Christensen Institute

APRIL 23, 2024

Deja vu. In 2015, many multinational companies exited Africa. Nestle cut staff across 21 countries and Barclays, Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Eveready, and SABMiller retreated from different African markets they once believed had promise. The allure of Africa, particularly the widely referenced Africa rising narrative, was fading. The reasons the multinationals cited were all too familiar: failing or inexistent infrastructure, smaller than expected consumer market, struggling institutions, and corruption

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Report Marketing Resources Company 145

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 16, 2024

The ability to develop crisp mental models around the problems you want to solve and understanding the why before you start working on the how is an increasingly critical skill, especially in the age of AI. Coding is one of the things AI does best and its capabilities are quickly improving. However, there’s a catch: Code created by an AI can be syntactically and semantically correct but not functionally correct.

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Study Artificial Inteligence Data Learning 144

Entrepreneur - Innovation

FEBRUARY 3, 2024

There's no need to convince employees of the merits of artificial intelligence — just show them they are about to become more relevant, not less.

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Artificial Inteligence How To Technology 124

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2024

Leaving a company that’s been your professional home for years, or decades, is a major shift that can feel both thrilling and perilous. In this article, the authors outline six challenges that often come up when making this transition: 1) Ruminating and second-guessing; 2) Feeling guilty; 3) Being afraid of losing status; 4) Needing to adapt; 5) Managing the perceptions of your new colleagues; and 6) Balancing opposing emotions.

Strategy 140

Strategy Strategy Management Company 140

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Generative AI is upending the way product developers & end-users alike are interacting with data. Despite the potential of AI, many are left with questions about the future of product development: How will AI impact my business and contribute to its success? What can product managers and developers expect in the future with the widespread adoption of AI?

Generative AI

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 22, 2024

In 2016, Beyoncé’s performance at the CMA Awards sparked backlash from fans complaining about everything from her attire to her lack of connection to the genre. This year, she released her first country album, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Her actions over the past eight years have been a case study in how to navigate workplace exclusion.

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Case Study Study Collaboration Change 140

Harvard Business Review

MAY 2, 2024

When you’re working with new people, spending time upfront to have an explicit and open conversation about each other’s work styles and preferences can prove to be one of the best time investments. This “style alignment” conversation can lay a foundation for trust and understanding and help you set agreements for how to successfully work together. Yet, many people shy away from having these conversations for two reasons.

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Collaboration How To Management Leadership 136

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 1, 2024

Worldwide, the past few years have been marked by multiple, intersecting crises — and things aren’t likely to get less complicated anytime soon. The authors met with a group of CEOs to discuss how they lead amid this ongoing chaos. To thrive in this chaotic new world, organizations need leaders with inner strength, character, and a moral compass. By continually adapting and learning, they’ll enable their organizations to navigate these ever-turbulent waters.

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Company Groups Learning Leadership 142

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 17, 2024

Even if you’re an introvert who dreads the notion of networking, you can develop your skills to get out there and do it. Research by the Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, a partnership between Lehigh University and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, identified make-or-break factors for developing networking skills. They include: the ability to adapt your thinking swiftly in response to changing situations; combating a tendency to focus more on avoiding errors and negative results and instead striving for pos

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Tips Change Strategy Strategy 138

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 23, 2024

Designing software that’s resilient against the most common cyberattacks is possible — and significantly more cost effective than dealing with the fallout of a hack.

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Software Design 135

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 29, 2024

Strategic concepts come in and out of fashion as the needs and dynamics of the marketplace change. Research and analysis of today’s landscape identifies six key strategic concepts that set outperforming companies apart: Borrow someone’s road, partner with a third party, reveal your strategy, be good, let the competition go, and adopt small scale attacks.

Company 141

Company Analysis Competition Strategy 141

Speaker: Loreal Lynch, Everett Zufelt, and Michaela Weber

Once upon a time, in the vast realm of online commerce, there lived a humble checkout button overlooked by many. Yet, within its humble click lay the power to transform a mere visitor into a loyal customer. 🧐 💡 Getting checkout right can mark the difference between a successful sale and an abandoned cart, yet many businesses fail to make payments a part of their commerce strategy even when it has a direct impact on revenue.

Data

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 11, 2024

Many people operate from the belief that there’s too much to do and they can’t afford to pause during their workday. But taking effective breaks is essential to preventing burnout. In this article, the author outlines eight strategies to try to build more breaks into your day.

