All Features
Michael McDowell
As artificial intelligence takes off, how do we efficiently integrate it into our lives and our work? Bridging the gap between promise and practice, Jann Spiess, an associate professor of operations, information, and technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business, explores how algorithms can be…
Stephanie Ojeda
Spreadsheets are usually the first tool used to manage suppliers, and the first to become a liability. Important updates get buried. Repeat supplier problems start popping up. Along the way, you start to wonder whether that cheaper vendor is really saving you money in the long run.
The core…
Annie Wilson
More than half of the nation’s 623,218 bridges are showing significant deterioration. Through an in-field case study conducted in western Massachusetts, a team led by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst—in collaboration with researchers from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (…
Etienne Nichols
The corrective and preventive action (CAPA) process is one of the most important elements within a medtech company’s quality management system (QMS). The goal of the CAPA system is to identify, address, and prevent systemic issues that could compromise product safety, regulatory compliance, and the…
Kate Zabriskie
Ever had that moment when a project seemed crystal clear during a meeting, only to find out weeks later that everyone had completely different interpretations? It’s like playing a grown-up version of the “telephone” game where what starts as “We need this done by the end of the week” ends up being…
Mike Figliuolo
Most days we walk through life unaware of the conversations occurring around us. And then there are those times you overhear a conversation that stops you dead in your tracks. You have to hit rewind in your brain and ask, “Did they actually just say that?”
Ever have one of those moments? Clearly,…
Adam Galinsky, Maurice Schweitzer
Nano Tools for Leaders—a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management—are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly affect your success and the engagement and…
Stephanie Ojeda
Many companies are still clinging to paper-based and unconnected electronic processes, despite the clear disadvantages. Without modern tools like QMS software, these organizations risk compromising product quality, falling behind in compliance, and ultimately losing competitive ground.
In contrast…
Harish Jose
In this article I’m exploring the need for ethics in systems thinking using the ideas of Heinz von Foerster and Russell Ackoff. The two come from different traditions within systems thinking. Von Foerster comes from physics and second-order cybernetics, and Ackoff from operations research and…
Gleb Tsipursky
As companies and government agencies push forward with return-to-office (RTO) mandates, they risk exacerbating a workplace problem that many have failed to address adequately: gender discrimination.
New research from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management highlights how in-person…
Mike Figliuolo
I love passionate people—people who throw themselves into their work with every last bit of energy they have. To them, everything about their work is important. It’s serious business, and they drive hard to form the world in an image they’re proud of.
However, with passion comes peril. If…
Maartje van Krieken
The storm isn’t coming: It’s already here, and many leaders are realizing they’re sailing without instruments. The current business climate is a storm of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Strategic plans become outdated overnight. Decision-making feels like a risk. And yet…
Audrey Kim
As if occupational hazards like “mansplaining” and “he-peating” weren’t bad enough, women in leadership positions often find it hard to get respect. “Women play an unfair game,” says Alison Fragale, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. “But that doesn’t…
Prasant Prusty, Arundhathy Shabu
A global food safety and quality certification, BRCGS (British Retail Consortium Global Standards) initially focused on food safety but now comprises various sectors such as packaging, consumer products, and retail. It aims to ensure that businesses maintain high standards of safety and quality…
Gleb Tsipursky
The world has shifted in remarkable ways, and flexible work is an undeniable force reshaping professional life. But do remote and hybrid arrangements help the environment or lead to unintended consequences? A new study by Mark Ma at the University of Pittsburgh, Betty Xing at Baylor University, and…
Etienne Nichols
As part of its effort to address the changing landscape around artificial intelligence (AI) in medical devices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently released two new guidance documents on artificial intelligence-enabled device software functions (AI-DSF): • “AI-enabled device…
Mike Figliuolo
I heard an interesting twist on an old question the other day. People always ask the classic, “What keeps you up at night?” question. (By the way—don’t ever ask that of your interviewer during a job interview. It comes across as cheesy and stupid.) But while the question itself is a little corny,…
Adam Zewe
Ready for that long-awaited summer vacation? First, you’ll need to pack all items required for your trip into a suitcase, making sure everything fits securely without crushing anything fragile.
Because humans possess strong visual and geometric reasoning skills, this is usually a straightforward…
Cornelia C. Walther
On April 8, 2025, a driverless Zoox robotaxi misjudged an approaching vehicle, braked too late, and sideswiped it at 43 mph on the Las Vegas Strip.
One month later, the Amazon subsidiary issued a software recall on 270 autonomous vehicles and suspended operations while regulators investigated the…
MIT News
On Dec. 21, 2022, just as peak holiday season travel was getting underway, Southwest Airlines went through a cascading series of failures in its scheduling, initially triggered by severe winter weather in the Denver area.
But the problems spread through the airline’s network, and over the course…
Heidi Drafall
Anyone who has cracked their smartphone screen or had a rapid oil change knows that sometimes the OEM isn’t the most affordable or convenient service option. Consumer flexibility, paired with lower-cost, high-quality options, is logical, whether it’s in the consumer market or in healthcare.
The…
Jones Loflin
This past weekend I engaged in one of my favorite activities as a beekeeper. I got to catch a swarm of bees.
If you haven’t seen it before, it’s wild. About half of the bees leave with a queen and set up somewhere temporarily while they’re looking for their new permanent home. In the case of this…
Scott Ginsberg
When quality failures go public, it’s not just your product on the line—it’s also your reputation, compliance status, and workforce morale.
From product recalls to OSHA citations, recent manufacturing disasters reveal a brutal truth: The real cost of outdated documentation isn’t just inefficiency—…
Mike Figliuolo
For as many words as we use, we’re terrible communicators. Voicemails are jumbled streams of consciousness. Emails are “text bombs” with no rhyme or reason. Presentations are nothing but crippling piles of slides. But don’t worry—here are three rules of three to make your communications clearer,…
Gleb Tsipursky
Remote work has become a game-changer for older individuals with disabilities, offering a solution that not only improves their employment prospects but also brings substantial economic benefits, according to a new study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Before the…
