Advisor

Myles Suer

As examples from Southwest Airlines and Delta illustrate, there is a critical need for CIOs to address technical debt within mission-critical systems. Frequent Cutter contributor Myles Suer recently spoke with a group of CIOs about this need and the steps leaders can take to protect these systems. This Advisor shares some of those insights, emphasizing enterprise architecture’s role in eliminating tech debt.

Advisor

Brian Cameron, Whynde Kuehn

Organizations that are highly effective at strategic portfolio management are twice as likely to achieve better business outcomes as those that aren’t. This case study from a Fortune 500 organization reflects strategic portfolio management concepts in action and illustrates the value that a capability perspective can bring to project portfolio decision-making.

Advisor

Curt Hall

Companies are applying AI, computer vision, machine learning, and robotics to develop intelligent recycling platforms that enhance the efficiency and profitability of the recycling process. This Advisor examines some of these emerging technologies.

Article

Philippa White

Philippa White, bestselling author of Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the World, challenges today’s leaders to outgrow the past, stating that “companies are working as if it’s still the Industrial Age.” As leaders come to care less about how much money a company makes and more about how they make that money, they discover many returns to purpose, including better relationships with employees and communities.

Article

Anica Zeyen

As one’s invisible purpose yields visible returns, many others may be inspired to follow suit. Anica Zeyen explains how leaders can catch and pass on their purpose by recognizing and revealing their vulnerability. The article describes how the six protagonists showcased in Zeyen’s documentary Invisible experienced purpose contagion in their own lives and looks at how featuring the documentary can facilitate similar ripples in educational institutions, consulting firms, and policy circles. As a disabled academic, activist, and documentary maker, Zeyen’s purpose contagion can reach and serve 1.3 billion people with disabilities worldwide.

Article

Michael Messenger

Michael Messenger explains how faith and calling weaved a purposeful path that took him from a partner at a leading law practice to president and CEO of the charitable organization World Vision Canada. He reminds leaders that a sense of calling is not limited to social justice activists or nonprofit leaders. All leaders follow their calling when they see their jobs as a way to align their values, vocation, and beliefs with a deep, purpose-driven commitment to a mission, a passion for their work, and a desire to positively impact the world. Messenger reminds us that commitment grows when purpose gets deeply personal, stating: “My faith informs my calling and thereby amplifies my sense of purpose.”

Article

Hannes Leroy, Johannes Claeys, Mirko Benischke, Daan Stam

In their piece, Hannes Leroy, Johannes Claeys, Mirko Benischke, and Daan Stam feature a powerful component of the leadership development programs at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, the Netherlands: the “I Will” statement, which connects individuals’ personal ambitions with the challenges of today’s society. The authors share three sequential steps of scaffolding purpose, inviting us to move from “I Am” (discover purpose) to “I Will” (commit to purpose) and arrive at “We Will” (engage others with your purpose).

Article

Bill Fox

In this article, Bill Fox shares his journey to purpose. The inner leader’s journey is all about leadership of oneself. Fox shifts our attention from what leaders do to who leaders strive to become in the greater service of humanity. By describing his 13 steps to scaffolding purpose (including principles he extracted from his journey, personal experiences, and pointed questions for the readers), Fox invites us to awaken our own inner leader.

Article

Dee Corrigan, Lauren Elliott, Gethin Hine, James McCarthy

Dee Corrigan, Lauren Elliott, Gethin Hine, and James McCarthy highlight The Purpose-in-Practice Community (hosted by A Blueprint for Better Business, a UK-based charity). Together, more than 200 business leaders are charting a path to putting purpose at the heart of business. Their article coaches leaders on how to drive purpose, how to become a purpose driver, and how to steer clear of purpose traps on their lifelong journey to success. The authors share key practices and set guideposts in the journey toward purpose.

Article

Coro Strandberg

Coro Strandberg urges us to radically reimagine the purpose of business. She calls for “social purpose” and blueprints the purpose economy. The article offers multiple strategies (identifying, consulting, and engaging the social purpose community; deploying purpose economy levers of change; and providing tools and resources for the business community and ecosystem actors) that can help regions and nations begin the process of architecting the purpose economy. Strandberg showcases the Canadian Purpose Economy Project, which aims to accelerate Canada’s transition to the purpose economy and explains how ecosystem builders can help social purpose companies start, transition, thrive, and grow.

