John Watson at G100
As the second largest US oil company with operations on six continents, Chevron continues to manage massive investments in a way that creates value for both stakeholders and shareholders. How? A glowing profile of CEO John Watson offers some clues:
At a time when Chevron, like the rest of the industry, is under financial strain, Mr. Watson is taking the unsentimental approach to improving its performance that you would expect from his background.
What do Google, 3M, & W.L. Gore Have in Common?
Cultures of innovation linked to self-management, says an HBR article that not only debunks myths about “Holacracy” but explains how this radical approach fits in the evolution of organizational structure. As for challenges companies like Zappos face with wholesale adoption, the authors recommend organizations find a suitable balance of self-management principles.
A new study from the Data & Science Research Institute and NYU offers a different perspective. It examines how Uber found success with “algorithmic management,” or apps and notifications that nudge drivers toward certain behaviors. The researchers conclude:
Policymakers should take note of the power of automated systems to incentivize, homogenize, and generally control how workers behave within the system despite claims to systematic freedom or flexibility.
Assessing the Cost of Cyberattacks
Companies face a risk of overlooking much of the intangible costs related to cyber incidents. This comes from new research that identifies – and defines – a useful list of business impact factors for cyberattacks, half of which remain hidden “beneath the surface.”
In terms of how the impacts played out over time, only 8% of the total impact fell within incident triage. … Interestingly, the largest impact was felt during business recovery, with half of the total impact having occurred more than two years following the incident.
More ominous is a future looking account of “Cyber 9/11,” inspired by and annotated with real events, that warns about psychological fallout from a perfect storm of cyberattacks:
Everything that had looked like progress over the previous two decades now looked more like a Trojan horse: “Smarthome” devices and driverless-car initiatives became political footballs. Americans begrudgingly accepted the inconveniences experts said were necessary — triple verification, firewalls between firewalls, encrypted encryption — but the phrase cybersecurity theater soon joined its airport predecessor in the lexicon of nanny-state policies.
How Millennials Think About Retirement, Work
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this year a record number of people over the age of 65 were still working. Despite their caricature in media, Millennials share this hard working mentality, with 12% worldwide expecting to work until they die, says a detailed ManpowerGroup study. It surveyed 19,000 working Millennials across 25 countries to measure how attitudes about retirement and work differ among geographies and genders. One of many interesting findings:
American Millennials are working as hard, if not harder, than other generations. Eighty-three percent report working more than 40 hours a week, and 23% work over 50 hours. Indian Millennials claim the longest working week and Australians the shortest – on average 52 and 41 hours a week respectively. Twenty-one percent in the US are working two or more paid jobs.
