Inspiration from science
The latest insights from Maastricht University right at your fingertips
CONTENT COLLECTION
The Sustainable Design Opportunity is Now
Let’s look at the workplace through a new prism and recognise that each business, no matter how small, has a chance to not only make a significant reduction in their carbon footprint but also to create an improved workplace experience for all.
How to Make Sense of your Data?
In this short video, Stephan Smeekes, Associate Professor in Econometrics, shares his insights on how a combination of econometrics, statistics and machine learning can help organisations find data-driven answers to their questions.
A Human Approach to Leadership
It’s taken a virus to knock us out of our complacency and force us to rethink many assumptions that govern the world of work. COVID-19 has accelerated the rate of social and economic change and leaders cannot afford to be left behind.
Using Data to Boost your Organisation
A blueprint for digital transformation doesn’t exit. The impact, opportunities and threats are different for every company. However, focus on governance, leadership and organisational culture is crucial in the transformation of any organisation.
Rediscovering the Physical Workspace
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in all aspects of life. However, let us not forget to rediscover the physical workspace with intentionality on how best to use it in a transforming world of work.
The Sense and Nonsense of Early Supplier Involvement
Assistant professor Robert Suurmond shares insights from one of his recent publications, shedding new light on the sense and nonsense of (early) supplier involvement, open innovation and the nature of knowledge transfer more generally.
Gebruik data als vliegwiel voor je organisatie
In deze WebTalks sessie op 23 maart door UMIO en de Open Universiteit bespraken we de rol van data, governance, leiderschap, organisatiecultuur en andere factoren die bijdragen aan een succesvolle digitale transformatie van jouw organisatie.
Connecting Leadership: Needed Now more than Ever
During a recent, very well attended WebTalks session, Frans Wilms considered different aspects of connecting leadership to answer the pressing question “how can we lead in peace with enough space and without losing direction or results?”.
Should Banks Pay Dividends in 2021?
Well-performing European banks are allowed again to pay out dividends to their shareholders this year. However, according to Clemens Kool, Professor of Macroeconomics and International Monetary Economics, this requires a careful balancing act.
Leading through Today’s Confluence of Crises
COVID-19 started off as a health crisis but has since morphed into a confluence of crises. The challenge for leaders and organisations is how this confluence could disrupt their business and then chart their blueprint for renewal and transformation.
De vier R’s van verbindend leiderschap
In this online session with leadership expert Frans Wilms, we discussed the balancing act of letting go versus defining boundaries, and we showed how to lead by leaving more room for your employees without losing sight of strategy and results.
How Do Professionals Learn?
In this short video, Therese Grohnert shares some of the key findings from her research which demonstrates how organisations can create the perfect conditions for workplace learning for sustained performance and innovation.
Procurement with Purpose
Leading sustainable companies show an increasing interest in the integrity and ethical behaviour of their supply chains which often translates into a clear purpose for procurement. This seems to resonate well with the leaders of the next generation.
Redefining Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Saleema Vellani explores the entrepreneurial mindset and considers how the future landscape of personal exploration, employment and industry will require ubiquitous innovation skills of new graduates and business leaders alike.
Be Ambitious with those Service Robots!
Gaby Odekerken-Schröder, Professor of Customer-Centric Service Science, explains what added value service robots can bring to the workplace. It is not a question of whether we will start working with robots, but how we can get everybody prepared.
How to Activate and Nudge Pension Plan Participants
On a podcast episode hosted by Netspar, Thomas Post discusses techniques to activate participants in the new Dutch occupational pension system and emphasises that nudges have to be designed with great care to be effective and ethically sound.
Mind the Gap!
NEVI Professor Purchasing and Supply Management, Frank Rozemeijer, elaborates on some gender disparities to keep in mind when you recruit young graduates to become your future Procurement, Logistics or SCM leaders.
Which is More Creative, the Arts or the Sciences?
At UMIO Prime, we have shared research insights on the need for ‘higher’ cognitive skills as core competencies for the changing 21st century labour market. But, what is the nature of creativity, and does it differ across disciplines?
How do we Make Up for Learning Disadvantages?
Dutch schools have been closed for a long time due to COVID-19. It is clear that all primary school students have fallen behind in arithmetic, language and reading comprehension. Lex Borghans discusses how we can make up for learning disadvantages.
Increasing Employee Creativity
Research among adults shows that new and original ideas are often seen as difficult to implement. As a result, people tend to choose ideas that are more obvious when they think they also have to implement them.
How to Build the Next Electric Car?
In this podcast episode, Robert Suurmond, Assistant Professor in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management looks at the best way to build an electric car, drawing lessons from Tesla and comparing this to more traditional car manufacturers.
Nouvelle Année, Nouvelle Procurement
No matter what you buy, look beyond the price and dig deeper! Frank Rozemeijer, Professor of Procurement & Supply Chain Management, calls for a deep understanding of your organisation’s supply chain, as you can’t manage what you can’t see.
Please Don’t Revolutionise Education!
Education needs proper insight into the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for students and better knowledge of what works if we are to eliminate adverse consequences, argues Inge de Wolf, Professor of Education Systems.
