Rotman Executive Summary – Détails, épisodes et analyse

From issues of bodily autonomy to climate change to social equality, the world is increasingly polarized, and even companies can't escape hot-button topics. While once, organizations could keep their positions on divisive issues to themselves, consumers are demanding they take sides. But should they? And how can brands weigh in without alienating the people who disagree with their stance? Assistant professor Rhia Catapano explores how businesses can navigate these polarizing topics on the latest episode of the Executive Summary. 

Show notes:

[0:00] In 2022, Disney and the state of Florida became embroiled in a polarizing debate over the state's alleged "Don't Say Gay" bill, which Disney opposed, albeit belatedly. 

[0:56] Once, businesses could stay silent when hot topics arose, but today consumers are demanding they take sides. 

[1:32] Meet Rhia Catapano, an assistant professor at the Rotman School of management who studies consumer persuasion. 

[2:20] Brands most often worry about consumer boycotts when they take stances their audiences disagree with. But that worry might be misplaced. 

[2:49] Consumers tend to buy from companies when it's inconvenient to maintain their boycott. 

[3:14] We're also likely to change our memories, thinking we boycotted a product, even when we still loaded it into our carts. 

[6:10] And we often believe signaling our intentions to boycott is "enough," so we feel less guilty even as we're purchasing items from a brand we've said we'll avoid. 

[7:36] So if we're so bad at boycotting, why should businesses care? For one, the reputational hit is very real. 

[7:51] There are always cases where brands don't have to worry - particularly when the audience boycotting the brand isn't it's target audience. See Nike, Colin Kaepernick and the social right in the U.S. 

[8:31] But when the audiences align, boycotts are particularly effective in this age of social media. First, because social media makes it easier to propagate messages. 

[9:23] Second, social media creates a "safe space" to share polarizing opinions. 

[10:10] So how can companies navigate hot button issues? First, make sure you're not being a hypocrite. 

[10:49] Consider how you frame your stance around an issue, and what you want to achieve by making public statements. 

[13:08] Be real about whether you can take the heat. 

[13:58] And consider new audience opportunities when your values don't align with your existing customer base. "It makes the most sense for the company to stick to what are their core values and what can they do that will align with what they've done in the past and what they want to do moving forward, rather than trying to please everyone.

We often reach adulthood without ever being taught how to process our emotions. But an unprocessed emotion never goes away; it simply festers and grows. 

Associate professor Maja Djikic joined the Executive Summary podcast to talk about how to identify if we're bad at processing our feelings, how we can get better at it, and what role organizations have in helping their leaders and teams understanding that skillset. 

Show notes

[0:00] “A lot of discussion on managing emotions has to do with how to make emotions go away.  Usually they're seen as something negative, something you don't want to have. This is why being called emotional seems like an insult.”

[0:48] Meet Maja Djikic, an associate professor at Rotman who studies adult development and authored the recently released book, The Possible Self. 

[1:18] If there’s one thing she wants you to know about emotions, it’s that an unprocessed emotion never goes away. 

[1:36] Emotions are tied to our goals, and when we ignore them, we might be missing out on important information that helps move our lives forward. 

[2:05] What is an emotion? 

[2:30] How are our emotions tied to our goals, and how does this present itself?

[2:53] Positive emotions reinforce that things are going well. 

[3:10] Negative emotions might tell us something is wrong on our path to our goal. For example, fear might tell you that you’re afraid of getting fired, and that your relationships with colleagues have gone amiss. 

[4:15] People are bad at processing and understanding their emotions. 

[4:25] Some of this is evolutionary – our fight or flight instinct often kicks in when we have a strong emotion. 

[5:07] Let’s sidebar to explain the difference between processing and expressing emotions. 

[5:55] The other reason we’re bad at processing emotions is we’re likely never taught how.

[6:45] The first step in processing emotions is to recognize you’re bad at it and work to improve that skillset. 

[7:16] The second step is to recognize you’re having a strong negative emotion and bring your pre-frontal cortex back online. 

[8:34] Step three is to identify what you’re feeling and try and link it back to the goal you’re trying to achieve. 

[10:11] Why does this matter for a workplace? Leaders who can’t process emotions create toxic environments. 

[10:55] Learning to process feelings should be top-down. 

[11:17] As a leader, how can you help your team better process their emotions? 

