Digital Transformation Changes How Companies Create Value

Digital transformation is about changing where value is created, and how your business model is structured. More and more, value creation comes from outside the firm not inside, and from external partners rather than internal employees. The authors call this new production model an inverted firm, a change in organizational structure that affects not only the technology but also the managerial governance that attends it. Executives must understand and undertake partner relationship management, partner data management, partner product management, platform governance, and platform strategy. They must learn how to motivate people they dont know to share ideas they dont have.

Continued here

Getting Your Company's Data Program Back on Track

Many senior managers find themselves wondering: If data is such a game changer, why is it so hard to extract any value from it? For companies struggling to actually see results from their data program, it might be time to make a fresh start. There are three important issues managers need to understand as they restart: 1) Too many companies have made the mistake of viewing data as a technology problem, but data is a management problem, and it cannot be solved with technology alone. 2) Many companies try to tackle issues that are too difficult straight out of the gate. 3) Data is a different sort of asset: intangible, nuanced, both potentially valuable and dangerous. People need to spend time working with it to understand its properties.

Continued here

Why You Should Allow Returns on Customized Products

Consumers are accustomed to generous product returns policies online. Firms recognize that it makes the purchase decision easier. But most companies restrict these policies to standard products and customized products are typically not returnable. In this article the authors argue that this is a mistake. Extending easy returns to customized products will encourage consumers to engage more with the brand and will also reduce the likelihood of returns occurring in the first place. This will result in more loyal customers and higher profits. The authors also explored the conditions under which companies can expect a win-win outcome from adopting a lenient returns policy for customized products. Four factors seem to be critical: making customized products more salvageable; adopting tech innovations that reduce the cost of customization; reducing or eliminating customization fees; and providing improved, user-friendly interfaces.

Continued here

Your CSR Strategy Needs to Be Goal Driven, Achievable, and Authentic

As more companies commit to adopting CSR strategies that address environmental and social issues, its becoming more important than ever for these strategies to be goal-driven, ambitious yet achievable, and authentic. The author outlines six tips for companies to develop this kind of CSR strategy: Get buy-in from executives, determine material issues, align goals to company values and culture, establish a goal framework, create a system of implementation and accountability, and deliver transparent reporting.

Continued here

There's A Lot More To Translate In A Baby Babble Than You Might Think

A video of 19-month-old Orla from Liverpool has gone viral, reaching more than 19 million views on TikTok. In the clip, babysitter Olayka is trying to coax Orla into having a nap. Orla, however, wants to stay up and protests in babbling sounds with a distinct Liverpool English (scouse) accent.Behind this adorable exchange, important processes of language acquisition are at work. Here is what science says about the importance of babbling and how it is linked to accents.

Continued here

10 Leaks That Might Have Spoiled the iPhone 16 Three Months Early

With the expected iPhone 16 announcement just a few months away, the leaks are flooding in. Apples latest, greatest iPhone will obviously get a major software upgrade thanks to the introduction of Apple Intelligence, but it might also have some serious hardware improvements in store.Those upgrades could include a larger display, improved battery life, and even drum roll the introduction of another button. Here are 10 significant (and rumored) upgrades we could see in the upcoming iPhone 16.

Continued here

The 3.2 Million-Year-Old Lucy Fossil Reveals A Forgotten Truth About Humans

Fifty years ago, scientists discovered a nearly complete fossilized skull and hundreds of pieces of bone of a 3.2-million-year-old female specimen of the genus Australopithecus afarensis, often described as the mother of us all. During a celebration following her discovery, she was named Lucy, after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.Though Lucy has solved some evolutionary riddles, her appearance remains an ancestral secret.

Continued here

The Main Problem With Fast Fashion Is Really Easy To Fix -- Without Losing Style Points

As sunny summer days return in the northern hemisphere, you may be looking to refresh your wardrobe. The allure of a whole new you is pervasive and the foundation of many successful marketing campaigns.Indeed, as the weather changes and we spend more time outdoors, you may need lighter summer clothing. However, before you run out to H&M, it is worth considering how you can sustainably add to your wardrobe while limiting its carbon footprint.

Continued here

Will Joe Biden step down? An expert Q&A

Joe Bidens extremely weak performance at the CNN TV debate last week, has prompted senior figures in the Democrat party to question whether he is fit enough to stand for the upcoming presidential election. Former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said it was reasonable to ask: Is this an episode or is this a condition? Ahead of an interview with Biden by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos tonight, The Conversations Rachael Jolley asked Dafydd Townley, who studies US elections, what might happen next.

Continued here

Ecowas summit: 6 steps the leaders can take to restore stability and growth in west Africa

Senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Leeds Beckett University This years summit of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) takes place against a challenging environment for the regional bloc.

