HBR IdeaCast

Google is planning to phase out third-party cookies by the end of 2025. Consumers may be cheering the improved privacy online, but what will this huge shift in advertising technology mean for digital advertising, online publishing, and the open Internet? Tech at Work is a four-part special series from HBR IdeaCast. Join senior tech editors Juan Martinez and Tom Stackpole for research, stories, and advice to make technology work for you and your team. In this episode, researcher Garrett Johnson and executive Jamie Seltzer discuss the new technologies that are already being tested to replace cookies. They explain the trade-offs and how digital marketers are preparing for this change, as well as share how the online advertising and publishing industries may be affected. Johnson is an associate professor of marketing at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Seltzer is global executive vice president at Havas Media Network, where she leads CSA, Havas Media’s global data and technology consulting group. New episodes of Tech at Work publish in the HBR IdeaCast feed every other Thursday from May 2, after the regular Tuesday episode. Please let us know what you think of the series and which technology topics you want us to cover at ideacast@hbr.org [ideacast@hbr.org]. Further reading: * * Privacy-Centric Digital Advertising: Implications for Research (Garrett Johnson, Julian Runge, Eric Seufert) [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3947290] * The Cookies are Crumbling: What’s Next for Digital Advertising? (Garrett Johnson) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y-nIrq4CO0] * A New Gold Standard for Digital Ad Measurement? (Julian Runge, Harpreet Patter, and Igor Skokan) [https://hbr.org/2023/03/a-new-gold-standard-for-digital-ad-measurement]

Around 18 million adults in the U.S. alone suffer from long Covid, a chronic illness with a wide range of symptoms and severity. With approved therapies a long way off, workers with long Covid often struggle in silence. And most companies have neither a good understanding of the situation nor effective policies in place, say MIT research scientist Beth Pollack and Vanguard University professor Ludmila Praslova. They share the conditions associated with long Covid, what life is like for those workers, and the accommodations and flexibility they recommend HR leaders and organizations implement. Pollack and Praslova are coauthors with researcher Katie Bach of the HBR Big Idea article “Long Covid at Work: A Manager's Guide.”

There was a time when consumer goods companies paid musicians, athletes, and actors for endorsements, or to license their name and likeness. But in recent years, there's been an explosion of celebrities getting into business directly, selling everything from shapewear to tequila. Ayelet Israeli, professor at Harvard Business School, says the growth of social media and online, direct-to-consumer retail accelerated this trend, but notes that not all celebrity brands are a success. She explains what works and doesn't, and outlines lessons for non-famous entrepreneurs and established companies. Israeli is coauthor of the HBR article "What Makes a Successful Celebrity Brand?"

If you’re a senior leader, managing technology has never been more challenging—especially as organizations struggle to deploy generative artificial intelligence. Since ChatGPT burst into the mainstream a year and a half ago, everyone has been scrambling to make sense of how to use these tools, what they can and can’t do, and what they mean for our work and our teams. Tech at Work is a four-part special series from HBR IdeaCast. Join senior tech editors Juan Martinez and Tom Stackpole for research, stories, and advice to make technology work for you and your team. New episodes publish in the IdeaCast feed every other Thursday starting May 2, after the regular Tuesday episode. In this episode, Ethan Mollick, a management professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of the new book Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741805/co-intelligence-by-ethan-mollick/], discusses what he’s learned through direct experimentation with these tools, where he sees the most potential, and why organizations are struggling to create value with them. And please let us know what you think of the series and which technology topics you want us to cover at ideacast@hbr.org [ideacast@hbr.org]. Further reading: * ChatGPT Is a Tipping Point for AI (Ethan Mollick) [https://hbr.org/2022/12/chatgpt-is-a-tipping-point-for-ai] * Why You (and Your Company) Need to Experiment with ChatGPT Now (HBR IdeaCast) [https://hbr.org/podcast/2023/03/why-you-and-your-company-need-to-experiment-with-chatgpt-now] * The Social Cost of Algorithmic Management (Armin Granulo, Sara Caprioli, Christoph Fuchs, and Stefano Puntoni) [https://hbr.org/2024/02/the-social-cost-of-algorithmic-management] * Deployment of algorithms in management tasks reduces prosocial motivation (Armin Granulo, Sara Caprioli, Christoph Fuchs, and Stefano Puntoni) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563223004454] * When AI Teammates Come On Board, Performance Drops (Juan Martinez) [https://hbr.org/2024/05/when-ai-teammates-come-on-board-performance-drops] * Super Mario Meets AI: Experimental Effects of Automation and Skills on Team Performance and Coordination (Fabrizio Dell’Acqua, Bruce Kogut, and Patryk Perkowski) [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3746564]

There's plenty of advice on how to grow into a better leader. And it takes effort to become more effective. But bad leadership gets worse almost effortlessly, says Barbara Kellerman, a Center for Public Leadership Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. She shares real examples from the public and private sectors of how bad leaders spiral downward, and how bad followership enables that negative trend. She gives her advice for recognizing and avoiding ineffective and unethical leaders. Kellerman is the author of the new book Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers.