MIT Sloan Management Review

Is Your Information Diet Full of Junk Food?

Leslie Brokaw — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:46:25 +0000

Clay Johnson's new book "The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption" makes the case that "much as a poor diet gives us a variety of diseases, poor information diets give us new forms of ignorance — ignorance that comes not from a lack of information, but from overconsumption of it."

GE Talent Management: Aligning Hiring With Strategy

Leslie Brokaw — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:27:05 +0000

New research shows that aligning recruiting efforts with overall corporate strategy is a key principle of effective talent management. One company particularly good at it: General Electric.

How to Trigger CEO Interest in Social Networking

David Kiron — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:22 +0000

Featured this month in the Social Business Innovation Hub.

What Sells CEOs on Social Networking

lrosano — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:30:03 +0000

Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Center for Digital Business From his base at the Center for Digital Business at MIT, Andrew McAfee‘s job these days is, he says, to “try to understand all the different things that technology is doing to the business world, all the different ways that it’s changing innovation and productivity [...]

Social Business Survey: Social Software and Employee Development

Nina Kruschwitz — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:06:18 +0000

A recent survey on social business that MIT Sloan Management Review conducted in collaboration with Deloitte asked how important social software is to an organization’s activities in a number of internally oriented areas, including employee development. MIT SMR and Deloitte have sorted the nearly 3,500 responses by respondents’ roles in their organizations and noticed some interesting differences: One of the [...]

Should More Stores Charge Admission?

Leslie Brokaw — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:36:23 +0000

How will you make a profit when customers know everything about your costs? The answer could be about putting a dollar value to access and charging admission to your store.

“Mapping the TV Genome” at Bluefin Labs and Big Data’s Big Stats

Leslie Brokaw — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:23:59 +0000

Big Data is now a $64 billion business, says McKinsey Global Institute. Among the start-ups in the fray: Bluefin Labs, which analyzes what we say in social media about TV.

The Power of Introverts, the Power of Quiet

Leslie Brokaw — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:42:44 +0000

Susan Cain's new book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking" argues that introverted people who value quiet and solitude to be creative are as able as extroverts to be transformative leaders.

How To Make the Chinese Supply Chain Safer

Leslie Brokaw — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:33:29 +0000

Multinational companies such as Apple need to give their Chinese suppliers better incentives to comply with local standards in environmental and health safety, say researchers from Stanford in the new issue of MIT SMR.

Six Ways to Tweet Smarter

Leslie Brokaw — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:19:13 +0000

Research into the Twitter practices of 47 companies including Whole Foods, Starbucks, Nokia, and JetBlue shows that to build a better tweet, think short, punchy and newsy.

Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point

lrosano — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:08:47 +0000

Get MIT SMR‘s free monthly newsletter on Sustainability & Innovation This year, most survey respondents say sustainability is on their companies’ management agendas to stay. What’s more, a substantial portion of respondents say their companies are profiting from sustainability activities. READ THE REPORT Introduction The Sustainability Movement Nears a Tipping Point Most Managers Believe [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] Introduction

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:07:22 +0000

Report Home | Next Section » For the third consecutive year, MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group have conducted a survey of managers and executives from companies around the world, asking how they are developing and implementing sustainable business practices. This research report discusses our findings and offers lessons to managers who [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] Section I: Sustainability Is Firmly on Managers’ Agendas

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:06:05 +0000

« Introduction | Report Home | Next Section » Given the current economic outlook, one might expect most companies to be scaling back on their sustainability investments. We find the opposite to be true. Some 70% of companies that have put sustainability on their management agendas have done so in the past six years, 20% [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] Section II: Ahead of the Game: The Leaders in Sustainability

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:05:10 +0000

« Previous Section | Report Home | Next Section » We asked respondents to identify regions that are leaders of corporate sustainability. Their answers were revealing. On one hand, a clear majority pointed to Europe. Yet our data indicates that companies increasing their sustainability commitments the most are located in emerging economies. Respondents from countries [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] Section III: A New Cohort: Harvesters Come into Focus

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:04:35 +0000

« Previous Section | Report Home | Next Section » Harvesters — those who said that their sustainability-related actions and decisions added to their profits — represent 31% of total respondents to our survey, and exist in every industry covered in our survey. A typical Harvester organization looks different than a typical non-Harvester organization on [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] Section IV: Lessons from the Harvesters

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:03:57 +0000

« Previous Section | Report Home | Conclusion » Implementing successful sustainability agendas often demands significant organizational change. Many Harvesters have significantly altered their organizational structures, business models and operations. Organizational Structure We find that most Harvesters are not embedding sustainability-oriented resources into pre-existing organizational structures. They are instead adopting new structures, instituting new lines [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] Conclusion: Looking Ahead

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:02:48 +0000

« Previous Section | Report Home | About the Research » In studying the responses to this year’s survey, we have found new and strong evidence that companies are making striking commitments to sustainable business practices — investing both time and money in strategies that address competitive landscapes increasingly shaped by climate change, resource scarcity, [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] About the Research

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:01:38 +0000

« Conclusion | Report Home | Acknowledgments » DOWNLOAD JUST SURVEY QUESTIONS & RESPONSES >> For the third year, MIT Sloan Management Review, in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, conducted a global survey, to which more than 4,000 executives and managers responded. The analysis in this report is based on a smaller subsample of [...]

[Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point] Acknowledgments

Sean M. Brown — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:00:40 +0000

« About the Research | Report Home Authors Knut Haanaes is a partner and managing director in the Geneva office of The Boston Consulting Group, as well as the head of BCG’s global sustainability practice. He can be contacted at Haanaes.knut@bcg.com. Martin Reeves is a senior partner and managing director in the New York office [...]

Announcing Plans May Kill Motivation, Productivity

Leslie Brokaw — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:56:07 +0000

Does talking about plans undermine productivity? Research says yes, sometimes — that when you talk about intentions you run the risk of creating a “premature sense of completeness.”