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The Year in Tech 2022: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

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A year of HBR's essential thinking on tech--all in one place. From quantum computing to VR training and from 3D-printing to brain-computer interface, new technologies are reshaping business on the factory floor and in the C-suite. What should you and your company be doing now to take advantage of the new opportunities these technologies are creating--and avoid falling victim to disruption? The Year in Tech, 2022: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review will help you understand what the latest and most important tech innovations mean for your organization and how you can use them to compete and win in today's turbulent business environment. Business is changing. Will you adapt or be left behind? Get up to speed and deepen your understanding of the topics that are shaping your company's future with the Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review series. Featuring HBR's smartest thinking on fast-moving issues--blockchain, cybersecurity, AI, and more--each book provides the foundational introduction and practical case studies your organization needs to compete today and collects the best research, interviews, and analysis to get it ready for tomorrow. You can't afford to ignore how these issues will transform the landscape of business and society. The Insights You Need series will help you grasp these critical ideas--and prepare you and your company for the future.

176 pages, Hardcover

Published January 25, 2022

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121 people want to read

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5 stars
28 (15%)
4 stars
70 (39%)
3 stars
59 (33%)
2 stars
11 (6%)
1 star
8 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Federico Alatorre.
27 reviews17 followers
December 22, 2021
Es un must-read para emprendedores/empresarios independientemente del sector en el que operen
Profile Image for Christina Stathopoulos.
166 reviews151 followers
April 9, 2023
Fantastic overview of the latest emerging tech innovations from thought leaders in each space. This annual book release by Harvard Business Review began in 2021. The 2022 edition covers topics such as: building ethical AI, virtual reality for interactive learning, blockchain for a transparent supply chain, brain-computer interfaces, commercial space travel, quantum computing and more. A quick and easy read, I highly recommend checking it out yearly so you can more easily stay up to date with the latest in technology. I give this a 4-star review instead of 5 because most of the chapters are written at a superficial level, which is great for making it accessible to a wide audience. But I would have loved a slightly deeper dive (the book is only ~150 pages so it could have been made slightly longer) or at least next step recommendations from each thought leader on where/how they suggest exploring each topic further.
Profile Image for Iryna Paprotska.
270 reviews29 followers
January 5, 2022
HBR Year in Tech 2022 covers more than a few interesting topics. It is more focused on tech future and trends (a lot more thought provoking ideas in a second part of the book, than at first). Or what is about to come and hit big.
From ongoing (or known) technology:
- Discussions of “data ethics” and “AI ethics” - interesting and educational article
- Blockchain in supply chain management (very well discussed, with all open questions, possible trends, technology limitations). Great article. I actually got stuck with the book for such a long time, since I was looking into blockchain on a side.
- Interesting new law in Germany that is designed to endorse Healthcare digital tools. I think that is a great step in a our "post-COVID" world. Hopefully we will hear more about the outcomes of this new strategy on a wider scale.
- Using VR for training salespeople and general personnel that has a lot of communication in a job description

Second part of the book, or the future tech was much more impactful for me.

I think the most disturbing and troubling for me was definitely an article related to the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). As the book says: "Imagine if your manager could know whether you actually paid attention in your last Zoom meeting. Or, imagine if you could prepare your next presentation using only your thoughts. These scenarios might soon become a reality <..>. The development of BCI technology was initially focused on helping paralyzed people control assistive devices using their thoughts. For example, BCIs can now be used as a neurofeedback training tool to improve cognitive performance."
Looking at these statements my thoughts stagger. With a possibility to control and evaluate levels of attention, do we want to do that? We already expect knowledge workers to perform as a machine by being productive 8 hours a day. With time.. can we expect humans to stop being "human"? Will kinds want to increase their brain "GPU performance" by available tools? Will everyone want to be able to have a computer in their head? Is it maybe OK? Am I afraid of a change? It is effeminately a benefit that a car is going to stop cause you are tired. Save the driver, right? But who is going to control a manual override? What if your car stops 20 meters away from a point of destination? or you picked up a person who needs medical help? What does it mean for countries and areas that are sill low or in development? It was such a short article, but such a huge topic. Why AI ethics was discussed in details and this topic is left without questions? Maybe because it's still new. But this should definitely a topic for future investigation and monitoring.

