Management
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Surge Pricing in Aisle Five?
When Uber started its surge pricing policy in late 2011, outrage quickly ensued. Horror stories emerged about rides on New Year’s Eve or during snowstorms costing multiple times the standard rate—in one case, 50 times the regular fare. So when U.S. grocery retailers like Walmart and Kroger announced in 2024 that they would start using…
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When AI Thinks Too Much Like a Human
Earlier this year, AI developer Anthropic released a new model that can spend more time “thinking” through a problem, similarly to the way a person might. Stanford and IBM developed AI “twins” of more than 1,000 people that supposedly reason and make decisions just like their real-life counterparts. The hope, for many companies in this…
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Rethinking Human Resources through a sustainability lens
Mapping sustainability across LSE’s MSc Human Resource and Organisations curriculum. This year, we joined LSE’s Education for Sustainability (EfS) project to work on the MSc Human Resources and Organisations (HRO) programme. Our task: to explore sustainability across the programme and how it might be enhanced. Unlike most EfS projects that focus on individual courses, we…
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AI Can Improve How Humans and Robots Work
James Yang/theispot.com The Research The authors drew on numerous publications and research projects conducted by or in cooperation with the MIT Digital Supply Chain Lab, including the following: Studies of warehouse operations and the application of technologies conducted with companies in logistics, consumer packaged goods, and retail. Academic and professional articles on machine learning applications…
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When Good Cultures Go Bad: Stanford’s Charles O’Reilly
Stanford University’s Charles O’Reilly has spent over 50 years studying organizational behavior. In his research on why companies fail, he’s observed something troubling: The same strong cultures that drive success often become the very thing that kills companies when markets shift. Adaption is key. In a conversation with MIT Sloan’s Donald Sull, O’Reilly breaks down…
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Owning the Room in the Age of AI
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In an age where artificial intelligence can generate presentation scripts, polish slides, and even give feedback to the tone of your voice during rehearsal, what sets presenters apart isn’t just content, it’s presence. When the moment matters, audiences still want a real person to show up. They want to…
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Vibe Analytics: Vibe Coding’s New Cousin Unlocks Insights
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Editor’s note: The author used GenAI tools as resources in the process of writing this article. In February, former Tesla AI director and OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy posted a casual humblebrag on X about his clever weekend coding approach: “There’s a new kind of coding I call ‘vibe coding,’…
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Is Tenure a Golden Age for Research?
Tenure. For many professionals in research and education, the word represents a major career milestone, offering them significant job security and status among their peers. “If you ask any professor or researcher, they will basically tell you that tenure is one of the most important moments, if not the most important moment, of their academic…
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The leadership art of organisational politics
Change Needs More Than Vision Successful leadership during change is not defined by a bold vision alone, but by a leader’s ability to engage with complexity and lead with integrity. Understanding how to apply different forms of power and political skill enables leaders to manage resistance, build trust, and align diverse interests. Why Vision Isn’t…
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A New Method for Assessing Circular Business Cases
Chris Gash/theispot.com The circular economy is a key enabler for businesses to achieve sustainability targets. However, traditional financial analysis models can be inadequate for evaluating circular business models. While circularity helps reduce waste, recover materials, and extend product lifespans, it also fundamentally changes how value is created and measured. Yet, most financial models remain rooted…