In a society that seeks answers to problems, Hal Gregersen reveals the creative power of inquiry.
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Media psychologist and trust expert Jeff Hancock reveals how technology is changing the way we trust in the digital age.
Jeff Thomson, CEO of IMA, talks to Minds Worth Meeting about innovation, certification and the future of accounting.
Efosa Ojomo offers the key to creating prosperity in developing nations.
VR is the next technological game-changer. Jeremy Bailenson’s new book reveals how it will revolutionize companies and humanity.
Minds Worth Meeting converses with leadership expert and MIT professor Hal Gregersen, who discusses problem-led leadership and how it is changing the world.
A brief guide to streamlining the search for keynote speakers
Stress is common for most people – and for some, it’s more than tension and anxiety; it leads to dangerous health problems, from heart issues to panic attacks and nervous…
Virtual reality is very close to becoming a major element of society. With its ability to alter perceptions of the real world, what implications does the emerging technology have for the future of business and society? Minds Worth Meeting chats with VR pioneer and Stanford University Professor Jeremy Bailenson, who discusses the possibilities, opportunities and dangers of using this new medium.
VR is the new frontier of human experience. VR pioneer Jeremy Bailenson’s new book explains how it works, its practical applications, and its significance for humanity.
It is inevitable that artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role in our lives. Rana el Kaliouby is ensuring that it adapts and responds to, rather than clashes with, our human emotions.
In his latest research, Clay Christensen uses his “Jobs to Be Done” framework tackle America’s chronic disease epidemic.
Trust expert Rachel Botsman shows how the financial sector has much to gain by better understanding the changing nature of trust in society.
Futurist Amy Webb analyzes Republican tax reforms, revealing how they jeopardize the long-term competitiveness of America’s economy and workforce.
Stern Strategy Group Senior Vice President Tara Baumgarten reveals how Alex Osterwalder made her a better strategic communicator in 2017.
Amy Webb and Hal Gregersen win big at Thinkers50!
Social psychologist Dr. Sherry Turkle has spent her academic career analyzing the effects of technology on human behavior and culture, and has drawn the conclusion that our humanity is jeopardized when digital devices interfere with real human interactions. When Mattel released its newest product “Aristotle” – equipped with a camera and microphone designed to help parents occupy and educate their children – Turkle’s research helped fuel a public outcry that ultimately killed the device before it went to market…
Innovation drives our economy, revolutionizes industries, and provides an avenue to radically rethink existing ways of conducting business. But how do companies and entrepreneurs make sure they’re on the winning side of the innovation battle? Strategy+Business magazine has released its list of the top new books on innovation in 2017, and we are pleased to announce that all the chosen books were authored or co-authored by our clients. This holiday season, give the gift of innovation with these winning titles…
What are we training students to do? In the last millennium, the structure of education has remained constant: students sit in rows listening to a lecturer as they follow along in a book. This factory model, says futurist, award winning author and digital transformation guru Robert Tercek, will be the demise of the workforce if we don’t reinvent the education system to meet the needs of the 21st century society…
In the November-December issue of Harvard Business Review, award-winning author and Harvard business professor, Michael E. Porter, and PTC Chief Executive, James E. Heppelmann, pen the business case for augmented reality – showing what it is, how every link in the chain, from manufacturing through sales, will reap the rewards of its application, and how converging the digital and physical worlds will enhance human capabilities, changing the business landscape forever…
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are staking everything on what they say will be the greatest tax reform agenda in three decades. The president has pitched massive tax cuts, time and again, as a way to help boost jobs and wages for working Americans. Mihir Desai, Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School, co-authored a paper touted by the White House as supporting the notion that cutting the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% will raise household incomes by as much as $9,000 annually. There is one dissenting voice, however: Professor Desai himself…
Future generations will call today the beginning of a radical social, technological and economic revolution. Erik Brynjolfsson, renowned MIT professor and leading authority on how businesses can leverage emerging technologies, concludes that harnessing advances in artificial intelligence (AI) is the grand challenge for our society…
Robots are revolutionizing how humans go about their daily business. Amazon’s robotic “personal assistant,” known as “Alexa,” may be the first of the new personally relatable machines. Rachel Botsman introduced her three year-old daughter Grace to Alexa, and what ensued was an experiment in how the upcoming generation will relate to machines.
What sets a brand apart from its competitors? It’s not always the quality or cost of the product or service. A key differentiator is the engaging story behind the brand that connects to people on an emotional plane. Andrew Gordon, 20-year veteran of Pixar Animation and professional storyteller, has helped numerous companies distinguish themselves by…
At MIT’s Center for Extreme Bionics, Professor Hugh Herr and his team of researchers are working miracles. Through his own determination and scientific prowess, Herr overcame the loss of his lower legs after a tragic 1982 climbing accident. Today, he’s abolishing the debilitating physical and neurological handicaps afflicting humanity.
