In 2019, ahead of that year’s European elections, my colleague Guntram Wolff, at the time Bruegel’s director, and I edited a collection of essays written by our Fellows for the incoming European Union leadership. We urged the leadership to be bolder in their actions, to aim for greener policies and to safeguard EU cohesion. Now, in the run up to June’s European elections, it is clear is that the last…
It’s halfway through the year, and for some companies, the fiscal year is wrapping up, leaving them with an unexpected budget surplus. While it might be tempting to funnel these extra funds into new equipment or throw after-hours parties, there’s a more strategic opportunity at hand. Investing in initiatives that enhance workplace culture and address common workplace issues can yield long-term benefits. Determining how to spend your budget As…
Through most advances and innovations in enterprise technology, IT or technology services providers (also known as system integrators [SIs] or managed services providers [MSPs]) have, for the most part, been able to rely on one constant: their customers continuing to look outside their four walls for help stitching together and overseeing the ever-changing, complex web of hardware, software, networking, and storage products that drives their businesses. Now, enterprises are funneling…
It will be significantly easier to the Western world to gradually accept that its resources are finite than it will be for those who currently find the dominance of the United States and Europe unsatisfactory to establish new models of collaboration, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev. One of the most significant challenges that the global community of nations is currently facing in relation to the dismantling of the…
New challenges await payments providers, now that the pandemic-related surge in adoption of digital payments has leveled off. Among them are questions about how the technology and use cases are likely to develop. In this episode of Talking Banking Matters, payments industry expert and McKinsey partner Roshan Varadarajan talks with Tien-Tsin Huang, the J.P. Morgan equity research analyst who covers the payments sector. The following edited transcript shares highlights from…
Magazine Summer 2024 Issue Large language models can enhance data and analytics work by helping humans prepare data, improve models, and understand results. Pedro Amorim and João Alves June 11, 2024 Reading Time: 15 min Topics Data, AI, & Machine Learning AI & Machine Learning Paul Garland The glare of attention on generative AI threatens to overshadow advanced analytics. Companies pouring resources into much-hyped large language models (LLMs) such as…
In our conversations with customers and partners, two themes consistently emerge: the impact of AI at work and the challenge of successfully navigating flexible work. We see these challenges as related: adopting AI will enable the improved transformation of our workplaces. This transformation lies not just in adopting AI, but in fully leveraging its benefits. Investing in AI opens unparalleled opportunities for productivity, creativity, and growth, setting the stage for…
If you build something because you need it, chances are good others need it too. RevenueCat (YC S18) is an excellent example of this. While adding in-app subscriptions to an iOS application, RevenueCat’s co-founders realized they were spending a ton of time building out the behind-the-scenes plumbing. It was necessary work, but it meant way less time for the features they actually wanted to create. So they built a better…
In today’s tumultuous business landscape, where price volatility, geopolitical tensions, and sustainability imperatives converge, one function stands at the forefront of navigating these complexities: procurement. In this context, the procurement function will act as a strategic lever for value protection and creation. Procurement sits at the confluence of huge quantities of data, flowing from within the organization (for example, spend, demand patterns, specifications) and from without (suppliers, market insights databases,…
When Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, it ejected roughly 250 million tonnes of volcanic ash into the atmosphere: much of which was blown over Europe and into flight paths. With planes grounded, millions of air passengers were left stranded.Forecasts of how ash will spread in the aftermath of an explosive eruption can help reduce impacts to aviation by informing decisions to shut down areas of airspace. But these forecasts require knowledge…
Howie and Harlan are joined by Anna Reisman, a physician and writer who leads Yale’s Program for Humanities in Medicine. They discuss the gaps in care she encountered when her developmentally disabled sister was diagnosed with cancer, and her work reviewing the “dude wall” of portraits at Yale Medical School. Harlan asks what we’ve gained from a new definition of long COVID; Howie provides an update on the spread of…
A process of reconfiguration is underway globally, with several power centres emerging that seek to gain greater autonomy, space, and protection for their interests. While this process has some negative aspects, such as increasing uncertainty and tension, it can also be seen as an opportunity for development. Some analysts, including experts from Russia, have identified positive aspects of this process, highlighting new possibilities for achieving greater equilibrium in international relations…
The 2024 UK General Election is set to shake-up many policy areas with defence, health and housing featuring heavily. Sprinkle in the main political parties pledging not to raise tax burdens and 35% of public spending going to the five largest departments, and that puts civil servants firmly at the heart of re-imagining how citizen outcomes can be realistically achieved post-4th July. This article outlines tactics for maintaining momentum on…
