Ethan Mollick

Exciting news for business leaders! Our Dean, David De Cremer, D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University has launched a new book titled “The AI-Savvy Leader, 9 Ways to Take Back Control and Make AI Work.” Stay ahead of the curve by educating yourself on how AI will impact your business in the future. Taking the first step towards understanding AI is crucial for leaders. #AI #Leadership #BusinessInsights #northeasternuniversity #Northeastern #artificalintelligence

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Memo to Faculty: AI is Not Your Friend (opinion piece) | In this essay, Scott Latham, Ph.D., professor of strategy at the Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, outlines AI's threat to faculty in higher education and his view of the actions faculty need to actively adopt now to keep institutional administrations from replacing faculty with AI. Interested in your thoughts... Read the full opinion piece here: https://buff.ly/45JSQGH #edtech #AI Excerpt: "How do we respond as a larger faculty? In the short term, think of the old parable: Do not let the camel’s nose into the tent, or the rest of the camel will follow. Stress critical thinking within your discipline. Currently, AI uses data-driven models that cannot account for ambiguity well. Within your respective disciplines, find the gray areas that require debate and reflection. This applies to all disciplines—the humanities, sciences, business and engineering. No field will be immune from AI’s reach. Make experiential activities central to the class. Whether it be labs, field trips, or guest speakers, endeavor to get students out of the classroom and hear other perspectives. Faculty-driven internships need to be part of the curriculum if they are not already. Do not feed the AI monster: faculty would be wise to abandon ChatGPT entirely. The goal is to engage more with the student, so for example, shift the modes of assessment from writing to oral exams. And do not get lazy! Sorry, but you need to continue to develop your own syllabus, craft your own PowerPoints, and grade your own exams. Protect your intellectual property. AI only works with available data; do not make your lectures, videos, notes, and other intellectual property available to it. If you built it, then it’s yours—don’t give it up in the short term, because you will pay for it in the long term when AI is reusing your content. Decline participation in AI pilot projects. When your dean or vice provost offers a $500 grant to introduce AI-enabled grading, tell them you are doing just fine. Keep using Scantron. There’s no risk of a Scantron taking your job."

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The concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has truly been a game-changer for startups. Popularized by Eric Ries in "The Lean Startup" and further championed by Steve Blank in his HBR piece, "Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything," the MVP is often seen as the cornerstone of efficient and agile product development. The lean startup methodology emphasizes rapid, iterative development cycles designed to minimize resources while maximizing validated learning from real customer interactions and feedback. In this context, the MVP serves as a tool for hypothesis testing and quick pivots based on customer feedback, all while reducing time and cost in the development process. Recently, a comprehensive research article by Regan S., Devin Burnell, and Greg Fisher delves deeper into the concept of MVPs, providing a theoretical framework highlighting the complexity and multidimensional nature of MVPs. They urge startups to consider MPVs not just as a tool for rapid development and testing but to take into account situation specific implications and potential risks. For example, the authors look at the multidimensional nature of MVPs in terms of aesthetic, functional, and symbolic realism, and how these different dimensions impact the MVP's effectiveness and reception in different situations. Further, they look at the risks and trade-offs associated with MVPs. Entrepreneurs must balance minimal development with the need to gather meaningful feedback, which can introduce risks like misinterpreting market signals or failing to capture the full user experience. As entrepreneurs navigate the startup ecosystem, practical and academic research such as this can help refine strategies, mitigate risks, and ultimately build more robust and innovative solutions. For those interested: Eric Ries' Book - https://lnkd.in/gC3-AwE6 Steve Blank's HBR piece- https://lnkd.in/gq3EFM3Z JOM piece - https://lnkd.in/g-TknJsm

