Top MBA Recruiters: Merck
Global health care is one of the fastest growing sectors in 2019, with Deloitte expecting spending to reach $10.059 trillion by 2022. Thanks to aging and growing populations, you can expect a greater prevalence of chronic diseases, ultimately translating to exponential advances in innovative technologies, medicines, and care.
For MBA graduates, this translates into a huge potential for job opportunities in the health care sector. In particular, there are opportunities for:
- New innovative technologies and personalized programs to engage with consumers.
- Better data security and ownership.
- Increased health care delivery and mobility.
One of the companies at the leading edge of this sector is Merck. Continue reading…
Investing In U.S. Innovation, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
The 1 Thing Your Company Should Add To Its Retirement Benefits – MIT Sloan Newsroom
MIT Sloan Professor Lotte Bailyn took part in a three-year research study under HBS Professor of Business Administration Teresa Amabile to understand the “organizational, social, and psychological forces that can affect people’s retirement experiences.”
Bailyn outlined two strategies to help “pre- and early-retirement individuals manage their transition out of the workforce”:
- The “Phase-down” strategy enables a “retiring employee to work less while receiving a percentage of their pay, plus benefits. At the end of the phase-down — which can range from months to a handful of years —the person retires.”
- The “Contracted rehire” strategy allows companies to hire back employees on a contractual basis, which Bailyn explains, “allowed the company to get the specific niche knowledge that that person has, and by working with other people, employees in the organization could pass on that knowledge.”
Questrom School of Business Professor of Management Tim Hall, one of the researchers on the study, adds, “It’s surprising how little employing organizations are doing to help them [transition]— even though at the same time they’re interested in maybe helping people move on and opening up opportunities for younger people, they’re not. I think there’s a great opportunity cost they’re suffering by not doing that.”
You can find more information on the study here.
How the U.S. Can Rebuild Its Capacity to Innovate – Harvard Business Review
There is a growing trend of companies across all industries choosing to “invent and manufacture abroad” in what Harvard Business School’s Willy Shih describes as a loss of “industrial commons.” According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, “nearly half of the foreign R&D centers established in China now belong to U.S.-based companies.”
“Over recent decades, VCs have overwhelmingly focused on software and biotech investments over ‘hardware’ investments, closing additional doors to manufacturing innovations. It’s no wonder that so many promising manufacturing enterprises have to look abroad to simply get off the ground—let alone soar,” writes Sridhar Kota, Justin Talbot-Zorn, and Tom Mahoney.
The article recently outlines four principles the U.S. could use to reinvigorate its industrial ecosystems.
- Don’t Fear Picking Winners: “Rather than allowing promising R&D results to languish in labs or even be commercialized by foreign competitors, the U.S. should launch a National Innovation Foundation to invest in engineering and manufacturing R&D to mature emerging technologies and anchor their production onshore.”
- Invest in Hardware Startups and Scale-Ups: “U.S. policymakers can … build on existing resources to help innovative hardware startups and scale-ups succeed—particularly through domestic government procurement [the way] China has employed government procurement, strategic technology transfer, and domestic technology development to build its respected high-speed rail industry.”
- Mind the Mittelstand: Small and medium enterprises (SMMs) “amount to about 250,000 firms, or 98 percent of all manufacturing firms. By strengthening and supporting these firms, the U.S. could rebuild the backbone of its manufacturing sector.”
- Power to the People: “While American high schools typically require students to dissect a frog, few require students to disassemble a power tool. Exposure to real-world engineering is a crucial and cost-effective way to build interest in manufacturing careers—through either four-year engineering degrees or vocational training.”
You can find the entire HBR article on re-investing in American industry here.
Legacies Catching On – Carroll School News
BC Carroll School of Management Professor of Information Systems Gerald Kane recently put together a new research report as part of a gig guest editing the MIT Sloan Management Review’s Digital Business Initiative. The report, Coming of Age Digitally: Learning, Leadership, and Legacy, emphasizes the need for companies to foreground experimentation in their “digitally maturation” processes.
According to the Carroll School News, “Nimble businesses create the conditions for employees to take risks and try new things. The key to [prepare] for more digital disruption is to not simply hire but develop digital leaders.”
“Part of developing leaders means giving employees the time and space to acquire new skills, an area where many companies need to improve. Ninety percent of survey respondents said they need to update their digital skills at least yearly—and 44 percent said they need to do so ‘continually.’ Yet at ‘early-stage’ companies (which are paradoxically often the older companies), nearly 30 percent indicated that their employers offered little to no support to do so.”
You can read more about Kane’s research here.
U. Toronto Invests in Rotman Innovation, Data, and Entrepreneurship
Innovation, entrepreneurship, data, and analytics all play significant roles at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. As a global center for research and academic excellence in business and society, Rotman is known for bringing together diverse views and initiatives. So, it should be no surprise that this month the Rotman School announced increased investment, from different sources, in three areas:
- $25 million in funding for the Creative Destructive Lab (CDL)
- $4 million in new funding for data and analytics initiatives
- $2.5 million to the Creative Destructive Lab Health Stream and additional financial resources in support of the Behavioral Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR) research center.
