Human brains were designed for a world of lateral change. But, as Ray Kurzweil and others remind us, learning-by-trial-and-error systems introduce the potential for exponential change. This has huge implications for how we design and… Read more »
Insights and ideas
Anticipating today’s smart devices – in 1999!
In the late 1990s, my colleague and I were invited to write a book which eventually became “The Entrepreneurial Mindset.” I had reason to go back and revisit some of what we wrote about then,… Read more »
Fighting Back against the algorithms – Community and the redemption of Taylorism?
As algorithms have come to dominate the lives of gig workers, treating many like poorly performing robots, community structures are emerging that allow workers to spontaneously organize – and create a potentially powerful counterforce. Piecework… Read more »
An inflection point comes for Pharmaceutical Companies
The Inflation Reduction Act for the first time allowed Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate with drugmakers for pharmaceutical prices. It also contained a much less discussed provision regarding patent protections. The law sets different exemption… Read more »
2023: The Year of Living Cautiously
It’s going to be a while before we truly make sense of 2023. A pervasive sense of uncertainty seemed to linger in the atmosphere. New projects got put on hold, once-exuberant tech companies laid people… Read more »
Thought Sparks Wrap Up – December 2023
The field of strategy, as I’m fond of saying, had its intellectual roots in Industrial Economics. That way of thinking suggests two assumptions that I think are often a trap, when used in the wrong… Read more »
WFH? RTO? Remembering the Allen Curve and Why It Matters Now
A robust scientific finding from decades ago mapped the richness of information flows against how far apart people sat at work. Called the Allen Curve after MIT’s Thomas J. Allen, who discovered it, it shows… Read more »
On the agenda for 2024 – a better way to keep track of your innovation portfolio?
I was delighted to be part of a virtual event sponsored by the good people over at Innov8rs, in which a field of 10 experts shared their perspectives on the prospects for innovation in 2024,… Read more »
Behind the scenes at the Outthinker Chief Strategy Officer Summit
There is nothing like gathering with a group of peers from other organizations and sectors to facilitate making sense of the context in which crucial strategic decisions need to be made. I was pleased to… Read more »
It’s Halloween! Speaking about X teams and leadership ghosts with MIT’s Deborah Ancona
Our conventional wisdom about teams is that factors internal to the team mostly determine how well they will operate. My LinkedIn Live guest, Professor Deborah Ancona from MIT, begs to differ. No matter how great… Read more »
Personalized strategy – without the expensive fees! My experience of being impersonated by an AI bot. Rita McGrath
Among the unintended consequences of AI applications built with few guardrails is that conventional views of what is intellectual property are upended – I found out the hard way! Image source Well, that was a… Read more »
Want to help the environment? Here’s an affordable, easy, and devastatingly effective approach
When it comes to challenges like climate change, it can feel overwhelming. After all, how much of an impact can any individual have on such a massive problem? Imagine my delight at finding out… Read more »