MIT Sloan Management Review

The editors of MIT Sloan Management Review are pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize, awarded to the authors of the most outstanding MIT SMR article on planned change and organizational development published from fall 2010 to summer 2011.

“Creatives” such as marketers rely more on intuition than on data analysis or even consultation with colleagues when making decisions, says an Accenture Customer Analytics Survey. CIOs can combat that resistance by IDing metrics that matter and finding advocates open to new approaches.

CIOs who learn to balance formal and informal structures can create global IT organizations that are more efficient and innovative than organizations that rely primarily on formal mechanisms. Organizational network analysis provides a useful methodology for helping executives assess broader patterns of informal networks between individuals, teams, functions and organizations, and for identifying targeted steps to align networks with strategic imperatives.

These days, most executives recognize the importance of information technology innovation — but that doesn’t mean their companies’ IT budgets reflect that emphasis. In a 2009 study conducted by our firm, A.T.

“To heck with what the technology can do,” says Michael Schrage of the MIT Center for Digital Business. Great managers, he says, first think about what kind of value they want to create and then consider how IT can help them create it.

In an era of widespread telecommuting and geographically dispersed teams, more and more business leaders need to know how best to manage employees who are seldom in the company offices.