[13:10] And when those around you can’t or won’t learn to process their emotions? “If you're in a situation where the leadership is not interested at all and processing there. So then that becomes a choice for you to stay or to leave. There’s all these people around me they're doing a lot of negative expression because they're not able to process. They don't seem to be interested in anything to do with processing in education. Okay, well, how long do I want to hang out here?

Pre-2020, the sharing and gig economies were thriving. Then the pandemic changed the game. While Uber's food delivery was up, its ride sharing plummeted. Airbnb saw a wave of cancellations. The entire space stumbled. As we emerge from lockdowns and restrictions, new challenges face these Silicon Valley darlings. With ongoing rights over worker classification, and increased pressure to turn a profit in a rising rate environment, it's time to ask: What's next for the sharing economy?  

Show notes

[0:00] 2012 was a big year for the sharing economy

[00:28] But the following decade was even bigger

[00:56] Professor Ming Hu is the person to talk to about the sharing or gig economy 

[01:43] The pandemic changed the game for companies in the sharing economy. Can the gig economy thrive in a sustainable way?

[03:14] What exactly is the sharing economy? 

[03:47] These companies very quickly transformed parts of our lives…and quickly became the status quo in our lives

[04:42] You can thank the network effect for this rapid growth 

[05:07] Uber is the poster child of the sharing economy

[05:25] The pandemic had a devastating impact on Uber’s ride sharing 

[05:51] Future success is going to be dependent on its relationship with its workers 

[06:26] The fight over Uber worker classification 

[07:05] The two types of Uber drivers: Ad hoc and full-time workers

[08:00] Why a one-sized fits all solution doesn’t work

[08:27] Uber is changing how it deals with drivers as a result of proposed worker classification legislation, putting some control in the hands of drivers

[09:12] Ming proposes that different types of workers should be treated differently - just look at how the UK is handling things

[10:12] Why now is so pivotal for the sharing economy 

[10:47] Rising inflation is having a big impact on sharing economy consumers…

[11:18] …and on the drivers - gig workers are likely to be the hardest hit by high inflation

[12:18] Beyond ride sharing, what at the big opportunities for innovation in the sharing economy? What about energy sharing? 

[13:10] "There's no shortage of new applications and new markets, where we can apply these ideas to."

The state of innovation wasn't great, even before you threw a pandemic or recession into the mix. And while it's too early to tell the long-term implications that team isolation and rising interests rate might have on the research and development process, associate professor Kevin Bryan explores why our process of innovation might be in crisis, and what might be done to solve the problem. 

Show notes: 

[0:00] "There's this worry that growth is slowing down. you might think, how could that be an era of like artificial intelligence and robots and like how growth is slowing down. But if you think back toward, the early 20th century, with airplanes, and electricity, and modern research labs, and automobiles, and home appliances, it seemed like the world was changing very quickly."

[0:45] Meet Kevin Bryan, an associate professor at the Rotman School of Management, and expert in innovation. He has concerns. Growth in innovation seems to have stalled. Add a pandemic into the mix, and you have to wonder if innovation is in crisis? 

[2:12] How do you define innovation?

[2:22] There was lots of diffusion and transformation early in the pandemic, but it wasn't true innovation. 

[2:55] The root cause: a breakdown of teamwork caused by everyone working from home. 

[3:30] There are two ways of transferring knowledge between colleagues and co-workers: direct and indirect. Both are equally important, and both suffered during the pandemic. 

[4:51] Our introduction to new people and ideas likely fell during the pandemic, which can have a further impact on the process of knowledge transfer. 

[6:12] It's too early to say what the long-term impact will be, but Kevin doesn't think it'll be positive. 

[6:50] Money - or lack-thereof - also plays a roll in our lack of innovation. 

[7:17] Canada just doesn't spend as much on R&D as other countries.

[7:50] Canada's high tax rates and lower income inequality also makes us less appealing for inventors and innovators. 

[8:39] Rising interest rates does not bode well for research and development. 

[9:15] Companies need to be judicious with long-run, uncertain projects, which means less investment in unproven ideas. 

[10:04] COVID-19 vaccines is a good case study for innovating in a crisis, and speaks to what needs to change more broadly if we want to solve the problems surrounding innovation pipelines. 

[10:50] The first idea isn't always the best idea - just look at the Wright Brothers. And in a crisis, coming in second might be a losing proposition, even if your idea is better. 

[11:38] So how do you incentivize innovation in a socially useful way?

[11:55] Governments and public institutions need to step up and support and incentivize basic innovation.

