Articles

Beyond Resilience: Leaders Must Urgently Embrace Antifragility

In 1968, the government of the Manitoba— a medium-sized province located at the geographic center of Canada—completed what was, at that time, one of the great engineering marvels of the developed world: the Red River Floodway.

The floodway is a 47-kilometer-long earthen channel used to divert surging water from the notoriously flood-prone Red River around the City of Winnipeg (Manitoba’s capital). The idea for the channel was first proposed by a government commission following the devastating flood of 1950 that completely submerged Winnipeg, requiring more than 100,000 people to be evacuated and causing damage that would amount to, in 2022 dollars, more than CA$11 billion. Even though the benefits were many, most political leaders shied away from the project. Most, but not all.

How Human Capital Makes or Breaks Digital Innovation

The success of digital transformation in organisations depends on a combination of technology and people. However, many leaders ignore the role of human capital in their plans. Ricardo Viana Vargas writes that when digital transformation efforts fail, it is often due to the mismanagement of people.

Barriers and Challenges of Smart Buildings Projects in the Context of Construction 4.0

The development and use of technologies, tools, and methods based on integrated and comprehensive approaches have been fundamental for integrating smart buildings with the urban environment and for a smarter and more sustainable built environment. In an Industry 4.0 context, barriers associated with innovation and technology that hamper smart building projects still coexist with structural barriers. In this work, we identify the main barriers to developing smart building projects based on extensive and detailed bibliographic research and on the view of professionals with experience in the subject. The results showed that 23 barriers identified in the literature were considered important by the survey respondents, of which five were considered the most important.

Transformation Is Personal

Transformation is personal. Always. Think about it. Organizational change is brought about one individual at a time. A change of behavior or a change of outlook by one individual in an organization is the cellular basis of achieving transformation. Individual transformation of employees is (at least) as important as any organizational transformation. Without it, the chances of any transformation succeeding are low. Without it, the chances of an organization continuing to evolve and respond to new changes are almost non-existent.

Blockchain Is Changing How Companies Can Engage with Customers

Disruptive technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence are powerful catalysts for change — they can change not just how a company works, but what it’s possible for it to do. Consider the case of Interac Corp., Canada’s largest digital payments company, which partnered with an energy company to change consumer habits through a blockchain-powered incentive program that saved the energy company money and created more efficiency throughout the system. This case offers a few lessons for leaders: 1) tech like blockchain can transform sectors, 2) collaboration is an efficient way to experiment, 3) enterprise-wide engagement builds momentum for innovation, and 4) social purpose is a powerful driver of change.

Sustainability Indicators to Assess Infrastructure Projects: Sector Disclosure to Interlock With the Global Reporting Initiative

Infrastructure projects have great potential to impact the sustainability of cities due to typically being large-sized projects and having a high level of intervention. Thus, evaluating the sustainability of these projects through sustainability reports is highly relevant, mainly regarding their impacts on the environment, public health, and the local economy.

To Drive Innovation, You Must Understand your Ecosystem

In 1878 Leo Tolstoy released what would become one of his most acclaimed works, the novel ‘Anna Karenina‘. The book started with a quote that over the centuries has transcended disciplines: ‘Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’.

When taken literally, the quote is a good reflection on family life and family conduct. But as a metaphor, the quote has found application in different fields, from anthropology to ecology, and from philosophy now to business.

Responding the crisis by Built Perpetual Capabilities

"Life will never be the same after COVID-19.”
You hear that a lot these days. For many organizations, life will indeed be different after the outbreak as it had a severe and long-lasting impact on its ecosystem. For some organizations, there were even more immediate pressing concerns. A question about survival. 

Transforming Traditional Businesses Doesn’t Have to be an Elusive Goal

Firms need to develop an appetite for innovation, leverage knowledge about customers, and adopt agile ways of working.

Even though the literature on business transformation is enormous, managerial and organisational appetite for change tends to be limited. Leaders of organisations that are remotely successful are not inclined to change things. Transforming the business is not the same as implementing incremental change or improvements in processes, operations and products. We argue that transformation refers to an organisation achieving a sustainable quantum-leap improvement in performance while transforming the mindsets of employees and thus the culture of the organisation.