, August 14, 2021

“Over the past decade, machine learning (ML) has become a critical component of countless applications and services in a variety of domains. Fields ranging from healthcare to autonomous vehicles have been transformed by the use of ML techniques.”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

Making Transformation Stick

Authors: Augusto Giacoman and Craig Hapelt
Strategy+Business,  July 19, 2021

“Three steps can help leaders ensure that their change efforts don’t fall apart once the initial push is over”

Global Economics Intelligence executive summary, June 2021

McKinsey and Company,  July 19, 2021

“As the global economy emerges from the worst of the pandemic, strong growth returns, accompanied by inflation”

Accelerate Digital Transformation with “No-Code-” Software Tools

Authors: Chris DeBrusk
MITSloan Management Review, July 22, 2021

“User-friendly platforms are helping nontechnical employees quickly create and deploy simple apps. “

Culture’s Role in Successful Technology Transformation

Urvashi Tyagi, interviewed by Chris Clearfield
MITSloan Management Review, July 21, 2021

“Urvashi Tyagi, CTO of ADP, discusses a career spent solving tough problems, from the technical to the people-oriented.”

The rise of eco-friendly consumer

Authors: Amy Emmert
Strategy+Business,  July 8, 2021

“During the pandemic, consumers have become more sensitive to the environmental impacts of their shopping decisions, and consumer companies are responding”

Meet the company that’s knocking down the pyramid management structure

Authors: Sam Forsdick
Raconteur, July 15, 2021

“Could your business operate without any managers? Digital consultancy Jellyfish believes that the idea is not so far-fetched. The company’s CEO explains how its ultra-flat structure is benefiting the business.”

For Entrepreneurs, the Benefits of Slowing Down

Authors: Jeffrey Bussgang
HBS Working Knowledge, June 16, 2021

“After several heady months for startups, Jeffrey Bussgang offers radical advice for founders this summer: just chill.”

After-action Reviews: A Simple Yet Powerful Tool

Knowledge@Wharton, July 12, 2021

How technology can bridge the gap between climate talk and action

Authors: Luiz Avelar
World Economic Forum, July 12, 2021

“After setting climate targets, countries and companies will need to quantify, reduce and monitor their emissions.
This process can be complex, time-consuming and prone to errors, especially for novices.
The right technology can simplify this process and make it more efficient, transparent and effective.
Here are three ways technology – particularly AIoT – can help.”

Reskilling & Upskilling: Retain Talent and Remain Competitive

Authors: Bill Brandon
Learning Solutions, July 09, 2021

“A critical part of the transition to the post-pandemic world is the reorientation of organizations to an updated approach, to an eternal (but too often overlooked) strategic responsi­bility: retaining and upskilling employees to stay in step with changing business strategy.”

Four Steps to Improve Retention with Schema Theory

Authors: Hannah Hunter
Learning Solutions, July 21, 2021

“If you read the word “breakfast”, what comes to mind? Do you think of your favorite breakfast foods? The smell of a cup of coffee? Time spent with family? A quick bite in the car on the way to work?
It is likely that many words, images, and emotions come to mind. This collection of interconnected thoughts and feelings constitute a schema.”

How Should Humans Collaborate with AI

Authors: Phanish Puranam
Insead Knowledge, July 5, 2021

“When bringing algorithms and employees together, businesses should respect rather than ignore human preferences.
This article is part of a series titled “The Future of Management”, about how changes in culture and technology are reshaping what managers do. INSEAD professors Pushan Dutt and Phanish Puranam serve as academic advisors for this series.”

Justitia Ex Machina: The Case for Automating Morals

Authors: Rasmus Berg Palm and Pola Schwöbel
The Gradient, July 17, 2021

“Machine learning models are ubiquitous in our lives, and it is important to understand how they perform in the light of being fair, transparent, and just in their decision-making processes.”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

The eight trends that will define 2021 – and beyond

Authors: Celia Huber and Kevin Sneader
McKinsey and Company,  June 21, 2021

“McKinsey’s global managing partner discusses the new ideas and business models transforming industry landscapes”

The growth triple play: Creativity, analytics, and purpose

Authors: Biljana Cvetanovski, Orsi Jojart, Brian Gregg, Eric Hazan, and Jesko Perrey
McKinsey and Company,  June 15, 2021

“Companies that integrate creativity, analytics, and purpose are delivering at least two times the growth of their peers.”

