We learn a lot from the business community and want to share that with you in our Action Briefs that highlight business trends and their impact on the workplace and curriculum.
Part One: Personas and the Hyper-Personalization Evolution
During a series of focus groups MBA Research and Curriculum Center conducted in Fall of 2021, leaders in digital marketing discussed the rising importance of technology-powered hyper-personalization and its impact on personas, privacy, and the future of business. The following Action Brief is a synthesis of their insights and findings from additional research. It is part one of a three-part series on digital marketing called The Growing Significance of AI-Powered Hyper-Personalization in Digital Marketing.
This week, we’ll discuss marketing personas and the hyper-personalization evolution. What are personas, anyway? In the early 1980s, software developer Alan Cooper described composite customer archetypes as “personas,” a term characterizing the identity and purchasing habits of a typical consumer within a target market. A persona profile seeks to describe an ‘imagined’ person and typically consists of a fictitious name, demographic information, and details about the person’s behavior, needs, wants, and goals. Check out this example from Patrick Faller’s article, “Putting Personas to Work in UX Design: What They Are and Why They’re Important”:
Essentially, personas translate the data into a story.
Why are personas used?
Businesses use personas to understand how customers search for, purchase, and use products and/or services, which then enables companies to improve the buying experience.
Personas are particularly useful for marketers, user experience (UX) designers, and anyone in the organization who handles customer data. The information about a persona’s current behaviors, goals, and expectations aids in product design and development. Personas help businesses relate to and empathize with their customers, then better satisfy their needs.
How are personas developed?
For a persona to be useful and reliable, it must be based in reality. Even though a persona is a semi-fictional character, it is created from real users and real experiences—not stereotypes—and gathered from a variety of sources, including focus groups, surveys, market research, and statistical analysis.
Organizations use data from publicly available sources, such as national statistical and demographic data, as well as the company’s customer data to develop distinct personas. Useful, nuanced personas are based on both customer interviews and hard data. The combination of both qualitative and quantitative data is vital for gleaning insightful behavioral patterns from the data.
Doing so enables companies to increase customer retention and conversion. After developing these personas, researchers validate them and ensure relevancy by comparing with real customers on a regular basis.
The best personas are highly detailed, robust profiles that are built from a wealth of data. Businesses ultimately create personas to deliver unique, personalized customer experiences. As technology advances, organizations have access to more data than ever before.
Personalization vs. hyper-personalization
Personalization is the act of customizing an experience or communication to a specific individual or group based on the personal and transactional information gathered about that consumer. Think companies using your name in the subject line of an email. Hyper-personalization refers to the use of AI and behavioral data to customize user experiences in real time. Hyper-personalization goes beyond traditional personalization in its scope and power.
According to the article “Hyper-Personalization: The Next Wave of Customer Engagement,” displaying only certain sections of a website depending on users or sending push notifications when customers are most active are examples of hyper-personalization in action.
It’s important to mention that hyper-personalization isn’t industry specific. Consider the following examples of personalization from Kathleen Walch’s article “8 Examples of AI Personalization Across Industries”:
The transition from personalization to hyper-personalization is largely powered by AI and Big Data.
Resources for Further Learning:
Reflection Questions:
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Part Two: Hyper-Personalization, Brought to You by Artificial Intelligence
During a series of focus groups MBA Research and Curriculum Center conducted in Fall of 2021, leaders in digital marketing discussed the rising importance of technology-powered hyper-personalization and its impact on personas, privacy, and the future of business. The following Action Brief is a synthesis of their insights and findings from additional research. It is part two of a three-part series on digital marketing called The Growing Significance of AI-Powered Hyper-Personalization in Digital Marketing.
Last week, we discussed marketing personas and the hyper-personalization evolution. Now, we’ll discuss the relationship between hyper-personalization and artificial intelligence.
To summarize:
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of machines to simulate human thinking capabilities and execute tasks with limited human intervention. AI gives organizations the ability to analyze enormous amounts of data from a plethora of sources and draw conclusions in the blink of an eye.
Machine learning, a branch of AI, is the way in which a computer system builds its intelligence. Powerful computers analyze huge quantities of data, then create rules based on patterns. The computer tests those rules as algorithms on new data sets and improves its predictions as it learns. The machine learning system self-trains through experience.
How do companies use AI for hyper-personalization?
The field of AI enables organizations to create increasingly tailored, deeply personalized, unique user content to meet customers’ expectations for highly personalized experiences. AI and machine-learning applications model existing customer behaviors and preferences, then test different messaging content and styles, serving as a proxy for human focus groups, which means less money, time, and effort spent compared to using real people.
In addition, AI helps tailor personalization to real people and personal characteristics, not just models. Machine-learning systems gather the transactional and behavioral data from consumers, then decide which messaging and delivery methods work best for the specific persona. Businesses create baseline materials, then use AI to tailor to the specific customer. Tailored content and user experiences drive engagement, build customer loyalty, increase sales, and help companies better understand their customers, meaning they can craft better products and user experiences.
Using the speed and depth of information available from AI technology, businesses can create personalized content that matches customer preferences using profile data, location tracking, browsing history, and purchasing decisions.
