Jing Jing Tsong/theispot.com It’s been said that we hire for competence and fire for character. Consider Boeing, which has been brought low by poor leadership decisions that have severely compromised its planes’ quality and safety, and hence public trust, forcing its CEO to announce a year-end departure. And yet the debate about who should be the next CEO of the troubled airplane manufacturer has centered on the merits of engineers…
Quick Hits The November 2024 Visa Bulletin shows no change from last month’s bulletin for employment-based categories for both final action dates and dates for filing, except for fourth preference for Certain Religious Workers. USCIS will honor dates for filing for I-485 Adjustment of Status applications filed in November 2024. USCIS recently confirmed that the annual limit for fiscal year (FY) 2025 will be higher than pre-pandemic numbers but lower…
Learn how using Azure OpenAI Service in higher education can help leaders reimagine learning models and reduce administrative burdens. Imagine a future where every student has a personalized learning path, where faculty can focus on teaching instead of administrative tasks, and where academic research accelerates breakthrough discoveries. This is not a distant vision—generative AI is making it possible today. AI-driven innovations empower higher education leaders to reimagine learning models, reduce…
In this episode of The Committed Innovator, McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with the founder, president, and medical director of the Child Mind Institute in New York City, Dr. Harold Koplewicz. At a time of increasing concerns globally about child and adolescent mental health, the organization is working to use advanced imaging technologies and AI to help revolutionize diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illness and psychological and learning disorders.…
Quick Hits The Maryland Department of Labor released FAQs regarding the state’s Wage Range Transparency Act, which took effect on October 1, 2024. The law applies to remote jobs for companies headquartered elsewhere if the employer seeks workers based in Maryland. Employers that do not handle their own job postings are still required to comply with the law. This article outlines some of the key points concerning the act for…
The expansion of BRICS in 2024 has undoubtedly increased Africa’s weight in international affairs and contributed to the ongoing discussion on the complexities of multipolarity. The development of strategic and commercial ties between BRICS and Africa also reflects the pragmatic interest in the continent on the part of major powers and old members of the group – China, India, Brazil and Russia. How the objective strengthening of the continent’s global…
1. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Oral Communication Skills: Are the Priorities of the Workplace and AACSB-Accredited Business Programs Aligned?” Academy of Management Learning & Education 14, no. 2 (June 2015): 205-221. 2. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Development of Listening Competence in Business Education,” Current Opinion in Psychology 50 (April 2023): 1-9; and A.N. Kluger, M. Lehmann, H. Aguinis, et al., “A Meta-Analytic Systematic Review and Theory of the…
Our first Pulse Report In the rapidly evolving landscape of Generative AI (GenAI), businesses are eager to harness its potential, with bold ambitions to scale alongside advancing technologies. But the question remains: can organisations keep pace with their own aspirations? Download the full report below. Reading time: 2 minutes Our first Pulse Report delves into this pressing issue. While companies are setting ambitious targets for GenAI initiatives, they are also…
Quick Hits Effective October 10, 2024, private employers must comply with the county’s Fair Chance Ordinance, which restricts the timing and use of criminal history in employment decisions. The ordinance applies to positions that involve performing at least two hours of work on average each week within the unincorporated areas of the county. Employers may not inquire about an applicant’s criminal history before making a conditional job offer, and must…
1 Internal CSS experiment conducted by Microsoft; 600 participants using Copilot Q&A function, Azure Core team; Nov. - Dec. 2023. These results are statistically significant at the 95th percent confidence interval. 2 Internal Microsoft sales team data based on 687 sellers of Microsoft 365 Copilot from Jan. - June 2024, as compared with sellers with low usage of Copilot. Regular usage of Copilot means sellers who use Copilot daily at least 50% of…
When science fiction writer Neal Stephenson dreamed of the metaverse—a term he coined in his 1992 novel Snow Crash—he envisioned a long city street that’s “always garish and brilliant, like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance.”While Las Vegas certainly isn’t known for its constraints, Stephenson believed a digital world could be truly limitless. Chatter about the metaverse peaked in late 2021, almost three decades after Stephenson’s novel…
It is difficult to find any similarities between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in this heated electoral race. But there is one area in which there is a surprising amount of agreement: the need for the federal government to play an active role in encouraging investment in U.S. manufacturing. This bipartisan consensus reflects a growing trend among economists and experts, who are now revising the unfettered free-trade and laissez-faire attitudes…
Positive news is emerging from various sources, suggesting the global economy might be turning a corner, though substantial risks remain. Central banks face a challenging balancing act between managing inflation and promoting growth, which led to divergent actions this month. Several banks cut rates to boost the economy in September, while others tightened policy to tame inflation. Although headline inflation is approaching central banks’ targets, core inflation remains elevated. The…
