Daniel Yergin on energy and the new world order

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Daniel Yergin explained the state of the world in his 1990 Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power. He did it again in 1998 with Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy and in 2011 with The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking…

What is SaaS?

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:13 mins read

Against a backdrop of light blue, three fluffy white clouds release a robust rain of blue pixels. Software as a service (SaaS) refers to cloud-based software programs delivered to users over the internet. You probably use SaaS products even if you don’t realize it; in fact, much of our online lives…

Maryland’s FAMLI Program, Part I: An Overview of The Law

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Quick Hits Maryland’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program provides most Maryland employees with up to twelve weeks of paid leave, with some eligible for an additional twelve weeks, starting July 1, 2026, funded by contributions from both employers and employees beginning July 1, 2025. The Maryland Department of…

Why CEOs Are Reaching Out to the New President

This commentary originally appeared in Time. With Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos joining the CEO of TikTok as guests of President-elect Donald Trump at Monday’s Inauguration, many have noticed how differently some tech titans are greeting the second Trump presidency. This follows the many CEOs racing to Mar-a-Lago…

Ten tests for nature strategy

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:24 mins read

In 2025, corporate action on nature has evolved from what was often seen as an environmental obligation into a strategic necessity. Taking action is not just about preserving our natural resources—it is a key element of business strategy. Nature plays a critical role as a foundation for the global economy,…

Learners with disabilities benefit from more complex reading instruction

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) such as autism and Down syndrome are often left behind when it comes to literacy instruction – casualties of the misperception that at best, they could only read by learning to recognize common words by sight. But researchers are finding that students with…

Three Nonnegotiable Leadership Skills for 2025

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 In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, factory floors used to spontaneously catch fire. Many industrial operations generated enough…

Six Essential Tips for Avoiding the Unlawful Influence of Government Actions

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:6 mins read

In honor of the release of the 6th Edition of the Government Contracts Compliance Handbook, we are sharing six essential tips to help government contractors recognize and prevent the unlawful influence of government actions. Contractors working in the federal marketplace face unique challenges, from avoiding improper gifts to ensuring compliance…

New York City Publishes Updated FAQs for Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Quick Hits On September 26, 2024, New York City released updated FAQs for the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) to address the October 2023 amended rules and the January 2024 law allowing private rights of action for ESSTA violations. The updated FAQs clarify and provide guidance regarding the…

Unfinished business: A decade of data on women in Canadian corporate leadership

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:10 mins read

The number of women on TSX-listed issuers’ boards of directors has increased steadily from 11 per cent to 29 per cent in the last ten years. However, Canadian public companies have yet to collectively cross the widely touted target of having 30 per cent of women on boards. Considering recent…

Wellcome Discovery Award of £5m to fund pioneering research to combat deadly diarrhoea

Current meta-genomic epidemiology can be expensive, time consuming, and complex. As we set up our international hubs, we hope to train a new generation of scientists equipped with knowledge of genomic surveillance that will have impact beyond the lifetime of the grant.Professor Sam Sheppard, Ineos Oxford InstituteDiarrhoeal disease is responsible…

Thriving workplaces: How employers can improve productivity and change lives

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:58 mins read

As the world grapples with rapid technological advancements, demographic shifts, and evolving work paradigms, it is vital to invest in employee health. Why prioritize workforce health? Investing in employee health can substantially increase economic returns. Research by the McKinsey Health Institute in collaboration with the World Economic Forum indicates that…

Scientists reveal structure of 74 exocomet belts orbiting nearby stars

The crystal-clear images show light being emitted from these millimetre-sized pebbles within the belts that orbit 74 nearby stars of a wide variety of ages – from those that are just emerging to those in more mature systems like our own Solar System.The REASONS (REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of…

Brits still associate working-class accents with criminal behaviour – study warns of bias in the criminal justice system

Research led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, raises serious concerns about bias in the UK criminal justice system due to negative stereotyping of accents.These stereotypes, the researchers argue, can affect all parts of the system from arrest to sentencing, and undermine not only suspects…

Rewiring technology to better serve customers and the business

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:13 mins read

While consumer habits and technologies have changed rapidly, the technology function within organizations has tended to be slower to adapt. That realization—and the desire to create experiences that its customers expect—inspired Verizon Consumer and Business Group (Verizon Consumer Group) to make sweeping changes to its technology organization, from a focus…

Philosophy Eats AI

Generating sustainable business value with AI demands critical thinking about the disparate philosophies determining AI development, training, deployment, and use. Michael Schrage and David Kiron January 16, 2025 Reading Time: 32 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In 2011, coder-turned-venture-investor Marc Andreessen famously declared, “Software is eating the world”…

The EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement: Is it time to revive talks on a Canada-Mercosur Agreement?

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:12 mins read

Context Reports out of Washington indicate that the United States is poised to impose “universal” tariffs (that is, tariffs on imports from all its trading partners) on health care and other “critical” goods on the basis of “national security”. This would or could – the situation remains “fluid/uncertain”, as reported…

Video AI Enhancing Physical Security While Preserving Privacy: Battery Leads Coram AI’s Series A

  • Post category:Battery Ventures
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Physical security is a universal requirement for all organizations, which in the U.S. alone deploy an estimated 85 million security cameras to monitor their premises against threats and crime.  Yet almost all the exabytes of video data generated by these cameras serve no purpose: They vastly exceed the attentive capacity…

Navigating the new geopolitical uncertainty

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:13 mins read

Business leaders today confront a changing world order: intensifying regional conflicts, rising instability, and potential shifts in trade relationships and policy. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Cindy Levy and Shubham Singhal, global coleaders of McKinsey’s geopolitics work, speak with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about how leaders can orient…