Part of the challenge of omnichannel marketing, which focuses on delivering a consistent experience across all channels, devices, and platforms, is integrating consistent messaging across all points of contact (e.g., website, mobile apps, payment portals, etc.). It can be difficult to maintain consistency as devices and touch points change over time. AI addresses this issue by constantly updating personas with real-time information from customers gathered across channels.
What are the benefits for customers?
From the customer’s perspective, hyper-personalization simply makes life easier. Time is valuable, and the less time customers spend sifting through irrelevant content or repeating their concerns, the more likely they are to take action (e.g., make a purchase, contact the business, download a file, etc.). When it’s simple to solve a problem or find an answer, you’re much more likely to develop brand loyalty.
Think of your video or audio streaming services’ personalized “For You” recommendations, which are seamlessly integrated in the platform and at times seem to read your mind. According to Gibson Biddle’s extensive article, “A Brief History of Netflix Personalization,” the streaming service takes into account time of day, recent activity, platform, personalized visuals (movie artwork), percentage match, relevant filters, and more, all based on each individual customer’s preferences. Every time you open the app, try a new show, or switch back to an old favorite, Netflix is gathering data to further personalize your experience and keep you coming back.
As you can see, AI and machine learning applications are powerful technologies in any industry. They extend the reach of personalization, but we would be remiss not to mention the risks associated with the responsibility.
Resources for Further Learning:
Reflection Questions:
Sources:
Part Three: Ethical Implications
During a series of focus groups MBA Research and Curriculum Center conducted in Fall of 2021, leaders in digital marketing discussed the rising importance of technology-powered hyper-personalization and its impact on personas, privacy, and the future of business. The following Action Brief is a synthesis of their insights and findings from additional research. It is the final installment of a three-part series on digital marketing called The Growing Significance of AI-Powered Hyper-Personalization in Digital Marketing.
Last week, we discussed the relationship between hyper-personalization and artificial intelligence. Now, we’ll discuss the ethical implications of AI-powered hyper-personalization.
To summarize:
What are the risks and ethical considerations?
The benefits associated with AI technology and machine learning applications are clear. However, these tools carry their own set of unique challenges, risks, and ethical considerations. Keep in mind that AI is a relatively new technology, still in its infancy—its evolution and development is ongoing.
A major risk surrounding AI technology concerns regulatory compliance and data privacy. Data protection legislation like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other laws regulate online privacy rights. Other concerns include ethical data use and sharing and working with sensitive data safely. For example, researchers must use anonymized behavioral data from website browsing. Consumers need to be able to trust that companies aren’t misusing their private information. It’s crucial to balance data security and privacy with digital personalization.
Persona tracking involves gathering the information necessary to create accurate, detailed user personas without veering into privacy violations and the ‘uncanny valley.’ The uncanny valley is the relationship between an object’s degree of resemblance to a human and the emotional response it evokes. Humanlike robots are fine up to a certain point, then they make us feel uneasy. The same experience occurs with data: there’s a fine line between useful digital personalization and the uneasiness of a computer knowing too much information.
Other limitations of AI for hyper-personalization include its high cost, program complexity, requirement of large amounts of data and power, and enormous investment in the data, tools, and technology. AI also has drawback when it comes to nuance and discernment. AI programs can’t always read subtle signs and make the subjective or qualitative judgments that people can understand through personal contact.
Another concern is the lack of control. There is little human control involved in machine learning algorithms. Some machine learning and AI algorithms use black box models, which are created directly from data and in a way in which humans often cannot understand how it works. These systems are opaque, meaning their methods are not transparent or straightforward. This opens the door for serious ethical concerns. Just like humans, AI can make mistakes. It’s important to be aware of the potential for bias and prejudice (both taught and programmed) in artificial intelligence.
AI is created by humans with their own biases—it is not an impartial technology. To be used in an ethical manner, the technology needs to be fair and transparent. According to “Rethinking Personas for Fairness: Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability in Data-Driven Personas,” organizations should clearly identify how their data was collected, as well as the limitations of their data collection methods. It’s important that companies use both qualitative and quantitative information—relying purely on quantifiable information can create a skewed picture. Researchers should consider outliers and marginalized groups when using data-driven personas and emphasize diversity within the personas.
Living in harmony
It’s clear the relationship between AI and humans is a complementary one: Our capacity for strategic thinking, creativity, and empathy balances the data-processing, hyper-personalization capabilities of AI. Hyper-personalization technology is woven into the future of business—the challenge is to what extent. With great power comes great responsibility. The key to successful, ethical data-driven personalization is a balance between technology and human touch, between privacy and personalization. We’re looking forward to tracking this trend and seeing how the relationship develops over time and technological progress.
Resources for Further Learning:
Reflection Questions:
Sources:
It’s not a secret that the pandemic has had a dramatic impact on chief financial officers (CFOs) this past year, elevating their role in organizations across industries. In this Action Brief, we take a look at what factors have caused this shift and what this important role is focusing on in 2021 and in the years to come.
Earlier this spring, we attended a webinar where we learned firsthand from CFOs in major businesses about how they were called upon to be more vocal during the early weeks and months of the pandemic. As the year continued, so did the challenges that necessitated visionary responses across all aspects of their businesses.
