Failure is a part of life and an integral part of business, yet many companies avoid it at all costs. However, this attitude does the company no favors—instead, it can stifle innovation and prevent open communication, explains Monitor Talent’s Charlene Li. In an article for the Conference Board Review, Li discusses the importance of embracing failure and learning from it, especially when it comes to innovation and social media.

For consulting firms, it's always important to practice what you preach—and when it comes to utilizing social media channels, it seems not all firms can walk the walk. In a recent test attempting to identify the firms that are attentive to their social media presence, Fast Company reached out to the major consulting firms on Twitter, and noted that Monitor was the only one to respond immediately. “A special gold star in social media alertness goes to the aptly-named firm Monitor Group,” the magazine reported.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings is poised to have a “record jump” in asset value—rebounding by about 40 percent to approach its $133 billion peak seen two years ago—thanks to increased investments in Asia and recovering markets, Bloomberg reported. The news service cited estimates from Monitor’s sovereign wealth fund research and quoted Victoria Barbary, a senior analyst based in Monitor’s London office.

The affordable housing industry in India is poised to grow significantly in the coming years as demand soars and developers step in to meet the need, according to a report from the leading Indian business magazine Business Today. The article cited research from Monitor, which found that the market for affordable homes—ones in the Rs 3-10 lakh range (between  $6,400 and $21,300)—have a market of Rs 11 lakh crore, or an estimated $234 billion. Monitor partner Ashish Karamchandani told the magazine that the next five to seven years will see “at least half a dozen billion-dollar companies” investing in the affordable housing industry.

The rapid growth of social media has raised concerns about the implications for society, the future of newspapers and publishing and even children’s cognitive development. But the medium also provides many opportunities, unleashing the creativity and collaborative power of people all over the world, argues Clay Shirky in this profile piece from The Guardian. Shirky, a member of the Monitor Talent Network, is a professor of new media at New York University and the author most recently of Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.  

The lessons learned in business school certainly help students succeed in their careers—but they may be applicable to more than that. Clayton Christensen, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and member of Monitor Talent, wrote in a recent article for Harvard Business Review that some of the skills and strategies learned in business school can help people build lives of meaning, integrity, purpose and fulfillment.

As sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) return to investing they are also looking to change strategy, by partnering with other SWFs and investors in cooperative deals, The Financial Times reports. The newspaper cites Monitor's research into SWF investment trends, which found the funds rethinking their strategy. Victoria Barbary, an analyst at Monitor tracking SWF activity, said the funds are working to diversify their investment activities. “There has been a more general trend to a more diverse pattern of purchasing,” she told the Financial Times. “We used to end up being able to put transactions into these buckets: financial, real estate, energy and other, but now there’s a lot more going on.”

Monitor received a prestigious award for its excellence in corporate social responsibility for working with client companies and governments in building corporate social responsibility and sustainability into their respective business and economic development strategies. The firm was selected as one of the “Top 100 CSR Companies in China” during the China Corporate Social Responsibility Forum held in Beijing on June 19.

There’s a lot of junk posted on the Internet. But the increase in freedom to create and consume media also yields fresh opportunities, writes Clay Shirky , author of the new book "Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age ." Shirky, a member of the Monitor Talent Network , argues in The Wall Street Journal that the Internet "lets us tap the trillion hours a year of free time the educated population of the planet has to spend doing things they care about. In the 20th century, the bulk of that time was spent watching television, but our cognitive surplus is so enormous that diverting even a tiny fraction of time from consumption to participation can create enormous positive effects."