Leaders building cyber resilience often overlook the need to develop a crisis communications plan. Here’s how to construct and practice a strong response before a hack. Kelly Miller and Keri Pearlson September 16, 2024 Reading Time: 18 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Business and IT leaders have made…
Magazine Fall 2024 Issue Research Feature Large organizations can move as fast as startups if leaders empower employees to act autonomously via well-defined constraints. Nick van der Meulen September 10, 2024 Reading Time: 17 min Anuj Shrestha What does it take for a large, established business to be as responsive…
Anuj Shrestha Leading organizational change according to the conventional management playbook is difficult and often frustrating, and such efforts rarely stay on track. Executives set out with the sound ambition to transform traditionally hierarchical and siloed organizations into more agile, collaborative, and innovative ones: They formulate a compelling vision, communicate…
Anuj Shrestha The Research Thomas Keil and Marianna Zangrillo conducted a 10-year research program that examined how new CEOs and executives succeed, including how they build strong leadership teams. They studied the appointment of over 100 CEOs and executives in Europe and the United States through interviews with these leaders,…
Anuj Shrestha The Research The authors first studied openly accessible documents concerning the COVAX initiative to understand the organization’s functions, vaccine procurement process, and allocation framework. They then conducted semi-structured interviews online with representatives of COVAX stakeholders, including pharma companies, public health organizations, NGOs, and grant-making organizations. Informants were selected…
The Four Guardrails That Enable Agility Nick van der Meulen Key Insight: Defining constraints can help large companies foster employee autonomy and agility while maintaining organizational and strategic alignment. Top Takeaways: Organizational agility requires that employees be empowered to make fast decisions, take risks, and consider new ideas, but companies…
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 Business doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Sometimes external conditions exert a much larger force than usual. That is certainly the case today, with political and environmental…
Radar Research finds that companies have been slow to adopt generative AI and that the technology’s labor impacts have not been widely felt. Kaushik Viswanath September 09, 2024 Reading Time: 2 min Topics Data, AI, & Machine Learning AI & Machine Learning Radar Brief insights on emerging trends in management…
Topics Radar Brief insights on emerging trends in management from the opening pages of MIT Sloan Management Review’s quarterly print magazine. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Courtesy of Mathematica Akira Bell is senior vice president and CIO at Mathematica, a research and data analytics consultancy. Bell was a…
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 A Waste Connections garbage truck driver was making his rounds in…
Research Feature To capitalize on emerging technologies while mitigating unanticipated consequences, innovation managers need to establish a systematic review process. Tania Bucic and Gina Colarelli O’Connor September 04, 2024 Reading Time: 20 min Jedi Noordegraaf/Ikon Images The Research The authors interviewed five ethics and compliance executives about their companies’ ethical…
Do your marketing metrics truly support your company’s strategic goals? If you’re puzzling over the right set of metrics, focus on continuous improvement. Rob Angell, Adam Sharp, and Tom Chapman September 03, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Successful marketers routinely capture key performance indicators,…
Frontiers The intimate surveillance afforded by biometric technologies requires managers to consider negative impacts on privacy and human dignity. Andrew Park, Jayson Killoran, and Jan Kietzmann August 29, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in…
David Senior Every business experiences a life cycle, transitioning from a startup through growth and maturity, and eventually decline. While no leader wants to see their business in decline, the best response to aging as a business is to accept that it’s happening and run the company to reflect its…
Frontiers OSHA’s longest-serving administrator identifies safety approaches that work — and those that don’t. David Michaels August 28, 2024 Reading Time: 10 min Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Neil Webb/theispot.com Chasing lower labor costs, most of…
A hybrid approach that combines human knowledge and machine learning delivers better results for mission-critical simulations. Pushkar P. Apte and Costas J. Spanos August 27, 2024 Reading Time: 7 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images “OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” said astronaut John Swigert in 1970, after…
Nick Lowndes/Ikon Images Many organizations around the world recognize psychological safety (PS) as being crucial for innovation, collaboration, and transformation. Briefly put, psychological safety describes an environment in which candor is expected and won’t be penalized. Although it’s often covered in leadership training, most organizations struggle to convert a theoretical…
Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Kotryna Zukauskaite/theispot.com In today’s business environment, firms must navigate labor shortages, market shifts, geopolitical tensions that strain supply chains and manufacturing, and mandates to adopt sustainable practices. Meeting these demands will…
For social media marketing, many companies gravitate to big-name endorsers. But there are good reasons to get “nano influencers” into the mix. Maximilian Beichert, Xiaoxi Zhang, Andreas Bayerl, Jacob Goldenberg, Xian Gu, P.K. Kannan, and Andreas Lanz August 22, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images…
Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader When you just don’t get along with a colleague, reset the relationship by focusing on trust. Sanyin Siang August 21, 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…
Topics Leadership Talent Management Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images This past April, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a rule barring most businesses from entering into and enforcing noncompete clauses against their workers, declaring such provisions to be an unfair method of competition. If the FTC has its…
David Plunkert/theispot.com Product management is one of the fastest-growing roles in business, having gained increased scope and importance in Silicon Valley. While product managers used to be hired almost exclusively by technology companies, they are now being recruited in growing numbers by service-oriented businesses as well, with firms such as…
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 Our collective experience of the pandemic enabled us to conduct endless experiments with work. Initially, the experiments were about where work took place…
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 When you have the opportunity to connect with an audience, stating fact after fact is not the way to go.…
More than ever, companies need supply chains that are resilient to disruptions, whether the cause is a natural disaster, an infrastructure failure, labor actions, or a global pandemic. Yet the conventional approach to resilience is seriously flawed. Many companies follow a boom-and-bust pattern, making big investments in resilience after a…
Matt Chinworth/theispot.com In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, organizations are grappling with how best to harness its transformative power. Some are choosing to create a new senior management position with enterprisewide oversight of AI activities. In March 2024, for example, the Biden administration mandated that all U.S. federal…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Many companies have yet to tap into the growing “longevity economy” — the economic value of the over-50 population as consumers and workers. Businesses often overlook this demographic even though it holds about 80% of U.S. household wealth and is responsible for half of…
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 Contrapower harassment, a seldom-discussed form of workplace harassment, turns traditional power dynamics on its head. This scenario, in which individuals…
What does Gen Z really want from hybrid work? This brief video shares advice for leaders on how to turn Gen Z’s preferences into overall culture improvements. MIT Sloan Management Review August 06, 2024 Reading Time: 1 min subscribe-icon Subscribe Share [embedded content] Many stereotypes and anecdotes surround Generation Z’s…
Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Andrew Baker/Ikon Images When I was managing director of the German subsidiary of U.S.-headquartered SC Johnson, I witnessed “not invented here” (NIH) syndrome in action. The larger company paid scant attention…
Neil Webb/Ikon Images Harvard Business School professor Theodore Leavitt emphasized the customer impact of benefits when he famously argued that people don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.1 Although his idea is straightforward, many companies still fail to appreciate how embracing a benefits-driven approach can…
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 As hybrid work programs continue to grow in popularity and full-time office work declines, many leaders and companies are still…
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 What does it take to produce an award-winning AI initiative? Scotiabank — officially the Bank of Nova Scotia, and one…
Nick Purser/Ikon Images Recent pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives has caused many leaders to focus on the broader topic of allyship. These leaders want to be better allies and encourage their teams to do the same. In politically charged environments, however, leaders may find the mountain of…
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling gives companies more opportunities to challenge regulations, but they may face more regulatory uncertainty as well. David Zimmer July 30, 2024 Reading Time: 6 min Brian Stauffer In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the long-standing Chevron doctrine, fundamentally altering how businesses interact…
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 Otto Steininger/Ikon Images “Is such-and-such innovation disruptive?” It’s a question I’ve been asked countless times. At a recent workshop, for instance, a participant I’ll refer to…
Frontiers From ideation to user testing, large language models are allowing companies to explore more ideas and iterate faster. Tucker J. Marion, Mahdi Srour, and Frank Piller July 29, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images To create a competitive advantage in an increasingly uncertain and unpredictable world, building an organizational change muscle is as important, if not more so, than having a great strategy, well-run operations, or the right talent. While the ability to react quickly to emerging trends,…
A winning CXO plays a crucial role in influencing customer satisfaction and company success. Amelia Dunlop July 24, 2024 Reading Time: 4 min Fergs/Ikon Images Remember the idea of keeping an empty chair in the corporate boardroom as a reminder that the customer deserves a seat at the table? The…
In this short video, the 2024 Paris Olympics’ sustainability director offers business leaders advice on making dramatic cuts to carbon emissions. MIT Sloan Management Review July 23, 2024 Reading Time: 1 minute subscribe-icon Subscribe Share [embedded content] Sustainability efforts, including carbon reduction, are a priority for many organizations. However, many…