HBS Managing the Future of Work
Episodes
Covid-19 Dispatch: Sham Kakade
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Contact tracing—mapping the spread of a virus by identifying individuals in the chain of transmission—is an essential tool in the fight to limit t...
Handicapping the global competition for talent
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Post-Covid recovery will hinge on how well countries leverage talent. This lends new relevance to international business school INSEAD’s 2020 global...
Covid-19 Dispatch: Nick Dalton
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Unilever was several years into a company-wide plan to revamp its workforce when the coronavirus flared into a pandemic. The multinational entered the...
Covid-19 Dispatch: Kent Thiry
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kent Thiry is a veteran healthcare executive with decades of experience observing public health policy and administration at both federal and state le...
Freelancer.com: On-demand Skills and Ideas
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Covid-19 pandemic appears to be accelerating the global workforce shift toward freelance and contract work, as it makes remote work a more attract...
Covid-19 Dispatch: Edward Glaeser
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard economist Edward Glaeser is an expert on how cities function as economic engines and centers of innovation. He notes that the advantages of de...
Covid-19 Dispatch: Irfhan Rawji
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Canadian entrepreneur Irfhan Rawji has insight into the pandemic’s influence on a wide range of sectors, from US companies working with global tech ...
Covid-19 Dispatch: Derek Thompson
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Episode 3 of the Covid-19 Dispatch series, we talk to The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, who recently wrote about contact tracing. In the fight again...
Covid-19 Dispatch: Ardine Williams
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic has magnified Amazon’s role as household supply line and pushed the company to quickly adjust how it does business. The retail giant ha...
Covid-19 Dispatch: Justin Wolfers
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown more people out of work than at any time since the Great Depression, and did so with unprecedented speed. In this deb...
Data-centric business: Inside the artificial intelligence factory
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence seems to have repealed the laws of business physics, allowing “digital native” companies to grow at the stroke of a key an...
Jobcase: Shared opportunities, collective voice
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Fred Goff wants to tap the Web’s scale and connectivity to rebalance capitalism for the benefit of workers. The former hedge fund manager launched J...
Richard Florida: the creative class in the age of the superstar city
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly twenty years ago, Richard Florida famously identified the “creative class,” an amalgamation of knowledge workers and those in the arts, cul...
The Purple Campaign and Vault: Taking on workplace sexual harassment post-#MeToo
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Workplace sexual harassment can derail careers, depress morale, and decrease productivity. The #MeToo movement focused attention on the issue, but lef...
Beyond tax breaks and subsidies: Virginia’s Amazon gambit
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
HBS alum Stephen Moret led Virginia’s winning proposal for Amazon’s 2019 HQ2 expansion. A crucial factor in the Commonwealth’s success was its b...
From opt-in to check-out: How digital platforms are transforming retail
22 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dan O’Connor, retail expert and executive-in-residence with the HBS Managing the Future of Work project, traces the evolution of retail from the cor...
Unpacking Amazon’s workforce development strategy
08 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon in the summer of 2019 announced a sweeping five-year plan to bolster the skills of a third of its US workforce—close to 100,000 worker-learne...
Crisis reporting from the front lines of technology and employment
18 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Art Bilger is sounding the alarm over systemic trends in the world of work—the mismatch of labor force skills and job requirements; automation; unde...
How AI shifts enterprise decision-making into self-driving mode
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, enterprise systems vendors have promised legacy businesses virtual omniscience—decision-making informed by real-time, comprehensive vie...
Prudential’s long position on skills: fostering careers while embracing automation
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Financial Services giant Prudential is pursuing a hybrid workforce strategy. It’s all-in on automation for underwriting and other data-intensive, bu...
Rebooting the apprenticeship for tech jobs
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Washington Technology Industry Association’s Apprenti apprenticeship program is a creature of the Seattle tech industry. But since its 2015 foun...
Factories without walls: How Autodesk is redesigning the work of architecture, construction, and manufacturing
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Computer-aided design pioneer, Autodesk, is tightening the integration of design and production in everything from architecture to movies. This simple...
Werk-ing the angles: how mapping work to real life can boost productivity
06 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Werk Enterprises uses surveys and data analytics to help organize work through a set of predefined, flexible arrangements, rather than the traditional...
