HBS Managing the Future of Work

By Harvard Business School

Technology Business

What's HBS Managing the Future of Work about?

Artificial intelligence. Robotics. The Gig Economy. Globalization. The world is changing at a dizzying pace in ways that will have a profound effect on the economy, jobs and the flow of talent. How will firms cope with the changes ahead and what steps do they need to take today? Each episode features faculty from the world’s leading business school interviewing CEOs, technologists and experts on the bleeding edge discussing how to survive and thrive by managing the future of work.

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US plans for AI primacy

05.05.2021

As the US vies with global AI rivals for technological and strategic advantage, where will it find the human brainpower and skilled labor to compete? Is the government prepared for the challenge? Artificial intelligence is crossing boundaries, transforming markets, and ...

HBS Managing the Future of Work episodes:

05.05.2021 US plans for AI primacy As the US vies with global AI rivals for technological and strategic advantage, where will it find the human brainpower and skilled labor to compete? Is the government prepared for the challenge? Artificial intelligence is crossing boundaries, transforming markets, and ...
04.21.2021 Architect Stefan Behnisch on designing for a changing workforce Many architects are looking for work these days but the profession as a whole is influencing the future of work writ large. The more rigid, risk-averse business of building has been hit hard by the pandemic. Architects are playing a ...
04.08.2021 Social Finance: trainers make the grade when students get good jobs Social Finance has deftly aligned incentives around skills training. By pooling public and private resources and making job placement a shared goal, the nonprofit is providing proof of concept that could scale to address workforce development needs nationwide. Co-founder and ...
03.24.2021 Spotify’s talent play: distributed, flexible, and diverse Going into the pandemic, Spotify was well positioned for the increase in demand for streaming music and podcasts. To accommodate the surge and expand its podcast presence, the 15-year-old Swedish company with offices in more than 70 countries increased its ...
03.10.2021 Can AI and analytics deliver efficient, equitable skills markets? As employers and job seekers cope with pandemic-induced disruption and uncertainty, the role of intermediary is more crucial than ever. Job platform CareerBuilder, with its two-sided skills market, looks to smooth the employment process and increase diversity. CEO Irina Novoselsky ...
02.24.2021 Factoring high-skills freelancers into the enterprise equation Digital platforms for highly skilled freelancers are set to broker more strategic engagements for businesses needing extra capacity and flexibility. HBS and Managing the Future of Work’s Joe Fuller and Boston Consulting Group’s Allison Bailey, co-authors of the report "Building ...
02.17.2021 The value of knowing what you’re about: HR, diversity, and work-life balance Self-awareness can be a strategic asset for businesses and individuals alike, says Edith Cooper. The former Goldman Sachs partner reflects on the evolution of the employer-employee relationship, the benefits of cultivating diversity and individuality, and how a new generation of ...
02.10.2021 Parsing 5G’s potential for work and learning As the realities of 5G wireless networking and the Internet of Things catch up to the hype, the effects are expected to be sweeping, from smart infrastructure to enhanced education and training and new business models. Mo Katibeh, AT&T’s Chief ...
02.03.2021 MIT’s David Autor on engineering more equitable growth MIT labor economist David Autor, co-chair of the Institute’s Task Force on the Work of the Future, discusses the initiative’s report, “The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines.” Describing the report as both ...
01.27.2021 Reorienting work and learning around skills building As work life morphs into an expanding series of limited engagements, education and training need to be retooled for the long haul. Workforce training expert Michelle Weise, author of the new book Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs That Don’t ...
01.20.2021 Safely unleashing the power of industrial robots The idea of uncaging industrial robots may seem like a Hollywood trope, but it refers to technology that allows manufacturers to choreograph more precise and productive interplay between robots and workers. Veo Robotics president, CEO, and co-founder, Patrick Sobalvarro, explains ...
01.13.2021 Keeping remote workers at the center of the action Video conferencing and other communications technologies have been a lifeline for many during the Covid-19 pandemic. But they can exacerbate existing inequalities and create new ones. How can organizations help employees thrive in the post-Covid hybrid workforce of in-person and ...
01.08.2021 How we can avoid the robot apocalypse As AI and automation take on more and more sophisticated tasks, being human can look like a career liability. But not when you consider inherent advantages like our capacity to collaborate, create, and think critically. Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO ...
12.16.2020 Intermountain Healthcare: How Covid-19 catalyzes change Covid-19 is pushing hospitals to evolve in ways that will outlast the coronavirus outbreak. Intermountain Healthcare’s roughly 40,000 employees staff businesses from food service to operating rooms. The pandemic is speeding the Utah-based non-profit’s adoption of telemedicine, digital platforms, and ...
12.09.2020 Udacity’s skills play: Closing the loop on demand and supply As jobs give way to skills as units of work, training is following suit. Udacity’s relationships with Fortune 500 companies, universities, and national governments inform its practical online training in technical and business skills. CEO Gabriel Dalporto discusses Nanodegrees, experiential ...
