Insider Finance - Business - Insider Today: WFH's innovation problem

December 19, 2023 • 5 min read

with Dan DeFrancesco

Hello! Turns out letters addressed to Santa Claus are so popular the US Postal Service has an entire operation dedicated to handling them. Read more about “Operation Santa,” and learn how to participate in the fun. 

In today’s big story, we’re looking at a new study showing a big downside to remote work.

What’s on deck:

But first, what days are you in this week?

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Andrea Chronopoulos for BI

The big story

In-office innovation

If you’re a big proponent of remote work, you won’t like what you’re about to read. 

In the long-running debate over the efficacy of remote work, proponents of the office often point to an ambiguous, undefinable feature they say is lost with WFH. Their way of identifying what’s at risk if workers don’t return to their desks comes in all forms— from “togetherness” to “culture.”

But pinpointing what’s lost when water-cooler talk becomes Slack chats has been tough. However, a recent study seems to have figured out exactly what employees sacrifice when remote.

An examination of 20 million scientific studies and 4 million patent applications over the past 50 years found those who collaborated in person produced more breakthrough work than those who were remote, Business Insider’s Aki Ito writes. 

The study found that teams in the same city were 22% more likely to create innovative patents and 27% more likely to uncover pioneering insights in scientific papers than teams separated by hundreds of miles or more.

In short, you have a better chance of being innovative when everyone’s in the office.

Heritage Images/Getty

But, as Aki’s story details, it’s not just about being in the office.

The study also showed that successful in-person teams had the same people working on a project starting with the inception of an idea. On the other hand, senior people on remote teams developed a concept before delegating it to their less-established peers.

That seems less like a ringing endorsement of in-office mandates and more of a fascinating insight into the best ways firms can brainstorm.

Of course, seeing what executives look to take away from this new study will be interesting. 

“The only way for us to be an innovative company that can come up with the next big thing is by you being in the office!” 

And that mentality, as demonstrated by the study, isn’t necessarily wrong. 

Even if you’re a diehard supporter of remote work, it’s hard not to acknowledge that something is lost from being remote. As convenient as tools like Slack and Zoom are for collaboration, they still represent an additional hurdle that doesn’t exist when you can just turn to the person sitting next to you. 

But getting everyone back to the office might only be half the battle. Once there, senior employees pawning their ideas off on young workers isn’t going to facilitate the type of innovation execs are banking on.

3 things in

Markets

🔔 Before the opening bell: US stock futures are flat early Tuesday after markets continued their winning streak.

Tyler Le/BI

1. These hedge funds are balancing ambition with the risk of growing too fast. Multi-manager funds, which are made up of dozens of teams trading various things, are all the rage these days. As the biggest funds close themselves off to new investors, midsize firms have an opportunity to grow their assets. But it doesn’t come without risks.

2. Meet the Oracles of Wall Street. These 13 economists, strategists, and analysts were head and shoulders above their peers when making calls on the market during a wild year. In addition to highlighting their impressive year, we also got them to share their highest-conviction predictions for 2024.

3. Some predictions on Fed rate cuts in 2024. Goldman Sachs said the world economy is now in a period of “great disinflation,” adding that the Fed will cut interest rates five times next year. Pantheon Macroeconomics, meanwhile, sees the Fed being more aggressive with its cuts than people expect due to a weaker-than-forecasted economy.

3 things in

Tech

iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI

1. Inside the first “SEO heist” of the AI era. A provocative online company used AI to clone thousands of articles for a competitor, raising their traffic. This success raises big questions about the future of the internet — it’s nearly impossible to spot the difference between human- and AI-generated content.

2. Big Tech avoided responsibility for online content for decades — AI is about to end that. They’ve long been immune from legal liability for user content. But with the rise of generative AI, Big Tech could finally be seen as creators of content.

3. Salesforce markets itself as a trustworthy AI company. Customers aren’t buying it yet. Executives acknowledge and talk about a “trust gap” with AI. But experts say many customers are still “in more of an exploration phase” — not an implementation stage.

3 things in

Business

Ted Shaffrey/AP; Erin Edgerton/AFP/Getty; BI

1. Data centers are becoming an economic powerhouse — just look at Virginia. Major players in the business are getting wooed by counties for their job-generating projects. And the region’s largest utility proposed a plan tailored to their needs. But Virginia residents and businesses could be left with the plan’s enormous costs.

2. An escort and stripper who caters to Wall Street clients says she pulls in $34,000 a week during the holiday rush. Mia Lee revealed what her busiest and most lucrative weeks are like. She’s a former forensic accountant and is a self-identified psychopath.

3. Healthcare companies are promising to help people quit Wegovy — and it makes no sense. Growing evidence suggests it must be taken for the long term to sustain weight loss. But quitting the drugs is something of an informal medical experiment. And it could even be harmful.

In other news

What's happening today

Bhofack2/Getty Images

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The Insider Today team

Dan DeFrancesco, senior editor and anchor, in New York City. Diamond Naga Siu, senior reporter, in San Diego. Hallam Bullock, editor, in London. Hayley Hudson, director, in Edinburgh. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York City.

Get in touch

insidertoday@insider.com

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