Speaking with groups of people is a critical leadership skill. During their careers, leaders need to engage with stakeholders including employees, investors, and members of the general public.
This technical note aims to provide the reader with a brief guide for harnessing and channeling the energy they experience when they are about to give a speech. It has two parts. The first section uses sci
As companies increasingly rely on data and analytics to make decisions and improve their operations, it becomes clear that data quality can be a major issue. The insights gleaned from data analytics are useful only if the data is of high quality. This note summarizes some common issues that can result in low-quality data and explores the crucial task of data engineering.
This note is taught at D
This technical note provides a general overview of cloud computing and how businesses are using it to achieve their digital goals. Specifically, this note outlines the different service models that cloud computing supports, including Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service. The note also details some of the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing, and
This technical note details virtual and augmented reality and how these immersive technologies can be used in business. Specifically, this note highlights several business applications of both virtual and augmented reality—describing each technology’s advantages and disadvantages. Various companies have uncovered new and interesting applications using these technologies, ranging from assisting dis
This note works best when paired with two other Darden technical notes: "The IS/LM Model" (UVA-GEM-0126), and a note that directly supports this one, "Determinants of Economic Growth" (UVA-GEM-0202).
This note provides a formal mathematical derivation to address recurring questions about the Solow model (see GEM-0202 for details). Using a detailed derivation that starts from the investment equati
Who doesn’t feel some anxiety when faced with making a presentation to an audience of practitioners and executives? Presentations are often the most stressful part of a job in business or consulting. Yet anyone can learn to write and present better than they think. As with almost everything in business, there is a process.
Based on interviews with practitioners and professors, this note will teac
Economic growth is a recent phenomenon in human history. This technical note explores this phenomenon in detail, examining the work of Nobel laureate Robert Solow, whose growth model is the dominant paradigm for practitioners when evaluating countries' growth prospects. For math-oriented readers, this note pairs well with a companion technical note, "Determinants of Economic Growth: Supplemental N
In many cases, data analysts are given the question to answer or the data set to be analyzed. It’s important, however, to understand that there are numerous steps, before and after the empirical analysis is done, that define an overall rigorous scientific process. This note outlines the basic steps that are important in asking an empirical research question, answering it, and presenting findings.
Leaders must know how to deliver bad news to employees and outside stakeholders. Whether an organization is responding to a complaint, communicating about a crisis situation, or notifying employees about a change in company policies or downsizing, its executives and managers must focus on creating an appropriate response while maintaining goodwill for the organization. This note addresses how exec
This technical note offers an overview of artificial intelligence (AI) and some ways in which machine learning is leveraged to build this type of intelligence. The note also explores two schools of thought around AI’s potential, discusses the possible roles for AI in business, highlights opportunities for collaboration between employees and AI, and considers one approach around responsible AI impl
This technical note examines two common methods for estimating customer demand using historical data observations that are constrained by availability. First, this note explains how to leverage the averaging method for unconstraining the demand of airline ticket bookings. Next, the expectation-maximization algorithm is introduced using historical product sales data. Both examples rely on fictious
This note explains the building blocks of common financial performance metrics and show how operations affect those metrics. Return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) are two key measures of the financial performance of a firm. ROA captures the operational aspects of the firm while ROE captures the financing decisions of the firm.