Toys”R”Us, Kodak, Nokia, and Blackberry were well-managed, exemplary leaders in their industries – until they weren’t. Now, as they teeter on the edge of the abyss, it’s apparent that they…
A monumental wave of distrust in key institutions – government, media, business, charities – is sweeping the world. While this social transformation should bode ill for humanity and business, Rachel Botsman, author of the highly anticipated book “Who Can You Trust? How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Might Drive Us Apart”, says that’s not necessarily the case. Her groundbreaking book explains how we are at the start of the one of the biggest trust shifts in history – and reveals how business leaders should manage it…
It’s a common mistake. Instinct often compels marketers to position their company – or its products or services – as the hero of the “story.” But by focusing on themselves, they’re forgetting their most important champion…
Year after year, Congress fails to reach consensus on important issues, the electorate screams for change, and voters become more polarized along the lines of party and ideology. These struggles aren’t causes of America’s political malaise, says Michael E. Porter, co-chair of the U.S. Competitiveness Project at Harvard Business School; they’re symptoms of a much larger problem…
Innovation guru Hal Gregersen has interviewed more than 200 CEOs across industries and from around the world. His discovery? A parallel crucial to reimagining business…
As the world is transformed by technology and globalization, a consumer-centric marketing focus is more important than ever before…
From traditional drive-throughs to food trucks, the fast-food landscape has never been more crowded or competitive. Yet, despite its odds, Pal’s Sudden Service – a U.S. chain of local hamburger restaurants – is experiencing steady growth and continues to expand. It’s all about scale…
Most of us believe we know what purpose our products serve. We assume we understand our customers – what they want, and how and where they want it. The amount of customer data at our fingertips is unprecedented, and yet, we’re not getting any better at innovating…
There was a time when cautious, conservative companies were investors’ best bets. No longer. Those that get to the top and stay there are grounded in creativity, constantly ideating and innovating. Forbes’ annual “Most Innovative Companies” list offers numerous…
Say “maintenance of certification” in a room full of clinical specialists and watch them cringe. Required for physicians to remain board-certified in a specialty, MOC continues to be a hot-button issue across all specialty care fields…
Ideas – and the actions they trigger – have the power to change the world. It’s a mantra that propels organizations and individuals alike to innovate, push boundaries, and stimulate change and progress. It’s also a mission shared by all the thought leaders Stern Speakers represents…
Imagine a new technology that, within only a few years, revolutionized everyday life while rendering obsolete nearly all assumptions about leading companies and planning for future growth. At the beginning of the last century, that technology was electricity. Today, it’s artificial intelligence (AI)….
Uber is, in many ways, the quintessential startup story – one that will be studied, analyzed, discussed and debated for decades to come. But there is every chance the ride-hailing pioneer turned cautionary tale will be revered less for how it has harnessed technology to disrupt 21st century transportation than for the toxic culture that triggered its leadership crisis…
Price communicates. Your brand messages might say to your customers, “We value you,” but your pricing practices often refute your claim – whether you realize it or not…
In 2008, Anindya Ghose predicted the smartphone would ultimately be the most transformative consumer device – ever. Today, nearly a decade later, the foremost expert on mobile economics points to plenty of evidence proving his prediction is now reality…
Companies struggle with innovation, and Greg Bernarda believes he knows why. They’re still operating in the 20th century, a world where exploitation – executing and scaling products and services in known environments – is key currency for success. To compete in the 21st century, companies need to…
Envision this: free of the 9-to-5, more of us are “micro-entrepreneurs” who set our own hours and incomes, empowered to profit off our own assets and time without traditional employers. It’s not a far-fetched scenario; in fact, it’s the future of work…
While Americans anticipate the fate of U.S. healthcare policy, experts are still pondering one question. How can healthcare be transformed to become more affordable and accessible?