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In the Strategic Finance Magazine article "How to Lead Disruptive Innovation in an Uncertain World" by Scott D. Anthony (The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth; Innosight) and Mark L. Frigo (DePaul Driehaus College of Business) we discuss how companies are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) in innovation in a period of radical experimentation.  We also discussed how to develop both Confidence and Curiosity of our business school students about using AI. >Confidence that the right investment in time can help them to develop fluency with AI. >Curiosity to play around with and learn as the technology continues to develop. >The Value-Creating Power of Play: Play is how we develop as children, and adults need to spend a lot more time playing, given the increasing pace of change in the world. >Future Oriented Executive Leadership: Leaders need to give their teams the equipment to play. And create some—but not too many—guardrails to contain that play, while still encouraging risk taking and avoiding punishing what might feel like failure. It is play, after all, and the only failure is failure to play! >Leading by Example: Executives need to get in there and play as well.   #AI #Innovation #Play #Leadership

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Check out how Lutz Finger and ElevenLabs developed S.A.I, the novel AI teaching assistant that guides students through our new online certificate program, Designing and Building AI Solutions. 🤖 Wanna meet S.A.I? Learn more about the program here: bit.ly/ai-solution

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Jack Duval, an Elon philosophy alum, sent me, a former English major, this clip of Goldman Sach's George Lee predicting the "revenge of the liberal arts," emphasizing centrality of critical thinking, logic, rhetoric, and creativity in this age of AI. The enduring lessons of the liberal arts and sciences, coupled with meaningful human relationships to help us navigate a complex world, will both be more important than ever. https://lnkd.in/egs97RTc

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Good read for first time founders who want a quick primer on how VCs work. Hat tip to Christopher Laughlin for sharing. Another good resource is Brad Feld's book, "Venture Deals: Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist", a perennial favorite, now in its 4th edition. Check it out: Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist https://a.co/d/hsAYmvL #innovation #entrepreneurship #venturecapital

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“Leading Disruptive Innovation in an Uncertain World” Strategic Finance Magazine by Scott D. Anthony (The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth; Thinkers50) and Mark L. Frigo (DePaul Driehaus College of Business). A conversation with leading thinkers on disruptive innovation and long-term value creation.  CFOs can use the ideas discussed in this article to take a leadership role in creating long-term sustainable value in a rapidly changing and uncertain environment. This article is part of the Creating Long-Term Sustainable Value Creation series launched by the article Creating Long-Term Sustainable Value by Mark L. Frigo and Dominic Barton. #innovation #disruptiveinnovation #valuecreation #change

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In the Strategic Finance Magazine article "How to Lead Disruptive Innovation in an Uncertain World" by Scott D. Anthony (The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth; Innosight) and Mark L. Frigo (DePaul Driehaus College of Business) we discuss how to integrate Disruptive Innovation with Strategic Valuation as described in "Strategic Valuation in the New Economy" (Strategic Finance, October 2021) by Mark L. Frigo with Jeffrey Madden and how to consider Strategic life-cycle analysis (as described in "Strategic Life-Cycle Analysis: The Role of the CFO" (October 2020) by Mark L. Frigo and Bartley J Madden) in the context of leading disruptive innovation for long-term value creation.

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Lexington Books managed to release my book Disagreeing despite the Data before the election. It argues the belief segregation underway in the US may be irreversible. Today's battles over climate change, disease mitigation, and election results run deep -- they're cognitive, not just strategic. Here's the gist of it. 20th-century revolutions in the philosophy of mind, meaning, and matter uncover three surprising requirements for widespread factual agreement. Critical thinking and community building have the potential to reverse two of them -- the growing refusal to test assumptions and individual isolation. Factual agreement between groups is impossible without the third one, though -- shared projects or other meaningful interaction. And a large part of American society has insulated itself from the rest. Without shared projects, communities gradually lose the ability to tell whether they agree or not regardless of the words they use. Belief segregation with similar roots has led several developing countries to the brink of failure. We'd better watch out. The attached flyer gives a discount code that makes the book -- priced in this initial run for academic libraries -- a little more affordable. Please feel free to forward it and, if you're connected to any libraries or book stores, pass it on!

