What we learned from the past year of think ahead
The last 12 months provided plenty of insights on how individuals and businesses can prepare for a future which looks very little like the past
London Business School launched the think ahead event and podcast series two years ago as it became even clearer that a convergence of major trends is forcing change on business operations in a way that hasn’t happened since the industrial revolution in the 1800s. On a macro level, there are critical shifts in geopolitics, a move from globalisation to regionalisation and a much more constrained business environment, hit by spiking inflation and a sharp increase in interest rates in major economies.
New rules and laws around decarbonisation and net zero targets are fundamentally rewiring business operations and supply chains. Then you have the bombshell emergence of Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) and the transformative potential these advanced tools can have on businesses – and also the massive risks they pose to businesses but also to societies in terms of the potential for large-scale job destruction.
For those in the workforce now and for the workers and business leaders of the future, what do all these changes mean? For your jobs, for career progression, for entrepreneurship and for your lives?
Discover fresh perspectives and research insights from LBS
"For those in the workforce now and for the workers and business leaders of the future, what do all these changes mean? For your jobs, for career progression, for entrepreneurship and for your lives?"
Preparing for an unchartered future
The School saw a huge need to address some of these major topics, using its unique position to bring together its leading faculty and other global experts from a range of industries to provide future-focused, actionable insight and somewhat mitigate the pain of change.
The past academic year was filled with a weighty lineup of events and podcasts, frontloaded with a focus on probably the hottest topic of the day – AI, its implications for business, for improving environmental and social stewardship and for healthcare delivery. Another event featuring a panel of London Business School faculty that included Professor Richard Portes, Professor Lucrezia Reichlin, Professor Jérémie Gallien, and Professor Nicos Savva, explored the multiple inter-connected pressures on the global economy – from war and climate change to inflation and supply chain disruption, looking at how these issues can impact the outlook for business.
On an individual level, being in the C-suite today is not for the faint-hearted. With no real template to run a business in these complex, uncertain and confusing times, Leading With Purpose in Turbulent Times offered a number of pertinent tips and suggestions into how best to lead teams through instability, volatility and stress.
Find below a few of the events we hosted and some key takeaways from each:
The Business Implications of AI
Panel
Professor Michael G Jacobides, a member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) AI Alliance, Giuseppe Stigliano, CEO of Spring Studios, Arka Dhar (SLN2022), Product Lead at OpenAI and Clare Mortimer, IBM’s Business Transformation Services Leader for UK & Ireland
Takeaway
The transformative potential of Generative AI – which allows anyone to use any language to instruct and get results from a computer - is overwhelming. Between 25% to 85% improvements in productivity are possible. The productivity boost from the steam engine was about 25%. The panellists agreed that strategic partnerships would be the main driver of novel IP, and perhaps humans will not be made completely redundant, with AI lacking critical emotional intelligence.
“We believe that we still need humans to oversee creative work lacking as it does emotional intelligence and the all-important bird’s eye view. We need to find the right balance between what we want in terms of value creation and what we want to delegate.”
Giuseppe Stigliano
How will AI Innovation in Healthcare Improve Our Lives
Panel
Andrew Vallance-Owen, Chief Medical Officer at Medicover AB, Nicos Savva, Professor of Management Science and Operations at London Business School, Crystal Ruff, Senior Director Neuroscience and Vaccines at Takeda, Sloan Fellow Barbara Domayne-Hayman, the Francis Crick Institute’s entrepreneur-in-residence
Takeaway
Artificial intelligence (AI) is only as good as the quality of data that informs it. We can’t start with the assumption that the data is perfect – interrogation is key. Greater data transparency is needed to build trust in AI models. Data used to train AI models should also be more representative and reliable data also requires secure storage. Crystal pointed to data security and how it could be combined and shared as a key risk in in the use of AI in healthcare settings that could not be ignored.
“One of the things that we’re looking at is: How do we share data? How do we access data? Even internally within pharma companies it’s so siloed.”
Crystal Ruff
The Road to COP28 – Aligning Expectations With Actions
Panel
London Business School Associate Professor Ioannis Ioannou, Vice Dean Julian Birkinshaw, Martha Vasquez, Partner and Associate Director, Upstream Oil & Gas at BCG, Albert Cheung, Bloomberg NEF’s Deputy CEO, Head of Global Transition Analysis, London Business School Professor of Finance Alex Edmans
Takeaway
Recent assessments conclude that for a 50% chance of keeping global warming to 1.5°C, the remaining carbon budget needed is around 250 GtCO₂, equivalent to around six years of current CO₂ emissions. Businesses must respond to this challenge now, essentially rewiring operating models to position for low-and-no-carbon growth, but timeframes to get to net zero need to be more realistic. Alex Edmans highlighted the complexity of climate trade-offs – pursue the climate agenda too strongly and there could be other costs to society.
“Today, students want and expect change, so there is hope that their voices can speed up the change needed.”
Ioannis Ioannou
Leading For Good When Times Are Bad
Panel
Randall Peterson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour; Academic Director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School, David Faro, Associate Professor of Marketing, London Business School, who teaches Crisis Leadership and Human Behaviour on the School’s MBA and Executive MBA programmes, Priya Mande JEMBA2002, CEO of a stealth biotech and former deputy director of the UK’s COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce, entrepreneur and business coach Chris Averill
Takeaway
The new normal operating environment is perma-crisis, so you can’t stop innovating and taking risks. Avoid ‘threat-rigidity’ – the tendency to hunker down and follow a familiar path. That is a way to failure.
Good leaders will understand human behaviour and offer reassurance and psychological safety to their workers to keep morale up. Good leaders will be a buffer of bad news, mitigating the long-term impact to their business.
“Don’t become the worst version of yourself and take care of yourself, so you can take care of others”
Randall Peterson
Watch the videos, hear the podcasts and read the articles covering the full year of think ahead events 2023-2024 here
think ahead will be back in September. Watch this space and be the first to see the agenda for the new academic year.