Intrigued, we did a little more digging and discovered a trove of articles confirming what we had heard in the webinar. So, what drove the changes? One word—survival. As businesses closed up physical office spaces almost overnight and sent their employees home to work, a lot of things needed to happen quickly to maintain financial business operations and to keep people employed. As a result, many CFOs grappled with the following:
Long-Term Investments and Projections for Growth on Hold
Due to sales and supply chain disruptions, CFOs were called upon to strategically navigate cash flow on a daily and weekly basis rather than monthly or quarterly. Cash has been and still is king during the pandemic; CFOs spoke about holding back at the beginning of the pandemic in order to accelerate business investment as they start to come out of the pandemic—to return to pre-pandemic levels or to respond to pent-up demand. For now, planning for an entire year or any long-term investments for growth are most likely on hold as businesses continue to watch the macroeconomics of the vaccine rollout locally, nationally, and globally.
New Budget Line Items and Shifting Resource Allocations
New Technology Investments
Overall Economic Changes Impacting the CFO Role
The boom-and-bust cycle has been shortening since the U.S. housing market crash in 2008, so CFOs need to be more strategically involved rather than simply monitoring cash flow and investments. Weathering a long bust (such as that brought on by COVID-19) after a short burst of growth takes strategic diversification. With the pandemic, this has meant preparing for possible future lockdowns or new disruptions to trade, manufacturing, and distribution. Knowing one’s industry and how to prepare for the inevitable next big challenge can mean the difference between company survival and failure.
2021 and Beyond
It’s going to be a while before we see a return to normal; 2021 will be a transitionary year because businesses are still looking at meeting needs rather than big-picture planning and forecasting. Some projections are saying that the pandemic will be affecting businesses for the next 2+ years.
In terms of future investments and fulfilling stakeholder demands, businesses have additional stakeholders to consider now. In addition to being available to and watched by their investors, business metrics are more widely available and being watched by employees, customers, and regulators. More qualitative KPIs such as safety regulations, workforce impact, and alignment to corporate strategy need to be considered to address these new stakeholder interests going forward.
Classroom Implications
Imagine that you were the chief financial officer of a medium-sized business with about 80 on-site employees this past year. What skills did you need to employ to make many quick decisions and changes in your business? As the CFO, why do you think these decisions and responsibilities fell on your shoulders rather than another position in the company?
What does it mean when we say that companies quickly shifted to day-to-day cash management and “cash is king,” versus projecting and investing for longer-term growth? Describe some examples of supply chain disruption that caused companies to be hyper-focused on cash reserves.
What sorts of challenges does new technology create? And then, what efficiencies does new technology create?
What is a boom-and-bust cycle? How do you think companies operate differently in each cycle when it comes to their financial management?
Links for further learning:
Finance Derivative: “The Evolving Role of the Chief Financial Officer in 2020”
Financial Management: “The Pandemic’s Effect on CFO Tenure”
CFO Dive: “CFO Role Has Grown During Pandemic: Accenture”, “4 CFO Lessons From the pandemic”
CFO: “CFOs Respond Rapidly to Pandemic”
Accounting Today: “Pandemic Forces CFOs To Manage Financial Liquidity Better”
Wealth Monaco: “CFO’s Capital Allocation Strategy Shift After Covid”
Nearly a year ago, many office employees might have thought their work-from-home situations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic would last two or three months. Fast-forward to January 2021. COVID-19 case numbers are still significantly high. Unfortunately, many businesses have closed permanently. Many remaining (and thriving) businesses are fully remote and have decided to remain so indefinitely. But still others are taking a wait-and-see approach on their return to the office as the pandemic continues to unfold.
Luckily, vaccinations are underway, but the question remains for businesses that have had limited office access since last March: How and when is it safe to return?
Vaccinations Requirements?
Vaccinations might play a large part in how a business decides it is time for employees to return to the office.
In an interview with NPR, Johnny Taylor Jr., CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), said businesses would be within their rights to require employees to be vaccinated before coming back to the office. Taylor cited Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laws, which mandate that employers provide a safe environment for their workers, as the reason. He also said there could be exceptions for “sincerely held religious belief” under Title VII or disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But the need for a safe workplace means most workers should be vaccinated.
Office Life
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourage employers to create their own health and safety plans. It also encourages open and clear communication with workers about changes in their work procedures or environment. Some widely suggested safety measures employers can take are as follows:
Lastly, fears and misinformation can easily lead to biased behavior in the workplace. Be sure that diversity and inclusion strategies are considered as you implement COVID-related policies.
Just as beginning to work from home was an adjustment, the same is true for resuming office work. In a piece for LinkedIn, Susy Jackson wrote that employers should “give employees a reason to return to the office.” And once they are there, employers should provide continued flexibility and a period for acclimation and adjustment.
Classroom Implications
Further Reading:
NPR: “When Everybody’s Working at Home and the Magic Is Gone”
Investment News: “Advisory Firms Split on When To Reopen Offices”
Vault Rankings: “How Safe Will Offices Really Be When They Reopen?”
Employee Benefit Advisor: “4 Questions Before Reopening Your Office”
Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM): “Employers Consider COVID-19 Testing as Vaccine Rolls Out”
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge: "COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?"
