Work

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of complements. Without them, the willingness to pay for many products and services would be far lower, sometimes even zero. In a video and soon at the GDI, Harvard economist Felix Oberholzer-Gee will elaborate on a few simple rules managers need, to focus their resources on selected ideas.

The dynamic in online retailing has been apparent since before the Covid-19 crisis: there is no retail concept that cannot be digitalised. But what about physical retail space? What should remain, what should disappear, what needs more space?

"All retailers could benefit from being a bit more paranoid and protective of their turf." This is what Sucharita Kodali, Vice President at the American market research company Forrester, says. This means that they should invest more in protecting their intellectual property and lobbying for laws in their favour, just like Google, Facebook and Co. are doing. Read an interview here. Sucharita Kodali spoke at the 71st International Retail Summit on 9 and 10 September 2021.

How do you manage your staff during a pandemic of unprecedented magnitude? What doesn't work at all in such a situation? One person who should know is Erich Harsch. As CEO of the Hornbach DIY group, he is responsible for 23,000 employees. How did his employees inspire him during the pandemic? Harsch discussed it all here in an interview, and at the 71st International Retail Summit.

Creative ideas aren’t born in a stark and uninspiring office space. Real estate developer Fredrik Carlström is convinced of this. At the 17th European Trend Day on 10 March, Carlström demonstrated how he creates workplaces for innovation, and how we can expect to be working after the pandemic.

What are the new challenges facing bosses in an age of working from home, and what does good leadership from home look like? International speakers provided answers at the 8th Academy of Behavioural Economics. The video recording is available online.

The world has entered a new state of paralysis, as no one knows when things will return to normal, argues economist and former GDI guest speaker Tyler Cowen in an opinion piece for the news agency Bloomberg.

The new GDI "Future skills" study outlines four scenarios for the year 2050 and identifies the skills needed for these futures. Will there still be jobs for everyone? And would it be a bad thing if there weren’t?

From a technical point of view, the future of work has long been here, writes GDI researcher Stefan Breit in an article. Due to the corona pandemic, the mind-shift is now following. Remote is becoming the standard, on-site the exception. An information graphic shows how and where we will work in the future.

Raffaella Sadun, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, surveyed over 1,000 CEOs across six countries to answer questions about CEO effectiveness. At the 8th Academy of Behavioral Economics on 27 January 2021, Sadun will elaborate on what good leadership in pandemic times looks like.