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Nary a day passes without some student, faculty member or corporate executive asking about the impact of generative AI on the workforce of the future. This insightful McKinsey article suffices with a single-word answer - "Agency." The authors explain that in moving from information to action - “Agentic systems traditionally have been difficult to implement, requiring laborious, rule-based programming or highly specific training of machine-learning models. Gen AI changes that." For students navigating a complex job market, and professionals amidst and adrift in technological down drafts, it makes urgent sense to understand how agents operate, and how humans best operate with them, in a dynamic dance with a natural language rhythm. An important and compelling read. #AI #FutureOfWork #McKinseyInsights

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AI is impacting, disrupting and shaping almost every industry today and increasingly for tomorrow. UVA Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning is proud to be launching in February 2025 a new program focusing on "AI Essentials for Government Leaders" to address how AI could and is currently shaping the public sector. University of Virginia Darden School of Business is proud to be a key strategic partner to Military and Government organizations and leaders for over 50 years and this new program is consistent with expanding our offerings in this important industry. This also could be a great way to engage as we think about strategic organizational solutions and partnerships in strategic leadership and innovation in the age of AI. Key Darden faculty thought leaders will include Rajkumar Venkatesan, Ph.D. Yael Grushka-Cockayne Bidhan Parmar and Anthony Palomba, Ph.D., M.B.A. We are excited about this new and important market offering in this important sector for Darden and the University of Virginia Anne Trumbore Ty Schieber Jennifer Hicks Mike Sheerin Allison Stratton Ashley Williams Allison Sellman Lisa Cannell

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🎓📝💡 Stanford GSB Essay Tip! 💡📝🎓 There's one super common question about the Stanford GSB essay that comes up a ton right now. 🎉🎓✍️ Should you explicitly write, "What matters most to me is..."? 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️ Here’s the thing: if you feel the need to spell it out explicitly, it could be a sign of two things.... 📄🚫 Find out what they are in the newest video. #mbaaplication #mbaadmissions #StanfordGSB #MBAEssays #AdmissionsTips #EssayAdvice #GSB #MBA #ApplicationTips

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I anticipate more articles of this nature in the coming years.

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Its interesting to note the Application trends vis-à-vis the test score requirements.

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I think this is really great work. In a time where a shocking percentage of the entrepreneurs are incorrectly urged to "blitzscale" and/or seek outside funding, what is describe below is a noble and appropriate entrepreneurial path for most. It also would build a stronger economy and, in my mind, a more harmonious society due to less income inequality and economic fluctuations. So many benefits. And there is a good rough analogy for this model which has created enormous value and been the blast for their economy in Germany. Check out "Middelstand" in link below. Entrepreneurship is a mind set, skill set and way of operating that should not be confined to one journey. Every entrepreneurial journey is different and there are many different species and that is a good thing. That is how we teach it here and wonderful to see Benjamin Hallen and Ed Hallen contribution to this. This is important work. Well worth the read. Please keep it up Ben, Ed and the rest of the team!!! https://lnkd.in/ecu4KB6t Scott Maxwell Rob Ketterson Kirk Arnold Matt Marx Michael Cusumano Scott Stern Paul Cheek Tom Byers Marius Ursache Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship Hayes Ferguson Samir Mayekar Michael Lenox David Baldwin David Pruner

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Some great insight here! Adi Gozes drives home the importance of tailoring your message to different audiences when talking about venture capital. From simplifying complex ideas for students to delving into nuanced strategies for professionals, it's all about empathy and clarity to bring people in. This approach shows that understanding what each group needs to hear is key to building trust and allows for meaningful connections with stakeholders. It's also a lesson in effective communication that any entrepreneur chasing startup success can't afford to ignore. #Communication #StrategicGrowth #Startup #Entrepreneurship #VC

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As someone who is currently taking a deep dive into the business case for sustainability. I found this ft.com piece on sustainability to be pertinent. Professor Richard Barker delineates the risks and opportunities across all industries as firms increasingly have to communicate value-relevant information to stakeholders during their sustainability journey. Interestingly, the auto industry is mentioned with Tesla and Porsche called out. We know Volkswagen's current challenges, so monitoring the auto industry closely can be a useful proxy for other industries to consider. https://lnkd.in/eVka3gpf

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