Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2021 från Rotman Management

You recently analyzed the policies put in place to fight the global pandemic. What were your key findings? We looked at the effectiveness of 11 policies that have been implemented at various levels in 40 countries since the pandemic’s onset. My co-authors — INSEAD professors Phebo Wibbens and Wesley Wu-Yi Koo — and I found that a suite of widely implemented core policies did in fact reduce the spread of virus — but not by enough to contain it fully, except in a few highly compliant jurisdictions. The 11 core policies we looked at included the cancellation of public events, the restriction of gatherings to fewer than 100 people, stay-at-home recommendations and the implementation of a partial international travel ban. For the average jurisdiction, these policies reduced the growth rate…

SEEMINGLY OVERNIGHT, digital tools, models and platforms have emerged from their traditional back-office function to become an unstoppable strategic force, revolutionizing every industry. The global pandemic has only accelerated this transformation, with new virtual models embraced widely in healthcare, education and other industries within weeks, rather than the years it would normally have taken for widespread adoption. As a result, today’s executives are faced with many more technology-driven conversations, ranging from new value propositions to start-up investments to disruptive competitors. Digital no longer sits comfortably within the execution purview of IT and marketing teams. But for leaders with little background in technology, this new fact of organizational life often comes with a little-discussed side effect: It can threaten their sense of identity. And when that happens, innovation can get stopped…

WHAT DO SNOW PLOWING, car safety, investment management and face-recognition technologies have in common? While it isn’t obvious to most, they all have impacts that are gendered. Take snow plowing: Most municipalities focus on getting the roads clear after a major snowfall. But when you clear snow from roads before you clear the sidewalks, it turns out that you get many more slip-and-fall accidents — and most of these are women, because they are more likely to be out walking kids to school in the mornings. What about car safety? Women are 47 per cent more likely to be injured and 17 per cent more likely to die when they get in a car accident because most vehicle crash tests are done with crash test dummies that are male-sized and…

Right now, every company in the world is facing the same question: What’s going to happen when this pandemic is over? Over the last several months, we’ve been working with management teams in a variety of sectors, including retail, entertainment, finance and healthcare, to develop a plan for what comes next. What we’ve learned is that conventional strategic thinking hasn’t helped these companies to plan for the ‘next normal’. Instead, the best answers have come from a hybrid approach: One that combines traditional business strategy with the latest thinking from social science and innovation theory. Ultimately, planning for a post-pandemic world means answering three questions. How does your business really make money? Many companies haven’t taken the time to articulate their critical strategic differentiators or map out how money, goods…

The global pandemic has led to some tectonic changes in the realm of healthcare. Please describe them. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, recently said that the digital transformation of healthcare has led to more change in the last six months than could have been expected over the next six years. And he’s right. Since this all started last March, KPMG teams have been working on more than 95 engagements globally, focusing on everything from regional test capacity to PPE supply chains to creating patient engagement apps. As a result of this work, I have identified 10 key characteristics of the new world of healthcare that is unfolding around us [see page 101]. The first characteristic is perhaps the most significant: The new ‘digital front door’. At the high point…

IN A DISCREET STUDIO on gentrifying Front Street West in downtown Toronto, a group gathers to eat lunch amid an assortment of brown bags and compostable takeout containers. In the group are a professional musician, a competitive ski racer, an art historian, a brand strategist, a Physics major, an MBA, several geographers, and interior and communication designers. Regardless of background, all share the same title: Innovation Designer. Welcome to The Moment’s studio headquarters, where purpose — not any one individual — is the boss. And in this case, that purpose is ‘to design a thriving future for us all’. Project teams of employees (dubbed ‘Momenteers’) organize work themselves, from start to finish, with no managerial oversight. Days are punctuated by structured routines (status reports and stand-up project check-ins) and social…

For those who aren’t familiar with Tenera Care, please describe what your product does. What we initially intended our TeneraWear bracelet to do and what it does now are two different things. We designed the bracelet to serve as an automated call for assistance, so residents of assisted-living facilities didn’t have to push a button on the wall or pull a cord to ask for help. The software system attached to the bracelet would intuitively understand that the individual was in a position where they needed help, and it would alert the nursing staff. A call for assistance might go out, for instance, if someone was having trouble getting out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the washroom. We created a product that achieved this…

