Knowledge that Transforms

Companies that have established a new kind of internal AI organization called the “AI spine” are using the cross-functional structure to rapidly develop innovative generative AI use cases with users’ help. The spine enables greater sharing of ideas and expertise across business units, which helps spark new ideas about where GenAI can be used to improve processes organizationwide. Disciplined project governance keeps the company’s resources focused on where a positive impact from AI is likeliest.

Many physical accommodations that were originally designed to help people with disabilities, such as curb cuts, now benefit everyone. The same can be true of accommodations in the workplace. Recent research shows that working alongside someone with a disability often spurs team members to generate ideas for new work processes that are ultimately helpful and safer for all. Rather than being one-off exceptions, accommodations can serve as springboards for innovation.

Companies trying to scale tech products know the hard truth: An offering that connects with people in one environment may fail in another. How can you avoid such an outcome? Leaders must learn quickly and iterate on products using lessons from their organization’s earliest customers, but they often undervalue the strategic choice of which early customers to prioritize. Learn from new research that shows how to choose, and real-world examples illustrating the approach in action.

In today’s consulting firms, experience and results are not enough: High-performing individuals who want to earn organizational trust and advance to higher levels need strong visibility within and outside of their organizations. The challenge for ambitious high performers is to make that visibility credible. Interviews with senior partners reveal three levers that advancing leaders must focus on: internal recognition, external reputation, and digital trust. Consider actions that individuals and companies should take to manage visibility.

Most successful companies start off with a bang — an exciting breakthrough innovation. As time passes, their focus shifts to maintaining and improving existing business lines. To prevent their decline in today’s economy, mature companies need to build a permanent capability for strategic innovation. Research on mature companies that have maintained a flow of innovation has uncovered what that capability consists of and how to build it.

Conventional wisdom holds that innovation teams should begin their project with a clearly defined problem in order to increase their likelihood of success. However, a study of hundreds of ad hoc teams that formed to participate in a large global company’s annual innovation competition found that those with ambiguous problem definitions at the outset who were able to clarify the problems by the project’s midpoint had a greater chance of seeing their innovations successfully implemented.

Venture studios help businesses deploy talent, ideas, or resources into new ventures that can innovate in key strategic areas, and their popularity is growing despite challenges like high capital requirements and governance complexity. Four conditions must be met for such ventures to succeed: specialized talent, an internal IP portfolio, or market insights; a combination of internal assets and external capabilities; the right governance mechanisms; and a long-term commitment of time and money.

The proliferation of customer experience measurement tools means that marketers now face the challenge of managing, and deriving value from, an overwhelming number of CX metrics. Research has identified ways for businesses to identify the metrics that are of greatest value and align them with customer journey mapping. Collecting fewer metrics yields tracking and reporting efficiencies, and connecting them to key stages of the customer journey gives CX managers more actionable insights.

Nearly half of all M&A deals are eventually undone, taking an average of 10 years to unwind. Research reveals that poor initial fit and unforeseen disruptions are the typical causes of failed corporate mergers, which ultimately destroy shareholder value, absorb leadership attention, and damage credibility. The Corporate Divorce Matrix can help leaders diagnose which path their deal is likely to follow and make smarter, more sound decisions at every stage of the M&A process.

Leaders who are making the most progress on digital transformation go beyond implementing new technologies or educating their workforce to enhance their digital literacy. They are transforming the way people work to build a digitally capable workforce. Researchers have identified four practices for leaders who want to build and lead a digitally dexterous workforce: reframing the challenge, engaging from the top, bridging people and perspectives, and sustaining long-term commitment.