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Managing Uncertainty: Adapting to and learning from the COVID-19 crisis – a Rotman Insights Webinar Series
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Best-sellers, classics and works offering new insights, these books are authored, co-authored or edited or co-edited by current Rotman faculty, and are currently in print and offered for sale.
By: Professor Emeritus Roger L. MartinWhen More is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency provides a unique viewpoint on what has changed and why the helpful pursuit of efficiency has turned into a damaging obsession. The consequence is a fundamentally different distribution of outcomes that will get worse not better as a natural consequence of treating the economy as a complicated machine and attempting to maximize its efficiency.
By: Professor Joshua GansA guide to the pandemic economy: essential reading about the long-term implications of our current crisis.
By: Professor John H. HullThis book is for business executives and students who want to learn about the tools used in machine learning. It explains the most popular algorithms clearly and succinctly without using calculus or matrix/vector algebra. The focus is on business applications.
By: Professor Joshua Gans (with Andrew Leigh)Is economic inequality the price we pay for innovation? The amazing technological advances of the last two decades―in such areas as artificial intelligence, genetics, and materials―have benefited society collectively and rewarded innovators handsomely: we get cool smartphones and technology moguls become billionaires. This contributes to a growing wealth gap; in the United States; the wealth controlled by the top 0.1 percent of households equals that of the bottom ninety percent. Is this the inevitable cost of an innovation-driven economy? Economist Joshua Gans and policy maker Andrew Leigh make the case that pursuing innovation does not mean giving up on equality―precisely the opposite. In this book, they outline ways that society can become both more entrepreneurial and more egalitarian.
By Professor Sarah KaplanCompanies are increasingly facing intense pressures to address stakeholder demands from every direction: consumers want socially responsible products; employees want meaningful work; investors now screen on environmental, social, and governance criteria; "clicktivists" create social media storms over company missteps. CEOs now realize that their companies must be social as well as commercial actors, but stakeholder pressures often create trade-offs with demands to deliver financial performance to shareholders. How can companies respond while avoiding simple "greenwashing" or "pinkwashing"? This book lays out a roadmap for organizational leaders who have hit the limits of the supposed win-win of shared value to explore how companies can cope with real trade-offs, innovating around them or even thriving within them. Suggesting that the shared-value mindset may actually get in the way of progress, bestselling author Sarah Kaplan shows in The 360° Corporation how trade-offs, rather than being confusing or problematic, can actually be the source of organizational resilience and transformation.
By Professor Wendy DobsonLiving with China makes the case to Canadians to adopt a forward-looking China strategy that recognizes forty years of successful reforms as foundations of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious long game to 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic. Looking forward, market reforms will be key drivers of China’s long-term growth yet Chinese policy is ambivalent about the potential dangers of spontaneous market forces undermining the Party’s central goal of political stability. These tensions are pointed out in the book’s early chapters that outline what Canadians need to know about the Chinese economy. Getting the foundations right by growing at sustainable rates and dealing with unproductive state-owned enterprises; promoting innovation as a future growth driver and modernizing the fragile financial system are all works in progress where tensions between ‘plan’ and market forces are apparent. Two chapters also examine how Chinese enterprises are going global through direct investments and participation in the dynamic but troubled Belt and Road Initiative.
Edited By: Professors Anita McGahan and Will Mitchell (with Kathryn Mossman and Onil Bhattacharyya)Poor access to care in low- and middle-income countries due to high costs, geographic barriers, and a shortage of trained medical staff has motivated many organizations to rethink their model of health service delivery. Many of these new models are being developed by private sector actors, including non-profits, such as non-governmental organizations, and for-profits, such as social enterprises. By partnering extensively with public sector organizations, these non-state actors have enormous potential to scale innovation in global health. Understanding how these leading organizations operate and target hard-to-reach groups may yield key insights to sustainably improve health care for all.
By Professor Tom McCullough (co-author Keith Whitaker)Wealth of Wisdom offers essential guidance and tools to help high-net-worth families successfully manage significant wealth. By compiling the 50 most common questions surrounding protection and growth, this book provides a compendium of knowledge from experts around the globe and across disciplines. Deep insight and thoughtful answers put an end to uncertainty, and help lay to rest the issues you have been wrestling with for years; by divulging central lessons and explaining practical actions you can take today, this book gives you the critical information you need to make more informed decisions about your financial legacy.
