All Features
Erika James
Different people at different levels of an organization or ecosystem experience crisis in different ways. Senior decision-makers are unlikely to have the same insights as those who directly interface with customers or those grappling with the operational technicalities of the situation.
For this…
Jennifer V. Miller
Early in my career, I had four bosses in the span of less than four years. It’s not as bad as it sounds; I worked in retail, where churn was high. All of the departures were due to internal promotions, so that was good. I look back on that time fondly because each woman I reported to had a…
NIST
While I was reminiscing about National Take Your Dog to Work Day, a light-hearted conversation with colleagues led me to ponder how our furry friends might actually inspire people to reach new heights of excellence. But what business insights can we possibly gain from creatures who spend at least…
Scott Ginsberg
We’re told the cardinal rule of the internet is, “Never read the comments.” This catchphrase is used to warn users of the toxic parts of the internet. One minute you’re sharing an article, photo, or video that you’re proud of. The next moment, dozens or even hundreds of comments snowball into a…
Javeria Salman
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America are better known for homework help and volunteering opportunities than for cutting-edge career development. But ask the kids in some of the Boys & Girls Clubs across states such as Indiana, Montana, and Washington, and they might say they’re surrounded by…
Angie Basiouny
In the hustle of a busy hospital emergency department, teams of doctors and nurses react quickly to determine whether a patient needs to be admitted, referred, or released. Providing such complex care requires a high degree of skill and seamless teamwork, the kind that usually comes from years of…
Vahed Qazvinian
Yearly, employers typically spend $3,000 to $15,000 on employee satisfaction surveys, hoping to detect if an employee has plans to leave the company. Despite that, research has shown that only 33 percent of employees in the U.S. are engaged at work, while 45 percent consider their work an emotional…
Rob Press
Without the perfect balance of efficient workers, adequate resources, and satisfied customers, manufacturing businesses risk sending their operations into a tailspin.
Workforce optimization (WFO) streamlines manufacturing workflow by cutting costs and increasing productivity—allowing you to…
Rashan Dixon
The ability of flawed and inherently limited humans to lead others like them toward a common goal takes a special skill set. Even if a leader has the talents required to lead a business, that doesn’t mean they’ll immediately see positive results. Good leaders know that they need to find ways to…
Bryan Christiansen
Every day, manufacturers rely on a large number of tools, machinery, and infrastructure to produce their goods. And while all of those assets help you generate profit, they are a significant expenditure—both in terms of the purchase cost and ongoing maintenance costs.
When deciding which…
Gleb Tsipursky
After firing half its workforce, Twitter is already asking many to come back. Indeed, research from McKinsey finds that even as recession fears grow, 40 percent of workers plan to quit their jobs. And a survey from Greenhouse, a New York-based hiring software provider, finds that 57 percent of 1,…
Lee Seok Hwai
Think innovation, and what comes to mind? For many, it invariably evokes big names like Apple and Tesla, their epoch-defining products ranging from the smartphone to electric vehicles, and genius leaders like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. But is innovation only for the select few?
Not at all,…
Hanen Khemakhem, Mahbub Zaman, Nadia Smaili, Richard Fontaine
Whistleblowing is a cornerstone of corporate governance. It allows employees to anonymously disclose questionable financial matters about their companies to help prevent fraud, which is a pressing issue in Canada. It’s also incredibly effective, with 42 percent of occupational fraud being reported…
Robert Zaruda
Northwest Industrial Resource Center (NWIRC), one of the centers that make up the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Extension Partnership, is helping launch student-run enterprises throughout northwest and north-central Pennsylvania. These enterprises connect industry with high schools and career and…
Maria Guadalupe, Bryan Ng
Soft skills, the behavioral and social traits that enable individuals to work harmoniously with one another, aren’t just nice to have. They’re essential for the growth of a nation.
In France, 60 percent of employers consider soft skills, such as the ability to organize, adapt, and work in teams,…
Jake Mazulewicz
A technician spills a toxic chemical. She isn’t injured but easily could have been. The hazmat cleanup costs more than $10,000 and shuts down a critical building for a week.
An electrical engineer flips the wrong switch in a substation control room. He isn’t injured. But within seconds, a $50,000…
Scott Ginsberg
Twenty years ago, digital tools were “a thing.” Now they flow through all things.
To some degree, every manufacturer is now a digital company. And with the right modern platform, any manufacturing organization can break down silos of ownership to focus on the intersection of people, processes, and…
Donna McGeorge
The world of work will always revolve around people working with people. Meeting together is an important way to get things done, which is why meetings will always be a part of organizational life. But they’re also hated by most people—not because they get things done (which they do), but because…
Alaina Love
Miles had just been promoted to his first position at the director level after two short years of working for a large manufacturer in a complicated, heavily regulated industry. What surprised him most about the culture of the company is how project-oriented the firm had become during his tenure as…
Adam Zewe
Ask a smart home device for the weather forecast, and it takes several seconds to respond. One reason for this latency is that connected devices don’t have enough memory or power to store and run the enormous machine-learning models needed for the device to understand what a user is asking of it.…
Mike Figliuolo
One of the most awkward situations you can encounter in business is when someone goes from being a peer to being the boss. If you do a few things well, you can make the transition smoothly.
Life is full of awkward moments: the first kiss, an interview candidate having spinach stuck in their teeth…
Stephen Bevan
The UK was supposed to be facing a spike in unemployment after the pandemic furlough schemes ended. But instead the job market is the tightest in a generation. Given that there are also more vacancies than active job seekers, and many sectors are struggling with skill shortages, you might expect to…
Bruno Ménard
While traditional image processing software relies on task-specific algorithms, deep learning software uses a network to implement user-trained algorithms to recognize good and bad images or regions.
Fortunately, the advent of specialized algorithms and graphical user interface (GUI) tools for…
Erika James
Patagonia, the sportswear brand, made headlines this summer when its founder and CEO, Yvon Chouinard, announced his intention to effectively give away the multibillion dollar business instead of selling it.
Chouinard, a famously “reluctant” entrepreneur, detailed his decision to an astonished…
Bryan Christiansen
Assets are resources owned and used by a company to generate a positive economic benefit. Assets can be physical items, like equipment or furniture, or they can be intangibles like software, patents, or documents.
As a business owner, it’s important to know which assets you own, their location,…
