Prof. Deborah Ancona provides advice for the new Starbucks CEO in an interview with Fast Company’s Nicole Gull McElroy. Recommending the “sensemaking” leadership strategy, she says “you need to understand the company culture, its business model, its customers…even if you have been successful at one company, there is a need to learn, or ‘sensemake,’ about your new place.”
Prof. Kristin Forbes speaks with Reuters reporters Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider about the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower borrowing costs. “It's not one thing that causes everyone to move,” says Forbes. “It's different people focus on different data, different indicators, different risks, and then they all end up in the same place.”
Prof. Kristin Forbes speaks with Associated Press reporter Christopher Rugaber about the Federal Reserve’s announcement declaring the end of the three-year inflation surge. “It really has been a remarkable success, how inflation went up, has come back, and is around the target,” says Forbes. “But from the viewpoint of households, it has not been so successful. Many have taken a big hit to their wages. Many of them feel like the basket of goods they buy is now much more expensive.”
Forbes contributor Peter High spotlights research by Senior Research Scientist Peter Weill, covering real-time decision-making, the importance of digitally savvy leadership and the potential of generative AI. High notes Weill’s advice to keep up. “The gap between digitally advanced companies and those lagging is widening, and the consequences of not keeping pace are becoming more severe. ‘You can’t get left behind on being real time,’ he warned.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Thomas Kochan explores how workers, unions, CEOs and politicians can all draw lessons from the Market Basket protests in 2014. "The key lesson for workers and unions is to draw on customers and citizens as allies and sources of power," writes Kochan. "If workers’ demands make sense, customers and community members will support them."
Senior lecturer Paul McDonagh-Smith speaks with Forbes reporter Joe Mckendrick about the history behind the AI hype cycle. “While AI technologies and techniques are at the forefront of today’s technological innovation, it remains a field defined — as it has from the 1950s — by both significant achievements and considerable hype," says McDonagh-Smith.
Prof. Thomas Kochan speaks with Boston Globe reporter Dana Gerber to reflect on the impact of 2014 Market Basket protests. Kochan, who co-authored a case study about the protests, says “it’s still the most unprecedented worker action that we’ve seen in our century. We’ve never seen a non-union group take action in support of their CEO, and hold that solidarity — from the executives to the clerks to the truck drivers — for six weeks. And to get the support of the customers was a remarkable achievement.”
Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with NPR host Alisa Chang about the recent influx of security breaches and how individuals can prepare for future attacks. “There are certain responsibilities companies have, particularly with the disclosure of private information,” explains Madnick. He emphasizes that individuals, "have to realize there are risks and behave as cautiously and fruitfully as you can.”
In a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe, Prof. Emerita Lotte Bailyn underscores the importance of leaders and prominent public figures taking family leave. “As someone who has long studied the effect of employer policies and practices on the success of an enterprise, I know the extreme importance of a leader’s actions,” writes Bailyn. “What they model, not the words they say, has the strongest impact on the culture of an organization”
In an excerpt from her new book, “The Mind’s Mirror: Risk and Reward in the Age of AI," Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, addresses the fear surrounding new AI technologies, while also exploring AI’s vast potential. “New technologies undoubtedly disrupt existing jobs, but they also create entirely new industries, and the new roles needed to support them,” writes Rus.
Intelmatix, an AI startup founded by by Almaha Almalki MS '18, Anas Alfaris MS '09, PhD '09 and Ahmad Alabdulkareem PhD '18, aims to provide businesses in the Middle East and North Africa with access to AI for decision-making, reports Annie Njanja for TechCrunch. . “The idea of democratizing access to AI has always been something that we’ve been very passionate about,” says Alfaris.
Research Scientist Eva Ponce, director of online education for the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Page about how global supply chain disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic inspired a new generation of students to pursue careers in supply chain management. “Having been exposed to these big disruptions, the new generation has an appetite for risk management,” Ponce says. “This has become a key topic and that is one of the consequences of the pandemic—this focus on ways to reduce risk and vulnerability.”
Prof. Michael Cusumano speaks with Associated Press reporters Matt O’Brien and Sarah Parvini about a new approach to AI acquisitions and the impact on smaller AI startups. “To acquire only some employees or the majority, but not all, license technology, leave the company functioning but not really competing, that’s a new twist,” says Cusumano.
Prof. of the practice Donald Sull speaks with Fortune reporter Lindsey Leake about the common misconceptions found in corporate company culture. “People often think that high performance is an excuse for abusive behavior—they confuse disrespectful and bullying behavior for maintaining high standards,” say Sull. “But it’s possible to set the bar for performance high without berating or bullying people. And to the extent these toxic managerial behaviors drive high performers out of the organization, the abusive behavior undermines performance.”
On the 30th anniversary of Amazon’s founding, Selene Silvestri, a research scientist with MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, joins The Pulse’s Liz Tung to discuss how the company developed its supply chain. “They needed to ensure that items were available, that they could deliver promptly,” Silvestri explains. “They also needed to start having their own warehouses. And they had to do so with two things in mind. They needed these to be cost efficient and they needed also to have these warehouses in locations that would allow them to ship fast.”