“If the quantity of information is increasing 2.5 quintillion bytes per day, the amount of useful information almost certainly isn’t.” How can you learn to process increasingly large data sets to make more accurate predictions? Based on The Signal and the Noise: why so many predictions fail – but some don’t, by Nate Silver (The Penguin Press, September 2012), “Oracles: How Prediction Markets Turn Employees Into Visionaries” by Donald N. Thompson (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) and the interview with Jim Lavoie, CEO, Rite-Solutions, April 2013.

According to consultant Dan Schwabel, 70% of recent graduates leave their first company within their first two years of employment. It costs companies on average $24,000 to replace a Gen Y, reports Experience consulting firm. Once they’ve been hired, how can companies win the loyalty of restless younger generations? Based on “Comment fidéliser la génération Y, SVP?” by Francis Boyer (JDN Management, 2012), “Profils-clés: les nouveaux ressorts de la fidélité” by Mathieu Neu (Nouvel Economiste, 2011), “Comment retenir les talents digitaux” by Gilles Wybo (Stratégies, 2012), and “2012–2013 Talent Management and Rewards Survey” (Towers Watson, 2012).

No matter how scary it may seem to some business leaders, unfiltered discussions between stakeholders on public forums are here to stay. Rather than useless resistance, the logical response is to embrace and leverage two-way communication channels. Based on Talk, Inc. by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind (Harvard Business Review Press, June 2012), Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All by Bernard T. Ferrari (Penguin 2012) and “Why I’m a listener: Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer” (McKinsey Quarterly, April 2012) and on separate interviews with Polly Pearson, former VP of employment brand and strategy engagement, and Jonathan Martin, SVP of corporate marketing, EMC Corporation, October 2012.

Based on, among other, “The Social Side of Strategy” by Arne Gast and Michele Zanini (McKinsey Quarterly, May 2012); “Building Employee Engagement Through Strategy Collaboration” by Melissa J. Anderson (Evolved Employer, June 2012), Find Your Next by Andrea Kates (McGraw-Hill, October 2011), and the interview with Jackie Yeaney, vice president of strategy and marketing, Red Hat, August 2012.

Flexible environments that encourage individual initiative produce the most promising projects. Companies that have developed such strong intrepreneurial cultures encourage staff to act as intrepreneurs, who combine company resources with an eye for market opportunities! Based on Corporate Entrepreneurship: How to Create a Thriving Entrepreneurial Spirit Throughout Your Company by Robert D. Hisrich and Claudine Kearnay (McGraw-Hill, September 2011), and the interview with Olivier Leclerc, director of entrepreneurial initiatives, Alcatel-Lucent, January 2012.

Employee progress in the work itself is the most powerful motivator, report Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. How can managers support the daily progress of teams in order to strengthen employee engagement? By resisting the temptation to micromanage! Based on The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer (Harvard Business Review Press, August 2011), “Start the New Year in Progress”, by the same authors (Harvard Business Review, December 2011) and the interview with Craig Wynett, Chief Learning Officer chez Procter & Gamble, January 2012.

Gamification, or the use of game world mechanisms to enliven experiences normally considered dull, activates psychological drives to engage in activities that otherwise seem irrelevant or of little interest. A valuable ability for all managers who wish to increase the commitment of their teams, customers, partners, etc., Based on “Le management saisi par les jeux” by Kevin Werbach, Rajat Paharia and Daniel Debow, December 2011 (www.paristechreview.com), “Gamification is here to stay” by Gabe Zichermann, April 2011 (www.theatlantic.com) and other sources.

"When we fast-forward to our working lives in 2025 and even out to 2050, we can only do so by knowing something about how technologies will develop in the near term--and by taking a guess at the possibilities for the long term," explains Lynda Gratton. What advances will be the most significant in the coming years?

A search for meaning, financial constraints, a thirst for autonomy among employees, and hyperconnectivity are the four forces that will profoundly affect business in the coming months. These trends will push leaders to rethink radically both their strategy and daily management practices. A synthesis of several publications, accompanied by interviews with Indra Nooyi (Pepsi), Paul Polman (Unilever), Franck Riboud (Danone), Vineet Nayar (HCL Technologies) et Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and the book The Shift, by Lynda Gratton, HarperCollins Publishers, May 2011.