Bill Aulet: AI will redefine entrepreneurship
“The combination of AI and entrepreneurship will fundamentally and forever change the process of building new ventures and products unleashing a new wave of innovation and making the craft accessible to new levels of people. It will also cause a disruption in entrepreneurship education that will lag the market.”
Learn more in Aulet’s Entrepreneurship Development Program and the Entrepreneurship Development Accelerator. (In these courses, participants can now explore JetPack, a generative artificial intelligence tool that enables the creation of high-quality business plans in minutes. Trained on Bill Aulet’s 24-step Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework, Jetpack can generate recommendations for everything from market-sizing to lifetime customer value models with just a few prompts.)
Phil Budden: Competitive advantage through corporate innovation
"As we adjust to the digital age and the post-pandemic new normal, corporations are revising their strategies and determining what role innovation will play in achieving their competitive advantage. Corporations can often accelerate their internal innovation by strategic engagement with the external innovation ecosystem around them, but this approach is often overlooked or poorly planned. Drawing on a decade’s teaching and research, our Executive Education courses provide a practical approach to innovation for corporate executives and leaders— who may not feel that they are the most entrepreneurial or tech-savvy people in their organization— so that they can strategically accelerate internal innovation and engage their external ecosystem, wherever they are in the world, for the competitive advantage that will differentiate them in the coming decade."
Budden teaches in Accelerating Corporate Innovation, the new Accelerating Innovation through Ecosystems Sprint, and the new Innovation Executive Academy.
Fiona Murray: Innovating for resilience
“2025 will bring continued geopolitical upheavals. For leaders focused on innovation, this means shifting priorities to build more resilient supply chains and production systems. My work on economic security in drone production, published in MIT Tech Review before Skydio faced Chinese sanctions, highlights the vulnerabilities of US innovators across industries like drones, medicines, and chips. Innovative solutions are needed to address key dependencies and develop alternatives.
Geopolitics is entering startup boardrooms and venture capital committees. It’s not enough to rewire today’s manufacturing; leaders must invest in Deep Tech—science and technology at the frontier—to address key challenges and seize opportunities.
As we consider the next generation of transformational technologies, three new dimensions must shape our strategies: sourcing ideas from allied innovation ecosystems, protecting those ideas from adversarial intent, and designing resilient supply chains from the start. For example, in fusion energy or quantum computing, addressing dependencies on critical minerals or materials is essential.
The news isn’t all bleak. Geopolitics is creating opportunities for resilient solutions, from vaccines made on demand to energy storage systems that stabilize grids. Forward-looking entrepreneurs are replacing dependencies with alternatives, like lithium-free batteries or clean processing technologies for onshoring. With change comes opportunity for savvy investors and innovators willing to apply a geopolitical lens to innovation.”
Murray teaches in Accelerating Corporate Innovation and the new course Business Applications of Space Exploration.
Paul McDonagh-Smith: From AI singularity to multiplicity
“In 2025, we will see a shift from discussion of an AI singularity to one of multiplicity. As scaling laws appear to be diminishing, single model architectural paradigms are evolving to ones where a set/collection/portfolio of models work together to extend and expand AI capabilities and impact. This shift has significant implications for AI regulation, development, and implementation in both the public and private sectors."
Learn more in one of McDonagh-Smith’s many AI-focused courses, including Leading the AI-Driven Organization and Frontiers of Generative AI in Business.
The year of cyber resilience
“Cybersecurity remains a top priority for leaders, boards, and managers as incidents continue to surge. Cyber attacks reportedly rose by 75% from 2023 to 2024, driven by increased supplier vulnerabilities and the use of GenAI to create deep fakes and sophisticated phishing schemes.
Last year, I predicted a shift from a ‘protection’ mindset to a ‘resiliency’ mindset—focusing not just on keeping attackers out but on ensuring operations continue during a cyber event. However, from my conversations with leaders, it’s clear that resilience remains a new and underdeveloped concept. That’s why 2025 must be the year we fully embrace cyber resilience.
Organizations need robust processes to respond and recover quickly, evaluating every operational area with a simple question: “If a cyber incident occurred, how would we ensure resilience?” This approach differs from general business continuity planning and must be prioritized at all levels—from boards overseeing risk, to C-suite leaders integrating resilience into strategy, to technology teams aligning recovery plans with business needs.
No one wants to face a cyber attack. But by making resilience a priority, we can ensure that, even if targeted, our organizations remain strong and operational.”
Learn more in Pearlson’s courses, Cybersecurity Leadership for Non-Technical Executives and Cybersecurity Governance for the Board of Directors.