How global trade and AI are resetting the terms of white-collar work
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
International trade expert and former presidential advisor, Richard Baldwin, discusses his latest book, The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotic...
Aspen’s playbook for linking talent ecosystems and the jobs environment
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Aspen Institute has spent the past decade deconstructing how top US post-secondary schools bolster their diverse students’ work and life prospec...
Handy’s CEO clears up the gig economy
09 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Oisin Hanrahan, co-founder and CEO of home services gig platform Handy, has succeeded by finding order and opportunity in chaos. The former HBS studen...
"Been” there, learned that: Immersive workplace training with virtual reality
25 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What do sales clerks have in common with NFL quarterbacks? Apart from a competitive nature, both can benefit from VR training. Former Stanford footbal...
How carefully managed career restarts can benefit individuals and employers
11 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Life events, personal interests, and a host of other factors lead people to step away from work. The key is how to handle reentry. Carol Fishman Cohen...
How teaching robots the way the world works changes the world of work
28 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Robots aren’t necessarily primed to take over, but advances in machine learning are readying the mechanical components of the workforce for more com...
Fintech on Main Street: How small businesses are banking on new technology
14 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Technology is changing financial institutions’ relationships with local businesses and sole proprietors, which account for half of America’s workf...
The energy industry’s cooperative approach to expanding the talent pipeline
31 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Center for Energy Workforce Development was created in 2006 to help the industry prepare for a generational wave of retirements and to diversify i...
Advanced placement at work: a 21st Century apprenticeship model for the US
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
CareerWise Colorado is redefining job training and expanding the talent pipeline. The nonprofit apprenticeship program, patterned on the successful Sw...
Expanding access and conveying competencies: How Western Governors University is rethinking higher education
03 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Western Governors University was founded in 1997 to expand access to affordable higher education and to offer instruction grounded in the requirements...
Fried chicken and fresh starts: fair chance hiring as a talent strategy
19 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
More people in the US have criminal records than have graduated from college. Joe DeLoss, founder of restaurant chain Hot Chicken Takeover, argues tha...
Investing in innovation: boosting growth beyond superstar cities
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Can a Manhattan Project on steroids revitalize languishing US regions and drive balanced economic growth? In their book Jump-Starting America: How Bre...
From gig to gig: Thumbtack’s CEO on the challenges facing contract workers
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The phrase “gig worker” often conjures an image of a driver providing a routine service for low pay. But freelancers provide services on a contrac...
Prediction: How AI will affect business, work, and life
08 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How should we think about improvements in artificial intelligence? Bill speaks with Joshua Gans, co-author of "Prediction Machines: The Simple Economi...
How edX is redesigning learning for the future
24 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a world where jobs are constantly changing, the workforce must be able to continually add skills, and receive credit for them, to remain relevant. ...
The prognosis for AI-assisted radiology
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Improvements in machine learning and image recognition, and gradual acceptance by regulators, have brought innovative companies the threshold of the r...
How the U.S. is driving away foreign talent and what happens when American companies miss out
26 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Foreign talent is critical to the success of American companies. But the barriers to hiring skilled foreigners are rising: increased bureaucratic scru...
How Goldman Sachs is using technology to redefine banking
12 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Goldman Sachs, a bastion of Wall Street for over 150 years, has been remaking itself using new technology. Marty Chavez, co-head of securities and for...
AI and the value of expertise
26 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
AI has been predicted to replace humans in professions ranging from customer service representatives to medical doctors. But many have pointed out ele...
Uncertain times for global talent: News Corp's global mobility director on Brexit and U.S. policy changes
19 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The recent wave of geopolitical events, including Brexit and changes in U.S. policies, are creating uncertainties for firms that must manage global ta...
Speaking the language of skills
05 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As jobs change faster and faster and companies work to prepare their employees for the future, it is more important than ever for firms to assess the ...
IBM: View from the cutting edge of AI
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you ask her about emerging technologies, Sophie Vandebroek – VP of Emerging Technology Partnerships at IBM – can tell you firsthand how the pac...
The Caring Company
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Almost a third of workers—and more senior executives—say their careers have been adversely affected by caregiving obligations. As Joe explains to ...