By Professors Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi GoldfarbArtificial intelligence does the seemingly impossible, magically bringing machines to life--driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI will bring can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know? In the face of such uncertainty, many analysts either cower in fear or predict an impossibly sunny future. But in Prediction Machines, three eminent economists recast the rise of AI as a drop in the cost of prediction. With this single, masterful stroke, they lift the curtain on the AI-is-magic hype and show how basic tools from economics provide clarity about the AI revolution and a basis for action by CEOs, managers, policy makers, investors, and entrepreneurs.
By Professor András Tilcsik (co-author Chris Clearfield)A crash on the Washington, D.C. metro system. An accidental overdose in a state-of-the-art hospital. An overcooked holiday meal. At first glance, these disasters seem to have little in common. But surprising new research shows that all these events—and the myriad failures that dominate headlines every day—share similar causes. By understanding what lies behind these failures, we can design better systems, make our teams more productive, and transform how we make decisions at work and at home.
By Professors Chris Kobrak and Joe MartinFrom Wall Street to Bay Street is the first book for a lay audience to tackle the similarities and differences between the financial systems of Canada and the United States. Christopher Kobrak and Joe Martin reveal the different paths each system has taken since the early nineteenth-century, despite the fact that they both originate from the British system. The authors trace the roots of each country’s financial systems back to Alexander Hamilton and insightfully argue that while Canada has preserved a Hamiltonian financial tradition, the United States has favoured the populist Jacksonian tradition since the 1830s. The sporadic and inconsistent fashion in which the American system have changed over time is at odds with the evolutionary path taken by the Canadian system. From Wall Street to Bay Street offers a timely and accessible comparison of financial systems that reflects the political and cultural milieus of two of the world’s top ten economies.
Edited by Professors Joshua Gans and Sarah KaplanSurvive and Thrive: Winning Against Strategic Threats to Your Business features a collection of essays by strategy professors at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The essays take the reader on a tour through some of the most vexing threats to business today, threats that put the very existence of organizations into question. From disruptive innovation, to social media disasters, to mistaken technical investments, to gender discrimination, to misunderstood competition, companies need to be able to anticipate crises and prepare to deal with them head on. Across this collection of essays, readers will get warnings about four mistakes that companies commonly make - failing to appreciate interactions within systems, getting stuck in existing ways of doing business, falling victim to cognitive biases, and getting derailed by short-term incentives.
By Adjunct Professor Jennifer Riel and Professor Roger MartinConventional wisdom--and business school curricula--teaches us that making trade-offs is inevitable when it comes to hard choices. But sometimes, accepting the obvious trade-off just isn't good enough: the choices in front of us don't get us what we need.
By Jim Fisher, Professor EmeritusLeadership is a quality that is difficult to define. Some believe that it is innate, the gift of a selected few. Others believe that it is a skill that can be learned but don’t agree on what, exactly, should be taught.In The Thoughtful Leader, Jim Fisher provides an invigorating, inclusive and positive framework for teaching current and aspiring leaders in all walks of life.
By Keith Ambachtsheer, Director Emeritus, Rotman ICPMPension funds have become an everyday news item, and much of the news isn't good. From the ongoing threat of future financial crises and bubbles to downright criminal scandals, workers are justifiably anxious about the security of their retirement.
Professor Joshua Gans"Disruption" is a business buzzword that has gotten out of control. Today everything and everyone seem to be characterized as disruptive -- or, if they aren't disruptive yet, it's only a matter of time before they become so.
Professor Roger MartinIn this compelling book, strategy guru Roger L. Martin and Skoll Foundation President and CEO Sally R. Osberg describe how social entrepreneurs target systems that exist in a stable but unjust equilibrium and transform them into entirely new, superior, and sustainable equilibria.
Professor Mihnea MoldoveanuFamiliar modes of problem solving may be efficient, but they often prevent us from discovering innovative solutions to more complex problems. To create meaningful change, we must train ourselves to discover previously unseen variables in day-to-day challenges.
Professor Dilip SomanMost organizations spend much of their effort on the start of the value creation process: namely, creating a strategy, developing new products or services, and analyzing the market. They pay a lot less attention to the end: the crucial “last mile” where consumers come to their website, store, or sales representatives and make a choice.
