Future of Work Briefs

Satya Nadella’s appointment as Microsoft’s CEO was greeted with headlines such as “Why Microsoft and Everyone Else Loves Indian CEOs,” echoing Time’s 2011 lead heralding “India’s Leading Export: CEOs.”

he advent of broadband access in middle schools in Portugal led to a decline of 0.78 of a standard deviation in academic grades between 2005 and 2009, say Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira, and Rahul Telang of Carnegie Mellon University.

Sorry, Ivy League-educated dilettantes: While that framed degree may look mighty fine on your wall, most business leaders aren't particularly keen on your academic credentials when hiring, at least according to a new survey from Gallup.

A worker who started out earning $40,000 and switched jobs seven times over the course of a 40-year career would lose $47,000 in lifetime retirement savings if all of her employers followed IBM’s example and paid 401(k) retirement contributions as lump sums on the last day of each year.

In mid-September 2013, 10 professionals returning from multi-year career breaks walked into 270 Park Avenue in New York City to begin the J.P. Morgan ReEntry Program. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse have recently initiated internship programs for return-to-work professionals.

A recent HBR blog proposed to deliver “The Cure for the Common Corporate Wellness Program.” But as with any prescription, you really shouldn’t swallow this one unless all your questions about it have been answered.

A cynic might conclude that George Washington, the first president of the United States, owes his legacy to his towering physical stature and other superficial characteristics. The man looks like a leader, and perhaps that made him a convenient figurehead on which we hang idealized virtues.

Late last month, The New York Times published a piece about businesses finally opening their eyes to the realities of climate change. Don't get too excited, though. It makes sense that Coca-Cola and Nike, the companies featured in the article, would be taking proactive positions.

Improving innovation is one of the key competencies that companies often look for when replacing a CEO. Yet committees responsible for recommending candidates often grapple with finding the right person for the job when an innovation emperor like Steve Jobs isn’t available.

When CVS/Caremark announced that it would forego some $2 billion in sales of tobacco and related products recently, CEO Larry J. Merlo stated that: “We came to the decision that providing health care and selling cigarettes just don’t go together in the same setting.”