How digital inclusion can help solve grand challenges

Authors: Tomoko Yokoi, Nikolaus Obwegeser, and Michela Beretta
MITSloan Management Review, June 14, 2021

“A global study uncovers best practices for designing virtual hackathons with high levels of engagement and collaboration. “

Why good arguments make better strategy

Authors: Jesper B. Sørensen and Glenn R. Carroll
MITSloan Management Review, June 03, 2021

“Formal processes, constructive debate, and logical rigor are the key ingredients to crafting consistently great strategies.”

When your nerves get the best of you, change the narrative

Authors: Francesca Gino
HBS Working Knowledge, June 14, 2021

“Anxiety can hobble even the most confident leaders. Francesca Gino offers three strategies that she uses to turn nerve-wracking situations into meaningful experiences.”

The new normal for innovation

Authors: Quy Huy
Insead Knowledge, June 09, 2021

“We’re entering a deglobalised world where firms must ceaselessly innovate in order to survive..”

Rethinking Capitalism. The power of creative destruction

Authors: Philippe Aghion
Insead Knowledge, June 14, 2021

“With the proper safeguards, creative destruction – the process by which the new replaces the old – remains the way to greater economic growth and prosperity.”

How to bring your conscience to work

Knowledge@Wharton, June 08, 2021

“Wharton’s G. Richard Shell talks about how employees and managers can stand up for their values and create a more ethical workplace.”

This AI technique could could use a digital version of Earth to help fight climate change

Authors: Nicolas Hohn, Oliver Fleming, and Roxanne Zhang

World Economic Forum, June 10, 2021

“An AI technique called reinforcement learning could help us solve some of the world’s most complex problems. It enables an algorithm to learn how to perform a task through trial and error in a simulator, or digital twin. Applying this technique to test climate-saving initiatives across a digital twin of Earth could help us tackle climate change.”

Any time anywhere: what does hybrid mean for your business?

Authors: Lynda Gratton
Think at London Business School, June 02, 2021

“Firms now realise that employees can work productively wherever and whenever they choose. Lynda Gratton tells us how to get it right”

Observing the green swans

Authors: Hélène Rey
Project Syndacate, June 18, 2021

“The risks associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, and our responses to those problems are poorly understood, because there are no historical comparisons. But with the right tools, central banks and other macro-prudential authorities can stay ahead of the curve.”

How to boost energy and productivity during meetings

Authors: Elisabeth Doty
Strategy+Business, June 14, 2021

“With the right prompt and format, you can avoid awkward silences and accomplish your goals.”

The rise and fall of merit

Authors: Mike Jakeman
Strategy+Business, June 07, 2021

“In The Aristocracy of Talent, Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy and fears for its future”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

Sounding the Alarm on System Noise

Interview
McKinsey Quarterly,  May 18, 2021

“Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony, renowned experts in cognitive biases and decision making, explain how noise—or unwanted variability—clouds organizations’ judgments, and what to do about it. “

Machine Learning, Ethics, and Open Licensing (Part II/II)

Authors: Christopher Moran
The Gradient, May 03, 2021

“The unprecedented interest, investment, and deployment of machine learning across many aspects of our lives in the past decade has come with a cost. Although there has been some movement towards moderating machine learning where it has been genuinely harmful, it’s becoming increasingly clear that existing approaches suffer significant shortcomings.”