IMAGINE A WORLD where a wristband alerts industrial workers whenever someone is less than two metres away from them; where a pay-as-you-go app for small medical providers in sub-Saharan Africa identifies patients who are susceptible to serious COVID-19 complications; and where modular off-grid facilities can be rapidly deployed for housing, health and educational purposes anywhere in the world. You don’t have to imagine such a world, thanks to the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL). “Novel crises require novel responses, and novel responses require innovation — often predicated on insights from science.” That according to CDL founder Ajay Agrawal, who is the Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Rotman School of Management and whose team has been on the front lines of developing solutions to help the world recover…

BUSINESSES HAVE SPENT MUCH of the past 12 months scrambling to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. While the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet won, with vaccines in hand, there is light at the end of the tunnel — along with the hope that another train isn’t heading our way. The year 2021 will be one of transition. Barring any unexpected catastrophes, individuals, businesses, and society can start to look forward to shaping their futures rather than just grinding through the present. The next normal is going to be different. It will not mean going back to the conditions that prevailed in 2019. Indeed, just as the terms ‘pre-war’ and ‘post-war’ are commonly used to describe the 20th century, generations to come will likely discuss the pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19…

I WATCHED WITH INTEREST how the financial industry handled the COVID-19 crisis that emerged in late 2019. It was truly a challenging time in every way as leadership had to balance grave health issues with the potential collapse of the economy. What made it unique was that it was not caused by economic factors but by a health crisis. Its vast implications are barely understood as of this writing, but I hope the lessons of earlier crises can serve to guide those responsible for the recovery, or for the management of a future crisis of any scope. In my time as a senior executive at Bank of Montreal (BMO), there were four periods of crisis that required some exceptional management skill as well as luck to survive. One of them…

FOR CANADIANS, the COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-lifetime health and economic emergency that has exacerbated long-standing structural weaknesses in our economy. Policymakers therefore face a dual challenge of considerable magnitude: They must lay the foundations for a safe and sustainable recovery while at the same time putting in place a long-term plan for economic growth and prosperity. Early in the pandemic, we saw how close cooperation between Canada’s public and private sectors could overcome complex and urgent problems. The federal government’s Plan to Mobilize Industry harnessed the strength of the country’s industrial base and the resourcefulness of Canadian companies in responding to the sudden need for large quantities of critical health and safety supplies such as personal protective equipment, sanitization products and diagnostic equipment. In our view, a similar ‘all…

SINCE THE ONSET OF COVID-19, corporate boards have faced a string of difficult decisions. Take the question of dividend payments: Ordinarily, the decision would be a relatively straightforward matter of applying a stated dividend policy, following past practice, or choosing an amount based on shareholder expectations and the company’s earnings for the period. But this year, with COVID-19 decimating the economy and looming uncertainty about the depth and duration of the crisis, the decision became a complex matter of weighing and balancing multiple factors — at least for companies flush enough to consider it at all. Boardroom dividend discussions ranged over a series of considerations: the equity and symbolism of returning cash to shareholders at a time when employees were being laid off or furloughed; the potential future opportunities gained…

How would you describe the billion-dollar ‘diversity business’? In writing the book (Diversity Inc.), I wanted to explore the tension between the constant rhetoric about diversity and the billions of dollars that are spent annually on consultants and anti-bias training — and the fact that most of these organizations barely move the needle when it comes to hiring people of colour. Whether it’s creative fields like fashion and Hollywood, academia, law or business, people of colour remain radically under-represented in every influential field. They make up close to 40 per cent of the U.S. population, but they are in the single digits in most influential fields. Why are some of the fields that should be the most progressive not making any headway? That was actually one of the surprises of…

Digital front door: The only front door. Hospital out-patient and general practitioner appointments across the world have been transformed with as much as three-quarters of all consultations now taking place virtually. ‘Clean’ and ‘dirty’ sites (Green and Blue). In response to the pandemic, health systems across the globe have introduced strict infection control measures including the separation of COVID and non-COVID patients, to prevent spread in hospitals and care homes. ‘Hot’ and ‘cold’ sites: New patient flows. Cold sites deliver non-COVID care in order to lower infection risk, operate efficiently without interrupting acute work and create capacity for elective procedures. Establishing hot and cold sites will be imperative to delivering the kind of new patient flows necessitated by COVID-19. Public Private Partnerships have been formed in some countries to help…