Creative Destruction Lab Receives $25 Million
Founded in 2012, the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) was created to address failure in the market for judgment. As a seed stage program, its goal is to help science-based companies become scalable by pairing founders with experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The nine-month program covers everything from commercialization of products to R&D and maximizing equity-value creation.
To increase the CDLs ability to help young companies, the Canadian government announced a $25 million investment in the program. The investment will allow the CDL to accelerate the commercialization of science in Canada while hopefully also attracting more investment in ventures and more intellectual property. Over four years, the CDL will help more than 1,300 science-based ventures and could create up to 22,000 new jobs.
In a recent press release, Minister Bains says:
“Creative Destruction Lab’s exciting project promises to unleash a new wave of start-up innovation across Canada, creating thousands of middle-class jobs and further securing Canada’s position as a world leader in the AI field. Our government is proud to make investments that will help turn hundreds of innovative ideas into the good jobs and companies of tomorrow.”
The investment will also help the CDL gain insight into the success of science-based startups. In particular, ventures harness new technologies such as AI, energy, health, smart cities, and space and quantum technologies will be targeted. There will also be a boost for young women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields in the hopes of inspiring representation in the next generation of business leaders.
“This is a tremendous moment,” Tiff Macklem, Dean at the Rotman School, says. “Thank you Minister Bains, the Government of Canada and everyone that saw the vision and opportunity of the Creative Destruction Lab.”
The investment was made through the Strategic Innovation Fund; a program focused on attracting and supporting high-quality business investments across all sectors of the economy.
$4 Million for Data and Analytics
Data and analytics are an essential area of study at the Rotman School as evidenced by the launch of the new Master of Management Analytics (MMA) program as well as the TD Management Data and Analytics Lab. So, it makes sense that when the TD Bank Group (TD) was looking for a way to support the Rotman School, they decided to give $4 million in funding to explore real-world data and analytics applications.
Christian Nelissen, TD Senior Vice President of Enterprise Data and Analytics, says in a news release:
“Data and analytics are the engines powering the future of Canada’s economy. That new reality means building talented teams that have a deep understanding of the potential of data and analytics, in financial services and beyond. We are looking for visionaries who can see what’s possible—things we might not even have thought of yet.”
Specifically, the funding will go toward development and staffing of the TD Management Data and Analytics Lab, which launched in 2017. The goal of the investment is to improve student development and engagement in data and analytics, and to add expertise and resources for industry projects and cutting-edge analytic thinking. The Lab also offers workshops, hackathons, guest speakers, academic collaboration, and seed funding for the Rotman FinHub.
“By collaborating with TD, we are giving students the opportunity to engage in data-focused problem-solving,” Dean Macklem says. “We know our students are eager to take on new roles in the evolving field of data and analytics and this generous investment will allow us to move more quickly to further expand our data analytics programming and opportunities.”
Investing in Healthcare Innovation & Behavior Economics
Last, but certainly not least, TD Bank Group announced additional investments in two initiatives: innovation in healthcare and behavioral economics.
The first investment from TD is $2.5 million over five years for the Creative Destruction Lab Health Stream, which focuses on biotechnology, bioinformatics, diagnostics, and digital care. This investment will help aspiring entrepreneurs bring technological innovations to the market in the healthcare industry.
Andrea Barrack, TD’s Vice President of Global Corporate Citizenship, says:
“We know that the long-term success of our business depends upon the resilience and health of the people we serve. We’re thrilled to support the CDL with this contribution, which will help accelerate advances in healthcare through fresh thinking and entrepreneurship. At TD, we have a history and meaningful purpose of helping to enrich the lives of customers, colleagues and communities.”
The second investment from TD comes in the form of an agreement to bring additional behavioral finance resources and applications in support of the Behavioral Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR) research center. As a founding member of BEAR, TD hopes to be able to better examine and research the underlying emotion and behaviors that push financial decision making. Also, the investment will help continue to implement behavioral finance tools into wealth management.
“Being one of the founding members of BEAR will further contribute to TD’s commitment to advancing the study and real-life applications of behavioral finance,” says Dave Kelly, Senior Vice President of TD Wealth. “The work we have done to-date with Rotman has been instrumental in enhancing the advice and services our advisors provide to our clients. Research by BEAR will enable us to better understand the underlying factors that help drive financial decision making so we can connect with our clients on a deeper, more meaningful level.”
Cambridge Judge Study Highlights Importance of Innovation in R&D Spending
A new study published at Cambridge Judge’s Centre for Business Research says that a renewed focus on innovative research and development spending by major UK departments would create new export-oriented industries and help re-balance the economy.
In past decades, many vibrant UK technology industries including semiconductors emerged from R&D spending at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and other departments, and future R&D spending should seek to recreate such a pipeline of innovation, says the 65-page report, entitled “Creating markets for things that don’t exist”.
Continue reading…