Sarah Soule appointed dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business

Sarah A. Soule, a scholar of organizational behavior who has held multiple leadership roles at Stanford, will be the next dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford Provost Jenny Martinez announced today.Soule, the Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior, has been a member of the GSB faculty since 2008…

Second Circuit Revives New York Reproductive Health Bias Law’s Notice Requirement for Employee Handbooks

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Quick Hits The Second Circuit has revived a requirement that New York employers include in employee handbooks a notice informing employees of their right to be free from discrimination or retaliation based on their [the employees’] or their dependents’ reproductive health decisions. The ruling also revived a First Amendment challenge…

Canada’s first deep geological repository site is selected

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:6 mins read

On Nov. 28, 2024, the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announced that the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation (WLON) and the township of Ignace in the province of Ontario were selected as host communities for a repository to be constructed on Revell Lake. The NWMO began its search in 2010 and initially…

Managing Emotions at Work After the Inauguration

  • Post category:Civility Partners
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Next week marks the presidential inauguration, a time that often stirs strong emotions in the workplace. Excitement, disappointment, frustration, or even anxiety can find their way into daily interactions. Employees may consciously or unconsciously bring their political wins or losses into the office, and if left unchecked, these emotions can…

A fitness agenda for government: Cultivating organizational health in the US public sector

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:11 mins read

Government agencies often undertake complex missions that can have a large impact on society. Whether they involve modernizing infrastructure or establishing nationwide health programs, such missions could be described as “big, hairy, audacious goals”—the term coined by management experts Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last.…

Indian farmers’ optimism is driving interest in new products

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Indian farmers expect better near-term prospects following a year of steady output and multiple years of market and weather-related disruptions. About three-quarters of farmers (76 percent) say they anticipate higher profits over the next two years, with more than 65 percent citing improved yields and higher crop prices as catalysts.…

Cambridge leads governmental project to understand impact of smartphones and social media on young people

The work has been commissioned by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology after a review by the UK Chief Medical Officer in 2019 found the evidence base around the links to children’s mental health were insufficient to provide strong conclusions suitable to inform policy.The project – led…

Analytical AI: A Better Way to Identify the Right AI Projects

The allure of generative AI is undeniable, but it should not eclipse the proven capabilities of analytical AI. Consider a better way to ideate on the best AI projects for your organization. Pedro Amorim, Teresa Bianchi de Aguiar, Luís Guimarães, Bernardo Almada-Lobo, and Bruno Teixeira January 15, 2025 Reading Time:…

Firms that use AI systems for any purpose: It’s time to make a to-do list

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:8 mins read

Through the publication of CSA Staff Notice and Consultation 11-348 Applicability of Canadian Securities Laws and the Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems in Capital Markets (the AI Staff Notice), the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have put registered firms on notice that using AI in virtually any fashion may trigger additional…

The Lessons for CEOs in the Turmoil at the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times

This commentary originally appeared in Chief Executive. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, like Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, faced staff revolts, prominent resignations and thousands of readers canceling their subscriptions when his paper suddenly decided to drop political endorsements.‌ CEOs do make bold choices and reverse prior positions as…

Poised for take-off: Hyperscaling the United Kingdom’s climate tech

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:17 mins read

By the numbers, the United Kingdom’s start-up technology ecosystem has a lot to be proud of. By value, it is the largest in Europe, employing over three million people and surpassing $1 trillion in valuation in 2024. Much of start-up technology investment in the United Kingdom goes to climate technology…

The Global Health Network reaches 1 million members

Every day, millions suffer from preventable and treatable diseases that disproportionately affect underserved communities. At the same time, the threat of the next global outbreak looms large. The Global Health Network is transforming how these challenges are met by empowering all levels of healthcare workers with the skills, tools, and…

Reform the justice system to save democracy, says David Sklansky

When he was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles in the 1990s, Stanford Law School Professor David Sklansky often participated in the selection of juries. “I would hear potential jurors talk about their views about criminal justice, the police, and about crime in their neighborhoods, and I was repeatedly struck…

Not a United Front: How the Nordic Countries Are Promoting the Collective Security Agenda for the Baltic Sea and Arctic Regions Within NATO

The events of February 2022 provoked a sharp change in rhetoric among the authorities of the Nordic states and pushed two countries that had not previously planned to join the alliance to take more decisive action. Thus, it can be said that from their point of view, NATO has become…

Frequently Asked Questions About the New Jersey Data Protection Act, Effective January 15, 2025

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Quick Hits The New Jersey Data Protection Act (NJDPA) takes effect on January 15, 2025, as New Jersey joins eighteen other states with comprehensive data privacy laws. The NJDPA defines a “consumer” as a New Jersey resident acting in an individual or household context, excluding those acting in commercial or…

New interpretation of the Canada Health Act

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Introduction On Jan. 10, 2025, the federal Minister of Health released long-awaited guidance on the delivery of insured health care services pursuant to the Canada Health Act (the CHA). The Honourable Mark Holland, Federal Minister of Health (the Minister), issued a letter clarifying the Government’s position that patients should not…

Exploring an uncertain future with the help of scenarios

15 January 2025By Matteo Ciccarelli, Matthieu Darracq Pariès, Bettina Landau and João SousaCentral banks project future developments based on past data patterns and a set of assumptions. Crises can change economic structures, complicating this forecasting. The ECB Blog explains how scenario, risk and sensitivity analyses address the new uncertainty.We use…

Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia

Launched on 19 December 2013, Gaia’s fuel tank is now approaching empty – it uses about a dozen grams of cold gas per day to keep it spinning with pinpoint precision. But this is far from the end of the mission. Technology tests are scheduled for the weeks ahead before…