Your Organization Needs Thought Leaders. Babson Has Them.

Article by Lily Awad and Rubén Mancha

Does your organization leave room for experimentation and failure? Babson College’s entrepreneurship teachings extend beyond our lectures and into the culture of our organization. Support for experimentation and acceptance of failure allows everyone at Babson to act on insights and ideas, learn what works (and what does not work), and shape the future of higher education.  

This spring, Lily and I have launched an experimental course titled Thought Leadership in Technology. The course adopts a transdisciplinary approach to self-learning, business theory and application, intensive writing, and the study of emerging technologies to allow a group of soon-to-be MBA graduates imagine and construct their future careers. Each student has identified an industry of interest and the technologies driving its transformation. Biweekly, they share their writings with the class, present, and receive detailed feedback from peers and instructors. Iterating between researching a topic, communicating their ideas, and editing their writing, students perfect their text until ready for publication. 

Would you like to learn about how exemplary companies explore and implement the latest technologies? Are you looking for thought leaders? Read on. Below, we share with you the first roundup of articles written by the graduate students enrolled in the course, organized into five topics: Technology Drives Values, The Digitized Health Experience, Augmented and Virtual Reality Experiences, Past and Future of Digital Platforms, and Privacy and Algorithms.

Technology Drives Values – Technology is enabling social innovations and changing the way for-profit and nonprofit organizations work. In the article “Slack @ WeWork: The Importance of Digital Communication Tools for Scaling Company Culture,” Eleni Vokas describes how honest and value-challenging interactions on Slack has helped WeWork “build a community amongst employees, encourage transparency and solidify ethos.”

Nathalya Mamane, in her article “VolunteerMatch – The bridge between volunteers and charities that is taking the social responsibility movement by storm,” analyzes the value proposition of VolunteerMatch, a non-profit organization that promises to connect individuals with meaningful volunteering opportunities and “[to] help companies pursue their goal in building [a] socially responsible culture.”

The third article in this topic is Juan Carlos Solidoro’s piece titled “Meet UBONGO – a social enterprise revolutionizing education for kids in Africa.” Juan Carlos explains: “there is no doubt that Ubongo is an impressive company, with an impactful mission—to reach 440 million kids in Africa.” In his article, he details how the innovative educational technology startup Ubongo relies on original content, digital interactions, and data to revolutionize online education.

The Digitized Health Experience – The Healthcare and Well-Being industries are undergoing a revolution. Data, devices, and apps are changing how individuals receive healthcare and manage their well-being data. Vasily Selyuminov and Nazim Haider evaluate digital disruption in the healthcare industry. In “Digital Disruption in Healthcare: How Engagement Platforms Change the Patient's Role in Digitally Transformed Healthcare World” Vasily reflects on the changing role of the (now-digital) patient and describes how the startup CarePassport has partnered with MGH to provide the hospital with a “digital engine for patient monitoring and medical research.” Nazim’s article “CVS Health’s Evolution as the Next Generation Pharmacy” describes CVS’ next-generation tools to help patients manage their care. He writes “CVS is embracing technology to improve access to healthcare, increase medication adherence, and reduce overall healthcare costs.”

In a third article, Kenza Qermane studies the well-being industry and the promises of the quantified self. In her article “A Look at OURA: Today’s Best Wellness Wearable,” Kenza takes a complete look into the wearable startup “founded on the belief that good sleep impacts one’s mental and physical health performance,” and discusses what’s next for this sleep-tracking innovation. 

Augmented and Virtual Reality Experiences – Two articles explore the growing role of augmented and virtual reality in offering unique experiences. In “How Big Data and AR will Improve the Grocery Shopping Experience,” Melissa Castro explains the evolving role of augmented reality (AR) in creating the future of grocery shopping experiences. She writes: “AR can support customers by serving as their savvy sidekick when grocery shopping,” and further identifies how the technology can help companies like Amazon’s Whole Foods enhance personalized customer service and preserve their social mission.

Adam Sanders, in his article “Virtual Reality: For Theater, a Prologue or Denouement?” anticipates virtual reality is in the future of the performing arts. He explains: “some performing artists have seized the moment and embraced the use of VR in site-specific experiences that blend VR and live performance,” and articulates how a “successful integration of VR in the performing arts” would attract digital-native audiences and advance VR’s innovation.

Past and Future of Digital Platforms – What can we learn from Apple’s platform move? Fumin Ma, in his article “Platforms: Apple's case” reviews Apple’s transition into a digital platform and offers a gentle introduction to the value of this business model. He explains: “with Apple, it was a strategic decision to switch to a platform model.” 

Looking into the future of Amazon, David Finger’s article “Amazon is coming….but where and when? – A look into how digital platform giants decide their next move” analyzes how a digital platform like Amazon adds value to their businesses. In the first post of a two-post series, he answers the question: “What did the [Whole Foods Market] acquisition tell us about the next generation of Amazon business strategy, about the evolving landscape of platform strategy in general?”

Algorithms and Privacy – Digital companies increasingly deploy algorithms to track, detect, and advertise to their current and potential users. For these purposes, they use algorithms: from biometric technologies to machine learning methods that place advertising on our digital platforms.

Two articles look at privacy in the age of algorithms. Alexandra Tapley critically evaluates the biometric industry and facial recognition technologies in her article “Time to Face Reality: A Brief Overview of Facial Recognition.” She argues biometric companies, to survive, should direct their efforts away from the innovation race and address the “accountability gap.” Jeff Hyde, in his article “Facebook: Platform or Publisher? Programmatic Advertising, Privacy, and Personal Transformation” clearly introduces the concept of programmatic advertising and explains how companies like Facebook rely on it, challenging customer privacy.

Lily Awad is adjunct faculty in the Technology, Operations, and Information Management Division and Senior Associate Director at F. W. Olin’s Graduate Center for Career Development. Rubén Mancha is assistant professor in the Technology, Operations, and Information Management Division, and faculty director of Babson’s Digital Experience Initiative.

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