Extractive summaries of and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 253 | July 15-21, 2022
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Shaping Section : Ideas and forces shaping economies and industries
What to do now about tomorrow’s code-cracking computers
The Economist | July 14, 2022
Hacking and data breaches are a cost of doing business. One defense is to use encryption, but in the fast-approaching era of quantum computers that defense will fail. When quantum computers reach their potential, decades of secret intelligence, credit-card details, intellectual property, and military and medical data will become as easy to read as the words before your eyes. The world will suffer the broadest, deepest hack in history. Now researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), America’s standards agency, have shown how to avert at least some of that catastrophe.
Quantum computers turn some of the probabilistic, simultaneously here-and-there weirdness of quantum physics into number-crunching elegance. Their powers will be limited to a smallish class of problems; it is an unfortunate coincidence that one of them is unscrambling the calculations in the defence behind which the entire digital economy has been built.
This coincidence could not be more consequential. Encrypted information is sent round the world with abandon. Be in no doubt that some is being warehoused for decryption tomorrow by malefactors awaiting a quantum-computing future. Progress towards that future is relentless, and not only because some people want to crack the internet. Pursuits ranging from machine-learning and logistics to portfolio management and drug development are ripe for a quantum boost.
No surprise, then, that some of the world’s largest firms are in the race. Computer-scientist types have therefore been hard at work conjuring “post-quantum cryptography” (PQC) protocols: new encryption mathematics that outpaces the capabilities even of quantum machines. None has yet become a trusted standard, but now NIST has picked a set of recipes that have survived years of tyre-kicking. The imprimatur of a world-renowned standards body should be enough to start a general shift to PQC. That should begin today, as it will take time for the new protocols to supplant the old techniques.
This is more than just a matter of bottom-covering and locking down data in danger of being hoovered up by tomorrow’s quantum-enabled hackers. Given how long the transition will take (and the certainty, acquired from bitter experience, that many will drag their feet), early adopters will enjoy an advantage. “PQC-ready” should become a selling-point.
For decades the security-minded had little need to worry about cryptographic protocols, which were the best defence within the only existing computer architecture. Now that old architecture has a rival. Most who implement PQC will not see any difference, and have no need to fuss with the 600-digit numbers in use today. They should, however, sleep a little easier.
3 key takeaways from the article
- Hacking and data breaches are a cost of doing business. One defense is to use encryption, but in the fast-approaching era of quantum computers that defense will fail.
- When quantum computers reach their potential, decades of secret intelligence, credit-card details, intellectual property, and military and medical data will become as easy to read as the words before your eyes.
- The world will suffer the broadest, deepest hack in history. Now researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), America’s standards agency, have shown how to avert at least some of that catastrophe. Governments, business leaders, and software vendors should pay heed.
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Topics: Technology, Cryptography
Is Data Scientist Still the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century?
By Thomas H. Davenport and DJ Patil | Harvard Business Review | July 15, 2022
Ten years ago the authors published the article “Data Scientist: Sexiest Job of the 21st Century.” The role was relatively new at the time, but as more companies attempted to make sense of big data, they realized they needed people who could combine programming, analytics, and experimentation skills. At the time, that demand was largely restricted to the San Francisco Bay Area and a few other coastal cities. A decade later, the job is more in demand than ever with employers and recruiters. AI is increasingly popular in business, and companies of all sizes and locations feel they need data scientists to develop AI models. The job has changed — in four important ways.
- Better Institutionalized. In 2012, data science was a nascent function even in AI-oriented startups. Today it is quite well-established, at least in firms with a major commitment to data and AI. Banks, insurance companies, retailers, and even health care providers, and even government agencies have substantial data science groups. One important factor facilitating institutionalization has been the rise of data science-oriented educational offerings.
- Data Scientists in Relation to Other Roles. The assumption in 2012 was that data scientists could do all required tasks in a data science application — from conceptualizing the use case, to interfacing with business and technology stakeholders, to developing the algorithm and deploying it into production. Now, however, there has been a proliferation of related jobs to handle many of those tasks, including machine learning engineer, data engineer, AI specialist, analytics and AI translators, and data oriented product managers. Part of the proliferation is due to the fact that no single job incumbent can possess all the skills needed to successfully deploy a complex AI or analytics system.