[13:30] Companies probably need to stop being so precious with their trade secrets. Good ideas are more likely to come from outside your organization than within. 

[14:31] "You know, Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson says ideas are in the air, and they literally are in the air, like they're not all written down on a piece of paper. I guess all we can say is that we know it's important and things that would block that informal transfer of knowledge can be really damaging for your organization's ability to take advantage of new ideas in the world."

Giving feedback is like a hand grenade. No matter how positive a spin you put on it, criticism is still hard to hear. So what can we do differently in tough conversations for a better outcome? Assistant professor Rachel Ruttan shares best practices from her research on advice-giving...and getting. 

Show notes 

[0:00] “I read this book called difficult conversations. And they use this analogy, any kind of tough or difficult conversation, like negative feedback is basically hand grenade. no matter how much you dress up the hand grenade, it's still a hand grenade. So I think, in the role of giving that tough news or information or feedback, it's good to just accept the difficulty of that conversation going in and to be compassionate to yourself.”

[0:25] Meet Rachel Ruttan, an assistant professor of organizational behaviour who studies how to navigate difficult motivational tensions. She explores topics including how to make giving advice and feedback more palatable. 

[1:28] Her interest stems from the sometimes compassionate, sometimes harsh world of competitive figure skating. 

[2:16] How we hear and internalize feedback will influence whether or not we take the advice. 

[3:37] To create a space where people are more welcoming of receiving feedback, Rachel suggest setting goals and expectations at the outset. 

[4:10] The “Feedback Sandwich” is real, and it works. 

[4:33] Advice is best received when your team believes you have their best interest at heart – and that your team is a safe place to take risks. 

[5:13] Giving advice shouldn’t be a one-way street; people may have their own suggestions on how to improve performance. 

[5:43] Be aware that your own emotions can get in the way. Don't give feedback in anger. 

[6:37] And how can you provide feedback to a superior? Try framing issues and suggestions you might have as questions. 

[8:00] Negative feedback is part of every career – consider talking to colleagues about the harsh criticism they've received over their careers to help normalize it. 

[8:52] The TV show The Voice offers a fantastic lens into how we pick our mentors. It turns out, we’re drawn to mentors who shower us in positivity, even if someone a bit more negative might be a better fit for us. 

[10:43] Social support and positivity are important, but so is a person’s success at mentorship. Ideally, you would have mentors who can do both. 

[11:51] “We spend a lot of our time imagining what other people think, and want to hear, and what the right thing is for somebody to do. But we also know from a lot of literature that we're actually really bad at perspective taking. It's hard, you don't know what's going on in someone else's mind. So just ask them. Again, this sounds so simple, but I think it's something that we can forget to do along the way.”

From social media to AI to celebrity endorsements — brands interact with us on a more personal level than ever. But how does that change our relationship with the products we buy and the companies that serve us? In the latest episode of the Rotman Executive Summary, professor Pankaj Aggarwal explores how the way we anthropomorphize brands is changing, and why that matters.

Show notes 

[0:00] “Think back to your childhood and the foods you ate. Did you enjoy Tony the Tiger’s Frosted Flakes? Lucky the leprechaun’s Lucky Charms? Snap, Crackle and Pop’s Rice Krispies? 

As adults, we cook with Betty Crocker, eat at Wendy’s, clean with Mr. Clean. The products we buy and the food we eat are replete with mascots and human stand-ins. 

It’s called anthropomorphizing — the act of humanizing inanimate objects or situations. Companies have long known that putting a human — or human-esque — face on a brand makes it more relatable.”

[0:45] Why Coca-Cola might be the post famous anthropomorphized brand. 

[1:21] Meet Pankaj Aggarwal, an expert in marketing who has extensively studied how, and why, we we sometime treat brands like humans. 

[2:45]: Why do we anthropomorphize objects as kids? And how does that change as we become adults? 

[3:48] A brief overview of how we humanize products, think mascots and celebrities. 

[4:32] When we treat brands like their humans, we tend to form more “human-like” relationship and start applying human norms on otherwise inanimate objects. 

[6:00] For example, we use humanized products to be extensions of ourselves… 

[6:41] …we’re less judgmental when it comes to anthropomorphized object… 

[7:31] …and, we are less likely to haggle on prices… 

[7:58] …and we really want all the parts to be from the same manufacturer. 

