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Why Business Leaders Need to Read More Science Fiction

Harvard Business Review

If 19th-century urban planners had had access to big data, machine learning techniques, and modern management theory, these tools would not have helped them. Rising sea levels flood Manhattan in Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 , prompting hedge fund managers and real estate investors to create a new intertidal market index.

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When Will this Low-Innovation Internet Era End?

Harvard Business Review

These are all pretty common assertions in modern business/tech journalism and management literature. Then there's another view, which I heard from author Neal Stephenson in an MIT lecture hall last week. Stephenson was clearly trying to be provocative. Or something like that.

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Don't Like the Message? Maybe It's the Messenger

Harvard Business Review

But the same tendencies can be seen in pretty much any case where there are conflicting opinions — which ought to make them of interest to anybody in a management or other decision-making role. It was inspired by comments from author Neal Stephenson, who espoused the latter view in a Q&A at MIT.

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To Stay Relevant, Your Company and Employees Must Keep Learning

Harvard Business Review

As AT&T CEO and Chair Randall Stephenson, recently told the New York Times, “There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop… People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning will obsolete themselves with the technology.” Insight Center. The Global Digital Economy.

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Can Being Overconfident Make You a Better Leader?

Harvard Business Review

Randall Stephenson, then CEO of AT&T, famously said , “I told people you weren’t betting on a device. And for good reason — research has shown that when overconfidence permeates the upper levels of management, companies may fail to choose the best investment policies or engage in reckless and damaging acquisitions.

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Welcome to HBR's Customer Intelligence Insight Center

Harvard Business Review

As early as 1994 Neal Stephenson was envisioning the era of Big Data, and how it might change the work of a market researcher. But when the two of us began compiling HBR's Insight Center on Customer Intelligence , and thought about what managers find scary about customer intelligence, we came up with a much broader range of concerns.

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People Suffer at Work When They Can’t Discuss the Racial Bias They Face Outside of It

Harvard Business Review

And in an emotional recounting of his black friend’s experience outside the office that went viral on YouTube, AT&T chairman Randall Stephenson encouraged employees to get to know each other better.

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