- Changes in Technology. One reason why the data scientist job keeps changing is because the technologies data scientists use are changing. Some technology trends are continuations of directions present in 2012, such as the use of open source tools and the move to cloud-based processing and data storage. But some affect the core of data science work. For example, some aspects of data science are increasingly automated (using automated machine learning or AutoML), which can both improve the productivity of data science professionals and open up the possibility of “citizen data scientists” with only some quantitative training.
- The Ethics of Data Science. A major change in data science over the past decade is that the need for an ethical dimension to the field is now widely acknowledged, though the topic was rarely mentioned in 2012. The turning point for data science ethics was probably the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in which data scientists in social media (Cambridge Analytica and Facebook in particular) attempted to influence voters and further polarized electoral politics. Since that time, considerable attention has been devoted to issues of algorithmic bias, transparency, and responsible use of analytics and AI.
3 key takeaways from the article
- Ten years ago HBR published the article “Data Scientist: Sexiest Job of the 21st Century.” The role was relatively new at the time, but as more companies attempted to make sense of big data, they realized they needed people who could combine programming, analytics, and experimentation skills. A decade later, the job is more in demand than ever with employers and recruiters.
- Data science role has seen both continuity and change. It has been remarkably successful in many ways, and some of its challenges — proliferation of related roles, the need for an ethical perspective — result in part from the widespread adoption of data science.
- The amount of data, analytics, and AI in business and society seem unlikely to decline, so the job of data scientist will only continue to grow in its importance in the business landscape.
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Topics: Technology, Employment, Data Analyst
The Era of Expensive Oil Is Here to Stay
By Will Kennedy | Bloomberg Businessweek | July 13, 2022
On July 6 the global benchmark for oil slid below $100 a barrel for the first time since April, raising the hopes of politicians, business owners, and drivers around the world that the days of high fuel prices were coming to an end.
We’re not there yet. In fact, the underlying dynamics of oil supply and demand point to a prolonged period of higher prices, lasting months if not years. Demand for fuel is still growing as the world picks up where it left off before Covid-19 lockdowns. There’s a shortage of refineries to turn oil into fuel. And the world’s largest oil producers are hitting up against the limits of what they can drill. All this as Vladimir Putin’s war suppresses exports from Russia.
The impact on global economics and politics is profound. A 42% runup in gasoline prices this year has already driven inflation in the US to the highest in a generation and helped put the Republican Party on course to retake Congress in this year’s midterm elections. High fuel costs are sparking unrest in countries from Peru to Sri Lanka. The energy transition world leaders have been talking about for years is at risk of being sidelined.
Supply will have a tough time keeping up. In June, JPMorgan Chase & Co. painted one apocalyptic scenario in which Putin holds back millions of barrels of Russian oil from the market and prices rocket to $380 a barrel. The prospects for finding production growth outside of Russia are dim. OPEC, which produces about 40% of the world’s crude, is finding it difficult to meet production targets. Aging infrastructure, years of historically low investment, and political trauma have combined to hold back output. There are no signs that America’s shale industry is ready—or willing—to bail out the world. It’s not just that oil producers can’t produce more oil. Some don’t want to. And there’s also the refining bottleneck. Not everyone is a bull. Citigroup Inc. published a recent note that predicted oil could tumble to $65 a barrel in the event of a recession.
Against all the supply-side woes is the surge in demand. After two years of Covid restrictions, people are taking to the roads and air by the hundreds of millions. Halfway through summer, demand is already close to matching pre-pandemic levels. And China hasn’t even fully emerged from lockdowns yet.
2 key takeaways from the article
- On July 6 the global benchmark for oil slid below $100 a barrel for the first time since April, raising the hopes of politicians, business owners, and drivers around the world that the days of high fuel prices were coming to an end.
- We’re not there yet. In fact, the underlying dynamics of oil supply and demand point to a prolonged period of higher prices, lasting months if not years. Demand for fuel is still growing as the world picks up where it left off before Covid-19 lockdowns. There’s a shortage of refineries to turn oil into fuel. And the world’s largest oil producers are hitting up against the limits of what they can drill. All this as Vladimir Putin’s war suppresses exports from Russia.
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Topics: Energy Prices, Inflation, Global Economy
Strategy & Business Model Section
How Future Thinking Can Derail Your Company’s Present
By Howard Yu and Alyson Meister | MIT Sloan Management Review | July 13, 2022
Important trends offer opportunities to dream even bigger — but dreaming big does not mean escaping reality. Companies cannot afford to lose sight of their core customers and the present economic environment. Here are four common mistakes that can derail leaders as they strategize for the future.
