Larry Downes's Blog

Larry’s 2013 Harvard Business Review article, “Big Bang Disruption,” has been selected by the editors as one of their “definitive” guides to business strategy of all time. The article, which led to the publication of the book by the same name, argues that existing models of competitive advantage have been obsoleted by the rise of […]

As AI agents shift from back to front office applications, consumers are understandably wary of turning over the keys to their personal and financial data to autonomous software. But the potential for Agentic AI technologies to improve lives and make business more efficient is a powerful incentive. In Harvard Business Review, Larry and co-author Blair […]

In the Wall Street Journal today, I write, with Blair Levin, about what we see as the best option for DOGE, the proposed advisory group within the White House that is tasked with improving government efficiency and cutting costs. We propose making a serious effort to shift federal services from inefficient, understaffed and overworked local […]

In today’s Wall Street Journal, my colleague Blair Levin and I propose an alternative to the AM Radio bailout working its way through Congress. Spoiler alert: Just let it go. (Subscription required, sadly.) Best, LD

For Harvard Business Review today, Blair Levin and I review two recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that have dramatically shifted power away from federal regulators and to the federal courts, most notably in overturning the Chevron doctrine, which, since 1984, has been cited over 15,000 times in cases that reviewed challenges to regulations, […]

For LinkedIn today, Blair Levin and I on the realities of AI’s potential to destroy jobs, a topic about which pretty much everything written so far has been wrong. Concern about Generative AI’s potential to displace workers and disrupt markets kicked into high gear in 2022, with the public release of Open AI’s ChatGPT.  AI’s […]

My co-author Blair Levin and I are pleased to announce the publication of our latest article for Harvard Business Review. With the explosive arrival of ChatGPT and other generative AI applications built on Large Language Model neural networks, there has been a frenzy among legislature and regulatory agencies worldwide to determine who and how the […]

My co-author Blair Levin and I are pleased to announce the publication of our latest article for Harvard Business Review. In the last few months, the U.S. federal government has brought two major antitrust cases: one to block Microsoft’s acquisition of game developer Activision, and another against Google aimed at forcing the company to divest […]

My co-author Blair Levin and I are pleased to announce the publication of our latest article for MIT Sloan Management Review, which will also appear in the upcoming Winter issue. The article reviews growing clashes between companies embracing stakeholder values and roiling political waters at home and abroad.  Many enterprises have been caught off-guard, leading […]

Larry’s newest book, “The Year in Tech 2022” is available now from Harvard Business Review. The book features articles on emerging technologies, business practices, and policy issues, previously published in HBR. Larry edited the collection and wrote the introduction.