The Best of This Week
The week’s must-reads for managing in the digital age, curated by the MIT SMR editors.
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Weekly Recap
Using Technology to Make Relationships More Equal
Before using apps to divvy up tasks, couples need to have tough conversations about how they see their roles at home. Otherwise, as Jennifer Petriglieri of INSEAD demonstrates in her research, one person becomes the “assigner,” and the other feels managed — and resentful.
It’s a Jungle Out There
When it comes to the future of work and technology, there is a recurring call for harnessing the power of AI for the betterment of society. Ben Pring, who leads Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, looks at why this may be a naive outlook in this day and age (which feels a lot more Hobbesian than utopian).
‘X’ Marks the Spot for Brand Collaboration
“For brands, the past decade has become the age of the ‘x’: Versace x H&M, Kanye West x Bon Iver, Cheez-It x boxed wine,” says Sam Maglio, associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto. And while these (sometimes unlikely) pairings offer big rewards, what happens when there are more than two partners? The answer depends on the goals and the industry; each must find its own “sweet spot” of how many collaborators is just enough.
For CIOs, the Challenge Is Balancing Stability With Innovation
It’s a tough but exciting time to be a chief information officer. This article in The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal looks at the changing role for CIOs as ever-expanding technology requires strategic changes. For executives cited in the article, a big challenge on the horizon for leaders will be delivering stable IT solutions while remaining agile and innovation-ready.
Come to the DARQ Side
The post-digital tech wave is upon us, and Paul Daugherty, CTO of Accenture, walks through the DARQ stack, a powerful, integrated set of emerging technologies that are poised to change the way organizations do business.
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Venture Capital Needs a Rethink
Gender bias and imbalance are a persistent problem in entrepreneurship, but the staggering stats from the venture capital field — for instance, that over 80% of VC money goes to all-male teams — illustrate the need for change. As the authors of this article from INSEAD put it, “The sector’s logic and process reflect its origins in the 1950s, while the entrepreneurs, their companies, and their ideas belong to a new era.”
AI Jitters and Rising Weather Stakes
In this edition of Elsewhere, MIT SMR senior editor Bruce Posner rounds up an interesting batch of recent articles in The Atlantic, Bloomberg, and The New Yorker that address rising AI concerns and coming changes for warehouse automation and weather forecasting.
Quote of the Week
“CEOs, kill your most useful meeting. It may be your favorite, but chances are it’s the one that everyone else dreads the most.”
— Tim Chen, CEO, NerdWallet in First Round Review