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The global economic growth will essentially be driven by new technologies in the coming years, in particular by the innovations relating to artificial intelligence. Yet, seizing the AI opportunities entails much more than betting on the best technology.

Companies that present the best growth potential even consider that the technological aspect only represents a minor part of the challenge. According to a study conducted by the Boston Consulting group in 2022 among 700 business leaders from all sectors of activity in 47 countries, the companies best equipped to reap the benefits of the innovations brought by AI follow the “10-20-70” rule. Only 10% of their efforts are invested in the design of their AI model; 20% are dedicated to the collection of quality data; and the remaining 70% focus on the organization and the people. These companies primarily aim at attracting and retaining the best talents, at training their employees to obtain the right mix of competences, at anchoring a culture of innovation and at making their internal processes more agile and collaborative.

An analysis that invites to put some perspective on your investments: does their actual distribution enable the reinforcement of the company’s capacities to reap the benefits of the ongoing technological disruptions?

Source: The New Blueprint for Corporate Performance, Amanda Luther, Romain de Laubier, Saibal Chakraborty, Dylan Bolden, Sylvain Duranton, Tauseef Charanya, Patrick Forth, BCG, April 2023. 

How can you develop a constructive relationship with your direct superior? An essential point consists in knowing when to solicit them so that they can bring their added value at the right time. Indeed, when entrusted with an assignment by our N+1, our reaction is often to try and progress alone as far as possible, to deliver an accomplished deliverable. By doing so, we run the risk of being disappointed. Instead of bringing the so hoped-for validation, it is common that the superior embarks on a hunt for details or suggests other ways of addressing the project, to the greatest frustration of both parties.

To minimize this risk, it is more valuable to seek the contribution of your N+1 throughout the course of the project. Delegating an assignment does not mean that we don’t want to hear about it! Solicit your superior regularly, at key moments, to further your thinking: at the beginning, reformulate the challenges and ensure that your boss is in tune with you; present your different scenarios to check that they are coherent with the strategic priorities; ask for rapid feedback on a report structure before finalizing it in detail. This regular exchange dynamic will enable you to better understand each other and to avoid many frustrations.

Source: Designing Jobs Right, Roger L. Martin, Harvard Business Review, January-February 2023.

Numbers often occupy a central place in presentations. Plots, pies and histograms fill slides to convince, mobilize, alert. But how to make sure that they actually produce the expected impact?

The usual practice consists in displaying all the numbers available to give the audience a global view of the situation, then to attract attention on such disbalance between columns or such evolution, whether positive or negative. Yet, laying out all our cards at the outset is counterproductive. Expert in communication Nancy Duarte recommends seeking inspiration from storytelling and provoking an emotional reaction that will more durably impact the audience. You can thus create some suspense by only displaying the first elements of your diagram, to then unveil progressively the other data by telling a story, like a narrator. For example, invite the audience to guess the evolution of a curve before letting the final result appear. The narrative tension thus created will facilitate the assimilation of the figures that are presented.

Source: The Simple Power of the Slow Reveal, Nancy Duarte, MIT Sloan Management Review, March 2023.

Kindness is an underestimated and underused lever of performance in the business world. Indeed, numerous surveys have shown that when employees show consideration for one another—a little compliment in passing, a thank you, some help, etc.—, the work atmosphere and the level of collaboration are greatly improved. Even better: a study conducted among more than 50,000 people in 3,500 departments has shown that the higher frequency of such behaviors was a sign suggesting greater productivity, as well as a lower staff turnover! And, cherry on top of the cake: there is no need to exert considerable efforts, especially since small gestures have as much impact as big ones.

So, don’t hesitate: lead by example! Far from being weak and insignificant, your little signs of care will help you reinforce the social bonds with your staff and within your team. This is a particularly appreciable advantage in our hybrid working environments, which should have a rapid snowball effect on both the work atmosphere and the results, to everyone’s profit!

Source: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Kindness at Work, Ovul Sezer, Kelly Nault, Nadav Klein, Harvard Business Review, May 2021.

Leaders and managers are often advised to scrutinize their market and customer data to spot possible “weak signals”—these micro-changes or these burgeoning expectations that prefigure future megatrends. But how can we determine if a given anomaly in the data is a weak signal, or simply a value that diverges from the average? The processing of important masses of data necessarily involves the presence of numerous anomalies, which does not however mean they are all significant.

To make a judgment, experts in strategy advise that we evaluate each anomaly according to three dimensions:

- Its dynamic: is the anomaly persisting over time? Is it rapidly growing? Do the pioneers in your sector appear to show close interest in it?

- Its robustness: does the anomaly appear in several sets of data? Is it coherent with other changes in your environment?

- Its impact: does the anomaly reveal a dead angle which is not covered by current offerings? What would be the consequences if it became widespread?

A simple analysis framework, to experiment in your next strategic thinking sessions.

Source: The Power of Anomaly, Martin Reeves, Bob Goodson, Kevin Whitaker, Harvard Business Review, July-August 2021.