Passion, purpose, and plan: Guiding students toward success at work
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The largest charter school network in the US, KIPP, is preparing young people, K–12, to lead what CEO Richard Barth calls “choice-filled lives.”...
Larry Summers: Urban-rural inequality and the importance of work
04 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Examining the realities of rural America, Larry Summers concludes that the problem is not just one of providing people with incomes—it’s about the...
Retraining road-trip: New skills for older workers
20 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From South Carolina, to Appalachia, to Wisconsin, Professor Willy Shih set out across the country to understand the plight of older workers coping wit...
Bridging the employer-educator divide
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
America’s skills ecosystem is broken. Employers are confounded by workforce development institutions. Middle skills employees can’t get the traini...
How advanced technology is lifting the business of cranes
25 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Panu Routila, the CEO of Konecranes, which makes port cranes and industrial lifting equipment, discusses how technology is transforming the business o...
How Vodafone’s CEO is using AI to transform the way the company works (rebroadcast)
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In a re-release of our first episode, Vittorio Colao, who stepped-down as CEO of Vodafone in October of 2018, discusses the sweeping changes technolog...
Ep 14: The gift of global talent: Why talented people are the world’s most precious resource
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode, Professor Bill Kerr talks with co-host Professor Joe Fuller about his new book on global talent. Talent, Bill argues, is the wor...
Ep 13: Work without borders: How digital platforms are transforming the way firms get things done
20 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As the world gets smaller, the talent pools available to firms are getting much, much bigger. By bringing employers and workers together and solving k...
Ep 12: Why employers should care about care
06 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As demographics change, caregiving responsibilities have become an increasingly integral part of employees' lives. Joe speaks with Care.com CEO Sheila...
Ep 11: High school to JP Morgan in seven seconds: How businesses gain an edge by providing ladders of opportunity
16 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There is a deep chasm separating the millions of Americans with limited access to college degrees from professional life. Gerald Chertavian, founder a...
Ep 10: Collaborate in the classroom, compete on the grid
31 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As regional utilities across the country faced a silver tsunami of retiring workers, they came together as an industry to develop a pipeline of middle...
Ep 9: How firms are building strategy around AI
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As businesses grapple with advancing artificial intelligence they must make strategic choices. Senior McKinsey Partner Scott Rutherford finds that the...
Ep 8: What can businesses learn from the present crisis of trust in tech?
11 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Sandra Sucher, an HBS faculty member who has studied trust in business for over a decade, discusses “techlash.” With customers, employee...
Ep 7: The CEO of ING Netherlands describes his bank’s agile “big bang”
29 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As customers become more demanding, businesses must work fast to release new products and provide a high-quality customer experience. To keep up, ING ...
Ep 6: From hot dogs to helicopters, the Golden Triangle’s workforce transformation
22 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joe discusses the ins and outs of developing an advanced manufacturing talent pipeline in rural Mississippi with Macaulay Whitaker, the Chief Operat...
Ep 5: Big-game fishing in rural Mississippi: Attracting employers to the Golden Triangle
19 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Fuller speaks with Joe Max Higgins, the CEO of Golden Triangle Development LINK, to discuss how a rural region in Mississippi became an attractive...
Ep 4: Jobs lost, jobs gained: Focus less on predictions, more on potential
03 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Chui, Senior Partner at McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), and an expert in artificial intelligence, believes that many jobs are going to disapp...
Ep 3: What really worries the AFL-CIO about the future of work?
03 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Damon Silvers, the Policy Director and Special Counsel at the AFL-CIO believes that with the Supreme Court slated to rule on Janus v. American Federat...
Ep 2: What smart employers are doing to prevent degree inflation
03 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
HBS professor Joe Fuller’s latest research Dismissed by Degrees shows that when companies start asking for a four-year college degree for jobs that...
Ep 1: How Vodafone’s CEO is using AI to transform the way the company works
03 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Vittorio Colao, CEO Vodafone, is bringing about sweeping change at one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. In a conversation with B...
(Trailer) Introducing: Managing the Future of Work by Harvard Business School
31 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard Business School Professors Bill Kerr and Joe Fuller talk to leaders grappling with the forces reshaping the nature of work.