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Articles by Michael Rander
Six Drivers of the Future of Corporate Learning
We’re in the midst of a once-in-a-generation change in the ways people work. Learning and Development has the opportunity to make it a change for the better. Though cavepeople wouldn’t recognize much of what goes on in the world today, they would understand our need to learn at work and improve our skills. Without constantly honing their abilities to hunt and gather in collaborative teams, they would have starved, and we wouldn’t be here.
Innovating a Path Out of the Climate Emergency
Emissions hotspot-monitoring, unexpected energy sources, and new forms of carbon capture are all part of the tool kit researchers are deploying to slow or reverse the damage of climate change. By Emily Acton, Michael Rander, Dan Wellers, Fawn Fitter 2 min read The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily reduced greenhouse gas emissions by keeping everyone at home, but global temperatures continued to rise and 2020 tied 2016 as the single hottest year on record.
Feeding the World: Why We Must Rethink the Global Food System
Intelligent technologies can be ingredients of change in the agriculture industry. We need innovative ways to think about food – as well as how we produce it. By Dan Wellers, Michael Rander 2 min read With some 821 million people worldwide going hungry each day, we need to make dramatic changes in the way we produce and distribute food. Solving hunger and food insecurity is a prerequisite to solving other pressing global challenges.
Ethics Are The New Aesthetics
12-February-2019 | Improving Lives | Purpose-Driven Business Ethics Are The New Aesthetics David Jonker and Michael Rander Veganism—eating a diet that includes no animal products—was once a fringe practice. Today, it’s quickly becoming mainstream. From 2014 to 2017, the number of vegans in the US rose by 600% to comprise 6% of the population. In the UK, veganism is up 350% in the same timeframe.
Cold Chain Logistics
A major challenge in the consumer products industry is supply chain management of temperature-sensitive products. Consumers trust certain brands for fresh, high-quality food. After one bad experience with spoiled milk, meat, vegetables, or another temperature-dependent food, a consumer may quickly turn to a different brand. How can consumer products companies better deliver the brand promise of fresh, high-quality food?
4D Printing: A Revolution Across Industries
Marina_Skoropadskaya/iStock/Getty Images The market for self-assembling parts is already expected to exceed $64 million. Michael Rander, Dan Wellers | Jan 18, 2019 The days when 3D printing was simply dreamed about are far behind us. Today, the process of creating a three-dimensional object via successive layers of materials is a mainstream activity—from customized medical devices and prosthetics to conventional household products, and even industrial buildings.
Everything You Know About Leadership Is Wrong
Companies that begin life digitally operate differently from the incumbents they threaten and unseat. Employees at digital companies don’t waste time gathering and analyzing information; they use live data to make decisions. They don’t need to wade through organizational hierarchies to get permission to act; their leaders explain business goals and then empower them to use their best judgment.
How 4D Printing Will Shift the Shape of Manufacturing
In a brief period, 3D printing (the process of creating a three-dimensional object by adding successive layers of raw material until it is complete) has gone mainstream. Each day more commercial applications are emerging to print everything, from household products to customized medical devices and prosthetics and nearly all the components of a house.
Triggering Quantum Leaps in Human Performance
by Dan Wellers, Global Lead of Digital Futures at SAP, and Michael Rander, Global Research Director of Future of Work at SAP Sports records used to stand for years. Today they fall regularly, and by wide margins.
Can You Trust Your Big Data?
Despite increasing claims that Big Data is a buzzword that has been overhyped, and that it’s really just data, the subject remains a hot topic in most organizations today. There are many different definitions of Big Data, but one common characterization uses what is known as the 3Vs: data whose volume, variety, or velocity makes it difficult to store and process using traditional corporate IT infrastructures.
Why Employee Spend Matters For Sales Leaders
As a leader of your sales organization, your people and their performance are what drive progress. You work hard to inspire, motivate, and engage your sales teams to be as productive as possible, but is the technology they use every day for administrative processes, such as expense reports, taking too long? And, is it giving you full visibility and reporting into your travel and expense (T&E) budget and cost of sale?
No Longer Soft Skills: Five Crucial Workplace Skills Everyone Should Learn
My child’s elementary school focuses on skills they believe support children in becoming changemakers. Through use of an integrated, project-based curriculum, they explicitly teach and assess “learner values” such as iteration, risk, failure, collaboration, and perspective. Their philosophy is that these attributes long considered “soft skills” have become the crucial educational priorities for this generation. Why do they believe this?