Small businesses today have a singular advantage to businesses from even 10 years ago. That advantage is big data and data analysis. Data is more accessible than ever and can help small-business owners make more informed decisions on business strategy.
What is data analytics?
First, big data is the use of large amounts of information that is automatically collected from electronic data. And, data analytics is the study and the use of that data to make decisions. Big data is no longer something reserved for the largest companies in the world. As technology has advanced and become more accessible, it has become easier for small-business owners to use big data for their own needs.
Data analytics in action
One powerful example of businesses learning customer behavior is the use of point-of-sale systems in restaurants. Companies like Bareburger, Jeni’s Ice Cream, and Harpoon Brewing use a system called Toast. Employees use a POS system to take customers’ orders, which are then logged in a computer system. This tracking of orders can be used a few ways:
Another common tool is the use of web tracking systems like Google Analytics to track product marketing or website use throughout the day. Web analytics tools are useful when owners of small businesses want to know the following:
Data analytics techniques can be used in other ways, too. Through predictive analytics—the use of analytics to plan for future events with statistical projections—rations and supply chain management can be influenced by data.
For example, a manager at an independent grocery store could be notified through an alert that a type of produce needs to be ordered based on a week’s sales information. Or, a manufacturing company could plan to have maintenance scheduled on equipment if there is anticipated downtime based on work orders, past sales, and sales forecasts. And, according to Purdue University, big data is making its way into agriculture. Farmers are beginning to use analytics to make decisions on what fertilizer is used on what plant, seed distance, and harvest estimates.
Classroom implications
How do you think data analytics will grow in the next five years?
What do you think could change? Think about examples of data analysis you may experience in a normal school day. If it isn’t present, can you think of ways data analysis could be implemented in your school?
Links for further learning
https://www.business.com/articles/the-state-of-data-analytics-in-2019/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/data-analytics.asp
https://www.allbusiness.com/small-business-data-analytics-105554-1.html
https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/03/data-analytics-trends.html
https://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/kevin-kelleher/how-small-businesses-can-mine-big-data.html
Executives from across the country have talked with MBA Research staff about the importance of an agile workforce. Many businesses have started to think about flexibility and the ability to embrace change as qualities of primary importance as they hire new staff. Some businesses put qualities of this nature over actual technical skills as they look to build workforces that can withstand—and even thrive—in rapidly changing business environments.
When COVID-19 struck, many companies were thrown into turmoil as they struggled to adjust to a “new normal.” Companies that were already in an agile mindset have had an easier time adjusting to many of the changes they endured, and other companies quickly became more agile to embrace new ways of doing business.
Agile workforces in the business world
What exactly is an agile workforce? Agile workforces are typically made up of small work-teams within an organization. These teams are made up of motivated employees who are focused on sharing data, have diverse skillsets, and tend to be strong communicators and high achievers. The small, focused teams help foster innovation and the ability to change on demand in response to key business drivers.
One of the most recognizable companies in the world that thrives on an agile workforce is Amazon. According to The Guardian, Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos famously has a rule for the company: if more than two pizzas were needed to feed a team, the team was too big. The idea was to make it easier for team members to discuss ideas and communicate more readily and to focus on company values as they planned and completed their work.
Amazon’s success at developing their analytics service, AWS, is talked about as a success of agile principles. The creation of the powerful data service came out of Amazon’s desire to have teams work independently from each other, meaning Prime Video is separate from Amazon Books. AWS was created so all the data from Amazon could be accessible to any part of the company that would need it.
Another example of agile businesses can be linked directly to COVID-19. Think about how much the restaurant business has changed since March 2020. Sit-in restaurants, bars, and breweries all the sudden lost the ability to serve customers in-house. Many establishments were able to quickly pivot to a carryout model. Others were unable to flex in this way. To adjust, restaurants and bars had to quickly reconfigure. They changed their menus, their business plans, and started to deliver or became carryout only businesses.
Make agile work for you
The Amazon concept of having highly focused, independent teams is a trademark of agile workforces. Agile workforces are much more horizontal than the typical vertical waterfall management structures, according to McKinsey & Company.
Our research found that the following is helpful in building an agile workforce:
Going agile isn’t an overnight transition, but developing agile tendencies within an organization can lead to increased productivity along with greater employee and customer satisfaction.
Classroom implications and questions for students:
How could agile work principles apply at school? What would look different?
Reflect on a current or past job. Can you identify agile or waterfall processes at play?
If you were starting a business, what steps would you take to help ensure workforce agility?
Links for further learning:
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/viewpoint-how-to-develop-an-agile-workforce.aspx
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/are-you-ready-for-an-agile-future-1917754
https://www.breathehr.com/blog/8-characteristics-of-an-agile-workforce-and-why-you-should-take-note
https://hbr.org/2016/02/aligning-your-organization-with-an-agile-workforce
You’re walking down the street when you get a ping from your cellphone. It turns out you just got a coupon from Starbucks which, coincidentally, you just passed.
This is a form of marketing called geofencing, the virtual bracketing of a specific area with the goal of collecting data from either GPS systems or RFID (radio-frequency identification). This is all made possible through location data from location services on cellphones. Geofencing is a very attractive marketing technique for many businesses because it allows marketers to advertise to potential customers who visit specific areas. Many consumers also love the convenience of receiving advertisements or offers to businesses that are close by.
