Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 4, 2012

 It provides a series of articles, videos and tools to help folks start and run an independent consulting business. Another good source for freelancers and those considering freelancing is The Independent's Guide , from MBO Partners (an Emergent Research client).

Networking 100

Networking Goals Management 100

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2013

As we pointed out in our 2012 article The Rise of Small and Micro Manufacturing , of the 330,000 U.S. A powerful trend that gets little coverage is the growth of small manufacturing. manufacturing firms 80% have fewer than 50 employees and about 36% have 4 or fewer employees. And these numbers understate the number of small U.S.

2012 100

2012 Interviewing 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 6, 2012

The most recent example is the New York Times article A Sea of Job Seekers, but Some Companies Aren't Getting Any Bites.   Key quote: “Companies all over are having a difficult time recruiting the kind of people they’re looking for."

AT&T 100

AT&T Training Skills UPS 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 5, 2015

Our article The Lean Years describes this trend in more detail.  But everyone should read the essay. Our research is showing that  economic uncertainty  is a powerful and disruptive trend whose impacts are not yet fully understood.   Economic Uncertainty'

2013 100

2013 Health Expenses UPS 100

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Key quote on shared security accounts from a Fast Company article on this topic : One can think of the Shared Security Account as analogous to Social Security, but encompassing all of the employment benefits traditionally provided by a full-time salaried job.

Temping 100

Temping Payroll Policies Salary 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

  But even more recently, Atelier switched to calling it the creator economy in their Harvard Business Review article The Creator Economy Needs a Middle Class. This article points out one of the issues facing the creator economy is while a few creators make lots of money, most make very little. 

Cubicle 195

Cubicle 2017 Social Media Facebook 195

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

There's been a recent flurry of articles on retirement, mostly focusing on older people staying in the workforce longer than prior generations. An examples is Harvard Business Review's When No One Retires. It covers the fact that the world is rapidly getting older, as is shown in the article chart below.

Retirement 169

Retirement 2016 Expenses AT&T 169

Small Business Labs

JULY 14, 2020

   BTW, Harvard Business Review's Gig Workers Are Here to Stay.   See that article for more information on this topic. .  Going forward, we need to create more portable benefits and make them permanent.   It’s Time to Give Them Benefits nicely covers portable benefits. 

Policies 149

Policies Health 149

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

In a 2016 Harvard Business Review article on external talent platforms we said: We expect to see many other large corporations deploying independent external talent platforms and exchanges over the next two to three years, as 21st-century social, economic, demographic, and technological trends change the way we all think about talent.

Skills 177

Skills 2016 International Goals 177

Small Business Labs

MAY 26, 2020

   The biggest reason for this is loneliness, which is why we wrote a Harvard Business Review article - Coworking Is Not About Workspace — It’s About Feeling Less Lonely - on this topic.

Forms 161

Forms AT&T 161

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

  Our recent HBR article  Coworking Is Not About Workspace — It’s About Feeling Less Lonely  focused on the loneliness issues coworking helps with. We also reviewed our coworking interviews and found many references to coworking reducing the social isolation of independent and remote workers.

Health 194

Health AT&T Interviewing Phones 194

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 5, 2021

The article quote we found most interesting is (the bolding is ours) : "The companies also insist that reclassification would rob the workers of flexibility, an argument Lyft made in an email to drivers in Massachusetts on Tuesday morning reviewed by The Hill. It was unclear how full employment status would preclude flexibility."

Customer Service 167

Customer Service Email Policies 167

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 26, 2017

  Nature normally has articles with titles like Photons pair up like superconducting electrons.  Like all Nature articles, the topics are covered in-depth and are well researched. Their article  Flexible working: Science in the gig economy covers the growing number of gig workers in scientific fields.

2015 140

2015 Networking Training UPS 140

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 27, 2019

  Two recent articles also point this out and add several new buzzwords to our remote work vocabulary. The Harvard Business Review's Is It Time to Let Employees Work from Anywhere? The article goes on to cover examples of productivity gains associated with remote work.  the desire by many to work remotely.

Lifestyle 119

Lifestyle Forms AT&T UPS 119

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 17, 2018

Our recent Harvard Business Review article, Coworking Is not About Workspace - It's About Feeling Less Lonely , covers research we conducted on the social side of coworking. 79% said coworking has expanded their social networks. 83% report that they are less lonely since joining a coworking space.

Networking 193

Networking 193

Small Business Labs

MARCH 8, 2018

After reviewing Uber's rebuttal, the MIT researchers re-ran their numbers and are now saying ridesharing drivers median income is between $8.55 In response, the MIT researchers say they are going to spend a few weeks reviewing their revised results.  For more this, see The Rideshare Guy's article on the study.

Expenses 155

Expenses Policies AT&T Confidence 155

Small Business Labs

MARCH 13, 2018

  Key quote on the positives of gig work from their article  What Makes Gig Worker Anxious : "Our survey finds that gig workers highly value setting their own schedule and being their own boss." In exchange, they must deal with the hard work, uncertainty and anxiety that comes with it.  

UPS 145

UPS 145

Small Business Labs

MARCH 31, 2016

The Harvard Business Review's How PwC and The Washington Post Are Finding and Hiring External Talent  covers the growing use of external talent platforms by corporations. Emergent Research Managing Partner Carolyn Ockels and I co-authored this article. But the HBR article expands on a topic we haven't covered in-depth.