How Leadership is Learned and Developed
What is leadership? Who is a leader? Do you consider yourself a leader? Leadership lecturer and researcher Sonja Zaar shares some of the outcomes of a recent study exploring ideas around leadership and how they influence leadership identity.
The Human Factor in Digitalisation
The crisis is helpful in our move towards smart automation. But, digital has to go hand-in-hand with the human side. Dominik Mahr introduces the positive and negative sides of smart technology and how organisations can benefit from smart automation.
The Similarities between Playing Chess and Working from Home
The game of chess got a worldwide boost after Netflix broadcast their hit series The Queen’s Gambit in late 2020. But, what if lead character Beth Harmon would have had to face her competition via a computer screen? And what can we learn from it?
How will COVID-19 Change the Demand for Office Space?
Will the demand for office space decline after COVID-19? Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok say office buildings that are no longer fit for purpose do not need to be written off. They deserve a second chance, and could be repurposed as residential housing.
Digital Transformation: Are you Ready to Automate?
On January 28, Dominik Mahr and Gordon Miesen hosted an online session to showcase how you as a professional can redesign your workplace with smart automation and what you can do to really reap the benefits from emerging technologies.
The Best Armoury for an Uncertain Future
Should you keep spending resources on a project even when its future success looks doubtful? The influence of emotions in decision-making is important but perhaps we are more rational than the previous research has given us credit for.
The Viability of Vaccination Certificates
There is sufficient support among the Dutch population for the introduction of a vaccination certificate to actively encourage people to be vaccinated. This has become apparent from representative research among 1,640 Dutch people.
Indispensable Competences of the Future
Due to automation and robotisation, a lot of jobs will disappear in the coming years. What capacities and learning characteristics will professionals need for the 21st century in order to remain successful and relevant?
The Key Challenges of Digitalisation
The challenges of digitalisation for businesses are real and immediate. In this short video, Dominik Mahr shares some key insights into how to embrace these challenges and make them work for you, rather than against you.
How Businesses can Help Build a more Sustainable World
Businesses can have a positive societal and environmental impact and create a viable business strategy. The role they play can help drive slower forms of consumption and break the consumerist style that leads to a wasteful society.
How to Market Products in 2021 and Beyond?
In this podcast, Tim Hilken talks about the current status of technologies like AR and VR. How can they be further developed to better address consumer needs? And how could these technologies be used in the classroom or workplace environment?
What do YOU do to Save the World?
Business models can roughly be divided into two categories: sustainable and non-sustainable ones. In this podcast, Nancy Bocken takes us through existing business models and how to deal with the dimension of sustainability.
We Think You Might Like This
Recommender systems enable us to tailor the content of websites and match individual predicted user preferences and needs. Mark Graus explains how these systems influence our actual behaviour and how customers, organisations and society can benefit.
Women Taking a Stand to Move Up Managerial Chain
Gender pay disparities have been a long-time concern, but as female empowerment inspires a generation, who are the people that are shaping the businesses of the future? We delve into three areas of society that women are transforming.
AI and the People: Co-creating for the Future of Work
AI and automation will have an important impact on work and the workplace. Meet the research group that combines expertise from business, policy and academia to help society face the opportunities and challenges that come with technological change.
Crisis Innovation Guide: Ready to Act?
What do we learn from COVID-19? This is an excellent moment to start thinking not only about how to make our organisations more responsive to change, but also how to make them regenerative by investing in a culture of innovation.
The Human Side of Business
In working relations, functionality and financial rewards often override the human perspective, leading to less productive teams and organisations. In this webinar on 10 December, Marco Buschman presented a new framework to overcome this challenge.
Can Money Buy Happiness?
“It’s not a big flat screen tv or a new phone that makes you happy but rather cleaning help or delivery service”, says economist and ‘happiness professor’ Paul Smeets. "If you have money to spend, buy yourself some spare time!”.
The Double-edged Sword of Smart Services
“You can buy a car in any colour you like so long as it’s black” is the famous quote by Henry Ford, made at a time when sellers dictated the market. Things couldn’t be more different today. It’s the customer who’s in the driver’s seat now.
Crisis Innovation Guide: Organisation and Ecosystem
Successful innovation in times of crisis doesn’t only require a good look at your products and processes. It’s also about being able to see the bigger picture. How does the organisation function and which ecosystem is it part of?
How Will Automation and AI Affect the Labour Market?
More and more machines can make decisions independently. So how will this affect the labour market? Mark Levels and Raymond Montizaan explore these questions through the work they are doing as part of the EU-funded research project TECHNEQUALITY.
Does your Employer Need to Offer you Training?
The Dutch government's portal for development advice and training was reopened on December 1st. In this podcast, Annemarie Künn explains why employers should indeed be encouraged to offer training opportunities for their employees.
Crisis Innovation Guide: Product and Process
Before you get to the innovation drawing board, it is essential that you gain a thorough understanding of the exact challenges and opportunities that your organisation is facing. We provide guidelines on how to innovate your product and process.
How can you be Prepared for what’s Next?
