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7 Steps to Problem Solving

Skip Prichard

It used to be that you could learn the core skills for a career in college and graduate school – think management, accounting, law – and then apply it over forty years. 2: Disaggregate. As a consequence of accelerating change, the old model of managerial skill development and application is no longer effective. 1: Define the problem.

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How Demand Forecasting Can Boost Business Efficiency

Strategy Driven

Macro Demand Forecasting: The “big picture” demand forecasting technique that looks ahead at broader market conditions to help plan a business’s overarching strategies. Beyond that, there are two broad categories of methods that each type of forecasting can employ. Diversify forecasting methods.

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The Truth About How Uber’s App Manages Drivers

Harvard Business Review

The company manages a large, disaggregated workforce of “driver-partners” that deliver a relatively standardized experience to passengers, while simultaneously promoting drivers as independent entrepreneurs whose work is characterized by freedom, flexibility, and independence. Customers act as managers.

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From Zipcar to the Sharing Economy

Harvard Business Review

However, although their members can rent the (more urbane and green) Zipcar fleet by the hour and pick up their vehicle at a local parking space using a smartphone app, this is still a dedicated fleet, still inventory that the company has to acquire, manage and monetize.

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A Brief History of Blockchain

Harvard Business Review

The market cap of bitcoin now hovers between $10–$20 billion dollars, and is used by millions of people for payments, including a large and growing remittances market. The ethereum smart contract platform now has a market cap of around a billion dollars , with hundreds of projects headed toward the market.

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The Fight Over Tesla Shows How Little Value Dealerships Add

Harvard Business Review

Let’s look at whether these functions are needed in the car market: Search and discovery: In the same way eBay helps turn one person’s junk into another person’s collectible or AirBnb makes your empty guest room a hotel room, intermediaries can help buyers find sellers. But the car market is no longer like this.

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Who Wins in the Gig Economy, and Who Loses

Harvard Business Review

Without a full-time job, a true sense of security was elusive, benefits were inaccessible, and you were more likely to be stranded on the fringes of the labor market, observing rather than living the American Dream. All of that is changing. Their wages are stagnating or declining, and their jobs are at risk of being automated.