Warning: Upgrade your personal operating model

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:25 mins read

“Update now or risk losing access to your company’s systems and services.” Executives have likely seen this kind of message regularly sent to their company-issued mobile phone or computer. And when it pops up, they know exactly what it means and why: upgrading a device’s operating system can help protect…

What If Listening Could Change Everything?

What if listening could change everything? This raw and captivating episode with guest Avi Kluger reveals how listening and the “space between” people can unlock new ways of seeing, feeling and transforming, and profoundly reshape how we lead, connect and grow. A pioneering researcher in feedback and organizational behavior, Avi…

Faculty Senate upholds 2020 Scott Atlas censure, discusses school initiatives

The Faculty Senate voted against rescinding its 2020 censure of Scott Atlas, a Hoover Institution fellow who advised President Donald Trump on COVID-19 matters, following a lengthy discussion on Thursday.Deans from the Graduate School of Business, School of Engineering, School of Humanities and Sciences, and School of Law also shared…

Seeing is believing—or is it? How online images fuel gender bias

From TikTok and YouTube to Google Images and AI-driven art generators, visual content is dominating the digital world. More than 3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video were posted on the internet every day in 2023, and that figure is rapidly growing. “The production and circulation of images is…

Men more willing than women to accept robot care in old age, Oxford study finds

The study, published in the journal Community, Work and Family, assesses people's attitudes towards having robots caring for oneself, providing services and companionship, when one is infirm or elderly.  The study draws on data from 28 European countries, factoring in local determinants such as GDP, women’s labour force participation rates,…

Derivative Carriers Don’t Exist in the Air Industry, Says the NMB in Swissport

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

In a recent advisory opinion following the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) referral, the National Mediation Board (NMB) ruled on whether the Railway Labor Act (RLA) applies to Swissport Cargo Services, LP, a third-party ground service provider for airlines (i.e., a “derivative carrier”). Deviating from nearly 40 years of history,…

British expats frozen out of the UK State Pension

  • Post category:The Fry Group - UK
  • Reading time:3 mins read

The UK State Pension can be a useful top up to your retirement income. But if you’re living in some overseas countries, you might find your pension payments are frozen at lower rates, meaning you’re losing out on increasing amounts. George Howard, our Chartered Financial Planner in Dubai, takes a…

Swings in Building Permits Can Help Predict Financial Downturns‌

Nearly a century ago, economist and Maryland congressman Clarence Long called the building industry “probably the most strategic single factor in making or breaking booms and depressions.” Since then, economists have tried to tease apart the complex relationship between housing markets and the economy.‌ Building permits give you a nice…

The Tasks of Building Trust Between the Countries of the Global Non-West and the South

One of the foundations of this approach was the Bandung Conference of 1955. Non-Western countries for the first time proclaimed their common goals and objectives. The declaration of this conference recorded the commitment of non-Western countries to the common cause of fighting Western colonialism and imperialism, the recognition of the…

What will it take for working women to rise?

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:22 mins read

Change can be challenging—and slow. Case in point: a decade of research on Women in the Workplace, conducted by McKinsey in partnership with LeanIn.Org, discloses several areas where women still lag behind their counterparts. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey senior partners Alexis Krivkovich and Lareina Yee speak with global…

Award-winning broadcaster Hannah Fry joins Cambridge as Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics

Fry brings outstanding experience to the role of communicating to diverse audiences, including with people not previously interested in maths. She will follow in the footsteps of giants of public engagement with mathematics, including David Spiegelhalter and the late Stephen Hawking as she joins the Department of Applied Mathematics and…

Building a Consistently Excellent Culture: Bain’s Manny Maceda

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

OFCCP Releases FY 2025 Corporate Scheduling Announcement List and Scheduling Methodology

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Seyfarth Synopsis: The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) issued its FY 2025 Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (Release 1) (“CSAL”) today.  This list provides advance notice of 2,000 compliance reviews, which OFCCP plans to schedule although the exact timing is unclear.  Federal contractors and subcontractors should review the list…

