Why We Need to, Have to, Want to Act on Climate

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 battle to get companies to take sustainability seriously is essentially over. Even in the face of the “anti-ESG” movement…

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Want a More Ethical Team? Build Expertise, Not Just Guidelines

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Ethics is often associated with the abstract realm of philosophers. But there’s nothing abstract about the risks for business leaders: Ethical missteps can expose their companies to a host of reputational, regulatory, and legal risks. In response, companies develop ethical guidelines or codes for…

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Reinventing the Organization for GenAI and LLMs

Previous waves of technology have ushered in innovations that strengthened traditional organizational structure. Not so for generative AI and large language models. Ethan Mollick April 02, 2024 Reading Time: 11 min  Topics Data, AI, & Machine Learning AI & Machine Learning Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Consider this an…

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How to Create Slides That Suit Your Superiors: 11 Tips

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 I recently interviewed 20 of my customers, all in senior roles at Fortune 100 companies, and asked them their biggest…

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How AI Changes Your Workforce

In this short video, two experts share insights on how AI is reshaping work, workers, and talent ecosystems. MIT Sloan Management Review March 28, 2024 Reading Time: 1 min  subscribe-icon Subscribe Share [embedded content] Today’s leaders must grapple with big expectations for the impact of AI on the workforce —…

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Mayo Clinic’s Healthy Model for AI Success

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 subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Alice Mollon / Ikon Images In 2022, we argued…

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In AI We Trust — Too Much?

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 Andrew Baker / Ikon Images I’ve been thinking about technology and trust for much of my career. Here’s one example: Back in 2011, my research focused…

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Driving Manufacturing Efficiency With AI in Pirelli

Daniele Petecchi didn’t realize how complex the process of producing tires was until he joined Pirelli, a company that’s been in the business of manufacturing tires for more than 150 years. But now, as head of data management and AI, he’s focused on leveraging the company’s wealth of data to…

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A Five-Step Guide to Improving Your Employer Brand

Burnish your brand to meet the challenge of talent acquisition by taking some cues from consumer branding. Kimberly A. Whitler and Richard Mosley March 25, 2024 Reading Time: 14 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR A consistent priority issue for boards of directors and CEOs is the acquisition and retention of talent.…

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Return-to-Office Mandates: How to Lose Your Best Performers

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 Recent return-to-office (RTO) mandates like those at UPS and Boeing have a simple message: Come back to the office five…

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Diverse Teams Thrive With Four Elements of Belonging

Learn how to better support neurodiversity, as explained in this excerpt from the forthcoming book The Canary Code. Ludmila N. Praslova March 19, 2024 Reading Time: 12 min  subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Jessica is an ace data analyst; her mind excels at seeing connections that…

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How AT&T Employees Turned Process Gripes Into $230 Million Saved

AT&T found a way to help workers kill outdated processes and tools that wasted time, energy, and money — one drop at a time. Here’s how the approach works. Jeremy Legg March 18, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  Kevin Foley/MIT SMR; Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR An $8 expense — rejected because…

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Three Things to Know About the Workplace Generation Gap

Magazine Spring 2024 Issue Radar Younger employees have high expectations for themselves, their leaders, and their weekends. Cynthia E. Clark March 11, 2024 Reading Time: 2 min  Topics Radar Brief insights on emerging trends in management from the opening pages of MIT Sloan Management Review’s quarterly print magazine. More in…

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Who Profits the Most From Generative AI?

Magazine Spring 2024 Issue Unpacking what it takes to build and deploy a large language model reveals which players stand to gain the most — and where newer entrants might have the best prospects. Kartik Hosanagar and Ramayya Krishnan March 12, 2024 Reading Time: 18 min  Topics Data, AI, &…

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Steer Clear of Corporate Venture Capital Pitfalls

Magazine Spring 2024 Issue Big companies and risk capital can be awkward partners. Here’s how to get corporate venturing right. Ilya A. Strebulaev and Amanda Wang March 12, 2024 Reading Time: 22 min  Jon Krause The Research The authors set out to investigate factors in the success or failure of…

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Our Guide to the Spring 2024 Issue

subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Who Profits the Most From Generative AI? Kartik Hosanagar and Ramayya Krishnan Key Insight: A breakdown of what it takes to build and deploy a large language model shows where incumbents have the best prospects for success and where newer companies have an edge. Top Takeaways: Since…

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Let’s Get to Work

Topics Leadership Leading Change Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Jon Krause Our ambition at MIT Sloan Management Review is to arm business leaders with information to make a positive impact: on your…

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Reality Check: Deglobalization

Radar Amid supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions, is the U.S. less reliant on imports than it used to be? Omri Nahmias March 11, 2024 Reading Time: 2 min  Topics Radar Brief insights on emerging trends in management from the opening pages of MIT Sloan Management Review’s quarterly print magazine.…

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Why You Should Give Employees Skin in the Game

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 MIT Sloan Management Review: What spurred your focus on employee ownership? Vicente Reynal: As a leader, I had experienced great equity appreciation…

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The Power of Proper Pronunciation

Applying thoughtful approaches to pronouncing an unfamiliar name can enhance inclusivity and belonging at work. Elisa S.M. Fattoracci and Larissa R. Garcia March 07, 2024 Reading Time: 7 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Anne Wojcicki, Indra Nooyi, Ginni Rometty, and Oscar Munoz are all distinguished Fortune 500 CEOs…

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Ask Sanyin: What Matters Most in Evaluating New Opportunities?

Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader Sanyin Siang March 06, 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, is here to help with an advice column for top…

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Keeping Innovative Projects Aligned With Strategy

Topics Innovation Innovation Strategy Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Growth-oriented companies that seek to foster a culture of innovation have no shortage of good project ideas. However, many of them will fall outside the control of existing business lines or the organization’s formal structures for managing innovation, such as…

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Will Large Language Models Really Change How Work Is Done?

1. “Beyond the Buzz: A Look at Large Language Models in Production,” PDF (San Francisco: Predibase, 2023), https://go.predibase.com. 2. A. Rosenbaum, S. Soltan, and W. Hamza, “Using Large Language Models (LLMs) to Synthesize Training Data,” Amazon Science, Jan. 20, 2023, www.amazon.science. 3. “Storm Reply Launches RAG-Based AI Chatbot for Audi,…

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Eight Essential Leadership Tips for 2024

As leaders consider which skills to focus on developing in 2024, change management and emotional intelligence might top the list. Even as leaders are called on to craft strategy around the use of artificial intelligence, the harder problems involve steering teams through all of the changes AI continues to bring.…

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The End of Averages for Marketing Budgets

Marketers have long benchmarked their budgets against their peers’ spending. But it’s time to seek better metrics than the average budget. In his 2015 book The End of Average, Todd Rose warns against “averagarians” designing systems based on the mean or judging success in terms of the deviation from the…

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Marketing and Generative AI – analysis by Ayelet Israeli

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. As an associate professor at Harvard Business School and cofounder of the Customer Intelligence Lab…

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The Real Measure of Presentation Success

Historically, it’s been tough to quantify the success of events, presentations, and speeches. We’ve long known that the spoken word is a powerful tool for influence and action, but how do you measure that power? When many organizations flipped from in-person to virtual and hybrid meetings and events, presentation analytics…

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The Dynamics of Challenging a Superior

  The act of challenging a superior necessitates more than just raising one’s voice; it involves understanding, navigating, and engaging in the subtle yet complex dance of power dynamics, diplomacy, and mutual respect. Approaching someone above you in the professional hierarchy requires a delicate balance and a deep understanding of…

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How Ghost Scenarios Haunt Strategy Execution

Strategic planners are often blind about how the future will challenge their status quo. A scenario-planning mindset can help them see what they’re missing. Executives engaged in strategic planning typically have a blind spot. They focus almost exclusively on possible courses of action and pay little attention to the future…

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The Burden of Proof for Corporate Sustainability Is Too High

Throughout 2023, tech companies have continually laid off workers. The year started with Amazon and Salesforce cutting 18,000 and 8,000 people, respectively, and sector momentum grew into the spring. An article in the April/May 2023 issue of Fortune magazine asserted that companies were “swapping exuberance for efficiency” and pointed out…

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Want More Clarity on Generative AI? Experiment Widely

The launch of generative AI represents an era-defining moment. Never before have so many people become so excited by a technology program. Within five days of ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, more than 1 million people (including me) had logged on to try it out. If financial investments are a…

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Reconnecting When Network Ties Go Dormant

  We’ve known for a while that relationships that have fallen into a state of inactivity — or become dormant ties — can be resurrected. As people venture back into professional social settings after having experienced pandemic-induced disconnection, they are particularly keen to revive these inactive ties. Such connections have…

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How to Have Better Strategy Conversations About Monetizing Data

Leaders can’t identify and manage data monetization opportunities if they can’t productively discuss the topic. Try this practical matrix approach. Barbara H. Wixom, Cynthia M. Beath, and Leslie Owens Companies can’t manage what they don’t measure. They also can’t manage what they can’t discuss. Take the term data monetization: Definitions…

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You should Design Your Marketing to Fit Your Company’s Growth Stage

An early-stage company requires a different organizational structure than a mature one. Marketing leaders must adapt their teams and strategies accordingly. Kimberly A. Whitler and Jonathan Metrick   Determining the optimal design of a department or function is a key aspect of organization design and one of the most important…

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The Why, What, and How of Skills-Based Talent Practices

More jobs than ever require a four-year college degree, including many that never did in the past. Beth Berwick is among those calling for a retreat. “You have to take that requirement off of job descriptions,” she said. “It’s excluding 64% of the population — including 76% of Black Americans…

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The Potency of Shortcuts in Decision-Making

  How do CEOs make good decisions? At a time when senior leaders have access to more data and sophisticated analytics tools than ever before, the central challenge of making good decisions about hiring, product development, and resource allocation is increasingly not a lack of information. Rather, it is knowing…

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Procurement in the Age of Automation

The authors have been studying procurement and automation for two decades.i Mary Lacity has conducted more than 50 case studies on enterprise use of automation technologies. Remko Van Hoek and Lacity have been studying early adopters of procurement technologies for three years, including companies using e-auctions, artificial intelligence, and other…

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Generative AI at Mastercard: Governance Takes Center Stage

If you saw the action-adventure movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, you might have had the same reaction we did. Impressive and exciting? No doubt — that’s one reason why it won seven Academy Awards. A portent of the future? Perhaps — as scientists explore the idea of a multiverse,…

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Identify Critical Roles to Improve Performance

Leaders like to show that they value employees. They proclaim that everyone on the team is critical to the organization’s success. As uplifting as that sentiment is, it simply isn’t true. Talent can be a source of competitive advantage only if great people are in the most critical roles. Having…

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Make Your Case for Communication Upskilling

Companies say they desperately want employees who can communicate effectively — leaders tell me that all the time in workshops — but how many of them really mean it? It’s hard to find a job posting that doesn’t mention the communication skill set as a key requirement. And yet, when…

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