New global research from over 2,100 leaders reveals a critical execution gap — “digital detachment” — where senior leadership overestimates progress while failing to align culture, data use, and customer-centricity. Although many leaders express confidence and progress is evident, transformation efforts falter without a shared purpose, cultural alignment, and effective data-driven decision-making. The Advisor underscores the urgent need for leaders to shift from acknowledging challenges to taking decisive action that embeds transformation into the organization’s DNA.

Lusatia is undergoing a major transformation as part of Germany’s Energiewende, which aims for climate neutrality by 2045. Central to this transition is the Energy Innovation Center (EIZ) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. Funded by the German government, EIZ drives regional structural change through interdisciplinary research, technology development, and open innovation. EIZ is developing sustainable, intelligent energy systems to replace coal. Its innovation hub, EIZ SPARK, accelerates commercialization, positioning Lusatia as a model for a just and future-ready energy transition.

With the business analytics market expected to double by 2033, organizations must move beyond descriptive and diagnostic analytics to predictive and prescriptive approaches that enable smarter decision-making, efficiency gains, and strategic agility in an increasingly data-driven world. This Advisor explores the evolving role of business analytics in transforming raw data into actionable insights that drive organizational value.

As businesses navigate the fast-approaching 2030 horizon, executives and boards must confront a complex mix of digital era opportunities and risks. Emerging technologies like AI offer powerful levers for innovation, efficiency, and growth — but they also bring challenges. In this Advisor, Cutter Fellow Noah Barsky looks at effective digital leadership tactics for the next five years.

This Advisor explores the shifting landscape of corporate responsibility, tracing its evolution from traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) to broader frameworks like environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and beyond. Amid increasing pressure from stakeholders — particularly younger generations — companies are being called to integrate ethical, environmental, and societal considerations into their core operations, governance, and long-term value creation.

Orlando, Florida, is leveraging cutting-edge 3D technology to drive economic and community development through one of the world’s most comprehensive regional digital twins. Spanning 800 square miles, the model recreates 40 square miles in high fidelity and is used by the Orlando Economic Partnership to attract businesses to the region. This Advisor looks at this interactive tool, which integrates data on demographics, infrastructure, and amenities, offering immersive experiences via tablets and VR headsets.

In this Advisor, we explore the vital connection between leadership and purpose, using Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a powerful example. Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, Zelenskyy’s resolve, communication, and ability to inspire unity have rallied Ukrainians and earned global support. We argue that in times of crisis, deeply rooted trust and purpose-driven leadership are essential for resilience and survival.

This Advisor explores how sustainable farming practices can enhance climate resilience and food security in northwest India. It highlights the shift away from harmful methods like crop residue burning toward conservation agriculture techniques such as zero tillage. It also emphasizes the urgent need for policy support, public investment, and farmer-led adaptation strategies to ensure a sustainable and equitable agricultural future in the face of escalating climate change.

Cutter Expert Curt Hall explores small language models (SLMs), which are gaining attention for their ability to deliver advanced AI capabilities with lower computational costs than LLMs. Optimized for efficiency, SLMs excel in domain-specific applications like customer service, healthcare, finance, and retail, where real-time processing and reduced resource consumption are key.

This Advisor explores the real-world implementation of a change management office (CMO) and highlights key phases of execution, success metrics, and the challenges organizations face in establishing a CMO. While a well-structured CMO can drive alignment, efficiency, and adoption, overcoming resistance, resource constraints, and operational silos is essential.

This Advisor introduces the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP), a key industry initiative supporting the European Green Deal. With a structured governance model and ongoing collaboration with the European Commission, the CNDCP drives the data center industry toward climate neutrality by 2030.

In this Advisor, ADL’s Eystein Thanisch, Greg Smith, and Michael Papadopoulos question whether AI will deliver on its promised productivity gains. While GenAI has surged in prominence, real-world efficiency improvements remain elusive. To maximize AI’s potential, leaders must take a strategic, human-centric approach — analyzing how AI can enhance key roles while preserving the professional skills needed to harness it effectively.