Innovation and Change During a Global Pandemic

Report
Knowledge@Wharton, May 10, 2021

“The global coronavirus pandemic has left nothing unchanged. From the mundane activities of daily life to the lofty, long-term goals of governments, the outbreak has altered plans for everyone and everything in its path. “

The end of waste as we know it? 4 ways to turn waste into treasure

Authors: Eva Amsen
World Economic Forum, May 10, 2021

“While recycling currently contributes only a fraction of waste repurposing, global innovators and industry leaders are finding new ways to turn it into sustainable materials or fuels. Indeed, the proverb “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is quickly morphing into “all trash is treasure” as waste utilization processes advance”

It’s Time to Free the Middle Manager

Authors: Brian Elliott
HBR, May 21, 2021

“ As organizations shift toward more distributed, asynchronous workforces, the traditional role of a middle manager — monitoring productivity, optimizing individual performance, etc. — is becoming increasingly redundant. Instead of simply routing information between different groups, middle managers of the future will be tasked with leveraging digital tools optimized for tracking remote and hybrid workforces, and then focusing their own energy on building teams and developing talent.”

Adaptative Learning Delivers Personalized Learning

Authors: Bill Brandon
Learning Solutions, May 11, 2021

“When it comes to learning, people have different goals, strengths, skill and knowledge gaps, experience, and aptitudes. What it takes to address those needs varies greatly from one person to the next.
Learning and development professionals learn sooner or later that “teaching to the middle” is not effective. Personalization through adaptive design is a far better solution.”

The Competencies and Constraints That Determine Leadership Success

Authors: Pawel Korzynski
Insead Knowledge, May 17, 2021

“As a leader, you may sense the heavy mantle of work to be done, employees to motivate, bosses to impress, organisational culture to manoeuvre. Most leadership theories place all these burdens squarely on your shoulders: How you handle them all is entirely up to you.”

How to Address Worker Skill Gaps in the Return to Work

Authors: Kelly Palmer
MITSloan Management Review, May 19, 2021

“To fit the needs of changing work arrangements, companies need to create accessible learning pathways for employees.”

Most Businesses Should Neither “Pivot” nor “Double Down”

Authors: B. Tom Hunsaker and Jonathan Knowles
MITSloan Management Review, May 20, 2021

“The change-strategy advice commonly given to businesses misses the mark for two-thirds of them.”

How to Manage “Invisible Transition” in Leadership

Authors: Ingo Marquart, Nora Grasselli, and Gianluca Carnabuci
MITSloan Management Review, May 06, 2021

“Taking on a substantial new role without a change in title or authority is hard, but there are ways to manage this transition.”

Beware Economists Bearing Policy Paradigms

Authors: Dani Rodrik
Project Syndacate, May 11, 2021

“US President Joe Biden’s administration has embarked on a bold and long-overdue departure from the economic policy orthodoxy that has prevailed in the US and much of the West since the 1980s. But those who are seeking a new economic paradigm should be careful what they wish for.”

Granting autonomy without losing control

Authors: Constantinos C. Markides
Strategy+Business, May 20, 2021

“A decentralized approach to management may become more prevalent in a post–COVID-19 world, and it is true that autonomy can be empowering in an organization. But it also has risks.”

How to Make Stakeholder Capitalism Work

Authors: Hans Taparia
Stanford SOCIAL INNOVATION Review, Summer 2021

“Stakeholders must have more power over the companies that affect them. Giving them a share in ownership and governance is the best way to ensure this.”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

Machine Learning, Ethics, and Open Licensing (Part I/II)

Authors: Christopher Moran
The Gradient, April 24, 2021

“The unprecedented interest, investment, and deployment of machine learning across many aspects of our lives in the past decade has come with a cost. Although there has been some movement towards moderating machine learning where it has been genuinely harmful, it’s becoming increasingly clear that existing approaches suffer significant shortcomings.”

Learning Support for Virtual Teams: Wiki and Knowledge Bases

Authors: Bill Brandon
Lerning Solutions, April 21, 2021

“Employee performance depends on many things, beginning with skill and knowledge, but it also requires support in the moment. “In the moment” can mean help from a co-worker or a coach, it can mean guidance from a job aid, and it can also mean support from a reference, a video, or documentation.”

