A mechanic in an auto shop can run a computer diagnostics program on your vehicle to identify what's wrong, but he can't do the actual physical trouble-shooting himself. A customer service rep can take you through a scripted checklist for trouble-shooting a problem with your air conditioner, but after you've exhausted this checklist, you're both stumped. Meanwhile in IT, the crackerjack no-code developer writes an app and deploys it at record speed, but he's at a loss when the app uses more resources than it should and needs to be tuned. All are examples of how fundamental business processes, and the IT behind them, have become so abstracted away from the actual organic process of doing something that the employees who are charged with performing these tasks simply cannot do them if the predetermined recipe for task performance fails. In a visit I had with a materials engineer in the semiconductor industry, one manager confided that he was deeply concerned that a new generation of material engineers lacked the ability to "develop workarounds" when a particular metal needed for manufacture was in short supply. "In my day, we did this," he said.

The Product Owner will be responsible for the continuous success and evolution of our new Nutrition Club App. One of our most successful operating models requires the best application to work with; this person will be the person responsible for the direction of this tool within the US market. This person will be the linchpin between product-creation teams (including disciplines like digital, analytics, and operations) and business. He or she will be a key decision maker who guides the product roadmap, and represents the voice of our Independent Distributors. The Product Owner will understand the latest practices in customer research, design thinking, business strategy, and technical architecture, and consolidate it in a final product while making critical decisions that influence key stakeholders. This person must be able to absorb bite-size content, review the latest industry thinking and embrace "nudge" techniques for real-time behavior change.

DETROIT - Every year at the Detroit auto show, good-looking women -- and men -- are deployed by the carmakers to present their new vehicles. But with the shock wave created by the #MeToo movement still reverberating across the U.S., there are fewer auto show models of the human variety -- and they are not just pretty faces. The "product specialists" still have picture-perfect smiles, but they also can tick off the features of each car and prices with such assurance that the iPads they carry for reference can seem merely decorative. Auto companies are also making sure their fleet of specialists are ethnically and physically diverse. Perched on stilettos, Priscilla Tejeda is working for Toyota.

A Tesla Model S that was cruising at highway speeds rammed into the back of a parked fire truck on a freeway in Culver City, CA in late January. The man behind the wheel claimed his car was running on Tesla's TSLA, 1.70% enhanced autopilot system. But shouldn't he still have seen, and stopped for, the red engine up ahead? The crash highlights a tension in the race toward self-driving car technology. When cars start doing the work, drivers overestimate the capabilities of their cars and disengage entirely.