January 28, 2020

01
Digital transformation’s emerging effect on customer expectations

Thanks to online shopping, consumers' expectations of in-store experiences have evolved, affecting both brick-and-mortar operations and B2B activities. For sales teams, this means adopting new approaches to stay close to customers.
02
The convergence of digital and commercial transformations

Today, manufacturers cannot simply add digital products to their portfolios without also changing their methods for selling these new offerings. Companies that recognize the importance of aligning their commercial and digital transformations are better positioned to avoid being pushed aside into the cyber hemisphere.
03
A responsibility to judge carefully in the era of ~~prediction~~ decision machines

With machines making decisions on our behalf, the role of managers will shift from making point decisions to evaluating and shaping decision-making across entire systems. Professor David Parkes from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences unpacks how this paradigm shift could play out in the future.
04
Competing in an AI-driven world

Succeeding in the digital economy requires reinventing the way companies work, starting with an AI-powered operating model. Harvard Business School Professors Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani introduce a framework for how business roles need to change for people and tech.
05
Two powerful ways managers can curb implicit biases

Surprising to no one, managers tend to hire, evaluate, and promote based on their own “templates for success.” Research from the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab has shown that employing two simple tactics can move the needle towards building more inclusive and diverse organizations.
06
Barriers, not the pipeline, prevent gender equality in tech

How can your company improve working conditions for women in tech? The EQUALS Research Group provides a handful of recommendations — along with the caveat to think long and hard about what approach works best for each team in order to avoid unintended consequences.
07
The costs of inequality: for women, progress until they get near power

While equality of opportunity and compensation has improved for women in the workforce, the high-paying, high-status financial services and tech industries continue to display significant gender gaps. Research at Harvard explores our bias issue and the extent that these biases prop up unsound perceptions about women as professionals.
08
The subtle stressors making women want to leave engineering

Smooth sailing for female engineers once they claw their way into the profession? Not exactly. The overt and subtle stresses that come with being female in a male-dominated field have resulted in a high attrition rate. Here are a few strategies from the Journal of Organization Science to help build resiliency.
09
When meritocracy is a myth

With a more diverse range of people interviewed and hired for entry-level tech roles, we would expect to see the same shift across management over time. But that is not yet the case. HBS Gender Initiative Director, Colleen Ammerman shows us that companies need to actively plug “leaks” by driving culture change and improving policies from the top-down.
10
Making digital transformation (actually) happen in large organizations

The good, the bad, and the ugly. Professor Sunil Gupta has seen it all when big companies try to make digital transformation happen within their walls. His conclusion? The rules of strategy have changed in the digital age and large organizations need to start asking tough questions (across the board) to compete.

Influencers

Karim Lakhani

Karim is the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration and faculty co-founder of the Digital Initiative at Harvard Business School, as well as the founder and co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard.
Marco Iansiti

Marco is the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration and co-chair of the Digital Initiative at Harvard Business School.
Raffaela Sadun

Raffaella is a professor of business administration in the strategy unit at Harvard Business School.
Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Yael is a visiting associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.
Herman Leonard

Herman (“Dutch”) is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and professor of public sector management at Harvard Kennedy School.
Kerry Herman

Kerry is the Director of the Case and Research Writing Group at Harvard Business School.
Hannah Riley Bowles

Hannah is the Roy E. Larsen Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School and co-directs the HKS Women and Public Policy Program.
Shelley Correll

Shelley is a professor of sociology and organizational behavior at Stanford University, the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, and the Director of the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab.
Lori Mackenzie

Lori is the Executive Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and the Co-Founder of Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab.
Hise Gibson

Hise is a colonel in the United States Army and a visiting scholar at Harvard Business School.
Jeffrey Furman

Jeff is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Associate Professor of Strategy & Innovation at Boston University.
Amy Edmondson

Amy is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School.
Ethan Bernstein

Ethan is an associate professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at HBS. He also teaches the Developing Yourself as a Leader course at HBS Online.
Ernest Wilson

Ernest is a professor of communication and political science and is the founder and director of the USC Center for Third Space Thinking.
Ruomeng Cui

Ruomeng is an assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems & Operations Management Department at Goizueta Business School, Emory University.