De: MIT Sloan | THINKING FORWARD

Enviado: martes, 25 de julio de 2023 07:04

Para: dezerega@msn.com
Asunto: Setting tech strategy in the age of AI

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+ THREE INSIGHTS FOR THE WEEK

1. As Microsoft and Google vie for dominance in the emerging market for generative
artificial intelligence, it’s a good moment for any company to review its technology strategy
playbook.

In a recent webinar, MIT Sloan professors Pierre Azoulay and Ezra Zuckerman Sivan
discussed three basic principles of technology strategy that companies can use to rise above
the competition:

 Value creation. Converging on a dominant technological paradigm allows

companies to make progress without investing a lot of money, but it’s important not
to let the dominant design hamper further innovation.

 Value capture. Firms can profit from new products in two ways. One is maintaining
control of the knowledge an innovation generates. The other is complementary
assets, or what a company develops to exploit the knowledge that its innovation
generates. For generative AI, those assets are likely data and proprietary
technology.

 Value delivery. This step can be especially challenging for incumbent organizations,
whose business models might be negatively impacted by new technology.
 Organizations that manage to balance the old and the new — often by leveraging
their complementary assets for untapped potential — can see big gains.

2. Seven tech companies last week agreed to implement safeguards on their AI

offerings in the U.S., but a global roster of artificial intelligence experts says country-specific
efforts are not enough.

The group, which includes Sir Geoff Mulgan of University College London and MIT Sloan’s
Thomas W. Malone, is calling for the creation of a global AI observatory to better identify the
risks, opportunities, developments, and possible global effects of AI.

In the same way that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides
governments with scientific information for climate policies, a global observatory would provide
a reliable basis of data, models, and interpretation to guide policy and broader decision-
making about AI.

In a new opinion piece, the authors write, “Much about AI remains opaque, often deliberately.
It is impossible to regulate what governments don’t understand.” An international observatory
could fill that gap through four main areas of activity:

 Creating a global, standardized incident-reporting database.

 Assembling a registry of crucial AI systems with the largest social and economic
impacts.

 Bringing together global knowledge about the impacts of AI on areas such as labor,
education, media, and health care.

 Orchestrating global debate through an annual report on the state of AI.

3. How can managers lead purpose-driven organizations? Here are some actionable
steps and useful advice from executives and MIT faculty members and alumni.

In her new book, “The Case for Good Jobs,” MIT Sloan’s Zeynep Ton shares four
operational choices that make employees’ work better: Focus and simplify, standardize
and empower, cross-train, and operate with slack.
Oatly Futures Lab Executive Director Heidi Hackemer says companies need to recognize
that they are imperfect and make the choice to “get smart, get creative, get brave, and try to
create the momentum towards a radically better future.”

Two organizations successfully handling the tension between purpose and profit are
Cotopaxi and King Arthur Baking Co. Cotopaxi uses fabric scraps collected from other
companies to make a line of backpacks, while employee-owned King Arthur teaches new
hires how to read corporate financial sheets.

Blue Bottle CEO Karl Strovink, MBA ’01, says the decision to make oat milk the default in
its coffee cafes started when the firm noticed that 50% of Los Angeles customers were
already using it. Coupled with the fact that dairy farms are a contributor to greenhouse gas
emissions, Blue Bottle launched a three-store pilot program in 2021 and announced the
companywide change in 2022.

+ IDEAS THAT MATTER

How to develop a carbon management

strategy for business
Cutting emissions and curbing carbon can be a convoluted process for companies. Experts from
Microsoft, Ceres, and Bain offer practical advice.
 If businesses are to confront climate change, they need to contain their carbon output.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all way to do so, a panel of experts at the 2023 MIT
Sustainability Summit offered three best practices that can be helpful to leaders developing
a carbon management strategy.

 Reduce emissions within your infrastructure and supply chain. Microsoft

introduced an internal carbon fee in 2012 to hold its business units financially
accountable for carbon emissions, said Phillip Goodman, the company’s director of
carbon removal portfolio.

 Invest in carbon offsets. Bain partner Cate Hight cited “pure removal” options
such as planting new trees and investing in emerging technologies like direct air
capture, alongside actions such as avoiding deforestation.

 Lobby for policies that create a dependable ecosystem for decarbonization.

Tracey Cameron, director of corporate climate engagement at Ceres, said there is
“a ton of money” going into carbon capture storage in the U.S. right now, thanks to
the recently passed infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act.

READ MORE

+ NUMBERS THAT MATTER

53%
Women are 41% more likely than men to experience toxic workplace culture, as reported in
Glassdoor reviews. And women in C-level roles are 53% more likely to mention toxicity.

+ WORKING DEFINITION
 scaling path
A strategy for attaining scale that provides leaders with a language and structure to reach their
innovation goals.

+ FLAG THESE EVENTS

JUL 26
Webinar: Supply Chains, AI, and the Future of Work

JUL 26
Webinar: Leading Teams in a Turbulent World

AUG 8
Webinar: Breaking Down Barriers With Questions

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