Prof. Emeritus Thomas Kochan writes for The Hill about the need for a new social contract that reflects the expectations of today’s workforce, including sizable wage increases due to inflation and a voice in the use of AI and generative technology. “Either labor and management negotiate a new social contract that is more responsive to what workers want and need today, or we will experience intensified conflicts that further divide our country,” writes Kochan.
Financial Times reporter Andrew Hill spotlights Prof. Zeynep Ton’s new book “The Case for Good Jobs,” which presents “a tough, evidence-backed approach to improving what is often unhelpfully classed as ‘unskilled’ work.” Hill notes that: “Ton’s recipe has four ingredients: focus and simplify, standardize and empower, cross-train staff and ‘operate with slack’, which allows employees greater autonomy and gives them time to solve problems and come up with new ideas themselves.”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Marketplace host Meghan McCarty Carino about how AI has impacted the workplace, highlighting the wide deployment of robots in warehouses. “Instead of people running around the warehouses, the people stand and the robots run around the warehouses,” Sheffi said. “But they bring the work to the people who then put it in boxes, package them.”
MIT has been selected as the world’s best university in the 2024 QS World University Rankings, reports Cecilia Rodriguez for Forbes. MIT has secured “the top position for the 12th consecutive year,” writes Rodriguez.
Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. Robert Pindyck makes the case that households, private businesses and governments must "invest in adaptation to climate change, in order to counter its possible impact.” Pindyck writes, “Now is the time to put more effort into efficient CO₂ emission reduction, and invest in adaptation to limit the impacts of climate change.”
Financial Times reporter Andrew Hill highlights Prof. Zeynep Ton’s new book “The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work” in a roundup of his best books of the year thus far. “Ton has assembled a hard-to-dispute argument that better and better-paid jobs contribute to a virtuous circle of greater competitiveness, productivity and, above all, worker dignity and wellbeing,” writes Hill.
Boston Globe reporter Kara Miller spotlights Prof. Zeynep Ton’s work advocating for better treatment and pay for workers. Ton, who originally came to the Boston area to study supply chains, recently published a new book, “The Case for Good Jobs,” and is “on a mission to change how company leaders think, and how they treat their employees,” writes Baskin. “To Ton, the solution is clear: Treat people better, give them more control over their lives, close the income divide. It’s just good business.”
J. Daniel Kim PhD ’20 and Minjae Kim SM ’17 PhD ‘18 have found that young companies “were less likely than similar companies to change their line of business or location” after the departure of a founder, reports Kevin Lewis for The Boston Globe. “Companies that did change their line of business tended to perform better, especially around recessions,” explains Lewis. “This supports the notion that the loss of a founder tends to impede necessary change.”
MIT alumni Steve Fredette, Aman Narang and Jonathan Grimm co-founded Toast, an all-in-one online restaurant management software company, reports Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe. “The Toast founders spent hours talking to restaurateurs and built features such as real-time communication with the kitchen about special orders and dishes that have sold out, and a way of tracking loyalty rewards,” explains Pressman.
Prof. Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, speaks with David Wade of WBZ News about AI and the future of work. "Jobs will change, clearly some jobs will disappear. I don't want to minimize it," says Sheffi. “Some jobs will disappear, but this is a very small number. Most of the impact of technology is to assist."
Prof. Simon Johnson and Prof. Yossi Sheffi speak with Boston 25 about the potential impact of AI on the labor market. “We need people to have what’s called soft skills,” says Sheffi. “They need to be able to convince people, manage people, work with people, partner with people.” Johnson notes while there are still fields that are safe bets, but notes that the speed with which [AI] is moving and currently the acceleration is really dramatic.”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi joins Bloomberg Business Hour to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on businesses, supply chain management, and risk management. “In general, over the last 50 years, supply chain has changed dramatically, infusing more and more technology into the operation,” says Sheffi.
Forbes contributor Joe McKendrick spotlights Prof. Yossi Sheffi’s new book, “The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, AI, and the Future of Work.” McKendrick writes that Sheffi emphasizes the need to "better understand the supply chains on which our businesses and society depend, and our conception of supply chains needs to be broadened — from product and parts delivery networks to the very essence of organizations themselves.”
MIT has ranked first in 11 different academic fields in the latest QS World University Rankings, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes.
Writing for The Hill, Prof. Yossi Sheffi examines several strategies companies could use to help improve supply chain sustainability, including redesigning last-mile deliveries, influencing consumer choices and incentivizing returnable containers. “Supply chains can be designed to reduce emissions from operations and to reorient their buying behavior in support of carbon emissions reductions,” writes Sheffi.