Advisors provide a continuous flow of information on the topics covered by each practice, including consultant insights and reports from the front lines, analyses of trends, and breaking new ideas. Advisors are delivered directly to your email inbox, and are also available in the resource library.

GenAI: A Double-Edged Sword for Cybersecurity & Data Protection

Curt Hall
GenAI appears to be lowering the barrier to entry for developing sophisticated cyberattacks and scams. However, the technology also offers solutions to help meet the threats imposed by hackers, cybercriminals, and state actors. This Advisor examines the evolving GenAI threat and solution landscape.

Activating Transcendence & Drive to Lead DEI Efforts

Natacha Prudent, Mary Crossan
DEI has evolved from “nice to have” to a mission-critical component ensuring an organization’s progress and competitiveness in the global market. The questions in this Advisor serve as a guide to activate transcendence and drive, which are important character traits for leading DEI efforts.

CEO Insights 2024: ESG Is Now “Business as Usual” & Approaches Have Matured

Francesco Marsella, Petter Kilefors, Maximilian Scherr, Ralf Baron, Satya Easwaran
In this Advisor, we explore a key trend revealed through ADL's CEO Insights research analysis: while a shift has occurred in ESG priorities, approaches to it have matured, and most leaders still see its importance.

FSC’s Blockchain-Based Supply Chain: Lessons Learned & Future Features

Michael Marus, Curt Hall
Cutter Expert Curt Hall recently spoke with Michael Marus, CIO of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC has been testing and applying blockchain since 2021 to enable sustainability with forest-based materials and has found that blockchain’s traceability helps it achieve integrity and credibility for its certification system. This Advisor presents an excerpt from that interview.

CEO Insights 2024: Leaders Optimistic About the Future, Predict Positive Growth

Francesco Marsella, Petter Kilefors, Maximilian Scherr, Ralf Baron, Satya Easwaran
In this Advisor, we explore findings from ADL’s 2024 “CEO Insights” study, including the first trend uncovered by research: CEOs are positive about the medium-term economic outlook and confident about future company growth.

Is Your Company Ready to Embark on a Nature Positive Journey?

Margaret O'Gorman
In this Advisor, Margaret O’Gorman offers some initial steps leaders can take to help their companies start a nature positive journey: raise awareness in the organization, explore the organization’s relationship to nature, assess for impacts, and plan interventions.

Digital Experience Management Rising: Practice, Issues & Platforms

Curt Hall
This Advisor explores the rise of digital experience management (DXM). When implemented successfully, DXM can facilitate better engagement with existing customers, assist in acquiring new customers, and help differentiate a brand from its competition.

What Is Character & Why Does It Matter in Leadership?

Kimberley Young Milani
This Advisor delineates how character is defined and positioned within a leadership context. Based on extensive research conducted by the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, character can be understood through two foundational frameworks: the Effective Leader framework and the Ivey Leader Character Framework (ILCF).

Developing a Nature-Based Strategy: 2 More Essential Steps

Sara Cook
This Advisor offers two more pieces of advice for creating intersections between corporate ambition and action for nature. These steps can help a company move from understanding its nature-related dependencies to understanding its opportunities.

Case Study: A Nuclear Power Plant Digital Twin

Jason Radel
This Advisor examines a digital twin framework that was used to create, adjust, and deploy a digital twin of a nuclear power plant in the Middle East.

Reframing Responsible Decision-Making

Kanina Blanchard
The course “Leading Responsibly” at the Ivey Business School in Canada teaches individuals to become more responsible by helping them unpack their lived experiences. This Advisor offers key insights gleaned from the course.

Balancing Wind-Energy Needs with Biodiversity Goals

Rafael Sardá
This Advisor takes a closer look at how wind farm development can impact biodiversity with a focus on marine protected areas in the EU and the Mediterranean Sea.

Immersive Commerce: How Retailers Are Using AR/VR, GenAI & Digital Twins

Curt Hall
In this Advisor, Cutter Expert Curt Hall examines how retailers like Walmart, Wayfair, and Savage X Fenty are using GenAI, AR, VR, computer vision, digital twins, and social collaboration to improve the shopping experience.