International 100

International Skills AT&T Management 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 6, 2015

The Harvard Business Review's The Big Idea: The Age of Hyperspecialization covers the trend towards work being divided into ever smaller tasks performed by ever more specialized workers. The article suggests these workers will increasingly be contractors provided via online talent marketplaces instead of traditional employees. 

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Small Business Labs

MAY 1, 2014

So hot that last Sunday's lead article in the New York Times style and fashion section was about Piketty.   But my advice is skip the book and instead read Justin Fox's excellent summary over at the Harvard Business Review site.  Book Reviews Economic Uncertainty Government Policy trends'

Policies 100

Policies Management 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 30, 2014

  Several articles this week provide some insight on some of these changes: 1. The New York Times article The New Instability focuses on declining marriage rates, especially among those with lower incomes. Another recent New York Times article, If Marriage Moves Beyond Our Means , reviews the book Marriage Markets.

Retirement 100

Retirement Confidence Lifestyle Finance 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 22, 2015

The Harvard Business Review's 7 Tips for Managing Freelancers and Contractors  provides advice on how managers can successfully navigate their relationship with contingent workers.    The article covers seven tips, which are: Understand what they want. See the article for details. Set expectations.

Management 100

Management AT&T Skills 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

So we will refer you  to the article for the descriptions of these trend areas the technologies behind them. It's also been referred to as "emotional computing" The Telegraph has a good article that explains affective computing in more detail. 

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2016 2014 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 13, 2017

  The chart below, from her MIT Sloan Review article The Corporate Implications of Longer Lives , illustrates this shift.  Our  Baby Boomer section  has additional articles on this and related topics.   The reason for this shift, of course, is humans are living longer, healthier lives. . 

Retirement 129

Retirement 129

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 29, 2016

The Harvard Business Review's Designing the Machines That Will Design Strategy  suggests one day there may even be a chief strategy robot, which they call the integrated strategy machine. The Rise of the Strategy Machines , from the MIT Sloan Management Review, covers much of the same ground as the HBR article.

Learning 140

Learning Management 140

Small Business Labs

JUNE 12, 2017

According to the map maker's Medium article the goal of this map is to: create a relatively small, 2-D map that a reader can grasp in 15 minutes or so, and which accomplishes the paradoxical and essential job of pulling all the emerging technologies into one map while dividing them into different and more-or-less well-defined neighborhoods. . 

Forms 129

Forms Networking Goals AT&T 129

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

The Harvard Business Review's  You Can’t Understand China’s Slowdown Without Understanding Supply Chains  covers the interesting possibility that China's recent economic issues are at least in part being caused by manufacturing moving away from China. Higher Chinese labor costs.

2007 100

2007 Skills 100

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Harvard Business Review's Your Company Needs Independent Workers  covers the growing need by corporations to be seen as a "client of choice" by highly skilled independent workers. As the article chart below shows, 83% say they say have a lot of choice (48%) or some choice (35%) over who they work with. 

2015 100

2015 Skills Goals Management 100

Small Business Labs

JUNE 5, 2017

The 2013 Harvard Business Review article Work-Life Balance Isn't the Point  nicely covers this shift. .   According to Conley, activities and social spaces are becoming work-play ambiguous and work and personal time are blurring together.

2013 145

2013 Travel Promotion AT&T 145

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

As the article points out, there's broad agreement that most of the sharing economy companies - Uber, Airbnb, etc. This is what do we call what continues to be commonly called the  "sharing economy""? have nothing to do with sharing.    We've long felt the term "sharing economy" was a misnomer.

Temping 100

Temping 2012 AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 7, 2015

Harvard Business Review's The 3-D Printing Revolution (subscription may be required) not only is one of the best articles I've seen on this topic, it also explains the advantages and uses of 3D printing without over hyping the technology.

Confidence 100

Confidence UPS 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 27, 2018

Key quote from Mr. Cooper from the Fast Company article  Skillshare finds its groove by helping freelancers learn : “In a freelance world you don’t have the same set of resources and structure around you,” says CEO Matt Cooper. Other education platforms also employ freelance teachers.

Learning 100

Learning Skills Networking 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

But despite its title, Coworking: A Transdisciplinary Overview  is one of the best and most interesting articles I've read on coworking.  You rarely sees the words "interesting" and "academic paper" in the same sentence.

Collaborate 100

Collaborate Environment Learning 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 20, 2014

The picture above, for example, is from the article Will Baxter and Other Robots Take Your job.   The article argues that through the use of robotics and automation the cost of making things in developed countries like the U.S.   But there's also a positive side to botsourcing. The has gotten cheaper.

Learning 100

Learning 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 2, 2015

But as the Harvard Business Review article  The Sharing Economy Isn't About Sharing At All points out: the sharing economy isn't really a “sharing” economy at all; it’s an access economy. " Because of this, the authors of this article think this sector should be called the access economy.

Suppliers 100

Suppliers 2012 AT&T UPS 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 17, 2017

" The article chart below also illustrates this growth. The online site legal site Avvo recently announced a new service that covers routine legal scenarios for business, family and immigration, with fixed-price offerings  starting at $39 for a 15-minute advice session or $149 for a document review. It's not just lawyers.

Skills 160

Skills Legal 2016 2017 160

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

According to the article, 50 percent of the overall population have dogs, and 35 percent have cats. But these numbers still surprised us and after review we continue to think they are pretty high.  It also means millennials are much more likely to be pet owners than older cohorts.

Social Media 100

Social Media Clothes 2016 Expenses 100