Prepared Minds

Bain & Company - Sep 16, 2021

The traceability transformation: How transparent value chains can help companies achieve their sustainability goals

A new report from Bain & Company and the World Economic Forum highlights the digital traceability journey and the challenges companies face along the way

Read Article By Hernan Saenz and Joshua Hinkel

HBR.org ($) - Sep 15, 2021

Who Is Driving the Great Resignation?

The last several months have seen a tidal wave of resignations, in the U.S. and around the world. What can employers do to combat what’s being called the Great Resignation?

Read Article By Ian Cook
Source Photo: Nick Dolding/Getty Images

The Innovator - Medium ($) - Sep 13, 2021

Interview Of The Week: Victoria Ossadnik, E.ON

Victoria Ossadnik is a member of the Executive Board of E.ON, one of the world’s largest investor-owned electric utility service providers, and is responsible for the Group’s digital technology and in-house consulting.

Read Article By Jennifer L. Schenker

Towards Data Science - Medium ($) - Sep 10, 2021

One Easy Way to Improve How you Communicate your Data

How to Give Context to Your Data to Improve Your Message

Read Article By Jordan Bean
Source Photo: Photo by Author

Fast Company ($) - Sep 4, 2021

Productivity metrics aren’t useful any longer. Here’s a better way to measure what’s getting done

Work futurist Dominic Price says that as leaders seeking to create better ways of working, it’s not that we need to get rid of calculatable metrics. We just need more meaningful ones.

Read Article By Dominic Price-Atlassian
Source Photo: [Source images: 200degrees/Pixabay; janjf93/Pixabay]

McKinsey & Company - Sep 10, 2021

The autonomous plant: Entering a new digital era

The requirements of the energy transition present significant industry challenges. Energy companies must embrace new technologies, transform management systems, and expand workforce capabilities.

Read Article By Gopal Chakrabarti, Dominik Don, Micah Smith, and Premal Vora

Zapier - Sep 21, 2021

Progressive profiling: a non-icky way to collect customer data

There’s a way to build customer personas and give consumers personalized experiences without having to creep on their data.

Read Article By Saphia Lanier

HBR.org ($) - Sep 23, 2021

KPIs Aren’t Just About Assessing Past Performance

Many companies track KPIs as a way of predicting performance. To really exploit the predictive power of KPIs, though, you need to map how the KPIs for your key stakeholders feed into each other and ultimately into financial performance.

Read Article By Graham Kenny
Source Photo: Peter Stark/Getty Images

George Veth

I couldn’t agree more with the actual empirical evidence of this article – that online shoppers don’t always care about faster delivery times, especially if the exact delivery time window could be pegged. However, to get up on the balcony, I really appreciated the elements of the case study – the use of data to understand customer preferences and, then, the move to organize employees to think through how to meet the newly understood preference. This article highlights the benefits of working to create prepared minds in our organizations. A virtuous cycle of continuous improvement follows!

MIT Sloan Management Review ($) - Aug 23, 2021

Online Shoppers Don’t Always Care About Faster Delivery

Analyzing online customer data may reveal that other delivery attributes matter more than how quickly an order is received.

Read Article By Pedro Amorim and Nicole DeHoratius
Source Photo: Image courtesy of Jing Jing Tsong/theispot.com

HBR.org ($) - Aug 25, 2021

The Sales Playbook of Successful B2B Teams

High-performing B2B companies are increasingly using sales plays–a coordinated set of actions to create and win an opportunity at a specific customer or prospect, driven by data.

Read Article By Jamie Cleghorn, Jordan Lee, Eliza Kennedy, and Randy Huey
Source Photo: Image Source/Getty Images

Wired ($) - Aug 19, 2021

Now That Machines Can Learn, Can They Unlearn?

Privacy concerns about AI systems are growing. So researchers are testing whether they can remove sensitive data without retraining the system from scratch.

Read Article By Tom Simonite
Source Photo: ILLUSTRATION: ELENA LACEY

MIT Sloan Management Review ($) - Aug 16, 2021

How In-Store Tech Will Transform Retail

Automation and sensors promise a better customer experience — and fuel for improved analytics.

Read Article By Selena Zhu, Maxime Cohen, and Saibal Ray
Source Photo: Image courtesy of Alex Nabaum/theispot.com

HBR.org ($) - Aug 18, 2021

Why Do Chief Data Officers Have Such Short Tenures?