This Advisor explores the deep connection between organizational culture, leadership, and power dynamics. It highlights how cultures often develop unintentionally, reinforcing existing leadership behaviors — both good and bad. While many organizations rely on coercive or reward-based power, a shift toward collaborative and participatory leadership fosters adaptability and long-term success.

In this Advisor, we explore how AI is transforming adaptive reuse decision-making. The Reincarnate project integrates AI tools with traditional scenario methods and participatory workshops to develop 15 circular building reuse scenarios. Leveraging ChatGPT-4 for narrative insights and DALL-E for visualizations, these scenarios enhance early design stages, align stakeholder priorities, and support more informed policy and project decisions.

This Advisor explores how leading companies are advancing AI-driven large world models (LWMs) to enhance robotics and AVs. It examines the efforts of start-ups and tech giants, highlighting their innovations in virtual world simulation, AI training, and real-world applications. While LWMs remain an emerging technology, their rapid development is poised to revolutionize AI-powered automation, decision-making, and interaction in complex environments.

In this Advisor, Cutter Expert San Murugesan reflects on the enduring legacy of Steve Jobs, a visionary innovator who transformed technology and redefined industries. As he would have turned 70 this month, we revisit his pioneering spirit, unconventional leadership, and relentless pursuit of excellence.

This Advisor highlights the critical need to align the green and digital transitions, emphasizing that while both will reshape society and the economy, they follow distinct trajectories. To ensure a just and effective twin transition, industry and policymakers must address key challenges, including data fragmentation, overreliance on technology, power imbalances, and policy alignment.

This Advisor introduces a practical, scalable, and sustainable data analytics tool developed by the data science team at Sanofi. The tool helped the pharmaceutical manufacturing team transition from reactive modes of data analytics to a proactive approach through prescriptive analytics.

Establishing and maintaining corporate purpose is not limited to grand gestures but is shaped by everyday actions and governance decisions. This Advisor presents five principles that can help organizations guide deliberation about corporate purpose.

Best-selling author Alessia Falsarone highlights the critical but often-overlooked need for digital talent to manage sustainability solutions effectively. To unlock the benefits of digital sustainability and mitigate unintended consequences, organizations must prioritize building a strong talent base. This can be achieved by following three best practices.

Cutter Expert Curt Hall explores the transformative potential of large world models (LWMs), advanced AI systems designed to simulate real-world environments. LWMs use massive datasets to create virtual, 3D representations of the physical world, enabling more accurate and efficient training for robotics and autonomous vehicles (AVs). Their applications include improving navigation, enhancing perception, optimizing obstacle avoidance, and enabling greater autonomy for robots and AVs in complex or hazardous environments.

As this Advisor highlights, purpose is vital for direction and unity. Beyond foundational steps, the ability to say no — empowered refusal — is essential for aligning decisions with organizational identity. By fostering this skill, organizations can ensure their actions consistently reflect their stated values.

This Advisor explores the dual impact of AI on sustainability, highlighting its potential to drive energy efficiency, waste reduction, and long-term value creation. Using the “butterfly effect” as an analogy, it introduces a framework to help managers leverage AI responsibly, balancing its transformative opportunities with the risks of environmental impact, data privacy issues, and social responsibility challenges.

This Advisor highlights how AI transforms agri-food supply chains by enhancing forecasting, optimizing processes, and enabling proactive risk mitigation. With AI-powered tools, organizations gain real-time insights for planning, adaptability, and resilience across all stages — readiness, responsiveness, recovery, and adaptability.

Arthur D. Little’s Michael Eiden, Philippe Monnot, Armand Rotaru explore how knowledge graphs (KGs) help connect and extract value from big data. While widely adopted by tech giants, KGs shouldn’t replace relational databases outright; the choice depends on factors like data exploration speed and scalability needs. KGs enable visualizing connections for deeper insights, uncover hidden interdependencies through algorithms, and allow flexible scaling by starting small and expanding over time.