Tailored Expertise Sourcing & Market Intelligence in Global Consulting

You were born creative. As an infant, you had to figure many things out—how to get fed or changed, get help or attention, and make a onesie covered in spit-up still look adorable. As you grew older, your creativity grew, too. You drew pictures, wrote stories, played dress-up, and acted out imaginary stories.
Then you went to school, and it was time to be serious. Suddenly, creativity had a time and place. It became an elective or a hobby. Something you did just enough of to be “well-rounded” but not so much that you would be judged irresponsible or impractical.
When you entered the “real world,” your job determined whether you were creative. Advertising, design, marketing, innovation? Creative. Business, medicine, law, engineering? Not creative.

La start-up chinoise d'IA a dévoilé un modèle très performant avec un coût minime par rapport aux modèles américains. Une prouesse qui remettrait en cause les dépenses faramineuses des géants de la tech dans les puces.

Strategic Research a collaboré courant 2024 avec un groupe d’étudiants en MSc Marketing de HEC Paris. La mission était d’imaginer l’avenir de l’industrie des études de marché. Ce travail s’est nourri de recherches documentaires et d’une quinzaine d’entretiens avec des professionnels reconnus issus de divers horizons, incluant les secteurs des études de marché, du conseil et de l’Intelligence Artificielle.

The year 2024 was a challenging year for sustainability, from climate issues to inequality. Three top concerns include elections and political turmoil that threaten progress, companies retreating or staying silent on DEI and ESG goals, and the rise of sustainability reporting that’s (temporarily) taking up companies’ time. Other issues from the past year include the clean economy hitting tipping points, AI’s growth threatening decarbonization, heavy industry making some progress, and the beginning of a crackdown on “greenwashing.”

Wherever ambiguity is paramount, wherever judgment is required, or wherever moral values are at stake, one must not expect ChatGPT to be the final arbiter. That is simply not what it is designed to do. It can be an input, but it cannot be trusted to be the final output.

The Coca-Cola Company has lowered the ambition of its voluntary environmental goals. Having extended its timeframe to 2035, it now aspires to achieve 40% recyclate in its primary packaging and collect 75% of the bottles and cans it markets, among other targets.

Il y a un an, Atomico se voulait résolument optimiste. Malgré une chute vertigineuse des levées de fonds en Europe après deux années de “surchauffe”, le fonds de capital-risque britannique assurait que la reprise était “en cours”. Mais ses espoirs, et ceux de l’écosystème, ne se sont pas matérialisés. Dans son rapport annuel, publié ce mardi, il prédit en effet que les start-up européennes vont récolter 45 milliards de dollars auprès d’investisseurs en 2024. Ce serait légèrement moins que les 47 milliards de 2023. Et surtout très loin des sommets touchés en 2021, quand les tours de table avaient atteint la barre des 100 milliards. Les plus rassurants souligneront que ce chiffre reste supérieur à 2020, dernière année “normale” avant l’euphorie post-Covid. Mais ce n’est, en réalité, même pas le cas en tenant compte de l’inflation.

Notre dispositif utilise une pile à combustible qui exploite les électrons présents dans le sol pour générer de l’électricité. Dans le sol, il y a toute une économie circulaire où les nutriments sont constamment réapprovisionnés par les plantes qui sécrètent des substances organiques, ou par les engrais qui fournissent de l’énergie à la terre. Il y a donc des matières organiques que les microbes convertissent en électrons libres. Nous avons donc conçu un dispositif qui capture ces électrons libres sur une électrode et, avec une autre, nous créons un environnement électrochimique approprié pour les conduire à circuler à travers un fil et ainsi pouvoir recharger une batterie. Nous avons un prototype que nous allons adapter pour des applications terrain et pour le tester.

The Amazon Sustainability Accelerator launched in 2022. It has since supported more than 40 start-ups across the UK and Europe – claiming to have provided over £1 million (€1,196,560) in grants and credits, increased the business’ on-average increase sales by 700%, and helped them raise over £15 million (€17,948,905) to date.

Democratic socialists frequently laud the Nordic countries as examples of the success of progressive taxation, generous welfare states, and powerful labor unions. Free marketers have responded by pointing out that not only did these countries get rich long before these policies were implemented, but they also have as much regulatory flexibility as the United States, according to World Bank data. However, we should also point to countries that embraced so-called neoliberalism as a means to getting richer and reducing poverty. It turns out that this strategy has been proven to work and these areas of Europe have living standards that are just as high, if not higher, than that of the Nordics. Here, we’ll look at three examples.

With 380MM MAUs, Roblox probably counts more players than the entire AAA gaming ecosystem, is more played than Disney+ is watched, and is starting to rival smaller social networks in scale. But Roblox has yet to profit. How can it become a business comparable to its operating scale?