The Readiness Gap

Authors: Justin Manly, et al.
BCG, April 15, 2021

“Crises focus the mind, and COVID-19 concentrated corporate management’s attention on a number of critical issues. First and foremost may have been costs, but forward-looking leaders soon looked to broader needs affecting their companies’ futures, such as resilience, digital transformation, and customer relevance. Little surprise that 2020 saw innovation rapidly ascend the list of top management priorities.”

Subtract: Why Getting Less Can Mean Thinking More

Authors: Leidy Klotz
Behavioral Scientist, April 12, 2021

“Consider the following questions: Do your resolutions more often start with “I should do more of . . .” than with “I should do less of . . .”? Do you spend more time acquiring information—whether through podcasts, websites, or conversation—than you spend distilling what you already know? ”

A Simple Question That Can Guide Companies TO Epic Success

Authors: Danielle Kost
HBS Working Knowledge , April 20, 2021

“Some companies gain advantage by commanding premium prices. Others lean on their world-class talent. But, a small slice of companies manages to do both—and dramatically outperform peers.
What sets these top businesses apart? It’s simple: They create the most value, says Harvard Business School Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee.”

Putting digital at the heart of strategy

Authors: Ragu Gurumurthy, et al.
Deloitte Insights, April 22, 2021

“For most organizations, the shock and disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed vulnerabilities that leaders had never identified before. Yet many of these organizations rose to the challenge, with digital capabilities playing a critical role in their resilience. Etsy saw its traffic double as brick-and-mortar stores shuttered and shoppers rushed online; cloud computing helped the online retailer handle the surge. As call centers experienced overwhelming volumes, organizations like Bank of America and Comcast answered customer queries with the help of digital assistants.”

Who’s Afraid of the Experience Economy?

Authors: Benjamin Kessler
Insead Knowledge, April 06, 2021

“It feels like much more than a year has passed since hordes of frantic shoppers from North America to Asia, impelled by first-wave coronavirus fears, stripped supermarket shelves of … toilet paper. As experts from INSEAD and elsewhere hastened to explain, these waves of panic buying were only superficially about bathroom hygiene. The real motivator was control, or rather the lack thereof. Their equilibrium rocked by the unexpected life-altering force of Covid, global consumers reached out for useful and familiar products to anchor them psychologically against rapidly rising uncertainty.”

Workforce Ecosystems. A new strategic approach to the future of work

Authors: E.J. Altman, J. Schwartz, D. Kiron, R. Jones, and D. Kearns-Manolatos
MITSloan Management Review, April 22, 2021

“The latest MIT SMR-Deloitte survey on the future of the workforce finds that most managers consider employees and external workers — including contractors, service providers, app developers, and gig workers — to be part of their workforce. This calls for an integrated approach to workforce management and has led some executives to the idea of a workforce ecosystem. This report discusses benefits and challenges associated with creating and managing a workforce ecosystem.”

Don’t Wish for Happiness. Work for it

Authors: Arthur C. Brooks
The Atlantic, April 22, 2021

“If you want to improve your well-being, you need to make a plan and act on it.”

Build Back the State

Authors: Mariana Mazzuccato
Project Syndacate, April 15 2021

“In promising to “build back better” from the pandemic, US President Joe Biden has certainly struck the right note. But to succeed, he will need to forge a new social contract, drawing on the lessons of a previous era when the US state led a program that is still paying economic dividends.”

Do university students really need to go back to campus?

Authors: Chris Stokel-Walker
Raconteur, April 16, 2021

“The shift to online and blended learning poses a vital question: does the “old normal” need to return?”

The Four Fs of employee experience

Authors: Angela Lester and Claudia Montgomery
Strategy+Business, April 20, 2021

“These simple principles, based on the empathetic, iterative practice of design thinking, can help you help your people perform to their fullest potential.”