12.02.2020 COOP Careers: It’s what you know and who you know Underemployment is a common trap among first-in-their-family college grads and those from low-income backgrounds and underserved communities. Kalani Leifer, founder and CEO of nonprofit COOP Careers, talks about how his organization works with recent grads to equip them with digital ...
11.25.2020 PwC: Coaching change in times of crisis Covid-19 has accelerated many organizational trends, from remote work and digitalization to automation and a growing recognition of inequalities. Consulting firms are key actors in responding to this dynamic. What can we learn from them on the new normal and ...
11.18.2020 WWT: IT innovation rooted in diversity and employee wellbeing Corporate social responsibility and commitment to a local workforce can go hand-in-hand with profitability. World Wide Technology in St. Louis is managing to thrive while dealing head-on with the pandemic and social and racial issues. One of the largest minority-owned ...
11.11.2020 Is survival on the post-Covid menu for restaurants? The restaurant industry has been especially hard-hit by the pandemic. Restaurants quickly shifted from indoor dining to a greater reliance on online ordering, curbside pick-up, outdoor dining, and delivery. Toast, a restaurant management services company, provides tools for all facets ...
11.04.2020 IBM P-TECH and SkillsBuild: Narrow the skills gap, broaden opportunity Can public-private partnerships do the heavy lifting of workforce development and promote upward mobility? IBM P-TECH high school STEM program supports students as they earn a high school diploma and an associate degree. The company recently added SkillsBuild, a training ...
10.28.2020 Glint-LinkedIn: Worker sentiment informs management Glint-LinkedIn equips firms with survey tools and AI analytics to keep tabs on the collective mental state of their employees. Justin Black, head of people science at LinkedIn, explains the potential benefits: productivity gains, a more engaged workforce, and less ...
10.21.2020 Community colleges: AACC head Walter Bumphus on adversity and opportunity Dr. Walter Bumphus, President and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), discusses the role of the nation’s over 1,000 2-year post-secondary institutions in responding to the multiple crises disproportionately affecting their 12 million students in 2020. As ...
10.14.2020 Chattanooga bridges the digital divide to make online learning more equitable For some families online learning is a rocky road. For others it’s a dead end. To address the uneven distribution of digital infrastructure, public-private partnership EdConnect provides students in underserved areas with broadband. Tennessee’s Superintendent of the Year, Dr. Bryan ...
10.07.2020 How US community colleges can bolster the post-Covid recovery The US is facing a tsunami of demand for skills training and job placement. Its 1,100 community and technical colleges offer the best institutional infrastructure and student support for the task, but key reforms are needed. So argues "The Indispensable ...
09.30.2020 How San Antonio’s Project Quest facilitates upward mobility In confronting the unprecedented economic and social crises roiling the US in late 2020, it helps to have deep roots in local communities. San Antonio’s Project Quest brings to the task decades of success in advancing upward mobility. The nonprofit ...
09.25.2020 MFW guest appearance: Joe Fuller on Braintrust's "The Way Work Should Work" What's in store for the gig economy and how will Covid-19 change the nature of work? Managing the Future of Work project co-chair and podcast co-host Joe Fuller was the inaugural guest on "The Way Work Should Work," the new ...
09.23.2020 How brain games and AI can improve HR Can neuroscience and AI improve hiring and worker evaluations? Pymetrics’ co-founder and CEO, Frida Polli, argues that the combination is necessary to overcome human bias and to bring empirical rigor to the task of matching talent to fast-changing job categories. ...
09.18.2020 MFW guest appearance: Joe Fuller on Behind Bundle Managing the Future of Work co-chair and podcast co-host, Joe Fuller, is a close observer of the care economy. He recently appeared as a guest on Behind Bundle, the podcast produced by employee benefits startup Bundle. The concierge service, which ...
09.16.2020 How Covid and BLM strengthen the case for shoring up historically Black colleges Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement have added urgency to efforts to bolster Black students' access to higher education. It's a pivotal moment for UNCF, founded at the end of WWII as the United Negro College Fund. The organization ...
09.09.2020 MFW Dispatch: Jeff Ray The pandemic has unsurprisingly produced a sustained surge in streaming video. Brightcove’s software platform is a key component of the online video infrastructure. CEO Jeff Ray discusses video’s “evolutionary moment,” as remote work and virtual events become the norm and ...
09.02.2020 MFW Dispatch: Marissa Andrada While adapting to the limitations imposed by the pandemic, fast food chain Chipotle is looking to emerge stronger by maintaining commitments to its workforce. As Chipotle’s chief diversity, inclusion, and people officer, Marissa Andrada, explains, the company anticipates long-term returns ...
08.27.2020 Braintrust takes aim at the gig platform middleman Braintrust’s gig model disrupts the status quo, replacing the typical middleman and assigning governing rights to users. The not-for-profit, which connects highly skilled tech talent with enterprise clients, uses blockchain tokens to grant users who help build the platform voting ...
08.25.2020 Cybersecurity for the post-Covid new normal of work Covid-19 and the 2020 election stack up as unprecedented infrastructure challenges. And both raise the stakes for cybersecurity. The skills shortage in this area—estimated in the millions of workers—demands a strategic rethink by organizations relying on remote work and governments ...