GE’s lines of business range from power to aviation to healthcare. How would you summarize the pandemic’s effect on them? As a company that supports essential services like hospitals, power generation and airlines, our priority has been the health and safety of the GE team that has served on the front lines since the beginning of the pandemic. For healthcare, this has been a wonderful opportunity for us to step up and support Canadians, living our purpose of improving lives in the moments that matter. That has meant making sure that our clients have the equipment they need — and not just in terms of fighting COVID-19 itself; the backlog of non-urgent and elective cases is long and growing, so we have been actively working with providers across the country…

The following, 28 ventures have graduated from the CDL Recovery program. AccuroLab has developed a service that acts as an intermediary between cellphone users and Trusted Health Organization (THO) sources, allowing users to assess the accuracy of incoming text messages related to COVID-19. Altis Labs helps pharmaceutical companies and hospitals accelerate therapeutic R&D and guide personalized treatment by predicting patient outcomes from radiological imaging. As COVID-19 spread, Altis expanded its technology to predict outcomes of patients with pulmonary infections, allowing hospitals to better manage their resources. Avro Life Science develops skin patches that administer generic drugs through the skin and eliminate the need for oral medication. Their first product—an allergy patch—helps children avoid the side effects of taking oral medication, including trouble swallowing. BioXplor is developing an AI- and network-based…

Healthcare represents a huge and growing sector. But it faces unique management challenges that you believe have not been adequately addressed. Please summarize them. Brian Golden: In most systems, healthcare is seen as a cost rather than an investment — and that is tragic. One of the great challenges right now is getting people to adopt a new mindset around what great healthcare can do for an economy. The fact is, excellent healthcare drives prosperity. The second issue is a problem of inequity. We have what I call ‘postal code healthcare’: You are very fortunate if you happen to live in a place like Toronto, New York City or Los Angeles — which have some of the best healthcare in the world. But good healthcare is not spread evenly, between…

Catastrophic decisions live on in the business lore as testament to the perennial difficulty of making good decisions. From the AOL-Time Warner merger to Blockbuster rejecting a partnership with Netflix, from J.C. Penney eliminating coupons to the debacle that was New Coke, these fiascos remind us that as leaders, we are often not nearly as smart as we think. While there is no way to guarantee that a decision will turn out well, we can improve the odds by following five steps. 1. Make sure you truly understand the problem. There is often an unavoidable tendency to fall into what I call ‘the conclusion trap’. In a fast-changing environment, executives often feel pressured to make decisions quickly. Combine that with years of training and reinforcement with the kind of System…

WORKING FROM HOME and staying home all day long. Staring at screens. The blurring of work-life boundaries. Inability to meet up with friends and family. Anxiety about one’s future and financial worries. Uncertainty about when — or if — we will ever return to normalcy. Worries that anxiety is a sign of personal weakness. These are just some of the issues facing citizens around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is little doubt about the massive scale of mental health challenges brought by the pandemic. Unfortunately, mental health was already a looming crisis before the pandemic, accounting for 22.8 per cent of the global burden of disease. COVID-19 has only accelerated the rate at which this parallel crisis has taken root in our society. As mental health policy experts…

AS I WRITE THIS, early in 2021, it’s fair to say that the global economic outlook seems more stable than it was last March amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Vaccines are gradually being made available around the world, central banks have brought stability and liquidity to global markets, and governments worldwide have introduced some of the largest fiscal stimulus packages in modern history. And yet, tremendous uncertainty persists, The strength of the global economic recovery depends on the speed at which COVID-19 vaccines can be distributed, and the scope for further fiscal spending depends on the outcome of delicate political negotiations in each country. Meanwhile, the resilience we’re seeing in the financial markets may be limited by when investors believe central banks might start to roll-back quantitative easing (QE). What, then,…