Leveraging Worker Potential In The Age Of Digital Transformation
Numbering 83.1 million, millennials are now the largest living generation in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Moreover, the Bureau projects that they will represent nearly 75% of all workers by 2030. This demographic shift means millennial attitudes and desires are beginning to reshape the workplace and change how employers and employees relate to each other.
In The Zeitgeist: Approach People With Empathy
The question from the onset is: What springs to mind when you hear the words “employee engagement”? Entertainment of employees, performance improvement, job satisfaction? None of the above? We all know the latest human resources buzzwords; there is a long list of them! Employee engagement is different, as if it were magic. Everyone in HR is talking about it; it’s discussed in panel sessions, mentioned in key notes at events, and presented on every strategic HR PowerPoint slide deck.
The Digital Transformation Mindset That Matters Across Geographies
While I can certainly relate with the quote on a personal level, it does indeed apply to a business context as well. A winning corporate mindset is not only an organizational team building tool, but also a very real bottom line advantage that impacts financials, organizational efficiencies, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.
Employee Engagement Myths And Facts [INFOGRAPHIC]
Employee engagement seems to be top of mind these days, and with such an important topic affecting the bottom line of almost every organization, it’s crucial to understand the facts and myths surrounding employee engagement. Most organizations don’t understand engagement, so how are they going create it? One of the biggest misunderstandings is that engagement is something the organization imposes on employees. If I give you this, you’ll become engaged in your work.
5 Reasons To Kill The Work-Life Balance Myth
Work or life? Nope. There’s no such thing as either/or. The work-life duality is a fallacy. One way or another, we all know, deep down, that it’s simply not a functional construct, particularly in 2016. Here are five reasons why. If we’re engaged in our work, we’re working from our passion — and passion is a key driver of success. It also means you don’t want to disconnect from what’s on your mind.
Five Tips For Building A Winning Employee Engagement Strategy
Employee engagement is central to any organization’s success. Engaged employees work to build the bottom line, come up with solutions to work-related problems, and often act as evangelists for their companies. So developing a winning employee engagement strategy is beneficial across the entire organization. Most companies want to engage their workers – and have happy employees who are more productive and invested in their job. But few companies succeed.
SAPVoice: Why We Desperately Need A Higher Degree Of Learning To Meet Digital Transformation Needs
Learning is perhaps the only area still largely untouched by digital transformation. It’s not just that curriculums aren’t keeping up with the skills required for a future of exponential change in which skills learned today can be obsolete in years or even months. Our entire standard approach to education — top-down, one-size-fits-most, heavily biased against collaboration, and generally ending in young adulthood at the latest — has barely changed since the industrial revolution.
Goodbye, Knowledge Workers-Welcome, Learning Workers
Throughout history, knowledge has been considered a competitive advantage. This premise forms the basis of our educational systems, institutions of higher learning, and technical schools, which provide training and formal accreditation with the assumption that the value of this accreditation will remain stable over time. Further back in history, knowledge was generally limited to a privileged few, such as philosophers and scientists—think of Aristotle and Plato.
Putting People At The Heart Of Business Strategy
Small and large enterprises alike face plenty of challenges when it comes to growing businesses: “It’s hard to find the right people,” “Our business growth is tied to our ability to hire, train and retain our people,” and “Our most valuable asset is our people,” are just a few examples. Of course, putting people at the heart of business strategies makes sense, but the complexity of doing so often derails organisations’ best aspirations.
Distributors Can Learn From Millennial Employers Of Choice
In recent years, my discussions with wholesale distributors have increasingly turned to the workforce. Traditionally, distributors have been blessed with long-term employees, some boasting 40 years or more of service. The retirement of those seasoned employees presents a challenge that distributors have not seen in the past: attracting, hiring, and retaining the younger, millennial workforce. Fortune recently published a list of the 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials.
Analysis: Culture the Key to Digital Skills Disruption
When you think of the future classroom, we’re willing to bet the first thing that comes to mind is technology. Interactive software, digital chalkboards, virtual reality, gaming programs — the list goes on. Yet, there’s a big misconception that improving learning directly correlates with investing in more advanced technologies.
Is Employee Autonomy The Key To Successful Workplace Collaboration?
Here’s an important question most business leaders have probably never asked – but it could be the key to future growth and organizational prosperity. How free do your employees feel in the workplace? Without an environment of authentic autonomy, your workforce is limited by both overt and subtle controls and influences. While workplace rules, policies, and expectations are absolutely necessary for a functional business environment.
Why HR Is The New Marketing
In a world of infinite media choices, the best way to reach new buyers and new talent might be right under your nose. Your own employees represent the greatest opportunity to create meaningful marketing and to develop human resources programs that increase sales, while also finding and retaining top talent. Is HR the new marketing?
