Quantic’s Weekly Roundup – January 2021 (1)

Quantic’s Weekly Roundup is a satisfying mix of the latest breaking news, business, STEM and social science stories. Here are your headlines for this week:

Do what you like, like what you do: This past year brought an explosion of newly launched small businesses and startups. What are their success secrets? One tip is to simply be yourself and be passionate about your work. Embracing your identity and trusting yourself allows for more novel products and opportunities. The pandemic and lockdowns have afforded many of us the time and space to discover who we are, and what we want in life, love, and work. The start of a new year is a great time to pursue these passions and go full entrepreneur. 

Purpose over profit: From the importance of authenticity to being grounded in humanity, purpose-driven companies will not only help advance industries, but create meaningful societal impacts. What are some of the top forecasted trends for businesses focused on purpose? One main aspect will be that “storytelling” will evolve into “story-doing.” Companies will increasingly take action before they communicate about it. “We’ll hear stories about real risk-taking, about rolling up sleeves and jumping in to help,” says Laura Ferry, president of Good Company. “We will learn about the people who bravely stood up, helped others, or marched for a cause.”

Creativity is intelligence having fun: Some researchers are finding that while many companies are spending more money on creativity and innovations, their returns are still flatlining. How can they fix this creative slump? Welcome “Augmented Creativity.” This is a term being used when humans use AI to help them understand the deluge of data to create new works and prototypes. This approach utilizes huge datasets that AI mines to look for well-established, yet previously untapped, connections. Augmented Creativity has helped develop everything form new music apps, to delectable cookie-cake hybrids. 

Wednesday’s riots in Washington D.C., which included the United States Capitol being breached during the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes, has gained the attention of business leaders from around the globe. Executives and CEOs from some of the world’s biggest tech companies took to platforms to condemn the violence, and even temporarily ban Trump’s accounts, but was it too little too late? The role of social media, and the political, cultural power it can wield, left Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, saying: “there are a lot of hard questions we’re going to have to answer for our children.” In any case, here’s to hoping 2021 has nowhere to go but up from here.