Many people still believe that shareholder interests are at odds with stakeholder interests, but that is a false dichotomy. Most enlightened businesses view the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders to be largely aligned from a longer-term perspective. That means focusing on how your talent is being managed, as well as your relationships with the communities in which you operate. Failing to address these issues is simply not sustainable. Some companies still resist this mindset, and in many ways these tensions are inherent in our structures. Even though boards are meant to take account of the interests of all stakeholders, they are elected each year by shareholders. And quarterly reporting is still widely practised as it is viewed as the easiest metric to measure performance. Compensation systems also reward short-term…

You have said that no group in society has been more profoundly neglected for an extended period of time than our elders. Please describe the current state of affairs. We live in an aging society, and yet it’s a society that doesn’t respect its elders. In Canada, we tend to value economic contributions above all else, so once you retire, you are viewed as a cost to the system. It’s almost like you’re disposable, and that is evident in the way we treat people who get really sick: We institutionalize them — hiding them away, out of sight and out of mind. There is profound ageism ingrained in both our social policies and our attitudes. In its pre-pandemic report, the Public Inquiry Into the Safety and Security of Residents in…

1. Reframe and reposition the debate about workforce planning to one about productivity, health and national wealth creation. 2. Encourage governments to become more entrepreneurial, stimulating health worker supply through a host of measures ranging from the relaxation of training limits to increased labour participation rates for healthcare. 3. Encourage the rapid and large-scale adoption of new models of care that already exist in different parts of the world so that enhanced well-being, prevention, promotion, care and treatment can increase productivity and capacity to care. 4. Provide the human and technological support to enable patients to be active partners in their care, taking greater responsibility for their own well-being and the management of long-term conditions. 5. Provide greater recognition, encouragement and support for communities, volunteers and families, who already provide…

IF NOTHING ELSE, the past year has shown us that when faced with adversity, Canadians rise to the challenge. This continues to be most evident in our healthcare ecosystem, where governments, healthcare professionals, first responders, and industry leaders have worked tirelessly to navigate one of the most unrelenting health crises the world has ever faced. However difficult, the challenges brought about by COVID-19 have taught us valuable lessons that will be critical to our ongoing response to the health issues of today — and those that will impact us in the future. The pandemic has brought to light many of the difficulties that have plagued our health system for years. For instance, Canadians across the country have long experienced challenges gaining timely access to primary care — particularly the estimated…

A DIETER IS OFFERED CHOCOLATE CAKE at a party. Someone trying to save money stares longingly at a fancy new smartphone. A student trying to improve her grades considers skipping her studies to watch a binge-worthy TV show instead. These are all examples of want-should conflicts, in which people are forced to choose between instant gratification and long-term benefits. Wants are defined as actions that provide short-term pleasure but no long-term benefits, while shoulds provide long-term benefits but often involve short-term pain. Due to ‘present bias’ — ‘the tendency to dramatically overweight immediate rewards relative to delayed rewards’ — people often choose wants over shoulds in the heat of the moment, only to regret their decisions later. Unfortunately, evidence shows that over time, repeatedly selecting wants over shoulds takes a…

HOW DID THE PRICE of GameStock — an unprofitable company — go from $15 a share to $483 a share in January 2021? As I will explain, the price action was a classic showdown of Wall Street shorts vs. Main Street longs. First, some background on short selling. Ever since the first stock markets developed in the early 1600s, short selling has been a market tactic. Short sellers sell shares they don’t directly own, planning to eventually cover this short position by buying back the shares, at, they hope, a lower price. The short seller will either borrow the shares from an institution or other investor to deliver to the buyer or at the very least prelocate shares in the event of a required delivery. A short sale expands the…

Tragically, most of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths have occurred among seniors living in congregate settings. Your leadership team assembled an independent Advisory Panel to study the situation. Please describe its key findings. We convened a panel chaired by Dr. Bob Bell that included experts in geriatrics, public health, infectious disease, infection control, labour relations, architecture, healthcare policy and healthcare design. Their overall finding was that COVID-19 not only exposed cracks within the sector, but also the broken links between it and the system as a whole. This translated into a series of systemic breakdowns that allowed the virus to flourish in long-term care. Among these breakdowns was a sector-wide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) to shield staff and residents from transmitting and contracting infection. While Revera is large enough to…