08.20.2020 Tulsa Remote: Live here, work anywhere Will Covid-19 empty superstar cities? Metros outside the top tier are now in a better position to compete for talent. This plays to the strengths of programs like Tulsa Remote, which helps professionals who work remotely relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma. ...
08.18.2020 Google expands college-alternative tech skills training The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the shortage of workers with up-to-date digital skills. Tech titans like Amazon and Microsoft have responded with training and certification programs. Google says its Grow with Google program of low-cost, platform-agnostic, three- to six-month courses ...
08.13.2020 How Guild democratizes employer-sponsored education benefits For many workers, company-sponsored education benefits are a perk that’s hard to translate from employee handbook to reality. Guild Education bridges this gap by aligning incentives— matching students with appropriate programs, having employers profitably front costs, coaching and supporting students, ...
08.11.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Todd Oldham Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY, is a leader in workforce development, combining original economic research, employer partnerships, and pragmatic programs for reaching its student population. Todd Oldham, VP of Economic Development, Workforce, and Career Technical Education, has spearheaded the ...
08.06.2020 Unilever’s workforce transformation: hard truths and help with change Unilever is several years into a company-wide plan to revolutionize its workforce. Faced with the challenge of selling its employees on change as opportunity, the multinational offers job counseling, retraining, and assistance with career moves—within the company or elsewhere. Executive ...
08.04.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Tim Rowe The start-stop nature of business during the coronavirus pandemic demands flexibility and innovation. This is especially true for physical places of work. CIC maintains offices, shared workspace, and labs. It specializes in building hives of creative and productive activity and ...
07.30.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Louis Gagnon The Covid-19 pandemic is triggering widespread anxiety, depression, and addiction—deepening what many have identified as a mental health crisis. A recent study suggests that at least a quarter of American adults are experiencing pandemic-attributed, high emotional distress. Louis Gagnon, CEO ...
07.28.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Kass Dawson Covid-19 has made robots a welcome sight for many by hastening the adoption of autonomous cleaner-bots, greeters, personal assistants, burger-flippers, classroom aids, and more. SoftBank Robotics' Kass Dawson talks about the role of robotics in combatting Covid-19 and in changing ...
07.23.2020 Tightrope: Working-class despair and the seeds of hope Working class Americans are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic. In their recent book, "Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Sheryl WuDunn (HBS ‘86) and Nicholas Kristof focus on the group's decades-long struggles with economic insecurity, substance abuse, ...
07.21.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Laura Morgan Roberts How can businesses move from awareness to action on systemic racial discrimination? In a wide-ranging discussion, Laura Morgan Roberts, an organizational psychology expert and professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, says it begins with frankly acknowledging ...
07.16.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: John Pepper Is the triple bottom line a liability in a crisis? The question is anything but theoretical for John Pepper, who co-founded restaurant chain Boloco in 1997. The pandemic has brought many restaurants to the brink, but Boloco continues to work ...
07.14.2020 Special Episode: Tsedal Neeley and Merck CEO Ken Frazier on vaccines, racism, and leadership Merck Chairman and CEO, Ken Frazier—one of only four Black CEOs in the Fortune 500—joins HBS Professor Tsedal Neeley. Topics include the necessity of putting science ahead of politics in the search for a cure for Covid-19 and steps corporate ...
07.08.2020 Beyond family leave: How help with caregiving benefits workers and employers The pandemic underscores US workers’ need for help with caregiving obligations. HBS graduate Lindsay Jurist-Rosner founded B2B benefits company Wellthy in 2014 after realizing that her experience juggling work and the complex care needs of her mother was shared in ...
07.01.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Tsedal Neeley Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley has spent decades studying distributed organizations. Author of the forthcoming book Remote Work Revolution, she explains that getting it right depends on clear communication, routine, work-life boundaries, common purpose, and inclusion. She also discusses ...
06.24.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Noah Smith In a wide-ranging conversation, Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith candidly discusses how Covid-19 has exposed many of America’s systemic weaknesses, including the underfunding of social programs and infrastructure due to racism, bailouts for “zombie” companies, generational inequality, and the challenge of ...
06.19.2020 Dexai: Machine learning in the kitchen Advances in robotics have opened the way for the ultimate in smart kitchen appliances. Draper Labs spinoff, Dexai, makes the AI brains that coordinate the actions of Alfred, a robotic arm versatile enough follow recipes and handle orders in commercial ...
06.15.2020 Covid-19 Dispatch: Sal Khan Khan Academy’s polyglot and free online courses seem tailor-made for a pandemic-struck globe. The education nonprofit, founded in 2008 by HBS graduate Sal Khan, now serves over 100 million students in 190 countries. As schools contemplate reopening, it is developing ...

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