SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Google’s mea culpa for ads appearing alongside extremist video content on YouTube has culminated in promises from the tech giant, including a measure to block ads from channels with fewer than 10,000 views and a new system in which third-party firms will verify ad quality standards.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – What does it mean when a pioneer of the telecommuting workforce begins to curb its work-from-home practices? For IBM, it means a massive culture shift, say experts from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. And while the tech giant might be hoping it results in a surge in innovation, it also might spark a surge of resignations.

On Feb. 6, 2017, the Center for Leadership, Innovation, and Change (CLIC) at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business hosted a lunch and learn for MBA students featuring Caroline Cooksey, VP of Data and Research Operations at CCMI focused on managing and leading innovation. Cooksey and students talked about challenges in leading innovation centered around customers, results, change management, and sustainability of change. A few takeaways from Cooksey were: Customers:

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Those annual employee performance reviews can be pretty stressful. But what if instead of being a once-a-year thing with just your boss, they were every day, with everyone you work with? JPMorgan Chase & Co. is revamping the way it evaluates its 240,000 employees, deploying a mobile app that will let colleagues across the organization send and receive instant feedback about each other any time.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — In the global economy, team leadership is often not as simple as gathering employees into the conference room to talk over a project or plan the next set of goals. The team is likely to span time zones and continents, presenting particular challenges for leaders.

The Center for Leadership, Innovation, and Change (CLIC) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business co-hosted an Unconscious Bias discussion with MBA organizations including the Smith Association of Women MBAs (SAWMBA), Black MBA Association, Latin American MBA Association, International MBA Association, Asian American MBA Association, Smith Pride Alliance, Muslim and Middle East Business Student Association, and the Jewish MBA Association on Feb. 13, 2017.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — If you reflexively check your work email before you’re even out of bed in the morning, and just before you close your eyes to sleep, and at nonstop intervals in between, this story is for you.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — How well could your organization handle a surprise vacancy in the C-suite? Perhaps not well at all.

The Management and Organization Society at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business recently invited undergraduate students to meet with a panel of three local entrepreneurs, all of whom began their journey into innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. The panelists included Lana Bronipolsky, VP of Finance and the CFO at MPOWER Financial, Julie Giffin, Head of Customer Success at TransitScreen, and Zeluis Teixeira, co-founder and CFO of SOAR Baltimore.

Professors at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business placed No. 1 in the world for "faculty quality" in The Economist's 2016 full-time MBA rankings, marking the third consecutive year atop the category. Prior to the current run, the school finished No. 2 for faculty quality in 2013. Overall, the Smith School finished No. 47 globally and No. 32 in the United States in the latest rankings, released Oct. 13.