Ethiopian wolves reported to feed on nectar for the first time

New findings, published in the journal Ecology, describe a previously undocumented behaviour of Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis). For the first time, these have been reported to feed on the nectar of Ethiopian red hot poker flowers (Kniphofia foliosa) – the first large carnivore species ever to be documented feeding on…

New study reveals the explosive secret of the squirting cucumber

The squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium, from the Greek ‘ekballein,’ meaning to throw out) is named for the ballistic method the species uses to disperse its seeds. When ripe, the ovoid-shaped fruits detach from the stem and eject the seeds explosively in a high-pressure jet of mucilage. This projectile launch –…

Vintage Big Game fashion makes a comeback

Stanford student traditions have helped define campus life since the university’s founding. But, as senior Sydney Kaminski learned this quarter, not all have had staying power.“There are a lot of Stanford traditions that have been lost to time,” she said.For months, the art history student has been investigating a Big…

Professor Anthony Harnden appointed as the new Chair of the MHRA

Professor Anthony Harnden has been appointed as the new Chair of the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).Anthony is a Professor of Primary Care in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, having first joined the department in 1992. Until the end of…

Five Ways Leaders Can Get People to Speak Up

Behind every failure is a team of people who were afraid to dissent and debate. But research shows that leaders can take specific actions to elicit constructive challenges. Celia Moore and Kate Coombs November 20, 2024 Reading Time: 7 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The Research A team…

OFCCP Issues First FY 2025 CSAL, Targeting 2,000 Establishments of Supply and Service Federal Contractors and Subcontractors for Audits

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Quick Hits On November 20, 2024, OFCCP published a CSAL that identified 2,000 establishments of federal supply and service contractors and subcontractors for compliance reviews. The CSAL operates as a “courtesy notification” to a contractor that an OFCCP compliance review will be undertaken; the compliance review process begins when the…

Unlocking Opportunities in the Age of Digital Finance

  • Post category:INSEAD Knowledge
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Emerging technologies like big data, AI and blockchain are reshaping finance. New products, such as platform finance, peer-to-peer lending and robo-advisory services, are examples of this transformation. These developments raise important questions: How concerned should traditional financial institutions be? What strategies can fintech and “techfin” (technology companies that move into…

Post-Election Chaos: 3 Ways to Keep Psychological Safety Intact

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

According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, nearly 70% of Americans view political discourse as a significant source of stress, and workplaces are no exception. In fact, SHRM reports that political and social tensions have driven workplace incivility to an all-time high this year. No wonder, the ripple…

The true cost of methane abatement: A crucial step in oil and gas decarbonization

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

Methane emission abatement and flaring reductions are central to global decarbonization, especially for the upstream oil and gas (O&G) sector. Upstream O&G accounts for roughly 7 percent of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and half of that comes from methane.Since 2021, when many O&G players committed to the Global…

Lifting Sanctions: The Chinese Option

Modern literature on economic sanctions focuses on the effectiveness of their application. Scholars and practitioners are interested in the extent to which sanctions help achieve certain political goals – force a political change, cause damage, limit the development of the target country, etc. Much less attention is paid to the…

Is China geared up to deal with the Trump onslaught?

  • Post category:Credit Agricole
  • Reading time:9 mins read

In September, the governor of China’s central bank was first to announce a series of monetary easing measures, triggering high levels of market volatility as initial enthusiasm about the eagerly awaited response from the authorities gave way to disappointment over the lack of a fiscal component. The measures announced, mainly…

Digital twins: The key to unlocking end-to-end supply chain growth

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

The post-COVID-19 era has created lasting fissures in the supply chain. Amid increasing globalization, rising customer expectations, and double-digit shipping growth, supply chain organizations—not just manufacturers and suppliers but also the warehouses and transporters they rely on—are under duress. They grapple with issues related to operational efficiency, demand forecasting, inventory…

How AI Changes Partner Collaboration

Explore six steps for using AI with external partners in new ways to drive product and business model innovations. Margherita Pagani and Thomas H. Davenport November 20, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In a time of constant change and evolving customer expectations, the ability…

