INSEAD Knowledge

Don’t be a dodo or a sheep. Be an owl, say Atalay Atasu and Luk Van Wassenhove. Reflecting on how firms should react to evolving environment-related regulations, they advise them to proactively scan the landscape or risk becoming less competitive. The impact of the EU’s #WEEE legislation on the electrical and electronics industries demonstrate the need for companies to be competent as both market and political actors. And this applies equally to other industries.  The EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation passed in February bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear. The EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems is in the works. As more regulations emerge, companies must mobilise their networks and resources, and proactively shape the agenda as early as possible. After all, it's better to be seated at the table than to be on the menu. Read more: https://lnkd.in/edUAXvuK INSEAD Sustainable Business Initiative | INSEAD Hoffmann Institute

The real challenge with AI agents isn't the technology. It's the deployment. INSEAD's Nathan Furr and Jur Gaarlandt (MBA’10D), partner at Artefact, cut through the hype to focus on where agentic AI is actually creating value inside organisations. The starting point, they argue: is where does the human operator need help? The competitive advantage lies not in access to AI tools, but in the ability to integrate them into how work actually gets done. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/enjK2t6T

Sustainable supply chains are often built from the top down. The most effective ones are built from the bottom up. INSEAD's Amitava Chattopadhyay examines how companies like Ecuadorian chocolate maker Paccari Chocolate, Sri Lankan tea brand English Tea Shop and Swedish plant‑based oils and company AAK created genuine competitive advantage by treating suppliers not as a compliance problem, but as partners. The results speak for themselves: premium prices, loyal supply chains and financial gains that outlast any CSR press release. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/eNYrrQ8N

How can individuals and organisations do more than simply survive – but also build the skills and mindsets needed to stay ahead? This month’s Best of INSEAD Knowledge newsletter brings together research-backed insights from INSEAD faculty to help you tackle what comes next. Explore how workers can future-proof their careers amid AI’s impact; how leaders can steer their organisations through large-scale change; how multinationals can navigate an increasingly fractured global order and more.

Where you place a product in a window display affects how much shoppers think it's worth — even without a price tag. New research by INSEAD's Abhishek Borah finds that the direction a shopper is moving changes where their eyes naturally land, which in turn shapes their willingness to pay. The perceived value of a mug, for example, can vary by nearly $3 depending on whether the shopper is turning left or right.   Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/ewdx8z24

Career transitions used to follow a clear path. Get the credentials, do the networking, pick the next role. That playbook is breaking down. In the latest episode of "The INSEAD Perspective: Spotlight on Asia", INSEAD's Sameer Hasija and Winnie Jiang argue that we are moving from institutionalised career transitions to largely uninstitutionalised ones – where the safe, stable next step is increasingly hard to identify. Listen to the podcast: https://lnkd.in/eUXSTKwG

Many companies are facing difficult questions as the AI wave sweeps the world. Should they train their current staff in the technology? Fire them and hire more AI-savvy ones? Or terminate jobs altogether and hope AI fills the void? In part 2 of our AI & Jobs special series, INSEAD's Victoria Sevcenko, Phanish Puranam and Andy Yap analyse the options that would help organisations gear up for the workforce revolution. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/e56VdrsP

Twenty years after it was coined by American professor Henry Chesbrough, open innovation has become more important than ever. Its latest fuel? Artificial intelligence. A survey of more than 1,000 innovation and strategy leaders at private and public organisations in Europe by Sopra Steria's Tobias Studer Andersson and INSEAD's Andrew Shipilov and Nathan Furr shows that collaborating with other firms to share ideas and innovation is seen as essential to corporate success, particularly when it comes to AI. Read the article to find out which sectors were the most and least enthusiastic about open innovation, and what the catalyst and hurdles to success are. https://lnkd.in/eKtc4AMh

What decides whether a merger or acquisition succeed or fail? Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's how well two companies blend their cultures. Just ask Hadrian, the Roman emperor who integrated Athens into the Roman empire remarkably well. When integration fails, it’s rarely because leaders ignore culture altogether. More often, it’s because they focus on the wrong aspects of it. INSEAD's Andy Yap and co-author Piotr Furmanski outline three common mistakes and their recommendations for avoiding them. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/eD-UJKWD

Data quality isn't just an IT issue. It's a business problem that affects costs, decision-making, performance and, in some cases, even safety. Most organisations already know this. The challenge? How to get started in a way that leads to real change. In an upcoming webinar, INSEAD's Ville Satopää will lead a discussion with industry experts on what it takes to improve data quality in practice. Drawing on examples from companies including Shell and HelloFresh, they'll explore how to anchor data quality efforts in a concrete business problem, how to build genuine buy-in between the people producing data and the people relying on it, and how to make progress that actually lasts. Register for the webinar: https://lnkd.in/eV2ab-Rk Tom Kunz Kinda El Maarry, Ph.D. Tom Redman