Building Better Work Models for the Next Normal

Authors: Rick Western
MITSloan Management Review, April 22, 2021

“Office-return planning offers a rare opportunity to transform lessons learned during the pandemic into a more sustainable work model.”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

The Future Today Institute’s 14th Tech Trends Report

Future Today Institute, March, 2021

“The cataclysmic events of the past year resulted in a significant number of new signals. As a result, we’ve analyzed nearly 500 tech and science trends across multiple industry sectors. In our 14th annual Tech Trends Report, we have published 12 separate reports with trends grouped by subject. We are including what we’ve called Book Zero, which details our methodology and shows how we did our work.
Discover critical insights for business, strategy, government and strategy leaders. See what strategic action you can take on the future, today.”

Is remote working damaging our ability to learn?

Authors: Cath Everett
Raconteur, March 23, 2021

“While working from home for prolonged periods has taken its toll on how willing and able we are to learn, the good news is the effects are reversible.”

Bridging the cloud skills gap

Authors: James Lawrence
Raconteur, March 16, 2021

“The move to as-a-service digital technology demands a major transformation in the internal capabilities required to reap the huge potential rewards; organisations that fail to adapt risk missing out.”

How Economists and Non Economists Van Get Along

Authors: Dani Rodrik
Project Syndacate, March 9, 2021

“Understanding the advantages and limitations of economists’ methods clarifies the value they can add to analysis of non-economic questions. Equally important, it underscores how economists’ approach can complement but never replace alternative, often qualitative methods used in other scholarly disciplines.”

How HR Leaders Are Preparing for the AI-Enabled Workforce

Authors: Thomas H. Davenport and George Westerman
MIT Sloan Management Review, March 17, 2021

“Awaiting AI’s prevalence, companies’ upskilling strategies range from doing nothing to empowering employees to set their own career paths.”

Executing the CEO’s Agenda through Targeted Learning

Authors: James Fulton and Todd M. Warner
MIT Sloan Management Review, March 15, 2021

“To execute on strategic goals and create competitive advantage, companies must embrace a learning function that looks different from what we know today.”

The Fundamentals of Transforming from Matrix to Agile

Authors: Yves Doz
Insead Knowledge, March 04, 2021

“Although it remains a common way to structure an organisation, the matrix is increasingly showing its weaknesses in the digital economy.”

Putting People at the Centre of Operations

Authors: Giullaume Roels
Insead Knowledge, March 23, 2021

“The field of operations management has deep roots in developing effective processes for people. How can we encourage further growth in this area?”

What does circular economy have to do with meeting climate goals?

Authors: Nikolaus Hastreiter, Antonina Scheer, Beata Bienkowska, and Simon Dietz
LSE Business Review, March 11, 2021

“Global demand for construction materials has risen substantially over the past decades. To keep global warming below 2°C, demand for steel and cement must peak by 2030 and fall below 2010 levels by 2070. The construction industry must make longer-lasting buildings and substitute low-carbon materials for high-carbon ones.”

Arguing your way for a better strategy

Authors: Theodore Kinni
Strategy+Business, March 02, 2021

“In Making Great Strategy, Stanford b-school professors Jesper Sørensen and Glenn Carroll bridge the gap between abstract strategic visions and executable plans.”

What Does Remote Work Mean for Middle Managers?

Authors: James Heskett
HBS Working Knowledge, March 01, 2021

“Middle management was already the corporate scapegoat of choice before the COVID-19 pandemic. Will work-from-home policies make middle managers unnecessary or more critical than ever“

‘Lighthouse’ factories are more productive than ever. Business leaders explain how they do it

Authors: Gayle Markovitz
World Economic Forum, March 17, 2021

“The Global Lighthouse Network has welcomed 15 new lighthouses to an inspiring group of organizations that demonstrate how digitally-infused operations go beyond productivity gains to create a base for sustainable, profitable growth.”