Getting Collaboration Right In 2017
While this post is sponsored by Microsoft Office, all thoughts are my own. For many, it is the classic job interview cliché: When asked what our strengths are, we reply that we can take the lead and work on our own but also adapt to teamwork when the task or situation calls for it. There is nothing wrong with this response. Indeed, a job interview scenario is something of a game in which the candidate must give the right answer to the right question.
How To Drive Digital Transformation In A Multigenerational Workforce
Most companies would agree that digital transformation has brought a wealth of changes to the workplace – changes in technology, processes, workflow, communication, and even overall services and products. Managing that change effectively takes a highly cohesive team – one that moves in the same direction and wants the same things. There’s only one problem: the American workforce is not a cohesive one.
The Business Case For Diversity
I recently sat down with Iris Bohnet, professor of Public Policy and behavioral economist at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. We met about a year ago following the publication of her groundbreaking book, “What Works? Gender Equality by Design,” in which she unpacks how behavioral design can help organizations reduce unconscious bias. Iris Bohnet’s research helps companies like SAP create an inclusive environment.
How Digital Nomads Are Reshaping Business
Digital nomads, a category of workers that has grown over the past decade to comprise 37% of the U.S. workforce, are introducing a brave new way of working. According to a World Economic Forum forecast, flexible work, including virtual teams, is one of the biggest drivers of transformation in the workplace.
A Remote Future: Is 9-to-5 A Thing Of The Past?
Work as we’ve traditionally known it is changing. The common work shift is being forced to adapt as technology evolves and impacts industries of all types. Even as many jobs face the risk of extinction, so too is the once-desired 9-to-5 workday. New roles requiring round-the-clock attention are becoming more common, and the average work week in many industries has increased by seven hours, to 47.
How Employees’ Roles In The Gig Economy Are Being Redefined
Given the vast numbers of workers employed on a gig-to-gig basis, it’s not surprising that corporations and big brands are redefining the management of gig and contracted workers, whether to protect individuals’ employment rights or simply to communicate a unified message of company culture. It comes after a number of high-profile disputes that have seen companies like Uber pay out up to $100 million in settlements and Deliveroo riders’ protest over workers’ rights.
Four Things We Must Hold Leaders Accountable To Do
When we talk about “accountability” in the workplace, it brings to mind performance evaluations and management assessments. But accountability is so much more—and with the prevalence of social media and social video sharing, corporate leaders are increasingly being taken to task for failing to demonstrate this all-important trait.
Enterprise Mobility: Eliminating The Need For Traditional Offices
So long, water cooler conversations! With new technologies supporting enterprise mobility, the traditional office space and all the rituals that went along with it are going the way of the dinosaur. Today’s businesses acknowledge the important role mobility can play in improving productivity, cutting costs, and offering even greater flexibility to a freedom-hungry workforce.
Lisa Bodell Interview: Why Simple Wins
When futurist Lisa Bodell tried to teach Fortune 500 companies around the world how to nurture innovation, she repeatedly hit the same roadblock: no matter how open people were to her suggestions, they didn’t seem to have time to implement them. The reason, Bodell discovered, had little to do with a heavy workload or ambitious objectives. Rather, employees spent more time submitting to complex mandatory procedures than developing and implementing new ideas.
Why Companies Of The Future Need Purpose [VIDEO]
“Purpose” is the new star in the economic cosmos. But what impact will this new orientation have on workers and on software development? Just imagine it: the fifth day of your work week entirely at your disposal. You could start working on the project that you’ve always dreamed of. You could get involved in social initiatives while drawing on support and resources from your employer. Or perhaps you’d like to spend time with friends and family, or simply be all by yourself.
How Executives Intentionally Create A Culture Of Collaboration
John is an average person of the workforce. A 4-year veteran, he has worked at the same company since he moved on from the military and graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Now, with newborn twins at home, John’s priorities have changed. While he remains a professional committed to his career and his employer, he now requires more flexibility in his work schedule. John is not alone. Many members of today’s workforce are asking for more flexible work schedules.
How To Lead Change By Looking At The Past
There is certainly no shortage of advice on what actions leaders should take to successfully implement change. However, despite the plethora of guidance available, organizations generally have difficulty executing their “brave idea.” The desired change doesn’t see the light of day; the intended benefits aren’t realized; dysfunction and discontent are often left as the aftermath. First, the premise of change management is based on the future.
The Next Generation Of Leaders
Two years ago, I posted an article about why the recruitment of great leaders is important for all organizations. After listening to an interview with Niki Lauda (one of the best Formula 1 drivers, a three-time world champion, and survivor of some of the worst fiery clashes ever seen in F1) at November’s SAP Success Connect 2016 in Vienna, I was inspired to write again. The digital economy is disrupting the way we live and work.