International politics seems to finally have lost its ability to pursue linear development. This, of course, is extremely sad from the point of view of the average person. However, if we look at what is happening beyond our expectations, whether they are genuine or not, then what is happening can cause significant interest and even elements of optimism. First of all, because with the current balance of power, any linear…
The 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club will be held on November 4–7, 2024 in Sochi, at the Polyana 1389 hotel complex. The name of this year’s event is “Lasting Peace on What Basis? Common Security and Equal Opportunities for Development in the 21st Century”. According to the Club, the world order is currently undergoing a period of fundamental transformation. The changes taking place before our eyes do…
The goal of the conference, which will bring together 140 participants from 50 countries, is to offer non-Western ideas for solving global problems, to make it clear that the leading developed countries do not have a monopoly on formulating the goals and methods of development. The discussions will cover all the main global topics, from the environment and inequality to artificial intelligence and methods of conflict resolution. Programme of the…
The Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC) combines University and GSK expertise in the science of the immune system, AI and clinical development with access to patients and their data provided by Cambridge University Hospitals. GSK is investing more than £50 million in CG-TIC, further strengthening Cambridge’s position as Europe’s leading life sciences cluster. GSK plc is making this investment to establish the Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC), a five-year collaboration…
Seyfarth Synopsis: Out with the old and in with the new. Governor Newsom recently signed new laws which extend and clarify employees’ available reasons for use of California paid sick leave. There are expanded unpaid leave protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or qualifying acts of violence, as well as for employees summoned to jury duty or responding to a subpoena or court order to testify under…
Purchasing an annuity could provide you with a regular income throughout retirement. And rising annuity rates could help your pension savings go further. An annuity is something you buy, often with the money saved in your pension, which then provides a guaranteed income. The annuity rate offered affects the income you’d receive and it can vary between providers. If you’re nearing retirement, the good news is that annuity rates have…
Classic board game Monopoly hit shelves in 1935 and has been causing family arguments ever since. As the real estate game was loosely based on property values at the time it was launched it provides some interesting insights into how the market has changed over the last nine decades. The original Monopoly game was based on Atlantic City, US, but it didn’t take long for the game to be adapted…
On October 18, on the eve of the BRICS summit in Kazan, the Valdai Club hosted a presentation of a report titled “BRICS+ Energy: A Mover for the New World Order.” Ivan Timofeev, the moderator of the discussion, noted that although the BRICS agenda is quite broad, energy occupies a special place in the group’s agenda, since Russia is the largest supplier of energy resources, and India, China, and Brazil…
Did you know that top athletes are coached on their “sixth sense” as part of their training? Proprioception is your body’s sense of where it is in space. It’s what allows footballers to score a goal without looking down at the ball or gymnasts to orient themselves in the air while somersaulting, but it’s also what allows us to open a door without using too much force and walk on…
The tantalizing vision for global payments has long been that they’d be safe, simple, quick, inexpensive, and ubiquitous. This promise has come closer with each new technological advance. However, instant payments have ushered in the Decoupled Era, a term coined in last year’s Global Payments Report. In this environment, payments are becoming disconnected from accounts, and the number of players is proliferating, fragmenting the value chain, increasing complexity, and endangering…
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has officially announced that the After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) will soon be laid to rest. In a notice dated October 1, 2024, the USPTO confirmed that the program will end on December 14, 2024. Despite being extended numerous times since its launch in 2013, AFCP 2.0 has now run into fiscal hurdles. Earlier this year, the USPTO proposed a…
Quick Hits Certain requirements of the amended NYDFS cybersecurity regulations will take effect on November 1, 2024. Covered entities may need to update their policies and procedures, including with respect to corporate governance, encryption, incident response and business continuity plans, system testing, and employee training. On March 1, 2017, the NYDFS enacted comprehensive cybersecurity regulations for financial services companies and other covered entities. The cybersecurity regulations were most recently amended…
New research and real-life case studies have recently revealed that it’s possible to slow – and even reverse – your biological age. Read on to discover more about how your biological age is measured, and six simple steps you could incorporate into your routine to enhance your life. What is your “biological age”? We’re used to measuring our lives in chronological age, or the number of years we’ve been alive.…
This commentary originally appeared in Time. Just as the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a month ago catalyzed new opportunities for Mideast peace, the death of long-elusive Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar Thursday turbocharges the transformation of the Middle East towards a more secure and prosperous future. To appreciate the possibilities, it is vital to understand the significance of the Sinwar as a leader. There should be no doubt that…