Considerations for the workplace
Geofencing is being used widely in business in a number of different ways. Based on our research, some businesses are developing best practices as they use geofencing. Here is what we found.
First, it is worth considering how long data collected from a geofencing campaign will be stored. Will it be more than a day? A month? Europe has laws that limit collection of data storage through location services, and California has a law that went into effect in January 2020 to do the same. The goal of both laws is to cut down on perceived privacy violations from the marketing practice.
The data storage time frame is just one decision to take into consideration. Another important decision businesses have to make is determining who to solicit. The general consensus on how to determine this appears to be through an opt-in system. An opt-in system means customers can tell businesses they are OK with their location data being used.
Some businesses are only using geofencing to target ads through social media like Instagram or Twitter. This eliminates notifications altogether and could be less intrusive to the customer.
Many companies are working hard to be fully transparent with consumers about their use of geofencing. The opt-in option explained above is one way to do that. Another way is to be specific when ads come to the prospective customer. Businesses can remind consumers that they are receiving notifications because of their expressed interest in these types of notifications or ads.
Ethical Dilemmas in geofencing
Not surprisingly, the practice can be very controversial and can bring up ethical dilemmas, even among marketing professionals that MBA Research has heard from in focus groups across the country.
While receiving a discount coupon to a favorite store may be seen as a bonus to many consumers, getting an ad for a personal injury lawyer while you’re in an emergency room may feel a little too personal, and a little less comfortable. This was the topic of a story featured on NPR in 2018. The marketing agency behind the ads claimed the goal was to make it easier for patients to find services they may need. An attorney in the story noted that, as of now, the federal government does not have any laws that regulate this type of advertising in hospitals and would not violate medical privacy laws like HIPPA. Patients, however, felt as if they were being spied on.
And, the American Bar Association wrote about a court case involving Monsanto, the manufacturer of the herbicide Round-Up. The complainants alleged the use of Round-Up gave them cancer. As a jury was being selected for a trial for the case, Monsanto purchased and sent ads to people who were inside the courthouse where the lawsuit was set to begin trial. The ads claimed Round-Up was a safe product to use. The people suing Monsanto in the case complained the geofenced ads were a form of jury tampering. The judge in the case disagreed. The judge ruled that the speech in the ads was protected and no different than people wearing buttons with political messages in the courtroom.
Through our research, we found that there is very little regulation related to where geofencing is applied and where businesses send their advertisements, like in a hospital or in a courthouse. In many ways, it may be up to consumers to manage their own privacy settings on their tech devices. But the question still remains: is it ethical to track and target people in a courtroom or a hospital emergency room even if it’s not prohibited by law?
Classroom implications and questions for students
Links for further learning:
MBA Research provides a LAP (Learning Activity Package) that provides insight on complying with the spirit and intent of laws. Access the LAP for free here.
https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/burger-king-whopper-detour-mobile-marketer-awards/566224/
https://businesslawtoday.org/2019/03/power-place-geolocation-tracking-privacy/
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10627-geofencing-understand-customers.html
https://www.data-dynamix.com/the-basic-rules-for-geofencing-in-advertising/
A number of business executives that we have talked with over the past year have mentioned the rise of remote working as a top or notable trend. Part of our discussion on this topic sometimes touched on determining which employees are, and aren’t, suited for remote work.
Within the past couple of months due to COVID-19, many employees—ready or not—are suddenly working remotely, and managers are working quickly to figure out strategies for providing extra cushioning and coaching for those who may need it most so they can maximize productivity.
But where to start? Our research has uncovered some of the following strategies:
A chief operations officer for a managed services provider in Ohio described an employee in their purchasing department who is struggling with task management while working remotely. This trait was mild when working in the office but exacerbated when the employee began working at home. The manager discovered a need to spend additional time with this employee developing a task list, and tracking task completion, in order to help the employee and the company be successful.
Remote working has brought about a “new normal” to many companies. The transition has been taxing in many ways. However, if some of the challenges are conquered, workers may be even stronger upon returning to the office.
Classroom Implications:
Consider asking students what they would like to see in their ideal remote work setup. Do they think they would be more productive in an office or a remote environment? How would they keep track of their work progress? How would they want to communicate with their managers?
It’s possible that they are also adapting to their own version of working from home, as the coronavirus has also led to the closure of many school buildings. Ask them how they’ve found learning from home different than at school, and have them envision whether or not these same challenges would be present in the work environment.
Links for further learning:
https://getlighthouse.com/blog/10-tips-manage-remote-employees/
Or maybe just your little corner of the world? While not a new concept, social enterprises are on the rise and our global culture is adjusting to make room for them. Social enterprises are designed to address identified social problems and can be classified as either for profit or not-for-profit. Some sources indicate that 25% of all new small businesses start as social enterprises. Entrepreneurs want to start them, workers (especially millennials) want to be employed by them, and increasing numbers of consumers want to patronize them. The increase in social enterprises is even making some more-established businesses rethink their corporate social responsibility efforts and policies.