Article

Oana Branzei, Dusya Vera

Do most leaders “have” purpose? If so, how do they “hold” it as they traverse various levels (individuals, teams, organizations, partnerships, sectors, regions, countries, continents) in their quest for success? The goal of the seven articles in the first installment of this two-part Amplify series is to demystify leaders’ journey to purpose. The focus of this issue is detecting and connecting purpose at various levels across the lifespan of purpose-driven leadership. The main takeaway is that having and holding purpose helps leaders shift from surviving to thriving in an inequitable world.

Advisor

Trevor Hunter

There are many perspectives on what constitutes “good” nonprofit organization (NPO) governance. Even so, most agree that, given the behavioral expectations faced by NPO board members, strong judgment (informed by the dimensions of leader character) must combine with instrumental skills to underpin all decisions made by the board.

Advisor

Antoine Harfouche

This Advisor takes a closer look at a new concept called “smart farming.” This concept refers to the use of advanced technologies and data-driven approaches to improve agricultural productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. Specifically, it involves integrating modern technologies into traditional farming practices to monitor, automate, and optimize agricultural operations

Advisor

Maria Diaz Campo, Arman Ghafoori, Manjul Gupta

Competing factors come into play to determine our tolerance to AI hallucination. This Advisor stresses that understanding context is crucial to making informed decisions about strategically adopting and implementing emerging technologies and provides key takeaways that can help us balance the potential value of the opportunity with our risk tolerance.

Advisor

Myles Suer

Cutter contributor and data business leader Myles Suer recently spoke to a group of CIOs to discuss lessons learned from last month’s CrowdStrike debacle. This Advisor shares their insights and provides key takeaways for business leaders about crisis management and resilience.

Advisor

Punit Arora

This Advisor examines the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure and environmental innovation (known as “ecovation”). It suggests that firms avoid “greenwashing” and “brownwashing,” as both are associated with lower innovation than “green-highlighting” strategies.

Article

San Murugesan

Cutter Expert San Murugesan provides a comprehensive overview of how AI is transforming agriculture on a global scale. His piece delves into a wide range of AI applications, from precision agriculture and automated irrigation to crop monitoring, robotics, and market forecasting. It showcases the potential of AI to not only increase yields and optimize resource use but to reduce waste, minimize environmental impact, and enhance farmers’ livelihoods. Murugesan emphasizes the need for a multi-stakeholder approach, calling for increased investment in R&D, the creation of supportive policies, and targeted efforts to address the barriers to AI adoption, including high implementation costs, data privacy concerns, and the digital divide.

Article

Kasuni Vidanagamachchi, Athula Ginige, Dilupa Nakandala

Kasuni Vidanagamachchi, Dilupa Nakandala, and Athula Ginige examine the vulnerabilities of agri-food supply chains (ASCs), drawing on lessons learned from adaptations made during the pandemic. They posit that long-term viability, rather than short-term resilience, is essential for these systems to withstand prolonged crises. The article highlights the importance of diversifying food supply methods, incorporating local production, community-based sharing, and digital technologies to enhance adaptability and responsiveness to disruptions. Through a case study from Sri Lanka, they demonstrate how a combination of government support, community engagement, and digital innovation enabled effective adaptation during the pandemic.

Article

Vijaya Lakshmi, Jacqueline Corbett

Successfully integrating AI into agriculture requires a nuanced understanding of the social, cultural, and ecological contexts in which it is deployed. Vijaya Lakshmi and Jacqueline Corbett explore this concept, arguing that a conjoint-learning approach (one that combines the precision of AI with the rich tapestry of traditional agricultural knowledge) holds the key to unlocking truly sustainable solutions. Their article presents three case studies from India, each showcasing how farmers are blending generations-old practices with AI-powered tools to enhance decision-making, optimize resource use, and adapt to changing conditions.

Article

Philip Webster, Habib Hussein, Kajetan Widomski, Jonathan Jeyaratnam, Ruth Bastow, Mark Matthews

Philip Webster, Habib Hussein, Kajetan Widomski, and Jonathan Jeyaratnam of Arthur D. Little together with Ruth Bastow and Mark Matthews of the UK Agri-Tech Centre introduce AI as a powerful tool capable of assisting farmers in making informed decisions about adopting new technologies and practices. The authors acknowledge the complexity of farming systems and the difficulty in identifying appropriate solutions amid a rapidly evolving technological landscape. They propose a use case–driven approach, using AI tools to analyze a range of factors, such as market trends, climate data, regulatory environments, and farm-specific variables, to recommend the most suitable innovations.