US auto retailers have embraced multiple new technologies over the past decade, from next-generation core systems to AI and digital sales platforms. Yet, despite sometimes significant investments, dealer productivity has remained stuck in a rut, with vehicle sales per employee averaging between 14 and 16 each year. To boost technology’s…
Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Thanks to the deafening buzz around data science and AI, enterprise leaders no longer doubt the transformative potential of this…
Quick Hits Expanding business into the Middle East may require global employers to navigate unique challenges such as establishing a physical office presence, adhering to distinct workweek structures, and understanding regional tax policies. Employers must comply with requirements around hiring local nationals, employing public relations officers (PROs) for government interactions,…
On Dec. 16, 2024, the Government of Canada released its long-awaited 2024 Fall Economic Statement. The Statement reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to combatting modern slavery in global supply chains, currently given effect by the existing import ban on goods made with forced or child labour and the mandatory supply chain…
This commentary originally appeared in Time. President Donald Trump revealed on his first day that he may be closer to delivering on a campaign promise than skeptics believed. As we show in our new, original economic analysis, Trump has the levers to force Vladimir Putin to end the Russia-Ukraine war…
For Robert Hormats, two of the biggest geopolitical stories of the past decade are the retrenchment of globalization and the rise of a multi-polar world. He is well positioned to make that judgment. Hormats has been a senior official in the administrations of five different American presidents, including most recently…
Harlan Krumholz: Welcome to Health & Veritas. I’m Harlan Krumholz. Howard Forman: And I’m Howie Forman. We’re physicians and professors at Yale University and we’re trying to get closer to the truth about health and healthcare. Our guest today is Dr. Susan Mayne, but first we’re always checking in on…
Jane A. Lauder, a former senior executive of the Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and a current member of its board of directors, has been elected to the Stanford University Board of Trustees. Her five-year term begins Feb. 1.“It’s an honor to join the board,” Lauder said. “Stanford has played such…
As part of a £69 million funding programme supported by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), Professor George Malliaras from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering will co-lead a project that uses small clusters of brain cells called midbrain organoids to develop a new type of brain implant, which will be…
Case Summary - Québec (Attorney General) v. Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan, 2024 SCC 39 In Québec (Attorney General) v. Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan (Pekuakamiulnuatsh), the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruled that Québec’s refusal to renegotiate funding terms violated the principles of good faith and the honour of the Crown. The SCC ordered Québec…
Our results indicate that it is more likely that plants will behave deceptively toward their neighbours, rather than altruistically...Plants can gain a benefit from dishonest signalling because it harms their local competitors, by tricking them into investing in costly herbivore defence mechanisms.Lead author Dr Thomas Scott, (Department of Biology, University of…
The study will lead to new guidance encouraging both the comics industry and enthusiasts to make comics communities better places for neurodivergent fans and artists. It is being led by academics at the University’s Faculty of Education and will begin this month with an open, online survey aimed at autistic…
SHRM’s Civility Index Research shows that U.S. workers collectively experience 223 million acts of incivility per day and U.S. organizations collectively lose about $2 billion per day in reduced productivity and absenteeism because of it. You’ve probably seen it firsthand: disagreements turn personal, tempers flare, and teams fracture. When a…
Data powers AI solutions, but developing the capabilities to gather, structure, and deploy the right data is a daunting challenge. For the real estate industry, the task becomes a lot easier when leaders know which questions they are trying to answer. Katy McLaughlin: Let’s say a real estate leader wants…
Topics How to Maximize the Business Value of Generative AI The promise of generative AI is value — higher revenue, streamlined efficiencies, and more innovative decision-making. Achieving this value isn’t easy. Maximizing it is even harder. This MIT SMR Executive Guide offers expert insights into the strategies needed to get…
Quick Hits The Fourth Bureaucracy Reduction Act, effective January 1, 2025, simplifies requirements for giving written evidence of employment contracts, allowing now digital agreements for open-ended contracts while maintaining written form for fixed-term contracts. The EU’s AI Act, effective from August 2024, introduces regulations on AI systems, with initial provisions…
Introduction The Liberal government’s Fall Economic Statement arrived last month in the midst of an increasingly uncertain political landscape. Among its many offerings, in the trade sphere, the Statement presents a commitment to use the full range of Canada’s “toolkit” to protect its economic security against unfair conduct from trading…
Economic uncertainty is on the rise due to widespread geopolitical changes. While global growth remains mostly stable for now, businesses and investors are closely monitoring these developments for potential disruptions to the economic landscape (Exhibit 1). With President Trump taking office in January, businesses and analysts are seeking clarity on…
Young people are already adopting new ways of interacting with AI, and without a solid framework for collaboration between stakeholders, evidence-based policy on AI will lag behind, as it did for social media. Dr. Karen Mansfield, postdoctoral researcher at OIIIn a new paper published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, the research team…
Enzymes are crucial to life. They are nature’s little catalysts. In the gut, they help us digest food. They can enhance perfumes or get laundry cleaner with less energy. Enzymes also make potent drugs to treat disease. Scientists naturally are eager to create new enzymes. They imagine them doing everything…