B Lab, an organization in the United States, certifies successful social ventures that have made an impact on the social mission they have selected. As of 2019, 3,000 social ventures had been certified in 71 countries around the world. B Labs requires businesses to be in operation for one year before they get certified, and also requires businesses to publish public reports that show their social and environmental performance compared to third-party standards, according to B Lab.
A business could pursue a social enterprise-like model for a variety of reasons. According to the Harvard Business Review, a social venture’s mission could mean a better ability to grow because more people would want to support the business since it also means supporting the mission.
One example is Bombas, a clothing company that donates a pair of socks to a homeless shelter for each pair of socks purchased by a customer.
Another example of a social enterprise is Hot Chicken Takeover in Columbus, Ohio. This social enterprise hires people who are homeless, people who have been incarcerated, or people who are perhaps caught in the cycle of addiction. Not only do they hire those at risk, but they also provide supportive services to help stabilize other aspects of their lives.
Younger generations want to give their money to businesses that want to make the world a better place, according to an article from Forbes. These customers want to feel like they are supporting their communities. If a local venture’s mission is to invest into community organizations and issues, that venture’s mission aligns with these customers’ values.
There are several different types of social ventures. One type is the one-to-one model, like Bombas or TOMS, which gives a pair of shoes to people in need for every pair of shoes sold. TOMS has also promised to donate $1 for every $3 it makes.
Other social ventures do not operate under a one-to-one model, but either give money to causes they support or make pledges to be environmentally sustainable. One example of this type of business is outdoor-clothing company Patagonia. Patagonia has given itself a 1% “self-imposed Earth Tax” since 1985 and donated that money to environmental groups who support protecting the natural environment. Patagonia has said it has given $89 million in social causes under this social venture model.
Challenges in Social Enterprise
Social enterprise startups face many of the same hurdles as non-social enterprise startups. But they are also faced with additional challenges in finding investment funds and managing their revenue producing venture, along with their social venture. Certain types of social ventures are required to provide metrics—often referred to as social return on investment (SROI), which can be complicated and time-consuming. Social entrepreneurs also face a fairly high rate of burnout. On the other hand, a large part of almost any venture is the willingness to learn from initial failures. So many social entrepreneurs come back for more and are finding success a second or even the third time around.
In Real Time
It wouldn’t feel right to end this Action Brief without mentioning some of the things that businesses are doing right now to help ease the pain of COVID-19 in their communities: Distilleries are making hand sanitizer, Keen is giving away 10,000 pairs of shoes to frontline workers and others, and Amazon donated $1 million to a new Seattle Foundation fund for people in that region affected by COVID-19.
Classroom Implications:
Consider asking students what they would do if they were going to start their own social venture. Ask them to think about what social mission they would support. Why would they choose one social mission over the other? After they have selected a social mission, ask how they would sustain the business. What product or service would they sell? Would it be a one-to-one business like Bombas? Or would it be more similar to Patagonia, who gives a percentage of money to support causes it believes in? Click here for a more detailed description of different types of social ventures.
Links for further learning:
https://www.businessinsider.com/b-corp-retail-companies
https://www.fundera.com/blog/corporate-social-responsibility
https://www.fsg.org/blog/it%E2%80%99s-time-companies-imbed-social-purpose-their-business-strategy
Personal branding—is everyone doing it? The answer is most likely yes—even if we are not being intentional about it. Managing one’s personal brand, especially in the form of an online presence, is almost obligatory in today’s professional world.
In the past, personal branding was thought of more as reputation management—and was something that politicians and high-profile personalities and executives considered, but not so much the rest of us. But with today’s plethora of online communication tools, personal brands are much more widely developed and easier to ascertain.
Implications for Business
Employers are using information accessed through personal brands to help with recruiting. Some use the information to find candidates that are aligned with their goals and values. In the current hiring climate, where many job postings receive hundreds of applicants, a personal brand can help employers narrow their focus. They can more easily find the candidates who are the best fit. A personal brand can demonstrate a potential employee’s interests, initiative, and drive. Also, an employee who has a strong personal brand will most likely represent the company’s brand well, too.
Job seekers, likewise, can use personal brand to attract employers’ attention and interest. A strong personal brand helps candidates stand out and puts their best traits in the forefront. Recruiters often use social media to find potential employees, so a profile that promotes a personal brand can be beneficial. Also, the actions taken to build a personal brand can be valuable work experience. For example, if a job seeker writes a blog to build his/her brand, that skill might come in handy for a future position.
Entrepreneurs need to understand and build personal brands, perhaps more than anyone else. Often, an entrepreneur’s personal brand and company brand are one and the same. A great example of this is Seth Godin, a writer, entrepreneur, and marketing guru famous partly because of the personal brand he built through his blogs and various websites. When trying to build a company and increase a customer base, entrepreneurs need to promote themselves and the purpose of their companies. This can help them to grow and attract investors.
While it is clear that a personal brand can benefit individuals and businesses alike, it also presents challenges. If someone’s personal brand doesn’t resonate with a certain audience, it could alienate customers or employers who otherwise might have considered working with that individual. S/He may be counted out before being given a fair chance. Personal branding also brings risks when it comes to maintaining the brand image over time. If you do not actively work to build your brand, or if you make a mistake or engage in something unsavory, your personal brand could be damaged irreparably. Finally, building a personal brand takes time, effort, and sometimes financial resources. It may not be worth the return on investment.