Strategy 144

Strategy Strategy Management 144

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 19, 2024

There are many use cases for generative AI, spanning a vast number of areas of domestic and work life. Looking through thousands of comments on sites such as Reddit and Quora, the author’s team found that the use of this technology is as wide-ranging as the problems we encounter in our lives. The 100 categories they identified can be divided into six top-level themes, which give an immediate sense of what generative AI is being used for: Technical Assistance & Troubleshooting (23%), Content Crea

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Generative AI Analysis Creativity Technology 143

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2024

Companies are investing in — and talking about — mental health more often these days. But employees aren’t reporting a corresponding rise in well-being. Why? The author, who wrote a book on mental health and work last year, explores several key ways organizations haven’t gone far enough in implementing a culture of well-being. She also makes five key suggestions on what they can do to improve the mental health of their employees.

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Strategy Strategy Report Culture 136

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 8, 2024

Times of substantial tech progress and change, like the current AI revolution, create fear and anxiety. This often causes leaders to fall back on their ego and emphasize their expertise, closing their minds and negatively impacting their people and organizations. Instead, leaders need to take on a beginner’s mindset of openness and curiosity. This is not easy.

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Leadership Change Artificial Inteligence Learning 139

Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions

In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets.

Data

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 11, 2024

Gartner research has found that managers today are accountable for 51% more responsibilities than they can effectively manage — and they’re starting to buckle under the pressure: 54% are suffering from work-induced stress and fatigue, and 44% are struggling to provide personalized support to their direct reports. Ultimately, one in five managers said they would prefer not being people managers given a choice.

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Management Analysis Report How To 137

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2024

Employee disengagement is a persistent problem, and attempts to inject excitement often fall flat. However, gamification — using elements of games to motivate — has serious potential when thoughtfully executed. This article explores the psychology behind gamification, successful examples, and how to leverage probabilistic rewards (like lotteries tied to performance) to increase employee motivation.

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Engagement Examples How To Resources 140

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 20, 2024

Online conversations are famously fraught, which creates challenges for people communicating on online platforms, including those used for workplace collaboration. New research suggests that these platforms might want to consider using generative AI to help cool down heated discussions and prepare employees for difficult conversations. The author discusses research that he and his colleagues have conducted on this topic and discusses the ways in which the community platform Nextdoor has started

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Generative AI Collaboration Artificial Inteligence Learning 141

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 3, 2024

The strength of any organization depends on its people. Research has found a strong positive relationship between employee well-being and firm performance. When people feel healthy and engaged, their work performance improves, their relationships are stronger, and they’re better motivated to impact change. This is what’s at the heart of “human sustainability”— a concept introduced in Deloitte’s “2023 Global Human Capital Trends” report.

Company 138

Company Trends Report Strategy 138

Speaker: Aarushi Kansal, AI Leader & Author and Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO at Aggregage

Software leaders who are building applications based on Large Language Models (LLMs) often find it a challenge to achieve reliability. It’s no surprise given the non-deterministic nature of LLMs. To effectively create reliable LLM-based (often with RAG) applications, extensive testing and evaluation processes are crucial. This often ends up involving meticulous adjustments to prompts.

Artificial Inteligence

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2024

One big challenge that leaders have when figuring out how or where their companies can grow is that a dearth of data about future problems and opportunities. In these situations, there are three techniques that leaders can employ to develop insights: look at customers and startups for signs of change, experience new technologies rather than just read about them, and practice “associative thinking,” which means connect two seemingly disparate concepts to develop a novel idea.

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Data Technology Change Company 142

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 20, 2024

Should your company be betting on AI as a growth strategy now? How do you distinguish genuine opportunities from speculative fads and make an informed decision on whether AI is your next big bet? In this article, the authors cover five steps to help your company answer this question. After thoughtful analysis, your decision ultimately boils down to this: Does the current state of AI align with your business strategy?

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Strategy Strategy Analysis How To 140

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 1, 2024

For organizations to truly innovate and grow, leaders in every role and at every organizational level must be attuned to how they are creating new value while simultaneously protecting existing value. Just as a soccer coach must simultaneously pursue both scoring and defending, leaders must constantly focus their attention on opportunities to create value — through innovation, risk-taking, and experimentation — and to protect value — by preserving and defending key aspects of their responsibilit

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Strategy Strategy Change Innovation 138

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 18, 2024

In too many companies, an innovation team is allowed to pursue its own agenda and imagine itself to be a separate island from the rest of the company. The results are always disappointing: a lot of creative ideas, but a failure to deliver meaningful growth. The root problem is the disconnect between strategy and innovation. To succeed, corporate innovation needs to be bounded by a clear set of strategic priorities that matter to the business.

