New technologies, including innovations in AI, robotics, additive manufacturing, blockchain, digitalization, and quantum computing, are constantly changing business structures and platforms. On a products and marketing front, there is a need for greater experimentation using these technologies to better engage customers. Meanwhile from the management and HR perspective, the very same new technologies might create labor concerns and challenge the future of work. Join the MIT Industrial Liaison Program for the Innovations in Management Webinars to hear from MIT faculty, industry, and MIT-connected startups about their commitment to shaping management in a digital era.
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Nelson P. Repenning is the School of Management Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Repenning currently serves as the faculty director for the MIT Executive MBA program. His work focuses on understanding the factors that contribute to the successful implementation, execution, and improvement of business processes.
Repenning has received several awards for his work, including best paper recognition from both the California Management Review and the Journal of Product Innovation Management. In 2003 he received the International System Dynamics Society’s Jay Wright Forrester award, which recognizes the best work in the field in the previous five years. In 2011 he received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching. His current interests include safety in high hazard production environments and the connection between efficient internal operations and effective strategic positions.
Repenning holds a B.A. in economics from Colorado College and a Ph.D. in operations management and system dynamics from MIT.
The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed two major changes in how most of us work: most meetings and other collaborations happen virtually; and, even the most stable of organizations is being asked to change rapidly. Crises often reveal the best and worst of how organizations function and thus offer an opportunity to learn and improve. COVID-19 is no exception. In this session I will talk about how the combination of remote work and the need for rapid adaptation can create a pathological way of working that impedes the ability of an organization to change just when it needs that ability most. Following that, I will offer an alternative approach to organizing decision making processes that we have found to be useful in any situation that require rapid and ongoing change, crisis or otherwise.
Hala is Managing Director, Community at Solve. She oversees Solve’s work advancing tech solutions to economic, social, and environmental global Challenges through open innovation and partnership. Hala’s career revolves around building catalytic partnerships and strategies for social impact. This work has included a public-private initiative for employment in the Middle East at the World Economic Forum, advising governments on public sector reform and donor engagement through her work at the World Bank and the UN, and building strategies and business models for nonprofits. Her last appointment at the World Economic Forum was as Director of Strategy and Impact. In 2015, she cofounded a policy platform that counts over 100,000 subscribers. Hala holds two Master's degrees—one in Public Policy from Harvard University, and one in Development Economics from American University, DC. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut. She served as a Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum and as Senior Advisor to the Women Political Leaders Global Forum.
Innovators around the world are responding to the pressing need for businesses to adapt to the shifting realities in today’s digital economy. Social entrepreneurs are bringing to the forefront workers and industries who were once invisible in myriad ways. They are stepping in where the formal education system is lagging. Or leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence to perform traditional HR tasks such as matching jobs with employers and providing career coaching. These innovators are also reinventing what work actually looks like, by helping to formalize various aspects of the “gig” economy. Join Hala Hanna, Managing Director, Community at MIT Solve, to learn more about the role of open innovation and cross-sector partnerships to scale social impact startups that are preparing for the future of work in the digital age.