To Avoid Unethical Decisions, Be Aware of Sneaky Cognitive Biases

Barbara Carlin
In this Advisor, Barbara A. Carlin delves into sneaky problems commonly faced by leaders. These problems are sneaky because cognitive biases that creep into our decision-making cause us to overlook their ethical implications. The biases detected in the decision-making problems illustrated here include nonmonetary transactions, the framing effect, and ill-conceived goals.

GigawattFactory: Helping Germany Go Green

Thorsten Kramer
In this Advisor, LEAG CEO Thorsten Kramer introduces GigawattFactory, a unique project that will deliver high-quality green energy on an industrial scale in Germany.

The Strategic CIO: Unlocking the Value of Cloud Computing

Myles Suer
The cloud has revolutionized the way businesses operate, offering unprecedented agility, innovation, and resilience. In this Advisor, Myles Suer stresses that the key to leveraging cloud investments isn't solely in cost-cutting but in enhancing the ROI by accelerating business outcomes and value delivery.

Preparing Agile-Adaptive Leaders of the Future

Jim Highsmith
Leaders who demonstrate agility may be the cornerstone of our future — be it for a team, a company, or a nonprofit organization. In this Advisor, Cutter Fellow Emeritus Jim Highsmith offers some advice for preparing these agile-adaptive leaders.

Decarbonizing Industry: An Imperative for Achieving Paris Agreement Goals

Senthil Kumar Sundaramoorthy, Dipti Kamath, Sachin Nimbalkar, Christopher Price, Thomas Wenning, Joe Cresko
The industrial sector represents a significant source of energy-related GHG emissions. For instance, in the US, it accounted for 33% of overall primary energy use in 2020 and was responsible for 30% of the nation’s total energy-related GHG emissions. Reducing a sizeable portion of these emissions will play a key role in achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals.

Using IT to Manage Carbon Assets

Enrique Castro Leon
As we explore in this Advisor, information technology can be leveraged to maintain real-time inventories of carbon assets and could be used to create a system designed to meet specific GHG-mitigation goals.

Expand Your Talent Pool with the Equation for Equality

Matthew Walsh
The Equation for Equality tackles the issues of occupational segregation, labor-shortage acuteness, and the risks faced by both individuals and employers when engaging with career transitions. The equation gives employers a way to expand their talent pool in a low-risk way by identifying workers outside a given sector that use a similar skill set to that required by an open position.

Making Business Models Sustainable

Pradipta Chakraborty
Businesses in a range of industries can achieve their sustainability ambitions by revising their business models to include sustainability principles. This Advisor offers advice for companies embarking on the transformation toward a sustainable business model.

Conversational Commerce: New Developments with GenAI in Retail

Curt Hall
In this Advisor, Cutter Expert Curt Hall examines key developments involving the use of GenAI in the retail industry, including examples of how Microsoft, Google, and Walmart are utilizing the technology to develop new products and applications that support conversational commerce.

Leaders: Gain a Broader Perspective to Navigate Geopolitical Risk

JooSeuk Maing
Given today’s geopolitics, variable factors come into play, and cost is no longer the primary consideration. As Korea/Vietnam CEO Joo-Seuk Maing explains in this Advisor, gaining a broader perspective is a necessity for leaders as they navigate global risk.

CCUS: Creating Business Opportunities Across the Value Chain

Martin Dix, Oliver Golly
CCUS is widely accepted as a viable technology approach for decarbonization and an essential part of the transition to net zero. As we explore in this Advisor, it also creates a range of transformative opportunities for businesses across the value chain.

Benefits of Blockchain-Enabled Microgrids

Ali Arabnya, Amin Khodaei
This Advisor takes a closer look at interoperable energy microgrids enabled by blockchain, which can offer more choices to consumers, improve market efficiency by eliminating middlemen, increase resilience by decentralizing the network topology, and enable new marketplaces.