Dig into human psychology to help people take risks and make innovation the norm within your organization. Imagine this: you’re on a game show standing in front of three doors. Behind one of the doors is a prize, behind the other two, goats. You select a door. The host then opens one of the remaining doors to reveal a goat, and offers you a choice. Do you want to stick with your original choice, or switch doors? Which option gives you a greater advantage of winning?

There is an 80 percent chance that growth “outside the box” is a top-5 priority in your company. The “box” refers to your company’s current business model, operating model, and mental model. But chances are, your company is not delivering that growth. Only 1 in 30 company startups build a new $50 million business, 29 out of 30 attempts fail. Even in good times, out-of-the-box innovation is a tough game. No one is really happy.

Avec la troisième version de son grand modèle de langage, lancée en décembre, l’entreprise d’intelligence artificielle chinoise DeepSeek pourrait bien avoir battu en brèche l’idée que les meilleures IA requièrent des milliards de dollars et les puces les plus avancées. Pour seulement 5,6 millions, soit 7 % du coût du développement de ChatGPT, Pékin est parvenu à créer une IA comparable aux modèles américains.

Measuring less than 5 mm in size, microplastics are formed over time as plastic materials break down but don’t biodegrade. Exposure to these substances can come through food, air, and skin absorption. While scientists are learning more about how these substances are absorbed by the body, questions remain about how much exposure is safe, what effect — if any — microplastics could have on brain function, and what clinicians should tell their patients.

Regulatory agencies of any kind know that instituting new rules often requires companies to make substantial changes to their business. The ripple effects can fan out endlessly throughout every corner of the organization, with dependencies and contingencies that disrupt even the most experienced change management gurus. But regulatory agencies aren’t intending to incite upheaval, turmoil or failure with strict deadlines or the potentially complex adjustments required for compliance. Those deadlines to comply are put in place for a reason, and eventually, the grace period extended to companies between the time a law is approved and the time it’s implemented will come to an end. For many sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) regulations, that time is now.

From idea competitions and startup incubators to virtual whiteboards and design thinking workshops, there is no shortage of mechanisms for brainstorming what’s possible in an organization. It’s exciting to have so many ideas to work with.
But what happens next? Eventually, you need to identify which solutions best fit your business needs. Ideation on its own isn’t enough to drive innovation outcomes—and could even be a waste of resources if not governed properly. To drive outcomes, you need disciplined portfolio management.

It’s often said by teams that “diversity is our strength.” We take for granted the idea that diverse teams bring more lived experiences, ideas, and solutions to the table. When asked, “How does diversity affect teamwork?” most leaders assume that teams composed of individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives are more likely to approach problems from various angles and come up with innovative solutions. And hence most leaders assume that diversity is a source of greater performance.
And while that’s true—it’s not as clear cut as we assume.

Il existe un monde où les salariés sont leur propre patron. Un monde pas si utopique que cela puisqu’il existe bel et bien. Le modèle des Scop, revenu dans l’actualité avec l’exemple de Duralex il y a quelques semaines, en dépit de quelques inconvénients qu’il ne faut pas éluder, a surtout beaucoup de vertus. Explications.

The term ‘customer-centricity’ was coined in 1954 by management consultant Peter Drucker who stated: “It is the customer who determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper”. (1) Essentially, this is a strategy and business culture that focuses on creating the best experience for the customer to build brand loyalty. Customer-centric businesses put the customer at the centre of their philosophy, operations and ideas. They believe that their customers are the primary reason they exist, and they use every means at their disposal to keep them satisfied.
Customer-Obsession, on the other hand, is a more recent concept. It refers to being hyper-focused and consistently listening to customers in real-time to enhance their experiences. It revolutionises the way businesses think about customer relationships and can require a mind shift in the way brands perceive their customers.

Après un – éphémère - regain d’activité post-covid, le secteur automobile connait un gros coup de frein en cette année 2024. Pour une partie des sous-traitants des constructeurs, c’est une période particulièrement critique. Avec, à la clef, l’annonce de cessations d’activités, de fermetures de sites et de licenciements. Quels sont les leviers pour ces incontournables du secteur pour sortir de cette crise ?

Le maïs transformé, ramolli par l'humidité de la grotte, a en effet créé un environnement idéal pour la vie microbienne et les champignons, explique l'équipe. Les grillons des cavernes, les acariens, les araignées et les mouches ont pu très vite organiser un réseau alimentaire temporaire, puis disperser les nutriments dans les différents espaces de la grotte.

Pour cela, ce petit génie en herbe a élaboré une formule chimique composée d’acide salicylique, d’acide glycolique et de trétinoïne, qui favorise l’activation de cellules indispensables au bon fonctionnement du système immunitaire et à la détection d’agents pathogènes potentiels. Il a ensuite ajouté ce mélange à une nanoparticule à base de lipides afin qu’elle ne se dissolve pas avec la mousse du savon et puisse pénétrer la peau.