The Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 2017 is for the field of behavioral economics. No wonder, this is now at the cutting edge of research. A similar analysis can be gauged from the experience at Yelp. When Yelp was a startup, it had only a few employees, and the COO used to stock the small kitchen with substantial goodies such as drinks and candies. Soon, it was realized that the candy consumption grew to very high levels. The COO then realized a thing about behavioral economics called revealed preference where the availability of something induces people to consume the product irrespective of need. Thus, some stocks of candies were rolled out. This learning led to such ideas being incorporated for other aspects as well. Yelp initiated its employees to take a higher savings plan through such a choice-laden scheme. This style of people and talent management stands in stark contrast to that followed by most IT companies which pride themselves for the autonomy afforded to their employees. Yelp though chooses to follow Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler’s path, where choices must be present at the right spot intervened by the leadership, to ensure maximum benefits may trickle down to all.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-coos-should-think-like-behavioral-economists?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018