“How can we protect the privacy of our customers’ personal data while leveraging that data via AI and analytics?” This question reflects a growing internal dilemma as companies pursue advanced analytics and artificial intelligence.The troves of data that customers’ ever-more-digitalized lives produce can be a rich source of insight for organizations using advanced analytics tools. At the same time, this data is a deep source of concern to IT staffs…
Quick Hits A California appellate court found an employer’s arbitration agreement with an eyewear store employee to be unenforceable for being both procedurally and substantively unconscionable. The appellate court noted several issues with the arbitration agreement—including finding that it was a contract of adhesion—that placed it “high on the scale of substantive unconscionability.” Employers may want to scrutinize their arbitration agreements for provisions that may tip the scale in favor…
The Covid-19 pandemic saw many of us confined to our homes for an extended period. While it was a challenging experience, lots of people looked for the silver lining and took the opportunity to work on their homes and gardens. Unfortunately, there was an unintended consequence to this increased interest in DIY. According to the BBC, figures from the NHS show that in 2020/21, more than 5,600 people visited hospitals…
13 June 2024By Maarten G.A. DamanMany people appreciate privacy when paying, and want their data protected. Current electronic means of payment are not optimal in this regard. We are designing the digital euro to be the most private electronic payment option. The ECB Blog explains.Paying is a private affair for many people. The idea that tech companies, banks, governments or employers might track payments is not particularly appealing. Cash provides a…
There’s a race on to capture value from digital and AI, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are in danger of falling behind both retailers and consumers. It’s not for lack of trying. Like most sectors, CPG companies have been on some form of digital and AI transformation journey. But most of them are stuck in the pilot purgatory stage characterized by plenty of subscale activity and little at-scale value.…
Generative AI (gen AI) is an advancement that has seized the attention of governments, the public, and business leaders. But it presents unique challenges to the professionals tasked with managing gen AI’s existing and potential threats. In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, Ida Kristensen, coleader of McKinsey’s Risk & Resilience Practice, and Oliver Bevan, a leader of enterprise risk management, speak with Sean Brown, global director…
A windowpane is just a piece of glass. But embed it with sensors and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology, and it can automatically get darker to block the sun, and display images as if it were a computer screen. A tractor is just a machine of brute force. But endow it with cameras, GPS computing, and machine learning, and it can self-navigate a 2,000-acre farm while differentiating a weed from a crop…
After a slow start, hospitals and payers are making progress toward complying with federal price transparency rules that require them to publish online the pricing information about items and services they provide. As part of a trend of rising consumerism in healthcare, consumers express a high willingness to “shop” for care and can more readily due so with price transparency rules in place. Once consumers are able to easily access…
subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Auditing Algorithmic Risk Cathy O’Neil, Jake Appel, and Sam Tyner-Monroe Key Insight: A set of frameworks can help organizations identify potential harms posed by algorithms, AI tools, or large language models (LLMs). Top Takeaways: As business uses of artificial intelligence, LLMs, and other algorithmic applications expand, so, too, does the possibility of unintended negative consequences for users and other stakeholders. The authors introduce two auditing frameworks —…
Generative AI is redefining the publishing sector, offering efficiencies and reshaping roles, content, and business models. Our strategic guidance helps leaders navigate this evolution, ensuring ethical AI integration while fostering innovation. As the industry transforms, Q5 stands ready to assist publishers in embracing this new chapter with strategic foresight. Generative AI (GenAI) is likely to present the biggest change to the creation, distribution and consumption of media since the dawn…
12 June 2024By Piero CipolloneMore reforms are needed if the euro is to maintain and strengthen its role amid geopolitical shifts. Europe needs to further develop the infrastructure for making cross-border payments in euro with key partners. For the last quarter of a century, the euro has been a key global currency, second only to the dollar. It has demonstrated its resilience despite the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine…
Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Paul Garland We all love a good “what went wrong” story. Analyses of corporate failures are a staple of the management genre, alerting leaders to hidden dangers and unexamined vulnerabilities. But studying our weaknesses and mitigating them only goes so far; it doesn’t actually tell us…
About the Program: Italy, Spain and France have seen many changes in the employment law landscape within the last year. Seyfarth’s Italy, Spain and France qualified international employment law experts, Sofia Bargellini, Ana Cid and Laurence Harvey Wood, look forward to sharing some recent developments in their upcoming 45 minute webinar. These international employment law specialists will give an overview of hot topics and upcoming regulations within Europe. Topics will…
