POLOS

In October 2018 nearly 8,000 employees of the Marriott hotel chain began a strike whose main claim was the protection of their jobs against the use of digital technologies. Their concerns were not unfounded. In recent years, the service industry has accelerated the use of machines to perform human tasks. This application is increasingly diverse, ranging from automation of more repetitive tasks such as food preparation and delivery, to complex jobs such as writing legal documents and investor reports. In this environment of great disruptive potential, what should service providers expect in 2019? Five Predictions on the Future of Service Companies 1) Customer experience (CX) will increasingly be the main competitive differential. Customer experience is not just about buying, but about before, during, and after the sales and relationship process. Effective businesses in this regard will establish relevant metrics and goals of customer satisfaction, repeat purchases, loyalty, ret...

By leveraging big data analytics tools, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing, organizations can allow patients to actively participate in their own care, leading to improved care delivery and health outcomes. These tools have been used to: increase adherence to treatment plans,  enhance patient health literacy so that they take an active role in their own care, and  increase clinical trial engagement to facilitate the development of novel treatments, more accurate diagnoses, and innovative cures for debilitating diseases. Machine learning At Beacon Health Options , a behavioral health management service provider, clinicians are using machine learning tools to extract actionable insights from patient data. With this information, the organization is working to enhance care coordination for patients with mental illness, as well as ensure patients stay engaged and adhere to their care plans. Their goal is to move from being...

In a  1997 Harvard Business Review article Tarun Khanna and Krishna Palepu advanced the idea that focused strategies may be wrong in emerging markets. Companies in emerging markets must take responsibility for a wide range of functions in order to do business effectively. Thus highly diversified business groups can be particularly well suited to the institutional context in most developing countries, adding value by imitating the functions of several institutions that are present only in advanced economies, particularly capital markets, labor markets, product markets, governmental regulation, and contract enforcement. Twelve years later McKinsey’s consultants Francisco Caudillo, Skief Hoube, and JehanZeb Noor demonstrated that corporations that expand their focus tends to add more value in emerging economies than in developed ones. According to their research published in the McKinsey Quarterly , in emerging economies the most diversified companies created the highest exce...

Almost 1.6 billion air conditioners are going to be added globally between now and 2050—this represents one of the single largest end-use risks to our #climate . The Global Cooling Prize is rallying a global coalition of leaders to solve the critical climate threat that comes from growing residential air conditioning demand. By harnessing the power of innovation, the prize seeks to find ways to provide cooling solutions that enhance people’s lives without contributing to runaway climate change. This groundbreaking competition is designed to develop and scale a residential cooling solution that consumes five times (5x) less grid-supplied energy than today’s standard products. This technology could prevent up to 100 gigatons (GT) of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050, and prevent 1°C of global warming by 2100, all while improving living standards for people in developing countries around the globe. The prize will be launched in November 2018 and will be open for a period of two years...

Workplace wellness programmes are big business – in the USA, the market is around $8 billion – with a return-on-investment claim attributed to many studies that purportedly show their benefits (for example, see this meta-analysis from 2010). But the voluntary nature of participation makes it hard to evaluate their true effectiveness, as those who choose to participate may differ in key ways from those who do not. The National Bureau of Economic Research ran a  recently   published   randomised-controlled study to more accurately assess the benefits of these programs. This study showed that compared to control groups, participants in the program did not take significantly fewer sick days. Nor were they more likely to stay in their job, nor get a promotion or get a pay hike. They didn’t spend any less on medication or hospital visits and showed no improvement in health behaviours such as using the gym or taking part in an annual running event. A few effects ...

The growing intensity and extremity of recent wildfires has been researched by scientists at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Researchers are trying to understand how one of our most significant climate patterns -- the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) -- is being affected by a warming Earth and how, in turn, is that pattern affecting the likelihood and intensity of future wildfires. Their studies have showed that the sensitivity of land temperature and precipitation to changes in tropical Pacific Ocean temperature is increasing due to climate change. Therefore in fire-prone places like California and Australia, we can expect future El Niño and La Niña events to have a bigger impact on fire risk in a given year.  Journal Reference: J. T. Fasullo, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, S. Stevenson. ENSO's Changing Influence on Temperature, Precipitation, and Wildfire In a Warming Climate. Geophy...

In the next 15 years, India will see about 200 million people migrating to cities. To prepare for this population influx, Pune Smart City —in collaboration with the Indian central government, RMI , and other partners—has launched a hackathon to solve challenges across five themes: water management, solid-waste management, safety and security, public health, and digital connectivity. To make this Hackathon a level playing field for all, the teams will be evaluated on two separate tracks depending upon the maturity of their proposed solution: Solutionthon (ready and mature solutions for one or more of the priority areas) and Ideathon (innovative solution not yet developed or deployed). The best team, each in Solutionthon and Ideathon, across all the five themes combined will qualify for a cash reward of INR 2 Lakhs each. Three more teams in each track may qualify for an award of INR 1 Lakh each in the event that the entries are adjudged to be of exceptional quality by the jury. Mo...