When refugees seek asylum, what is the role of the education sector? The number of people displaced by conflict is at the highest level ever recorded; one in every 113 people on the planet is a refugee, asylum seeker or internally displaced. And Alexander Betts, global authority on refugees and human migration, believes higher education institutions around the world are uniquely positioned to help turn crisis into chance…
Immersive technology is having its moment. After decades of development, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) are finally catching on – with businesses. Wal-Mart’s announcement last week that it plans to make…
Technology has forever altered the leadership and business strategy landscapes, and it continues to enable disruption across nearly every industry. Surviving – and succeeding – is one of the greatest challenges managers face, and it requires not only a different mindset, but also a …
Emotions influence every aspect of our life – how we learn, communicate, make decisions. Yet, they’re missing from our digital world. The devices and apps so ingrained in our day-to-day routines have had no way of knowing how we feel. Until now…
We’re well on our way to a future of self-driving cars – but uncertainty still paves the road ahead. When a driverless car crashes, who’s at fault? And who pays for the damages? Likely not the driver…
Today’s digital devices are designed to promote efficiency and responsiveness for professionals in every sector, including financial services. But MIT Professor Sherry Turkle says our “always-on,” hyper-connected state undermines relationships, creativity and productivity. And she has the research to prove it…
Want good economic news? Look to the American middle market.
The breakneck pace of development, particularly in technology, fuels growth and prosperity around the world. Yet, for all the positive value created by constant innovation, there’s a dismal downside: increased global inequality. But what if the world’s innovators turned their sights on…
Most of us spend our entire life looking for the right answers – from the first day of school until retirement, success is measured by answers. But the real value of those answers is based on the quality of the questions. Good questions inspire deep thinking and…
Every business must price what it sells. It’s inescapable and indispensable – and deeply misunderstood. But it doesn’t need to be that way, says marketing and monetization expert Marco Bertini.
Can you kick-start the economic growth of an entire region? It depends. How many billions do you have to throw around? Daniel Isenberg, entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship practice, has a better way. His method partners with stakeholders to help create growth innovation at a small fraction of the region’s businesses, which then drive growth in the entire area. More than theory, he’s worked scaling up success stories with major cities in the USA, Latin America and Northern Europe.
Karen Dillon will help you figure out your job. Not your profession – the “job” that your customers are trying to accomplish. “Jobs To Be Done” theory, as described in “Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice” (HarperCollins, October 2016), co-authored by Clay Christensen and Dillon, explains this kind of job: it’s the progress your customer wants to achieve when they’re struggling. It can be small, like bottled iced coffee as a more convenient way to perk up in the morning, or huge, like the almost universal switch from film to digital photography.
At Stern Strategy Group®, we work with the foremost thinkers and doers who are helping companies, institutions and individuals understand the issues and capitalize on the opportunities created by change. It’s a mission we share with our clients, and it’s why we created Minds Worth Meeting (MWM). In a world absent of good conversation, our new podcast connects you to our roster of experts and thought leaders – forces and champions of change across a wide range of industries, disciplines and topics.
Even as the “gig economy” encompasses 94% of new jobs in the U.S., tax policy has lagged behind the reality of a full third of American workers. Sara Horowitz, a social entrepreneur and expert on the freelance economy, penned an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that lays out the issues with freelance work in a system built around an industrial-era labor force.
Disruptive change is accelerating, enabled by the frantic pace of technological advancement. Mark W. Johnson, authority on innovation and co-founder of Innosight, has identified the businesses at greatest risk: “The companies most vulnerable to disruption today are those at the top of their game. In mature industries, incumbent leaders are extremely vulnerable to competitors offering greater simplicity, convenience, accessibility, and affordability.” He projects that over the next decade half the S&P 500 index will have turned over, thanks to disruptive innovation.
Conventional wisdom casts online learning as a disruptive force that will revolutionize higher education by lowering costs and expanding access. But a recent survey has found that costs for online learning are no less than, and in some cases more than, costs for traditional instruction. How could this so-called disruptive force have resulted in only an expansion of the status quo?
The mobile economy, projected to reach $1 trillion in the U.S. by 2020, is being almost ignored by retailers and advertisers are only directing about 12% of ad revenues to mobile devices. Also sorely neglected is the the vast stream of data created by every tap on every phone. Companies don’t know how to reach people on their mobile devices, and they don’t know what they would say if they could. Fortunately, Anindya Ghose, the foremost expert on mobile economics, has designed the tools that can help your company thrive as business-to-consumer interactions increasingly shift to mobile platforms.
As instruction methods are constantly updated, it’s difficult to be sure that the proper techniques are being applied. Heather Staker, K-12 education expert, best-selling author and founder of Ready to Blend, has successfully removed the doubt that accompanies changing teaching methods. How? By pinpointing students’ jobs to be done.
Apple is fighting a long, grinding campaign. Their goal is the adoption of Apple Pay, their mobile payment system, and the battleground is the billions of financial transactions that happen every day. Horace Dediu, leading mobile industry analyst, writes, “There are no decisive battles won or lost, only the relentless pressure to make progress against a reluctance to change.” In other words, the true enemy isn’t the competition in the mobile payment system space – it’s the nonconsumption of customers who are already comfortable with cash and card swipes. And Dediu thinks that Apple is winning.
