Friday 17th January 2025

Ask HBR: Building a More Diverse Data Science Team

We’ve seen no shortage of scandals in artificial intelligence. Several AI projects have been plagued by bias. ProPublica reported that an algorithm built by one private contractor was more likely to rate Black parole candidates as higher-risk than other candidates. A landmark U.S. government study reported that more than 200 facial recognition algorithms had a harder time identifying non-white faces than white faces. Is it surprising that these applications were built by teams lacking diversity? Technology has a remarkably non-diverse workforce. And data science is a special standout, underrepresenting women, Latinx, and Black professionals more than any role in tech.

Continued here

Stop Selling. Start Collaborating.

The triple fit canvas is a sales framework designed to facilitate collaborative value creation between sellers and buyers. Inspired by the blue ocean strategy canvas developed by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne and the business model canvas developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, the triple fit canvas is both a diagnostic and an action framework. It extends a limited, product-centric view to a broader, customer-centric perspective. It shifts the focus from selling existing products and services to helping create new ones. In this article the author details the key components of the triple fit canvas and describes how companies such as BMW, Konica Minolta, and GAP have benefited from it.

Continued here

Winning Strategies for Early Market Adoption

Being at the forefront of your market is both a badge of honor and a formidable challenge. While pushing the boundaries of what's possible, your clients, shareholders, and employees must grasp and embrace your vision and value proposition. That's easier said than done, though, when you're "future fighting"—swimming upstream against a market that's not quite ready.  

When Businessolver entered the employee benefits technology market in 1998, the internet was nascent and the idea of using it for benefits enrollment was revolutionary. Likewise, benefits enrollment via a digital platform was a threat to the jobs of unionized employees called "keyers" —not dissimilar to how AI can be seen as threat to some jobs today. Undoubtedly, there were ample reasons for prospects to push back against an idea ahead of its market.  


Continued here

Why to Treat Every Team Member Like a Product Manager

The technology industry is competitive, and half of all startups fail within the first five years. To stay competitive, software companies need to approach innovation creatively—thinking differently and leveraging team members at all levels to inform product development, ask questions, and make incremental adjustments, to ensure the product is delivering maximum value to customers. 

At my company, our philosophy is that every team member should think like a product manager. They should feel empowered to flag improvement opportunities from wherever they sit in the business. They should escalate issues as soon as they arise. And the product and customer feedback loop should be constant, candid, and run as flat as our organizational structure.  


Continued here

How to Choose Company Benefits That Appeal to Gen Z

Imagine telling a 22-year-old who recently graduated from college about your company benefits (or maybe you've already been here). You proudly review the excellent health insurance you provide, including dental and vision, plus 401(k) matching. Their parents would likely be impressed, but the person sitting across from you nods politely and asks what other benefits you have to offer. 

The benefits that resonated most with previous generations aren't having the same effect on Gen Z, and the resulting long hiring cycles and loss of top upcoming talent are costing companies. According to a 2024 study from Deloitte, only 19 percent of Gen Zs named a high salary as the main reason for choosing their current job. A company's culture and benefits have the potential to move the needle with Gen Z—if they'll only align with what these job seekers are looking for. 


Continued here

OpenAI's Sam Altman: This Is the Most Valuable Skill in the Age of AI

Some talk about super intelligence, AI personal assistants for all, and a world free of want. Others warn of the robot apocalypse. A few even argue that the potential of current AI models is overblown. But what just about everyone can agree on is that sometime quite soon, AI will fundamentally change how we live and work.

How should we entrepreneurs best prepare ourselves (and our kids)? That's another question experts haven't been shy about taking a stab at. Many suggest we hone the fundamentally human skills that machines still struggle to replicate - things like adaptability, empathy, and interacting with the physical world. 


Continued here

Mark Cuban Says Running a Successful Business Really Comes Down to 1 Underrated Skill

But when I got wind of this interview featuring Cuban and Lori Greiner on Vanity Fair's YouTube channel, the words he chose about his "metamorphosis" as an entrepreneur made me do a double take. I feel I need to reinterpret what he meant in more favorable light. Here's Cuban:

"One of the most underrated skills in business right now is being nice. Nice sells. I went through my own metamorphosis. Early on in my career, I was like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I might curse. I might get mad. I got to the point I wouldn't have wanted to do business with me when I was in my 20s. I had to change. And I did. And it really paid off."


Continued here

A Massive New Study of 40,725 People Says Drinking Coffee Like This Protects Your Heart and Helps You Live Longer

It starts with the fact I vividly remember what I did before my very first day of work, long ago, after college. I had it in my head that what adults do before work is to stop on the way to get a cup of coffee.

I was probably inspired by seeing my father drink coffee every morning, or the 80 million TV commercials I’d seen by then, or even by the opening lyrics to Dolly Partons’ theme song to the 1980 movie, “9 to 5.”


Continued here

How Long-Distance Cycling Helped This Founder Keep Her Business Going for 25 Years

Welcome to Out of Office, a series that explores the extracurricular activities of entrepreneurs—from passion projects to full-blown side gigs—and why what they do in their downtime helps them level up as business leaders.

As the oldest of six children, Sarah Davis learned the value of finding balance amid chaos early on. And as the founder of luxury resale company Fashionphile, her adult life is, perhaps, even more chaotic. Davis has led Fashionphile from its first sale in 1999 to its first fundraising round in 2019, and is about to celebrate her 25th anniversary at the company—a feat for any founder. Davis has kept her sanity throughout it all by investing in another long-term passion: cycling. —As told to Annabel Burba


Continued here

Economic Outlook: Wall Street Has No Clue on Fed Rate Cuts for 2025

Over the last several weeks, nearly every bank and researcher on Wall Street has published their outlook for how the Federal Reserve will adjust interest rates in 2025. Every firm operates with the same data, yet there is nothing resembling a consensus. 

“We’ve got an unusual economic environment coming through,” James Knightley, ING’s chief international economist, told me. Even though the Fed has eased rates by 100 basis points since September, he explained, Treasury yields have spiked and markets haven’t moved as they typically would in a cutting cycle. 


Continued here