5 Work Trends Leaders Can’t Afford To Ignore In 2017
2017 is shaping up to be a bumpy one for the world of work. Should we recalibrate and reallocate or stay the course? The strategies we take may carry us smoothly over some of the coming speed bumps. But we may be surprised by where some of the blind spots are. Here’s my take on five critical trends for the world of work in 2017. Buckle up: Some of us are biting our nails at the prospect of possible policy shifts.
An Eye On The Horizon - What Is Your People Plan For 2017?
We’re approaching the planning season in our profession: covering plans for the business, for people, performance, and rewards, learning, budgets, and all the acronyms and titles you can think of. This year, I want to suggest a new approach for HR professionals to take during planning season. I’m predicting that next year, as has been the case for several years now, the pace of change will continue to accelerate.
Make The Shift To A Collaborative Work Culture
Take a step back and let’s big-picture the term “work.” Have our needs changed? Circumstantially, it may look different, from multigenerational workforces to globalization to the skills we need. But thematically, we still need to get our work done. Another given: Regardless of size, shape, product or service, an organization is still only as good as its people. And those people can only function as well as their employer’s work processes allow them to.
Artificial Intelligence: The New Killer Feature
Artificial intelligence is gaining traction faster than anybody imagined – quickly knocking down the dominoes of complex tasks that computers have long struggled with. For example, in April this year, Wired Magazine ran an article explaining why AI still sucked at transcribing speech.
Fintech Blows Up Industries, HCM Is Crucial Lever [VIDEO]
The dust is starting to settle on the initial wave of cloud-based HR transformation, and business is gearing up for the next quantum leap combining human capacity management (HCM) and finance, otherwise known as fintech. That’s because in the digitalized business era, data from any team, including and especially the HCM system, radically changes how decisions get made – for the better. Expert opinions and new research show that no department can go it alone.
5 Mistakes That Can Kill Your B2B E-Commerce Project
According to a recent study, the B2B e-commerce market is on the precipice of serious growth. The market hauled in $780 billion in 2014. By 2020, that number is projected to eclipse $1.13 trillion. For that reason, it comes as no surprise that more and more organizations are launching B2B e-commerce efforts. They want as a large of a slice of the pie as they can get. Unfortunately, many companies don’t do their due diligence ahead of launching a B2B e-commerce initiative.
Purpose Or Engagement? Is One Better Than The Other?
When you ask HR executives what it takes to succeed, many will stress the importance of employee engagement. They refer to a company’s need for employees who are excited about their work, who are motivated to do well, and whose goals are in sync with the objectives of the organization. Employee engagement relates to employee happiness, job satisfaction, and much more.
Three Essential Steps To A Strong Online Identity
The digital media transformation has changed everything for businesses. When anyone and everyone has access to media channels, a compelling online identity is essential to ensuring your company won’t disappear into the din of information overload. Whether it is a website, blog, or social media presence, digital media requires companies to have a clear position and an arresting message.
10 Predictions On The Future Of Retail
Keeping ahead of the curve is as vital in retail as in any other field. So what can we expect to see as we move toward a new year and beyond? Here are 10 predictions for the future of retail that you should be aware of. As we move forward into a brave new world for retail outlets, the focus will be on ironing out kink at each stage in the purchasing process. This will include frictionless pay: streamlined payment methods like contactless card transactions and quick mobile app money transfer.
Are You Ready For Artificially Intelligent Enterprise Applications?
We’re now clearly in an exponential technology world. Each year brings the same amount of innovation as the previous several years — and the human brain finds it hard to imagine the consequences. For perhaps the first time in history, technology is evolving faster than we expect it to. For example, experts estimated that it would take another decade before a computer would beat a world champion at the ancient and complex game of Go — yet AlphaGo triumphed earlier this year.
6 Secrets To Boost Your B2B Content Marketing Efforts In 2017
70% of B2B marketers expect their organizations to produce more content next year, according to the latest annual B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research from Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs. With so much B2B content out there competing for your target audience’s attention, what can you do to make sure your content will stand out, connect with them and convert?
No Woman Left Behind: The Importance Of Being A Female Leader
Over the last 18 years, I have been a leader in various organizations. As my roles became more senior, I began to feel more acutely aware of not only my role as a leader, but the importance of being a senior leader who was also a female leader and generally in the minority. Over those 18 years, I witnessed more women in the ranks of senior leadership but also witnessed the exclusion of many talented women based on social cues they pick up in the workplace.
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