Professors Mihnea Moldoveanu & Joel BaumEpinets presents a new way to think about social networks, which focuses on the knowledge that underlies our social interactions. Guiding readers through the web of beliefs that networked individuals have about each other and probing into what others think, this book illuminates the deeper character and influence of relationships among social network participants.
Professors Dilip Soman, Anita McGahan & Will MitchellDespite the vast wealth generated in the last half century, in today’s world inequality is worsening and poverty is becoming increasingly chronic. Hundreds of millions of people continue to live on less than $2 per day and lack basic human necessities such as nutritious food, shelter, clean water, primary health care, and education.
Professor Tim RowleyCompanies made more than 42,000 alliances over the past decade worldwide, many of which failed to deliver strong results. This book explains why and how you can seize the benefits from your business’s network of alliances with customers, suppliers and competitors.
Professor Wendy DobsonUntil the global financial crisis, China was thought to be decades away from overtaking the United States as the world’s largest economy. But while the US skirted economic stagnation, China was able to successfully navigate the crisis, and its growth continues to accelerate. Has the time arrived to re-evaluate our assumptions about the current world order
Professor Tom McCulloughThe book introduces you to a unique model of wealth management that produces the desired return outcomes while being consistent with a family's overarching goals and values. The approach combines the best traditional investment and portfolio management practices with innovative new approaches designed to successfully navigate through economic climates both fair and foul.
Over the past decade, the Rotman School of Management and its award-winning publication, Rotman magazine, have proved to be leaders in the emerging field of design thinking. Employing methods and strategies from the design world to approach business challenges, design thinking can be embraced at every level of an organization to help build innovative products and systems, and to enhance customer experiences.
Professors Dilip Soman and David Soberman with the Rotman marketing facultyThe past decade has seen a number of developments that threaten the very fabric of how marketing activities have traditionally been conducted. On one hand, consumers are increasingly socially networked and value-conscious, with heightened expectations of how companies will react to their demands.
A.G. Lafley and Roger MartinStrategy is not complex. But it is hard. It’s hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future—something that doesn’t happen in most companies.
Professor Will MitchellThe problem is most firms’ growth strategies emphasize just one type of growth—some focus on organic growth, others on M&A. When these strategies falter, the common response is simply to try harder—but firms falling into this “implementation trap” usually end up losing out to a competitor whose approach is more inclusive.
Professors Roger Martin and James MilwayCanadians have achieved an enviable balance of economic prosperity and civic harmony, but as emerging countries like China, India, and Brazil take their place alongside developed economies, we cannot be complacent.
Professor Richard FloridaTen years ago, Richard Florida published a path-breaking book about the forces that were reshaping our economy, our geography, our work, and our whole way of life.
Heather Fraser Co-Founder and former Executive Director, Rotman Design WorksHigh-profile business leaders in organizations around the world now use approaches and methods from the design world to drive breakthrough innovation and growth. How can you translate design thinking into doing in a way that will lead to bigger breakthroughs and business strategies for success?
Professor Roger MartinAmerican capitalism is in dire straits, caught in a perilous pattern of increasing volatility, decreasing investor returns, and ongoing bad behavior by executives. And it’s getting worse.
Professor Wendy DobsonThe rapid growth, diversity and strategic importance of the emerging Chinese and Indian economies have fired the world's imagination with both hopes and fears for the future.
Professor Gary LathamInto this action-ready toolkit, Gary Latham brings his unique perspective as an organizational psychologist and award-winning researcher to translate management research of the past 50 years into everyday examples of proven guidelines for handling the most common challenges managers face in effectively managing people.
Professor Roger MartinMost companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game—changing innovation like Apple's iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative—they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results.
Professor Joe MartinCasebooks in business history are designed to instruct students in classrooms and boardrooms about the evolution of business management.
Professor Roger MartinIf you want to be as successful as Jack Welch, Larry Bossidy, or Michael Dell, read their autobiographical advice books, right? Wrong, says Roger Martin in The Opposable Mind.
Professor Richard FloridaAll places are not created equal. In this groundbreaking book, Richard Florida shows that where we live is increasingly a crucial factor in our lives, one that fundamentally affects our professional and personal prospects.
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