[8:54] What are the implications in our social connected, "cancel culture" for when a humanized brand screws up?

[10:27] Gender-neutral products, and the unintended consequences of best intentions. 

[12:09] Companies need to be more purposeful in how they talk to customers.

[13:13] The situations where you probably don’t want to anthropomorphize a brand

[15:36] "I think in some ways, it's better to be overtly clear to the consumers what gender for example, the brand has, what personality trait your brand has. Because that is the cue that people use to imbue on the brand. If you leave it abstract or vague, different consumers may think of it somewhat differently. And it's obviously going to be biased by say their own views of the world their own views of humans. And that's not ideal, so it's better to be as clear as possible, whether it's giving it a name, whether it's giving it a personality through advertising, through commercials, whether it's kind of showing the celebrity or the or the mascot, any of those things is better than just leaving it ambiguous."

Blockchains and cryptocurrencies went into a spectacular meltdown in 2022. Professor Andreas Park — an expert of finance innovation at the University of Toronto — says that despite the ill tidings, businesses should keep an eye on the space...or risk missing out on a game-changing technology. 

Show notes: 

[0:00] “So I think there's a disconnect between what people are building on the blockchain and what the use cases are. There's a lot of beautiful ideas of how to streamline existing blockchain operations, how they can have some gimmicky trading tools and so on and so forth, but thinking about what business case you can solve and what value you bring to customers is a much harder problem.”

[1:08] A short journey through the recent history of cryptocurrency and blockchain. 

[2:11] What is a blockchain? What is a cryptocurrency? What is a token? And how do they work together? 

[3:17] Why Bitcoin is like Beanie Babies.

[4:16] A breakdown of utility tokens, stablecoins, asset tokens, futures and derivatives tokens, and governance tokens. 

[7:10] Crypto’s first boom/bust/boom cycle.

[8:03] The current Crypto winter, and how it compares to the 2000s dot.com bubble bust. 

[9:30] Is Cryptocurrency a Ponzi scheme? 

[10:24] To solve the current crisis, cryptocurrency needs to be more user friendly… 

[11:25] …and some regulatory support.

[12:07] But not all is lost. The dot.com bust paid dividends for some companies. Crypto and blockchain might follow the same path. 

[13:00] Crypto and blockchain is more than just a currency to be traded and sold. So what businesses should keep an eye on this space?

[14:38] “The reality is that a blockchain is a very useful piece of technology for borderless digital transfers of value. I cannot see a world in which just is not used, and this is not useful.”

What are the dos and don'ts of improving employee engagement in 2022? Professor Alan Saks, a human resources expert from the University of Toronto Scarborough/Rotman School, explains why it's time for a different approach to HR management.

Show notes

[0:00]: "When you don't care about your employees, they will not care about the organization, they will not be engaged, and they may quit." Professor Alan Saks has studied  the shifts in human resource management for the past three decades. He even co-wrote a book on employee engagement. With the pandemic changing the way we work, it's time to reflect on whether your employees are engaged with their jobs, and how you - as a company - can show you actually care about them.

[1:04]: A definition of employee engagement. 

[3:35]: The business risk of employee burnout and how to help employees avoid it.

[5:09]: What exactly is a caring Human Resource Management system, and how does it benefit companies and employees?

[6:58]: What is Klick Health, and how are they proving they care?

[8:35]: The first step is really listening to what your employees need.

[9:33]: Compromise may be key. 

[10:22]: Wading into the WFH debate.

[11:36]: What is organization engagement? And why does it matter for employee satisfaction?

[13:06]: Why organizational engagement may be more effective at decreasing turnover than job engagement.

[14:01]: Take note: employee perceptions really matter.

[14:41]: The case of Goldman Sachs and unlimited vacation days.

[15:30]: In argument against performance-based pay.

[16:08]: The cost of being an uncaring company.

[16:40]: Be prepared: Proving you care takes time.

[18:12]: "If you want employees to care about their job and the organization, you need to care about them. And you need to demonstrate that care with tangible actions that address employees needs and well-being."

For more reading (subscriptions may be required)

Saks, A. M. (2022). Caring Human Resources Management and Employee Engagement. Human Resource Management Review, 32(3), 100835. 

Saks, A. M., Gruman, J. A., & Zhang, Q. (2022). Organization Engagement: A Review and Comparison to Job Engagement. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 9, 20-49.  

Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and Consequences of Employee Engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21 (7), 600-619. 