The Chief Data Officer is arguably one of the most important roles at a company. It’s also a position that has become notoriously hard to stay in. The average tenure of CDOs is just two to two-and-a-half years.

Read Article By Tom Davenport, Randy Bean, and Josh King
Source Photo: Jorg Greuel/Getty Images

George Veth

I like this article’s concept of a Vigilance Quotient – “defined as [the] distinctive ability to anticipate major shifts and spot opportunities ahead of rivals”. It suggests that advantage goes to those organizations that constantly push themselves and their companies to explore their internal and external environments for ideas for the future. It goes on to outline four basic design principles for improving vigilance. I kept returning to the comment that “vigilant companies seek out anomalies as early warning signs”. I’ve linked out to a video, outside the paywall, which is worth watching.

California Management Review ($) - Jun 10, 2021

Preparing Organizations for Greater Turbulence

Vigilant organizations excel at seeing looming threats and embryonic opportunities sooner than rivals, which prepares them to act faster when needed. Four drivers distinguish vigilant from vulnerable organizations, which can be used to design a roadmap to improve organizational acuity and preparedness.

Read Article By Paul J. H. Schoemaker and George Day

E&Y - Aug 10, 2021

How finance can use data to create value across the enterprise

With public perception always in mind, CFOs must strike the right balance between managing the rewards and risks of corporate data usage.

Read Article By Marcus Gantzkow, Sebastian Schmidt, and Regine Bachinger

Fast Company ($) - Aug 6, 2021

For AI to grow up, it needs to learn on its own

AI is already pretty powerful when humans show it what to do. As it gets better at drawing smart conclusions on its own, the technology will enter a new “age of self.”

Read Article By Prem Natarajan
Source Photo: [Source images: Antiv3D/iStock; Rawpixel]

George Veth

This article discusses the need to fully understand segment costs as the simplicity of a small business turns into the complexity of a midsize business with a myriad of products, customers, etc. This knowledge of costs moves from simple intuition to data-backed evidence. With these numbers as a backdrop, many decisions and/or considerations can be discussed – with the facts being on the wall. I love this picture of “prepared minds” coming around a challenge to discuss a path forward. Great article for those of us that are nerdy about having a shared knowledge of the actuals, so you can discuss what’s possible!

HBR.org ($) - Jul 30, 2021

Midsize Companies Need a Systematic Approach to Cost Analysis

As companies grow from small to midsize, manual checks will no longer suffice to track a broader array of costs back to individual products or services.

Read Article By Robert Sher
Source Photo: PM Images/Getty Images

MIT Sloan Management Review ($) - Jul 29, 2021

Fast-Track Data Monetization With Strategic Data Assets

To monetize data, companies must first create strategic data assets that can be reused and recombined for new value creation.

Read Article By Barbara H. Wixom, Gabriele Piccoli, and Joaquin Rodriguez

George Veth

I like this article’s approach to knowledge management. The researcher/author is searching for a way to leverage or incorporate key attributes of creativity to instruct the evolution of traditional knowledge management – from what has traditionally focused on organized document management to that of continuous learning. The author cites various attributes that she also equates with artists, and she talks about how these attributes should be infused into the knowledge management function to bring the function to life. The article is a bit dense and meanders a bit, but it is worth skimming for the idea.

Frontiers - Jul 13, 2021

Radical Knowledge Management: Using Lessons Learned From Artists to Create Sustainable Workplaces

Read Article By Stephanie Barnes
Source Photo: Dobiéy and Koeplin, 2020

George Veth

Having been at the intersection of finance and IT for many years, I appreciate the charge for CFOs to fully leverage data to become the Chief Value Officers of the organization; that is the purveyors of “data-based business strategy and drivers of corporate added value”. This article outlines the opportunity as well as some factors of success.

E&Y - Jul 19, 2021

How finance can use data to create value across the enterprise

With public perception always in mind, CFOs must strike the right balance between managing the rewards and risks of corporate data usage.

Read Article By Marcus Gantzkow, Sebastian Schmidt, Christian Mertin, and Regine Bachinger
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Prepared Minds

Prepared Minds ensures that information and context are provided to employees, so they are equipped to take initiative in their roles

All Time Favorites

McKinsey & Company - Jun 1, 2002

HBR.org - Feb 7, 2012

HBR.org - Nov 29, 2013