What else it there?
- Ways to go green in Tech and a message to "to take energy measurements from the system as it executes specific workloads within their application and determine its efficiency". Set it as KPI for tech performance. I kinda think this field can be very interesting to investigate and maybe even work in.
- Quantum computing
- Space flight and commercial space age (curious fact here: "In 2015, for example, Argotec and Lavazza collaborated to build an espresso machine that could function in the zero-gravity environment of the ISS, delivering a bit of everyday luxury to the crew."). Somehow when reading about space and how governments should start regulating ownership there, I was thinking about waste. A location, where people will want to take waste from Earth (even though there is nothing about such an idea in the book, it kinda seems very "human-like" to fight over what is not their or find a place where to put all the rubbish.)
- Black people in tech
- Tech companies self-regulations
89 reviews1 follower
November 22, 2021
It was a good book, but not quite what I was expecting. Some of the book doesn't necessarily cover technology as you can expect it today, but will look forward a few years. I appreciated this, but looking out further than a couple of years in tech is very difficult.

One story wasn't about technology at all, but about what it's like to work as a minority in technology. It was an interesting topic. I was somewhat surprised at what I read, but I probably shouldn't have been.

It's worth reading.
53 reviews
December 27, 2021
Super interesting!! Covered lots of topics and what potential exists in the tech industry. The article about blockchain for supply chain was particularly interesting
Profile Image for Hannah Feeney.
148 reviews2 followers
June 30, 2022
Very quick read - a compilation of HBR articles that defined tech in 2022. Some very interesting, others a bit frightening!
Profile Image for Yogi Saputro.
143 reviews7 followers
July 28, 2022
Missed too far & getting irrelevant.

2022 is the year where lots of tech companies crumble. People got laid off. IPOs got cancelled. Crypto plummeted. It is the year when people realize business needs sustainability, not mere growth.

Well, to be fair, this was written in 2021, and HBR was giving insight what next year will bring to the world. This sustainability stuff will definitely become a story in HBR 2023 edition.

But seriously, HBR just highlighted either immature technology (bionics and space travel) that won't happen in next 5 years, or overhyped technology with little business value yet (blockchain, VR). Shabby approximation for mentioning year 2022.

Moreover, the tech scene was viewed in North America and Europe only. Forgetting that China, South Korea, and other countries are keeping up. Not a holistic global view, I'm afraid.

All in all, disappointed with this one.
Profile Image for Andre.
14 reviews1 follower
January 30, 2023
This is a good book if you are looking for a quick read on the topics written. While the amount of interesting take-aways vary from chapter to chapter, overall I believe you get some new insights.

However, there seems to be some mistakes written in the book. For instance, it was mentioned that "Modern applications are almost always deployed in the cloud." While it is true that cloud based applications are quite popular, there are still many organizations that are purchasing large systems and installing them on premise. The issue is with the terms "almost always" which is not true.

I did enjoy reading the chapter on "The Commercial Space Age Is Here". I had always believe that a build-out for a space-for-space economy is how we can accelerate our ventures into this new frontier. This is one of the rare writings that I've read that discusses 3D printing in space and the moon as a hub as ways to remove the restraints that we have in producing everything on Earth before leaving the planet.

While the title might be misleading since the book did not discuss all the major tech stories in 2022, it is still a good read for those looking for nuggets of information and have some interesting talking points when you geeking out with your friends.
249 reviews4 followers
December 9, 2021
A broad overview of different fields from tech. Most of the things I know already and expected more information but if you don’t follow what is happening in the industry, it is a good overview. The different articles are split under 3 sections and cover: section 1 managing new essential tech (building ethical AI, how companies are using VR to develop employees’ soft skills, future of digital health tools, eg prescribable applications and digital health apps being implemented in Germany, building a transparent supply chain via blockchain), section 2 looking ahead future tech (what brain computer interfaces can mean for future of work, quantum computing revolution, the commercial space age), section 3 upgrading the tech industry (what is next for Silicon Valley tech giants and rising of ethical companies, what it is like to be a black man in tech, social media companies should self-regulate now, how green is your software and what you can do to be more ecological when you create software).
Profile Image for Mohan Vemulapalli.
1,123 reviews
December 31, 2021
This is a pretty standard HBR book. As such, it tackles a serious topic, but does so in a an oversimplified manner so that the contents will be easily digestible.