In 2017, a plethora of changes are approaching the world of education: a new American presidential administration is bringing new policies to K-12 schools, universities are reconsidering graduates’ need for a four-year degree, and modern technology is increasingly altering the times and places of instruction delivery.
In 2016, the number of global refugees and displaced people hit an all-time high. European countries are struggling to absorb people displaced by conflicts across Africa and the Middle East as record numbers of people flee violence in Central America. The international systems in place for helping and coping with refugees are almost uniformly broken. They handicap both host countries and the displaced, leading to negative outcomes for all. But Alexander Betts, who heads Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre, has real solutions for host countries. His new book, “Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System,” presents the key factor: work.
Amy Webb, futurist and bestselling author, is concerned. The recent comments by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin about the effect of artificial intelligence and automation on the job market (“…not even on my radar screen… 50-100 more years.”) indicate to her that the administration is not up to speed on the latest developments in the field. In response, Webb looks at the state of artificial intelligence and its potential to replace human jobs in a Los Angeles Times op-ed.
Despite what workers may think, findings show almost every job will be impacted by robots. Rapid leaps in artificial intelligence (AI) are putting entire professions and industries on the chopping…
Startups live and die by their culture. And not by the ping-pong tables or the all-night coding sessions, but by the cultural infrastructure put into place by the management. According to a new Harvard Business Review article, 70% of startups see their employee morale dive in year three or four, and the size of this decline is directly associated with the company’s level of growth.
Credit card fraud cost the U.S. retail industry $32 billion in 2014. One of the easiest ways for a scam artist to gain access to credit card information is a “skimmer,” a small device illegally installed on an ATM. Now several banks are going for a technical fix: cardless ATMs. Anindya Ghose, the foremost authority on mobile economics and author of the groundbreaking “Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy” (MIT Press, April 2017), details the ways these new mobile-phone-based systems will make retail banking more secure.
Hal Gregersen, executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, has spent more than a decade studying the world’s most successful business leaders. One of his most important findings: sometimes being successful means being quiet.
Taddy Hall and Karen Dillon, partners of Jobs Theory creator Clay Christensen, team up to walk through a compelling real-world application of Jobs Theory in this video. After introducing the theory, Hall applies it to a case study of International Delight’s recently introduced iced coffee line. Hall looks at the jobs performed by iced coffee in general, i.e. why consumers “hire” it every day, and then walks through the innovation process that created an entirely new product category in grocery store refrigerators.
Fifty years ago, Moshe Safdie was a recent architecture graduate, intent on realizing the ideas explored in his thesis project at McGill University: a three-dimensional model for urban housing. Sandy VanGinkel, one of his professors, recruited him to help design the master plan for the World Exposition in Montreal. Safdie agreed to join the effort, with the caveat that he could continue his exploration into housing as a potential entry for the Canadian pavilion.
(Photo credit: Timothy Hursley)
As a leader, how insulated are you? CEOs and other leaders can easily slip inside a bubble created by their own power and prestige. Outside this bubble are critical ideas and information, including small bellwether changes that signal big market shifts. Hal Gregersen, Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center, has a solution; in his words, “Innovative executives deliberately put themselves into situations where they may be unexpectedly wrong, unusually uncomfortable, and uncharacteristically quiet.”
The mobile economy is projected to hit $1 trillion dollars by the year 2020. But while we spend 25 percent of our time using mobile devices, advertisers commit only 12 percent of ad dollars to them. While mobile drives only 2 to 3 percent of direct conversions, it is a factor in 40 percent of final sales. Why such slow adoption by brands? Anindya Ghose, NYU Professor and leading thinker on the mobile economy, describes “context” and “balance” as the possible keys.
With the Republicans in control of the presidency, Congress, and, soon the Supreme Court, the passage of their policy agenda might seem to be a foregone conclusion. Is there any way for the Democrats to resist, or even turn the tables on the newly dominant GOP? Gautam Mukunda thinks so.
Leaders are expected to have all the right answers. But getting those answers means asking the right questions. And the higher one climbs, the harder it becomes to ask these questions. How can you overcome this dilemma? Start early – establish bubble-bursting habits now to help surface the information you need tomorrow. Hal Gregersen, Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center, has recently shared tools in the Harvard Business Review that you can use today.
Are you preparing today for tomorrow’s global trends? In other words, are you thinking like a futurist? Amy Webb’s “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream” (PublicAffairs, 2016) has revealed her methodology for answering vitally important questions about the future, and earned the 2017 Axiom Business Book Gold Award in the Business Technology category.