Sometimes the best way to understand the future is to build on good, old fashioned research and logic, sorting and sizing knowns and unknowns, and networking the one thing we bring with us everyday: human intelligence.
A Taste of Big Data Analysis: Sour Milk or Luxury Ice Cream?
Simply applying smart algorithms without thinking about the data can lead to misleading results, but with good data and sound knowledge of both business and analytics, any firm can improve their decision-making and hence performance.
Crisis Innovation Guide: Survival Mode
The shock of the coronavirus has triggered a survival mode in many companies, yet a crisis like this facilitates rather than inhibits innovation. It creates a climate of opportunity that true innovators have been waiting for.
Tipping Point for Digitalisation in Procurement and SCM?
The COVID-19 crisis has made it very clear that professional buyers and supply chain managers are important for our economy. Experts argue that the pandemic puts us at a ‘tipping point’ with regard to digitalisation of Procurement and SCM.
Using Data as a Driver in Transformation
‘Data is the new oil’ is a much-used phrase but having ‘oil’ is nowhere near as valuable as knowing what to do with it. Chris Underwood explores the role of data strategy in leadership and how data can help leaders to instigate organisational change.
Crisis Innovation Guide: The New Normal
While uncertain times like these can be unnerving, they also offer opportunities to those who dare to innovate. Successful companies will be the ones that take immediate action and adapt their business models to the 'new normal'.
Opportunities and Pitfalls of Smart Customer Interactions
During this Breakfast Booster on November 12, 2020, Lisa Brüggen presented several ways in which smart customer interactions can improve your customer relations, but she also discussed the pitfalls of digital customer interactions.
Do we put our trust in predictions?
In our day-to-day, it is increasingly possible to receive prediction advice that has been generated by some algorithmic system. Dr. Emir Efendić and colleagues found that trust in these systems depends on how quickly or slowly a prediction is made.
Nudging for Positive Change
Planning for retirement, eating healthier, donating your organs upon death – we often know what we should do, but why then do we not do it (enough)? It all has to do with behavioural design, and biases that are common to our species.
How Choosing for Others Impacts our own Choices
Researchers Kelly Geykens, Anika Schumacher and Caroline Goukens examined how choosing for others impacts our own choices. In this video, you learn how trying to help others will influence your own behaviour.
Service Robots: Rising or Falling Stars?
Robots are everywhere, but how do we humans respond to robots? The truth is, we don’t know much about what effect robots have on our behaviour. This is why Gaby Odekerken and her team at Maastricht University want to find out more.
Hand Washing Angels: a High-impact Social Initiative
Most children in developing countries haven’t been raised with hand washing as a priority. Determined to break a vicious circle, UMIO’s Edward Huizenga together with a global team builds hand hygiene into a daily routine for young children.
Redefining the Purpose of Business in Society
We are experiencing one of the worst crises of leadership in our history. Our societies and organisations need and deserve transformational leaders who can bring communities together while promoting inclusion and a sense of belonging.
Learning at the workplace for auditors
Why do audit firms sometimes form insufficiently supported judgements on their clients’ financial statements? Therese Grohnert wanted to find out and she convinced the involved audit firms of an appropriate solution: learning at the workplace.
We Said ‘Let them Rot in Hell’
Piet Eichholtz was one of the co-signatories of an open letter criticising the Netherlands’ reluctance to help Southern Europe in its time of need. He reflects on how the coronavirus crisis is embedded in economic, political and ethical issues.
Learning to Lead with Authenticity
What makes a good leader? To really understand the essential qualities of leadership and how you can become a better leader, you need to do more than talk about it. You have to start at the very beginning, with yourself.
Transformation is about People rather than Technology
Digital transformation challenges traditional ways of organising work, of understanding competition, and of experiencing products and services. This article sheds a light on corporate learning as an accelerator of digital transformation.
Stay Ahead of the Game
If you can carry on being a valuable asset in the workplace, you and your employer will reap the benefits. In addition to subject-specific knowledge and skills, the importance of so-called “21st-century skills” is increasing.
How smart is your algorithm?
We have all heard success stories about the world of big data analytics. But is it really the solution to all problems? On October 8, Stephan Smeekes and Etienne Wijler take us through the myths and magic of smart algorithms.
How to make a success of digital transformation in your organisation
Understanding why some digital transformations succeed while at the same time so many fail can provide a critical piece of the digital transformation puzzle. Dominik Mahr shares his insight on how to pave the way for a smooth digital transformation.
Augmented Reality: Is this for Real?
Over the past three years, Tim Hilken has headed a research initiative about Augmented Reality to better understand what makes it so valuable. Find out how AR can empower you to make better decisions, reach your goals or even help others.
5 Skills You Need in the Digital Age
The Digital Age will fundamentally change how we work and how we live. Success in this new dawn requires ‘outsmarting’ evolving technology and remaining relevant through continuous learning and reinvention, or ‘Hyper-Learning’.
Creëer zonder stress de verandering die je beoogt
In deze WebTalks-sessie met leiderschapsexpert Frans Wilms verdiepen we twee inzichten, twee overtuigingen en twee vaardigheden, die samen zes onmisbare pijlers voor het leiderschap van nu vormen.