Batten Institute

Entrepreneurship runs on asking. From testing ideas to securing customers and partners, progress depends on a founder’s ability to ask well. This isn’t a soft skill — it’s the core competency behind every venture. Here’s a practical guide to what to ask, whom to ask and how to ask effectively.

We all want to make better decisions, but what does it actually mean to think well? A new technical note co-authored by UVA Darden professor Lillien Ellis says effective thinking requires balancing analysis, imagination and judgment, and provides a practical framework for doing just that.

UVA Darden Professor and Interim Dean Mike Lenox says an AI bubble is already forming, but that’s a normal phase of technological disruption. As with past booms, a shakeout is likely, separating hype-driven firms from those with durable capabilities and real competitive advantage.

The fourth season of Good Disruption kicks off with a mini course on disruptive innovation. What is it and what are the markers of a major technological shift?

As we end our third season, Yael and Mike reflect on the disruptive technologies explored over the last year. It was an interesting mix of good, bad, and no disruption calls. Do they feel the same now about disruptive potential that they did when each episode first aired? What’s coming in 2026?

Buying a company is just the beginning. UVA Darden’s Les Alexander and alumni CEOs share what separates post-acquisition success from failure.

How can Virginia’s universities help build a truly unified innovation ecosystem? Delegates at the 2025 Jefferson Innovation Summit identified five key actions to move the Commonwealth closer to that goal.

Five years after publishing, “The Decarbonization Imperative,” UVA Darden’s Mike Lenox and Rebecca Duff check in on some of the technologies highlighted in the book as best positioned to slow climate change. As COP30 convenes in Brazil, policy makers must address the sluggish pace in which decarbonization is happening across all industries.

Large language models (LLMs) offer powerful opportunities for automation, creativity and knowledge access. With 800 million people using ChatGPT alone, LLMs are drastically changing the way we interact and operate as a society. No question, this is one of the biggest disruptions of our lifetime; but is it a good one?

The challenge for marketers is no longer whether to use AI, but how to choose among the flood of potential projects competing for budget. UVA Darden professor Rajkumar Venkatesan, who advises Fortune 500 companies on AI adoption in marketing, has developed a framework to help cut through the noise.