The world is dramatically ill from another point of view, the famines caused by climate change especially in areas affected by water shortages. Agriculture is a victim of these changes, which lead to hunger for millions of families. This drama is aggravated by the fact that it occurs in many…
Quick Hits The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR) issued guidance that explains how an employer’s use of automated decision-making tools can lead to algorithmic discrimination that violates the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD). The guidance does not impose any new obligations on employers but reinforces the importance…
Following an initial round of consultation held during the summer of 2024, the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) has published its proposed guidelines (the Proposed Guidelines) concerning environmental claims. The Bureau has launched a public consultation to solicit feedback from Canadians on the Proposed Guidelines – the deadline is February 28, 2025. The Proposed…
In this month’s research picks, INSEAD faculty offer insights on improving asset pricing models and sales forecasting models, as well as how the extent of differences among banks affects financial stability. On the organisational front, they examine how artificial intelligence (AI) could impact strategic decision-making processes in firms and ways…
After agreeing to turn himself in to avoid “bloodshed”, the president was remanded in custody for 48 hours – a first in South Korean political history, and is still detiained. Tension has ratcheted up between two broad groupings: on the one hand, a presidential security service determined to protect Yoon…
The Cancer Data-Driven Detection programme will be led by Antonis Antoniou, Professor of Cancer Risk Prediction at the University of Cambridge. It is funded by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.The programme aims to access and link…
Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Let me ask you some questions to get this discussion started. In the past week or two at work, did…
Investors use estimates of a stock’s future price, set by finance industry analysts, as one tool to assess the asset’s value in coming months and decide whether to buy or sell. At first blush, very high “consensus” analyst target prices—that is, the average of financial analysts’ individual target prices—may look…
The study, led by researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Exeter, identified several drugs already licensed and in use that have the potential to be repurposed to treat dementia.Dementia is a leading cause of death in the UK and can lead to profound distress in the individual and among…
A fundamental shift is occurring in digital asset markets, evident in the relentless rise of bitcoin and crypto ETFs as well as the proliferation of meme coins, most recently $TRUMP, backed by the new US President himself. The appointment of Paul Atkins, known for favouring market-driven solutions over heavy-handed enforcement,…
Closing the women’s health gap: A $1 trillion opportunity to improve lives and economies, published in 2024 by the World Economic Forum (the Forum) in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI), reported that the women’s health gap correlates with women living in poor health for 25 percent more of…
China will not actively provoke Trump 2.0, but if Trump 2.0 continues to use trade wars, technology wars, or other containment strategies to counter China, China will definitely retaliate with more experienced and precise countermeasures. The ultimate result will remain the same: China will become stronger, writes Wang Wen, Executive…
Growing the U.S. economy is at the top of President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda, and tackling the many challenges in the U.S.-Chinese trade and investment relationship will be central to realizing this objective. Much of Trump’s rhetoric has focused on the use of tariffs: tariffs to rebalance the bilateral trade deficit,…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images “One conversation in the room, please.” We’ve all heard, or said, something like this during in-person meetings. Hushing side discussions helps reinforce the best parts of face-to-face meetings: the opportunity to be attentive, be aware of eye contact and body language, and focus everyone…
Start-ups: innovation-driven venturesThe traditional start-up model typically emphasises disruptive innovation and rapid scaling, often requiring significant technological advantage and financial capital in its initial phases. It appeals to founders driven by a mission to revolutionise industries and solve problems in the market. To succeed, founders must not only develop a compelling solution…
Separations have become a widely adopted strategy for creating value, but their popularity does not mean these complex transactions are always effective. For instance, spin-offs—one of the main types of corporate separations, alongside divestitures and carveouts—have hit record numbers in recent years, but these deals are not guaranteed to create value…
20 January 2025By Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, and Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECBStress tests are of crucial importance to assess banks’ resilience under adverse economic conditions. In previous stress tests, however, some banks…
The Russian-Indian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club, organized in partnership with the Vivekananda International Foundation, will be held in Moscow from January 27, 2025 at 16/1 Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow. The Vivekananda International Foundation and the Valdai Discussion Club are long-standing partners. The Memorandum of Understanding signed at the…
With global business corridors subject to geopolitical shifts and structural realignment, Asia’s companies stand at a new crossroads—where old formulas for success are stalling, and new highways to growth are emerging. Long-established global trade and investment patterns are reconfiguring in response to geopolitical tensions, a “just in case” rather than…
Navigating the Risks of Artificial Intelligence: A Strategic Approach Businesses feel compelled to experiment with AI because of the perceived benefits it offers in terms of efficiency, innovation, customer experience, and competitive advantage. They are told that by integrating AI into their operations, they can unlock new opportunities, streamline processes,…