The Future of Nudging Will Be Personal

Authors: Stuart Mills
Behavioral Scientist, March 15, 2021

“Nudging, now more than a decade old as an intervention tool, has become something of a poster child for the behavioral sciences. We know that people don’t always act in their own best interest—sometimes spectacularly so—and nudges have emerged as a noncoercive way to live better in a world shaped by our behavioral foibles”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

The Five Essential Roles of Corporate Ecosystems

Authors: Andrew Shiplow
Insead Knowledge, February 04, 2021

“Most firms that try to build an ecosystem would be better off joining an existing one. The first step is for them to know where they would fit”

Not Everyone Can Be Agile

Authors: Yves Doz
Insead Knowledge, February 16, 2021

“There is no getting around the hype surrounding Agile, the organisational concept originally codified by software developers in 2001. Powered by the demands of a fast-changing consumer landscape in recent years, Agile’s reach has stretched beyond software development and now extends to customer relations as well as product and service development.”

Why Business Model Innovation Matters More Than Ever

Authors: Raphael Amit and Christoph Zott
Knowledge@Wharton, February 15, 2021

“The coronavirus pandemic has been a roller coaster for business managers. Some are cresting high, others are in freefall, and many more are simply trying to hang on until the nightmare ride comes to a stop. Amid the panic, there are valuable lessons for leaders who can take a deep breath and step back”

The Four Fatal Mistakes Holding Back Circular Business Models

Authors: Johan Frishammar and Vinit Parida
MIT Sloan Management Review, February 18, 2021

“Manufacturing companies must avoid key missteps as they shift to more environmentally sustainable approaches.”

Redesigning the Post-Pandemic Workplace

Authors: Gerald C. Kane, Rich Nanda, Anh Phillips, and Jonathan Copulsky
MIT Sloan Management Review, February 10, 2021

“Work as we know it is forever changed by COVID-19. Now is the time for managers to envision the office that employees will return to.”

What We Have Learned So Far About Blockchain for Business

Authors: Mary Lacity and Remko Van Hoek
MIT Sloan Management Review, February 03, 2021

“The biggest challenge to companies creating blockchain apps isn’t the technology — it’s successfully collaborating with ecosystem partners.”

What Is the Future of Design and Behavioral Science? A Conversation with Cliff Kuang

Authors: Piyush Tantia
Behavioral Scientist, February 15, 2021

“Like designers, those of us who apply behavioral science aim to design solutions with an understanding of humans, we improve user experiences, and we imagine new possibilities. Yet the two fields operate separately. There remains much confusion about the relationship between behavioral science and design, and I see much less collaboration and cross-pollination than there should be.”

“Your Ideas Are Not Your Identity”. Adam Grant on How to Get Betten at Changing Your Mind

Authors: Evan Nesterak
Behavioral Scientist, February 08, 2021

“Changing our minds is hard, even in the most favorable conditions. There’s the risk of looking inconsistent or like you lack conviction; if you’re a politician, a flip-flopper. But there’s more to it than that.”

3 shifts can scale the circular economy – triggering a more resilient, prosperous system

Authors: Ellen MacArthur, Frans von Houten
World Economic Forum, February 08, 2021

“It’s time to leave behind current wasteful and polluting models to usher in growth-based business models and innovative regenerative strategies.
Scaling circular economy efforts globally will mean triggering strategic shifts across sectors.”

Reimagining Economy Platform

Authors: Mariana Mazzucato, Rainer Kattel, Tim O’Reilly, Josh Entsminger
Project Syndacate, February 05, 2021

“Today’s digital economy has grown up around a business model of data and wealth extraction, confounding traditional antitrust paradigms and undermining the public and social value that otherwise could be derived from technological innovation. The state can redress these problems, but only if it reclaims its proper role.”

Vaccine passports: key to reopening or unfair and divisive?

Authors: Daniel Thomas
Raconteur, February 04, 2021

“Documents identifying those who have been inoculated could help governments reopen after lockdown, but they also raise questions over privacy and patient rights.”

How to Make the World Bettn Not Perfect

Authors: Michael Blanding
HBS Working Knowledge, February 08, 2021

“If we want to do more good for the world, we must first change how we think about our behavior, says Max Bazerman in his book Better, Not Perfect.”

