Michael Lenox

Remote work comes with emotional, societal and environmental benefits. Employees aren't tied to city centers with high costs of living, and reduced travel will lower greenhouse gas emissions. There are also benefits to firms, with research suggesting that remote workers are more productive. Yet challenges exist. How do we navigate this new normal?

Digital technologies have evolved from efficient, convenient tools to be the driving force behind a paradigm shift in competition. Strategy expert Mike Lenox discusses five changes in the landscape business leaders are wise to keep in mind.

Much capital has been lost by chasing false paradigm changes and earnings missed by dismissing real paradigm changes. How can we best identify when the hype is turning to mania or when it underestimates the long-term impact of new technology? We start by asking the right questions.

What exactly is the metaverse? What are the challenges in building an interactive virtual world? Which technologies will get us there? How will players — particularly younger ones — be protected while engaging with others?

The effects of climate change are everywhere, yet a coordinated and cohesive response to the biggest threat to life on Earth is nowhere to be seen. While the scale of the crisis leads many to paralysis, experts at this year’s Jefferson Innovation Summit worked to find solutions both dramatic and pragmatic, naming five key opportunities.

For many patients battling disease, working with their doctors to find the most effective treatment can be a painful exercise of trial and error. What if you could more precisely choose medications and customize treatment based on people’s genes, environment, and lifestyle?

Machine learning promises to increase the pace and volume of content released by artists and makes music and composition more accessible to budding new artists. On one hand it helps to feed the seemingly insatiable desire for new content on streaming platforms but on the other, it threatens originality.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet — "just setting up my twttr" — sold for more than $2.9 million. Bored Ape Yacht Club digital art pieces fetch just over $100,000. NBA Top Shot sells digital NBA moments for millions of dollars. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are making this possible. But is it more hype than reality?

Darden Ideas to Action insights draw from faculty expertise, books, research, cases and white papers. Here: the most read stories of 2022. How can one build a brand? What happens when buzz turns to backlash? How does a strategist prepare for the unforeseeable? What inequalities to women face in feedback? And why is storytelling an essential skill?

The holy grail of clean energy? For the first time, scientists achieved nuclear fusion ignition, a nuclear reaction that produces more energy than it consumes. Darden Professor Mike Lenox, an expert in innovation and sustainability, offers perspective on the breakthrough, its potential and the path emerging technologies take to widespread adoption.