Innovation

How World War II codebreaker Alan Turing invented modern AI.

Frank Wilczek is celebrated for his investigations into the fundamental laws of nature that have transformed our understanding of the forces that govern our Universe. In this video, the MIT […]

Business leaders know they must prepare for technological upheavals in the years ahead. But keeping up-to-date on new technologies—to say nothing of understanding their complexities and forecasting those shifts—is an […]

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use online ledgers, called blockchains, to record transactions. These blockchains are decentralized, meaning the permanent record is not stored in one location but exists on […]

Predicting how emerging technologies will impact industry is more difficult than it seems—and it seems plenty difficult.  The reason is that we envision the future based on the present. We […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has already changed the world. AI algorithms have been incorporated into everyday applications—such as social media, web mapping, facial recognition, and virtual home assistants—to make them more […]

The world is changing, and technology is driving that change. Today, that observation is about as compelling as the insight that water runs downhill. It’s just what technology (and water) […]

Anti-human business practices deteriorate their charges, and there’s perhaps no greater warning of this end result than the life of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. Nobel invented dynamite in 1867 with […]

What makes something a hit or a flop? Sit and ponder that one, and you’ll find it’s a stumper. At first, the answer seems obvious: popularity. That’s not quite right […]

For many, 2020 will not be remembered as a “best of” much. We don’t need to repeat the reasons here; it’s sufficient to point out that a 100-year pandemic was […]

Writers, filmmakers, and mythologizing biographers tend to imagine innovation originates with a lone genius who has “the spark,” that light-bulb moment when the path from inspiration to world-altering invention reveals […]

There’s a fortune to be made in data and silicon, and everyone is out for their share. Artificial intelligence is this century’s gold rush. Its promises scintillate in them there […]

Every organization needs the capacity to generate disruptive ideas. No one can afford to stand still and pretend that past habits will guarantee future success. If your organization isn’t ready […]

Crocodiles have been called “living fossils.” That is, the species has remained unaltered for vast periods of geologic time. They’ve become so perfectly adapted to their ecological niche that millions […]

Let’s talk about swans. All swans are birds or, more specifically, waterfowl. They are large and sport long, slender necks. They migrate south for the winter, traveling in that eye-catching […]

When we look at some of the companies with notoriously bad customer service, like Comcast, Bank of America, or United Airlines, it could be tempting to say that good customer […]

It doesn’t hurt to be quick, responsive, friendly, efficient, or reliable. But for A. G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, the most important ingredient to making your customers […]

Any business owner wants to make sure they’re giving their customers an ideal experience. Not only are happy customers more likely to be repeat customers, but they can serve as […]

Why should customers buy from you instead of your competitors? That’s the question at the heart of making a sale in a competitive market, says Matt Dixon, Global Head of […]

Every day, humanity generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Every minute, users are sharing nearly 500,000 tweets, watching more than 4 million YouTube videos, and conducting more than 3.6 million […]

While fewer companies these days rely solely on interviews in deciding who to hire, interviews still have value in that they can reveal the difference between a candidate as a […]

If a new hire is expected to put in 40 hours, 50 hours, or even more at their job, their new position will be their life for as long as […]

Social media wunderkind Baratunde Thurston says we’re living in an age of information overabundance, but that this needn’t be a problem. Just as supermarkets offer us many more choices of […]

For a startup, growth is a straightforward matter of scaling up: adding employees, setting up distribution channels, and so on. But, says David Butler in his Big Think+ video “Design […]

Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, is a programmer. When he got the idea to begin posting free online classes, he was able to get the basic infrastructure in place […]

 Weijian Shan, chairman of the PAG group, sees a bright future for investors in China, as long as they understand the evolving nature of the country’s economic growth. Though China’s […]

 “History is always written by the winners,” goes the saying. It’s also true that history is continually being made, and the identity of the “winner” continually shifts. In his Big […]

 As Chief Learning Officer at Degreed and former Chief Learning Officer at LinkedIn, Kelly Palmer has thought a lot about architecting effective learning environments for employees seeking to grow their […]

 Key performance indicators, KPIs, are not new: It’s said that way back in the third century, China’s Wei dynasty began using them to rate the behavior of members of the […]

 By 2003, General Electric, now better known as GE, had a reputation problem. Its long-time image as a company at the forefront of a sparkling future had been shaken. After […]