GOOD READING ON  THE NET

Teams in Evolution – and Revolution – after the Pandemic

Authors: Henrik Bresman
Insead Knowledge, January 11, 2021

“Right now it seems far away, but a post-Covid world is coming. Is it closer to us than the start of the pandemic? We can’t say with any certainty, but we must think about how we will work in the future.”

The Post-Covid Future of “Everything as a Service”

Authors: Wolfgang Ulaga
Insead Knowledge, January 04, 2021

“If you work in the B2B space, you have almost certainly encountered the term “servitisation”. Across industries ranging from aviation to telecommunications, B2B companies are supplementing (in some cases, replacing) conventional product sales with services and solutions.”

Leading in Government Demands the Stewardship of Public Trust

Authors: Amy C. Edmondson, Andrew Marshall, and Sally Jewell
MIT Sloan Management Review, January 21, 2021

“While some aspects of leadership transcend the public and private sectors, others are unique to government — in particular, the preservation of public trust”

Standing Out While Fitting In

Authors: Kathleen M. O’Connor and Randall S. Peterson
MIT Sloan Management Review, January 06, 2021

“How can you be your authentic self while simultaneously fitting in at a company with a strong culture?”

Five Ways to Make AI a Greater Force for Good in 2021

Authors: Karen Hao
MIT Technology Review, January 08, 2021

“There’s more attention on AI’s influence than ever before. Let’s make it count.”

These are the world greatest threats in 2021

Authors: Sean Fleming
World Economic Forum, January 19, 2021

“The Global Risks Report 2021 is the 16th edition of the Forum’s annual analysis and looks back at a year ravaged by a global pandemic, economic downturn, political turmoil and the ever-worsening climate crisis. The report explores how countries and businesses can act in the face of these risks.”

15 Must-Know Machine Learning Algorithms

Authors: Soner Yıldırım
Toward Data Science, January 06, 2021

“Since the 2008 global financial crisis, central banks have shown time and again that they have the power to maintain the economic status quo. Now, they must use that power to support a timely green transition.”

How to combine the physical and digital worlds to enable successful, sustainable business

Authors: Judith Weise
World Economic Forum, January 22, 2021

“The pandemic has given our environment a much-needed breather – with carbon emissions falling by a record 7% in 2020 – and has painfully revealed the hard work required to slow down detrimental climate change. To reach the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, emissions must be reduced by 7.6% annually until 2030, according to the UN.”

How Companies Should Leverage Digitalization

Authors: Dambisa Moyo
Project Syndacate, January 12, 2021

“As the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the fragility of many business models, it has also intensified the race to adopt cutting-edge technologies. But adoption is only the first step; how these technologies are applied across five key areas will determine who reaches the finish line – and when”

Riding out the wave of disruption

Authors: Matt Palmquist
Strategy+Business, January 14, 2021

“In an era when the pace of technological disruption is rapidly transforming industries — think of streaming services challenging cable, ride-sharing apps versus taxicabs, or electric versus hybrid cars — both incumbents and new entrants must predict how consumers will respond to innovative offerings. Most predictive models, however, fail to account for the reality that the market doesn’t change overnight.”

Climate Change 101 for Business Leaders

Authors: Kristen Sullivan, Michelle Bachir, Kyle Tanger
Deloitte Insights, January 06, 2021

“With climate change increasingly becoming a matter of concern for employees and environmentalists alike, companies can no longer ignore the issue. This primer serves as an FAQ for decision-makers to take stock of the climate change situation and make the right business decisions around it.”

ESG impact is hard to measure, but it’s not impossible

Authors: Jennifer Howard-Grenville
Harvard Business Review, January 22, 2020

“ESG measurement is an increasingly popular way of holding companies accountable when it comes to sustainability efforts, and of giving companies an incentive to improve them. But measurement, no matter how sophisticated, is much better at capturing easily quantifiable inputs than complex and messy outcomes and impacts. Companies need to do everything they can to understand those outcomes and impacts — and that requires doing more than just measurement. In particular, companies need to do three things: (1) zoom in to develop insights on processes, (2) zoom out to see broader systems, and (3) value curiosity and learning.”