Category Industry sectors

Taking on design thinking and business consulting

Broken pencil
Two articles in the last few days took on the world of consulting. Rebecca Ackermann in the MIT Technology Review wrote on how the shine of design thinking has worn off, while Henry Mance interviewed Mariana Mazzucato in the Financial Times on her new book The Big Con, where she lambasts business consultancies for having no expertise in the areas that they’re advising in.

Voting, fast and slow

Rousseau
The online voting platform that was used by Italy's Five Star Movement to select the candidates for the 2013 parliamentary elections didn't take account of human decision heuristics and cognitive shortcuts, research shows. Candidates were more likely to attract votes if they appeared towards the top of the screen and if they appeared more likeable from the self-uploaded picture.

Europe’s digital divide is far from gone (and what Italians are doing about it)

Overall digital skills in the EU-27, 2021
Dutch and European research highlights the struggles of Europeans (incl. the Dutch) in accessing financial services in an increasingly digital society. A new Italian initiative, the Polis Project, seeks to do something about it. But, besides the fairly low 54 percent EU average, a new study by the Dutch National Bank (reported on yesterday by De Volkskrant, a Dutch daily newspaper) highlights how the Dutch 80% number camouflages the real difficulties many Dutch have with financial services in an increasingly digital society.

[Book] Cloudmoney

Cloudmoney
In Cloudmoney, Brett Scott tells an urgent and revelatory story about how the fusion of Big Finance and Big Tech requires “cloudmoney”—digital money underpinned by the banking sector—to replace physical cash. Book is also available in German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese & Korean

Behavioral science driven public policy “led astray”

What nudge theory got wrong
Many behavioral scientists propose and test interventions that attack policy problems by seeking to change individual behavior (adopting an “i-frame”) rather than the system in which they operate (an “s-frame”). Such i-frame interventions, which typically have small or null effects, reduce support from more effective systemic actions (such as regulation and taxation). For this reason, researchers advocating i-frame solutions may have unwittingly helped promote the interests of corporations who oppose systemic change.