Implications for the Classroom
A personal brand is the way someone promotes and establishes him/herself to be marketable to employers, clients, colleagues, and other audiences. It can also be a tool for communicating your core beliefs and values. Your personal brand is the way people remember and recognize your identity. It is influenced by the person’s focus and goals. A strong personal brand can help you stand out. It sets individuals apart from the crowd when they are seeking a job, obtaining clients, networking, or growing their careers in other ways. Personal brand is conveyed in the way a person presents him/herself visually, in his/her communication, and in his/her actions. Social media plays a large part in crafting personal brand through the content that is posted and shared.
Students should consider the personal brand they are already building. Is it one that would be attractive to employers? Why or why not? Students should also consider ways they can start to build a personal brand now. Encourage students to think about people with strong personal brands and how these brands have led to success. Students should also discuss the negative effects of the current emphasis on personal branding. Is personal branding genuine? Does it reduce a person’s individuality and personality?
To help students consider their own personal brand, have them form groups of two, with each partner sharing their perception of the others’ personal brand. Students can also share ideas about how to promote certain aspects of one’s personal brand.
To learn more about personal branding, consider the following resources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2018/11/08/10-golden-rules-personal-branding/#677ca24c58a7
https://www.quicksprout.com/the-complete-guide-to-building-your-personal-brand/
https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/tips-for-building-your-personal-brand/
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170723-the-case-against-personal-brands
Reader Comments
Rusty Poeppelmeier, a Bond Manager with Liberty Mutual Surety in Cincinnati, Ohio had the following comments after reading our Action Brief on personal branding:
The proliferation of social media has provided new platforms and made it easier for individuals to brand themselves. LinkedIn has also digitized the résumé and made it easy for job seekers and fillers to connect. For students, the most important thing is to avoid branding themselves with a virtual livestock brand—a permanent mark that follows you everywhere. Overstating your experience and skill set can be equally as problematic. A good interviewer will easily see right through that so don’t assume you can slip it past them. It is all too easy to make a joke or comment that could come back to haunt your image later that can’t be taken back. It is easy to be pulled into the politics of the time but hard to explain a profanity-laced rant five years later in an interview.
I would learn to use these new tools to brand yourself in a positive light rather than turning it into a report card on the quality of your opinion and temperament. What you choose to not say is just as important as what you do say. It is also a good personal report card on how well you collaborate and communicate. You can’t win your way in the board room with intimidation or profanities. It might win the occasional battle but eventually you will sink your brand like the Titanic.
Do you have questions or comments? If so, drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
No business, regardless of size, is immune from mistakes, accidents, or even crises that can affect day-to-day operations. In extreme cases, these incidents can even threaten the very existence of a company or brand. Although the possibility of such events is not new, the speed at which information travels is ever-increasing. The fact that news can elicit reactions worldwide in a matter of seconds leads to heightened risk and sensitivity when responding to these crises. However, the same social media platforms that amplify and give voice to these reactions also provide the opportunity for quick and constant communications throughout the crisis management process.
One PR management firm suggests that “59% of businesses have experienced a crisis, but only 54% of businesses have a plan in place to deal with them.” While preparation is crucial in managing controversy, the types of crises businesses encounter are unforeseen. Whether it is an exploding shoe on a soon-to-be-pro athlete or a data breach affecting millions of customers, a matter of seconds can threaten the short- and long-term health of a company. When these events do occur, quick-thinking and response times are critical to managing an onslaught of online criticism. A consensus among PR firms recommends that two rules be followed throughout the response: be quick and be human.
The need to respond quickly can be a double-edged sword, however. Respond too slowly and a company risks allowing online reaction to shape the story; respond too quickly and risk making statements before all the facts are known. It can be trickier still to assess whether an event requires a response at all. The last thing a company wants is to extend the life of a story that would have otherwise been short-lived. Unfortunately, there is no clearly defined test to determine which problems are likely to stick around and which are temporary wrinkles of the ever-shifting landscape of social media.
When an event does merit an official response, companies sometimes struggle to respond with an appropriate measure of even-handedness and decency. Sometimes, defensiveness or overreaction can bring on additional difficulty. The routine advice to “be human” means trying to establish some empathy with the people affected by the crisis. While some online vitriol is part performance, some reaction comes from sincere offense or hurt. One of the worst things that a company can do is belittle those expressions. Insisting that concerns are unwarranted or that pushback is an overreaction never helps the healing process and can significantly exacerbate the problem.
There are best practices and strategies for what steps to take in the aftermath of a crisis. While many PR firms and crisis management companies offer slight variations on the theme, the general approach involves these steps:
It may be useful to see some of these strategies at work. Nike’s swift response to Zion Williamson’s shoe explosion closely follows the first three steps and promises the fulfilment of the fourth. On the other hand, in April of 2017, United Airlines waited a day before responding to a customer being dragged off one of its airplanes. By the time the airline issued a statement, the viral video had already been viewed millions of times, and United had to scramble to try to stay ahead of the story.