Around the world, trust in our institutions is collapsing. More than a trend, this is a profound shift changing politics, business and social norms. Trust once reserved for respected institutions and brands, we now bestow on complete strangers through digital platforms such as Airbnb and Uber. The shift isn’t just about the failure of institutions; technology is rewriting the rules of trust.
More than one million refugees arrived in Europe last year. Alexander Betts, an Oxford University professor and foremost expert on immigration and refugees, thinks that the West has some room for improvement in its reception, and perception, of those million people.
The transportation industry is changing. Vehicles are getting smarter and smaller, environments are being designed on a more human scale, and companies are rushing to innovate in the face of these changes. Or as Jeffrey Schnapp, of Harvard’s “idea foundry” metaLAB, describes it: “a sense that the world of mobility is undergoing a significant transformation.”
If your venture is located outside of one of the traditionally entrepreneurial mega-cities (Boston, Bangalore, Beijing, etc.), how can you best benefit both your company and the community? According to…
The Chinese smartphone market has produced companies, leaders, and, of course, phones. But its most significant output is perhaps more unique: a user-centric innovation by Xiaomi that treats hardware as an afterthought rather than the main driver of sales. Clay Shirky, an NYU professor living in China for this academic year (he returns to teaching at New York University later this year), has been studying the $20 billion start-up and its techniques – the centerpiece of his new book, “Little Rice” (Columbia Global Reports).
Why does your product or service matter to your customer? What aspects of it are the most (and least) important? What exactly is the value that you provide? Alex Osterwalder can help you figure it out.
We are living in a “moment of crisis for global capitalism,” Fortune Magazine Editor Alan Murray recently told an audience filled with some of the most powerful business leaders in the world. Held at the Vatican, the 2016 Fortune-Time Global Forum was inspired largely by Pope Francis calling on the “noble vocation” of business to help create a more inclusive and humane economy.
Dov Seidman, LRN CEO and author of “HOW,” joined Murray and Virgin CEO Richard Branson to open the day, describing the conditions of our reshaped world and the implications and imperatives for global leadership. While the conference itself offered ideas on everything from job creation and fair wages to education and health care, Seidman was asked to frame the conference and its objectives to how the private sector can be a driving force in creating a more sustainable world for all.
No one would argue that there’s much work to be done with America’s infrastructure. It’s one of our President-elect’s priorities in his first 100 days. But how should it be approached?
Africa’s economic slowdown, triggered by a plunge in commodity prices, has raised lingering questions about the continent’s future: Is Africa’s population boom more of a curse than a blessing? Can its economies generate the jobs necessary to employ a workforce projected to reach 830 million people by 2050? Will its leaders deliver the education and infrastructure required to unleash the productivity of its people?
The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation hopes to answer these questions and more through the work of its new research division focused on global prosperity. Led by researcher Efosa Ojomo, a champion of creating economic prosperity through disruptive innovation, his team will examine how emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and Asia can create prosperity by focusing on innovations that build new markets and spur long-term economic growth and employment.
One of the most important books of 2016.
Kevin Kelly with advice for confronting a future filled with AI, robots, and constantly upgrading systems.
In Rwanda, more than 80% of the population lives in homes with a dirt floor. In India, only 25% of the population can afford a refrigerator. Such poverty-stricken countries are not markets for business – or are they?
Do you really understand what your product means to your customer?
Negotiation is an essential part of everyday life; in business, it’s critical to success. Michael Wheeler just launched a new online negotiation certificate program at Harvard Business School.
Don’t call it “work-life balance.” Aim for “harmony.”
In the 21st century, a choice agenda should focus on optimizing instructional choices, not just school choices.
The holiday rush is no reason to stop innovating. Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell have designed a five-step program to help you make the most of your seasonal employees, allowing them to contribute to improvements that will help your business all year round. Temporary employees present an opportunity for you to try new reporting structures, practices, and processes.
Abuse on social media is terrible for victims and can even hurt your business. We need “rules of the road” for social media just like we need them for highways.
What does trust mean in this new world and how can you build it with people?
Two Harvard Business School professors apply their expertise to read the transition of candidacy to administration.
Building a wall would be one thing, says Bent Flyvbjerg, but maintaining it quite another.
Are your services as carefully designed as your physical widgets? Does your service bridge the gap between your customers’ experiences and the advancement of your strategic goals?
Have some sticky problems you can’t seem to work out internally? Try working with your partner companies in other industries, urge innovation gurus Jeff Dyer and Nathan Furr.
Julia Freeland Fisher, education expert and director of education research at the Clayton Christensen Institute, believes the current direction of education reform rhetoric is misplaced.