What is organisational health? Insights from Oil and Gas HSE podcast

  • Post category:Q5 Partners
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Jen Gramolt, Partner of Q5 on building safer, more efficient workplaces Explore the early November Oil and Gas HSE podcast episode where host Russell Stewart interviews Jen Gramolt, Partner at Q5. They discuss the concept of organisational health, its impact on safety and efficiency, and practical strategies for fostering a…

Announcing Microsoft SQL Server 2025: Enterprise AI-ready database

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:8 mins read

The increasing adoption of AI technologies is presenting new challenges for our customers’ data estate and applications. Most organizations expect to deploy AI workloads across a hybrid mix of cloud, edge, and dedicated infrastructure, with privacy and security being more important than ever. Microsoft SQL Server 2025, now in preview,…

How AI enables new possibilities in chemicals

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:23 mins read

It has been nearly two years since the launch of ChatGPT and other generative AI (gen AI) tools that revolutionized the way AI is perceived and consumed by industries, businesses, and other users. In that time, McKinsey experts estimate the capabilities unlocked by gen AI have helped accelerate levels of…

Research Confirms It: Great Managers Need Great Managers

  • Post category:Perceptyx
  • Reading time:10 mins read

A growing body of research, including our own, has conclusively demonstrated that today’s managers find themselves squeezed between the strategic demands of senior leadership and the day-to-day needs of their teams. Perceptyx’s Center for Workforce Transformation special report, How to Build a Better Boss: What Leaders (and Their Teams) Need…

The cognitive research behind AI’s rise

When federal agencies issue a research grant, they never know if their investment will reap rewards for society. This was almost certainly true in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research funded projects by James “Jay” McClelland, David Rumelhart, and…

Cutting Last-Mile Delivery Costs

Frontiers New tactics can boost profitability and satisfaction with subscription services. Stanley Frederick W.T. Lim November 19, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Neil Webb/theispot.com Costco and Amazon subscription services were just…

EEOC Posts Its Internal Scorecard: Insights For Employers

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:5 mins read

By: Adam Rongo, Andrew Scroggins, and Christopher DeGroff Seyfarth Synopsis: On November 15, 2024, the EEOC released its Agency Financial Report (“AFR”) for Fiscal Year 2024. The AFR is intended to provide a description of the Agency’s financial management and offer high-level performance information. This year’s edition marks the sixth…

How to Effectively Utilize the MSHA Closeout Conference

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

Quick Hits Value of closeout conferences: Close-out conferences provide valuable insights into the basis for the violations and gravity cited, which are crucial for preparation and decision-making regarding future actions. Preparation and participation: Management may want to discuss observed conditions and issued citations, before and during the conference, and focus…

‘Manifest’ is Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year

“Manifest” was looked up almost 130,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website, making it one of the most-viewed words of 2024.  The word jumped from use in the self-help community and on social media to being widely used across mainstream media and beyond, as celebrities such as singer Dua Lipa, Olympic sprinter Gabby…

What works—and doesn’t—in performance management

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

Much has been written on performance management. Why do so many employees still find it bureaucratic and unfair? On this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, talent experts Bryan Hancock and Brooke Weddle speak with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about new research on what drives performance: what motivates employees most, what matters…

Northerners, Scots and Irish excel at detecting fake accents to guard against outsiders, study suggests

People from Belfast proved most able to detect someone faking their accent, while people from London, Essex and Bristol were least accurate.The study, published today in Evolutionary Human Sciences found that the ability of participants from Scotland, the north-east of England, Ireland and Northern Ireland to tell whether short recordings…

Global Insurance Report 2025: The pursuit of growth

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:4 mins read

For an industry focused on mitigating risk and providing protection, the world’s insurers are enduring a particularly volatile age. The macroeconomic picture is mixed, with inflation stubbornly high and interest rates uncertain. Consumer confidence remains shaky, even though the economic growth cycle appears to have bottomed out. Geopolitical instability remains…