The Global South in Search of Identity

Today the world is at an early stage of a global crisis, as evidenced by a sharp increase in conflicts as states vie to become centres of power. This concerns, in particular, the Ukraine conflict, the situation in the Middle East, a set of problems in relations between India and…

Top 5 disruptive forces and critical success factors for the financial services industry

  • Post category:Elixirr
  • Reading time:7 mins read

The global financial services industry is facing unprecedented disruption. With an ever-expanding web of and the rapid rise of fintech competitors, financial institutions must navigate a constantly shifting landscape to stay competitive. As compliance costs grow and data management becomes more complex, bold leadership and innovative solutions are crucial. To stay…

What you’ll find in the Bing 2024 elections experience

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:4 mins read

At Bing, we’re laser focused on providing swift, straightforward ways to find the information you need from a variety of sources and content, all so you can make an informed decision. This election season Bing is providing a single, comprehensive experience for both the 2024 U.S. presidential race and state…

A Human Path in Operations

One of the things Michelle Kinch loves about teaching operations to MBA students is the chance to dispel some of the myths around it. Many students begin with the belief that operations management is about mathematical models, data analytics and spreadsheets—and dominated by manufacturing contexts. To Kinch, an assistant professor…

A Fragmented Landscape Is No Excuse for Global Companies Serious About Responsible AI

Topics Responsible AI The Responsible AI initiative looks at how organizations define and approach responsible AI practices, policies, and standards. Drawing on global executive surveys and smaller, curated expert panels, the program gathers perspectives from diverse sectors and geographies with the aim of delivering actionable insights on this nascent yet…

Seyfarth Launches Energy Transactions Practice with Addition of Three-Lawyer Team in Houston

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

HOUSTON - (October 30, 2024) - Seyfarth Shaw LLP has strengthened its nationally recognized Corporate department with the addition of a three-lawyer team to its Houston office. Partner Chris Cottrell, along with associates Michael Szymanski and Xiaoming Gao, have joined Seyfarth to launch the Energy Transactions practice. The team is…

Azure at GitHub Universe: New tools to help simplify AI app development

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

With seamless integration among VS Code, GitHub, and Azure, we provide an AI-powered, end-to-end development platform to transform your apps with AI. AI has reset our expectations of what technology can achieve. From transforming how we explore the cosmos to enabling doctors to provide personalized care and making business functions…

What is retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)?

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:12 mins read

A golden outline of a speech bubble is filled with a jumble of colorful, balloon-like spheres. The spheres vary in size, color, and texture, and the image is set against a light-gray background. In recent years, large language models (LLMs) have made tremendous progress in their ability to generate content.…

Assessing the impact of Hurricanes Helene and Milton on small businesses

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

Hurricanes Helene and Milton wrought destruction as they lashed across the southeastern United States in late September and early October. Lives were lost. Properties were ruined. Amid this devastation, it’s worth noting the considerable toll that storms like these can take on the small businesses that happen to lay in…

How to Walk the Talk on Culture: Former HubSpot CPO Katie Burke

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…

Harness the past; thrive in the future

  • Post category:Q5 Partners
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Insights from Q5’s Sydney forum on harnessing past lessons to fuel future success At a recent Q5 event in Sydney, Lyndal Hughes, MD of Q5 Australia, led a thought-provoking discussion on transformation beyond traditional change initiatives. Panellists Chris Parsons, Nicky Bowie, and Ed Bridgeland shared diverse perspectives, emphasising the importance…

Pioneers and Pathfinders: Nicole Clark

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:3 mins read

This week, we're joined by Nicole Clark, founder and CEO of Trellis, a state trial court research and analytics platform. For several years, Nicole was an attorney in private practice, handling business litigation and labor and employment matters. The idea for Trellis came from her experience doing research for complicated…

Settlement Requiring Near-Contemporaneous Adjudication of Properly Bundled Forms I-539 and I-765 to Sunset in January 2025

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

Quick Hits A group of H-4 and L-2 visa holders filed a lawsuit against the secretary of homeland security in April 2021, alleging that USCIS unlawfully delayed adjudicating their I-539 and I-765 applications, resulting in loss of employment. A settlement was reached in January 2023 in which USCIS agreed to…

Microsoft Cloud strength drives first quarter results

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:58 mins read

Microsoft Cloud Strength Drives First Quarter ResultsREDMOND, Wash. — October 30, 2024 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year:·        Revenue was $65.6 billion and increased 16%·        Operating income was $30.6 billion and increased 14%·        Net income was $24.7…

Your Autumn Budget update – the key news from the chancellor’s statement

Almost four months after Labour won the general election, chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her 2024 Autumn Budget, outlining the government’s plans for this tax year and beyond. Arguing that the July general election had given Labour a “mandate to restore stability and start a decade of renewal”, Reeves described…

What I learned from Daniel Kahneman

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:7 mins read

One night, over dinner, Daniel Kahneman changed my perspective on value creation. Why do so many people, including leaders of large corporations, draw back from acting more boldly, even when taking incremental risks can create much greater returns? And perhaps more important: Can anything be done about it? Kahneman explained…

Organising your offshore capital

In the budget on 30 October 2024, the government will announce further details on the abolition of the non-domiciled regime. The current non-domiciled regime requires certain taxpayers to segregate their offshore capital to ringfence clean capital from other non-UK taxed capital. “Clean capital” is any capital that can be used…

