The GenAI App Step You’re Skimping On: Evaluations

Topics Data, AI, & Machine Learning AI & Machine Learning Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images If your organization is developing generative AI applications based on large…

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Ask Sanyin: How Do You Build for an Unpredictable Future?

Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader Wise leaders invite their teams to help imagine what’s possible. Sanyin Siang December 05, 2024 Reading Time: 2 min  Topics Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader Leadership roles come with new personal and professional challenges — and Sanyin Siang, board and CEO coach, adviser, and author,…

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The Top 10 MIT SMR Articles of 2024

subscribe-icon Subscribe Share In 2023, generative AI became the topic every leader wanted to learn more about. In 2024, many leaders and organizations moved beyond the tactical AI questions to the strategic ones — such as where to reap the most business value while minimizing risk. For example, how can…

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Four Leadership Loads That Keep Getting Heavier

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Feeling emotionally drained at work? Is your patience exhausted? Your energy low? If so, you’re showing clinical markers of burnout.…

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Transmitting an Unwritten Culture: Hermès HR Leader Sharon MacBeath

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

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A Better Way to Avoid Project Delays

Frontiers Many organizations estimate project timelines inaccurately. Working from past project examples, however, can improve on-time completion. Matej Lorko, Maroš Servátka, and Le Zhang November 27, 2024 Reading Time: 6 min  Topics Operations Project Management Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More…

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Bonus Episode: Lessons From Jobs in the Age of AI

Topics Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy The Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative explores the growing use of artificial intelligence in the business landscape. The exploration looks specifically at how AI is affecting the development and execution of strategy in organizations. In collaboration with More in this series Get updates…

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How Ukrainian Companies Are Transforming Wartime Challenges Into Lifelines

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images War subjects businesses to unprecedented tests. With governments stretched to their limits, businesses must step in and assume responsibilities far beyond their conventional mandates, profoundly transforming the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR). As national survival and corporate survival become more and more intertwined,…

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Building a Consistently Excellent Culture: Bain’s Manny Maceda

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

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Five Ways Leaders Can Get People to Speak Up

Behind every failure is a team of people who were afraid to dissent and debate. But research shows that leaders can take specific actions to elicit constructive challenges. Celia Moore and Kate Coombs November 20, 2024 Reading Time: 7 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The Research A team…

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How AI Changes Partner Collaboration

Explore six steps for using AI with external partners in new ways to drive product and business model innovations. Margherita Pagani and Thomas H. Davenport November 20, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In a time of constant change and evolving customer expectations, the ability…

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Cutting Last-Mile Delivery Costs

Frontiers New tactics can boost profitability and satisfaction with subscription services. Stanley Frederick W.T. Lim November 19, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Neil Webb/theispot.com Costco and Amazon subscription services were just…

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Why Influence Is a Two-Way Street

Gary Bates/Ikon Images The Research The authors’ survey data was gathered from 2015 to 2023 via a questionnaire to which approximately 1,400 executives, representing 500 companies across industries and global regions, responded. Not all respondents replied to all questions. The authors also conducted 500 individual interviews at 45 companies in…

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GenAI Tools and Decision-Making: Beware a New Control Trap

Research Highlight Generative AI tools promise to help leaders make better decisions. But they may also cause trouble by nudging leaders toward a control-based style, research shows. J. Mauricio Galli Geleilate and Beth K. Humberd November 18, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  As artificial intelligence technologies develop, managers are striving…

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AI Tools That Modify Speech Have Downsides

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images At the annual TED Conference earlier this year, the room fell silent for the demonstration of a potentially groundbreaking technology: a “cone of silence” tool, currently in development, designed to block out all surrounding noise so conversation partners can hear only each other’s voices.…

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The Myth of the Sustainable Consumer

Tania Yakunova/Ikon Images Sustainability has become a powerful driver of consumer behavior. People are changing what they consume, how they consume, and how they lead their day-to-day lives, motivated by a concern for sustainability. Our research has identified a consumer-driven megatrend that holds tremendous strategic opportunity for companies if they…

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Five Tips on Avoiding ‘Terminal Niceness’: Former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

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Five Ways Predictive AI Can Improve Sales Performance Management

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images When it comes to maximizing growth and revenue, you may be missing something — something big. It’s the harnessing of predictive AI to enhance and deploy sales performance management (SPM). Companies with sizable sales forces — whether in the technology, medical device, pharmaceutical, industrial,…

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Building Human Connection in a Remote World

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Employee engagement — the measure of individual commitment to organizational success — positively correlates with discretionary effort and meaningfully impacts every individual and organizational performance metric that matters. However, despite significant investments across most industries, leading engagement studies have never found more than 36%…

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When Qualified Women Resist the Leader Label

Topics Leadership Talent Management Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Alex Nabaum/theispot.com Sarah, a manager in a bustling tech company, consistently delivers top results. Her team outperforms others, her strategic insights drive innovation, and her emotional intelligence allows…

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Managing an Employee Who Has a Side Hustle

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The rise of the gig economy and remote work has blurred the boundaries between primary jobs and side hustles. As…

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Sometimes Sustainability Costs More. So What?

