Businesses and Organizations

Insights for companies, societal organizations, and changemakers tackling challenges, driving innovation and change

Amitt Sharrma Amitt Sharrma

When human ingenuity meets AI, unlocking enterprise innovation

This article introduces Hunome, a platform that enhances AI by adding human-centered "sensemaking" to enterprise decision-making. While AI processes vast amounts of data, it lacks contextual understanding and human perspective needed for strategic decisions. Hunome bridges this gap by integrating human knowledge, intuition, and cultural context with AI insights, transforming fragmented data into actionable understanding.

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Businesses and Organizations Mika Raulas Businesses and Organizations Mika Raulas

A Human-Aware way of leading in innovation and decision-making

This article argues that leaders should balance data-driven decision-making with understanding human factors affecting customers, employees, and communities. It contrasts "leading with people" versus "leading with data," suggesting that while metrics like productivity and revenue are readily available and useful, they miss crucial human motivations and needs. The piece uses examples like furniture sales data (showing increased sales but missing customer preference for sustainable materials) and Dan Price's decision to implement a $70,000 minimum wage at Gravity Payments after learning about employee financial struggles. The article claims that human-aware leadership leads to better employee motivation, customer engagement, and business outcomes, recommending that leaders actively seek diverse perspectives and look beyond numerical data to understand the people their decisions impact.

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Businesses and Organizations Mika Raulas Businesses and Organizations Mika Raulas

How can companies survive unexpected events?

This article discusses applying human-centered design principles to help businesses build resilience during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It outlines four core principles: understanding the fundamental problem rather than just symptoms (using the example of remote work solutions that address broader business continuity rather than just providing laptops), focusing on all impacted people by understanding their needs and involving them in solution development, considering entire systems rather than isolated components (illustrated by chatbot implementation that might solve wait times but create misdirected queries), and iterating quickly through prototyping and testing. The piece references examples like Zoom's rapid scaling and Airbnb's pivot to homestays, emphasizing that companies following human-centered approaches during uncertain times should shift perspective from what's right for the company to what's right for the people surrounding it.

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Individuals and Organizations Mika Raulas Individuals and Organizations Mika Raulas

Human-centricity is hitting society in a huge way – WebSummit

This article reports on WebSummit's focus on human-centricity in business, featuring quotes from executives at major companies like IKEA, Microsoft, and Lush who emphasized putting humanity at the center of their operations. The piece highlights how leaders discussed moving beyond traditional sustainability goals toward actively improving human conditions, shifting from "know-it-all" to "learn-it-all" cultures, and understanding stakeholders as people rather than just data points. The article includes commentary from Sir Ridley Scott about the urgent need for intervention in humanity's crisis state and digital technologies' role in addressing sustainability goals. The piece frames human-centricity as a movement that enables companies to understand real problems people face and offer solutions with broader social impact beyond traditional sales funnel approaches.

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