Stick to evidence-based recruiting.

Recent research suggests that how new business ideas are presented may matter more than the quality of the ideas themselves.

When the author agreed to accept the top job at UPS, the global shipping service, in late winter of 2019, she expected to steer the company toward a brighter future. She had no idea that she would have to do it during a global pandemic that made her organization an essential service but kept most people at home and pushed demand for shipped goods to holiday levels year-round. When she officially took over, in June 2020, she gathered her top team .....more

Many people believe that the process for achieving breakthrough innovations is chaotic, random, and unmanageable. But that view is flawed, the authors argue. Breakthroughs can be systematically generated using a process modeled on the principles that drive evolution in nature: "variance generation," which creates a variety of life-forms; and "selection pressure" to select those that can best survive in a given environment. Flagship .....more

More and more companies are relying on pricing algorithms to maximize profits. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning enables real-time price adjustments based on supply and demand, competitors'' activities, delivery schedules, and so forth. But constant price shifts have a downside: They may trigger unfavorable perceptions of a firm''s offerings and its brand. It''s vital, therefore, to understand and manage .....more

The Economist opened 2021 with a cover story headlined "Why Retailers Everywhere Should Look to China." It''s not hard to see why. China is both a large and a fast-growing retail market--worth about $5 trillion in 2020--and highly digitized. And the pandemic has made digital every retailer''s strategic priority. The authors draw from their research on Chinese retailers to explain five lessons that Western companies can learn .....more

Although power is essential to taking charge and driving change, it makes leaders vulnerable to two traps that can not only erode their own effectiveness but also undermine their team''s. Hubris--the excessive pride and self-confidence that can come with power--causes people to greatly overestimate their own abilities, while self-focus makes them less attentive to subordinates, diminishing their ability to lead successfully. The authors offer .....more

For years public concern about technological risk has focused on the misuse of personal data. But as firms embed more and more artificial intelligence in products and processes, attention is shifting to the potential for bad or biased decisions by algorithms--particularly the complex, evolving kind that diagnose cancers, drive cars, or approve loans. Inevitably, many governments will feel regulation is essential to protect consumers from that risk. .....more

To become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, many companies have turned to unconscious bias (UB) training. By raising awareness of the mental shortcuts that lead to snap judgment--often based on race and gender--about people''s talents or character, it strives to make hiring and promotion fairer and improve interactions with customers and among colleagues. But most UB training is ineffective, research shows. The problem is, increasing .....more

Both practically and morally, corporate leaders can no longer sit on the sidelines of major societal shifts or treat human and planetary issues as "someone else''s problem." For their own good, they must play an active role in addressing our biggest shared challenges. The economy won''t thrive unless people and the planet are thriving. In this bold manifesto, consultant and author Andrew Winston and former Unilever CEO Paul .....more