Derailer 1: Hoping to Run Before You Can Walk. It’s easy to think that because others are doing it, you can do it too. Surely new trends offer opportunities prompting companies to enter in this marathon. But the question executives must ask themselves is this: Are these eye-catching examples of other companies’ performance scalable or one-offs? How can an organization turn the emerging opportunity into a sustainable shift in business models? Capitalizing on a new trend always takes preparation. It materializes via incremental evolution. Great companies don’t spring from a sudden revolution.
Derailer 2: Forgetting Your Core Customers of Today. A leader must have a strong hold on the future, but even more critically, leaders must not forget the business fundamentals of the present. First and foremost is the value proposition for your core customers. Dreaming big doesn’t mean you can forget the needs of your core customers. They are the ones who make you who you are.
Derailer 3: Avoiding Tough Decisions and Necessary Conflicts. Insight is cheap unless it’s deployed at scale, and herein lies the paradox of future thinking. People love discussing future scenarios. What’s hard is making the final decision on what to do next. Harder still is rechanneling resources and energy behind a set of committed choices. Why? Because making good choices often requires engaging in passionate debate, executing a painful realignment of different interest groups, and sometimes disappointing stakeholders that matter. And ultimately, someone must own the decision (and then its execution), with clear accountability. That’s why it’s helpful to ask ourselves — and to check with our teams about — what decisions and undiscussable conversations we might be avoiding.
Derailer 4: Revering Only the New Star Talent. To reinvent themselves, organizations often need new talent. Sometimes this happens through acquiring another organization or establishing partnerships. Other times, organizations hire experts from other industries. These new star talents are often tasked with an important mission. They can be greeted with public fanfare and might be unintentionally revered and accorded a higher status than those working on business as usual. The adverse effect is that you can leave the bulk of the organization — those who are making the present possible — disillusioned and demotivated, resulting in performance declines. It’s important to ensure that your current talent remains recognized and celebrated.
3 key takeaways from the article
- Everyone wants to be future-ready, especially in uncertain times. Despite the volatility, the future is still arriving at an accelerating pace.
- Important trends offer opportunities to dream even bigger — but dreaming big does not mean escaping reality. Companies cannot afford to lose sight of their core customers and the present economic environment.
- To ensure that your efforts to be future-ready are met with the greatest chance of success, it’s critical to (1) ensure that you can live up to your promises — that is, don’t run before you can walk; (2) not neglect your core customers of today; (3) be willing to make tough decisions; and (4) embrace new talent while not forgetting your current employees.
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Topics: Strategy, Leadership, Business Model, Invention
Leading & Managing Section
Choosing to grow: The leader’s blueprint
By Michael Birshan et a., | McKinsey & Company | July 7, 2022
Growth is something every CEO and business leader aspires to deliver, but for many, it remains elusive. About a quarter of companies don’t grow at all, and between 2010 and 2019, only one in eight achieved more than 10 percent revenue growth annually. Sustained, profitable growth is possible, however, and it comes down to “choice.” Do you, as a leader, make an explicit choice to grow? Or do you pay lip service to your growth ambitions and let your resolve falter if profit isn’t immediate? When sustainable, inclusive, and profitable growth becomes a conscious, resolute choice, it shapes decision-making across every area of the business.
The leaders who choose growth and outperform their peers not only think, act, and speak differently; they align around a shared mindset, strategy, and capabilities. These leaders follow a timeless blueprint for growth that flows from mindset into growth pathways and execution. Three components of this blue print are:
- Set an aspirational mindset and culture. C-suite growth leaders share a common series of mindsets and behaviors from their communications to their willingness to learn through failure. Those who display at least three (set, communicate and commit) of the five key growth mindsets are 2.4 times more likely to profitably outgrow their peers.
- Activate the growth pathways. High-growth companies naturaly position themselves to look for the opportunities wherever it exists. Those companies that set growth strategies to address all available pathways to growth are 97 percent more likely to achieve profitable above-peer growth. Tried to achieve this growth by activating three pathways: expanding the core business, innovating into new markets and adjacencies, and purposefully pursuing opportunities for breakthrough growth through new-business building or mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The most successful companies are able to balance and sequence these growth choices in response to their changing operating environments, advances in technology, and emerging customer needs and preferences.