A recent study from BMO found that Canadians believed they would need more than $1.7 million to comfortably retire. Yet many individuals nearing retirement have less than $100,000 saved. Why is thinking about saving - even when you have the means - such a daunting prospect? Assistant professor Avni Shah joined the Executive Summary to explain the behavioural barriers to retirement savings, and showcase some of her research into how we might overcome these blockers. 

Show notes

[0:00] Retirement is a rich man’s opportunity, and many people don’t feel they’ll ever have the luxury. 

[0:30] Meet Avni Shah, an assistant professor of marketing who studies how and why people make financial decisions. 

[1:14] People probably aren’t saving enough for retirement, even if they understand conceptually that they need to save more. 

[2:08] Why? Well, we have a bias towards dealing with the needs of today…

[2:35] …the future is hard to imagine… 

[3:07] …and it’s cognitively costly to think about ephemeral things like money when it’s so far into the future. 

[3:33] Finally, the narrative around retirement – living your best life – might not be effective for large swaths of the population. 

[5:35] Avni partnered with Ideas 42 and the Mexican government to help increase the rates of voluntary retirement contribution. They devised three experiments. 

[5:46] How the Mexican pension system works. 

[6:18] How does beautifying a form impact retirement savings? 

[8:20] To increase your desire to save, tell yourself a story about your future. 

[9:40] Sometimes what’s requires is a shift in messaging. Instead of selling the idea of “saving for your future,” companies might want to consider selling the idea of “saving for your family’s future.” 

[11:58] But it’s important to remember that any behavioural nudge is going to be contextual, and there’s no one-size-fits all approach. 

[12:48] Simplifying information can also backfire if the info that’s left is demotivating. 

[13:34] And, for individuals, picturing your life in retirement can be a huge motivator for squirreling away a bit more cash. 

[14:06] “It makes it easier to see and it's something that is beneficial to them to say okay, that in conjunction with then making it savings automatic and can be tremendously valuable in encouraging people to save and really living in a way that they're not scared about the future.”

Phony stars and false testimonials are rampant online. But is this really a problem, how did we get here, and what responsibility to e-commerce platforms have in addressing the problem? Assistant professor Shreyas Sekar explores what the future of reviews looks like, and why platforms like Amazon should probably take the issue of fake reviews more seriously. 

Show notes: 

[0:00] When you see thousands of version of the same product you’re looking to buy online, how do you parse through the options to make a selection? This is where reviews come in. 

[0:46] Shreyas Sekar, an assistant professor at the Rotman School of Management/University of Toronto Scarborough studies how consumers make choices online, and how these choices can be manipulated.

[0:59] More than 29 million Canadians made an online purchase in 2022 – and with that comes inevitable fraud. 

[1:23] Fake reviews are likely a billion-dollar industry. 

[2:08] A quick brief on how Amazon shows you products in your search results, and why results near the top of the search are more likely to get purchased. 

[3:31] Reviews play a crucial role in helping sort the rankings, with products with more plentiful and favourable reviews landing higher in the results. 

[3:57] Estimates peg phony reviews and algorithm manipulation between four and 40 per cent. Shreyas suspects it’s somewhere in the middle. 

[4:14] Why is this a problem? 

[5:29] Consumers are likely also buying products on false information, resulting in a substandard experience, likely costing $150 million a year. 

[6:07] This is likely to erode trust in the entire online buying ecosystem.

[6:49] So how did we get here? Let’s look first at how we used to shop a few decades ago.

[7:17] Amazon changed the game, first by offering online shopping, but second helping popularize the “marketplace.” 

[8:02] What is a marketplace? 

[8:44] How did the marketplace create an even greater reliance on reviews?

[9:14] And, in the current system, e-commerce platforms have little incentives to fight this issue.

[9:36] Fake reviews have gotten very sophisticated.

[10:58] So what can consumers and small businesses do? 

[12:25] How can AI be utilized to help solve the problem of fake reviews? Shreyas has two suggestions. First, it can create a Coles’ Notes for consumers. 

[12:56] Second, it can be used to create some randomness. 

[14:11] Why does it even matter? “Algorithms play a huge role in our life, which means that we have to critically examine this pipeline, in terms of the different ways in which humans can manipulate the algorithms to do their bidding.

But when you trick the algorithm, you're not just tricking one consumer, you're tricking 1000s of future consumers, who are going to rely on this algorithm for the purchasing decision.”