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Corporate sustainability efforts are seemingly facing a slump of low enthusiasm, with some tired clichés like “sustainability always costs more”…

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How Integrating DEI Into Strategy Lifts Performance

Jing Jing Tsong/theispot.com Today’s top leadership priorities include attracting and retaining top talent, fostering innovative thinking and action, motivating employee performance, and enhancing stakeholder value in an increasingly diverse and competitive market. At the same time, many leaders have supported diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to address inequities for…

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How to Make Culture a Strategic Imperative: Cummins CHRO Marvin Boakye

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

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How to Sabotage Your Board

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Ever sat through a board meeting and wondered whether other directors or trustees are not conscious of the time or are consciously sabotaging the meeting? Do some members seem hell-bent on turning decision-making into a no-win game? You’re not alone. The line between accidental…

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How Not to Organize In-House Experts: Lessons From Boeing

Accidents involving 737 Max airplanes and Boeing’s ongoing internal struggles serve as a stark reminder that having experts is not enough: Leadership must organize expertise effectively. Pedro Monteiro November 06, 2024 Reading Time: 11 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In the race to recruit and deploy talent, organizations…

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A Practical Guide to Gaining Value From LLMs

1. Credit for this example is due to X user Dean Buono (@deanbuono); credit for subsequent examples in this section is due to Colin Fraser (@colin_fraser). 2. L. Berglund, M. Tong, M. Kaufmann, et al., “The Reversal Curse: LLMs Trained on ‘A Is B’ Fail to Learn ‘B Is A,’”…

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A Fragmented Landscape Is No Excuse for Global Companies Serious About Responsible AI

Topics Responsible AI The Responsible AI initiative looks at how organizations define and approach responsible AI practices, policies, and standards. Drawing on global executive surveys and smaller, curated expert panels, the program gathers perspectives from diverse sectors and geographies with the aim of delivering actionable insights on this nascent yet…

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How to Walk the Talk on Culture: Former HubSpot CPO Katie Burke

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

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Intelligent Choices Reshape Decision-Making and Productivity

Better choices enable better decisions. Profitably thriving through market disruptions demands that executives recognize that better decisions aren’t enough — they need better choices. Choices are the raw material of decision-making; without diverse, detailed, and high-quality options, even the best decision-making processes underperform. Traditional dashboards and scorecards defined by legacy…

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Building Mastery: What Leaders Do That Helps — or Impedes

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images This is a time when we are all asking how best to prepare for a long working life. With expanded life expectancies and…

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The Risks of Too Much AI: Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn

Topics Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy The Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative explores the growing use of artificial intelligence in the business landscape. The exploration looks specifically at how AI is affecting the development and execution of strategy in organizations. In collaboration with More in this series Get updates…

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How to Stand Up When It Comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Recently, several high-profile U.S. organizations have backtracked on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments. Rural chain store Tractor Supply said it would eliminate…

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Tackling Disruption Playfully

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Patrick George/Ikon Images Purposeful play is a critical behavior for executives facing disruptive change. In good old-fashioned play, the goal isn’t to win or lose. It isn’t to achieve…

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How GenAI Helps USAA Innovate

Topics AI in Action This column series looks at the biggest data and analytics challenges facing modern companies and dives deep into successful use cases that can help other organizations accelerate their AI progress. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images USAA, a 102-year-old financial services company…

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Make Character Count in Hiring and Promoting

Jing Jing Tsong/theispot.com It’s been said that we hire for competence and fire for character. Consider Boeing, which has been brought low by poor leadership decisions that have severely compromised its planes’ quality and safety, and hence public trust, forcing its CEO to announce a year-end departure. And yet the…

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Liberals Versus Conservatives in Your Office: How to Cool Tensions

1. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Oral Communication Skills: Are the Priorities of the Workplace and AACSB-Accredited Business Programs Aligned?” Academy of Management Learning & Education 14, no. 2 (June 2015): 205-221. 2. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Development of Listening Competence in Business Education,” Current Opinion in Psychology 50…

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Immersive Commerce: Early Lessons From Walmart

The retailer is using immersive commerce — a form of online shopping that combines VR with 3D visualizations and gamification — to connect with the next generation of shoppers. Mary Lacity and Remko Van Hoek October 17, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Retailers must…

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Know Your Data to Harness Federated Machine Learning

Sam Falconer/theispot.com Nowadays, deploying artificial intelligence no longer guarantees a competitive edge. What truly sets companies apart is access to diverse, extensive, high-quality data that enhances their AI system’s performance compared with that of their competitors. But concerns over data privacy can limit the use of unique, relevant data for…

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What You Still Can’t Say at Work

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Here are some things I bet you can’t say at work, no matter how much you believe them and how…

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