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Strategy Strategy Innovation Innovation Processes 140

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Scaling transformational innovations in large companies is challenging due to ‘Company Fit’ issues, which arise when the resources, processes, and priorities (RPPs) of the core business are not aligned with the needs of the new business. Many companies have learned how ambidexterity—the ability to both ‘exploit the present and explore the future,’ can help them address these issues for ideation and incubation of new innovations, but scaling transformative business innovations remains a challenge

Company

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 6, 2024

Visibility in the workplace isn’t nice to have, it’s a necessity. Being seen and recognized for your work can open doors to new opportunities and propel your career forward. But that doesn’t have to come at the cost of becoming someone you’re not. Even as an introvert, you can find ways to play to your strengths. In this article, the author outlines five strategies to boost your visibility: 1) Speak up early in meetings. 2) Take the pressure off. 3) Ditch self-deprecation. 4) Leverage async meth

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Meeting Strategy Strategy Management 142

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 29, 2024

Companies that are struggling to find the right place to deploy new AI tech should consider use cases involving “voice of the customer” applications — parsing, interpreting, and responding to customer input from all different channels. They are typically easier to implement than employee productivity use cases because they don’t require as much behavior change, and easier to measure improvements in economic value because improving customer satisfaction often has a financial payoff.

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Generative AI Company Analysis Change 129

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 23, 2024

Slowly but steadily, while we’ve been preoccupied with trying to meet demands that outstrip our resources, grappling with unfair treatment, or watching our working hours encroach upon our downtime, burnout has become the new baseline in many work environments. From the 40% of Gen Z workers who believe burnout is an inevitable part of success, to executives who believe high-pressure, “trial-by-fire” assignments are a required rite of passage, to toxic hustle culture that pushes busyness as a badg

How To 132

How To Meeting Resources Culture 132

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 5, 2024

To attract new talent, employers often offer new hires higher wages than existing employees. But today, a combination of regulatory changes and technological advances have dramatically increased pay transparency in many sectors, making employees increasingly aware of these pay disparities. How do existing employees (and especially top performers) react to these higher-paid new hires?

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Agile Technology Change 141

Speaker: Jamie Eagan

As organizations strive for agility and efficiency, it's imperative for finance leaders to embrace innovative technologies and redefine traditional processes. Join us as we explore the pivotal role of digitalization and automation in reshaping what is commonly referred to as the “last mile of reporting”. We’ll deep-dive into why digitalization is no longer a choice, but a necessity for finance departments to stay competitive in a fast-paced environment touching on: 2024 trends for the Office of

Report

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 8, 2024

Most people can spot a toxic leader and connect the dots on why and how they are causing damage. But it’s much harder to recognize when well-intentioned leaders are actually hurting their teams because they aren’t aware of their negative impact, and team members aren’t always comfortable pushing back. If you’re a manager with a strong desire to be helpful to your team, be aware of these five common ways you may inadvertently hurt them despite your best intentions.

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Management Leadership 135

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 4, 2024

Surfacing the undiscussables on your team may be uncomfortable, but it must be an ongoing campaign, or they will sneakily build up in the background and impact your employees’ morale. In this article, the author explains how to spot the classic signs of undiscussables — meetings marked by quick consensus, a lack of productive debate, or uneven participation — and offers strategies on how to uncover those unexpressed thoughts and feelings to help your team work more productively.

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How To Meeting Strategy Strategy 136

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 6, 2024

Professional relationships, like all interpersonal connections, tend to form between individuals who are similar to each other. And having a fixed belief that relationships tend to develop spontaneously can inhibit one from reaching out and building diverse relationships. A study indicates that embracing a growth mindset — believing that relationships can be cultivated through effort — can pave the way for boundary spanning networks.

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Company How To Study Creativity 140

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

It’s one thing to lead through a normal range of uncertainty with its ups and downs. But how do you lead when the inflections, disruptions, dislocations, and other threat conditions pile up, as they have in the last few years? While the leader has little to no control over the external competitive environment, they have astonishing influence over the internal performance environment, including employee engagement, morale, and productivity.

Engagement 141

Engagement Disruption Competition Strategy 141

Speaker: John Mansour - President, Product Management University

You know that sinking feeling. You’ve come up with a winning product strategy, everyone’s on board and energized, and you’re halfway down the path to execution only to have it submarined by something someone convinced your leadership was more strategic! It’s a scenario that’s all too familiar, and it exemplifies one of the biggest struggles with individual product strategies.

Product Strategy