Business, ethics & society

Trust is built slowly and erodes quickly. Netflix was lauded as an inclusive employer, but when it aired Dave Chappelle’s controversial special The Closer, it seemed unprepared for backlash from multiple stakeholders, including the LGBTQ+ community. What could it have done better to balance the paramount issues of freedom of speech and inclusivity?

Smart technology will completely change both your way of life and your way of working. We will live in the most disruptive time for the workforce since the Great Depression. What does this mean for millions of lives, for the public school system and for society at large? And what is to be done about it?

From the explosion of Generative AI to the evolution of the hybrid workplace, disruption has become the “norm” for business. How will business and society be shaped by disruption in 2024?

How can those seeking to create diverse, equitable and inclusive workspaces bring opposing sides into alignment? The answer: Consider the various stakeholders in an organization as taking part in a multi-party, multi-issue negotiation. Here are three key tactics for leaders to use in an organizational context to implement DEIB more effectively.

Low-cost renewable power: Husk Power Systems uses the world’s largest fleet of solar hybrid minigrids to provide power to remote rural communities across South Asia — with an agricultural waste product. Professor Saras Sarasvathy discusses how entrepreneurship is a method to build a better world and unleash human potential.

If you are a business practitioner — or own a smartphone — you likely understand the battle marketers, content creators and digital platforms wage over your attention. You are also perhaps conscious of the toll this competition takes on your attention span and mental well-being. How can we change this toxic “attention economy” for the better?

Trends and predictions for the AI world. The importance of careful communication. Groundbreaking research using neuroscience to predict human choices. Employee disengagement and what to do about it. The importance of generalists in a tech-driven working world. Darden Ideas to Action insights draw from faculty expertise, books, research and cases.

After a brief reprieve during the COVID-19 pandemic, emissions continue to rise, and with each passing year, the work to slow climate change becomes harder. Time is running out, and we need innovation across all industry sectors — and in products, services and policy that paves the way for rapid adoption and deployment of decarbonized technologies.

We are in a new era — the Era of Smart Technology — that is going to transform how we live, how we work and how we educate people. Our current education system was built upon principles necessary for the industrial age, and that age is over. This is an existential societal issue, and this new era will require a different type of public education.

Black police officers can be a model for how employees can do anti-racism work in the workplace, even in institutions historically entrenched in systemic racism. Any employee can learn to challenge racialized behavior, recruit and promote for representation, and go above and beyond outside of an organization.