At the 2019 gathering of the World Economic Forum, much of the conversation was about the need for re-skilling and inclusive education, and the ongoing gender gap in the world of technology. Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice at London Business School, attended the Davos conference as a steward of the World Economic Forum Council on Work, Education and Gender, and shares her insights from the meeting.

There is a fundamental humanity to business institutions. Businesses are cooperative endeavors that leverage human work and creativity to create social value. Stable, functional, and purpose-driven businesses are key to real human flourishing. And yet many governments are expected to be neutral about business, acting as either redistributor or regulator. There is a third role, though: facilitator.

We understand a lot about how to develop the “hard skills” of analysis, decision-making, and analytical judgment, but we know a great deal less about the genesis of “soft skills” like empathy, context sensing, collaboration, and creative thinking, which are becoming increasingly valuable in the workplace. Understanding the obstacles to developing these soft skills and then addressing those barriers is crucial for our schools, homes, and workplaces.

Current trends in both human longevity and technological innovation raise the possibility of people living until 100 and working until they are 80. It’s clear that much will have to change — both in how people understand and anticipate the evolving nature of work, and how they then respond. Providing access to lifelong learning demands a complex system involving stakeholders in education, government, and the corporate world.

At the MIT Sloan School of Management’s 14th annual CIO Symposium, “The CIO Adventure: Now, Next and… Beyond,” senior IT executives came together to discuss key technologies, including how AI will transform the workplace. The goal: to help prepare these tech leaders for challenges they face, including shepherding ongoing digital transformations, building a digital organization, and managing IT talent.

There are clear signs that the movement to democratize data is making real progress. Barriers such as infrastructure, culture, tools, and governance that once kept data access limited are quickly eroding. But access to data isn’t enough: Data democratization also requires knowing how to work with data and understand data analysis tools and techniques. Without these capabilities, the data democracy is only an illusion — and most people are still unable to participate fully.

In an interview with MIT Sloan Management Review, Christopher House CEO Lori Baas and director of quality assurance Traci Stanley explain how they’re using data throughout their educational organization to track student outcomes and look for improvements. “We now can show, based on the assessments, not only how our kids are improving in their cognitive development, or social-emotional development, but also how we compare to similar organizations,” says Bass.

You’ve figured out how to get the data, and how to make sure it’s good quality. You’ve hired the right people to put your data through the analytics wringer. Now you’ve got the results in your hands &mdash and you may not be sure what to do next. Consuming analytics effectively — and getting business value out of your analytics — is a challenge for many companies, and executives must get creative to increase their comfort level.

Linda Zecher, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is leading the U.S.’s largest K-12 publisher into a more digital era where curricula will increasingly adapt to individual student needs. Along with HMH chief content officer Mary Cullinane, Zecher is guiding HMH through changes that will include new skill sets as well as extensive infrastructure and content management changes.

The new issue of Science magazine features an editorial by MIT President Susan Hockfield titled “The Next Innovation Revolution.”

How do you ensure that your product stays relevant in the future? Reach out to the next generation of innovators. Several large companies are doing just that — as they attempt to encourage software start-ups to use their products and services.

Although the relevance of corporate philanthropy is widely accepted, few companies achieve significant, lasting societal impact because most lack a cohesive strategy. Effective philanthropy must be run no less professionally than the core business.