- Execute with excellence. Execution works hand-in-hand with strategy to empower leaders to make the right choices at the right time to drive both short-term and long-term growth. Leaders who choose growth support their ambitions by prioritizing a critical set of execution enablers: operating model and resource allocation, ecosystems, M&A, joint ventures and alliances, and functional capabilities.
3 key takeaways from the article
- Growth is something every CEO and business leader aspires to deliver, but for many, it remains elusive.
- Sustained, profitable growth is possible, however, and it comes down to “choice.” Do you, as a leader, make an explicit choice to grow? Or do you pay lip service to your growth ambitions and let your resolve falter if profit isn’t immediate? When sustainable, inclusive, and profitable growth becomes a conscious, resolute choice, it shapes decision-making across every area of the business.
- The leaders who choose growth and outperform their peers not only think, act, and speak differently; they align around a shared mindset, strategy, and capabilities. These leaders set an aspirational mindset and culture, activate the growth pathways, and execute with excellence.
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Topics: Strategy, Growth Model
You Might Be Overlooking Your Unfair Advantage: Here’s How To Find It
By Dr. Ruth Gotian | Forbes Magazine | July 19, 2022
Many believe proper education, pedigree, and money are paramount to success. If that is the case, billionaires and icons like Oprah Winfrey never would have made their mark. Talent is not enough, and neither is hard work. While we’d like to believe that our success and promotions are based on meritocracy, the reality is that this is untrue.
In their new book The Unfair Advantage, millionaire startup entrepreneurs Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba suggest that despite our upbringing and circumstances, we all have unfair advantages. It is not just wealthy and well-connected people who can get ahead. Conversely, there are people with endless talent, education, and connections that they never use. So it is less about your advantages and more about how you leverage them.
So what is an unfair advantage? A condition, circumstance, or asset puts you in a favorable business condition. It is unique to you and can not be replicated, copied, or bought. It can be internal or external, earned or unearned, psychological or circumstantial. We each have unique advantages but often do not recognize what is right in front of us. Ali and Kubba recommend a five-step framework with the acronym MILES to help you realize your unfair advantage.
- Money. The capital you have or can easily raise.
- Intelligence and Insight. Are you book smart, highly social and emotionally intelligent, or extremely creative?
- Location and Luck. Being in the right place at the right time.
- Education and Expertise. Your formal schooling and self-directed learning give your intellectual and technological know-how.
- Status. Your social status encompasses your network and connections. This is your ‘personal brand,’ which consists of how you are perceived. It includes your inner status, confidence, and self-esteem.
You do not need all these unfair advantages to succeed; that is simply unrealistic. Instead, consider partnering and collaborating with people who balance out and compliment your unfair advantages.
While dreaming big is admirable, ensure you do not focus on the outliers – the Elon Musks and Marc Zuckerbergs of the world. Instead, be realistic. Make sure your mindset is embedded in reality. Ali and Kubba outline four characteristics of a reality-growth mindset: the ability to contemplate and see what will exist, continuously think of ways you can upskill, be resourceful, and grit & perseverance.
3 key takeaways from the article
- In their new book The Unfair Advantage, millionaire startup entrepreneurs Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba suggest that despite our upbringing and circumstances, we all have unfair advantages. It is not just wealthy and well-connected people who can get ahead.
- Conversely, there are people with endless talent, education, and connections that they never use. So it is less about your advantages and more about how you leverage them.
- Ali and Kubba recommend a five-step framework with the acronym MILES to help you realize your unfair advantage. The framework specifies: the capital you have or can easily raise; intelligence and insight; being in the right place at the right time; education and expertise; and your network and connections.
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Topics: Advantage, Personal Development, Success
Enterpreneurship Section
3 Ways to Drive Innovation
By Joel Comm | Inc Magazine | June 29, 2022
Innovation has become a buzzword for many businesses. But for startups, it’s essential to their business’s life. In fact, only 54.3 percent of startups make it to the four-year mark, and acorindg to one study “no market need” as its second top reason for startup failure. While this can be understood in several ways, one is the startup’s inability to justify its existence as a separate product or service. In other words, they didn’t differentiate enough from the competition as truly innovative startups did. This doesn’t mean that innovation in the startup space is not taking place, but conveying that idea has become more complex. In today’s setting, long-established companies and startups can demonstrate commitment to ongoing innovation by adopting three key strategies.