"The Year in Tech" books are issued once a year and contain HBR's best predictions for the coming year. It's becoming a personal tradition to read these right before the onset of the new year. The short and concise nature of the books makes this an easy and rewarding task.

This year's version offers a lot to think about although I found the sections on Blockchain, Quantum Computing and Virtual Reality to be too simplistic .

A nice addition is a final section on the Tech Industry itself which offers some much needed insights into the industry's failings and how it needs to change.

37 reviews1 follower
July 9, 2022
I've found it interesting. The chapter about racism against black people was unnecessary as it wasn't closely related to the subject. Some things that made me think:
Amazon abandoned its AI hiring program because the engineers couldn't tune it to stop discrimination against women.
Virtual reality can be very helpful at teaching soft skills, i.e., how to deal with difficult customers. The results companies get with sales reps training are very promising.
Space exploration is still underinvested and it won't change in the near future.
16 reviews
September 5, 2022
We have seen decades’ worth of disruption in the last 2 years, this process has exaggerated the demand of technology adoption which is, currently, getting corrected.
This book takes stoke of the current situation in the tech industry and gleans insights into areas like - ethical AI, VR, Blockchain, space tech, etc. The best part of all the articles in the book is actionable examples that can be implemented company wide.
Profile Image for Nicole.
62 reviews3 followers
May 24, 2023
The first part of the book is kinda common knowledge already - in the sense that its often talked about esp in tech. The second part of the book, where it talks about trends and what to look out for is a lot more disturbing but highly intriguing. For me particularly, the applications and use cases for BCIs (which I had never heard before reading this but are we in for a wild ride when this technology really takes off). I recommend this book if you wanna keep up with tech trends
19 reviews5 followers
February 25, 2022
I got this book at the airport. Oh well.. That was a mistake. This book, to any people interested in tech, barely provides any new insights. There are too many recurring themes in seemingly disjoint topics. Some claims are not backed by evidence while others are too generic to be useful.
Profile Image for Andy Febrico Bintoro.
3,654 reviews31 followers
October 31, 2022
well, I read this one year after this book published, and yeah many things out of prediction. not that far, but the technology sides was hard to predict. but for ordinary people, this book could be good for what happened nowadays in tech as a business support or business itself.
Profile Image for Carter.
597 reviews
November 6, 2021
This book is of less interest to me, than I initially anticipated. Weak recommend.
4 reviews
December 17, 2021
Easy to read, thought provoking. I don't agree with all the authors, but it's a good trigger to think about what's coming
Profile Image for Pavarit.
7 reviews1 follower
December 18, 2021
This book is not that great. It just wrapped up this year but easy to digest and updating tech for average
Profile Image for Hannah.
187 reviews2 followers
January 25, 2022
fascinating read covering a wide range of current topics - lots of insights for working in tech industry
2 reviews
February 16, 2022
Some essays are interesting, but all remain too superficial and don't effectively explicate technologies and their differences. Very easy read.
Profile Image for Alex Dripchak.
18 reviews1 follower
March 8, 2022
Boring and uninspiring. Lacked any real insights. Of the 65 professional development books I’ve read- this would be among the very worst.
83 reviews2 followers
March 21, 2022
No coherent theme

A lot of words for describing what's already being discussed on tech blogs. There's no coherence between the articles. No theme.
Profile Image for Mikhail Filatov.
386 reviews19 followers
June 19, 2022
Boring book of halos from people who does not understand what Blockchain or Quantum Computing is.
34 reviews
July 5, 2022
Pretty shallow read about a multiplicity of loosely related topics. A lot of buzzwords, but not much in terms of substance.
Profile Image for Prashant Bhatnagar.
50 reviews
June 27, 2022
This is an excellent book if you are looking for an easy to read ready reckoner on the upcoming innovations and technology trends.
The book is divided into 3 sections .
The first section talks about managing the new essential technology tools specially around building ethical AI, leveraging virtual reality, digital health tools, and how to create a transparent supply chain using blockchain.
The second section talks about the future of technology and what is upcoming. It involves the topics of brain computer interface, advances and challenges of quantum computing and lastly on the upcoming commercial space age.
The last section is around the softer aspects of the tech industry like the culture, diversity, how social media companies need to self-regulate and lastly on sustainability.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

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