Intelligent Choices Reshape Decision-Making and Productivity

Better choices enable better decisions. Profitably thriving through market disruptions demands that executives recognize that better decisions aren’t enough — they need better choices. Choices are the raw material of decision-making; without diverse, detailed, and high-quality options, even the best decision-making processes underperform. Traditional dashboards and scorecards defined by legacy…

Sustainability transformation: moving organisations from intent to action

  • Post category:Q5 Partners
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Bridging the gap between sustainability goals and measurable impact Welcome to our first-of-its-kind research on sustainability transformation. We’ve gathered insights from 160 organisations and conducted interviews with over 50 business leaders across 27 countries to bring you an in-depth look at how businesses are navigating this critical journey. Produced by…

Washington Increases Minimum Wage and Salary Thresholds for Exemption and Non-Competes

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

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries has announced the state minimum wage for 2025.  In Washington, the state minimum wage is calculated annually (and generally increases) based on inflation.  Effective January 1, 2025,  Washington’s state minimum wage will increase to $16.66 per hour, which is a 2.35% increase…

New Azure OpenAI Service updates enable companies to deploy and optimize AI models at scale

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

With the new enhancements to Azure OpenAI Service Provisioned offering, we are taking a big step forward in making AI accessible and enterprise-ready. In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, enterprises need more than just powerful AI models—they need AI solutions that are adaptable, reliable, and scalable. With upcoming availability of Data…

Russia-North Korea: The Useless Threat of Sanctions

High-ranking American officials are reporting the appearance of North Korean military personnel in Russia, and also admit the possibility of their participation in the Ukrainian conflict on the Russian side. The Russian Foreign Ministry characterises such statements as information leaks and hype.Meanwhile, the United States and its allies have serious cause…

AI power: Expanding data center capacity to meet growing demand

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

The race is on to build sufficient data center capacity to support a massive acceleration in the use of AI. Data center demand has already soared in response to the role data plays in modern lives. But with the emergence of generative AI (gen AI), demand is set to rise…

Building Mastery: What Leaders Do That Helps — or Impedes

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images This is a time when we are all asking how best to prepare for a long working life. With expanded life expectancies and…

Can a Coffee Shop in Utah Help Solve Underemployment for People with Disabilities?

Brian Kenny On September 17, 1987, advocates for people with disabilities marked a major milestone, the closure of the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. Since opening in 1945, Willowbrook had become the largest state-run institution for people with disabilities in the United States. It had also come to epitomize…

Carried Interests Again – and a Reminder About Gifting

The tax treatment of carried interests (sometimes referred to as “promotes”) changed under the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. The thrust of the change was to establish a new three-year holding period (instead of the standard one-year holding period) before a fund general partner or investment partnership sponsor…

Will the real estate crisis bury China’s dreams of prosperity?

  • Post category:Credit Agricole
  • Reading time:5 mins read

What makes this transition even more complicated is that it coincides with both a growth crisis and a crisis of confidence: a kind of price that must be paid to clean up after past excesses, with an overinvestment bubble – notably in real estate – in the process of deflating.…

Can Chinese EV Brands Grow Globally?

  • Post category:INSEAD Knowledge
  • Reading time:13 mins read

Responding to the rise in sales and popularity of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), the United States and European Union have imposed hefty import taxes to curb the market penetration of Chinese EVs and protect local automotive manufacturers. Scholars have cautioned that such industrial policies should be temporary, as they can have unintended lasting…

The Risks of Too Much AI: Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn

Topics Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy The Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative explores the growing use of artificial intelligence in the business landscape. The exploration looks specifically at how AI is affecting the development and execution of strategy in organizations. In collaboration with More in this series Get updates…

Federal Contractors: Your 2021 EEO-1s Might Be Disclosed by OFCCP if You Don’t Object!

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

Quick Hits New FOIA request noticed: A new FOIA request has been filed with OFCCP, seeking the release of federal contractors’ 2021 Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Reports in OFCCP’s possession. Deadline for objections: Contractors have forty days from the date of publication of OFCCP’s notice to object to the disclosure…

Beyond ESG: Why We Need A Novel Approach

  • Post category:INSEAD Knowledge
  • Reading time:11 mins read

Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword – it has become critical for life on our planet. It will also be a key actor in shaping corporate strategy and success. The shift towards sustainability has been increasingly embraced, and the common way companies do this is through the ESG (environmental, social and governance) framework. But even though corporate impact on…

Partner or Instrument? Ukraine’s Place in US Foreign Policy Strategy

Since the start of the military phase of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, Kiev has received active support from the United States and its allies. The West's strategy in the structural confrontation with Russia is aimed at defeating our country without getting involved directly in the conflict. This hybrid confrontation…

AI algorithm accurately detects heart disease in dogs

The research team, led by the University of Cambridge, adapted an algorithm originally designed for humans and found it could automatically detect and grade heart murmurs in dogs, based on audio recordings from digital stethoscopes. In tests, the algorithm detected heart murmurs with a sensitivity of 90%, a similar accuracy…

Author Chris Miller on the global influence of semiconductors

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

According to economic historian Dr. Chris Miller, “You can’t understand the modern world without putting chips at the center of the story.” That conviction led Miller, an associate professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, to research and write the…

How to Stand Up When It Comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Recently, several high-profile U.S. organizations have backtracked on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments. Rural chain store Tractor Supply said it would eliminate…

Democrats Are Losing Latino Voters. That’s Not Surprising.

John Judis and Ruy Teixeira heralded a new age of US politics in their 2002 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority. The book predicted that the growing Latino population, coupled with a clear Democratic lead in many other growing segments of society, would strengthen the party’s hold on the US electorate…