Classroom Implications
There are a number of useful lessons that students can take away from this topic. Perhaps the most important for their future success is a lesson about what (not) to share on social media. Business leaders can share countless example of well-qualified candidates who were not offered a job after a quick check of their social media accounts. Furthermore, publically posting negative comments about current employers can easily cost people their jobs. Negative posts like these could create a crisis similar to those mentioned above. Students need to ascertain employer policies about use of social media, whether it be a personal or a company account. One way to teach these lessons to students is to link their current use of social media to the kind of problems that companies have had with these platforms.
Most students today are all-too-familiar with the ins and outs of social media. Many of them will have had an experience online that they felt the need to respond to or make amends for. As long as ground rules are set about respect for classmates and what subjects are in-bounds, it can be a very useful exercise to ask them about their strategies for responding to social-media accidents or the online “crises” that they have seen. How did they attempt to put out the fires of their own mistakes? How did their friends respond? These kinds of questions can really help establish a connection between students’ lives and the business world they encounter.
Have you ever thought: “If I just didn’t have to spend so much time on (insert dull, routine tasks here), I’d have time to really excel at my job”? Soon, many of those mundane activities will become automated. Automation saves time, effort, and money. The ability to automate tasks and processes is increasingly important to businesses’ efficiency and competitiveness. Plus, with advances in technology, it’s becoming much easier to do so.
What does automation look like?
The level of automation varies, depending on technology and the complexity of the tasks. It could be as simple as setting automatic replies to emails, or as complex as programming robotic process automation software to analyze data. About half of the activities that workers do today have the potential to be automated. Current technologies are best suited for routine tasks that require little creativity or higher level thinking. These include physical labor, data processing, and data collection.
Who does it affect?
The first fully-automated businesses have emerged—businesses that have no human employees at all. Read more about these businesses here: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-organizations-will-produce-in-an-autonomous-future/. While this isn’t possible for most companies, automation has affected or will affect most occupations and industries. Financial services, customer service, manufacturing, and health care will be particularly impacted. Employees at all levels, even at the highest levels, will see their jobs change due to automation.
In a recent focus group with executives from the financial industry in Kentucky, a debate broke out about the future of bank tellers. Some in the group felt the job would become fully automated; others saw an even more important role for tellers beyond automation. The Wall Street Journal frames the issue by identifying a trend in which some bank tellers are getting raises as they deal with higher level consumer issues. OceanFirst now has a “certified digital banker” course to help tellers become more comfortable with automation and prepare themselves to help customers address increasingly complex financial issues.
The idea that jobs will be replaced by automation has sparked fear. It is true that 15% of the global workforce could be displaced by 2030 due to automation. However, only about 5% of occupations could be fully automated with current technology. It is much more likely that certain tasks will become automated, freeing up workers’ time to be more creative and strategic. Less than half of all companies expect to decrease their workforces due to automation in the next five years. Furthermore, many new jobs and industries will be created, leading to labor demand growth of 21–33% of the workforce. The growth will presumably offset any jobs lost. Around 3% of the workforce will need to change their occupations by 2030 to fill the opportunities created by automation.
Benefits of automation
Challenges to implementing automation
What should businesses do to prepare?
Classroom Implications
Students should understand the ways that jobs are going to change with widespread automation. This will help them focus on developing the skills that will become even more important in the workforce. These include creativity, interpersonal communication, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking—as well as the technological skills to work with automation.
Links for further learning:
https://www.sage.com/en-gb/blog/ai-and-automation-business/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/307286
Rusty Poeppelmeier, A Bond Manager with Liberty Mutual Surety in Cincinnati, Ohio shared the comments below in relation to this Action Brief. Do you have other thoughts, or questions for Rusty? Let us know—we’ll keep the conversation going!
Automation will continue to move into different areas of the economy. It is important students understand it isn’t all bad. Some areas of the economy have historical labor shortages that are ripe for the investment of more automation. I have seen it move into areas such as a farming and customer service.
There are other areas where automation may create significant cost savings that ultimately could be passed on to the consumer. The more complex the task the longer it will take to implement but the payoffs could also be larger. Picking fruit in a variety of conditions is going to be more challenging than painting the same object over and over again in a controlled environment.
We also have a demographic issue with the baby boomers headed into retirement creating a labor shortage. So there will likely be job opportunities in this area, as the need for this technology will increase during the coming years. That said, there is a cost to implementing this technology and one of the items difficult to overcome is change. It takes the average industry a long time to adapt and change partly due to the cost of development and implementation. Sometimes implementation does not work out as planned. Customer service being one example. Some things are not quite ready for AI but with time and resources those challenges can be overcome.
I think the biggest piece of advice I have would be don’t let the pursuit of automation or process efficiency undermine the success of whatever business you are in. It is very easy to start down this path and compromise too much ultimately putting the business itself at risk. Change is hard but blind change is deadly.
A supposed great system with a dwindling customer base has the same probability of failure as a poorly managed business. So don’t let the pursuit of automation or a “better” process cause you to lose sight of the business itself. If it is truly a great idea, you won’t have to sell it. People like to finish things and claim success but don’t be blind to the reality of the actual needs of your customers. Remember, you need the customer, the customer doesn’t need you!