Quick Hits Governor Pritzker is expected to sign SB3650, legislation amending Illinois’s Day and Temporary Labor Services Act (DTLSA). Third-party clients would not be required to provide comparator pay information until the worker has worked for the same third-party client for more than 720 hours within a twelve-month period and the temporary agency requests this information. SB3650 revises the DTLSA’s “equivalent benefits” language to provide for “substantially similar benefits.” Overview…
As the vacation season looms, Harvard Business School faculty members share recommendations for a little light reading. Spoiler alert: Lessons in Chemistry tops two of their beach-read lists.For those whose brains can’t—or won’t—turn off, HBS faculty also suggest some of their favorite business and academic tomes. Their favorites hit some of the year’s biggest themes, from artificial intelligence (AI) to racial equity to climate change. Julia Austin: Humans and tech,…
The consumer goods industry was an investor darling for decades, delivering a reliable formula of more than 5 percent growth at healthy, stable margins. Over the past ten years, however, topline growth has faded away. While consumer packaged goods (CPGs) have searched for it, they have ended up scrambling to generate the earnings growth they need through cost reduction.But investors love a growth story. Industry shareholder returns have dropped from…
Victims of verbal abuse often wonder whether it is a crime and whether there is any recourse for them. This is particularly so when it occurs in the context of a domestic violence situation. Obtaining an apprehended violence order (AVO) is a possibility but only in circumstances where the conduct meets the requisite criteria. What is Verbal Abuse? Verbal Abuse is a form of emotional abuse where a person uses…
Steve Jobs once said, “Intuition is more powerful than intellect.” But can it be too powerful? In research recently published in the journal Cognition, Yale SOM’s Shane Frederick and Andrew Meyer of the Chinese University of Hong Kong not only show situations in which widely shared intuitions are certifiably wrong, they also illustrate how these erroneous intuitions become calcified and prevent discovery of the truth, even among those who are…
Topics Radar Brief insights on emerging trends in management from the opening pages of MIT Sloan Management Review’s quarterly print magazine. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Courtesy of GE Appliances Kevin Nolan, an engineer by training and a 28-year veteran of GE, is the president and CEO of GE Appliances. He became the company’s CTO in 2006, 10 years before its acquisition by China-based multinational Haier Group. MIT…
In pausing to think before making an important decision, we may imagine the potential outcomes of different choices we could make. While this ‘mental simulation’ is central to how we plan and make decisions in everyday life, how the brain works to accomplish this is not well understood. An international team of scientists has now uncovered neural mechanisms used in planning. Their results, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggest that…
The Global South has to join such efforts and participate effectively in these procedures to empower them as global stream ends the American monopoly. That would help moving to a more just economic dynamics based on the win-win principle. The exploitation of Global South wealth is no longer possible in tomorrow’s world, where partnership is on an equal footing between all countries moving together towards development and prosperity. In this…
Upon hearing “bespoke,” most people would imagine a tailored suit. But the word has taken on a new meaning since 2019, when Samsung Electronics unveiled its personalized Bespoke home appliances to usher in a new era of comfort and convenience at home. This year, the product line has evolved into Bespoke AI — signifying how artificial intelligence (AI) is optimizing each user’s life in line with the company’s “AI for…
This year’s Spring’s Budget included significant changes concerning the way tax will be calculated for non-UK domiciled individuals (non-doms). Claire Spinks, our Head of Tax Technical and Development, takes a look at what’s been proposed and the effects for non-doms and those planning to reside in the UK. Non-doms have been on the political agenda for some time, so it wasn’t a great surprise to see new proposals concerning how…
Our vision for Facebook is simple: Facebook is for social discovery that opens your world in big and small ways. We’ve always been social, and we’ve always helped people discover things, but the way that people want to do this is changing, so we’re evolving our product accordingly. As we think about the next 20 years, we’re focused on two big things: building the next generation of social media for…
Under stress, good people can make bad decisions. Even CEOs, who are often exposed to contradictory demands, are not immune. Bad decisions can range from ill-advised stock buybacks to poorly devised cost-cutting measures to extremes like imaginative accounting or illegal practices. We’ve seen how Nokia, General Electric, IBM and many others have stumbled in the face of such existential crises.During turbulent times, many CEOs may be tempted to weather the…
Refinery reliability issues have impacted product prices in recent times, and the ongoing reliability issue is creating both challenges and opportunities for refiners. As the wider industry continues to struggle with unplanned outages, refiners can invest to improve reliability and capture value. Operators can do this by revamping fundamental processes and using digital tools, such as generative AI (gen AI), to drive further improvements in their systems. In this article,…
Radar Paid influencers with the biggest follower counts may not give companies the most bang for their buck, research finds. The MIT SMR Editors June 10, 2024 Reading Time: 2 min Topics Radar Brief insights on emerging trends in management from the opening pages of MIT Sloan Management Review’s quarterly print magazine. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Getty Images The top social media influencers command top dollar for…