Continued here

Nigel Farage, Greens and 72 Liberal Democrats: inside Britain's new multi-party parliament

Aside from Labours landslide victory, the other big story of the 2024 election is the fragmentation of the British parliament and the rise of smaller parties at the expense of the Conservatives.While polls predicted a total wipeout for the Conservatives, they will at least be relieved to know they will still occupy the official opposition benches something which looked to be on a knife edge just a few days ago.

Continued here

Rachel Reeves is the UK's first female chancellor. Here's why that's so significant

Rachel Reeves has made history by becoming the UKs first female chancellor of the exchequer, bringing with her a significant promise for change in economic and financial policy-making at the highest level. The post of chancellor has existed for the past 800 years and, notably, has always been held by a man. Until now.

Continued here

The UK's new prime minister Keir Starmer - hoping for a Democrat in the White House, preparing for Trump

Keir Starmer, the UKs new prime minister, was quiet on the question of relations with the US prior to his election, choosing to avoid, in particular, talk of how he would manage a second Donald Trump presidency.Starmer is a centre-left politician the first to come to power in the UK for over a decade so his views are hardly aligned with Trumps. But the US presidential election is a few short months away and, depending on the result, the relationship between the UK and US could look very different on the other side of it.

Continued here

Fusion power could transform how we get our energy -- and worsen problems it's intended to solve

Harnessing energy from nuclear fusion the combining of nuclei, which lie within atoms could be instrumental in the shift towards a decarbonised global energy system. As issues of climate change and energy security are becoming increasingly salient, the promise of an apparently clean, abundant and safe energy source, such as fusion, is ever more appealing. In response, the fusion industry is growing rapidly and the trope that fusion is 30 years away and always will be is beginning to lose credibility as the technology moves beyond its experimental stage.

Continued here

US Supreme Court: 10 days of blockbuster decisions with huge implications for the future

The US Supreme Court has concluded its 2023-24 term in the past two weeks with a number of profoundly consequential decisions that have major implications for the years to come.This is the court of last resort in the US and no other court may overrule its decisions. It possesses tremendous authority, having the power to strike down as unconstitutional or illegal a vast range of actions or policies undertaken within the US political system.

Continued here

Three animals that can detect disease in humans

Jacqueline Boyd is affiliated with The Kennel Club (UK) through membership, as Chair of the Activities Health and Welfare Subgroup and member of the Dog Health Group. Jacqueline is a full member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT #01583) and she also writes, consults and coaches on canine matters on an independent basis, in addition to her academic affiliation at Nottingham Trent UniversityWhen it comes to accurately diagnosing a disease, you might think you need expensive, high-tech machinery and equipment capable of looking deep beneath the skin at whats going on in the body. But while these high-tech implements certainly are incredible, they arent the only instruments capable of detecting disease. In fact, you may even share a home with one of these powerful disease-detecting agents.

Continued here

What Labour's election means for women: the good and the bad

Its a good day for womens representation in politics. The proportion of women MPs has reached a record high of 40.6%. Women are expected to hold a number of prominent positions in the new government, including the UKs first female chancellor. Labour also has a stronger track record of women-friendly policies than the other parties. However, the picture is not entirely rosy.The newly elected parliament includes 264 women. This figure surpasses the threshold of 40% for the first time and is a big jump from the previous record of 34.2% in 2019. And women are not just on the backbenches, a number also hold senior frontbench roles, including Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister and levelling up secretary.

Continued here

The six most urgent problems facing the UK that Starmer's new government needs to fix

Keir Starmers Labour party has won the UK general election in a landslide. Its huge majority should, in theory, give Starmer the clout to see through most of his political agenda. But in reality, the victory celebrations might prove short-lived, given the size of the challenges in front of him.When Tony Blair came to power in 1997, he inherited a strong economy and a tide of booming national optimism. Starmer, by contrast, inherits an economy in the doldrums and a mandate seemingly more motivated by a desire to remove the Conservatives than by enthusiasm for Labours manifesto.

Continued here

Disproportional representation: what the UK election landslide would look like under NZ's MMP system

At first glance, Keir Starmers Labour Party has just put in a performance for the ages in the British general election. The incoming prime minister controls a comfortable parliamentary majority, Tory bastions have fallen to the left and the right, and any number of curtains have been brought down on the careers of Tory MPs and ministers.

Continued here

Keir Starmer appoints historic cabinet with record number of women - now comes the hard part: governing

As the dust settles on Labours historic election win, Keir Starmer, the UKs new prime minister, has appointed his team of senior ministers. These men and women (of whom there are a record number in this cabinet) are now responsible for governing and delivering on the partys manifesto commitments.The ability to choose who sits in cabinet and what jobs they have is hugely empowering for any prime minister. Most ambitious politicians crave high office, which locks them into an essentially submissive relationship with the prime minister.

Continued here