Over the past decade, the telecom industry has faced one daunting challenge after another. Telcos have endured relentless competitive pressure from fast-moving technology companies that entered their core sectors of communications, connectivity, and data transport. In the hopes of igniting revenue growth, telcos have sought to reinvent themselves. They have created new tech-driven product offerings—from the Internet of Things (IoT) and software as a service (SaaS) to over-the-top (OTT) video…
Learning through experience requires us to shift from the purely intellectual to a more holistic engagement. I try to create that shift by opening each of my leadership classes with some form of art—a poem, a piece of music or a visual work. It’s a way of helping my students, many of whom are management or law students, executives, or leaders in their fields, step out of their typical "brain-bound"…
On October 20, the newly elected President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, who had previously served as the country's Minister of Defence, will officially take office. Already in the period between the elections and the inauguration, Prabowo has demonstrated a great deal of diplomatic activity. He conducted a series of international visits and meetings, including a visit to Russia this summer, where he had a conversation with Vladimir Putin and a…
Let’s say that two entrepreneurs, a man and a woman, co-found a startup and raise venture capital. But the business struggles, and they shut it down and go their separate ways. Eventually, each of them independently forms a new business. Do these entrepreneurs have the same chance of getting venture capital funding for a second time? The answer is no, according to Yale SOM’s Heather Tookes, whose new research uses…
We are pleased to invite you to our upcoming webinar series, "Winning Combinations: Exploring Synergies with Government Contracts Law." This series of 30-minute webinars will explore the intersections between government contracts law and related Seyfarth practice areas, focusing on key topics such as cybersecurity, False Claims Act, white collar & investigations, FAR sustainability, mergers and acquisitions, software licensing, real estate, and more. Our team of experienced attorneys will share their insights…
Economic data suggesting some developed countries, including the US, could fall into a recession continued to affect investment markets in September 2024. Read on to discover other factors that may have affected the performance of your investments. UK Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows inflation remained stable at 2.2% in the 12 months to August. The figure is slightly above the Bank of England’s (BoE) 2% target.…
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.What is shifting in tech-enabling operational transformations? This is clearly the age of AI. With the rapid advances in generative AI, it has become very easy to consume AI, and therefore companies are making significant investments over the last few years in the cloud infrastructure across various gen AI technologies, as well as machine learning investments. And there’s an increasing difference between leaders,…
The retailer is using immersive commerce — a form of online shopping that combines VR with 3D visualizations and gamification — to connect with the next generation of shoppers. Mary Lacity and Remko Van Hoek October 17, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Retailers must constantly adapt to shifting consumer trends, demographics, and technological advancements. Walmart, like many other retailers, needs to connect with younger…
The creation of Sign Language View in Teams One shortfall of this new way of working, however, was the existing captioning solutions. It was painful for my Deaf peers and I to have to turn on captions with each call. Every time, you had to look for and prioritize the interpreters, open the chat window, and then finally be ready to participate in meetings. This design mismatch led to two…
As partisan vitriol flies in the final month before the US presidential election, a new study offers insight into the question of why people share political misinformation.Even when a news article would flatter their political party, people tend to expect that sharing true information on social media would benefit their personal reputations more than spreading misleading articles, the research shows. Furthermore, when political articles are shared on Twitter (now X),…
More than 70% of Brits think Inheritance Tax (IHT) is unfair, according to a poll carried out by Tax Policy Associates in 2023. You might consider how other countries handle taxing assets when you pass away to be “fairer”, read on to find out more. Over the last few months, you’ve read about how IHT works in the UK and some of the steps you may take to reduce a…
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.What is causing so many consumer product leaders to rethink their products and portfolios? Jan Henrich: Renovating and innovating the existing portfolio has never been more important than it is these days. First, consumer discretionary spending is tightening. Second, passing on inflation costs to the consumer is getting more difficult. And last, it is very hard to get a portfolio right the first…
You already know that a strong culture leads to engaged employees, lower turnover, and a healthier bottom line, but convincing leadership? That’s a different story. It’s exhausting pushing for changes that are dismissed as “soft skills” or shot down because they don’t offer an immediate ROI. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. In fact, most attendees at our recent webinar, Getting Leadership to Listen to HR, showed up for one reason:…