- Make innovation a routine process. The first step toward driving innovation is understanding that innovation is a dynamic process. Maintaining your relevance in an industry is all about recognizing how your products change the industry and re-adapting. Getting too comfortable can be a death sentence for any business, especially with everyone looking to disrupt your industry. Persistent innovation will make it easier for your business to stay competitive and pivot as demanded by the market. The best way to ensure your business constantly innovates is to encourage innovation at all levels.
- Create a diverse team. Diversity can be one of the significant drivers behind innovation, depending on how you use it. Regarding business, diversity is often associated with age, gender, and race. However, this can be extended in many ways. One of the ways of creating diverse teams, which fortunately is becoming more popular, is offering professional development opportunities.
- Create a team dedicated to innovation. When it comes to innovation, communication is critical. What good is it if team members propose ideas without a workflow that allows them to be evaluated? To solve this, many organizations opt for using idea-sharing platforms and then leave the task to the product or other managers. Unfortunately, the result is usually the same; a backlog and lack of follow-up. The best solution to this issue is to create a dedicated innovation team who can be on top of ideas, communicate across departments, and develop innovation programs.
2 key takeaways from the article
- Innovation has become a buzzword for many businesses. But for startups, it’s essential to their business’s life. In fact, only 54.3 percent of startups make it to the four-year mark, and acorindg to one study “no market need” as its second top reason for startup failure.
- While this can be understood in several ways, one is the startup’s inability to justify its existence as a separate product or service. In other words, they didn’t differentiate enough from the competition as truly innovative startups did. In today’s setting, long-established companies and startups can demonstrate commitment to ongoing innovation by adopting three key strategies: encourage innovation at all levels, create a diverse team, and create a team dedicated to innovation.
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Topics: Startups, Entrepreneurship, Innovation
5 Things Angel Investors Want to Know Before Investing in Your Startup
By Zeynep Ilgaz | Entrepreneur Magazine | July 19, 2022
Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who invest their money in startups and early-stage companies. Unlike venture capitalists, angel investors fund startups in their very early stages, making these unproven investments riskier — and potentially more lucrative if they pay off. Many angel investors also provide mentoring and guidance in addition to their financial assets. Before investing in a startup, angel investors review several vital issues and conduct due diligence. Top five things angel investors look for before deciding whether or not to invest in a startup are:
- Founder/management team. The management team behind a startup is often considered more important than the idea or product. Investors want to know that the team has the skills, drive, experience and temperament necessary to grow the business. The investor must decide whether the founder and team will be enjoyable to work with. How confident is the investor in the team?
- Business potential and return. Angel investors are looking for businesses that are scalable and able to grow. Make sure you explain upfront why your business has the potential to be significant. Avoid small ideas. Investors will want to know how much of the addressable market you plan to capture over time. The investor must believe that the opportunity has a clear value proposition, there is a large and growing market (TAM, Total Addressable Market), that your solution is unique, the time to build it is now, that you and your team are the ones who can build it, and that you will make lots of money doing it. A good rule of thumb is the 7-to-1 rule: a seven (after-tax) dollar return for every dollar of capital an angel investor invests within seven years.
- What makes your product/ service great? Angel investors aren’t afraid to invest in high-risk ventures as long as they believe the idea is excellent. First, demonstrate your product’s uniqueness. Having a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is important when pitching to angels — or at least a very good framework of what it will look like once you use the funding to build it. Describe the unique problems it solves and why users care about it. Is it a game-changing piece of technology? And what makes it stand out?
- Positive early momentum
- A viable exit strategy. Making sure you have a variety of sound exit strategies can help mitigate their risk and forecast how they will be paid out. Regardless of the venture’s success or failure, an exit strategy provides the investor with security. They should be informed of when they can expect returns, and more importantly, how they can minimize their losses.
2 key takeaways from the article
- Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who invest their money in startups and early-stage companies. Unlike venture capitalists, angel investors fund startups in their very early stages, making these unproven investments riskier — and potentially more lucrative if they pay off. Many angel investors also provide mentoring and guidance in addition to their financial assets.
- Before investing in a startup, angel investors review several vital issues and conduct due diligence. The top five things angel investors look for before deciding whether or not to invest in a startup are: founder/management team, business potential and return, what makes your product/ service great? positive early momentum, and a viable exit strategy.
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Topics: Entrepreneurship, Startups, Angel Investors
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